Page:Lord Amherst and the British Advance Eastwards to Burma.djvu/30

 than the driving force. He would certainly have felt with possibly painful distinctness the difference between the system of government in and by a House of Commons moved by fervent speech, and government under conditions where eloquence can only expend itself in the preparation of glowing minutes. But the experiment was not to be tried; the tragic death of the Marquess of Londonderry left a place in the Cabinet to which Canning was imperiously called, and the Court of Directors had to look elsewhere.

Lord William Bentinck had been, some years before, dismissed from the Government of Madras under circumstances which placed him in possession of a well-established grievance. Lord Amherst, on the other hand, was thought to have earned by the hardships he endured in China a title to a reward more substantial than praise. In the case of both the hopes of their friends were ultimately fulfilled, but Lord Amherst's claim was allowed precedence.

There was an interval of more than seven months between the departure of Lord Hastings and the arrival of Lord Amherst. In this brief period Mr. John Adam, who as the senior member of Council was ad interim Governor-General, contrived to raise some questions which profoundly stirred the Anglo-Indian community. The freedom of the Press is a doctrine so well established now that it is difficult to enter into the strong convictions of many liberally minded officials seventy years ago as to the necessity of rigid censorship. Lord Hastings had in theory