profitable burden. No one will have the hardihood to assert that Bombay and Madras, though costing so much more, are either better administered than Bengal and the North-west Provinces, or are heavier and more responsible charges. A still more amazing scandal is the refusal of the Secretary of State to sanction the recommendations of the Army Commission of 1879, which would ensure increased efficiency together with an annual saving of not less than a million sterling.
Similarly, in matters of internal economy, where the Government of India, if it wished to reform, would be less hampered by parliamentary and ministerial obstructiveness. Among the greater evils of our exotic civilization are the unlimited license of appeal and the ruinous delays of the Civil Courts. But the writers for the native press mainly belong to the class that most benefits by these abuses, and therefore they are not often brought forward very prominently. More frequent topics of complaint are the constant growth of departmentalism and the multiplication of highly paid appointments for the benefit of individual Europeans, combined with a retention of all the old posts with the old salaries but with reduced responsibilities. Thus it comes about that the Magistrate and Collector of a district, ordinarily a man not less than 40 years of age and who has seen some 18 years of service, still draws the salary of a local administrator, but is treated like a head-clerk, all his responsible functions being transferred either to the Commissioner, a still more senior and more highly paid official, or to some Secretary or Department at head quarters. Most certainly I do not advocate the further effacement of the district officer, but I think that many of his new masters might be abolished and a very large saving thereby effected. Frequent ground for complaint is also found in the annual migration to the Hills, by which high officials shirk the condition of the service which they have accepted. The bracing climate of the Himalayas is no doubt more favourable than the sultry discomfort of the plains to the concoction of fussy departmental Circulars and
