t with such an
impressive appeal to Oriental individualism and personal loyalty as the
proclamation of Queen Victoria as Empress of India were strokes of
statesmanship such as no other Englishman of that time was capable of
initiating.

INCEPTION OF THE PROJECT

In Bombay, when the project was finally in full fruition, the Prince of
Wales told a distinguished audience that "it had long been the dream of
his life to visit India," and there seems no room to doubt that it was a
part of the original plan mapped out by the keen perceptions of the
Prince Consort for the education of his eldest son. It was
unquestionably suggested to the former by Lord Canning, when
Governor-General of India in the wild days of the Mutiny, but the idea
necessarily slumbered until the young Prince was old enough to undertake
the heavy duties involved.

By that time his father had passed away; the old-time rule of the East
India Company was gone; a new and greater India had expanded in
territory and population; while the loyalty of its native Princes had
become a constant marvel to other peoples. Yet there were causes of
discontent and grounds for trouble. The myriad masses of Hindostan did
not yet fully understand who was ruling over them, nor had they ever
fully comprehended how the rule of the Company passed away. The word
"Queen" had to them an Eastern significance which did not exactly compel
respect, and that personal side of Government which means so much to the
Oriental mind had never been brought home to them. The assassination of
Lord Mayo proved the possibilities of greater trouble, and there was
always the danger of Russian aggression and the existence of border
warfare. In the winter of 1874, therefore, the question of a Royal tour
was seriously considered, and some correspondence passed between the
authorities concerned. To send the Heir to the Throne on such a visit
was a unique project, and there were various difficulties to overcome.
India was accustomed to visitors of the type of Alexander the Great, of
Timour, Baber, Mahmoud of Ghuznee and Nadir Shah; but a peaceful
progress of the foreign Heir to its Throne was another matter. Brief and
hasty visits to some of its Princes had been made in recent times by
Prince Adalbert of Prussia, the King of the Belgians and the Duke of
Edinburgh, but there had never been a state tour of the country with all
its accompaniments of splendour and costliness, the danger from fanatics
and