LORD CURZON'S FRONTIER SPEECH. go THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTAT0R. ° 1
SIR,—May I point out a slight slip in the obiter dictum with which your interesting note in the Spectator of May 3rd on Lord Curzon's Frontier speech winds up ? Of the "chief agents " through whom for the space of some four-score years we have governed in India over two hundred millions of people, two at least, namely, Lord Metcalfe and Lord Lawrence, not only conversed with their subjects, but • habitually harangued them in Durbar in Hindustani. the lingua franca current from Peshawur to Cape Comorin. A ' set speech in any Oriental tongue was never, I think, attempted by Lord Mayo or Lord Dufferin; but both these - Viceroys were quite up to the mark for the interchange of courteous commonplaces that in the East, even to a greater degree than at home, forms the staple of conversation. Hindustani was the tongue of which Lord Lawrence acquired a modicum ; Lord Dufferin characteristically chose Persian, still a living tongue in courtly and diplomatic circles in Hindustan and in the Deccan.—I am, Sir, &c.,
W. H. G.
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