THE VICEROY OF INDIA.

Evening Star, Issue 4943, 6 January 1879, Page 4

THE VICEROY OF INDIA.

I only,echo what public opinion there is in Indiawhen I say that Lord Lytton is not regarded as the man for the position he occupies. .Nothing butthe influence of a powerful Ministry in. England < keeps him at the head of the Indian Government. To recall him would be to discredit' Lord Beaconsfield's selection, and this-the Ministry will not do if they can possibly avoid it. But yet'the Home-Government was obliged to put a veto ori'Lord Lytton's Native Press Act {the most unwise and indefensible measure ihat) has been' introduced for many a year), and will ultimately have to acknowledge that his lordship's famine policy was a lamentable failure, so far as the saving of humap life was ;concerned. • Should things not go;well in Affghanistan the patience of XorfijiJLytton's. friends ,'at Home will be pretty well exhausted, and they will not hesitate :to ; ; sacrifice., him at- the shrine •of public opinion. . The telegrams passing between the Indian • and Home Governments: •.to Veal -tin -fact that the Ministry were disappointed that Lord Lytton had to •delay the:advance- on Affghanistan, and any •evil consequences that may arise from the postponement of the campaign to the spring are certain to be credited to his inactivity at the,moment when he ought to have been prepared to strike a vigorous blow. Socially, Lord Lytton is becoming very unpopular, at Simla and in Calcutta/where he is best known. He has lately given way to a friskiness that is unbecoming in a man with the destinies of a mighty empire in his hands, and that shocks the sense of propriety of orderly, sober-minded people.: The scandals at Simla this year are the talk of every European station in the country, as they possibly are o- every native bazaar. The Viceroy's late military secretaryi Colonel Villiers, has just distinguished himself by becoming co-respondent in a divorce suit in the High Court at Lahore,.was found guilty of the offence with which he was charged, and mulcted in L 2.000 damages. The lady in the suit was the wife of a doctor. It is •whispered that the colonel and the lady have left for England, while tlie doctor has been given a staff appointment with the Affghanistan tforcef. i©ne ' of Lotd lytton's aidetrdecamp is in trouble„in ; a similar way, while n,ot wanting rumors that Lord Lytton himself object of suspicion. Some of these rumors may be exaggerated,.but it ia- little creditable'to Lord Lytton's re/jlnui that they should have any foundation in fact. What is certain is that Lord Lytton is getting a new military secretary, Colonel Baker,, V.0., 18th Reginienp, from England, in the.place : of Colonel Vjfllie'rs r and that thro.- of his aides-de-camp have been recently provided rwith appointments, up-country. These scandals have created an unfavorable impression, and the viQe.regal- court is in very bad. repute just now. I have before me a' letter from, a high official in Calcutta, a-man with over twenty yeariVneJcperience of India,' and . who has himself served on the staff of Governors, which gives a striking illustration of the littdenestimation in which the Viceroy is held hy the official community in that city. " You ask," my correspondent writes, "what I think of the Government of India and the "Viceroy I think, theformer very weak, and Sir R. Strachey-the -only able man in it. The former is contemptible, and the tone ho gives society, is disgraceful. Government House'; on all but large parties, is a sort of rollicking ale-house. I was much amused at the article in the ' World,' a very short time '.Lord Lytton at Home.' It is .(JtutiTifote'-rWerse bf As to early

rising,..his Excellency se«s some of the |secretaries r in his bed at twelve 1o n, cover, d ■ with a silken coverlet, and with a glass ot seltzer and a cheroot—effeminate dissipation personified." You will agree with me that ; this is not an encouraging description of the pian who occupies the responsible position of Governor-General of India at the present crisis.—'Argus.' ''. • i it Tim iiii iiiriimiiwiiiiimj