Indian life in town and country . ciation of silver, her currencywould have been halved in value as a purchasingpower in countries where the standard is a goldone, and she must have been shut off from manyof the Western luxuries she now enjoys, whoseprices would have been increased thirty-three percent, in her own coinage, as compared to whatthey are to-day. Si monumentum requiris, circumspice! *^What the English have accomplished in Indiamust ever be the best monument of their right tobe there. There are those who have cried,** Perish India!—the best way to bring aboutthat result would be to
Indian life in town and country . ciation of silver, her currencywould have been halved in value as a purchasingpower in countries where the standard is a goldone, and she must have been shut off from manyof the Western luxuries she now enjoys, whoseprices would have been increased thirty-three percent, in her own coinage, as compared to whatthey are to-day. Si monumentum requiris, circumspice! *^What the English have accomplished in Indiamust ever be the best monument of their right tobe there. There are those who have cried,** Perish India!—the best way to bring aboutthat result would be to withdraw from ruling the edifice they have reared, and are rearing,needs the eye and the genius of the architect tocontinue its building. The foundation is the Un-changing East, but the stones are carried from theWest. There is no builder in the Orient who cantake charge of the plan, which is assuredly theboldest experiment that the English, the only suc-cessful Empire-builders in the world of to-day,have ever ANGLO-INDIAN LIFE i8i I CHAPTER XIII THE OF EXILE INDIA has often been called The Land ofRegrets. It is the logical result of pervading sentiment in Anglo-Indian life isthe consciousness of exile; the dearest word andthought, * Home. And yet, curiously enough,there are few retired Anglo-Indians who are notoften heard to wish themselves back in India! I have never been able to decide in my mindwhether the charms of Anglo-Indian life outbal-anced its defects. It is such a mass of contradic-tions; of sunshine and gloom, of luxury andsqualor, of comfort and discomfort. You recallone phase with delight to shrink at the reminis-cence of another. India is something more thana foreign country, it is a fantastic country, and itis almost impossible to come at a comparison be-tween the conditions there and those in England,because they differ as much as life at sea and onshore. People in England have a habit of beginningall conversations with a r
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