LECTURE VII - INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL DANGERS

Summary

For estimating the stability of an Empire there are certain plain tests which the political student ought to have at his fingers' ends. Of these some are applied to its internal organisation and some to its external conditions, just as an insurance company in estimating the value of a life will take the opinion of the medical officer, who will feel the candidate's pulse and listen to his heart, but they will also inquire how and where the candidate lives, and whether his pursuits or habits expose him to any peculiar risks from without. Now I have partly applied the internal test. The internal test of the vitality of a state consists in ascertaining whether or no the Government rests upon a solid basis. For in every state besides the two things which are obvious to all, viz., the Government and the governed, there is a third thing, which is overlooked by most of us and yet is usually not difficult to distinguish, I mean the power outside the Government which holds the Government up. This power may be slight or it may be substantial, and according to its solidity, or rather according to the ratio of its strength to that of the powers which tend to overthrow the Government, is that Government's chance of duration. Now I made some inquiry into the strength of the supports upon which the Government in India rests, but rather with a view of explaining how it stands now than whether it is likely to last a long time.