DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.34827#0414
3Q8 Zz/C z?/* ZZzzzz/v/z-ZZ77^ Zz^AzZjZzZZ'. cn. XIX.
to a Government, even when it assumes the shape of Alial
affection combined with a sort of religious devotion. It also
shows how little foreigners can judge of the real character of a
nation. If there was one thing that we thought characteristic
of the Chinese, it was their obstinate adherence to old habits;
one would have thought that a Chinese would have changed
his Government or his religion rather than have given up his
pigtail, and now it proves that this very pigtail is among the
worst of the grievances that have driven the nation into re-
bellion. All this leads to the reSection that there is nothing
in India to prevent a new Nanik from uniting all the seem-
ingly discordant elements in India, if any circumstance should
reduce our military power even for a few years, and how diffi-
cult we should And it ever to recover our ascendency. The
moral is that we must not dream of perpetual possession, but
must apply ourselves to bring the natives into a state that will
admit of their governing themselves in a manner that may be
beneAcial to our interest as well as their own, and that of the
rest of the world; and to take the glory of the achievement
and the sense of having done our duty for the chief reward of
our exertions.
' I must make up for this unprovoked dissertation by ab-
staining from all other topics/
' Hookwood, September 9, 1857.
' My dear Colebrooke,—I yesterday received your letter of
the oth, and the papers on the day before. I hope the account
of Lord Canning's indecision is overrated, though the story
about Jung Behauder, 7/ uccwate, does not tell in his favour.
The addresses of the European residents will no doubt help to
increase the clamour against the Company which will be sure
to arise from the natural tendency of the public to impute
every disaster to the misconduct of the people in power. But
notwithstanding the liability of the House of Commons to be
carried away by the madness of the moment during a popular
delusion, I don't think either they or their constituents are so
thoughtless as to sanction a revolution in the Government of
India at a moment like the present. Leaving out all other
to a Government, even when it assumes the shape of Alial
affection combined with a sort of religious devotion. It also
shows how little foreigners can judge of the real character of a
nation. If there was one thing that we thought characteristic
of the Chinese, it was their obstinate adherence to old habits;
one would have thought that a Chinese would have changed
his Government or his religion rather than have given up his
pigtail, and now it proves that this very pigtail is among the
worst of the grievances that have driven the nation into re-
bellion. All this leads to the reSection that there is nothing
in India to prevent a new Nanik from uniting all the seem-
ingly discordant elements in India, if any circumstance should
reduce our military power even for a few years, and how diffi-
cult we should And it ever to recover our ascendency. The
moral is that we must not dream of perpetual possession, but
must apply ourselves to bring the natives into a state that will
admit of their governing themselves in a manner that may be
beneAcial to our interest as well as their own, and that of the
rest of the world; and to take the glory of the achievement
and the sense of having done our duty for the chief reward of
our exertions.
' I must make up for this unprovoked dissertation by ab-
staining from all other topics/
' Hookwood, September 9, 1857.
' My dear Colebrooke,—I yesterday received your letter of
the oth, and the papers on the day before. I hope the account
of Lord Canning's indecision is overrated, though the story
about Jung Behauder, 7/ uccwate, does not tell in his favour.
The addresses of the European residents will no doubt help to
increase the clamour against the Company which will be sure
to arise from the natural tendency of the public to impute
every disaster to the misconduct of the people in power. But
notwithstanding the liability of the House of Commons to be
carried away by the madness of the moment during a popular
delusion, I don't think either they or their constituents are so
thoughtless as to sanction a revolution in the Government of
India at a moment like the present. Leaving out all other