John Stuart Mill: A Criticism with Personal Recollections

MISCHEVIOUS HOME INFLUENCES. 99
exercise, to a certain degree, a moral check. It cannot be
expected that the minister, as a general rule, should himself
know .India ; while he will be exposed to perpetual solicitations
from individuals and bodies, either entirely ignorant of that
on those who
country, or knowing only enough of it to impose
know still less than themselves, and having very frequently
objects in view other than the interests or good government of
India. The influences likely to be brought to bear on him
through the organs of popular opinion will, in the majority of
cases, be equally misleading. The public opinion of England,
itself necessarily unacquainted with Indian affairs, can only
follow the promptings of those who take most pains to influence
it, and these will generally be such as have some private interest
to serve. It- is, therefore, your Petitioners submit, of the
utmost importance that any council which may form a part of
the Home Government of India should derive sufficient weight
from its constitution, and from the relation it occupies to the
minister, to be a substantial barrier against those inroads of
self-interest and ignorance in this country from which the
Government of India has hitherto been comparatively free, but
against which it would be too much to expect
should of itself afford a sufficient protection.
that Parliament
" That your Petitioners cannot well conceive a worse form
of government for India than a minister with a council whom
he should be at liberty to consult or not at his pleasure, or
whose advice he should be able to disregard, without giving
his reasons in writing, and in a manner likely to carry convic
tion. Such an arrangement, your Petitioners submit, would be
really liable to the objections, in their opinion, erroneously
urged against the present system. Your Petitioners respectfully
represent that any body of persons associated with the minister,
which is not a check, will be a screen. Unless the council is
so constituted as to be personally independent of the minister,
unless it feels itself responsible for recording an opinion on
every Indian subject, and pressing that opinion on the minister,