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shaped his policy in India in accordance with the opinions of the coming Premier. Our native friends, you will observe, prophesied the defeat of the Liberal party in 1874 pretty shrewdly. I have not had occasion lately to read their writings as much as I did then, so that I cannot tell you if they were equally right in their predictions of the result of this year's elections.

For want of sufficient time I must pass over several Hindoo and Mussulman gentlemen of the North-Western Provinces, such as the Nawab of Rampore, Raja Deonarain Singh, Raja Dilsookh Rai, and the blind Tehsildar, Chowbey Gemsham Doss, whom I should like to have mentioned, but I must spare a few minutes to remind you how much we owe to the loyalty and ability of many distinguished natives of the Punjab-our most recent acquisition in India. Si: Sahib Dyal was a Sikh. He was one of the advisers of the Maharaja Runjeet Sing, by whom he was much valued, and he became a faithful subject of the British Government after the Punjab was annexed. I made his acquaintance when I was in India, and before my time he had served as a member of the Legislative Council of the Viceroy. Sir Sahib Dyal was constantly consulted by the Punjab Government. His advice, at a critical moment at Lahore during the mutiny, was followed with the best results. In common with almost all native statesmen and the best of the English officers in India, he was much opposed to direct taxation. When, on one occasion, a licence tax was put on which was very unpopular, he came and said, 'How much do you want?' On his receiving an answer he replied, Put a little more duty on salt; the people will not feel it or even know it, and there will be no dissatisfaction, and there will be no trouble.' I mention this to show you how differently a native who thoroughly knows his fellow-countrymen regards questions of taxation from many people who discuss Indian financial questions at home-from an English point of view. Sirdar Nehal Sing was a Sikh of good family, whom Lord Lawrence kept with him as a kind of aide-de-camp during the whole of the Mutiny. He was a soldier, trustworthy and faithful, and his advice was of the utmost value upon military, as was Sir Sahib Dyal's upon civil, affairs.17

Men well worthy to be ranked with these arose in the same times among the Mussulmans of the frontier-Nawab Foujdar Khan, for instance, who was the right hand man of Sir Herbert Edwards. Through him the levies were raised which kept Moolraj at bay till our regular troops arrived on the scene. And of the same family of Mooltan Pathans is the Newab Sir Ghulam Hussan Khan, whose name you may remember as having been sent with letters to the Ameer of Cabul before the beginning of the late war. He raised a regiment of horse at the time of the Mutiny, which he commanded himself, served with it in Oude, and defeated three of the mutinous cavalry regiments in a

"I am indebted to Sir Robert Montgomery for these particulars.

fair fight in the open. These two Mussulman noblemen served the Indian Government with ability and fidelity as British envoys at the Court of the Ameer of Cabul.

We have now arrived at the frontier of India, and I have finished the observations which I have to make to you. To me the work has been a labour of love, for no man could have filled the position which has fallen to my lot in India without carrying home with him a sincere affection for the people. You may think, perhaps, that my descriptions have been pitched in a key of monotonous panegyric. To this I would reply that I have no sympathy with those biographers who think it is their duty to lay bare, with scrupulous fidelity, every defect in the character of the men whose lives they write. I know well enough that there are native princes in India whose habits will not bear investigation. I know that there are dissolute and spendthrift nobles in India as well as in England; that there are conceited youths there who bring ridicule upon the educated natives; that commercial morality is not universal there any more than it is here; that there are indifferent regiments in the native armies; and that the common people in India, as in England, have their faults as well as their virtues. But I can honestly say that not a word you have heard from me is, to the best of my belief, either exaggerated or untrue.

I must ask leave to make one other remark. My subject to-night has been the Natives of India. It would have occupied fully as much again of your time if I had attempted to give you a sketch of the good work which your own countrymen have done in India; and the theme would have been as congenial to me as that which I have chosen. If I have succeeded at all in enlisting your sympathies in favour of the natives of India, you must not forget that their peace and prosperity is due, under God, to the devotion of your own countrymen, the soldiers and statesmen who have pacified and ruled India; and, I will venture to add, that not a man of those among them whose names will be recorded in the list of Indian worthies has not felt and expressed sympathy and affection for the natives of that country.

To conclude. What impression do I wish you to carry away in your minds? Are you to leave this hall with nothing but a vague recollection of names unfamiliar to Birmingham and the Midland counties? Have you yourselves no duties to perform to the magnificent empire, the extent of which may perhaps have been brought more forcibly before you than ever before by the variety of the races and classes which I have rapidly sketched to-night? In what manner is the power of the people of England-greater now than it has ever been in the history of this country-to be exercised in respect of India ?

It is sometimes said that Indian questions had better not be discussed in Parliament. If this means that such questions should not, upon ordinary occasions, be brought to the front in the political conflicts of the day, I should heartily agree. But if it be contended that the people and the Parliament of England ought to view with

indifference the conduct of affairs in India, I altogether dispute the position. However enlightened it may be, the Government of India is a despotic Government; but, to use the words of a great English statesman, A Minister of the Crown will not sanction acts which he cannot defend in Parliament. Thus silently, but effectually, the spirit of the British Constitution has pervaded India, and the most absolute despotism has been qualified and tempered by the genius of representative government.' is

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It is therefore your duty as citizens not to neglect the affairs of India, and it is the duty of Parliament to discuss those affairs from time to time as occasions arise, not in minute detail, indeed, but upon broad principles.

From what I have said to-night, I hope you will have gathered that the principles of sound Indian administration are not far to seek. They rest upon the foundation of justice and common-sense. Our dealings with the native princes must be strictly governed by the treaties and engagements which we have made with them. must show our sympathy with the nobles and educated classes, and associate them with us as much as we can in the government of their country; we must cherish and reward our native soldiers and officers; we must rule the people with patience, remembering how far they are removed from ourselves in education; and we must be cautious and deliberate in the introduction of changes in their institutions and habits.

Above all, we must keep India at peace. Do not listen to those irresponsible writers who try to frighten you by the idea that India is in danger of attack. Do not be led astray by the vague word 'prestige' to embark in a criminal rivalry with Russia for the supremacy of Central Asia. I am giving you the advice of responsible politicians of all political parties when they speak in their sober senses. Remember Lord Beaconsfield's wise words that ́Asia is large enough for the destinies of both Russia and England.' 19 Recollect Lord Salisbury's advice, when you are disturbed by timid counsels, to consult your large maps. Rely upon it that, so long as India is governed well-so long as its revenues are husbanded, and the surplus applied to the development of its magnificent resources— so long as its princes are loyal, its armies are true, and its people contented-you may laugh at the prophecies of danger from without. Beware of those who, for some plausible reason or another, are constantly urging us to extend the limits of the Indian Empire of the Queen, notwithstanding our solemn pledges. Believe me, it is large enough, and carries with it responsibilities serious enough now to task to the utmost the powers of its rulers. And there is one simple test which you may safely apply to all Indian questions. Never forget that it is our duty to govern India, not for our own profit and advantage, but for the benefit of the natives of India. NORTHBROOK.

18 Lord Russell in Correspondence and Memorials of C. J. Fox, ii. 254.
19 May 5, 1876. Hansard, vol. ccxxix., p. 138.

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MILITARY ball, given in the Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh, by theth Hussars, was drawing to its close, as well it might, seeing it was nearly five o'clock A.M., on a March morning some fifteen years ago.

The bulk of the guests had departed; and most of the men who remained had settled down to supper in earnest. Only about twenty couples occupied the ball-room. They were dancing about the sixth extra waltz to the strains of the Soldaten Lieder,' or 'The Guards.' These were the favourite waltzes of the time, German and English respectively, if our memory serves us.

We need only draw attention to one pair of the dancers, who are flying from end to end of the room. Lurches' and 'roils,' and such abominations, were then unknown; and the fashionable step was the swift, smooth trois temps. The man, whose name was Simpson, was a well-built, handsome young fellow of five-and-twenty, about six feet, one in height, with fair hair cut close, and a very slight trace of whisker. He had once rejoiced in a small silky moustache; but that, alas! had been ruthlessly shaved off on his passing at the Bar a year before, professedly in order to enable the judges to watch the play of his mouth-a useless sacrifice, as it may at once be admitted that they never got a chance of doing so. He had the shoulders of an athlete, and the fresh face of a boy unmarked by care—or thought.

His partner was a little above the middle height. She was certainly pretty, but what you admired most in her was her unmistakably ladylike manner, and her open straightforward look, which was absolutely free from affectation. Men used to say that what they liked in Miss Burton was that she never flirted with them; but we are not sure that they escaped any the more heart-whole on that account. She had a small neat head, and her hair, a light brown, was arranged as closely as the fashion would permit. To complete the list of her charms, she was a first-rate dancer and an heiress.

After two or three turns the pair settled comfortably at one end of the room for about the twentieth time that night.

Meantime two young men were standing near the door watching the dancers.

"I do wish that Wally Simpson would give up his spooning for to-night, and come home,' said one.

'My dear fellow, if you had a chance of 200,000l. you would not be in such a hurry to go home,' replied the other.

'You don't say that old Burton will cut up--”

• Hush!'

The clank of spurs was heard just behind them, and the Colonel of the Hussars was seen coming from the supper-room, accompanied by a civilian of about fifty years of age. The latter was a tall, thin gentlemanly man, with carefully cut and trimmed grey hair, whiskers and moustache. His complexion was pallid (impolite people would have said inclined to yellow-he called it ivory). He had a long aquiline nose, with a peculiar droop at the tip, which gave his face a querulous pained expression, as if he had just detected and strongly disapproved of some objectionable smell. It also made him look the least thing like a vulture; and this night his supper, or something else, had caused a tuft of hair to stand up on the top of his head, which kept up the illusion.

A set of very fine young fellows, Colonel! Ah! if it had not been for the claims of property and matrimony I might have been in your place now. May you never know the cares of property, Colonel; and, whatever you do, never marry an Earl's daughter!"

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Good night, Mr. Burton,' said the Colonel, who had evidently had enough of his guest; very glad to have met you.' Mr. Burton would not take the hint.

Talking of your young fellows, what a lot they were in my day! There was Travers-Lord Travers, I mean; and Billy Billcombenow Sir William Billcombe; and Dolly Tremens-I mean Lord Adolphus Tremens; and-myself. I fear we were just a little fast

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Good night, Mr. Burton,' said the Colonel, escaping.

Mr. Burton, left thus abruptly, drew himself up in a dignified manner, examined himself critically in a mirror, adjusted his stock, and then proceeded slowly round the room, lifting his feet in cavalry fashion, as if he still wore spurs. Truth to tell, he had supped unusually often and well that night.-Was it not his old regiment? and this was the reason why his daughter had been allowed to remain so long.

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Where is my girl?' he asked solemnly. At last he detected her and Simpson in their corner, and made for them. But they were too quick for him, and were off at once. He caught them at last by the simple expedient of calling out in a voice of thunder as they whirled past, 'Alice, my girl, come home!'

So home they went. Alice Burton judiciously did not trouble her father that night (he sang in the cab on the way home-a thing unprecedented in her experience); but next morning she told him that Charlie Simpson had proposed to her, and that she had accepted him.

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She called him Charlie. He was variously known. To some he was Simpson, to cricketers C. W. Simpson, and to his intimate friends and admirers Wally.' What vast potentialities underlie initials! That W. might have stood for Wiggins, but it did not; it stood for Waldegrave a fancy name given him by his mother's desire, and by which, it may be mentioned, Mr. Burton condescended to call him.

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