( 134 3;

thoroughly efficient, there will always be an abundant
 supply, from that source, of men qualified
for the superior posts. The other departments of
the state are, comparatively, of quite secondary
importance. The all-important requirement in the
government of India is that the people of the
country, and especially the rural classes (who in
that agricultural country form the great majority
of the population), besides being lightly taxed,
should have security of life and property, and
liberty to pursue their occupations unmolested.
These conditions imply that the law should be
readily available, and impartially and intelligently
applied; that the peace of the country should be
maintained; above all—and this is one of the
most difficult things to ensure in such a country —
that the guardians of the public should themselves
be restrained from oppression. This is the duty
which is set before the district officials in India.
That the task of governing under the given conditions
 should be at all possible,—that a single
magistrate, with one or two deputies, should be
able to maintain a decent administration, and to
impress the reality of government over a territory
as large, in some cases, as a European kingdom,
and generally more densely peopled than are
European countries, is only possible at all through
the extraordinary docility of the people. But this
very readiness to be governed creates, in itself, one
of the greatest difficulties in the way of good