Mr. Grant Duff, on Wednesday, addressed his constituents at Elgin,
in a long and striking speech. After his annual review of Continental affairs, in which he contrived to hint an impression that disturbances might arise in France, and a conviction that they would not spread—has he forgotten that France has Southern frontiers ?—he passed on to his own department. He held that our duties to India were to "keep the peace among two hundred millions of men ;" to "pit the intelligence and science of the West against those terrible natural calamities which are the scourge of that portion of the earth's surface ;" to "make famines as rare as in Europe ;" to "raise the standard of justice and administra- tion ;" to "impart all Western culture that can be expected to flourish on Indian soil ;" to "give to all nations of the world an example of how a strong race should rule weak ones ;" and to "increase the riches of the world in such a way that they should flow out to bless mankind." That is a programme as noble in idea as it is eloquent in expression, and if Mr. Grant Duff can help to carry it out India will forgive him, even if exploration does not go on as fast as he would like, or if he does not make a "royal road" for every collector of antiquities.
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