TOPICS OF THE DAY.
THE NEW INDIAN VICEROY.
IN selecting Sir John Lawrence as Lord Elgin's successor I the Government has broken, and wisely broken, the The rule was and is a wise one, but the use of such rides is simply to secure the man best fitted to do the work re- quired, and there can be little doubt that in the present con- juncture Sir John Lawrence is that man. We do not mean simply that he is qualified only by his services, though these have been beyond compare. Indian stories are always so crowded with details that their drift too often escapes the public; but the popular theory about Sir John Lawrence is, as a whole, quite true. He did most unquestionably save us from the necessity of having to conquer India. From the moment the Sepoys seized Delhi, to the moment when its fall made civil government once more possible, India was cloven in twain, with Lord Canning ruling on one side and Sir John Lawrence upon the other, but with scarcely the faintest means of communication between the two. For three months, we believe, not an order from Calcutta ever reached the Punjaub. There, however, was Sir John Lawrence, with less than 10,000 effective Europeans, with 50,000 drilled veterans in revolt between him and his only possible source of reinforce- ments, with the Afghans threatening him on the West, all lost away to the South, the Khalsa or fighting Sikhs held in order only by their personal awe of him, one great Sikh Prince with an army and treasury at disposal, and hosts of small chiefs as hostile as mediatized chieftains always are. For five months Sir John Lawrence, without help save from
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