The somewhat unusual delay in filling the Governorship of Madras
has ended, and Mr. Grant Duff has accepted the ap- pointment. As it had been decided to continue the practice of sending a Governor from England, the selection is an unexcep- tionable one. Besides being a man of marked ability, who has hardly reached his level in English politics, Mr. Grant Duff is the son of an eminent Indian statesman, has travelled in India, has served as Under-Secretary in the India Office, and has attended to Indian affairs all his life. He is a loss to Parlia- ment, to which he brought a most unusual range of informa- tion, much insight, and a certain clearness of vision, which sometimes made him too impatient of stupidity ; but he will make an excellent Governor of a Presidency where there is much work to be done, and great need for a chief who will see that projects do not end in discussion. The permanent opinion of India that Madras wants life must have some truth in it,. and Mr. Grant Duff may be able to supply the missing im- petus. We trust he will not forget the great agricultural want,. —the revival of the old tank irrigation. The condition of a province like Bellary, where there is a famine every four or five years, and fever from low living is chronic, is a blot on British: rule.
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