It is officially announced that Sir John Strachey, the Finan-
cial Member of the Viceroy's Council, has resigned ; and that Major Evelyn Baring, now English Controller in Egypt, has been appointed to succeed him. The question of Sir John Strachey's success or failure as a financier, which is in India the most " burning " of all party questions, cannot be de- bated here ; but we may say that, holding him to have been one of the ablest of Indian officers, something more than an able administrator, we find it impossible to believe in his finance. Ile may have been only unlucky, but there are kinds of ill- luck which involve failure. Major Baring we ourselves sug- gested for the post. He has had a varied experience, both in India and Egypt; he is declared by a sort of European con- sensus to be exceptionally competent on questions of mixed European and Oriental finance; and the range of choice was exceedingly limited. The Home Government has always exer- cised a certain arbitrary power of selection to this office, and though they have not been by any means strikingly successful, they have, we believe, in this instance made a wise choice. Major Baring has nothing to learn, having acquired the re- quisite knowledge under Lord Northbrook ; he is a man who can face unpopularity, and he has succeeded in a post of excep-
tional difficulty of the same kind. There is no corruption to be put down in India ; but the passive resistance from circum- stances, from the Services, and above all, from the Military Authorities in England, would tax Mr. Gladstone.
