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36 was wont to celebrate the outgoing of a new Governor-General. The speeches delivered on these occasions assumed the character of important political utterances, and were regarded with interest as indications of principle and policy. The Chairman, Mr, Elliot Macnaghten, proposed the new Governor-General's health. Lord Canning, in his reply, surprised and impressed his hearers by a grave and measured eloquence in every way worthy of the occasion. The remembrance of George Canning — the marked resemblance between father and son — the same handsome features, the noble brow and fine presence — no doubt predisposed the audience in the speaker's favour. But Lord Canning's speech was intrinsically excellent — weighty, dignified, imbued with a statesmanlike sense of the greatness and the difficulty of his task. He responded with gratitude to the Chairman's assurance of the confidence and co-operation of the Directors and of the two great bodies with which he would have mainly to do — the Civil Service and the Army. 'I know not,' the speaker continued in terms which, read in the light of after events, have a prophetic ring, 'I know not what course events may take. I hope and pray that we may not reach the extremity of war. I wish for a peaceful time of office, but I cannot forget that, in our Indian Empire, that greatest of all blessings depends upon a greater variety of chances and a more precarious tenure than in any other quarter of the globe. We must not forget that in the sky of India, serene as it