Sir John Strachey, Lieutenant-Governor of the North-West Provinces, has been
offered the appointment of Finance Minister in India, and greatly to his credit, has accepted it. The salary is 12,000 a year less, the patronage nil, the rank lower than his present one, and the position, in- volving as it does much residence in Calcutta, indefinitely more laborious and unpleasant. Both the Secretary of State and the Viceroy, however, have pressed it upon Sir John, as essential to the public service, and after a brief resumption of his office, rendered necessary by some service rule, he will take his seat in Lord Lytton's Council. Whatever his special ideas upon finance, Sir John Strachey is almost certain to do good work in his department. He is quite fearless, whereas the English Members of Council are usually daunted by the immensity of their task and a sense of their own defective knowledge ; he has great experience, and he is one of the few Indian civilians possessed of originality. India breeds men of ability, but ad- ministrators with a ray of genius are apt to be stifled there, as, during a large part of his career, Sir Henry Lawrence was.
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