acterises Anglo-Indian officials in their dealings
with natives. Lytton's mind was tinged with the eastern glow that lit up
alike the stories, the speeches, and the policy of his chief. It is
true, the imperialist programme was as grandiosely vague as the meaning
of _Tancred_ itself; but in a land where forms and words count for much
the lack of backbone in the new policy was less observed and commented
on than by the matter-of-fact islanders whom it was designed to glorify.

The apotheosis of the new policy was the proclamation of Queen Victoria
as Empress of India (July 1, 1877), an event which was signalised by a
splendid Durbar at Delhi on January 1, 1878. The new title warned the
world that, however far Russia advanced in Central Asia, England nailed
the flag of India to her masthead. It was also a useful reminder to the
small but not uninfluential Positivist school in England that their
"disapproval" of the existence of a British Empire in India was wholly
Platonic. Seeing also that the name "Queen" in Hindu (_Malika_) was one
of merely respectable mediocrity in that land of splendour, the new
title, "Kaisar-i-Hind," helped to emphasise the supremacy of the British
Raj over the Nizam and Gaekwar. In fact, it is difficult now to take
seriously the impassioned protests with which a number of insulars
greeted the proposal.

Nevertheless, in one sense the change of title came about most
inopportunely. Fate willed that over against the Durbar at Delhi there
stood forth the spectral form of Famine, bestriding the dusty plains of
the Carnatic. By the glint of her eyes the splendours of Delhi shone
pale, and the viceregal eloquence was hushed in the distant hum of her
multitudinous wailing. The contrast shocked all beholders, and unfitted
them for a proper appreciation of the new foreign policy.

That policy may also be arraigned on less sentimental grounds. The year
1876 witnessed the re-opening of the Eastern Question in a most
threatening manner, the Disraeli Ministry taking up what may be termed
the Palmerstonian view that the maintenance of Turkey was essential to
the stability of the Indian Empire. As happened in and after 1854,
Russia, when thwarted in Europe, sought for her revenge in the lands
bordering on India. No district was so favourable to Muscovite schemes
as the Afghan frontier, then, as now, the weakest point in Great
Britain's imperial armour. Thenceforth the Afghan Question became a
pendant of the Ea