in proportion to the population than they can ever be in India, where the climate of the plains is fatal to European children, and where there is comparatively little land upon the hills; while in Ceylon the coffee-tracts, which are mountainous and healthy, form a sensible proportion of the whole lands of the island. It is true that the press, when once completely in the planters' hands, may advocate their interests at the expense of those of the natives, but in the case of Queensland we have seen that this is no protection to the planters against the inquisitive home eye, which would be drawn to India as it has been to Queensland by the reports of independent travellers, and of interested but honest missionaries.

The infamies of the foundation of the indigo-plantations in Bengal, and of many of the tea-plantations in Assam, in which violence was freely used to make the natives grow the selected crop, and in some cases the land actually stolen from its owners, have gone far to make European settlement in India a by-word among the friends of the Hindoo; but it is clear that an efficient police would suffice to restrain these illegalities and hideous wrongs. It might become advisable in the interest of the natives to provide that not only the officers, but also the subofficers and some constables of the police, should be Europeans in districts where the plantations lay, great care being taken to select honest and fearless men, and to keep a strict watch on their conduct.

The two great securities against that further degradation of the natives which has been foretold as a result of the expected influx of Europeans are the general teaching of the English language, and the grant of perfect freedom of action (the Government standing aloof) to missionaries of every creed under heaven. The bestowal of the English tongue upon the natives will give the local newspapers a larger circulation among them than among the planter classes, and so, by the powerful motive of self-interest, force them to the side of liberty; while the honesty of some of the missionaries and the interest of others will certainly place the majority of the religious bodies on the side of freedom. It is needless to say that the success of a policy which would be opposed by the local press and at the same time by the chief English Churches is not an eventuality

about which we need give ourselves concern, and it is therefore probable that on the whole the encouragement of European settlement upon the plains would be conducive to the welfare of the native race.

That settlement or colonization would make our tenure of India more secure is very doubtful, and, if certain, would be a point of little moment. If, when India has passed through the present transition stage from a country of many peoples to a country of only one, we cannot continue to rule her by the consent of the majority of her inhabitants, our occupation of the country must come to an end, whether we will or no. At the same time, the union of interests and community of ideas which would rise out of well-ordered settlement would do much to endear our Government to the great body of the natives. As a warning against European settlement as it is, every Englishman should read the drama "Nil Darpan."

During my stay at Simla, I visited a pretty fair in one of the neighbouring valleys. There was much buffoonery and dancing -among other things, a sort of jig by a fakeer, who danced himself into a fit, real or pretended; but the charm of this, as of all Hindoo gatherings, lay in the colour. The women of the Punjaub dress very gaily for their fêtes, wearing tight-fitting trousers of crimson, blue, or yellow, and a long thin robe of white, or crimson-grounded Cashmere shawl. Bracelets and anklets of silver, and a nose-ring, either huge and thin, or small and nearly solid, complete the dress.

At the fair were many of the Goorkhas (of whom there is a regiment at Simla), who danced, and seemingly enjoyed themselves immensely; indeed, the natives of all parts of India, from Nepaul to the Deccan, possess a most enviable faculty of amusement, and they say that there is a professional buffoon attached to every Goorkha regiment. Their full-dress is like that of the French chasseurs à pied, but in their undress uniform of white, the trousers worn so tight as to wrinkle from stretching these dashing little fellows, with their thin legs, broad shoulders, bullet heads, and flat faces, look extremely like a corps of jockeys. A general inspecting one of these regiments once said to the colonel: "Your men are small, sir." "Their pay is small, sir !" growled the colonel, in a towering passion.

There were unmistakeable traces of Buddhist architecture in the little Hindoo shrine. Of the Chinese pilgrimages to India. in the Buddhist period there are many records yet extant, and one of these, we are told, relates how, as late as the fourteenth century, the Emperor of China asked leave of the Delhi ruler to rebuild a temple at the southern base of the Himalayas, inasmuch as it was visited by his Tartar people.

CHAPTER IX.

THE GAZETTE.

Or all printed information upon India, there is none which, either for value or interest, can be ranked with that contained in the Government Gazette, which during my stay at Simla was published at that town, the Viceroy's Council having moved there for the hot weather. Not only are the records of the mere routine business interesting from their variety, but almost every week there is printed along with the Gazette a supplement, which contains memoranda from leading natives or from the representatives of the local governments upon the operations of certain customs, or on the probable effects of a proposed law, or similar communications. Sometimes the circulars issued by the Government are alone reprinted, "with a view to elicit opinions," but more generally the whole of the replies are given.

It is difficult for English readers to conceive the number and variety of subjects upon which a single number of the Gazette will give information of some kind. The paragraphs are strung together in the order in which they are received, without arrangement or connexion. "A copy of a treaty with his Highness the Maharajah of Cashmere" stands side by side with a grant of three months' leave to a lieutenant of Bombay Native Foot; while above is an account of the suppression of the late murderous outrages in the Punjaub, and below a narrative of the upsetting of the Calcutta mails into a river near Jubbelpore. "A khureta from the Viceroy to his Highness the Rao Oomaid Singh Bahadoor" orders him to put down crime in his dominions, and the humble answer of the Rao is printed, in which he promises to do his best. Paragraphs are given to "the floating dock at Rangoon ;" "the disease among mail horses;"

"the Suez canal;" "the forests of Oude;" and "polygamy among the Hindoos." The Viceroy contributes a "note on the administration of the Khetree chieftainship;" the Bengal Government sends a memorandum on "bribery of telegraph clerks," and the Resident of Kotah an official report of the ceremonies attending the reception of a vicerega khureta restoring the honours of a salute to the Maha Rao of Kotah. The khureta was received in state, the letter being mounted alone upon an elephant magnificently caparisoned, and saluted from the palace with 101 guns. There is no honour that we can pay to a native prince so great as that of increasing his salute; and, on the other hand, when the Guicowar of Baroda allows a suttee, or when Jung Bahadoor of Nepaul expresses his intention of visiting Paris, we punish them by docking them of two guns, or abolishing their salute, according to the magnitude of the offence.

An Order in Council confers upon the High Priest of the Parsees in the Deccan, "in consideration of his services during the mutiny of 1857," the honorary title of "Khan Bahadoor." A paragraph announces that an official investigation has been made into the supposed desecration by Scindia and the Viceroy of a mosque at Agra, and that it has been found that the place in question was not a mosque at all. Scindia had given an entertainment to the Viceroy at the Taj Mahal, and supper had been laid out at a building in the grounds. The native papers

said the building was a mosque, but the Agra officials triumphantly demonstrated that it had been used for a supper to Lord Ellenborough after the capture of Cabool, and that its name meant "Feast-place." "Report on the lighthouses of the Abyssinian coast;""Agreement with the Governor of Leh,' Thibet, in reference to the trans-Himalayan caravans; the promotion of one gentleman to be "Commissioner of Coorg," and of another to be "Superintendent of the teak forests of Lower Burmah;" "Evidence on the proposed measures to suppress the abuses of polyandry in Travancore and Cochin (by arrange ment with the Rajah of Travancore);"" Dismissal of Policeman Juggernauth Ramkam-Oude division, No. 11 company-for gross misconduct ;" "Report on the Orissa famine;" "Plague in Turkey;" "Borer insects in coffee plantations;" "Presents