The Fortnightly Review: No. CCCCLXIII, New Series [‎605v] (101/239)

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THE MARQUIS OF LANSDOWNE.
tians, 11 Jains, 7 Parsis, and 6 Sikhs : it included 6 princes,
4 Rajahs, 17 Nawabs, 3 Sirdars Leader of a tribe or a polity; also refers to a military rank or title given to a commander of an army or division. , 54 members of Indian noble
families, and 455 lawyers. Early in his administration Lord
Lansdowne pronounced it a perfectly legitimate movement.
True, it called forth a counter-demonstration. Educated Indians
know well that the introduction of representative institutions in
existing circumstances in India is absolutely impossible. The
Indian serpent is still potential to wound the European heel.
But the Congress affords a certain section of British subjects a
legal safety-valve for ventilating real or fancied grievances, and
thus supplies a want felt some time or another in every civilised
community. Lord Lansdowne extended the representative sys
tem in order to induce the better classes in India to take a more
active part in public affairs. In the Indian Councils Act, 1892,
he was careful to proceed with caution, but under it educated
Indians can play a more important part in public life than
formerly.
The many-sided new departures during Lord Lansdowne s ad
ministration involved considerable expenditure. The burden of
meeting it was not felt until the last year or so of his viceroyalty,
when the financial strain felt was chiefly attributable to the de
preciation of the rupee. With a view to enhance the exchange,
on the advice of his Council he sanctioned the closing of the
Indian mints for the free coinage of silver. But if this measure
failed to accomplish the end in view, Lord Lansdowne proved in
his speech in the House of Lords in June 1894, on the Indian
currency question, that it was not only amply justified in existing
circumstances, but economically sound.
During Lord Lansdowne’s term of office there were the usual
number of punitive expeditions, but the policy of expansion was
sternly discountenanced. He refused to annex the State of
Manipur after the massacre of Messrs. Quinton and Grimwood had
been avenged, and re-established native rule there. Firmness
was a distinct feature of his regime. He never failed to impress
upon the native Rulers that misgovernment would surely be
punished, but that if they governed well their thrones and for
tunes would be secure. He did not hesitate to depose the Khan
of Khelat for cruelty, and set his son on the throne. He made a
journey to Kashmir, where no Viceroy had previously visited, and
restored to the Maharajah his administrative independence, which,
for misgovernment, had been previously curtailed. He refused
to ratify an unconstitutional guarantee, given to the corrupt
Mamlutdars by Lord Reay, whose immediate resignation did not
move him. His emphatic declaration after the sanguinary riots
in 1893 in Bombay, that British arms would protect the meanest