xvi) THE INDIAN MUTINY. 671
texts, and therefore I cling to my shell here because I know 1357.
that this is not the moment to give utterance to my ideas 2x53.
With any chance of doing good.
“ Unfortunately for me I can’t even co-operate with
those who seek to * reform’ India, for I have no faith in
the power of England to govern that country at all permaently;
 and though I should like to see the Company
3bolished—becanse that is a screen between the English
Bation and a full sight of its awful responsibilities—yet I
do not believe in the possibility of the Crown governing
India under the control of Parliament. If the House of
Commons were to renounce all responsibility for domestic
legislation, and give itself exclusively to the task of governog
 one hundred millions of Asiatics, it would fail. Hinoostan
 must be ruled by those who live on that side of the
globe. Its people will prefer to be ruled badly—according
to our notions—by its own colour, kith and kin, than to sub-Wit
 to the humiliation of being better governed by a suctession
 of transient intruders from the antipodes.
“ These, however, are, I confess, opinions of a somewhat
abstract kind, and not adapted for the practical work of the
day, What is to be done now? Put down the military
*evolt in justice to the peaceable population, who are at the
Mercy of the armed mutineers. It is our duty to do so.
We can do it, and I have mo doubt it will be done. But
then comes our difficulty. With the experience of tha
Present yar we can never trust a native force with arms
8gain, with the feelings of security which we formerly indulgeq,
 Who will live in the interior of India in future,
beyond the range of our forts or the sound of the regi-Menta]
 drum? Certainly no one with wife and children to
love and care for. Yet we cannot possibly administer the
fairs of that country without a native force, end we are
Row actually raising an army of Sikhs, the most warlike of