Local Government of Bengal. By Robert Carstairs. (Macmillan and Co.
5s. net.)—Mr. Carstairs, an old Indian Civil Servant, urges various improvements in the local government of Bengal. He begins his book by describing the caste system of Hindooism and the corresponding developments of Mahometan belief. An account of village life follows; and this is succeeded by a sugges- tion of remedies. Perhaps the most significant passage is the following :—" We have broken down their old Constitution. We must give them either that modified or a new one which will work up to our ideal. This—the organisation of the people of Bengal —a work great and gradual, ought to be and can be done. The root principle on which it must be done, if it is not to fail, I know from my own experience, confirmed by that of Government, to be this : Without the people the Government can do nothing ; with- out the Government the people will do nothing. For success there must be co-operation between Government and people, and with that success may be looked for." The upshot of it all is that the Government in the past has followed the laissez-faire method too much, seeking, for instance, to let the proprietors do its social work for it, and that in future it must follow another way ; it must, to use Mr. Carstairs's words, "revoke its abdication of some among its prerogatives, and resume its right to interfere and lead whenever necessary." For details the reader must go to these pages.
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