The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-02-17 00:00:00

(From The Time,)

On Monday afternoon the terrible news was flashed
to Great Britain that the Right Hon. Richard South-
well Bourke, Earl of Mayo, Her Majesty's Viceroy in
India, had been assassinated last Thursday, by a
Mahomedan convict at Port Blair, in the Andaman
Islands.
The murdered Earl, who was the eldest of the seven
sons of Robert, fifth Lord Mayo (for some years one of
the Representative Peers for Ireland), was born in
the city of Dublin on the 21st of February, 1822, so
that he was within a few days of completing the
fiftieth year of his age. His mother was Anne
Charlotte, only child of the late Hon. John Jocelyn,
and granddaughter of Robert, first Earl of Roden.
He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, where
he took his degree as Bachelor and Master of Arts
in the regular course, and was created a Doctor of
Laws in 1852; he was for a short time a gentleman
of the laekichaniber to the late Lord Heytesbury
while that nobleman held the Lord Lieutenancy of
Ireland, and entered Parliament at the General
Election of 1847 in the Conservative interest as one
of the members for the county of Kildare, in which a
large portion of the estates of the Bourkts is situated.
He did not, however, again contest that county in 1852,
but was content to sit during the next Parliament as
member for the borough of Coleraine. He continued
to represent Coleraine down to the General Election
of 1857, when he transferred his services to the elec-
tors of Cockermouth, in which borough the interest
of the Wyndhams, with whom he was connected by
marriage, was paramount. Here he enjoyed a secure
seat, representing that constituency down to the
year 1868, when he accepted the Governor-General-
ship of India. He was Chief 'Secretary for Ireland
under Lord Derby's first Administration from March
to December, 1852, again under his second Administra-
tion in 1858, and for a third time in 1866.
• -

Lord Mayo's accession to the family honours in the
month of August, 1567, did not remove him from the
House of Commons, as he was not a Peer of England
or of the United Kingdom. .

Lord Mayo was a popular and influential member
of the Lower House, and he had shown considerable
capacity for public business in his administration
of Irish affairs; but his nomination of Mr. Disraeli
to the important post of Viceroy of India cer-
tainly came as a surprise upon the world. It is
only fair to say that Lord Mayo amply justified his
nomination, and that he proved himself an able as
well ass popular Governor-General. It fell to his lot
to encourage the development of the railway and tele-
graph systems, and to preside at the opening of those
very lines to which Lord Dalhousie looked forward so
earnestly and BO confidently as the material guarantees
of our dominion in Asia ; and in the encouragement of
, education and of commercial and mining enterprise he
could nokwell be surpassed.
Lord Mayo married in October, 1848, the Hon.
Blanche Julia Wyndham, fourth daughter of George,
first Lord Leconfield, by whom he has left a family of
two daughters and four sons, all under age. He is
succeeded in his titles and estates by his eldest son,
Dermot Hobert Wyndham, Lord Naas, a cornet in
the 10th Hussars, who was born in July, 18;_il, and
was educated at Eton. _

The Bourkes, of County Kildare, whom Lord
Mayo represented, have been c4nnected by the ties
of family and property with that oounty ever
since the " troubles " of 1641, when their ances-
tor, John Bourke, a son of Bourke of Mony-
crower, county Mayo, and a descendant of the
Bourkes of Ballinrobe, and having held a captaipcy
of horse under Lord Ormonde, settled at Kill,
county Kildare. His son became "of Palmerston,"
near Naas, which is still the seat of the family; and
his grandson, the Eight Hon. John Bourke, of Kill
and Moueybrower, was raised to the Irish l'eerage as
a Baron, and subsequently advanced to the Viscountcy
and Earldom. The third Lord Mayo became in his
day Archbishop of Tuani, and his son, the grandfather
of the late Governor-General, was Bishop of Water-
ford and Lismore down to his decease in November,
1632.

Animadverting on this very melancholy event, The
Tina& f Tuesday has the following leader
- • -

A great calamity has befallen the State, Lord Mayo,
Governor-General of India, was assassinated on the evening
_ . . . . .
" "''

of the Bth inst. at Port Blair, in the Andaman Islands. The
murderer Is stated to be an Afghan convict, named Sher°
All, who had been convicted of murder by the Commissioner
of l'eshawur in 1507, and sentenced to transportation for life. '
Ile rushed upon the Gevernor-General In the dark as
he was about to enters boat and stabbed him twice;
the wounds proved fatal in a few hums All that
is known of the event is contained in a telegram received
yesterday kt the India (Mice. but it la not probable that
there is mirch more to be told. Lord Mayo list fallen a
victim to his ONIs energy and zeal for the public service.
After having made liimself acquainted with the most
Important districts of India In the course of his three
years' rule. and hnpressed both European and Native
with the conviction that he was determined to see
and able to judge for himself, Lord Mayo proposed to visit
British Bunnell, and its flourishing capital, Rangoon. In the
Bay of Bengal lie the Amfaman Islands, which have for some
years been need' as penal settlements for Indian malefactors.
It may be, though we do not know it as a fart, that the visit
of Lord Mayo wpi connected with the complaints of a too lax
discipline whicfi had reached the Government from these
settlements. The convicts were said to have far too
much liberty and far too little work; they were con-
! staidly unruly, and were allowed to indulge in strong
drink lord Mayo, according to the telegram, had inspected
the several stations In thei, ttlement and was returning to
his ship when the assassins, tacked him. It appears to be
the custom when a convict tiali served a certain time to re-
lease him front hard labour, to give Lim partial freedom,
and allow him to work at air ade. If the murderer hail been
thus released. it would &coo,' t for hts being at large on the
beach, and also for his presession of a deadly weapon. But,
as he only conic to the Setti 'clent in 180 and was a con-
[ victed murderer, it is scarcely 'credible that his punishment
I had been so soon remitted.

It would be useless to dialemble the painful impression
this act is likely to prod.. u India and at home. People
will at once ask whether it , the offspring of vengeance or
of fanaticism. Coming cl".,e upon the reorder of Mr.
Justice Norman, It may arouse a suspicion that,
although no actual conspis,cy exists among the Ws-
anima. of India, there is a freemasonry of hatred

which may at any time have dangerous consequences.
(In such a subject it is imp, .esible to speak with any con-
fidence, but it will occur to all of us, after the first slewk
of the intelligence is over, that there is nothing in this
crime whirls need cense politncal apprehension. The mur-
derer is a NI ussulman, and cities of one of the most fanatical
races with which we have 0.1 cal. BM he is also a convict, a
man already ce,ndemovel for shedding blood, and conse-
quently one whose particular ,dl,l exceptional criminality may
be presumed. It is evident tlint he can have had nothing to
do with any late develop ...eat of fanaticism, for he
was convicted in 1887, and has lien oil the Islands since 1800.
Hi, crime was probably the vengeance of a ferocious
ruffian who finds that the thief of the Government Which
transported him and made him work is for a moment in
his power, and who can listen to nothing but the frenzy
within him. We fear it will be necessary to take pre-
cautions against assassins for some time to come, for one
crime of this sort produces another; but that the present
murder has any political significance, or indicates any
common movement of 3lussulruan fanaticism. we see no
reason to believe.

Tim tribute paid to Lord Mayo's merits by the Duke of
Arryll and Mr. iHadsinne h, their reqpective Houses last
evening will receive a warm assent from every one who
has followed Ijic course in India. He has succeeded
far beyond the expectations entertained of him even
by his own friends. As a hearty, genial Parliamen•
tary politician, with readiness, observation, and a taste
for hard work, he served as Chief Secretary for Ireland
in each of the three recent Conservative Governments. In
1567, as Lord Naas succeeded his father as Earl of Mayo but
as an Irish Peer, he still retained his seat 01 the House of
Commons for the English borough of Cockermouth in
1565 he was appointed Governor-General of India, amid a
rood deal of hostile criejr.iem, Mr. aladatone eucceeded

almost immediately, but wisely accepted the appointment,
and from that time to his untimely death the India
Office, under the Duke of Argyll, has worked in
perfect harmony with Lord Mayo. To this the
Duke bore witness yesterday. "I never had the
honour of Lord Mayo's acquaintance," he says, "but we
came Into office at almost the same time, and I am happy
to say that from that time our conneximui have bees most
friendly, and I may say most cordial. I think I may go
further and any that there haa net been one very serious
difference of opinion between na on any question connected
with the Government of India "The Duke ef Argyll proceeded
to say that, in the opinion of Her Majesty's present Ministers,
the conduct of Lord Mayo in his high office amply jus-
tified the choice of their predecessors. These are not words
of conventional eulogy. The Duke of Argyll and his Council,
and all interested in Indian affairs, know that Lord Mayo
has proved an excellent Viceroy. His more valuable qualities
have been developed by the exigencies of his great
Office to a higher decree than in the comparative
obscurity of Parliameatary life. lie set to work with
extraordinary vigour to make himself master Of every
administrative detail, and to leave his mark on India.
Conquest was over ; the turn of material improve-
ment and social progress had come. Lord Mayo saw
this and acted upon it. In every department of Government
his independence of thought, and his habit of examining
everything for himself, have begun to produce fruits. He
has turned the attention of his Government to the en-
couragement of agriculture ; he has worked at the de-
velopment of a railway system which should he specially
fitted for the country. His dealings with the natives,
high and low, have been unexceptionable. Ile has
received the Princes in becoming state and with the digni-
fied courtesy which makes so deep an impression on
the Asiatic. He had lately held some of the most im-
posing Duibars that had ever been seen in India. In
these ceremonies lie was as successful as the most die-
' tinguished Governors of the old school —a Wellesley or
a Hastings. At the same time he fully recognised
the rights of the population in the Native States to
a beneficial exercise of the tutelage we have assumed
over them. In India mere non-interference will not suffice.
There, at least, it is not true that the best Government is
that which governs least. The initiative must come from
above, and the Government is the real source of au reforms.
There has never been a period more fertile than the present
in schemes of social improvement, and in these enterprises
Lord Mate has taken aot only formally, but actively the
leading part.
And now he is cut off on the shores of a Convict Settle-
ment by the hand of au obscure criminal' The Governor-
General had just returned from the N. rth-West Provinces,
where he had been encircled with all that the world can
produce of pomp and display he had entertained a neigh-
bouring Potentate at Calcutta with Viceregal splendour,
and had embarked for the Andamans, a few years
since the haunt of pirates, now the dens of rutlians
still more ignoble and brutal. But, at least, he died in
the service of his country. Ile is the first in the glorious
list of Indian Viceroys who has perished by direct
violence; but, to say the truth, India has been a fatal
field of late for statesmen. The Marquis of Dalhousie,
after ruling for nearly eight years with a vigour which
will long be the subject of controversy, returned home
in shattered health, and soon passed away. Lord
Canning came home only to die. Lord Elgin died in a
little village of Cashmere. Lord Bllenborough, who ruled
thirty years ago, died the other day. Lord Lawrence, the
immediate predecessor of Lord Mayo, now alone remains of
the Indian Viceroys of our time. We believe that Lord
Napier, Governor of Madras, takes the post of Governor-
General ad interim, sod will hold it till Lord Mayo's suc-
cessor is appointed. To find a man who will not suffer by
the contrast will be no easy task.