India in the future, allow me to begin with the opinions which some of the most eminent, and, I believe, the most judicious among the Indian Civil servants of the past have formed and deliberately ex- pressed on the point which we are to-day discussing, namely, the veracity or want of veracity among the Hindus.
And here I must begin with a remark which has been made by others also, namely, that the Civil servants who went to India in the beginning of this century, and under the auspices of the old East-India- Company, many of whom I had the honour and pleasure of knowing when I first came to England, seemed to have seen a great deal more of native life, native manners, and native character than those whom I had to examine five-and-twenty years ago, and who are now, after a distinguished career, coming back to England. India is no longer the distant island which it was, where each Crusoe had to make a home for himself as best he could. With the short and easy voyages from England to India and from India to England, with the frequent mails, and the telegrams, and the Anglo-Indian newspapers, official life in India has assumed the character of a temporary exile rather, which even English ladies are now more ready to share than fifty years ago. This is a difficulty which cannot be removed, but must be met, and which, I believe, can best be met by inspiring the new Civil servants with new and higher interests during their stay in India.
I knew the late Professor Wilson, our Boden Professor of Sanskrit at Oxford, for many years, and often listened with deep interest to his Indian reminiscences.
