Life In India

'JL'íie ntiít dáy. 1 laadecl at the City of Palaoes, and snoííl.f nffoí'wnf d had an audience with the Marqutó erf ïïastingf, Governor General and Comuiandcf-inOhiof of India, to whom I brought letters froin his nioce, Lady Williara Rus Selí, 5ííi Cook, of Holkhain, Lord Lauderdale, AtíA ÍjotA Holland. These Sërved me in gooit steekly íof thore bapitneA id fre a vncancy on LI personal staff, to wulöü 7 wiw immediately appointed. Tlie followiiig week I accompanied Lord Hastings to hit ootintry seat at Barrackpore to take rny tnrn o de-camp iu waiting. We dined at 4 ín the aitemoon. After diuner two phaetons, each drawn by four white horses, ame to the doof. On one slde üêtê iit ianed seveii elephants, gaudily capariaoned, especüwtjy öne destiued to carry the "Lord Sahiij," whieh bore f ha tktè of bhadur (general), and had " a Uvery atir gaudy than its fellowe." On a word frorn the iitóhwi,the bakadur went on all fours to receivo lis tod. A laddev was placed against its side J Lord tf(3tiig! ascended and bado me seat myself beaiaö bbi My flrst rid was not altogether agreööbls. The equilateral movement of the aaimül in its walk too much resembled that of a ship in a heavy swell. I remember be)ag strufik with the beauty of an airplaiit which foïniod a succession of fesió'onS over tíur ÍLeads The elephant wati oíílTed to gather it for me. The delicate manneï Iti ■S'Weli it separated the tender parasite from tho tree with its trunk could not have been outdone by the most delicate of human fingers. One evening my attention was arrested íy ths behavior of the elephant that was to cafry tlo Gorornor General. It would not stand stlll íor a moment, but kept constantly shaking tlio little ornamental bells of its hawdan-cloih. On inquiry I found that, the :bahadnr" being indisponed, this animal supplied its píase, and that ita contortions arose ffoni the ploasure it feit at the gaudiness of its appaiCl, When I appronched the conceited bea3Í it was making a oiiïe ith its tronk liko the purring of a cat. 1 üScd sieatiy to enjoy thes elephantine rides. li -ff gratifying to a youngster to be on terms of liwniliar iníeíK'WHe with a man who, as a soldier, orator, óf sttisman, has been before the world for nearlp half a century. On public occasions Lord Hasflngo was ihe most stately of human beings ; yoti then eaw only' the haughty ruler over a hunured aiid od millions of fellowcreatures ; but tetë-a-let9 in a howdah he was totally different, woüld talk freely on all subjects, and make no secret of bis disputes with the East India rectors, wbo were everything in his eyes brtt his " tnuch approved and esteemed i good ma8ters." But the subject that most interested mo was his military life, beginning from 1?79, when, as Francis Bawdon, Captain of grenadiers, he had two bullets through his cip at tho battleof Bunker Hill, up to 1817, when br straiegically concentrating the armies of Bengal, Madras, and Bombay, on a given spot en a giren day, ho annihilated the Pindarreefi and wholly verted the power of the Mahrattas. There was one subject in which the General and his aid-de-camp took a common interest--- we were both enthusiastic admirers of Shakespeare. As we were tolerably well up in otJf ruthor, we used to recite to each other out' favorite passages, and occasionally with such emphasis thac I often wondered what the mahout must havo thought of our seeming altercations. Like Horace Walpole, Lord Hastings was a stont apologist for Eichard III., and differed from the view that his favorite bard bas taken of his charactor. He contended that Eichard was to bo judged by the moral standard of the age in which he lived, and not by ours ; that his humanity was on a par with that of Edward IV., nd that in his short reign of King he did much to niitigato the tyranical measnres of bis eider brother. I was amused to hear him defend Richard for cutting off the head of his anceetor - the Lord flastings of that day. He thought that self-preervation fully