ever remains the less conspicuous, but still arduous task of governing them well and wisely. Yet this task must be discharged with some efficiency if they are to prosper. If the enjoyment of liberty is precarious, if rights are undefined, if property is unprotected, if oppression in any large class of cases shall gain the upper hand — they can neither grow in wealth nor rise in the social scale. It is the certainty of reaping the results of industry that supplies the mainspring to energy. From that energy will arise the happiness of innumerable homes. From such happiness, again, there will accrue those material advantages which foster education, stimulate mental ambition, and lay the foundation of moral advancement. Such progress will then open out the vista of still higher good. These things may perhaps be reckoned among the elements of sociology. They may be formulated and urged with insistency; but in Asiatic countries it is hard to obtain them at all, even for a time, and harder still to place them in a position of permanent security. The ablest men among the British in India are ever aspiring or pressing towards these ends; but the most successful among them would be the first to admit deficiencies, shortcomings, backslidings.
Now James Thomason did undertake these weighty matters with a determination and a faith that might almost move mountains. Since his time the amplest recognition has been accorded to principles and measures for which he laboriously contended. To the cause of improvement there have been devoted resources which
