TOPICS OF THE DAY.
BANQUET TO THE NEW GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF INDIA.
" Welcome the coming, speed the parting guest."
THE Duke of WELLINGTON'S position at the East India Directors' dinner to Sir HENRY HARDINGE, on Wednesday, recalls the image of the captive French King in the tent of the Black Prince. The Duke was the hero of the evening : Sir HENRY, the nominal hero, laid all the honours of the banquet at the Duke's feet ; the Chair- man was lavish in his eulogiunis of the Duke; the great end and aim of the speechification was to sooth the Duke. And yet, amid all this homage, the impertinent idea would recur, that the Duke was sitting at the hospitable board of the Board that had check- mated him.
The Duke, in return, was grimly civil. In his speech—return- ing thanks for the toast of himself and the Army—there was, to be sure, not one word about indiscretion ; but, rigidly scrutinized, not one word of decided compliment to his entertainers will be found in it. No; though he sat at their table—though all the delicacies of the season, and all the flatteries of half-a-dozen seasons, were showered upon him—not one word of his House-of-Lords philippic was even by implication unsaid by him. Not an expression posi- tively unkind escaped him—but not a kind one either. The bright armour of the French Monarch could not have received with more polished coldness and rigidity the blandishments of his youthful captor.
The new Governor-General, while apparently bent alone upon soothing his veteran chief, contrived adroitly to pay his court to the Directors. The skilful and tortuous climax with which he rose from a panegyric on the Indian Army, to dilate upon his own ultra-transcendental pacific disposition, was an unspeakable relief to the assembled Chairs. The Board was heard to draw a long sigh of unutterable relief. Each Chair muttered to itself, in un- premeditated concert with its fellows—" Public opinion is right ; Sir Henry will be a safe Governor of India."
Oh the faithlesssness of Chairs as well as of sitters upon chairs! Three little years have not passed since Lord ELLENBOROUGH was feasted with RS Much empressement as DOW Sir HENRY HARDINGE ; yet on Wednesday his name was not once named, even by the Duke of WELLINGTON; and, what was worse, words rife with implied charges against him superabounded. Sir HENRY Han- DINGE'S vehement protestations of pacific policy, his reiterated pro- fessions of deference to the Directors, and Sir ROBERT FEEL'S mag- nanimous declarations against any change in the constitution of our Indian Government, all indicated where the shoe pinched un- der the late Governor-General. No one knew what Lord ELLEN- BOROUGH might take into his head next ; and Lord ELLENBOROUGH, not contented with setting the fee-farm of his masters the Direc- tors constantly on the hazard, was barely civil to them when they remonstrated.
So, as far as Ministers and Directors can do it, Lord ELLENBO- ROUGH is quietly shelved. Whether he will sit quietly down under this on his return, remains to be seen. Doubts appear to be en- tertained on that head. Nay, from the unwonted despatch with which his successor proceeds to the scene of action, it might almost seem to be expected that Lord ELLENBOROUGH, unlike the "good army" of Bombastes Furioso, might "kick up a row" before he allowed himself to be disbanded.
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