removal of the time-honoured barriers which safeguarded Indian topics from interference, Parliament might be betrayed into rash and ill-considered action. In February a new cause of disquietude was added. Lord Palmerston's defeat on his Conspiracy to Murder Bill brought into office a Ministry, many of whose members had shown themselves ready to criticise in no friendly spirit Lord Canning's Indian administration — Lord Derby, Mr. D'Israeli, the impetuous and rhetorical Ellenborough. How was Lord Canning to work with a new and, probably, unfriendly Cabinet? The embarrassment was not lessened by the circumstance that by the mail, which brought the tidings of the change, Lord Canning received no communication from any member of the new Government, but merely private letters from Lord Granville and Lord Aberdeen, dissuading him from resignation. The Governor-General was thus obliged to address the new President of the Board of Control without having learnt his views with regard to his continuance in office. He wrote, accordingly, that he had no intention of resigning unless called upon to do so; but, at the same time, letting Lord Ellenborough understand that he would submit to no improper interference. The next mail cleared away all uncertainty by bringing three letters from Lord Ellenborough, friendly in tone and based on the assumption that Lord Canning did not contemplate resignation. Letters from Mr. Gladstone, Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, Lord Granville, and from the Chairman of the East India
