by the introduction of railways, to throw the country open to private enterprise and to English capital, in a degree before unknown, and with results which practically inaugurated a new industrial era in India. Instead of making railways a purely Government undertaking, he offered them to public companies under a system of State-guarantee. He did this with the deliberate intention of awakening and encouraging, in India, that spirit of private enterprise which had wrought such marvels in England. 'One of the greatest drawbacks,' he wrote to the Court of Directors, 'to the advance of this country [India] in material prosperity, has been the total dependence upon the Government, in which the community has placed itself, and its apparent helplessness to do anything for itself. Until very recently the only regular carrier in the country has been the Government, and no man could make a journey but with the Government establishments, or by the agency of a Government officer. It was but the other day that the agent of Lloyd's in the Port of Moulmain, where there is a considerable community of European merchants, formally complained that the Government of India did not keep a steam-tug, to tow their ships to sea for them... It is so in everything else... I submit that any time and money which the Honourable Court could save by undertaking such [railway] works itself, would be well
