Sir James Stephen complains, in a letter to the Times,
that Lord Northbrook has misrepresented his views as to the obliga- tions of justice in our dealings with Asiatic States. He declares that he holds justice to be the very foundation of our sway in Asia, and certainly shows, by quotations from his own speeches, that he has always maintained this principle as the basis of legis- lation. That being the case, he should not state the rights of civil- ised and powerful States against barbarous and weak States so abso- lutely as he does. He left the impression in his letter of last week that the civilised must be judges of their own claims, untrammelled by any rule except that of expediency. Add the rule of justice, as he now does, and as he intended to do before, and we can agree with him fully, subject to one condition. The civilised must acknowledge that the first rule of justice is to treat the feeble as we should, if feeble, but fully intelligent, think we ourselves ought to be treated. Have we observed that rule as regards the Ameer ? Should we think it fair if China demanded that a resident Ambas- sador entitled to give advice should be permanently stationed in Calcutta, and on our refusal should flood India with Chinese troops, and demand as the least concession that China should obtain both sides of the Himalayas, lest otherwise, we might invade Thibet by the Sikkim or the Bootan route.
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