12 MAY 1894, Page 14

I To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPEOTATOR."1 Srn,—Your article

in the Spectator of May 5th, "Next Week in India," must arouse deep interest in every reflective reader. It is more than deeply interesting to one who has passed through that great continent, with a population of three hun- dred million human souls, and more than one hundred Ian- gnages ; twelve British Provinces, besides Burmah ; thirteen groups of feudatory Native States, Aryan, Non-Aryan, raiTe& Hindoo, and Ma,hommedan. Hunter ("India Empire," i. 52)1 calls them, before the British Raj, "a loosely connected whole- pounded together in the mortar of Mahommedan conquest " and, in fact, that vast congeries of discordant races and manifold organisations has no unity or amalgam to-day, except the subordination of each and all to one Empire. Their unfitness for uncontrolled self-government, on European models or otherwise, is obvious and indisputable. A letter received yesterday from India, dated April 15th, ends thus India is in a very disturbed state, and the bitterness of races. was never more marked. I believe it is due to the power- transferred to Local Government Boards, which is used by the Hindoo majority to irritate the Mahommedan, by refusing- him sites for slaughter-houses, and petty bullying." The- writer has lived in India for a quarter of a century, and is in every way qualified to form a sound judgment.—I am, Sir,