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172 due to Her Majesty's criticisms on Lord Derby's original draft. The Minister was requested to frame it, 'bearing in mind that it is a female Sovereign who speaks to more than a hundred millions of Eastern people, on assuming the direct government over them, and after a bloody war, giving them pledges, which her future reign is to redeem, and explaining the principles of her government. Such a document should breathe feelings of generosity, benevolence, and religious toleration, and point out the privileges which the Indians will receive in being placed on an equality with the subjects of the British Crown, and the prosperity following in the train of civilisation.'

The Proclamation issued on November 1st was, in all respects, in accordance with these requirements. It announced that Her Majesty had resolved to take upon herself the government of the territories in India heretofore administered in trust for her by the East India Company; and called upon all her subjects in India to bear true allegiance. It constituted Lord Canning first Viceroy and Governor-General; it confirmed all officials of the East India Company in their appointments; guaranteed the scrupulous maintenance of all treaties and engagements made with the Native Princes; promised that the rights, dignity, and honours of Native Princes should be respected by the Queen, and guarded from infringement as jealously as her own.

'We hold ourselves bound to the natives of our Indian territories,' the Proclamation continued, 'by