pendent local administrators are tolerated, whoever disposes of legislative power also disposes of administrative power. Whether the form of Government be autocratic, democratic,or parliamentary, its distinguishing characteristic, common to all these forms of government, is, that Frenchmen have no self-government, but are governed by a bureaucracy which receives its impulse, its ideas from Paris, whatever may be the special idiosyncrasies of the populations to whom laws are applied. For local autonomy and for local administration there is no room in such a system because they might develop the germs of antagonism to the central power. The Prefet and the Maire receive their instructions from the Home Department. Advice may be tendered by Committees which are elected, but they are not administering bodies as ours are. The next system is that of Germany and of Austria; a great variety of legislative units, but a strong bureaucracy in all of them, and a strong bureaucracy for Imperial purposes. Legislative and administrative centralisation in essentials ; legislative and administrative decentralisation in details, to suit the heterogeneous elements out of which these Empires are composed, great care being taken, that in all matters not essential to the security of the Empire, the idiosyncrasies of its component parts should be respected, and the bureaucracy should not come into conflict with the traditions and customs of the people. In the United States of North America we find self-government as well as autonomy, decentralisation of the legislation and of the administration, but great constitutional safeguards and effective means to prevent any departure from the written Constitution by any member of the Confederation.
It is clear, gentlemen, from an academic point of view, that Special interest of German and Austrian political institutions to the Indian student. to an Indian student of political institutions, those of Germany and Austria will be most interesting, because they give us in some features of their internal administration an insight into the probable future of the development of administrative institutions in this Empire. I apply this only to our administration, and even then with many limitations. I do not draw the parallel between German Sovereigns and Native Chiefs, for which Burke is taken to task by The most academic Anglo-Indian of our times. Sir Alfred Lyall, the most academic Anglo-Indian of our times, in the 8th chapter of his Asiatic Studies. All students of politics will eschew such parallels, and Statesmen will also be extremely cautious in checking the historical evolution of national institutions by transplantations. The hereditaryPage:Convocation Addresses of the Universities of Bombay and Madras.djvu/231
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University of Bombay.
