Gentlemen, it has been said, and often said by Anglo-Indians that the
great majority of our people are so ignorant, are so illiterate that
they cannot be trusted with votes. I do not know, gentlemen, what
conclusion you will arrive at, but so far as my own view is concerned,
I do not at all agree with that. I do not think that illiteracy and
want of education are exactly the same thing. As I know my villagers, I
know this that they may be trusted, with the duty of electing persons
to represent them in the Legislative Councils. You are more in touch
with the villagers than I am--I have seen some of it, but I feel sure
that you have got a far more intimate knowledge. I ask you to say
whether this is correct that our villager is so ignorant, though he
may not be able to read or write, that he does not know between a bad
man and a good man, between a man who will be able to represent his
interests properly and a man who will not. I do not think so. And in
any scheme which you may draw up, you must make that perfectly clear. I
am speaking to this because there is a danger. I do not desire that the
mistakes of English history should be repeated in this country. There
is no necessity for it. There is no necessity for starting with a very
limited franchise and then extending it or having to extend it by civil
war afterwards. The history of the Reform Bill in England ought not to
be repeated in this country. So, your scheme should be so framed that
it must carry within itself the possibility of improvement.