auguration of the age of reform unhappily coincided with the outbreak of a campaign of outrage and murder, the pretext for which was found in the refusal to reverse the partition. In November 1909 an attempt was made on the lives of Lord and Lady Minto by bombs at Ahmedabad. It was found necessary to strengthen the laws against the holding of seditious meetings and the unchecked licence of the press (1910). The position of the government was rendered exceedingly difficult; in Lord Minto’s own words, they were obliged ‘with one hand to dispense measures calculated to meet novel political conditions, and with the other hand sternly to eradicate political crimes’. They were conscious, too, that, though their course was determined on before the outrages began, any reform proposals which they might now put forward would be condemned by the one side as an inadequate concession to lawful political ambition, and denounced by the other as a pusillanimous truckling to revolutionary violence. Yet they determined not to draw back. ‘In the midst of such complications’, said the viceroy, ‘I could not enter light-heartedly on a policy of reform, but I refused to lose faith in it.’ Morley and Minto were undoubtedly right in maintaining their course, but a reasonable criticism, passed at the time, was that more firmness should have been shown in the early days in putting down disorders.
A feature of Minto’s viceroyalty was the increasing influence of the secretary of state upon the policy of the Indian government. This was due to the strong determination of a triumphant parliamentary majority to extend liberalizing principles throughout the Empire, the dominant personality of Lord Morley, and the viceroy’s disinclination to quarrel with his colleague. Constitutional purists noted with misgiving the tendency of both the viceroy and the secretary of state to neglect their councils and permanent officials, and to raise—and all but settle—important questions through the medium of an intimate private correspondence.
Not the least valuable part of Lord Minto’s work was seen in his relations with the Indian princes. No Indian viceroy, not even Lord Mayo, was so universally liked and respected by them. During the winter of 1906-1907 the Amir of Afghanistan was induced to visit India, and the foundations of a stable friendship with the British power were laid. It cannot be doubted that the loyalty and enthusiasm displayed by the ruling chiefs during the European War of 1914-1918 had been largely fostered by the geniality and camaraderie of Lord Minto.
Minto left India in November 1910. Among many other honours he received the Garter, and the freedom of the cities of London and Edinburgh. At the coronation of King George V he was one of four peers selected to hold the canopy over the King. He only lived for four years to enjoy the pleasures of retirement in his Scottish home and amidst his family circle. His health failed suddenly and unexpectedly in the autumn of 1913, and he died at Hawick 1 March 1914.
Lord Minto was one of those men who would probably never have risen to the high offices he held except in a country where some deference was still paid to the claims of birth and position; and his whole career shows how much his country would have lost, had such considerations of choice been disregarded. He proved himself a conscientious, capable, and loyal servant of the state. He was, wrote Lord Morley, ‘able, straightforward, steadfast, unselfish, and the most considerate of comrades in tasks of arduous public duty’. Without being a born administrator, he was able to direct successfully the work of administration: without being an orator, he fulfilled adequately all that was required of him in the council chamber and the assembly: without any deep grasp of statesmanship, he was able by sterling qualities of heart and head to control situations which might well have taxed the powers of abler men. Above all there was the appeal that his attractive character always made to the allegiance of his colleagues.
Lord Minto married in 1888 Mary Caroline, daughter of General the Hon. Charles Grey [q.v.], brother of the third Earl Grey, and he was aided all his life by his wife’s devotion, cleverness, and charm. He had two sons and three daughters. Of his sons, the elder, Victor Gilbert, born 1891, succeeded to the earldom, the younger was killed in Flanders in 1917.
An excellent portrait-sketch of Minto by P. A. de Laszlo was painted in 1912. An equestrian statue by Sir W. Goscombe John has been erected in Calcutta (Royal Academy Pictures, 1913).
[Annual Register: Lord Morley, Recollections, 1917; Sir Valentine Chirol, Indian Unrest, 1910; Sir Verney Lovett, A History of the Indian Nationalist Movement, 1920; Lord Minto, Speeches, published by the Government of India, 1911; John Buchan, Lord Minto: A Memoir, 1924; private information.]
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