Page:The Cyclopedia of India (Specimen Issue).pdf/18

 His EXCELLENCY CHARLES WALLACE ALEXANDER NAPIER COCI-IRANE-BAILLIE, LORD LAMINGTON, «C.M.U, G.C.I.E., U.A, (Oxon.) Governor of Bombay.

CHARLES WALLACE ALEXANDER NAPIER COCHR A N E- B AIL LIE, LORD LAMINGTON. who succeeded Lord Xorthcote in 1904 as Governor of Rombay, comes of an energetic race, and was welcomed in India as the illustrious scion of an illustrious family. Whilst the grand¬son of the Admiral of the Fleet, Sir John Cochrane, would be heartily welcomed by a maritime people, the son of Cochrane-Baillie recalls pleasant me¬mories in the mind of politicians and of men of letters of the Disraeli age of politics When Disraeli first formed his “Young England” party, Cochrane-Baillie was one of his most active supporters—and after over 40 years of stress and strain in the House of Commons, Cochrane-Baillie, under the title of Lord l amington, entered that haven of political repose—the House of Lords.

In the year i860, whilst his illustrious father occupied the seat for Honiton in the House of Commons, Charles Wallace Cochrane-Baillie was born ; he was educated at Eton, and Christ Church, Oxford, the joint nurseries of so many of our political leaders. He was in the fourth class of the modern history school in 1880, and graduated B A. in 1881. Lord Salisbury was never the mart to for¬get the claims of an old colleague, and thus wc find that Lord Lamington made his debut in public life in 1885 as an assistant private secretary to Lord Salisbury. In 1886 he entered the House of1 Commons as the representative of North St. Pancras, a position which he held until his accession to the House of Lords upon the death of his father in 1S90. In 1895 he was appointed Governor of Queensland. In the same year he gave a further pledge to fortune by marrying the Hon. Mary Hozier, daughterof the pre¬sent Baron Newlands. Tlius both Lord and Lady Lamington add another couple to the many eminent Scotch men and women who have done so much in the past to promote the advancement of this Empire of the East.

Lord Lamington is possessed of some 12,000 acres of land in Lanarkshire, is a good sportsman, and is reputed to be an enthusiastic disciple of Izaac Walton. He is no novice in the art of governing, and came to India crowded with honours from his Australian administration.

The physical difficulties of Queensland presented as great a problem to the present Governor as did its political conditions. A great drought had for seven years devastated the country to such an extent that in some parts of the great west there were to be found children who had never seen a drop of rain. To personally understand the charac¬ter of this disaster, and to seek, if possible, for some means of physical alleviation. Lord Lamington set out. as no other Governor had previously done, to traverse Queensland from end to end. In a country containing an area of 680,000 square miles, for the greater part parched by a prolonged drought, and but sparsely populated, was .1 task involving considerable personal discomfort, if not actual physical privation. By this means Lord Lamington collected, and left to his successor a knowledge of the needs of the. country, of its physical resources, and of the necessities of its people, which must bear substantial fruit in years to come.

The high qualities of statesmanship, of the management of men and things, of the control of diverse and of ten-times conflicting interests which his Lordship so conspicuously displayed in Australia, find ample scope for their exercise in Bombay. The post of Governor of Bombay is one of distinguished honour, and is accompanied by corresponding responsibilities. The sanitan problem of Bombay is one demanding the exercise of the highest powers, and worthy of his Lordship’s acknowledged ability. The problems of the housing of the poor, and of the development of the trade of Bombay, and of the resources of the Pre¬sidency, are all questions which make a severe demand upon his Lordship’s power of work. Of his thoroughness we have had ample pioof; for not long after his arrival Lord Lamington ascertained, by personal inspection of some of tin* worst of Bombay slums, the dreadful conditions under which thousands of the people were obliged to live and die. In this good work Lady Lamington was not less thorough than her husband. She visited the worst parts of the city without hesitation, and her sympathies were at once enlisted in Bombay’s greatest and most urgent social problem.