1858. INDIAN VICEROYS. 133 Company. It was the one thing which everybody could suggest to be done, at a time of excitement when everybody thought he was bound to suggest something. It would have required a minister less fond of popularity than Lord Palmerston to resist such an outcry, or pretend that he did not hear it. In this, as in so many other cases, Lord Palmerston only seemed to lead public opinion, while he was really following it. One other remark it is also fair to make. We have had no indications, as yet, of any likelihood that the administration of India is to become a thing to be scrambled for by second and third class parliamentary politicians. The administration of India means, of course, the viceroyalty. Now there have been, since Lord Canning, five viceroys, and of these, three at least were not parliamentary politicians at all. Sir John Lawrence never was in Parliament until he was raised to the peerage, after his return home from India. Lord Elgin may be fairly described as never having been in Parliament, unless in the technical sense which makes every man on whom a peer's title is conferred a parliamentary personage; and the same holds true of Lord Lytton, who had no more to do with Parliament than was involved in the fact of his having succeeded to his father's title. Lord Mayo and Lord Northbrook, to whom perhaps an invidious critic might apply the term second or third class parliamentary politicians, on the ground that neither had obtained very high parliamentary distinction, proved nevertheless very capable, and indeed excellent administrators of Indian affairs, and fully justified the choice of the ministers who appointed them. Indeed, the truth is that the change made in the mode of governing India by the act which we have just been describing, was more of name than of reality. India was ruled by a GovernorGeneral and a board before; it has been ruled by a Governor-General, called a Viceroy, and a board since. The idea which Mr. Mill had evidently formed in his mind, of a restless and fussy Parliament for ever interfering in the affairs of India, proved to have been a false impression altogether. Parliament soon ceased to take the slightest interest, collectively, in the affairs of India. Once more it came to be observed that an Indian budget, or other question connected with the government of our great empire in the East, could thin the House as in the days before the Mutiny. Again, as before, some few men profoundly in earnest took care and thought on the subject of India, and were condemned to pour out the results of their study and experience to a listening Under-Secretary and a chill array of green leather benches. At intervals, when some piquant question arose, of little importance save to the Court official or the partizan, like the project for conferring an imperial crown, brandnew and showy as a stage diadem, on the wearer of the great historic emblem of English monarchy, then, indeed, public opinion condescended to think about India, and there were keen parliamentary debates and much excitement in fashionable circles. Sometimes, when there was talk of Russian ambition seeking, somehow, a pathway into India, a sort of public 1858. PARLIAMENT AND INDIA. 135 spirit was aroused, not, perhaps, wholly unlike the manly emotion of Squire Sullen, in the 'Beaux Stratagem,' when he discovers that a foreigner is paying court to the woman he has so long neglected. But as a rule the English Parliament has wholly falsified Mr. Mill's prediction, and has not intruded itself in any way upon the political administration of India. CHAPTER XXXVII. THE ORSINI BOMBS EXPLODE IN PARIS AND LONDON. THE last chapter has told us that Lord Palmerston introduced a measure to transfer to the Crown the government of India, but that unexpected events in the meanwhile compelled him to resign office, and called Lord Derby and Mr. Disraeli to power. These events had nothing to do directly with the general policy of Lord Palmerston or Lord Derby. At midday of January 14, 1858, no one could have had the slightest foreboding of anything about to happen which could affect the place of Lord Palmerston in English politics. He seemed to be as popular and as strong as a minister well could be. There had been a winter session called together on December 3, to pass a bill of indemnity for the Government, who had suspended the Bank Charter Act during the terrible money-panic of the autumn, and the failures of banks and commercial firms. The Bank was authorised, by the suspension of the Charter Act, to extend its circulation two millions beyond the limit of that Act. The effect of this step in restoring confidence was so great that the Bank had only to put in circulation some 900,000l. beyond the limit of 1844, and even that sum was replaced, and a 1858. FELICE ORSINI, 137 certain reserve established by the close of the year. Most people thought the Government had met the difficulty promptly and well, and were ready to offer their congratulations. Parliament adjourned at Christmas, and was to meet early in February. The Princess Victoria, eldest daughter of the Queen, was to be married to the Prince Frederick William, eldest son of the then Prince of Prussia, now German Emperor, and it was to be Lord Palmerston's pleasant task, when Parliament resumed in February, to move a vote of congratulation to Her Majesty on her child's marriage. Meantime, however, on the evening of January 14, Felice Orsini, an Italian exile, made his memorable attempt to assassinate the Emperor of the French. Orsini lost himself, and he drew the English Government down at the same time. Felice Orsini was well known in England. After his romantic escape from a prison at Mantua, he came to this country and delivered lectures in several towns. He described the incidents of his escape and denounced Austrian rule in Italy, and was made a lion of in many places. He was a handsome soldierlylooking man, with intensely dark eyes and dark beard, in appearance almost the model Italian conspirator of romance. He was not an orator, but he was able to tell his story clearly and well. One great object which he had in view was to endeavour to rouse up the English people to some policy of intervention on behalf of Italy against Austria. It is almost impossible for a man like Orsini to take the |