Ir is proposed to employ the natives of India more generally than they have been employed hitherto li the public service, So snys Mr. Stanhope in his recent Budget speech, and the reason assigned for the measure is economy. Onv military expenditure and the outlay occasioned by the famine visitations have rendered it imperatively necessary for the Indian Government to save moudy: They have a right to make efforts of all kinds to effect this praiseworthy object, and as the salaries of natives are smaller than the salaries of Europeans, it is nataral that this method should be one of the earliest expedients of parsimony. Though more than forty years ago it was emphatically Jaid down that persons should not be excluded from holding office "by religion, place of birth, or residence," still, a fact, for a long series of years the lucrative and responsible posts have of course for obvious reasons been held by Earopeans. We conceive, in spite of Mr. Stanhope, that these posts will continue to be held by Europeans still. An experiment will no doubt be tried, and some natives will be advanced who have hitherto been kept in the back. ground; but unless we are greatly mistaken, the natives will be found for many generations to come unequal to the burden of places of the highest trust. The question is one about which great diversity of opinion exists amongst Anglo-Indians. There is a party in India, whose motto is, " India for the Indians," just as there is a party in China who have as their ery, " China for the Chinese." An anonymous writer, who is supposed by the Indian newspapers to be no less a person than Sir James Stephen, holds the opinion that the natives will be failures when they are tested by the responsibilities and temptations of high office. He assigns three reasons for his belief. First, the standard of Indian morality; secondly, the physical wenkuess of the mon likely to be employed, tiz., the natives of Lower Bengal; and thirdly, the deficient loyalty of the natives to the Imperial role, If we take these objections into consideration, and turn our attention to this country, we see that there is a certain appositeness and force in two of them at least. In the Imperial Cus. toms service at this moment, and in the China Merchants' Company, there is a strong desire to diminish the number of foreign servants, and to substitute for them cheap native labour, As China belongs to the Chinese, this is to say the least of it extremely natural, but really though India and this country are situated so differently, there are lessons to be learned by us from the objections against native employment which are alleged by the veteran Indian civilian, Though recent commercial exposures in England teach us to abstain from boasting, we are assured that taking a pessimist view of European morality, the standard in China is far lower than that in our own country. The clannishness of Orientals is one hindrance to purity and official honour, A man is surrounded by such an enormous crowd of relations and dependents, of uncles, cousins, nephews, grand-children avd great-grand-children, that he can scarcely be honest, if he would—for what use is a kinsman with a place if he does not assist his poorer belongings. It is a recognized Oriental principle that " blood is thicker than water," and that relatives and connections have a definite claim to a portion of the spoil which the one wealthy member of the family has contrived to secure. This fact was illustrated, a few years ago in the case of the late Viceroy of Nanking. Ma was savagely murdered, simply because he began to draw lines and to refuse to regard the claims of a cousin twenty times removed! Ma had landed his near relation with gifts, and at Inst stopped the supply; he paid for his neglect of the duties of a Boaz with his life! This is a consideration which largely affects the morality of Orientals, and must be allowed for before we place them in high and responsible offices. The plea of physical weakness, as a disqualification for certain posts, is one that may be alleged with trath. The native has not the power of sustained exertion that the European has, though it must be acknowledged that in some employments his temperance gives him an advantage. This objection, of course, cannot be made general, as occupations differ so widely; but we revert to the one great blot on the character of Orientals, be they Hindoos or Chinese, viz., the accessibility to bribes. Though: pro-native papers say that there is an improvement in the integrity of the native bench, still this is owing in large measure to the glare of public opinion in which they sit. The lower officials in the East always "squeeze," and if any important posts in the Imperial Customs are given to natives, we shall find old abuses reappearing and a gradual diminution of the revenue, It takes time to eradicate national characteristics, and it will take many years to fit the natives of China or India for posts of responsibility where favours can be sold and money handled,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.