The Sun.
London, England, 1868-12-18 00:00:00

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WHAT MIGHT BE.

The following remarkable article appears in the
Morning Star, a contemporary which is the organ
of the Right Hon. gentleman the President of the
Board of Trade, who understands more about India
than any other Cabinet Minister, not even except-
ing his Grace the Duke of Argyll :
A statement has appeared in the Manchester Exa-
miner, to the effect that the Earl of Mayo has been
recalled from India, that the Marquis of Salisbury has
agreed to accept the Viceroyalty as Sir John Law-
rence's successor, and that Sir John Lawrence's re-
turn home is to be delayed for another year. Wre
do not confirm this statement; but the arrangement
which it describes offers a not improbable solution
for the grave difficulty which was thrown by this
late Premier upon his successor. To those who re-
gard the greatest posts in the State as mere items
of preferment, the presence of the Earl of Mayo 10
Calcutta as Governor General does not suggest
doubts or anxiety. One man is as good as another
to enjoy a good thing ; and Lord Mayo is a man
whom no one would object to see as happy as the
most inappropriate exaltation could make 11013.'
But the Governor-Generalship is not a mere pe3.t"
tion of honour and state. The Viceroy of India
is, with certain limitations, chiefly felt in quiet
times, and even then very ineffectually opera"
tive, a quasi sovereign ruler over some one 03"
dred and eighty millions of people. Ilis vegb
and barely manageable domain might at any no"
ment be thrown into a ferment such as only 1118
most competent statesmanship could allay. 14°ra
Mayo in this country never exhibited even average
ability, and he received the grandest prize at the
disposal of the Crown, either as a consolation
.Or
failure, or as a reward for having taken upon 1033-
self the responsibility of a hastily declared and Pre
cipitately renounced Irish policy. But in India'
left to govern a vast dependency on his own re,
sponsibility, he can no longer be incompetent with
impunity. Mr. Gladstone and his colleagne3
cannot but have felt this. Whether they have
e
ordered Lord Mayo home or not they mot
well aware that they, and not he, would 04
really responsible to the people of this country
mischief were to arise from his rule in Calcutt'ci
At the same time, to recall a man of Lo
Mayo's inoffensive character from a post to which,
according to the loosely practised principle of patty
management, he had as good a title as auy etl;1,
member of his party, would be an act seeminglys
invidious that the Cabinet muse have arrived very
reluctantly—if they have arrived —at the reeelti
tion to take the step. Mr. Gladstone, of course'
has long foreseen • his present responsibili
l
in all their bearings. and the Duke °

Argyll cannot have been ignorant that the
public voice has for some time designated hig!
for the high office which he fills. In the Cabinet
there is another Minister whose actual Wel;
rience is sure to have deeply impressed him wit
the responsibilities of Indian administration.
An eminent statesman who has made the inte;
rests of the natives of India the subject of 031.4
of the most burning eloquence in our languages 1,0
also one of the most prominent of Mr. Gladstoae
colleagues; and there are others —such men as Se
Lowe and Lord Clarendon--who, themselves se'
lected on the ground of special fitness, will/ Pr 1;
bably, prove incapable of tolerating, however 111
they may compassionate, incompetency Pit'e 1;
forked into an •office demanding the profoundeset
and most apt ability. Never was a Cabiebo
brought together from which a job such as le
Viceroyalty of Lord Mayo would have been .0
likely to receive indulgence. As a mere job los
might have been spurned ; but a job agail
inerl
which the whole country exclaimed, not hog
in indignation but in alarm—a job which be
set the press of India at work deriding ai"
Home Government --a job which ills to
all past, and • would if ratified go far .8..
deteriorate the calibre of all future Governor-Gell,
rals—a job which would lead to five years of Joglo
rious sway, unless some disaster brought its iSetist
to a sudden and fatal termination—must aPPett
to an Administration like the present a pedeette,
intolerable blemish in the great machine of Sta If
for the working of which they are responsible• e 0
it is true that Sir John Lawrence has undertakfot
to be answerable for the Government of India
another year all anxiety as to the immediate filtio ao
will be over. Lord Mayo would have to bear ea
almost unexampled humiliation, because he has boe
the hero of a State scandal in these times Oa.
o
less unexampled ; and with his disaPP:to
ante from thq scene all peril that htli•-if,
foresight could avert would pass awitY•
again, it were true that eventually Lord tacl
bury would succead to the Viceroyalty, a proer,eo
of good for India would be opened up, which eviir
the continuance of Sir John Lawrence in that le
portant office could not present. Sir John 1)30,
rence is an able and sure-footed Indian states° id,
but his ideas are necessarily cast in an old Me lo
Lord Salisbury's Indian policy was not cull .6,,00
but full of fresh intelligence ; not merely free,''bot
prejudice, and superior to departmental contrei,erto
courageous and enterprising in a direction hithdir
untried ; not only wise, new, and bold, 1001
tinctly adverse to all the annexationist imtaell'sci,
in which even Sir John Lawrence, however CO
entiously and innocently, has been by circumsted
and official experience involved. Lord SOO the
appointment would mean, in the opinion o'ool
Cabinet, all the good that might be expected °Of
from such great and absolutely novel qua li3'
as these. There was something in Lord
bury's sudden recognition of the Mysore fcod
similar in beneficent audacity to Mr. Glads'lci3h
courageous declaration of war against the, de'
Church Establishment ; and Lord Salisbury e
signs for the material development of India °°l°e'3considered a brilliant adaptation of Mr. Gladst;6o'
ideas of economical statesmanship to the
,tances of the noble empire over which it is 111e0e
to be Lord Salisbury's destiny to bear away pee;
considerations, of course, deserve the first Po ,tivg
but it is also worthy of notice that, by desig;
Lord Salisbury for this great sphere of det':o
tihe
Prime Minister would most effectually reh'iVod
reckless allegations so freely made by the 010
organs, that he begrudged Lord Mayo °of Di:
which he wished to bestow on some follower th
a,
own fortunes. Whether well or ill-founder j
coo'
report which has appeared in our Manchesteo
temporary is one which, for great reasePoo ct
for smaller reasons alike, would be accept P°
the country, and full of hope for its greet
Indian empire. mem,
The following also appears in the Da iltortro
one of the recognised organs of the Liberal reofsf
—" There is much speculation as to the pf
t 1
which will be pursued relative to the Arieere3rd ere
India. That Lord Mayo should be sae°