Consort (iv 284-5).  Lord Derby thereupon consulted Stanley; saw the remarks of some of the Cabinet, as well as of Lord Ellenborough, upon Stanley’s draft; and then wrote and re-wrote a draft of his own, and sent it to the Queen.  It was wholly different in scope and conception from the first draft.  The Prince Consort enters in his journal that it was now “recht gut.”  One or two further suggested amendments were accepted by Lord Derby and the Secretary of State; experts assured them that it contained nothing difficult to render in the native languages; and the Proclamation was launched in the form in which it now stands.  One question gave trouble—­the retention of the Queen’s title of Defender of the Faith.  Its omission might provoke remark, but on the other hand Lord Derby regarded it as a doubtful title, “considering its origin” [conferred by the Pope on Henry VIII] and as applied to a Proclamation to India.  He was in hopes that in the Indian translation it would appear as “Protectress of Religion” generally, but he was told by experts in vernacular that it was just the title to convey to the Indian mind, the idea of the special Head and Champion of a creed antagonistic to the creeds of the country.  Lord Derby was inclined to omit, but he sought the Queen’s own opinion.  This went the other way.  The last sentence of the Proclamation was the Queen’s.  The three drafts are all in the records at Windsor.]

Victoria, by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and of the Colonies and Dependencies thereof in Europe, Asia, Africa, America, and Australasia, Queen, Defender of the Faith.

Whereas, for divers weighty reasons, we have resolved, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in Parliament assembled, to take upon ourselves the government of the territories in India, heretofore administered in trust for us by the Honourable East India Company.

Now, therefore, we do by these presents notify and declare that, by the advice and consent aforesaid, we have taken upon ourselves the said government; and we hereby call upon all our subjects within the said territories to be faithful, and to bear true allegiance to us, our heirs and successors, and to submit themselves to the authority of those whom we may hereafter, from time to time, see fit to appoint to administer the government of our said territories, in our name and on our behalf.

And we, reposing especial trust and confidence in the loyalty, ability, and judgment of our right trusty and well-beloved cousin Charles John, Viscount Canning, do hereby constitute and appoint him, the said Viscount Canning, to be our first Viceroy and Governor-General in and over our said territories, and to administer the government thereof in our name, and generally to act in our name and on our behalf, subject to such orders and regulations as he shall, from time to time, receive through one of our Principal Secretaries of State.