The speech of the Viceroy of India on September 4th
about the coming Durbar at Delhi has now reached England in extenso. It does not differ essentially from the telegraphic report which we quoted three weeks since, but Lord Curzon dwelt upon two ideas not mentioned in the telegram. He thinks that the immense gathering of notables from Great Britain as well as from India will give a fillip to many arts which are now decaying, and he foresees with approval that it will diminish the tendency of all Indian arrangements towards life "in water-tight compartments." The Princes and magnates and officials will see each other, and recognise that there are methods of life outside their own provinces. The first idea is probably both true and valuable, the decay of native arts under our rule being a great blot upon our system ; but the second has elements of danger in it. The "water-tight compartments" are buttresses of our rule. If everything in India could be reduced to sameness, we might some day find ourselves overwhelmed in a sand- storm. This was fully shown in the Mutiny, when the Princes and the Sikhs, both alike afraid of the old Delhi Empire, stood by us against the fighting democracy ; and though we would not "divide in order to rule," we would let the divisions which have now associated themselves with the life of the people remain untouched.
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