CHAPTER II.
THE CONSPIRATORS.
On the 29th of February 1856 Charles John, Viscount Canning, succeeded Lord Dalhousie as Governor-General of India. Lord Canning possessed many qualities which fitted him for the onerous office. The second son of an illustrious statesman, he had himself received the education which trains a man to enter upon a Parliamentary career. He had sat in both Houses, had filled with credit some high offices, and had been a member of the Cabinet of Lord Palmerston which had decided to annex Oudh. To that annexation Lord Canning, as a member of the Cabinet, had given his assent. He was a large-minded man, possessing noble and generous instincts, a taking presence, was a thorough worker, conscientious, scrupulous, and resolute. The only objection which the most captious critic could have made to the appointment was an objection which would have equally applied to the great Marquess Wellesley, and to all the intermediate rulers of India—he possessed no practical knowledge of India and its people.
A statesman, however gifted, despatched from England to rule a country with a population of two hundred and fifty millions, must be for some time after his arrival dependent on the councillors bequeathed to him by his predecessor. Now, the predecessor of Lord Canning had been a very masterful man: a born ruler of men; a man
