Page:Convocation Addresses of the Universities of Bombay and Madras.djvu/168

 relief from the burdens of war, some definite movement in the direction of internal reform. To all who looked forward for these advantages the advent of Lord Ripon was welcome. His character and antecedents were such that the whole community joined in hailing his arrival. We looked to him who had negotiated peace with the great sister country of England across the Atlantic, as one who would maintain peace in this country, and that hope has never been disappointed. With a few most insignificant exceptions peace has been preserved all through the course of Lord Ripon's administration, and with peace have arisen the opportunities for all that progress and all those great measures with which his name must be indissolubly associated. How did he set about the work he had to do? He moved amongst the people, was facile of access, gentle and simple in demeanour, winning all hearts by his suavity of manner:

"Not with half disdain hid under grace, But kindly man moving amongst his kind. "

Whoever came within the circle of his influence, was charmed into communicativeness as when some kindly soul enters a house and draws the children of that household towards him by an irresistible attraction. They sidle up to him, whom they find really interested in their child nature; to him they reveal all their little troubles. In six minutes he has won all their love, and all their trust, and thus has paved the way for impressions which will extend all through their lives. Now such was the position taken up by the distinguished Viceroy on his arrival in this country; and at every moment of this close converse with the people with whom he was in communication he reaped the advantage of that freedom of intercourse. His was not a nature that needed disguising under any muddy wheel of mystery. He could afford to stand forth in the bare simplicity of steadfastness and sincerity before the eyes of the people he had come to govern, and being known to be received by them for all in all, or not at all. Thus he won their confidence, thus he gained their hearts, and thus entered into the spirit of the people in the way that best qualified him for the work he had to do.

Now there is a necessity for every man who enters in a career such as that of a Viceroy of India, whether he will or not, he needs must frame some plan of action, some theory of human affairs, and of the affairs of the nation or the community whom he comes to rule, unless his rule is to be misrule and the consequent confusion and chaos. Such a theory, no doubt, Lord Ripon formed reposing