291 



change in connection with it, ought, therefore, to 

 be introduced with tlie utmost caution, and only after 

 the fullest and most careful consideration. It is 

 not my business, as I before said, to review the 

 proceedings of either Her Majesty's or the Indian 

 Government. At the same time, it would answer 

 no useful purpose to ignore opinions that have 

 been commented on by every public Newspaper 

 in England and India. Her Majesty's Government 

 have been freely accused of not only destroying 

 the prestige of the Government of India, but of 

 attempting by the illegitimate exercise of an auto- 

 cratic or despotic power, to bring it into contempt 

 with our Indian subjects. Now I venture to differ 

 from the conclusions arrived at by both those high 

 governing authorities, and can consequently be 

 accused of no partizanship, yet I have no hesita- 

 tion in saying that a perusal of such correspon- 

 dence as has been made public on the subject, 

 leads me to a conclusion the very opposite of 

 this. No Government could possibly have been 

 placed in a position of greater difficulty than was the 

 Government of Her Britannic Majesty in dealing 

 with this very important question. Their greatest 

 difficulty, moreover, lay in reconciling their honest 

 convictions of what was best for the welfare of 

 our Indian subjects and the Country, and their 

 auxions desire to maintain supreme the authority 

 Her Majesty's Representative in India; and 



