NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE Government has found a Viceroy for India at last. Their choice was hampered by the small number of com- petent men who even profess to be Gladstonians, and by some refusals, among which we regret to record that of Lord Cromer. The Government therefore, feeling unable to pardon any of its opponents, selected a dark horse, Lord Elgin, who has no claims known to the public except that he comes of an ancient family, and is the son of a man who was for a few months Viceroy, and who was much abler than his contemporaries quite recognised. He was really a wise man ; an adjective one is seldom tempted to employ about anybody. It is quite possible that Lord Elgin, in a great position—the highest held by a subject in the world—may manifest unsuspected qualities. He comes of a strong race, he is only forty-four, and the great Indian officials will give cordial help to the son of a father whose self-abnegation saved India in the Mutiny. His appointment is an experiment, but it is not a job ; and anything is better than selecting an old official with a hack's mind, or an Anglo-Indian. The latter may know his work, but he has taken his party also.
Previous page
