Lord Beaconsfield must have been studying the Book of Daniel.
It is difficult to believe that any one but he wrote the pompous proclamation in which Lord Lytton announces that on January 1, 1877, he shall hold an "Imperial Assembly" at Delhi, to proclaim Queen Victoria " Empress of India," and announces that he proposes to invite "the Governors, Lieutenant- Governors, and heads of Administrations from all parts of the Queen's Indian dominions, as well as those Princes, chiefs, and nobles in whose persons the antiquity of the past is associated with the prosperity of the future, and who so worthily contribute to the splendour and stability of this great Empire." As the Record has pointed out, these are almost the exact words of Daniel, cap.
v. 2: "Then Nebuchadnezzar the king sent to gather together the princes, the governors, and the captains, the judges, the trea- surers, the counsellers, the sheriffs, and all the rulers of the pro- vinces, to come to the dedication of the image which Nebuchad- nezzar the king had set up." Is Lord Beaconsfield trying to imitate Babylon, or is he thrusting his tongue in his cheek at the golden image he is setting up on the plain of Delhi ?
