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has always been strong, and where the consequences have been proportionately detrimental. Moreover, the soil is evidently favourable to the rapid growth of great empires; the Moghul empire had no sooner fallen than another began to be formed. M. Barthélemy Saint-Hilaire makes some remarks, perhaps rather picturesque than profound, upon the irresistible tendency to concentration which, acting, he says, with a force that is not understood, or that is at any rate independent of man's conscious will, is bringing about great conglomerations of territory. His principal illustration of la loi mystérieuse qui pousse incessamment à la concen'tration politique' is Russia; and another example is certainly India, though we imagine that this law is not quite so mysterious as M. Saint-Hilaire represents it to be. The immense developement of communications in these latter days; the ease and speed with which orders fly from the centre to the circumference of an extensive dominion; the enormous scale of numbers and mechanical fighting force upon which modern armies are maintained; the wealth, skill, and resource always at the service of a first-class state -all these advantages are on the side of warlike and ambitious nations and their leaders, and are decisive odds against weaker communities. To these inequalities of strength add inferiority of civilisation, and the process of aggregation becomes exceedingly rapid; nothing but some very stiff physical barrier--such as are deserts, seas, and high mountains-can check the magnetic attraction of the larger political bodies. At this moment the expansion in Asia of Russian and English predominance indicates that, after remaining pent up for some years behind these natural breakwaters, it has now forced a way through them, and is invading the lower levels beyond. The problem of administering these territorial agglomerations, so difficult to assimilate, is thus increasing in complexity; the constant additions made to the conflux of races, the wide disparity between earlier and later acquisitions, render uniform systems impossible and even absurd, and are fatal objections to any plan for institutions that would give general power over such an empire to the representatives, however well educated, of particular provinces. In such a state of things the right course of action is, we believe, sufficiently clear. We have to preserve political unity and to encourage administrative decentralisation, by gradually delegating a larger share of local jurisdiction to locally constituted authorities, and by inviting the natives of India to participate more freely in high im

perial office and in provincial councils. Government from a distance is always difficult and generally unsafe, especially for a country where changes of the political barometer are frequent and unexpected. We decidedly think that India is not yet prepared for representative assemblies on an elective basis, to which the mere numbers of the population constitute an enormous impediment. But the policy of associating the leading natives of every large province, by selection, with the local administration, and of giving each province some of the attributes of local independence, is necessary to counteract risks inseparable from territorial extension, and is also the best foundation of all liberal institutions. No viceroy ever came to India who had seen so much as Lord Dufferin has seen of the borderlands of civilisation, of those countries whose races are slowly melting down into nationalities, of absolutism at its zenith as at St. Petersburg, and in the process of dissolution as at Constantinople. No statesman, therefore, knows better than he does that if the English will persist in continuing to pile up, after the high Roman fashion, the edifice of a great polyglot empire, they cannot go on adding to the superstructure without distributing the pressure of its weight, and that a great building may again suffer from confusion of tongues.

On the other hand, to the large and influential party of moderate Indian Liberals, which has gathered heart and strength under Lord Dufferin's rule, it must be plain that all administrative changes must be introduced with the strict limitations that may be required to secure that essential basis of all progress in India, the firm and indisputable maintenance of the English sovereignty, which is to all forward movement what the iron rails are to a locomotive : if they are disturbed, the whole train is stopped or upset. That upon these lines only can the civilisation of India advance, is indeed admitted by the leading men of all parties, although some of them may be rather impatient to take charge of the engine. Nor is there perceptible, at the present epoch, any revolutionary element in the ideas current among serious thinkers in India, where modern thought seems to be taking a strong utilitarian and practical colour in morals, in politics, and even in religion. We have hardly space even for an allusion, in this article, to the changes that are coming over the spiritual and philosophical ideas of the people, or to the curious question whether their present tendency would support and illustrate Coleridge's

well-known axiom, that knowledge of the prevailing speculative opinions affords the only safe ground for political prophecy. The attempts that are here and there made to substitute a vague theism for the void created by the subsidence of Brahmanism, or to fall back on the old philosophies for a working scheme of faith and morals, are likely to fail in India, as they failed in the Roman world fifteen centuries ago; and M. Saint-Hilaire's anticipation, 'que l'Inde finira par être chrétienne tout entière,' is far too sanguine, for educated Indian society shows no inclination towards the formal theologies of Europe. No one can as yet venture upon any prognostic of the course which the subtle and searching mind of India will shape out for itself amid diverse cross currents of Eastern and Western influence. But we may be sure that the diffusion of knowledge and the changes of environment are acting steadily on mental habits, and that future historians will have another remarkable opportunity of registering the force with which a powerful and skilfully directed administration can drive forward the material and moral civilisation of many millions of people.

In the foregoing pages we have endeavoured to place the important acts and the particular character of Lord Dufferin's successful administration in the foreground of a general sketch of the present aspect of Indian affairs. The special interest, prospectively, of the situation lies in this-that a somewhat critical conjuncture of India's external relations may very possibly supervene just at an epoch of remarkable internal prosperity, when a long peace, with the spread of ease and wealth, has engendered new political aspirations among those classes of the population that have most profited by our rule. Upon foreign observers the contrast between the calm security that reigns within our borders and the clouds that they perceive gathering beyond is evidently producing an impression of which native politicians might well take note. If it be true that an enemy is not far distant, it behoves the educated classes of India, as much or more than the English Government, to decipher the writing on the wall that some interpret as a warning of impending trouble. The course of events may be bringing closer to our Asiatic frontiers a rival in the military and political arena where we have hitherto been easily supreme. India will thus be drawn more and more within the sphere of European discord and international jealousies, and she must then be inevitably affected by the extraordinary and formid

able growth of militarism in Europe. But time is also rapidly unfolding our own resources, and may show that India, united and collected under skilful and self-reliant leadership, has little to fear from foreign attack, especially when the only Power whose movements need alarm us is liable to internal complications not altogether unlike, and much more serious than, our own. It is for the native representatives of enlightened public opinion in India to consider these things, and to determine whether their country is yet ripe for the political controversies which try even the constitution of the compact Western nationalities. And while the English, in their dealings with India, should hold fast by Burke's saying that magnanimity in politics is the truest wisdom, our Indian fellow-subjects must, on their side, remember his no less impressive words upon the duty of sacrificing some civil liberties for the advantages to be derived from the communion and fellowship of a great empire.

The telegraphic summary of Lord Dufferin's parting speech at Calcutta reached England as these pages were passing through the press. The Viceroy drew a vivid contrast between the actual social and political condition of the Indian people, and the programme that has been put forward by the small party that professes to speak, and to agitate, in the people's name. With great clearness and courtesy he showed that this programme is at present impracticable, futile, and even mischievous. It was full time that this should be said plainly; and Lord Dufferin has well signalised the close of his viceroyalty by a declaration that is eloquent, statesmanlike, and eminently opportune. It is highly satisfactory that he transmits the government of India to his successor, the Marquis of Lansdowne, at a time of profound peace, when the difficulties which beset his own administration of the great dependency have been surmounted, and all the omens of the future are favourable. We have the strongest reason to believe that Lord Lansdowne will perform the same duties with equal firmness, prudence, and judgement, and will add another honoured name to the illustrious roll of viceroys of India.

By

ART. II.—The History of the Vyne in Hampshire. CHALONER WILLIAM CHUTE, of the Vyne. London: 1888. AMONG the national treasures and characteristic features

of which England may, without presumption, make her boast, the hereditary residences and beautiful country homes of her titled and untitled landowners may justly be enumerated. Not including, in our present point of view, the feudal castles and fortified strongholds of a more warlike period— Berkley, Warwick, Alnwick, Belvoir, and the like-we now refer particularly to those domestic structures of more recent date, popularly described as country-houses, of whichthough it seems invidious to specify a few, where many have almost equal claims to commemoration-familiar types are to be seen in such mansions as Hatfield, Haddon, Penshurst, Burghley, Longleat, Hardwick, Charlecote, Littlecot, and Wotton. Most of these are not merely distinguished by beauty and stateliness of aspect, but owe their renown even more to the historical personages and scenes associated with their names, and as representing the traditions of ancient families and memorable incidents of bygone times. The gracefully illustrated volume named at the head of this article records the history of a noble old mansion in one of the southern shires; not, indeed, one of such magnificent proportions or universal celebrity as some of the above mentioned, yet possessing a beauty of structure and a store of historical memories and relics which well entitle it to a place among the stately homes of England.'

About three miles from the town of Basingstoke, not far from the point where the chalk hills of Hampshire begin to subside towards the wooded declivities of the district, stands a venerable edifice known for many generations by the name of The Vyne.' It is supposed to occupy the site of the Roman Vindomis, once a station of the Imperial legions, the name of which was first contracted into Vynnes, but eventually assumed its present form. The name of Vindomis occurs in the Itinerary of Antonine,' a compilation attributed to the Emperor Antoninus Pius; and the situation is described as being upon the Roman military road, between Venta Belgarum, presumably identified with Winchester, and Calleva, the chief city of the Atrebates, once the occupants of Berkshire, and which is supposed to have been the site of Reading. Another interpretation of the name associates it with the plantation of vines at this spot in Roman times,

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