Lord Cromer, at a meeting of the Oxford branch of
the Classical Association yesterday week, contrasted the moral ideas of the British Empire with those involved in the motto of Imperial Rome,—nbi castra ibi .R,espublica. Turning to education, which was a purely family matter with the Romans, Lord Cromer applauded the en- lightened view expressed in Lord Macaulay's famous Minute,—that it would be an ignoble policy and one un- worthy of a great nation to keep a subject-race in ignorance in order that they might be more easily governed. But he could not at all agree that the method adopted in India to carry out this policy was either beneficial to us or our Indian subjects. The great problem now to be faced was whether modern democracy was capable of sustaining the burden of Empire at all. Its sympathy with the boon of self-govern- ment was undoubted ; it remained to be seen whether that sympathy would be tempered by a sturdy recognition of the real facts of the case,—whether democracy would take action that was statesmanlike or reckless.
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