Author Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1890 edition. Excerpt:...for a private Brewery, or a worthless scheme of sanitary improvements, as it is for a State Railway. It is difficult to account for the hesitancy and inaction of the British public in the matter of Indian investments, other than State Loans and guaranteed railways, but I think that the feeling must be ascribed to the conduct of the Government itself. It is autocratic and bureaucratic, and is never, "in touch," with the great financial houses of Europe. It cannot bend, and it would be derogatory to its exalted and sublime position, to call into its Councils representatives of banking and commercial establishments, as, on some occasions, has been done by First Lords of the Treasury, and Chancellors of the Exchequer. It is probable that the Rothschilds,the Barings, and other leading financiers are more frequently consulted by the Russian, the Brazilian, and the Argentine Governments, and even by that of the United States, and by our own Home and Foreign Offices, than they are by the India Office. This want of condescension,of savair v1'1./re, is, to a certain extent, resented by the financial kings. As neither their advice nor assistance is asked for, they do not thrust them forward, but maintain a natural reserve; and their example is imitated by the lesser luminaries of the commercial world. If there be that splendid field for British investments, that the Secretary of State assures us is lying barren in India, why should it not be offered to our great capitalists for cultivation? If one of these great firms would submit for public subscription any undertaking which merited their support, their example would be quickly followed by smaller fry, and our breakfast-tables would be covered with Indian, instead of Argentine...