Lord Lytton’s speech

It is not inconsistent with our genuine satisfaction at the rejection of the Ordinance Bill by the Bengal Legislative Council to admit that the speech which Lord Lytton made with reference to it in opening the session was a fine performance, entirely worthy of the historic occasion. Barring one single point, it had in an eminent degree one characteristic note of true oratory, persuasiveness. The exception is as regards His Excellency’s unjust and ungracious reference to the Indian Press, which, he said, had “studiously fostered a spirit of distrust of the government”. This attack upon a class of men who try their best to serve their people in the face of great odds, and often at no small risk to themselves, was the less defensible, because His Excellency himself admitted that “the deep-seated distrust of the government” that existed in this country was “due to the fact that the government has so long been without an element of responsibility to the representatives of an electorate.” If this is the true explanation of the distrust, as it undoubtedly is, is it difficult to see that the Indian Press is only the natural purveyor of a widespread feeling and by no means its deliberate fomentor? Of course, His Excellency implies that the distrust is no longer either natural or reasonable because the government now has an element of responsibility. This, however, is a matter in respect of which the vast majority of politically minded Indians hold a contrary opinion, and the Indian Press can scarcely be blamed for constituting itself as the organ and mouthpiece of this majority.

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