178 ESSAYS JN NATIONAL IDEALISM.

Governor with his efficiency and his reforms, needed no-
minstrels and no craftsmen ; all that he needed was a
supply of clerks. Compare the state of Tanjore to-day
with the evidences of the rule of the Hindu Rajas ; the
great library neglected, a dead thing not being added to or
playing a great part in the growth of national culture; the
royal musicians dispersed, and the famous collection of"
splendidly decorated and ancient musical instruments,
also scattered ; the fine weaving done for the court
now forgotten ; the training and the emoluments of adminis-
trative office in the hands of foreigners to whom the old
life and the old culture mean little or nothing,—it is a
strange evidence of the greatness of Western civilisation
and the grandeur of British rule in India, that it should
so often appear as the destroyer of culture!

Even in Kative Btates the same process is going
on; false ideals of economy or efficiency, and a still
falser taste have led to the- -dispersal of the musicians,
and neglect of Indian music ;' what does a Maharajah want
with the common music that any one can hear, when he
can spend hundreds of pounds on gorgeous gramophones
and mechanical violins ? Baroda might as well be Clapham..
The Raja, of to-day, with his Erench palaces and his tutor,,
the Resident, has too often most of the vices, more than
the weakness, and little of the dignity of his predecessors..
Indian princes might yet do great work for the Indian
people, in preserving the national culture ; but they have-
hurried to dispense with it. The king-days are over ; it is
vain to put one's trust in princes ; the national culture must
be preserved by the people if it is to be preserved at all. But
at present, the lives of the so-called educated, the profession-
al classes in India, fire extraordinarily material in their,-
aims, and narrow in their outlook. India, * progressive1