[Sidenote: 58. The Proclamation of the Queen-Empress at the Delhi Durbar, 1st Jan., 1877.] At this last outpost of British Power we complete our journey through the great Indian Empire. It was with no intention of Empire that a few London merchants formed themselves into an East India Company in the days of Queen Elizabeth. It was with no great force of white soldiers that the conquest was in after centuries effected, but by the organisation of Indian strength in a time of disorder, due to the downfall of the Mogul Empire at Delhi. Province was added to province under the British Raj of no set design and ambition, but for defensive reasons under the threat of French or Maratha or Sikh rivalry. In the great Mutiny the system of power and administration, thus upbuilt almost casually, was tested, and it survived the test, but with a fundamental change. The East India Company was dissolved, and the British Government made itself directly responsible for peace and order in the Indian Continent. The proclamation by which Queen Victoria assumed the rule of India solemnly promised that in the administration of the country due regard should be paid to the ancient rights, usages, and customs of India. The change which was made in 1858, after the Mutiny, was completed in 1877, when at a great durbar of the princes of India, held at Delhi, Queen Victoria was proclaimed Empress of India. [Sidenote: 59. The Same.] The British Raj in India is an organisation unparalleled in history, for the Roman Empire consisted of provinces grouped round the Imperial City, but Britain is a quarter of the globe removed from India. Our power ultimately rests on our command of the seas and on the justice of our administration. When either of these fail, the British position in India will crumble. Within our duty of justice is included the generous but firmly-directed readjustment of the methods of Indian government, so as to adapt them to the now changing conditions of oriental society. [Sidenote: 60. The Same.] The responsibility for India is, indeed, a great one. It is idle to ask whether our forefathers should have assumed it. We could not withdraw now without throwing India into disorder, and causing untold suffering among three hundred million of our fellow human beings. Yet the administration of such an Empire calls for virtues in our race certainly not less than those needed for our own self-government. Above all, we require knowledge of India, and sympathy with the points of view begotten of oriental history. --------------------- LIST OF VICEROYS OF INDIA SINCE THE TRANSFER OF THE ADMINISTRATION FROM THE EAST INDIA COMPANY TO THE CROWN IN 1858. VISCOUNT CANNING, to 1862 March, EARL OF ELGIN, 1862-3 SIR JOHN LAWRENCE, 1864-9 EARL OF MAYO, 1869-72