less any responsible politician, who would propose to weaken the British force in India by a single rifle.
I do not forget that the great works which Lord Dalhousie began in India—the railways and telegraphs—have multiplied our power of maintaining order. When I began my service in India in 1868, there were only three short and disconnected pieces of line completed, and to reach any of the outlying districts was a work of time and difficulty even for an active man travelling alone. Now there are thirty thousand miles of railway, and each year sees a further extension, while the country is served by telegraph lines almost as well as Great Britain itself. The improvement in arms of precision still further multiplies the effective value of every soldier. The forces making for disorder are less; there are no independent and possibly hostile Powers. There are no provinces restive under recent annexation. There are no arsenals in the hands of native garrisons. There is not even a field battery manned by Indian gunners. The population from one end of the country to the other is effectually disarmed.
On the other side of the account may be recorded several items of increased responsibility. The same extension of railways that multiples our forces means so many thousand miles of line, so many great bridges, so many hundreds of white women and children, the families of the employés, to protect in time of trouble. Above all, the danger which fifty years ago was foreseen, but hardly called for action, and which even thirty years ago could be made, by a Secretary of State for India, the subject of a somewhat melancholy pun, is now the thing on the threshold. The frontier of the Empire is now the frontier of Afghanistan, and we might at any time be called to defend it I recognise the admirable spirit of the great feudatory chiefs and their fidelity to the King-Emperor, nor do I doubt the loyalty and peaceful character of the people of India. Nevertheless, I am forced to believe that the foundation of our dominion is the maintenance of an adequate force
