The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-09-07
The VicerOy of India.

The London Spectator gives the following
highly.Wrought account Of the enormous powers
vested under the British crown, in its repre-
sentative in the East
'The holder of that Office is emperor over one
clear fifth of the human race, directly controls
the fifth treasury in the world, must act every
day as PREMIER captain-general, supreme legts-
lator, and grand referendary for a continent
peopled by two hundred millions OF men. There
is not day in which he is not called upon TO
issue some order, sanction some law, initiate
some reform which may directly affect the hap
ness. the preudices, or he material interests of
population as great as that OF Italy or Spain.
From upwards of a hundred separate provinces,
from score of kingdoms from eight enormous
satTaples there flows up incessantly stream of
demands, suggestions, complaints, and menaces,
military, administrative. financial, and personal,
threefourths of them important, one-half urgent
and all requiring the personal, often the instant
decision OF the Viceroy himself, who must act,
even though he knows that blunder may
involve war, an insurrection, or provincial
famine.
Gas head OF the administration the Viceroy
has TO perform all the functions of the British
War Office to command yet not afront the
chief of an army Of three hundred thousand
men; who owes a direct obedience also to au
independent authority seven thousand miles
away. AS Chief Foreign Secretary he has the
diplomacy Of some twenty courts to direct to
manage all our relations with Central Asia, to
keep an eye on Teheran, aud not be quite igno-
rant of any movement IN China Malaga, or the
Archipelago. As Governor. General he has the
direct administration of the five or six king
doms known as chief ommissionerships, must
sanction every thing, however minute and in all
important cases assume the initiative. AS
President of a federation of great States, he has
to perform all the duties which fall to the
President of the United States, and most of the
functions now devolving upon Congress; 10
restrain and animate and supplement eight
Governors two of whom have direct communi-
cation with the mother country; to supervise
their legislation, to battle the demands for
expenditure, TO see that their neglect causes no
catastrophe, to provide that their iondness for
popularity does not make administration i'm
possible.
TO turn the whole theory OF the empire upside
down, to make the presidencies contribute their
surplus to the empire, instead OF the empire
granting its surplus to the presdencies. At this
very moment 1t is imperative that the organiZa-
tlon OF the native forces should be thoroughly
remodelled. At this very moment disputes are
pending with the Mahratta States which may
bring armies into the field; there is a project
almost matured for making India q naval
power; there is a scheme for dividing all rail-
ways into comm erciaf and POLITICAL a scheme
involving principles that would tax the intellect
of the late Sir Robert Peel, military considera
tions over which Lord Napier of Magdala would
ponder for weeks, and the creation of new de-
partments vast enough TO have alarmed Lord
Dalhousie, who once organized kingdom By q
decree in the Gazette.
1t is interesting to compare this view OF the
Viceroy's position with that given by Lore
Macaulay of the powers of the "Governor-Gene
raj of India" over the empire of the old East 1ndis
Company, in his essay on Warren Hastings
Civilization has failed to devise any means o
governing these populous provinces save by
giving the absolute sovereignty of millions tC
One man. Is not Lord Mayo possessed of lord
lier empire than ever belonged to Belshazzar OF
XerXes?