18 NOVEMBER 1905, Page 2

On Thursday evening Lord Curzon was entertained to a farewell

dinner at Bombay amid what the Press calls "unpre- cedented demonstrations of sympathy and admiration." La a brilliant speech be expounded his conception of the duties of a Viceroy, "the noblest office, if inconceivably laborious, in the gift of the British Crown." We have not space to analyse his masterly account of the Constitutional significance of the office, but we must refer to his most temperate and lucid explanation of the cause of his departure. He stood, he said, for two principles : the subordination of the military to the

these principles I have behind me the whole of the Civil Service of India, the unanimous weight of unofficial English opinion in this country, an overpowering preponder- ance of Indian opinion, and, what is more significant still, the support of the greater part of the Indian Army." Lord Curzon's leave-taking is worthy of a great Viceroyalty.