Lord Curzon, lately Viceroy of India, received on Wednes- day
at the Guildhall the freedom of the City, and made in acknowledgment a singularly eloquent and stirring speech, which it is almost as impossible to condense as to condense a poem. Its theses were the greatness of the task which we have accepted in administering India, the infinite variety of Indian life, and the necessity of appealing to the imagi- nation and the hearts of that vast congeries of dissimilar nations whose condition ranges from high civilisation to pure savagery. He pointed out bow all the problems of govern- ing are exaggerated in India by the fact that the State must complete as well as control the vast enterprises, such as rail- way communication, which in England are performed by private enterprise ; and by the sleepless toil which is imposed upon all who drive the vast machine. Lord Curzon was, upon the whole, optimist, maintained that loyalty was in- creasing, and scorned all fears of the ultimate loss of India, but believed that from time to time reconstruction was in- dispensable within the administration, and that we must always watch that dangerous frontier five thousand four hundred miles in length. He strongly defended the expe- dition to Tibet, now ruled by a young man whom he described as "the evil genius of his people"; and ended a remarkable speech by the -remarkable saying : " We have the power to will the people of India into a unity beyond anything they have dreamed of," which, he thought, would be a blessing to them. Is not that a little rhetorical ? Would unity be a blessing to Europe; and if not, why is it to be a blessing to a peninsula which is nearly as vast and holds one-third more people ?
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