Lord Ripon has been honoured on his departure from India
with a perfect ovation from all classes of natives. In Calcutta, which is not an emotional city, thousands of Bengalees turned out to receive him, and in Bombay the people lined the roads for six miles, thirty thousand cotton operatives lost a day's wages to accompany his carriage, and seventy-five deputations were pre- sented. It is useless to suggest that such demonstrations were
"got up ;" and it must not be forgotten that Lord Ripon was an ex-Viceroy, departing into what is still to most natives of India another planet. The demonstrations were clearly genuine, and mark a development of national feeling in India,—of feel- ing, that is, that her people have common interests, which may one day make our position there untenable. That, however, is for the future. For the present, it is not unpleasant to notice that however hostile natives may be to Europeans, they regard her Majesty's Government as a distinctly protecting agency. In 18:-.,7 the rising was against, not for, the Governor-General.
Previous page
