SUCCESSOR TO LORD DALHOUSIE
Buckingham Palace, 19th June 1855.
The Queen has received Mr Vernon Smith's letter on the subject of Lord Dalhousie's resignation and the appointment of a successor. She was somewhat astonished that the name of a successor to that most important appointment should for the first time be brought before her after all official steps for carrying it out had been completed. If the selection should now not receive the Queen's approval, it is evident that great awkwardness must arise.60
Footnote 60: Mr Vernon Smith, in reply, referred to the statutory power then existing of the Directors of the East India Company to nominate a Governor-General, subject to the approbation of the Crown.
Queen Victoria to Mr Vernon Smith.
Buckingham Palace, 20th June 1855.
The Queen received Mr V. Smith's letter yesterday evening after her return from Chatham. She readily acquits him of any intentional want of respect towards her, or of any neglect in going through the prescribed forms with regard to the appointment in question, neither of which she meant to insinuate by her letter. But she does not look upon the question as one of form. She takes a deep and natural interest in the welfare of her Indian Empire, and must consider the selection of the fittest person for the post of Governor-General as of paramount importance. She had frequently discussed this point with Lord Palmerston, but the name of Lord Canning never occurred amongst the candidates alluded to. The Queen is even now quite ignorant as to the reasons and motives which led to his selection in preference to those other names, and Mr V. Smith will see at once that, were the Queen inclined to object to it, she could not now do so without inflicting a deep, personal injury on a public man, for whose personal qualities and talents the Queen has a high regard.
She accordingly approves the recommendation, but must repeat her regret that no opportunity had been given to her to discuss the propriety of it with her Ministers previous to the intention of the recommendation becoming known to all concerned in it.