seven and eight o'clock. If the illuminations of this old Castle should be as fine a sight as I expect there can never be anything more imposing than their arrival by the Glen of the Onnashad."

The Duke of Devonshire also inserts a copy of the following letter which the Duchess on this occasion wrote to her mother, Lady Carlisle :

"It was dark soon after Cahir; it is wild and anxious driving. The post-boy was off once, twice the traces broke. At some distance from

this place an an outrider met us and a running footman, who with a lantern displayed the worst part of the road, where he said a man and horse from Tipperary had rolled down. There was little life left in me except that which made me conscious there was some danger. When, emerging from darkness, there was suddenly a vision so bright and beautiful. It was gone and appeared again. How shall I tell you of it: an outline which looked like Heidelberg, every window bathed in light. The effect of the light among the ivy and the grey old walls was beautiful, and at the door that dearest, greatest Duke, that most puissant Prince, your own, kindest brother. I cannot say how touched I was at his giving at his giving us this beautiful thing to see, I am only grieved that more did not see it. The whole population was out, and we crossed the bridge amidst great cheering and then entered the Castle of Lismore."

The Duke also quotes the following note, which his niece wrote to him after her departure:

"I must not leave Ireland without telling you again and again how much my heart swells when I think of you. It is not only in the County of Waterford (where people told me they could not stop short of loving you), but here in this neighbourhood

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your more than kindness, your great hospitality, your warming coolnesses and healing feuds are known and felt as they should be."

2

"This was written from Carton,"1 adds the Duke, "where she said Lord Otho ought not to have looked surprised when she told him of her having danced. And so he ought not, for though this lovely grandmother of twelve children is growing rather large, she moves with such dignity that nothing can have better appearance than her dancing. She saw a pretty ball here of 125 of my best neighbours, who one and all were in raptures with both mother and daughter. The former retains a freshness and a bloom of youth which are quite remarkable."

When my brother in 1851 succeeded Lord Palmerston at the Foreign Office he appointed me his précis-writer. I was glad to serve under him, and should have been still more so if I could have been of any use to him, but I found my duties decidedly irksome, as they consisted in copying a number of dry despatches, chiefly concerning the Schleswig-Holstein question, which neither I nor indeed many Englishmen could unravel. I shudder to think that the two principal Liberal statesmen of the day, Lord Palmerston and Lord John Russell, should have strongly advocated our engaging on behalf of Denmark in a war with Germany. We were saved from this calamity by the good sense of the rest of the Cabinet, backed up by Queen Victoria and her husband.

1 The residence of the Duke of Leinster.

'Lord Otho Fitzgerald, the second son of the Duke of Leinster, who afterwards married Lady Londesborough.

INDIA

1850-51

"Il y a des périodes du passé qui me semblent des songes. Je ne puis croire quelquefois que je sois celui qui ait fait ceci, ait été là."-JACQUEMONT, Correspondance pendant son voyage dans l'Inde.

I

CANNOT undertake to recapitulate the momentous changes which have taken place in India since I visited it. The record of all the improvements, as described by the late Sir William Hunter, is one of which Englishmen may well be proud. The blessings we have conferred on the inhabitants of that vast dominion entitle us to their gratitude, and I hope are more and more recognised by them.

The facilities of travel in India are now infinitely greater than they were fifty years ago. There were then no roads except in the neighbourhood of large towns. During the greater part of our journey we were carried by men in palanquins, which were called "palkees," or we rode on horses, or sometimes on camels or elephants. There were no inns, only rest-houses, which afforded nothing but shelter. On the other hand, we were hospitably received in the houses of Europeans, even

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when we had no letters of introduction, and some of our hosts were men who had distinguished themselves in various capacities. There were then few tourists in India, and strangers fresh from England, who interrupted the monotony of AngloIndian life, were welcome guests. We were also treated with much civility by some of the native grandees, who were perhaps stimulated thereto by hearing of the rank and wealth of one of our party.

On my return to England I had some talk with Lord Canning, who was not then aware that he would be ever called upon to govern India, but already took a great interest in that country. Among other questions he asked me whether I was in favour of the annexation of Oude. I replied that I did not know enough of Indian politics to form an opinion, but from what I had seen of the condition of the inhabitants of Oude, compared with that of the people in our own territories, and having witnessed something of the disreputable Court at Lucknow, I could not help wishing that its annexation might be decided on.

The impression I derived during our rapid journey through a great portion of India was that the people did not suffer from such abject poverty as in many places in Europe. This, of course, chiefly arises from their easier conditions of life, no fuel being needed except for cooking, food being inexpensive, the need of clothing slight, and very little required in the way of a house. "Man

wants but little here below" applies much more to them than to the inhabitants of colder regions.

There is a theory of much importance with regard to the future prospects of India put forward by the late Duke of Argyll, the late Sir William Hunter and other men of ability, which I cannot accept. They held that such calamities as war, epidemics and famine acted as checks to population, and that the mitigation or cessation of those evils under our rule has brought about its undue increase and thereby impoverished the people.

I cannot conceive a more dreadful notion than the one that the better you govern a country the more wretched it will be, and that such terrible scourges as those I have mentioned are blessings in disguise. This would lead us, as a logical inference, to relax all efforts to overcome them.

Luckily this theory is erroneous and founded on a mistaken view of the laws which regulate the growth of population. This growth follows the increase of the means of subsistence, and does not precede it. As the population of India has of late years greatly increased, there must have been great increase of production, and such has been the case. The main causes of this increase have been improved cultivation, extensive systems of irrigation, conversion of jungle into arable land, and, in a less degree, the destruction of wild beasts throughout most parts of the country, not to mention the construction of railways and the great increase of trade and manufactures. The