Burmese Sketches - Khamkoo

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BURMESE SKETCHES.
the religious sense and the consequent supersession of altruism
by egoism. Further, Eastern ideals, which associate learning
and virtue with poverty and abnegation, which cKtol suffering
and self-mortification as leading to spiritual bliss, and which
iaipose an obligation of mutual help within the family circle, have
given way to notions of material luxury, comfort, and pleasure,
and of an intensified form of individualism. While the Indian
character has undergone a great change, the number of Oriental
scholars among the European officials has dwindled down, and
sympathy, which is begotten of a deep knowledge of the
language, history, literature, religion, and customs of a people,
becomes somewhat circumscribed in its activities.
It is left to experts to devise reforms and remedies, and
every well-wisher of India hopes that the present agitation will
pass away. In Lord Morley we have a philosophic statesman,
who is firm, just and imperturbable, and who possesses a wide
and unparalleled experience of public affairs, and sufficient
mental detachment to diagnose correctly the symptoms and to
apply the right remedy. Lord Minto is no less sound in his
judgment and wide in his sympathy, and his intimate knowledge
of India and her various nationalities is based upon a long residence
and actual experience. There is every reason to believe
that, through the untiring efforts of these two great statesmen,
the ship of State will soon glide from her present troubled
waters to a haven of peace and bliss.
THE APPOINTMENT OF A NATIVE MEMBER TO
THE VICEROY^S EXECUTIVE COUNCIL.—
(January 1909).
Lord MorLEY'S Indian Reform scheme provides for the
appointment of a Native Member to the Executive Council of
the Viceroy as well as to those of Bombay and Madras and of
some other Provinces. The proposal has met with a good
deal of criticism both in the Press and Parliament. In the
House of Lords, Lord MacDonnell sounded a note of warning
and voiced the opinion of the majority of Anglo-Indians, when
he said that the principle which, in his opinion, ought to direct
and control our policy in India was this : the maintenance of
complete and absolute control in the hands of a small body of
picked officers of the Empire who formed the Government of
India, and, subject to that control, the fullest measure of local
government in the provinces that each province was fit to
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