No man can govern India in ordinary times, such as those in which we are living, if he is to be tied by the leg to Calcutta, and prevented from visiting other parts of the Empire.  Canning, although he lived in times by no means ordinary, and although he was compelled by circumstances to be more stationary than he would otherwise have been, was as clear on this point as anyone.  He urged me most strongly to proceed northwards at the earliest moment at which I could contrive to do so.  When I referred to the difficulty which the assembling of the Council for legislative purposes might occasion, he assured me that he had never intended to make himself a slave of the Council; that he had taken the chair at the commencement of the proceedings, but that he should certainly have objected to the establishment of the principle that his presence was indispensable to its deliberations.  He was especially anxious that I should tour, in order that I might satisfy myself as to how his arrangements affecting natives, &c., worked, before modifying them in any degree.  And, apart from Canning’s opinion altogether, this is a point on which I have had some personal experience.  I have been now steadily in Calcutta for a whole hot season.  No man, I venture to affirm, in the situation I occupy, has ever been more accessible to those who have anything to say, whether they be civilians, soldiers, or interlopers.  But there is a blot on my escutcheon which can easily be hit by anyone dissatisfied with a judgment pronounced in my name.  It can always be said:  “What does Lord Elgin know of India?  He has never been out of Calcutta.  He is acquainted only with Bengal civilians and other dwellers in (what is irreverently styled) ‘the ditch.’” Indeed, I fear that I am exposed to the same reproach in your circle.  I see no remedy for this evil, if I am to remain constantly here.

[Sidenote:  Projected tour.]

Starting from these premises he came to the conclusion, that ’it was better to organise a tour on a comprehensive scale, even though it involved a long absence from Calcutta, than to attempt to hurry to distant places and back again during successive winters.’  Accordingly, it was arranged that as soon as the business of the Legislative Council was concluded, he should start for the north, and travel by easy stages to Simla, visiting all the places which he ought to see on his way.  After spending the hot weather at the Hills, he was to proceed early in the next winter to the Punjab, inspecting it thoroughly, and returning before the summer heats either to Simla again, or to Calcutta, as public business might determine.  For the Session, if so it might be called, of 1863-4, he was to summon his councillors to meet him somewhere in the north-west, at some capital city, ’not a purely military station, but where the Council might obtain some knowledge of local and native feeling such as did not reach Calcutta.’  The spot ultimately fixed upon was Lahore, the capital of the large and loyal province of that name.  The earlier part of the tour was to be made chiefly by railway, with a comparatively small retinue; but for the latter part of it he was to be accompanied by a camp, furnished forth with all the pride, pomp, and circumstance belonging to the progress of an Eastern Monarch, and necessary therefore in order to produce the desired effect on the minds of the natives.