Show T T MEANING OF THE DURBAR 1 YvHiat the Iilagniflccnt Spectacles at Delhi Signify I was present at the Delhi durbar In the year 1ST7 nnd ns reminiscence Is one of the consolations If not one of the virtues of age I should like to trouble you with a few observations on thut great historic event That great Oriental pageant was the creation of the Semitic mind It originated origi-nated with Lord Deacouslldil the Prime Minister of England and was carried out by his Secretary for India then Lord Salisbury strictly In accordance with the Prime Ministers wishes It Is well known that Lord ttenconsfleld had hoped to make Queen Victoria Empress of Gicat Britain But the British people thought such a title contrary to constitutional consti-tutional government The case was otherwise with regard to India The title was singularly = suitable and the Prime Minister wild lie hud discovered that In certain almanacs the Queen had already been styled Empress of India I He set about to make her one In great earnest The good old Queen who was always Imperial In her conceptions of things was Immensely Haltered Lord Beaconsllcld rose In favor For Such a distinctively poetic conception concep-tion of Imperial rule In India It I was necessary to have a poet Viceroy and so It came to pass that the author of Lucile wai Intrusted with all the details of the great Imperial durbar at Delhi He was made Viceroy for this very purpose and not to lljrht the Ar I glmns This Is Important as a distinction distinc-tion because It has been said that If Lord BcaconHlleld was distinguished for l his knowledge of men why did he send out a man of Lord Lyttons stamp to fight Russia In Cabul It was never l contemplated It was hoped that an Imperial durbar at Delhi would settle ont and for all Englands prestige in Asia A suitable Persian title must be found to express the English word Emperor A wide search wan made and It wan found that all the emperors had claimed the title of ShahunShaht or king of kings 1 It was a title which the native mind was accustomed to But nn objection objec-tion was raised by = the bishop of Calcutta Cal-cutta who culled attention to tho fact that In the Hindustani prayerbooks Ills term was appllcdi to the Almighty In the prayer for tin Queen Dr Loitner an AngloUerman educationalist educa-tionalist and tho founder of the Punjab Oriental university wine to the t rescue lie suggested the title of Kalsar1 Ulnd or the Caesar of Hindustan The title commended itself I to every one and almost every = one hUH claimed to be the originator of Itl But the credit be longs exclusively to my old friend the lute Dr Leltner and to no one else Then an Imperial salute had to be fixed Tho ordinary royal = salute ort or-t wen t > onc guns was given to certain native Princes such ns the Xlsam 1 of I Hyderabad the Rajah of Mysore and the Maharajah of Cnshinir and so a i great Imperial salute of 101 guns wo assigned to the Viceroy What a blaming blam-ing away of powder there wa Each of 1 the fortytwo native rules entered Delhi under salute ranging from nine to twen tyone guns Then nil the high English oillclals Secretaries of Stale Governors Govern-ors and commissioners had their share of powder 1 Hut the native Princes liked It How well do r 1 remember the Intense delight of a great Rajah as he entered Delhi on a splendid charger at the bend of some magniiicent troops as his twentyone = guns were booming The whole Anglo olllcial community laughed at It and there was homethliiRr In Owen Meredith Mere-dith the poet Viceroy the little man li uniform on the great golden elephant to excite the risibility of his brother Britishers But there were 50000000 natives of India from PoHlmwur to Cape Comorln who did not laugh but who said It was a revival of the days of Ale hilI the Great Yen Little Bobs was there He w sIt s-It man of no account But he performed his duties as QimilcrmastcrCieneral Ito I with satisfaction to every = one He had to too that every = one had tents and boots Bud knapsacks nu < l awords The commissary department topi care of the rest He was only a Colonel And no one for a moment dreamed that this little man who hustled from camp to camp would In time be Field Marshal Earl Roberts K G the greatest of English Generals Wellington excluded There were men In that camp such as John Watson V C and Sam Brown V C of whom this may have been predicted I pre-dicted but not Roberts I It Is almost Impossible for the average aver-age American to realize what this Imperial Im-perial durbar at Delhi means British India and the United States are so different dif-ferent In their whole makeup Tho great native Princes of India some of whom have large standing armies would not care two straws about a Brooklyn bridge over the Chenab or a rapid transit through the Afghan hills but they do care about their historic dignity and their stale Independence And this Is what the Imperial durbar of JS77 assured them and this Is I what the imperial durbar of 1003 conllrms No matter who rules England Queen Victoria or King Edward or King George the great rulers of the native stales will still retain their royal rank and arc ns much a part of the British empire as the Lord Mayor of London and Gen D wet The Independent state rule of India Is as closely bound up with the Interest of the empire ua In dopomlcnt state rule Is csaentlul In the United States of America Tho expense of this durbar is enormous enor-mous But It gives employment to Jiuii i dress of thousand and the great Rn JfthB Sultana Xlzams GUI < wRrs Na wab and Ameer art scattering gifts at Delhi at the present time as freely aa a dlvinu Providence given rain In its season In fact it Is Impossible to catalogue all that this Imperial durbar does give But In the concrete it assures as-sures a population of about 300000000 people In India of everything which Mr Chamberlain IK endeavoring to 1m pre rs upon the lesser millions of South Africa namely thnt the Imperial l rule of Great Britain Is firm stable and enduring en-during It IH a notable Incident In this durbar that the Duke of Connaught although he la a royal Prince and represents the King of England ranks below the Viceroy Vice-roy who In his person represents the Emperor of India I Only twentyone guns of explosives are exrwnilcl l on Prince Arthur and his royal Princess while 101 honor the presence of Lord Curzon and his American wife I have often been asked how it Is that 75000 Britishers keep in check 300000 000 people somo of whom are the finest tioldlers In the world My reply Is that If carefully studied the answer will be found In the Intensely cosmopolitan and democratic condition of this Delhi durbar dur-bar Fellow of the Punjab Oriental University in Chicago InterOcean I |