nearer to the chief scene of his responsibilities in the North-west. The hill-station of Simla in the Punjab, formerly an occasional health-resort, gradually grew into the seat of the Government of India during the chief part of the year. Lord Dalhousie used it as his eyrie from which to watch the newly-annexed plains that stretch below. In 1865, after the Mutiny had taught the lesson that India must be won or lost in the North, the permanent headquarters of the army were transferred to Simla.
The change, caused by military considerations, inevitably led to the Governor-General and his Council, together with the chief departments of the civil government, being concentrated in a larger measure at the Punjab hill-station. For experience disclosed the risks of misunderstandings and delays, involved by the distant separation of the political and military heads of the Indian administration. The Governor-General of India has during thirty-seven years, by the Statute of 1853, been completely dissociated from the Governorship of Bengal; and it is twenty-five years since the headquarters of the army were fixed at Simla. During a quarter of a century, except in seasons of famine, the Viceroy has spent eight or nine months annually at Simla or on tour, and about three or four months in Calcutta.
Calcutta has thus ceased to be distinctively the
