Britain, they would, on the other hand, be able to furnish Britain
with the most accurate and ample information relative to the state
of things in a country in which the property they held there
constrained them to feel so deep an interest. The fear of all
oppression being out of the question, while it would be so evidently
the interest not only of every Briton but of every Christian,
whether British or native, to secure the protecting aid of Britain,
at least as long as two-thirds of the inhabitants of India retained
the Hindoo or Mussulman system of religion, few things would be more
likely to cement and preserve the connection between both countries
than the existence of such a class of British-born landholders in
India."

It is profitable to read this in the light of subsequent events--of
the Duff-Bentinck reforms, the Sepoy mutiny, the government of the
Queen-Empress, the existence of more than three millions of
Christians in India, the social and commercial development due to
the non-officials from Great Britain and America, and the
administrative progress under Lord Curzon and Lord Minto.

There is one evil which Carey never ceased to point out, but which
the very perfection of our judicial procedure and the temporary
character of our land assessments have intensified--"the borrowing
system of the natives." While 12 per cent. is the so-called legal
rate of interest; it is never below 36, and frequently rises to 72
per cent. Native marriage customs, the commercial custom of
"advances," agricultural usage, and our civil procedure combine to
sink millions of the peasantry lower than they were, in this
respect, in Carey's time. For this, too, he had a remedy so far as
it was in his power to mitigate an evil which only practical