Page:Lord Amherst and the British Advance Eastwards to Burma.djvu/29

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CHAPTER II
}} January 9, 1823, the Marquess of Hasting quitted the scene of his brilliant labours. It had been a stirring question at home who should succeed the great pro-consul. All eyes were turned to George Canning. He had been President of the Board of Control, but owing to his unwillingness to share with his colleagues the obloquy of the Queen's trial had withdrawn from the Ministry. While he was thus en disponibilité news came in the early part of 1822 of Lord Hastings's intended retirement. Mr. Canning needed little persuasion to accept the reversion of a post so attractive to his imagination. No chapter in the volume of 'What might have been's' would be more alluring than that which would deal with the possibilities of English rule in India had George Canning continued the work of Lord Hastings. Possibly he might have discovered, as others have when they pass from the function of control to that of initiative and of executive administration, that the clog is sometimes more powerful in the ordering of events