Will it unsettle the natives?
Will it wound the esprit de corps, the high principle, the disinterested conscience, of the Civil Service?
Will it embarrass the Government of India?
To the first question it may be answered that Lord Ripon's measures have, instead of unsettling the natives, given them for the first time a feeling of rest and peace. Instead of their being like toads under the unwilling harrows of various departments, they begin to realise that England means them to have some local self-government.
With regard to the just esprit de corps of the Civil Services: it is the privilege of the Civil Services, as it is of the Government of India, to have a trial.
Compare, for instance, charges brought against a military officer. He calls for a court-martial. It is his privilege that he should be tried, so that the world shall know whether he has been acting fairly, honestly, intelligently, according to his instructions.
With regard to the ruler who is carrying out for the first time the spirit of the Queen's Proclamation, the instructions of successive Secretaries of State, the Acts and resolutions of successive Parliaments, so honestly and bravely, such an inquiry would be welcomed as tending to help, as it may most effectually, and not to embarrass him.
As all who understand how actual parties really stand will see, the onslaught of Mr. Seymour Keay's paper, above briefly noticed, is no attack upon the present Viceroy, but an attack upon a system which the present Viceroy is steadily but tentatively resisting, in pursuance of the decisions of Crown, Cabinet, and Commons at home—no complaint against Lord Ripon's Government, but against the evils which he is so manfully struggling to subdue. To prove that this is the case, in a subsequent paper will be noticed some of the leading measures of Lord Ripon's policy. Practically the great controversy is between this policy and those who oppose it.
As to the question between the Cabinet which gave the instructions and the Viceroy who carried them out, English public opinion will not be inclined to ask for reports and opinions from local officials. This is constituting them the judges. The Viceroy is the Cabinet's agent. If any man has a quarrel with his policy, the quarrel is with the Cabinet. The policy is theirs. If, as now, numerous complaints are lodged against this policy, English public opinion would insist on a court of appeal, if it existed, hearing the other side. This other side is rarely or never heard in England on Indian affairs as it is on all others.
Is the inquiry then to be by the English people?
The public can give a mandate and insist with no uncertain voice that a trial should be held before a competent tribunal.
