The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-07-22
INDIA'S vICERoY.
The Position Is One of Splendor
Great Emoluments and Power.
From the New York Tribune.

From the New York Tribune.
OF all the offices in the gift of the
British crown, there is none of greater
splendor, dignity and emolument than
that of viceroy of India which is now
about to become vacant by the retire
ment of the Earl of Elgin. Indeed,
the pomp and magnfcence by which
he is surrounded is superior even to
that of his sovereign, Queen Victoria,
and her children; there is not one Of
the latter whose trappings of royalty
do not pale into insignificonce when
compared with those of the viceroy Of
India. The English people, so niggard-
ly with regard to the civil list of the
reigning family at home, spend money
with most lavish hand in maintain
ing the immense population of British
india, which numbers 2S0. .000, 900 in
habitants, with due sense of the
wealth and grandeur of the British
empire. The salary and allowances of
the viceroy considera bly, exceed $5OO,O
year, besides which the government
defrays the expenses of an enormous
court and houshold, as we'll as of a
regiment Of body guards.
Yet, in spite of this, every viceroy Of
home at the conclusion of his term of
office distinctly poorer man than at
the moment OF his appointment. Eng
lish officials, although generously paid,
rarely attempt to economize on their
salaries and allowances. They regard
the latter as a species of trust, as
money confided to them for the purpose
of maintaining their office with a GER
tain amount of dignity and luxury,
and hold that to divert the funds from
the purpose for which they were grant
ed would constitute a distinct breach
of confidence and dishonorable action.
Perhaps no more striking illustration
of this Deculiarity of English officials
could be cited than that of Lord
Dufferin, who after holding in turn the
offices of viceroy of India, of governor
general of Canada and of ambassador
at Rome, st. Petersburg, Constanti-
nople and Paris, all most lucrative
offices, has now at the age of seventy,
retired a poor man, and dependent to
great extent on the pension of $4,000
per annum to which he is entitled as
an ex-ambassador.
Like the queen, the viceroy of India
has cabinet, and not only a cabinet,
but also a species of parliament in the
shape of the so-called legislative coun-
Gil. But the latter has nothing like
the power of the English parliament,
with which it has little in common;
and the consequence is that the men,
bers of the viceroy's cabinet are mere
advisers and heads of their respective
departments, with practically no power
or authority to oppose the policy of the
Viceroy.
The viceroy's rank is so high, as the
direct representatives of the queen
empress, that he takes precedence of
everybody else in India-even of the
members OF the royal family Thus,
when the Duke and Duchess of Con-
naught were in India they We're COM
PEELED everywhere to yield the pas
to the viceroy on all occasions, al
though the duke is the favorite son of
the queen, and. and his duchess a
princess of the reigning house Of
Prussia.
The vicerov is ex-officio grand mas
ter of the Star of India and of the other
Indian orders, and shares with the
viceroy of Ireland the right of con-
ferring knighthood upon people, who
from that time forth are able to prefix
Sir to their Christian names.
In the event of any emergency Of
which the viceroy himself is permitted
to be the judge, he can suddenly, and
without any other authority, suspend
all existing laws and assume the most
despotic powers, against the MISUSE
of which there is but one remedy or
redress-namely impeachment in par
lament.
Precisely the same honors are paid to
the viceroy as if he were a full fledged
sovereign: that is to say, he is address,
ed as Sir" no matter what his rank
in the peerage may be, while all men,
and even women, rise when he enters
a room. and no one dreams of taking
a seat in his presence until he has re-
quested him to do so. Women courtesy
before him as if in the presence of the
sovereign, and he never moves out of
doors without being attended by gen.
n-waiting. by his aids-de camp
and by a large escort of body guards.
At the conclusion of his term of office
he invariably receives a step of promo
tion in the peerage. His winter resi-
dence is a superb palace at Calcutta,
while during six months Of the year
he makes his home in the mountain
districts of Simla, transporting not
only his entire court. but also all the