Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 1.djvu/194

 its engagements to the protecting Powers. He became consequently the central figure in the transactions at the Turkish capital. In October 1882 Gladstone's government sent him to Cairo to complete the work he had begun. He was directed to reconstruct the Egyptian administration ' on a basis which will afford satisfactory guarantees for the maintenance of peace, order, and prosperity in Egypt, for the stability of the Khedive's authority, for the judicious development of self-government, and the fulfilment of obligations towards foreign powers.' His notable Report of February 1883 was the outcome of these instructions. At the same time he recognised the possibility that Turkish authority would be restored, and it was in order to provide ' a barrier ' against that intolerable tyranny that he advocated a generous policy ' of representative institutions, of municipal and communal self-government, and of a political existence untrammelled by external importunity.' He called into being the legislative council and the assembly. Experience has since suggested that Egypt was not ripe for representative institutions even of the limited character which Dufferin devised, but Lord Dufferin's aims and motives were in the circumstances quite intelligible. He received on 15 May 1883 the cordial thanks of the British government, and on 15 June promotion to the G.C.B. Disappointment followed. As Dufferin admitted, the Hicks disaster in the Soudan in Nov. 1883, and Gordon's fateful mission to Khartoum next year, which he was not in a position to foresee, 'let in the deluge.'

On the retirement of George Frederick Samuel Robinson, Lord Ripon [q. v. Suppl. II], from the governor-generalship of India on 13 Dec. 1884 Dufferin was nominated to succeed him. The post was far more responsible and onerous than any he had previously held. But his special gifts of tact and conciliation and his interest in land questions were the precise qualities that were needed at the outset. When Lord Ripon left India it was distracted by angry controversy over the Ilbert bill, and by Ripon's unfinished schemes of self-government. The Indian press and congress party were agitating for constitutional changes, while in Bengal, Oudh, and the Punjab the relations of landlord and tenant were strained, and beyond the frontiers the Amir of Afghanistan was uncertain regarding British intentions and the position of his boundaries on the side of Russia. In this condition of unrest Lord Dufferin's personal magnetism and tact were at once called into play. By natural disposition and political profession favourable to reform and self-government, he had not forgotten his experiences in Egypt. In his speeches and published 'Resolutions' he enjoined on all sections of the population 'the need of unity, concord, and fellowship,' and 'the community of their interests.' Inviting the co-operation of educated Indians, and promising them a larger share in provincial affairs, he condemned incendiary speechifying, and refused to relax his grasp on the supreme administration. The 'parliamentary system' he put on one side as impossible. But he sanctioned a legislative council and a university at Allahabad for the North-west Provinces, and advocated the enlargement of the legislative councils elsewhere, with powers of interpellation and the right of discussing the provincial budget of each year. His dealing with the land question was equally reasonable, and he held the balance true between landlord and tenant. By Act VIII., 1885, which Lord Ripon had advanced to its penultimate stage, the Bengal land-owners were obliged to concede occupancy rights to their tenants who had cultivated their lands in a village for twelve years, and to accept certain limitations on their right of enhancing the rent. On the other hand the landowner's right to a fair share in the increased value of land was affirmed, facilities were created for settling disputes, and provision made for a survey and record of rights. In Oudh, by the Rent Act XXII. of 1885, tenants at will secured compensation for improvements, and were guaranteed possession for seven years in conditions which placed the landlords' rights on a just basis. By the Punjab Act XVI. of 1887, the rights of occupancy and profits of agriculture were judiciously divided without undue opposition.

At the same time the Amir of Afghanistan was charmed with his reception by Dufferin at Rawal Pindi in April 1885, and was so completely reassured as to the nature of the assistance he would receive if an unprovoked attack were made on him, that neither the Panjdeh conflict (1885) with Russia, nor in 1888 the rebellion of his cousin Ishak Khan, shook his confidence. Sindhia, the leading Mahratta sovereign in India, was gratified by the restoration of the Gwalior fortress in 1886, and cordial relations were established with all the native princes. While Lord Dufferin successfully pursued his work as conciliator Lady Dufferin in August 1885 instituted