British -- India -- Fiction; India -- History -- British occupation, 1765-1947 -- Fiction
Dr. MacInnes gave himself to the work with a zeal which entirely merited
the commendation he received from his conscience. Sometimes he lectured
twice a day. He was always freely accessible to interviewers from the
religious press. He refrained, in talking to these gentlemen, from all
personal malediction of the Lieutenant-Governor—it was the sin he had to
do with, not the distinguished sinner—and thereby gained a widespread
reputation for unprejudiced views. Portraits of the reverend crusader
and Shib Chunder Bhose appeared on the posters which announced Dr.
MacInnes’ subject in large letters—“MISSIONS AND MAMMON. SHALL A
LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR ROB GOD?”—and in all the illustrated papers. The
matter arrived regularly with the joint at Hammersmith Sunday
dinner-tables. Finally the _Times_ gave it almost a parochial
importance, and solemnly, in two columns, with due respect for
constituted authority, came to no conclusion at all from every point of
view.
The inevitable question was early asked in Parliament, and the
Under-Secretary of State said he would “inquire.” Further questions were
asked on different and increasingly urgent grounds, with the object of
reminding and hastening the Secretary of State. A popular Nonconformist
preacher told two thousand people in Exeter Hall that they and he could
no longer conscientiously vote to keep a Government in office that would
hesitate to demand the instant resignation of an official who had
brought such shame upon the name of England. Shortly afterwards one hon.
member made a departure in his attack upon Mr. John Church, which
completely held the attention of the House while it lasted. The effect
was unusual, to be achieved by this particular hon. member, and he did
it by reading aloud the whole of an extremely graphic and able article
criticising His Honour’s policy from the _Bengal Free Press_.
“I put it to hon. members,” said he, weightily, in conclusion, “whether
any one of us, in our boasted superiority of intellect, has the right to
say that people who can thus express themselves do not know what they
want!”
That evening, before he went to bed, Lord Strathell, Secretary of State
for India, in Eaton Square, London, wrote a note to Lord Scansleigh,
Viceroy and Governor-General of India, in Viceregal Lodge, Simla. The
note was written on Lady Strathell’s letter-paper, which was delicately
scented and bore a monogram and coronet. It was a very private and
friendly note, and it ran:—
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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