There seem to be mistaken ideas current about the value
of the Viceroyalty of India as an appointment. For a rich man it is probably the most valuable in the world, as it enables him to save, as a rule, £12,000 a year out of his salary and -the whole of his private income for five years. The salary is £25,000 a year, besides some allowances, a furnished house and all travelling expenses, and half that sum will enable most men to live in becoming splendour. To a poor man, how- -ever, the office is less valuable, as he saves less from his home revenue, and if, like Lord Mayo, he is fond of splendour, an Irish- man, and unlucky enough to have a Royal Duke for a guest, he -may save very little indeed. The propriety of the grant asked for by Lord Mayo's Parliamentary friends is a difficult question to decide. On the one hand, he fell on duty, and his fall costs his family £40,000; on the other we make no grants to the families of meaner men. On the whole, considering the extreme lightness of the Indian Civil List—not quite half that of any country with an equal revenue—and the excessive rise in the ex- penditure of the office, the more generous may also be accepted as the more just course.
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