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 APPENDIX B.

THE VICEROY'S DURBAR SPEECH.

At the Proclamation Durbar the Viceroy said : — Five months ago in London His Majesty King Edward VII, King of England and Emperor of India, was invested with the crown and sceptre of the English Kings. Only a few representatives of the Indian Empire had the good fortune to be present at that ceremony. To-day His Majesty has by his royal favour afforded an opportunity to all his Indian people to take part in similar rejoicings, and here, and elsewhere throughout India, are gathered together in honour of the event the Princes and Chiefs and Nobles, who are the pillars of his throne, the European and Indian officials who conduct his administration with an integrity and devo- tion to duty beyond compare, the Army, British and Native, which with such pre-eminent bravery defends his frontiers and fights his wars, and the vast body of the loyal inhabitants of India of all races who, amid a thousand varieties of circumstance and feeling and custom, are united in their spontaneous allegiance to the Imperial Crown. It was with the special object of thus solemnising his Coronation in India that His Majesty commanded me, as his Viceroy, to convene this great Durbar, and it is to signify the supreme value that he attaches to the occasion that he has honoured us by deputing his own brother. His Royal Highness the Duke of Connaught, to join in this celebration.