The Ideal Administrator: Sir Thomas Munro

Sir Thomas Munro, the Ideal Administrator, delivered the below inspirational speech to the civil servants, who had come for an examination at the college of Fort George(Chennai), motivating them to study hard and to uphold and emulate the noble ideal of 'good governance' through honesty and integrity after they join the civil services."The junior civil servants of the Company have a noble field before them. No men in the world have more powerful motives for studying with diligence, for there are none who have a prospect of a greater reward, and whose success depends so entirely upon themselves. The object of all your studies here is one of the most important that can be imagined. It is that you may become qualified to execute, with benefit to the state, the part which may hereafter fall to your lot in the administration of the affairs of the country,-language is but the means, the good governance of the people is the great end; and in promoting the attainment of this end, every civil servant has a share more or less considerable; for there is no office, however subordinate, in which the conduct of the person holding it has not some influence on the comfort of the people, and the reputation of the Government..."