Nov. 26.
For all their faculty for travel, the English *people often display the characteristics of Islanders with more emphasis than would be imagined. Individually there is knowledge; in the mass that knowledge fa: to find due expression or taken so much for granted that it fades away in a cloud of pular prejudice and misconception, One of the most inveterately persistent notions about India has been kept alive by the ingenuity of the humorous iter and by the altogether innocent veracity of the observant but gifted traveller. 'That is clearly responsible for the surprise now reported at the eloquent oratory of the Indian delegates to the St. James' Conference. Obviously the suf-forers from surprise must ha expected the distinguished visi-fors to, scatter for their delectation pearls of "babu English". Memories of Mr, Punch's inimitable Haree Banerji, of Thack-croy's essays in the same line and their innumerable imitators, have been responsible for this curious myth.
Yet the opportunity for cor-rooting this view has been frequently available. Apart altogether from the fact that there are now ten years collections of Indian "Hansards" from which a true appreciation could be obtained of Indian command of the English language, there
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.