In approaching the consideration of this very momentous question we must, in the first place, be careful lest we suffer ourselves to draw erroneous conclusions from the warm expressions of gratitude and affection lavished upon Canning by the natives generally.  If I were to venture to compare great things with small, I should say that their feelings towards him were due to causes somewhat similar to those which earned for me the good will and confidence of the French Canadians in Canada.  Both he and I adopted on some important points views more favourable to the subject races than those which had been entertained by our respective predecessors.  So far we established legitimate and substantial claims on their regard.  But it was not so much the intrinsic merit of those views, still less was it the extent to which we acted upon them, which won for us the favour of those races; we owed that mainly to the uncompromising hostility, the bitter denunciations, and the unmeasured violence which the promulgation of those views provoked from those who were regarded by them as their oppressors.  I used often to say to my Scotch friends in Lower Canada, when they were heaping every indignity upon me, and even resorting to open violence (for there they did not hold their hands off), ’You are playing my game.  I want to win the confidence of the French Canadians; but I know the nature of that people:  they are touchy and suspicious as races who feel that they are inferior, and believe that they are oppressed; invariably are.  By measures of simple justice towards them (and beyond that line I do not intend to proceed an inch), I despair of being able to effect my object; but if you continue for a year to act as you are now acting, denouncing me as your enemy and their friend, and proving the sincerity of your belief by outrage and violence, you will end by convincing them that I am to be trusted, and I shall win the day.’—­The result proved the accuracy of this prediction.

The feeling of the natives of India towards Canning was in some measure due to a similar cause.  The clamour for blood and indiscriminate vengeance which raged around him, and the abuse poured upon him because he would not listen to it, imparted in their eyes to acts which carried justice to the verge of severity the grace of clemency.

[Sidenote:  (2) Consideration for native chiefs.]

I could give you plenty of proofs of this....  The following sentences occur in a letter written from Delhi during our recent panic, by an officer....  ’The native force here is much too small to be a source of anxiety, and unless they take the initiative it is my opinion that there can be no important rising.  The Mussulmans of Delhi are a contemptible race.  Fanatics are very rare on this side of the Sutlej.  The terrors of that period when every man who had two enemies was sure to swing are not forgotten.  The people declare that the work of Nadir Shah