INDIAN FAMINES - Institute for Social and Economic Change

A FEW GENERAL CRITICISMS. 117
perience of the country and its usages, and
have numerous means of obtaining infonnation
from natives, and their combined wisdom is
brought to a focus in the press.
One often hears such remarks as that
"Government seems always to get the square
men into the round holes;" that "this is only
Government work, and that therefore nothing
better can be expected,"-and so on. In short,
Government officials are generally set down as
fools, who never see things in the true light, or
as other people see them. The fact is, that
Government is the only institution and does
the only work in which the whole body of the
public is interested; and besides, it is the only
business firm whose transactions and accounts
are open to universal inspection. The consequence
is, that it receives what at first sight
appears to be a preponderating share of adverse
criticism. But we must remember that, while
at liberty to criticise Government transactions,
a man has no right to make public comments
on a neighbour's business; nor, were such a
pr~tice admitted, would the exposure of personal
shortcomings interest the country. 'Ve