Hence I had an opportunity of seeing ourselves as others see us.
M. Petrovsky had read the report of the Sweating Cornmittee, our Factory Legislation Reports, accounts in our newspapers of the strikes which continually occur. All this had produced on his mind the impression that we were in a bad way. Forty thousand men hold all the riches, and the rest of the thirty-six millions were just ground down to the last penny. This was his idea of the state of things in England ; and he compared it with the condition of Russia. In Russia there was no great gulf between rich and poor. Strikes, which he looked upon as mild revolutions, were unknown, and all lived together in peaceful contentment under the Czar.
When I found an intelligent Russian taking this distorted view of the condition of England, and holding such optimistic opinions of the state of Russia, it often struck me that perhaps our own views of Russia were not always so true as they might be.
But it was in his criticisms of Indian and Central Asian affairs that I found M. Petrovsky most interesting, and, perhaps, more sound. One of the points upon which he was very insistent was our treatment of the natives. He thought that Ave held ourselves too much aloof from them, and that we were too cold and haughty. Here, I think, we must plead guilty ; though if we had the faculty of getting on closer terms with those whom we rule, in addition to our other good qualities, we should be well-nigh perfect. When Englishmen are working hard together with natives, as on active service in the field, for instance, or surveying or exploring, the two nationalities become very firmly attached to each other. But ordinarily an Englishman finds great difficulty in letting himself out " to strangers of any description. Very few, indeed, have that genial manner which draws people together. But as soon as the Englishman in India gets out of his wretched office, and away from all the
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