EARL CANNING
FIRST VICEROY OF BRITISH INDIA
CHAPTER I
The Argument
India has added a thrilling chapter to the Englishman's national romance—a chapter which more, perhaps, than any other in our annals, abounds in interest and pathos—in dark, tragic scenes, strange episodes—the success of splendid daring—the supremacy of the constant mind over adverse fate—the determined mood which gains reinforcement from hope and consolation from despair. It has been the arena in which the qualities which Englishmen most prize in themselves and their fellow-countrymen have been exhibited on a grand scale—the iron will—the unwavering purpose—the practical aptitude for the management of human affairs—long-enduring fortitude—devotion to duty—the generous contagion of self-sacrifice, when courage glows into heroism and the commonplace becomes sublime.
With no original design which looked beyond a mercantile profit, the warding off of imminent danger, or the coercion of a troublesome rival, the English found themselves, after a century of unexampled
