The speech of the Viceroy was an adequate one. The
cool critic may detect in it a trace of magniloquence, as when be speaks of the " representatives " of a fifth of the human race being present at that Durbar ; but it is difficult in surveying the Indian Empire to avoid magniloquence, and Lord Curzon never exaggerated the wonderful facts, while one or two of his adjectives, in particular that which describes the British throne as the most " stable " of thrones, were singularly happy, as was also the following passage :—" To the majority of these millions the King's Government has given freedom from invasion and anarchy ; to others it has guaranteed their rights and privileges ; to others it opens ever-widening avenues of honourable employment; to the masses it dispenses mercy in the hour of suffering ; and to all it endeavours to give equal justice, immunity from oppression, and the blessings of en- lightenment and peace. To have won such dominion is a great achievement ; to hold it by fair and righteous dealing is a greater; to weld it by prudent statesmanship into a single and compact whole will be and is the greatest of all."
