ABSTRACT
In this review of a biography of the Viceroy John Lawrence by R. Bosworth Smith (1839–1908), Eastwick (1814–1883), a Conservative diplomat, puts the full blame for the disaster in Orissa on Lawrence’s shoulders, because he was the supreme authority in India. However, the line of mild defence is that Lawrence was perhaps too old and tired for this position and thus bungled the whole affair; likewise, in other articles and speeches as seen above, though Beadon is faulted for the disaster, his bad health is brought up to somehow mitigate his trips to the mountains to get away from the heat, thus avoiding dealing with the disaster as well. The discussion of Lawrence and Orissa is short but blunt.260
