UFE OF THE EIOHT HON.
ALFRED COMYN LYALL
K.CB, G.CJ.E. D,ai., LL.D.

SIR MORTIMER. ©URAND

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Life of the Right Hon.
Sir Alfred Comyn Lyall

FROM THE PORTRAIT BY J. J. SHANNON, R.A., 1890.

Life of the Right Hoii.
Sir Alfred Comyn Lyall
P.C, K.C.B., G.C.LE., D.C.L., LL.D.

BY

SIR MORTIMER DURAND

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS

William Blackwood and Sons
Edinburgh and London
1913

PEEFACE.

This Memoir has been undertaken at the request
of Lady Lyall and Sir Alfred Lyall's family, who
have placed at my disposal his diaries and papers.
In preparing it I have avoided almost entirely
the use of official documents. Though Sir Alfred
Lyall was an official for nearly fifty years, and wrote
many valuable State papers, it has seemed to me
that his life, character, and views could be suffici
ently, and best, illustrated by means of his private
letters and literary works. State papers, especially
papers on Indian questions, even if they can properly
be published, are not attractive to the majority
of readers ; and any attempt to publish such papers
would have involved writing this book upon an
unduly large scale.
The spelling of Indian names and words is always
a difficulty. A biographer has no right to tamper
with the spelling of words in the letters he quotes ;
but the forms in use fifty years ago have now in

vi PREFACE
the process of evolution become obsolete, and it would
not be desirable to revert to them. In this book,
therefore, such forms as Hindu and Hindoo, Gujar
and Goojur, will be found side by side. At the same
time I have not tried to adhere to the scientifically
correct spelling in all cases, as I found this led to
obscurity and other complications.
The illustrations have been kindly supplied by
Sir Alfred Lyall's family, who have throughout done
their utmost to help me in all ways. Some of the
portraits of him are striking likenesses, especially
the one facing page 234, which shows him as he
was from about 1875 to 1880.
I am under great obligations to his friends : to
Sir Steuart Bayley for much help given in various
ways ; to Viscount Morley of Blackburn, the Earl
of Cromer, Lord and Lady Tennyson, the Arch
bishop of Canterbury, and Miss Oakeley, for allowing
me to use letters and giving me valuable informa
tion ; to Earl Roberts, and Earl Curzon of Kedleston,
for letting me see much interesting correspondence ;
to Lord George Hamilton, M. Rene de Kerallain,
Miss Gertrude Lowthian Bell, Lady Lyttelton, the
Hon. Emily Lawless, Colonel de Kantzow, and Sir
West Ridgeway, for sending me letters and other
material ; to Edith, Countess of Lytton, for a letter
of Lord Lytton's and information about him; to
Bishop Wilkinson for writing notes of his remin-

PREFACE vii
iscences ; to Sir William Lee Warner, Mr James
Kennedy, Colonel Rivett-Carnac, and Mr Edward
Clodd, for advice on several points ; to Mr Wardlaw
Kennedy for much help about Haileybury College ;
to the Hon. Arthur Elliot, Mr W. L. Courtney,
Mr G. W. Prothero, and the Editors of 'The
Cornhill Magazine ' and ' National Review ' for en
abling me to trace Sir Alfred Lyall's articles, and
giving me information about them.
The Duchess of Rutland and Messrs Constable
have kindly authorised me to use the portrait on
page 346.
Finally, I have to thank Messrs Longmans, Green,
& Co., for permitting the republication of extracts
from an article in ' The Edinburgh Review,' and the
Editor of ' The Times,' for letting me republish a
letter addressed to him. H. M. DUEAND.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.
The Lyall Family.— 1761-1835.
The name of Lyall -well known on the Scottish border — George
Lyall, farmer, of Greystonelees, in the county of Berwick —
Builds house in Berwick, 1761 — His son, John Lyall, goes
to England, engages in shipping business, and prospers — John
Lyall's five sons — Eldest becomes Member of Parliament and
Director of East India Company — Youngest takes orders — His
character and writings — Marries Mary Broadwood — His second
son, Alfred Comyn, the subject of this memoir
CHAPTER II.
Childhood and School Days. — 1835-1852.
Alfred Lyall born at Coulsdon, 1835 — Childhood at Godmersham
Vicarage — Entered at Eton, 1845 — Early letters — Admitted
to college — School work — Dislikes mathematics — Does well in
classics — Taste for Latin verses and English poetry — No special
success in games — Not many friends — Thinks of an Indian
career — Head of Fifth Form, 1851 — Among select for Newcastle
Scholarship, 1852 — Leaves Eton .....
CHAPTER III.
Harbledown and Haileybury. — 1852-1855.
Harbledown and Haileybury — Harbledown Rectory — Visit to
Spain, April 1853 — Receives nomination to Haileybury — Life

CONTENTS
at Haileybury— No prizes, but regarded as brilliant, especially
in Latin verse— Writes for 'Haileybury Observer '—Specimens
of his verses — Germ of "Theology in Extremis » — Leaves
Haileybury, 1855 ....••"

CHAPTER IV.
First Year in India. — 1855-1856.
Sails for India, November 1855— Voyage out— Nearly lost in surf
at Madras— Lands at Calcutta, January 1856— Hospitably^ re
ceived— Elects for North- West Provinces— Passes examinations
in languages— Lord Dalhousie and Lord Canning— Starts for
North- West Provinces, May 1856 — Travelling up country —
Naini Tai in Himalayas — Posted as assistant magistrate at
Bulandshahr, September 1856— Indian administrative system .

19

28

CHAPTER V.
Before the Mutiny. — 1857.
Life at Bulandshahr — Natives and missionaries — Liking for sport —
Miscellaneous reading — The Holi festival— Horses and guns —
Death of his uncle, the Dean of Canterbury — Soldiers and
civilians in India .....•¦ 43

CHAPTER VI.
The Mutiny.— 1857-1861.
Visits to Meerut and Delhi, April 1857 — Rumours of disaffection in
Sepoy army — Pugnacious villagers — Outbreak of Mutiny, May
1857 — Massacre at Delhi — Risings in Bulandshahr — Lyall shoots
mutineer — His house burnt by rebels^Escapes to Meerut — Joins
Volunteer Cavalry — Horse killed under him — Restores order in
Bulandshahr — Measures of punishment — Natives fighting among
themselves — Lyall posted to Shahjehanpore, May 1858 — Severe
fighting — The 42nd Highlanders — Disarming the district — Dul
ness of peace times — Posted to Pilibheet, February 1860 — Tiger-
shooting — Influence of Mutiny on Lyall's character and writings 58

CONTENTS xi

CHAPTER VII.
First Furlough to England, and Second Period oe
Indian Service.— 1861-1868.
Sails for England, April 1861— Life at Harbledown — His sister
Barbara — He becomes engaged to Cora Cloete — Married,
November 1862 — Bishop Wilkinson's description of him — His
sister, Mrs Holland — Starts for India — Voyage out — Posted to
Agra — Contented with India — Cold weather in camp — Mrs
Lyall — Transferred to Central Provinces in charge of a district,
1864 — Richard Temple — The district of Hoshnngabad — Lyall
writes " The Old Pindaree " — Acting Commissioner of Nagpore,
1865 — His father's death — Temple beginning to recognise value
of his work — Occasional verses — Deputy Commissioner of Jub-
bulpore, 1867 — Commissioner of West Berar, 1867 — Akola— He
begins to be tired of Indian life — Berar Census Report, the germ
of 'Asiatic Studies '—Takes furlough, April 1868 . . 101

CHAPTER VIII.
Second Furlough and Third Period of Indian Service. —
1868-1871.
Six months in England — Publishes "Theology in Extremis,"
September 1868 — Sails for India, October 1868 — Visit to
Hyderabad, 1869— Dislike of jungles and solitude— He defends
Temple against attack — Working at Berar Gazetteer— Origin of
the Gazetteer of India — Lord Mayo succeeds Lord Lawrence —
New Viceroy visits Berar, 1870— Lyall's views about women's
rights— Writes "The Land of Regrets "—Visit to Bombay-
Furlough, April 1871  140

CHAPTER IX.
Third Furlough in England, and Fourth Period of
Indian Service.— 1871-1874.
Summer at Windsor, 1871— Winter in London — Begins to write
for 'The Fortnightly'— Henry Reeve— Grant Duff— Fitzjames
Stephen— Henry Maine— John Morley — Visits to Paris and
Manchester— Sails for India, October 1872— Sees Lord North-

xii CONTENTS
brook— Offer of Home Secretaryship, February 1873— Lyall
joins Home Department in Calcutta— Position of Indian Sec
retaries—Goes up to Simla, April 1873— Death of Rowland
Cockerell— Famine in Bengal— Arthur Hobhouse— Max Muller
and the Science of Religions, 1874— Lyall appointed Agent to
the Governor-General in Rajputana, October 1874 . . 156

CHAPTER X.
Diplomatic Work in Rajputana.— 1874-1878.
Native States of India— The Indian political service— The States
of Rajputana— Their feudal system— Life in camp— Trial of
the Gaekwar of Baroda— Jungle tribes— Mount Abu— Eton
education— More 'Fortnightly' articles— Visit of the Prince
of Wales to India, 1875-76— Lord Lytton succeeds Lord North-
brook— Lyall writes for 'The Edinburgh Review,' July 1876
—Takes leave to England, August 1876— Starts for India again,
February 1877— Returns to Mount Abu— War between Russia
and Turkey — His sympathy with Russia — Tiger-shooting —
Drought in Rajputana — Visit to Simla— Verses— Appointed
Foreign Secretary, 1878 . . . . . .177

CHAPTER XI.
The Indian Foreign Office and the Afghan War. — 1878-1881.
Work of the Indian Foreign Office — State of affairs when Lyall took
charge — Lord Lytton's policy in Afghanistan — The Lawrence
policy — Relations between Lyall and Lord Lytton — Colonel
Colley — Death of Lyall's mother — Failure of attempt to improve
relations with Afghanistan — Russian Mission in Kabul — War
with Afghanistan, November 1878 — Death of Amir — Treaty of
Gandamak, May 1879— Sandeman and the Frontier tribes —
Schools of Frontier policy — Massacre of Kabul Mission, Sep
tember 1879— Advance of General Roberts on Kabul — Lyall's
consideration for political officers — His dislike of annexing
territory — Visit to Kabul — Resignation of Lord Lytton, April
1880— Lord Ripon succeeds— Defeat at Maiwand — Lord Roberts
marches to Kandahar — Lyall's anxiety and relief — He visits
Kandahar— Made a KC.B.— Results of the war- Lyall leaves
the Foreign Office . . .... 205

CONTENTS xiii
CHAPTER XII.
Last Period of Indian Service. — 1881-1887.
Return to literature — Lyall becomes Lieutenant-Governor of the
North- West Provinces — Murder of Cavendish and Burke —
Correspondence with John Morley — The association of Indians
' with the administration — ' Asiatic Studies ' — Lord Ripon's
Indian reforms — Was Lyall suspicious? — Success of his verses
— Theosophy — Study of native opinion — The Ilbert Bill — An
understanding with Russia — Local self-government — Lord
Dufferin becomes Viceroy — The Amir comes to India — The
Panjdeh incident — The conquest of Burma— Eeview of Lyall's
Lieutenant-Governorship — Farewell to India . . 261

CHAPTER XIII.
Life in England.— 1888-1892.
Arrival in England — The Council of India — A full and busy life
— Makes many friends — Offered Governorship of the Cape —
Writes 'Warren Hastings' — Publishes book of verse — Revolt
in Manipur — Lectures at Oxford and Cambridge — Offered
Governorship of New Zealand — Indian Frontier policy — Pub
lishes 'Rise of the British Dominion in India' — Change of
Govemment — Lord Kimberley — Mr Gladstone and Mr Balfour 320

CHAPTER XIV.
1893-1903.
* The Rise of the British Dominion in India ' — Other literary work —
Home Rule Bill of 1893 — Disappointed of Viceroyalty — Serious
illness — Folklore — Visit to The Hague — Jameson Raid — The
Indian Frontier — Too old for Bombay Governorship — Second
series of ' Asiatic Studies ' — The Boer War — ' Alfred Tennyson '
— John Morley's appreciation — Privy Councillorship — Close of
official career ....... 353

xiv CONTENTS

CHAPTER XV.
1903-1906.
Life of Lord Dufferin — Great variety of occupations — Historical
Congress at Rome— Lord Curzon in India — Transcendentalism
— View about Mr Gladstone — Russia and Japan — Death of
Leslie Stephen — Visit to Edward Clodd at Aldeburgh — Signs
of failing health — Farringford ..... 395
CHAPTER XVI.
1907-1911.
Sense of lessening literary power — Begins to grow tired of social
duties — French translation of ' Asiatic Studies ' — Anglo-Russian
Convention — Variety of interests and offices — Congress of Re
ligions—Charity Organisation Society — Physical strength lessen
ing — Warning of danger — Indian reforms — Views on English
politics— Votes for Liberals, January 1910— Votes for Unionists,
December 1910— Writing for 'Edinburgh Review,' 1911—Last
days and letters — Death ...... 417

CHAPTER XVII.
Literary Work.
Enumeration of writings— Effect of official life on quantity and
quality— Truthfulness— Verses— Tennyson's opinion— Passages
quoted— Prose writings— Personality shown by them— Works
separately examined— Lyall's choice of essays for republication 459

Index

481

ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE
PROM THE PORTRAIT BT J. J. SHANNON, B.A., 1890 . Frontispiece
PINDON CHURCH. FROM A PENCIL SKETCH BT MRS LTALL, 1829 6
COULSDON RBCTORT. FROM A PENCIL SKETCH BT MRS LTALL,
JUNE 18, 1835 ...... 8
GODMERSHAM CHURCH. PROM A PENCIL SKETCH BT MRS LTALL,
1840 ....... 10
ABOUT 1861 .... . . 102
LADT LTALL  ABOUT 1862 . . 104
THE REVEREND ALFRED LTALL . 124
MRS LTALL ... ... 216
ABOUT 1880 ....... 234
1892. FROM A PENCIL SKETCH BT THB MARCHIONESS OF
GRANBT . . ... 346
ABOUT 1900 . .... 380

ALFRED COMYN LYALL.

CHAPTER I.
THE LYALL FAMILY.
1761-1835.
The name of Lyall well known on the Scottish border — George Lyall,
farmer, of Greystonelees, in the county of Berwick — Builds bouse in
Berwick, 1761 — His son, John Lyall, goes to England, engages in
shipping business, and prospera — John Lyall's five sons — Eldest
becomes Member of Parliament and Director of East India Company
— Youngest takes orders — His character and writings — Marries Mary
Broadwood — His second son, Alfred Comyn, the subject of this memoir.
For many generations the name of Lyall has been
well known on the Scottish border, especially among
the Lowland farmers, and in the middle of the eigh
teenth century one George Lyall was living at Grey
stonelees, in the county of Berwick. This is a small
farm standing on a hillside, with a beautiful outlook
over the fishing hamlet of Burnmouth and the waters
of the North Sea.
George Lyall was evidently a man of energy and
thrift, for in 1761, when he was thirty years of age,
he had saved money enough to buy a piece of land
in the Castle Gate of Berwick-on-Tweed. There he
built himself a house, which is still standing, of stone
A

2 ALFRED LYALL [i 761-1835
quarried at Greystonelees, and entered into business
as an owner of small shipping craft.
The Lyalls spelt their names in various ways, and
it is said that George Lyall had in his possession
some old family seals and rings bearing the crest of
the Lylls or Lyles, formerly owners of the castle and
Barony of Duchal in Renfrew, one of whom was killed
at Flodden. This family became extinct early in the
seventeenth century ; but George Lyall seems to have
regarded himself as belonging to the same stock, and
his descendants retained or adopted the crest and
arms. Whether there was any real connection be
tween the old-time Lyalls and Lylls is not known.
All that can be said for certain is that the Lyalls
belonged to the sturdy Border population which used
to give so much trouble to the English of the northern
counties, and has preserved so many traditions of
foray and fight.
The parish of Ayton, in which Greystonelees is
situated, bore even in the eighteenth century a pic
turesque reputation. ' The Statistical Account of
Scotland, 1791,' says of Ayton : " Tradesmen and
labourers in the village are addicted to the pernici
ous habit of using tea. Of late also the execrable
custom of dram - drinking is gaining ground even
among the women of the lower class. Habits so
inimical to health, industry, and morals ought to be
checked if possible." Up to the beginning of the
century women seem to have been burned in the
neighbourhood as witches. A later statistical ac
count, of 1845, "written by the minister, Rev. George

1761-1835] THE LYALL FAMILY 3
Tough," has the following words about Greystonelees
itself: "Here there is a pretty good set of offices,
and a thrashing-mill driven by water. Here, too,
there is reason to suspect that smuggling has been
carried on in former times. There is on this property
a place called ' Catch a penny,' well adapted for that
purpose by its retired situation on the edge of the
adjoining moor (Lamberton Moor) and immediately
above Burnmouth. It was probably so nicknamed
from its receiving a share of the booty. There was
a common saying in Eyemouth when any strange sail
was seen in the offing at night and disappeared, that
' she had gone round to Catch a penny.' "
It is possible that some of the occupants of Grey
stonelees may have abetted their countrymen in the
pernicious habit of using tea ; but the conjectures of
the minister are only conjectures, and in any case
there is nothing to connect them with George Lyall.
He died in 1801, not rich, but a man of standing
and repute, and was buried with his wife, Margaret
Nisbet, in the churchyard at Ayton.
His eldest son, John Lyall, to whom he had been
able to give a good education, but little more, came
to England and engaged in the shipping business.
This, especially during the American and French
wars, was a venturesome and exciting trade, in which
much money was lost and won. John Lyall did well
for himself, and besides a house in London he was
able to buy a small estate at Findon in Sussex, where
he settled down. He must have been a man of active
habits, for he carried on his business from Findon,

4 ALFRED LYALL [1761-1835
going backwards and forwards frequently on horse
back. It is said that he habitually covered the dis
tance to London, not much short of fifty miles, in
a morning's ride. John Lyall married Jane Comyn,
whose father, a " broken " man, of an old Scottish
family, had been out in the '45. The marriage re
sulted in a large family of children, and when John
Lyall died in 1805 he left five sons surviving him.
Of these sons the eldest, George, succeeded to the
business and the property at Findon. He became a
Director of the East India Company, and was twice
chairman. He was also twice elected a Member of
Parliament for the City of London, where he had
much influence. Another son entered the army, and
died a Lieut.-Colonel in India. A third took orders,
and, after gaining a high reputation for wit and
learning, ended as Dean of Canterbury. A fourth
was an officer in the Navy. The youngest son, born
in 1795, also took orders, and died as Rector of
Harbledown, one of the Canterbury parishes.
Of this youngest son, Alfred, it is necessary to say
something more. After being educated at Eton and
Trinity College, Cambridge, he spent several years in
study and travel, especially in Italy, where he ac
quired some knowledge of art. In 1827 he published
a book called ' Rambles in Madeira and in Portugal,'
which gives a pleasant account of men, manners, and
scenery. He is described by one of his sons as a
man of romantic tastes, and a meditative, dreamy
character. It is said that once, having wandered
into a London auction-room, he awoke from a day-

1 761-1835] THE LYALL FAMILY 5
dream to find himself the owner of a picture twelve
feet square, which he had never meant to buy, and
had no room to hang. A passage in his book of
Rambles shows his love of solitude : "I enjoy all
this much ; besides, there is a prodigious independ
ence in being alone. In the option between the
ennui of being always in society or that of being
never in it, I think we should hardly hesitate to
prefer the latter." He was an incessant reader, a
serious student of history and of philosophical works,
but also a lover of poetry. When not dreaming, or
immersed in his books, he is said to have been a
delightful companion, full of kindly wit, and he had
the reputation of being a bold rider. His absence
of mind and fondness for desultory reading had pre
vented his gaining at school or college the distinction
which his abilities seemed to promise; and but for the
urgent representations of his elder brother, the future
Dean, he might perhaps have spent his life rather
aimlessly ; but after writing a second book, ' Prin
ciples of Necessary and Contingent Truth,' which
appeared in 1830, he yielded to his brother's advice,
and took upon himself the vows of a clergyman.
Even so, though he was a convinced and faithful son
of the Church, and did much good to the people
about him, he was "broad" in his views, and the
bent of his mind was always towards literature and
philosophic study rather than towards the usual
work bf a bountty parson. He does not seem to
have written much, but he remained an omnivorous
reader and a cloSe critic of the works of others;

6 ALFRED LYALL [i 761-1835
and in 1856 he brought out a book which gained
him a certain reputation— 'Agonistes or Philosophical
Strictures.' It is an interesting book, showing re
search and earnestness of thought, but it is not
marked by any great charm of style or sense of
humour. By this time he was a man of more than
sixty, with a family of ten children, and the cares
of life had gathered upon him. He had become grave
and silent, and, though deeply affectionate, was per
haps inclined at times to take a rather stern view
of duty.
When about thirty-seven years of age he had mar
ried a girl of twenty, — Mary Broadwood, a daughter
of James Broadwood of Lyne, in Sussex. The Broad-
woods, like the Lyalls, were originally from the
Border, but they had in them some Highland blood,
and had also intermarried with the Swiss Tschudis, or
von Tschudis, a family of some distinction in literature
and diplomacy. According to her grandson, Bernard
Holland, — and the opinion is borne out by Mary
Broadwood's letters, — she was "of a quick, lively,
practical disposition, with a high ideal of life and
conduct, swift to think and see, and also to feel,
and capable therefore at times of deep depressions."
But the most striking feature of her character seems
to have been unselfishness. It was remarked about
her that she was one of the few people who were
always sincerely and warmly pleased at any success
or good fortune which came to others. She was also,
like her husband, very well read, especially in poetry;
and she shared his love of art. Active and energetic,

,«T*

FINDON CHURCH. FROM A PENCIL SKETCH BY MRS LYALL, 1829.

1 761-1 835] THE LYALL FAMILY 7
she more than once travelled with him to Italy ; and
when in England she rode with him over the Sussex
downs. Though their characters were in some points
unlike, they had many tastes in common, and the
marriage was a thoroughly happy one.
Their children were not of an ordinary type. The
second son, christened Alfred Comyn, in memory of
his father and grandmother, is the subject of this
memoir.

CHAPTER IL
CHILDHOOD AND SCHOOL DAYS.
1835-1852.
Alfred Lyall bom at Coulsdon, 1835— Childhood at Godmersham Vicarage
—Entered at Eton, 1845— Early letters— Admitted to college — School
work — Dislikes mathematics — Does well in classics — Taste for Latin
verses and English poetry — No special success in games — Not many
friends — Thinks of an Indian career— Head of Fifth Form, 1851 —
Among select for Newcastle Scholarship, 1852 — Leaves Eton.
Alfred Lyall was born on the 4th of January 1835,
at Coulsdon in Surrey, where his father was acting
as curate in charge. But his recollections of his birth
place must have been small, for when he was only
four years old his father became Vicar of Godmersham,
a secluded but beautiful village in the valley of the
Stour, a few miles from Canterbury. Here Alfred
Lyall spent his childhood, and to Godmersham he
came home for his holidays during his earlier years at
school. It was a pleasant home. The Vicarage, a little
red-brick house, lies by the roadside under the foot
of a hill, some tall lime-trees across the road almost
overhanging the house. At the back a lawn slopes
down to the stream, and beyond this is the well-
timbered rolling Kentish country. In summer the
old-fashioned garden is full of wallflower, which makes
the whole air sweet. Close by, to the right, is a pic-

^vu^-.-'

313 11"

COULSDON RECTORY. From a Pencil Sketch by Mrs Lyall, June i8, 1835.

1 845] ENTERED AT ETON 9
turesque farm, and a little farther on the old flint-
built church.
In those days boys were sent to public schools
early, and Alfred Lyall was little more than ten years
old when, following in his father's footsteps, he was
entered at Eton. He wrote his name in Dr Hawtrey's
book on the 19th May 1845. The college records
show that his tutor was Charles J. Abraham, and
his dame Miss Edgar.
Except for a few weeks, when he and his brother
used to ride over on their ponies to a master in Rye,
he had not been sent to any preparatory school ; but
he had been taught some Latin by his father, " in the
dining-room at Godmersham," and had evidently been
well grounded in other respects, for his earliest letters
from Eton show that he was soon at the top of his
form, disputing the first place with a boy of the name
of Bent.
At this time Alfred Lyall was a slight and delicate
child, with very deep coloured blue-grey eyes, — set
rather close together, — black hair, and a dark colour
less complexion. It had been noticed at his christen
ing that he was not as fine a boy as his elder brother ;
and when he grew out of his babyhood he seems to
have been troubled by various small ailments which
told on his strength. He was never robust — never,
for instance, very strong on his legs or a quick runner.
Possibly his want of vigorous health made him the
dearer to his mother, and she is said to have had for
him a peculiar tenderness of which his brothers aild
sisters were not t^holly lihconscious.

10 ALFRED LYALL [1845
But the early letters from Eton, which his mother
preserved, certainly do not show that he was suffer
ing from serious ill-health, nor often from low spirits.
They are bright letters, carelessly written, almost
wholly without stops, but well spelt and well ex
pressed for his age, and full of enjoyment.
It was a family trick to leave letters undated, so
that at times one does not find it easy to make sure
of the year to which these Eton letters belong, but
in most cases the contents and handwriting leave
little doubt.
The first, wholly undated, begins rather character
istically : " From what I have seen of Eton I like it
very much, for as papa says you have nearly as much
play as lessons." And evidently there was not much
bullying. Though generally described as a sensitive
and emotional boy, he does not seem to have been in
any way seriously tormented. Of course he has the
usual rubs of a new boy. His hat gets kicked up and
down the stairs, and a little later he writes : " Yester
day being the 29th we had a whole holiday and every
boy who has not a sprig of oak with him has a pinch
These pinches are no common ones they hurt pretty
well and a kick is generally administered with it but
not always." Such small chast enings he takes philo
sophically. His letters are always free from com
plaint. "I like Eton more and more as I stay here
for I am known pretty well now and am not much
bothered and feel it is a kind of honour to be an
Etonian." And there are cheery descriptions of the
4th of June, and of some street fights in Ascot week,

GODMERSHAM CHURCH. FROM A Pencil Sketch by Mrs Lyall, 1840.

1845] EARLY LETTERS 11
upon which he quaintly observes: "To-day has been
a day full of accidents I thank God I am not hurt."
He discovers his father's name cut on " that low wall
in front of the college," and proposes to cut his own
by it. I can find no trace of either name now. For
generations the low brick wall with its stone coping
has been the favourite seat of innumerable boys, and
the top is hollowed and polished with wear.
He learns to swim, and gets the mumps, during the
course of which he observes that " Miss Edgar has
treated me very kindly she has let me have any
thing I liked and got some spunge-cakes for me and
let me order anything reasonable I liked for dinner
I am very glad I have got so good a dame." Towards
the end of the term he writes : " This week is a jolly
week for us we have two whole holidays and one half
holiday and are excused five o'clock lessons since our
tutor is gone so we have no verses or exercise." It
does not sound like hard work, yet the letter con
tinues : " I am going to try for college this time but
I am afraid I shall not get in for there are only twelve
vacancies and twenty boys wanting to get in however
I shall do my best." About the same time he writes
to his mother : "I wrote you rather a melancholy
letter last time but I happened to be in rather low
spirits for I do not know what I sometimes am but
in general I am very happy here. . . . Miss Edgar is
very careful and kind but she could not be like you."
In July he describes how a boy called Goodlake took
a shilling bet that he would not go up and get flogged
by Dr Hawtrey instead of a boy called Northcote,

12 ALFRED LYALL [1845
and won it. Alfred Lyall has " many a fight " with
a boy of his own age, or a little older, because " we
neither submit to take a licking as the Eton phrase
is." By that time he is occasionally " captain of our
division" in school, but generally beaten by Bfent,
whose cleverness he envies ; " but I am very happy
here and have plenty of fun." Nevertheless, home is
" the most beautiful place I can think of"
He thanks his mother for three shillings which she
has sent him, " and be assured I will make no bad use
of it." One day the Vice-Provost's wife, Mrs Grover,
takes him in her carriage and "paid for some nice
places for me to see the fireworks and I thought
myself very lucky in knowing her." An undated
letter, apparently of this time, informs his mother
that " the Provost has got a little boy (I thought he
was too old) we are to have a holiday this week in
honour of it. . . . Next week trials will begin and
I hope I shall be placed Middle Fourth If I am it is
certain that I shall take Upper Fourth at Christmas."
He was placed Middle Fourth, and the try for college
was successful, for the school records show that he
was elected on the 28th July 1845, and admitted,
doubtless at the end' of the summer holidays, on the
12th September.
Alfred Lyall was now fairly started upon his Eton
life, and in the comparatively studious atmosphere of
college ; but I do not think that during the next six
years there was niuch change in his way of looking
at his school work. He never seems to have had any
difficulty in remaining at or near the head of hlk

1845-1851] DISLIKE FOR MATHEMATICS 13
division, but before he was sixteen he never really
" sapped." Long afterwards he writes from India :
" Continual work narrows the mind " ; and this is
the principle upon which he appears to have acted
throughout. He says himself, writing of his school
days, that up to sixteen he was " idle." In mathe
matics, not then a compulsory subject, he was below
the average. An Eton letter, dated " Thursday,
October," written perhaps later, when mathematics
had become a part of the regular curriculum, tells his
mother that he is " wading through fractions, having
succeeded by a little study in overtaking in some
degree my equals in age. . . . Still my detestation for
Euclid and figures is immeasurable." But he adds :
" I return with great pleasure to * the mighty minds
of old ' and their writings," and the school records
shoi^ that in classics he was several times " sent up for
good." He evidently had the knack of turning off
Latin verses, for in later life he complains that writ
ing different letters from the same materials reminds
him of his school days, when he used to write verses
upon the same subject for two or three boys. And in
a school letter to his brother he remarks that he has
Greek iambics to do, and cannot " put them off to the
last minute and trust to inspiration, as I can with
Latin verses." In another school letter, written when
he was barely fifteen, he says : —
I have had Juvenal bound, and have read nearly all one
satire ; and I have been reading a lot of odds and ends lately,
and especially poetry, with which my mind is full, and which,
if it does nothing else, improves my style of verses. Of course

14 ALFRED LYALL [i 845-1 851
I mean English poetry, except Horace, which I learn by heart
both for pleasure and for its utility.
After all, this is not a bad form of idleness.
According to his own account he had very few
friends at Eton, which seems likely enough, for he
was always reserved ; though I may observe that his
school letters mention several boys as friends of his,
and none as enemies. In fact, his letters are remark
ably free from criticism of others, as they are also
from boasting ; and such a temper of mind usually
begets goodwill. But he was not forward in beginning
close friendships, and he never achieved the popularity
which comes from rising to the first rank in games.
He played football and cricket, and became respect
able both as a bat and as a bowler ; and he was in a
way fond ofthe river ; but he took his games very much
as he did his school work, not too seriously, and so
never reached the glories of the Eleven or the Eight.
Still, even if he had few friends, he certainly enjoyed
his life. In a letter, dated " Thursday, March," — ex
asperating but happy boy, — he writes at seven o'clock
one bright spring morning : " This, being the last week
of this half, has been a splendid week, we have had
hardly anything to do, and have been playing cricket
all these fine days, and going out to walk. . . . The
river shines and looks beautiful and so does the old
castle and everything."
In the meantime he had begun to think of an
Indian career ; for in a letter, dated " Sunday, 21st,"
written, I should guess, before he was sixteen, he
says : " My wish about India remains the same." A

1845-1851] WISH FOR INDIAN SERVICE 15
year or more later, to judge by the look of the letter,
he writes : " I see the Indian mail has arrived, so
a word at the bank might produce something for your
affectionate son, A. C. Lyall." He adds in another
letter : " You need not trouble yourself, for while I am
free at Eton I shall be in no hurry to go. You can't
imagine what a pleasant life it is in the summer here,
— a sort of panorama of cool shades and bright waters,
cricket and ices, boating and bread and cheese." But
evidently the idea of India had attracted him early,
and the attraction lasted in spite of some discourage
ment from his father and mother.
About the same time he had got into debt — rather
seriously for a boy — and this caused some trouble at
home. Alfred Lyall's father was a richer man than
most clergymen, and his wife was well dowered, but
he had a large family, and no doubt he disapproved
on principle of a boy exceeding his allowance. In
answer to a letter from him, Alfred Lyall writes : " I do
not want any more money to be paid for me. ... I
am very much obliged to you for your very kind offers
of paying off a part of it, . . . but you say that I must
feel a penalty, and if so I will sooner bear it altogether
than get out of it in a small degree by pressing you."
But the money seems to have been paid, for soon
afterwards he writes to his mother : "I received
your kind letter with much pleasure, and I hope
I shall be able to keep from debt at length, and as for
my place, I will do the best I can, and read, if it is
only to please you." His father and mother were
always, or usually, more severe in word than in act.

16 ALFRED LYALL [1845- 1851
He was very much a boy still. In the Exhibi
tion year, 1851, he went back to Eton with
some of the proceeds of the Godmersham poultry-
yard packed in his portmanteau : " On unpacking, I
first found out that out of sixteen eggs about four
only remained whole, but still they were not all
smashed, so I used about ten, but they had made a
great mess."
It has been said that he was a delicate boy. Before
he was seventeen he seems to have had two dangerous
illnesses, for in his letters he talks of a schoolfellow
dying, "though he had been prayed for," and says to his
sister, " think what you would have felt if I had died,
as I was so near." He had then been ill at Boulogne,
not at Eton ; but towards the end of his school days
he had another attack, and his mother apparently
went to Eton to nurse him. He recovered entirely,
but the family had been anxious about him and he
received much sympathy. A letter written not long
afterwards shows that he had been paying visits in
London. " All my aunts were very kind ; I have not
been kissed so much in the last five years as between
Monday and Thursday." This, for a schoolboy, is a
promising example of reserve in style— based, no doubt,
on good feeling.
He had now begun, though only for a time, to date
his letters, and one, ofthe 30th November 1851, shows
how he was doing in school.
I am getting on decently in my capacity as captain of
the Fifth Form— i.e., the Fifth Form out of the Head Master's
Division. ... My tutor considers me immensely improved

1852] NEWCASTLE SCHOLARSHIP 17
in Greek and Latin composition, though I shall not be sent
up, as my Master sends up nobody. However, it is some
satisfaction to know that he pronounced me to be a very clever
fellow, who could do anything he liked, in f uU pupil-room.
This is the strongest expression of self-satisfaction
to be found in his school letters.
By the beginning of 1852 his younger brother
James ^ was with him at Eton ; and later in the
year, being now seventeen, Alfred Lyall went up
for the Newcastle Scholarship. He came out fifth
among the "select," bracketed with three others,
one of whom, Whitting, afterwards Vice-Provost of
King's College, Cambridge, won the scholarship next
year. For a first entry, Lyall's place was, it is
said, extraordinarily good, and he must have worked
hard to win it. James Lyall writes about this :
" His tutor pressed my father to throw up the
Indian appointment and let him stay on to win the
Newcastle, and to get a scholarship at King's College,
Cambridge, of which he said my brother was quite
sure, but my brother preferred India to the other
career." Why he was so strongly drawn to the "Land of
Regrets" I cannot say. Perhaps his soldier uncle's
example had something to do with it. His elder
brother, too, had already joined the Indian army, and
was urging him to follow. But, apart from all this,
he was a boy to whom the romance and colour of
India would naturally appeal. Rather restless, and
1 Afterwards Sir James Lyall, K.C.S.I., G.C.I.E., Lieutenant-Governor
of the Punjab. B

18 ALFRED LYALL [1852
not much inclined for steady work, but with a mind
full of poetry and miscellaneous reading, he could
hardly fail to be attracted by the idea of a life which
promised so much change of scene and possibility of
adventure.
" And the slow toil of Europe seemed tiring,
And the grey of his fatherland cold."
However this may be, he stuck to his decision,
and, according to a note given to me by the Vice-
Provost, he left Eton at Election 1852, "being then
3rd in Upper Division Fifth Form (Liberty)." That is
to say, he was in the Head Master's Division, but just
short of the Sixth Form. There were only about
twenty boys in the Sixth, and vacancies were rare,
as several were King's Scholars waiting to go up to
Cambridge. In his own year Lyall was second.
So ended his school life. He had not greatly
distinguished himself in any way, but he had shown
that he had unusual ability ; and though not a real
scholar, he had been imbued with a taste for classical
literature which was worth much to him in after
years. Above all, he had spent a happy boyhood in
a school which teaches, apart from its class-rooms,
some of the best lessons an Englishman can learn.

SOUTH FBONT HAILBTBUET COLLEGE.

CHAPTER IIL

HARBLEDOWN AND HAILEYBURY.
1852-1855.
Harbledown and Haileybury — Harbledown Eeotory — VLsit to Spain, April
1853 — Receives nomination to Haileybury — Life at Haileybuiy — No
prizes, but regarded as brilliant, especiaUy in Latin versie — Writes for
'Haileybury Observer' — Specimens of his verses — Germ of "The
ology in Extremis" — Leaves Haileybury, 1855.
After leaving Eton Alfred Lyall seems to have
remained for a time with his father and mother at
Harbledown, a rectory to which his father had been
transferrfed a few years earlier. It is a pleasant
place, on a hill overlooking Canterbury ; but I doubt
whether the boys of the family ever loved it as they
did the old home at Godmersham. They missed the
coantry life, and society did not as yet appeal to
them. In later years Alfred Lyall's thoughts turned
with longing to the "hamlet in Saxon Kent," and
" the vale which slopes to the English sea." Still,

20 ALFRED LYALL [1853
he spent many happy days at Harbledown, where
the family lived for nearly twenty years.
In April 1853 the father and son started together
for a journey in France and Spain. It was a rather
hurried trip, for the elder man's letters — written, by
the way, in an indefensible hand — show that his
heart was with his wife and children at home, and
that he soon wanted to get back to them. Both
father and son seem to have found the perpetual
sight-seeing rather wearisome ; and the boy's know
ledge of foreign languages, then very small, was not
much increased. " I have picked up a little more
French already," he writes to his mother from Paris,
" but I am still miserably unintelligible." Both had
acquired a smattering of Spanish, but neither knew
enough to make himself understood. It was a rough
journey too, very different from the easy run in the
train de luxe of the present day. Between Bordeaux
and Bayonne they spent a whole day and night, from
five o'clock one morning to three o'clock the next,
their "diligence" being dragged hour after hour
through deep sand by seven or eight horses. Yet
they both enjoyed it more or less, and their joint
letters to Harbledown are cheery enough. To the
boy it was all new and striking. By the 23rd April,
after eighteen days' travelling, they were in Madrid ;
and there he saw " what I most wished to see in
Spain— i.e., a bull fight." He went alone, but fell in
with a Russian who spoke excellent English, and
seems to have been much interested. He describes
the bull fight, accurately enough, as " a very exciting

1 853] VISIT TO SPAIN

21

spectacle but horribly cruel." What seems to have
particularly pleased him in Madrid was the dress of
the ladies, — not so much their beauty, but the mantilla
and the fan and the rest of the picturesque semi-
oriental attire. A month later the travellers were
back in England.
Soon afterwards Alfred Lyall received from his
uncle a nomination to the East India Company's
College at Haileybury, where during the first half of
the nineteenth century the young civil servants of the
Company were prepared for their future career. It
was a short-lived institution, lasting only from 1809
to 1857, but it produced some great administrators,
and to this day there is some doubt whether the
civilians afterwards chosen by open competition have
proved equal to the Haileybury men.
However this may be, I do not think that Alfred
Lyall found it a very congenial place, or that he
looked back to it in after years with any special
affection. I do not remember to have ever heard
him speak of it ; and the only reference to it in
hundreds of his letters is not complimentary : " one
well-organised humbug." The life was rough, even
at times rather rowdy ; and a boy coming from the
refined classical atmosphere of the Head Master's
Division at Eton may not have found himself al
together at home in it.
He did not make many friends. His favourite
companion was George Nelson Barlow, in after life
one of the cheeriest and most unselfish of men ; and
there were a few more with whom he was on good

22 ALFRED LYALL [1853
terms ; but he was always reserved, perhaps rather
fastidious, and he dops not seem to have been gener
ally popular. One of his contemporaries at Hailey
bury writes that he was noted for a tendency to use
" out-of-the-way words," and this possibly went against
him. With the young barbarians who formed the
majority anything that savoured of over culture would
naturally have been disliked.
At Haileybury, as at Eton, Lyall took things easily,
and he did not win any prizes. This, according to
some of his contemporaries, was mainly due to the
fact that he had in his term a classical scholar of ex
ceptional ability. Maxwell Melvill, afterwards Judge
of the High Court in Bombay, who was also excep
tionally hard working. But Lyall was nevertheless
regarded as one of the most brilliant men of his year,
and the general opinion was that if he had chosen to
work he would have been hard to beat. Sir Steuart
Bayley, himself a prizeman, remembers the classical
professor showing him a set of verses by Lyall as
the best ever sent up at Haileybury. Lyall told a
fi:-iend long afterwards that Haileybury teaching was
bad, and gave as an illustration a story which is
characteristic in more ways than one. He had seen
in a collection of Latin verses by well-known scholars
a rendering of some English poem, and had been so
much pleased with it that he had learned it by heart.
At Haileybury he was given this poem to turn into
Latin, and feeling lazy, he wrote down the lines he
remembered — guarding himself by putting small
quotation marks at top and bottom. He was not

1853-55] HAILEYBURY 23
found out, but, he said, the lines were not thought
good enough to win first place.
In one way he did distinguish himself — by some
literary contributions to ' The Haileybury Observer,'
a magazine kept up by the students. Sir SteUart
Bayley, who, like Lyall, was an Etonian, and was
also a member of the Editorial Committee, which
Lyall was not, has contributed to ' Memorials of Old
Haileybury College,' an article on the college litera
ture. Speaking of volume viii. of ' The Observer,' he
says : " But the most interesting name among the
contributors is that of Alfred C. Lyall. He is credited
with two serious poems, one of which, the ' Ultimo
suspiro del Moro,' is noticeable ; also with a skit on
contemporary ' Bores ' ; but, besides these, he is credited
with several other pieces, which I believe from internal
evidence to be wrongly attributed to him. On the
other hand, there are some pieces in the volume, such
as 'Boabdil's Farewell to Granada,' which, though
signed by the initials of other students, have more
touch of the master-hand than some of the pieces
attributed to him." This exchange of initials seems
a curious arrangement, but Sir Steuart Bay ley's
judgment in the matter is not likely to be at fault,
and it is supported by the fact of Lyall's recent visit to
Spain. A skit on contemporary bores, too, is just what
might have been expected from him, for he never
suffered bores gladly. To show the bent and promise
of his mind, a few extracts from these early produc
tions may not be out of place.
" El ultimo suspiro del Moro," which is credited to

24 ALFRED LYALL [1853-55
Lyall on conjecture, puts into Boabdil's mouth the
following lament : —
"Fallen is Granada's standard now, that waved for many a year.
All blunted is her scimitar, and broken is her spear.
The Moorish horn no more shall ring o'er field and mountain free.
No more Granada's gates pour forth her swarthy chivalry."
"Boabdil's Farewell," which is signed, possibly as
a practical joke, with the initials of a speciaUy un
poetical student, takes up the tale, in blank verse,
from the point where "El ultimo suspiro" had left
off, and its opening lines are as follows : —
" So spake Boabdil, and in mournful guise
Stretched forth his hands to lost Granada's towers,
And turning wept. . . .
Just then upon the citadel beneath
Eose high the Christian flag, and far and wide
The trumpet's voice proclaimed the city won.
Turned at the echo all that swarthy band,
And when above their own Alhambra's keep
They saw the Cross unfurled, and from the vale
The distant ring of trumpets reached their ear,
With barbarous cry and clashing scimitars
CaUed on the Koran and their Prophet's name.
And waved their spears against the distant foe,
And shouted ' AUah-Hu,' their war cry old."
The skit on bores, headed "Infandos jubeor
renovare dolores," opens with the following passage,
which is very like Lyall : —
There are certain minor misfortunes for which the sufferer
meets with no sympathy, but, on the contrary, with ridicule.
A man is pitied if he gets a severe blow on the head, but if

1853-55] EARLY VERSES 25
he complains of mosquito bites he is laughed at. I am, meta
phorically speaking, a mosquito-bitten individual, for my evil
destiny has so ordered it that I am continually the victim of
small annoyances, which are laughed at by every one else,
and at which I cannot help sometimes laughing myself,
despite my vexation. . . . What a misfortune is a long-
winded friend. . . .
Then there is an ode to " Dark-eyed Nell," of which
this is a stanza : —
" 'No more shall flowers the meads adorn,
Nor sweetness deck the rosy thorn.
Nor swelling buds proclaim the spring,
Nor parching heats the dog-star bring,
Nor laughing lilies paint the grove,
When dark-eyed Nell I cease to love."
But perhaps the most interesting of these pieces
is one which has not so far been attributed to Lyall.
In one of his early letters, of 1856, to his old friend
Mr Carrington, Dean of Becking, is a reference to
some verses on the "Battle of Inkerman." Looking
through ' The Observer ' volumes during a visit to
Haileybury, I came upon a piece bearing this title,
and was struck by the resemblance between some
lines of it and a stanza in Lyall's published poem,
" Theology in Extremis."
" Oh ! ye men who sleep, untold, in the many graves of old,
By your country whom ye served never known ;
As ye perish I shall die ; as ye moulder I shall lie
In the dust without a name Or a stone I

26 ALFRED LYALL [1853-55
" I must be gone to the crowd untold
Of men by the cause which they served unknown,
Who moulder in myriad graves of old ;
Never a story and never a stone
Tells of the martyrs who died like me.
Just for the pride of the old countree."
The two pieces have also some other points of
similarity. Sir Steuart Bayley, to whom the earlier
piece is by conjecture attributed, writes about it :
" I can say most positively that I did not write the
'Battle of Inkerman,' and I hail your solution as
almost certainly correct." He points out as practically
conclusive the peculiar use of the word " untold " in
both pieces. It seems clear, therefore, that we have in
this earlier piece the germ of "Theology in Extremis,"
generally regarded as Lyall's best poem.
To pass on from ' The Haileybury Observer,' it is
said that in early life Lyall was apt, even more
than other boys, and most boys are sinful in that
way, to be seized with paroxysms of laughter at in
opportune moments. This is credible, for though he
gained control as he grew older, he used when in
India to suffer cruelly from sudden attacks of the
kind. The fact is, that though he disliked showing
his feelings, and was much vexed with himself when
he had done so, he was by temperament intensely
emotional. To the end of his life his eyes would fill
in spite of himself at a word or a note of music ; and
in the same way any little incident which happened
to touch his sense of humour would make him for an
instant speechless and rigid with the effort of self-
command. When he was young it made some people

1853-55] LEAVES HAILEYBURY 27
think him flippant, if not mannerless; but when I
knew him he used to master himself heroically, and
the fact that he could not help seeing the humorous
side of a situation was one of the most delightful
things about him.
Alfred Lyall finished his course at Haileybury in
1855, at the age of twenty, and before the end of the
year he had sailed for India.
He always looked back upon his last three years in
England as the least satisfactory part of his life. I
do not mean to assert or imply that it was in any
way discreditable to him. On the contrary, he was
throughout an affectionate son and brother, and there
are no signs of his having got into any sort of trouble.
But, being young, he was bored by the society of a
Cathedral town ; and perhaps the discipline of the
Rectory, though by no means hard, had become a
little irksome to him. Some of his views and doings
undoubtedly vexed his father.
There was in the younger generation of Lyalls, and
markedly in him, a strain of restlessness with which
the grave contemplative student was hardly fitted to
sympathise. The younger and quicker-witted mother
probably understood her children better ; but she
also was strict in her views of duty, and before
Alfred Lyall left England there had been a certain
amount of friction, which troubled him afterwards.
That it occurred, and that he blamed himself for it,
and that it never impaired the deep affection existing
on both sides, are indications of character upon which
it seems necessary to touch.

CHAPTER IV.
FIRST YEAR IN INDIA.
1855-1856.
Sails for India, November 1855— Voyage out— Nearly lost in surf at
Madras— Lands at Calcutta, January 1856— Hospitably received-
Elects for North-West Provinces— Passes examinations in languages
— Lord Dalhousie and Lord Canning — Starts for North-West Pro
vinces, May 1856— Travelling up country — Naini Tai in Himalayas —
Posted as assistant magistrate at Bulandshahr, September 1856 —
Indian administrative system.
In November 1855 Alfred Lyall embarked on the
P. & 0. Company's steamship Ava for Calcutta, and
his thirty-two years of foreign service began.
He had felt some depression at leaving England,
as was natural, but this soon passed off, for in a
letter written to his father from Malta he says : "At
present I feel very well satisfied with my lot, and
have lost all my gloomy ideas with my sickness." It
is true that he disliked very much the monotony of
the voyage and took every opportunity of going on
shore. He was always restless at anything like con
finement, and probably regarded life on shipboard
very much as Samuel Johnson did. But he greatly
enjoyed his visits to Gibraltar, Malta, and Alexandria ;
and, as always throughout his Indian career, wrote by
every possible opportunity to members of the home
circle at Harbledown, who, I may note, with the
exception of his mother, seem to have written very

1 855] VOYAGE TO INDIA 29
rarely in reply. At Pompey's Pillar a donkey gave
him a fall by tumbling on its nose. " I thought of
the death of Csesar ' even at the base of Pompey's
statue.' " Cairo he thought a delightful place, and
he rejoiced to have got away from the Ava, which is
perhaps not surprising, as she was a small vessel and
he had been one of four in a cabin. Altogether his
letters are cheerful and bright, and I notice that the
rounded boyish writing begins to resemble the hand
I afterwards knew so well.
At Suez the passengers went on board the Bengal,
a larger and more comfortable ship than the Ava,
Of course there were the usual theatricals, for which
Alfred Lyall wrote a prologue and song, " both of
which had a success that astonished myself, and
actually gave me a low opinion of those who ap
plauded, so indiscriminate and extravagant was their
praise." He did not take part in the acting, but
seems to have enjoyed the whole thing immensely.
" I was behind the scenes, and in fits of laughter all
the while." Thoughts of the old home, now so far
away, evidently sadden him at times ; but he tells
his mother, " You need not think from this that I am
out of spirits, for I certainly am not, and do not in the
least regret my choice."
He first set foot on Indian soil at Madras, and was
nearly lost in coming back to the ship.
The boat carrying the mails, which set off to the ship with
me, was upset, and the mail-master and his two assistants
drowned, or seized by the sharks, for they were never seen
again. The mails floated on shore. Our boat was at the

30 ALFRED LYALL [1856
same moment only 20 yards from them, and we were as
nearly swamped as pbssiblte by the same enormous wave,
losing our oars and drifting back to the shore half full of
water.
Any one who has seen the surf at Madras will under
stand how narrow the escape was, but he did escape,
and on the 2nd of January 1856 he landed at Cal
cutta, " having made a very good voyage of six weeks
and one day." He was then just under twenty -one
years of age.
At Calcutta he found all the hotels full, and had
nowhere to go ; but a merchant of the name of Hay,
whose brother had been on board the Bengal, heard
of his plight, and with trtie Indian hospitality made
him welcome. At Mr Hay's house he remained some
time, and was very happy. He was taken to a ball,
where, he says, he enjoyed himself inimensely ; and
his host lent him a horse, a white Arab, which re
joiced his heart. He writes to his father —
I enjoy myself very much now, especially when I ride on
the crowded course in the evening, where the scene is very
pibturesque. The natives come out very strong in equipd.ges
and gorgeous domestics — that is, of course, the rich native
merchants and a few princes, some of whom give balls.
Evidently British rule had already brought prosperity
to the peojple of Calcutta.
Given his choice between remaining in Lower
Bengal and going to the North-West Provinces,
Alfred Lyall chose the latter, as the life offered more
chance of adventure and promotion ; and he immedi-
atfely set to work to pass the necessary examinations

i856J CALCUTTA 31
in Persian and Hindi. It was a momentous choice for
him, as it meant that a year later he was to find him
self at the very centre of the tract which was swept
by the great storm of the Mutiny.
In his first letter from Calcutta he had written :
' ' The Governor - General held a special council
yesterday, and it is reported that it was for the
purpose of settling the annexation of Oude." Per
haps the decision of that special council had more
to do with the Mutiny than anything else. But aU
was quiet in India then, and no one dreamt of such
a result. Not many years earlier the fashion had been for
young civilians to spend a considerable time in
Calcutta, where many of them devoted themselves
to amusement rather than work, and wasted money
royally. It was considered rather a fine thing to
have " turned your lakh," — to have incurred a debt
of £10,000, which often hung round a man's neck to
the end of his service. Those days were over, or
Lyall had the good sense to avoid outrunning his
income. He did, however, amuse himself, living in the
Bengal club, and attending all the entertainments
that were going on. A few weeks after his arrival
he writes that he is "very well off out here at
present, and like it very much." One of the Mysore
princes gives a ball to Lord Dalhousie, and Lyall says
there was a vast crowd. " I thought it very civil of
him to give us a ball after we had confiscated his
possessions." He sets up a buggy, and engages a

32 ALFRED LYALL [1856
shikari, as he is "very fond of the shooting (snipe,
quail, &c.)." But he soon begins to be " getting tired
of parties," and writes of the death of a friend in
England : " I shall be like Ulysses, returning after
long years, and seeing only the shades of his old
companions." He asks his mother to " send out
M'Aulay's (sic) new volumes as soon as possible, and
any other good new book." He also tells her, on the
22nd February, that he has had one letter from home
since he reached India, and that he is keeping out of
debt, having denied himself a riding horse. His first
impression of the Hindus is not favourable —
Their cursed religion, which forbids them to touch what I
eat, and sets me forth generally as an abomination, puts an
insuperable barrier between us. I abhor the sight of their
painted idols, without a trace of beauty or any high idea in
them. . . . My native tutor or munshi is a very enlightened
man, and therefore a thorough atheist, as he says all en
lightened natives are. I respect the Mussulmans much more.
He doubts whether his mother will care for his " crude
opinions about India, but you can keep the letters and
see whether my ideas change." They did change,
very rapidly and very completely, as will be shown
later. On the 26th February he writes to his sister,
Mrs Holland : ^ —
I do not particularly want to go back at present myself,
being quite contented out here, where I have something to do
and enough of amusement. It was the having nothing to
1 His elder sister, Sybilla, had married the Eev. Francis Holland, son
of the well-known Sir Henry Holland.

1856] LORDS CANNING & DALHOUSIE 33
do which was at the bottom of all my vagaries at Canterbury
— I mean at home. The complete quiet and want of incident,
and especially the intense respectability of every visitor,
always worried me. ... I never expect to rise above
mediocrity here, as I have no interest, which is everything,
and have not enough energy to do without it. Besides, I have
no talents that would be of use out here, where a man of
business gets on best, and where, as a very clever man told
me a few days ago, any acquaintance with books is not the
slightest use. I shall be happy enough in my own way, but
I have mistaken my trade if I wished for any distinction.
By the beginning of March he had, to his own
astonishment, passed the examination in Persian.
" We are allowed eighteen months for the two lan
guages. ... I have worked very little."
I had a very good day's snipe-shooting yesterday : we shot
eleven brace in two hours. I went out with Aitken, old
Etonian. We were wonderful figures wading through the
marsh, with enormous solar hats, Aitken only a shirt and
trousers tied round with string, I in a dirty flannel shirt and
a pair of originally very fine trousers cut short. ... I
daresay that in a few years I shall detest this country, as
most do, but at present I like it.
Good Friday. — I hope you will always write, at least one
of you, as it is not pleasant to see everyone around me
opening letters when I get none. ... I witnessed, as a
member of the C.S., the arrival at Government House and
the swearing in of Lord Canning. I do not much like his
looks. Lord Dalhousie is a very clever -looking man. . . .
I wish you would send me out Macaulay ; and if you could
get me Michelet's 'History of France' I would really pay
you; or the last volumes of the 'Noctes Ambrosianse.' All
books are much dearer here, and they are most of them
novels and very light literature. 0

34 ALFRED LYALL [1856
I have taken to contributing to the ' Delhi Sketch-book '
(the ' Punch ' of India), and if I could only illustrate my ideas
with my pencil I really think I would set up a rival ' Punch,'
as the 'Sketch-book' is very poor, . . . Remember, if you
write, I always will.
I like the life very well, but I foresee that in a year or
two I may easily become very tired of it. . . .
April 21st. — I think I get very few letters from home, only
one by each mail, but I know we are not a letter-writing
family. . . . My income is now 360 Rs., or £36 a -month,
which is pretty good. In another month it will be 400
Rs. ... I intend to make myself a good horseman if
possible, and ride as much as I can. You will be horrified to
hear that I am considered a good whist player.
Pray do not fill valuable space with admonitions as to
expense in your next letter, as I assure you I do not intend
to get into debt.
May 27id. I have just heard that I have passed my second
examination — in Hindi — and am thus speedily qualified for
public service with a salary of Rs. 400 a-month. . . . You
see what a farce these terrible-looking examinations are. I
have leamed to translate Hindi, and to write it " in an easy
flowing style," as the Government manifesto requires, in one
month, for I showed up blank papers to the examiners last
time, not knowing a word.
The fact was that, though he had a bad ear for
languages, and never took the trouble to master them,
he was quick in picking up a sufficient vocabulary,
and in catching the written style, which is what one
wants for passing elementary examinations.
Four months was the extent of his stay in Cal
cutta, a place of which, notwithstanding his contented
letters, he always retained an evil recollection; and

1856] TRAVELS UP COUNTRY 35
on the 10th of May, the very middle of the hot
weather, he started for his long journey " up country."
He intended to go first to Almora in the Himalayas,
to see his elder brother Walter, who had married,
and resigned his commission in the Army. On the
13th May he writes to Mrs Holland : —
I stayed twenty -four hours in Govindpore, where lives
an unhappy civilian who governs all that part absolutely,
not having a white face within forty miles of him. I met
him as I changed horses, and he prayed me to stop and cheer
his lonely bungalow for a short time. I stayed there Tues
day night, and in the morning assisted at his court in dis
posing of the criminal cases which were brought before us ;
but I often lowered my dignity by laughing, especially when
one prisoner, being acquitted, fell flat on his abdomen before
us and rubbed his nose on the floor in abject gratitude. . . .
I shall leave this at 4 p.m., when the heat has gone down a
little. At present it is something awful. ... At home we
always connect the idea of wind with coolness. Here the
wind blows all day till about five in the evening, and it is
literally as hot as the draught from an oven if you put your
face close to it. I never could have believed that wind could
have such a burning breath. It almost takes the skin off
my face. ... I travel about 90 miles in the 24 hours,
stopping usually from 10 to 4 in the day. Somehow or
other I do not dislike it as yet, though it is solitary work.
. . . My driver is a bearded man from the north of India,
who has an enormous sword and a big trumpet with which
he proclaims my passage through the villages. . . . He
supplicates restive horses to go on, and calls them "great
prince" and "mighty Lord," then, as that usually fails, he
suddenly attacks them furiously with his stick, and curses
the horse's family and relations in the most awful manner.
I sit inside with a cigar, having a loaded revolver to support
the big sword if necessary.

36 ALFRED LYALL [1856
It must have been a curious experience to the boy
just out from a peaceful Kentish parsonage, and so he
felt it.
I cannot cease wondering to find myself, A. C. Lyall, in a
wretched little hut in the very heart of India, surrounded by
a tawny population, among whom it would seem that I have
not the slightest business. The whole thing seems absurd
on consideration. I also do not understand why I am in very
good spirits, though physically uncomfortable. ... I passed
through the wildest hills last night that I ever saw, nothing
but jungle on every side. There was a beautiful moon, so I
could see a long way, and looked out sharp for tigers, which
are common enough in these hills, but I saw nothing but the
places built for hunters to watch for them. The Sonthals^
have been heard of near here, they routed the few soldiers
sent to disperse them, killed the Magistrate's horse, and
actually hit that functionary in the back with a poisoned
arrow, which has not, however, done any great mischief.
I was told this by a venerable native, who seemed much
horrified at their shooting at a civilian. I told him that it
was certainly the most atrocious, of crimes.
It seemed an amusing mattier to him then. He
was soon to see more stirring scenes, when the
civilian, as well as the soldier, had to fight for
his life in earnest. The places he passed through,
Bareilly, Futehghur, Cawnpore, were all to be sadly
familiar to English ears before many months had
passed away.
On the 20th of May he was at the foot of the
Himalayas, and, mounting a pony at daylight, he
rode up to Naini Tai, which nearly thirty years later
1 An uncivilised tribe which had been giving some trouble.

1856] THE HIMALAYAS

37

was to be his summer headquarters, when the young
civilian had made his way to the top of the official
ladder and become Lieutenant - Governor of the
Province, ruler of forty millions of men. In 1856,
though he noticed that it was not marked on the
map, it gave him a pleasant welcome.
The change of climate was wonderful. The day before I
had been utterly exhausted with intense heat, and that
afternoon I found myself in an English climate, and dined
before a blazing fire.
Who that has felt it does not remember the delight
of that change, from the sweltering heat of the plains
to the pines and rhododendrons of the Himalayas ?
" And then the scent and whisper of the firs,
The crimson blossoms on a deep-blue sky,
And the cold fragrant mountain air that stirs
Among the brown rock grasses silently."
At the neighbouring " hUl station " of Almora,
Alfred Lyall saw again his elder brother, and enjoyed
a few weeks amid some of the grandest scenery in the
world, scenery which filled him with delight and
"sheer amazement." And no wonder, for once seen
it dwarfs the mountains of Europe for ever. His
"joining time" from Calcutta to his first post was
liberal, and gave him a considerable margin to spend
in the mountains. He was for the time thoroughly
happy. " Somehow," he writes to his sister,
I already feel at home all over India, and have none of
that downheartedness which I used to feel in England when

38 ALFRED LYALL [1856
going to a place where I knew no one. Everybody is so
much more cordial and easy of access out here, and when I
look back upon my experience of English society I think that
at home you are horribly frigid and formal, and that such
things as hospitality and friendship are very rare in your
over- civilised country. I am sure that people care more
about each other, and are more ready to give mutual assist
ance, out here than at home.
I rather like the primitive way of travelling here. . . .
I do not object to the long journeys (measured always in
India by days), and I feel a sort of contempt for what is
called distance in England. In England the genus "trav
eller" is extinct, everybody is now a passenger. Out here
a passenger is unknown. . . . According to all accounts
India is changing rapidly; I am just in time to see the old
face of the country, but the next generation will find every
thing Europeanised.
In this letter there is for the first time a remark
which occurs more than once in Lyall's letters — "I
never read over anything I write." It was notice
able in later years how careless he was in this way,
even with letters of some importance. The moment
they were finished, he used to moisten the gum with
his finger, fasten them up, and despatch them, rarely
if ever keeping a copy. Perhaps he feared that if
he read them again his fastidious sense of style would
make him rewrite them ; perhaps he did not care, and
felt confident in his own readiness of phrase. How
ever this may have been, his carelessness was one
of the reasons for the charm of his letters. There
is never any sign of elaboration about them. They
are always fresh and spontaneous, just what he
thought and felt, not what after consideration he

1856] CONTENT WITH INDIA 39
knew he ought to think and feel. But in later life
he was remarkably careful about stops, for which
as a boy he had small respect.
He was not wholly wasting his time, for, as he
told his father, he was working hard at the verna
cular, and especially learning to read the " shikast,"
or broken character, in which court records and
other documents were written. He was writing
verses too. " I send you some morbid rhymes which
I made in bed, being low-spirited because the mos
quitoes were biting me." The rhymes were not kept
with the letter, and one cannot say what they were.
It was not yet time for the " Land of Regrets."
The monsoon had now come on, and nothing can be
imagined more dismal than continuous wet weather
in a small Himalayan hill-station, with the clouds
drifting through the sodden tree-tops, and a cease
less drumming of rain on the wooden roof. Lyall
began to get very tired of it. He solaced himself
with reading Carlyle, " whom I consider to be a
shining light, though I guess my father does not
approve of him. I have also read with much weighty
approbation Sir W. Hamilton's essay against mathe
matics as a study." And in spite of rain and mos
quitoes he was still content with India, for he
writes to his brother James, "You will like this
country better than England, so come out here as
soon as you can."
His letters do not show precisely when his leave
ended, but in early September, after a short time
in the mountains to the east of Almora, he was

40 ALFRED LYALL [1856
posted as Assistant Magistrate of Bulandshahr, the
High Town, a station about forty miles from Delhi,
and here his Indian work began.
A young civilian, after passing in the languages,
was ordinarily posted as Assistant Magistrate at some
station of the kind, the headquarters of one of the
" districts " which form the administrative units of
India, to learn his work under a senior officer. Dis
tricts varied in size and population ; but it may be
roughly computed that one of them was equivalent
to a fair-sized English county, and numbered nearly
a million inhabitants. To keep the district in order,
administer justice, collect the Government revenue,
look after the roads and bridges, and perform in
numerable other duties which in England devolve
upon a variety of local authorities, there were two
English officers of some standing, the "Magistrate"
and the " Collector," -^ supported by one or two
young civilian assistants. Sometimes there would
be a medical officer in charge of the civilian popu
lation, and if there were any troops in the district
there would also be a few military officers. Possibly
there might be a judge, who would do the more
important judicial work of two or three districts.
In any case, except at a few stations where there
wfes a considerable garrison, the total number of
European officials in a district was very small, often
not more than half a dozen.
Four or five of these districts were grouped to
gether under a senior officer called a Commissioner,
1 The two offices were afterwards thrown into one.

1856] ASSISTANT MAGISTRATE 41
whose charge was a "Division," and six or seven
Divisions, or more, formed a Province under a
Lieutenant-Governor. A Governor -General with a
small Council, aided by various Departments, super
vised the whole of India.
It should be remarked that India did not all con
sist of Provinces under Lieutenant - Governors, but
it would be useless to enter into local differences.
Throughout British India the district was the ad
ministrative unit, and the district officers were the
backbone of the administration.
Such was the simple structure of our Indian
system, — a system under which two hundred millions
of people were governed by a few hundred English
officers, aided by a larger number of native subordi
nates. Bulandshahr, a district of the Meerut Divi
sion, in the Lieut. -Governorship of the North- Western
Provinces, was a fair specimen of a country district of
those days.^
Here, in the autumn of 1856, Alfred Lyall began
1 If an English reader who knows nothing of India wishes to have a
general idea of the situation there in 1857, let him suppose the tables
turned, and that one of the Indian races, gaining command of the sea,
had established, a century or two ago, a dominion of the same magnitude
in Westem Europe. There would then be an Indian Governor-General
with headquarters, say, in Eome, and a summer residence in Switzerland.
Such countries as France, Germany, and Austria would each be ruled by
an Indian Lieutenant-Governor, more or less subordinate to the central
government in Eome. An Indian army of less than 50,000 men, with a
force four or five times as large composed of Europeans officered by
Indians, would represent the military strength of the paramount power
in the whole dominion. The British Isles would form a Province under
a Lieutenant-Governor. Ireland or Scotland would be a Division under a
Commissioner. Kent or Devonshire would be a District under a Magis
trate and Collector.

42 ALFRED LYALL [1856
to learn his work, and during the delightful months
of the Indian "cold weather," when the hot winds
and the rainy season were over, and the sky was
blue and the air cool and bracing, he settled himself
into the official saddle. It was well for him that
he got to work when he did, and acquired some know
ledge of his district, for 1856 was the last year of
peace in India, the last of the old order. His experi
ence, short as it was, proved of much use to him
when, in the earlier part of the following summer,
the great tornado of the Sepoy Mutiny suddenly
burst upon our countrymen. By that time he had
learned to understand the local language, and to
speak it with fluency ; and he had gained some con
fidence in dealing with the people about him.

CHAPTER V.
BEFORE THE MUTINY.
1857.
Life at Bulandshahr — Natives and missionaries — Liking for sport — Mis
cellaneous reading — The Holi festival — Horses and guns — Death of
his uncle, the Dean of Canterbury — Soldiers and civilians in India.
At the beginning of the fateful year 1857 no Eng
lishman in Bulandshahr, or indeed anywhere else,
had the smallest conception of what the next few
months would bring forth. It is true that Henry
Lawrence and Henry Durand had both warned Lord
Canning that there was an uneasy feeling in the
sepoy army ; but no one anticipated immediate re
volt, and the letters of the young assistant magis
trate naturally show no signs of apprehension. On
the 4th of January he writes to his mother —
You have none of you sent me a letter by this last
mail, . . . and I had almost determined to leave this mail
blank in return, but have thought better of it. We spent
our Christmas pleasantly enough, sitting outside the door
of the tent in the evening by a large wood fire, enjoying
coffee and tobacco. To-day is my twenty-second birthday,
and I have drunk my own health with much fervour, but
there have been no other rejoicings. Also I have just fin
ished my first year in India, and have only twenty-one more
years to pass, which is encouraging. I superintend the jail,

44 ALFRED LYALL [1857
and on the anniversary of my year in India it became my
duty to set free a man who had undergone a year's im
prisonment, so I consoled myself for my lot by drawing
comparisons. He goes on to tell his mother about his establish
ment of servants, fourteen for a total expenditure
of £6 a month, and remarks about the low -caste
water-carrier and sweeper —
Their respective names (the names of their offices) mean
" one who belongs to paradise " and " prince." I asked a
learned native the reason why these outcasts had such grand
names, and he told me very seriously that as in this life
and the next they were doomed to be perpetually despised,
and to perform the lowest offices, it had been considered
humane to smooth over their lot by giving them grand titles
as a consolation. My informant was a Brahmin. ... Is it
not a curious and simple idea ? . . . This Brahmin was too
cautious to tell me his idea of my future destiny, but I
am afraid that he had no doubt in his secret mind. All
the well-to-do people of the district sent us presents on
Christmas Day, knowing that to be our great festival. I
was overpowered with oranges, Gabul grapes, and lumps of
crystallised sugar, dried raisins, &c., all of which, except the
grapes, I distributed royally among my household, like a
great lord and protector of the poor, as they told me. The
villainous butler had seized them all for himself, under pre
tence of keeping them for my use, but I made him disgorge.
A few days later he finds himself obliged to start
suddenly for the "hills" again, to help his sister-
in-law, who was alone, her husband having found it
necessary to go to England. Such inconvenient
family calls he always met with the most ready
unselfishness. The journey was troublesome, and

1 857] NATIVES AND MISSIONARIES 45
expensive for a young man on small pay, but he
did not hesitate to undertake it, and he writes to
his brother-in-law, Francis Holland —
I cannot help owning that ... I am in uncommonly good
spirits about it, now that I am starting, as there is a smack
of adventure and enterprise in going up to the mountains
at this season, when every one has left them on account of
the cold; and I expect to shoot a bear or so.
Mr Holland had apparently been giving him good
advice, after the manner of English friends, about
natives and missionaries ; and Alfred Lyall answers —
As for your remarks about the treatment of natives, I can
assure you that I treat them with special civility, and like
them very much, and, I think, am generally liked by them.
. . . What do you mean by calling me "an European tax-
gatherer " ? You may take back your proverb into your
teeth . . . and think yourself lucky that I have not got you
within the limits of Bulandshahr. I would show you that
besides gathering taxes, my business was to fine, imprison,
and inflict stripes upon disorderly and obnoxious characters,
... As for the missionary work, I do not believe that it will
have any effect until the missionaries change their habit of
life. They are now to be seen in comfortable houses with
their wives and children, and every luxury. No religion was
ever founded in this way. . . . The Oriental especially re
quires some outward appearance of inspiration, and all great
propagators of religion have had such appearance. While the
Rev. A. B. first gets a nice house and garden with appurten
ances, and then sallies out comfortably equipped to lecture to
the natives, all his purity and sincerity will be of no avail.
If he were to clothe himself in camel skins, and rush wildly
about denouncing the idols of Brahma, he might have a
chance, because Orientals do not sneer at all this, as we

46 ALFRED LYALL [1857
should do, and are much influenced by outward show of
earnestness and self-devotion. ... I could write whole pages
on the subject.
This is plain speaking from a boy of two-and-
twenty to a clergyman of the Church of England,
but that was Alfred Lyall's way; and it may be
noted that his views on the subject of Protestant
missions remained practically unchanged to the end
of his life.
A few days later he writes to Mrs Holland —
I am now again in the mountains, and enjoying myself
much, though I was rather disgusted at being obliged, as I
thought, to come here. I should like you to be transported
from your fusty little suburb to the verandah of this bunga
low, so that you might have five minutes' look at the scene.
Halfway down the mountain below me the clouds begin, and
stretch in white fieecy waves far away, looking exactly like
a milk-white sea, out of which here and there rocks covered
with trees seem to rise. These are the tops of the lower hills
— that is, not above 4000 feet or so high. To the right is
a great defile filled halfway up with white clouds, so that it
seems a river winding into the great sea through a rocky
pass. The whole horizon is bounded by the snowy ranges.
... In these fine clear winter mornings one can sit for hours
and stare solemnly at the mountains, and feel that the time
has been properly spent. . . . But now there is such shooting.
Pheasants and partridges of various kinds, woodcock, snipe,
and deer, and perhaps bears.
He goes on to talk of his brother James, then at
Haileybury, who was apparently distinguishing him
self rather at athletic sports than in the examina
tions —

1 85 7] A SENSE OF HUMOUR 47
I think a good deal of his winning pewter pots myself.
. . . My father is so entirely devoted to literature that he
considers everything else as mere waste of time, in which I
never could agree with him, as it is all the same in the end,
so long as our life is passed happily. A superior, well-read
person is not more happy than the common herd, as the
superior person caUs the rest, — not but what Jimmy is rather
a superior person in my estimation, having the one faculty
which I consider to afford more enjoyment than any other —
that is, a sense of humour and a strong appreciation of the
ludicrous. When I meet a person thus gifted, I instantly
attach myself to him, or rather seize upon him, with a con
viction we shall get on well together; when a person has
none, I never get beyond a general esteem for him, as I know
we shall not suit. . . . George Barlow has a splendid broad
appreciation of fun, and we used to go into perfect con
vulsions together in the very street ; besides, it did one good
to hear his jolly open laugh. . . . M. (his sister-in-law) has
got a sort of homely humour, which is now and then very
good. A man brings her up cabbages now and then for a
present, and it is much suspected that he steals them from his
master's garden. To-day he brought up a very bad one,
whereupon M. opined that he must have stolen it in a great
hurry, which, combined with the man's complacent face, . . .
sent me into a fit of laughter. ... I doubt whether it will
sound funny to you on paper. But I was considering in a
very melancholy strain some time ago that I have laughed
very little since I have been in India. . . . The natives of
this country do not laugh, except when they have gained
some advantage. They cannot really laugh at all.
This is not quite fair. Natives of India, especially
northerners, will at times laugh out very heartily.
But it is true that some other Oriental races, notably
the Persians, have a readier sense of humour. The
Indian, as a rule, shows a tinge of melancholy.

48 ALFRED LYALL [1857
As for your husband's and my father's anticipations of
my getting on and doing wonders in the service, I do not
care enough about the matter to disquiet myself on the
subject. I don't think I have a particle of ambition in me —
at least, I am never made uneasy by any such feeling. It
may seem curious to you, but I find that the more I read
poetry and books like Carlyle, and other imaginative works,
the less care I have for what is called my prospects in life.
Such works are like opium to me, sending me off into pleasant
dreams. I think that it must have been once much the same
sort of thing with my father, who, I suspect, studied until he
lost all his young ambition.
Lyall remained a few days longer in the mountains
shooting, in spite of rain and mist, and at this time
he evidently enjoyed the sport. He gives his brother
James an animated and accurate account of shoot
ing the Himalayan pheasant with the help of a
spaniel —
Soon I hear an agonised bark, perhaps 100 or 150 yards
off up the hillside; at the same moment comes the whirr
and scream of the springing pheasant. I finger my locks
involuntarily, to see whether they are at half-cock, never
having lost that habit. My eye catches a bluish-grey bird
with streaming tail, and a white tuft on his head, come
dashing like lightning past me, just skimming the tops of
the trees in the ravine. I aim at least two feet before it,
and the bird either whirls head over heels with tremendous
impetus to the bottom, scattering a cloud of feathers in the
air, or goes clucking past me and up the opposite bank,
making that peculiarly aggravating note which a pheasant
always seems to make when you miss him — a half -triumphant,
half-indignant cluck. ... It is grand to see an old cock
collapse in a cloud of feathers, and fall smashing some 50
yards past you into the deep ravine below.

1 85 7] SHOOTING IN THE HILLS 49
He did not long retain his liking for sport, but
these extracts show that as a very young man he
was not without it.
By the middle of February he was back at his post,
and wrote to his mother that after his long journey
up and down the mountain -sides, and in a "palki"
to the banks of the Ganges, " it was intensely inspirit
ing and delightful to me to get on my Arab, and
gallop off across the sandy plains" to his home in
Bulandshahr, thirty-five miles away. There he found
his mother's letter ofthe 10th January awaiting him.
The communication is wonderfully speedy in these days.
I don't think that I should care to have it improved now.
Once a fortnight is quite often enough to hear from home,
and if we could hear oftener the zest would be some
what taken away from the pleasure of receiving home
letters. I am very much obliged to you for ' The Saturday Review,'
the missing number of which, inquired for in my last letter,
has come to hand. I think it is by far the best written
paper that I have ever seen, and I take credit to myself for
discerning its merits from the first number, which came out
just as I left England. It is just the publication required out
here to keep one " au fait " as to all that goes on in English
politics and literature. ... I suppose you won't get me
Voltaire's works, but I want his Philosophical Dictionary.
Do not send Dicken's (sic) new serial. . . . My private
opinion is that he is able to write nothing but broad farce,
and that he has been going backward ever since ' Pickwick '
came out. I am growing a moustache, as I consider this
solitude a fine place for the experiment. . . . We are vaguely
apprehensive of a storm brewing on our North - Western
Frontier, and I think we shall have some trouble in the
Persian direction soon.

50 ALFRED LYALL [1857
But there is not a sign of any apprehension about
the storm that was brewing so much nearer home.
On the 19th of February he writes to his father a
letter which shows the kind of reading affected by
him at two-and-twenty, and shows also a touch of
the gentle malice which sometimes perhaps carried
him a little too far in his dealings with the serious-
minded philosopher. After remarking that his father
always answers his letters, he goes on —
Have you got my Herodotus at home, and my Shakespeare
in one volume ? I thought also that I had brought out ' Don
Quixote' with me. One volume, too, of Gibbon is missing.
You used to remark that I had a peculiar predilection for
reading whatever was not required, and neglecting that
species of literature which might concern me at the time.
In accordance to this characteristic, I have lately been in
dulging in all sorts of desultory reading, although the law
examination is impending, and I hardly know an Act. I
was still striving to enable myself to comprehend and appre
ciate the metaphysical parts of the ' Agonistes,' when a native
pedlar brought some old books to my door, and, on condition
that I bought some volumes of the 'Sporting Review,' he
threw in Hume's ' Essays ' as a makeweight. This was just
what I required, and I was soon deep in the essays on
Necessary Connexion and the like. I think Hume's reason
ing wonderfully clear and ingenious, and am bound to say
that I incline to his side even on many of the points where
you are his adversary. There are one or two things in your
book which I should like to be explained. ... I doubt your
assertion that the idea of number does not exist to brutes,
and I do not see how you know or have any right to suppose
that a hen does not miss the eggs you take from her. If she
does miss them, what can she do more than go on with those
that are left? Again, why have you enumbered such an

1 857] MISCELLANEOUS READING 51
astounding jumble of trades and professions in your defini
tion of "non-productive classes"? Have you any reason
for bringing forward postilions and chimney-sweeps more
than twenty other sorts of professions ? And why have you
excluded the members of the Church? I always supposed
that economists reckoned them as forming a vast non
productive body.
This, it must be allowed, is rather hard hitting ; and
if, as seems probable, it began a year or so before, in
conversation, one can understand that at first his
father may have found it a little difficult to answer
patiently. My reading uow is an absurd jumble of different subjects.
I take up classics now and then, just to keep me from utterly
forgetting them. I wish you would enclose your ' Principles
of Truth.' Also I want De Quincey's ' Essays ' and ' Opium-
Eater.' The absurd jumble was in any case fairly good
reading for his age. He goes on abruptly to his
daily work —
We have caught a large band of wandering gipsies in the
district accused of all sorts of crimes, and I have been all day
helping to examine them. They are a curious people, have
no settled residence, no caste, and no particular religion, and
describe themselves by the appropriate term of " Khana
badosh," which is a Persian word for vagrant, meaning
literally House on back. . . . They cannot tell whence they
come from, and don't care whither they go. All other natives
repudiate them.
These people, whom every district officer in India
knows, were just the folk to interest Lyall, and enlist

52 ALFRED LYALL [1857
his sympathetic study. He always had a touch of
George Borrow in his composition. He writes to his
sister a few days later describing another incident
of his work, the despatch of £10,000 from the district
treasury to Meerut, and the counting of the money
bags. Over this he nearly comes to grief, trying to
superintend the count, but in reality dreaming, so
that a bag goes astray.
I made another ludicrously unpleasant exhibition to-day.
The office people informed me that to-morrow was a holiday,
upon which I, with an expression of condescending interest
in the habits and customs of the country, inquired whether
it was a Hindoo or Mussulman feast, and sacred to what
deity. Conceive my confusion when they answered that it
was one of the Sahib's own high festivals, but they did not
know exactly to what deity. In fact, it turned out to be
Ash Wednesday. My ignorance is excusable enough, as there
is nothing here to mark one day from another all the year
round, but the pious heathens were evidently scandalised.
I felt ashamed too, as, independently of religious grounds,
it is by no means the " ton '' in Eastern lands not to be fully
acquainted with the rites and feasts of one's own religion. . . .
Do you ever read poetry now ? . . . I am always spouting
verses to myself here alone, my favourite piece at present
being that fragment in Peacocke's 'Maid Marian,' "A damsel
stood to watch the fight," which has always seemed to me
the perfection of a musical ballad. . . .
I wish you would have your picture taken and send it out
to me. Other people have all their relations in photograph.
... I asked my mother long ago to send her picture, but I
knew I should never get it, though I would have paid for it
myself twice over. . . .
The air . . . is getting that rich odorous scent which the
summer brings to it. . . . In the night, as just now, it is

1 857] FESTIVAL OF THE HOLI 53
delicious. I go out and look up at Orion, and think that he
is shining on me and on you perhaps walking down from
Harbledown, just as he shone on the old Greek sailors two
thousand years ago, and on the ancient nations who wor
shipped the host of heaven. I like to look up at him and
think that I do in reality see the shadowy outline of the
mighty hunter. ... At any rate, look at him on the next
opportunity, and see how grandly he reclines with his belt
and sword.
Soon afterwards he describes how he had to make
a local inquiry into an alleged robbery in the house of
a Brahmin, a friend of his, who was supposed to have
lost a hundred pounds' worth of goods, carried off
through a hole in the wall ; and how the Mussulman
police officer and the Brahmin had a fierce dispute
over the story.
I rather suspect my friend to have made the hole himself
in order to have the fun of setting the police officer on a wild-
goose chase.
He goes on to tell how
... a man had cut off all the four feet of his enemy's ass,
out of spite, and as there is no cruelty to animals' law out
here, I am going to imprison and fine him for "wanton
destruction of property," which I consider to be an ingenious
rendering of the law. Also I am persecuted by a little gipsy
girl, whose father, a juggler, is in custody. She will suddenly
rush out and tie herself into a knot or stand on her head . . .
in hopes of melting me thereby. . . . The great feast of the
Holi, in celebration of the vernal equinox, is coming on in a
few days. The whole population throw a sort of red dust at
each* other, or mix it with water and squirt it in each other's
faces. Everybody marries his little son to his neighbour's
little daughter, and the betrothal is celebrated by awful music

54 ALFRED LYALL [1857
all night. ... In short, this is the primeval feast of the spring
harvest ; and they have no doubt celebrated it for thousands
of years just in this way. You perhaps do not know that in
this fertile country we have two harvests, one in the spring
and another in the autumn.
The study of popular customs, always congenial to
Lyall, afterwards became one of his favourite pursuits,
and supplied him with the facts which enabled him to
deal so faithfully with some of the charming theories
of Max Muller and Frazer. In March there was still
not a sign of any coming trouble, and Lyall had
nothing to tell his mother, so he fell back on domestic
details, how he had been obliged to dismiss his
" victualler," and had bought fifty live teal to supply
his table in the hot weather, when other food would
be hard to get. He rejoiced at the prospect of his
younger brother James coming out. " There is no
body with whom I laugh so much, except George
Barlow, and I want somebody to laugh with very
much." James was advised to come to the North-
West Provinces for various reasons, among others that
the climate was better,
and the people here are immensely superior, morally and
physically, to the Bengalees. I would back fifty of these fine,
tall, up-country men against a thousand of the inhabitants of
Lower Bengal. . . . The language, too, is much finer, and is
half Persian, and thus in some degree classical, whereas the
Bengali tongue is a mere provincial patois, which I would
disdain to speak, for if I must learn foreign languages, I
like to know fine languages, with some literature attached-
Also, the country up here is historical, the scene of the great
Mogul conquests, and the cities are really worth seeing.

i857] HORSES AND GUNS 55
He was evidently beginning to feel something of that
real interest and pride in the manly race about him
which his poems afterwards expressed so strongly.
You seem to have taken my account of the desolate condi
tion of my rooms and the want of crockery as if I were
seriously complaining, whereas I only meant it as a joke on
myself. ... I am not in the least afflicted by my poverty in
that respect. ... I prefer getting other things instead. I
have only one chair of my own and but three teacups, but I
have two horses and four guns. In a secluded spot like this
I consider my horses and guns as more important than a well-
furnished pantry.
A properly constituted boy of two-and-twenty could
hardly feel otherwise. He goes on to laugh at his
own sporting prowess —
I went out shooting for the last time this season about
a week ago. Seeing a fine buck antelope, I got off my
elephant and made for a bush on the right of the deer, the
elephant marching parallel with me, but so as to cut it off on
the left. The cunning old buck slowly retreated, but came on
a man whom I had sent round behind it. He stopped and
held a council of war with himself. Suddenly he made up
his mind (the buck I mean) and charged straight at the gap
between me and the elephant, where I never thought he
would dare to come. I was intensely excited, and let fly both
barrels as he passed me. The first ball hit the ground under
him, the second whistled over him and struck with a dull
thud the leg of the elephant, who was staring solemnly at the
scene. The wrath and fear of the elephant were most
ludicrous, just like a respectable old gentleman who is quietly
looking on at a street row and suddenly receives a lump of
dirt in his face. This elephant, an enormous animal, lifted up
his trunk with a scream of anger and bolted with his driver

56 ALFRED LYALL [1857
over hedge and ditch and high standing crops with his head
in the air and trunk erect. . . . Knowing that a bullet will no
more go through an elephant's hide than a popgun ball will
go through a door, I was not alarmed, but sat down and
shouted with laughter to see the huge brute run. However,
I left off laughing when he again appeared on the horizon,
being brought back to me by the mahout ; as elephants are
known to have as keen an appreciation of practical jokes as
men. ... So at first I felt a little uneasy as he came looming
through the field towards me, and I gave him a wide berth.
But, like all animals, he was not revengeful, and even allowed
me to examine his hurts, which consisted in a slight abrasion
of the outer part of the hide where the ball had hit him.
When I got home there was much cutting of jokes at my
having bagged my own elephant.
The whole thing was like Lyall, never really a good
shot, and never the least disinclined to laugh at him
self, though he disliked ridicule from others.
On the 30th March he had heard through a news
paper telegram of the death of his father's brother,
the Dean of Canterbury. When he left England in
1855 he had felt that he should not see the Dean
again, and he writes to Mrs Holland —
I remember that my taking leave of him last November
year was the only thing, of all the partings that took place
then, that reduced me to shedding tears. It almost now
makes me do so when I recollect how I walked home through
the Cathedral yard in the dark, sobbing and crying almost in
an absurd manner, for I have noticed in myself that when I
do begin to cry I become quite hysterical and cannot leave off.
. . . Perhaps you can imagine how we look over the list of
deaths which are telegraphed every fortnight from England.
We always get them in the summary of news that comes
before the letters and papers.

1 85 7] SOLDIERS AND CIVILIANS 57
He goes on, little thinking of what the next few
months were to bring forth —
I am sorry that John Lee is coming out here as a cadet. I
would not be an officer in the Indian Army if I had the
slightest chance of subsistence in England. Wretched pay,
nothing to do, and no prospect of a retiring competence except
after about forty years' service. . . . The red coat out here
does not carry the prestige with it that it does at home,
. . . the natives have long ago found out that all the power
rests with the black coats. The only thing that serves to
reconcile me to banishment [this is a new note with him]
is that no finer position can well be desired than that of a
civilian. We have enormous powers for good and evil.
He proceeds to contrast the two positions, very
much to the advantage of the civilian. He was right
enough as matters then stood, but before his day
soldiers had done great things in India. There is
no part of the world where the tactical capacity of
the British officer, and the genius of the race for sheer
hard fighting against odds, have been more often and
more strikingly shown. Now a time was coming
again when the power was to pass from the black coat
to the red, and Lyall was to learn, and acknowledge,
that the soldier's profession was the most honourable
of all.

CHAPTER VL
THE MUTINY.
1857-1861.
Visits to Meerut and Delhi, April 1857— Eumours of disaffection in Sepoy
army — Pugnacious villagers — Outbreak of Mutiny, May 1857- — Mas
sacre at Delhi — Eisings in Bulandshahr — Lyall shoots mutineer — His
house burnt by rebels — Escapes to Meerut — Joins Volunteer Cavalry
— Horse kUled imder him — Eestores order in Bulandshahr — Measures
of pimishment — Natives fighting among themselves — Lyall posted to
Shahjehanpore, May 1858— Severe fighting— The 42nd Highlanders-
Disarming the district — Dulness of peace times— Posted to Pilibheet,
February 1860 — Tiger-shooting — Influence of Mutiny on Lyall's char
acter and writings.
The first of Alfred Lyall's letters which gives any
warning of what was about to happen is one written
to his mother on the 7th of April 1857. He had
been obliged to go into Meerut, the headquarters of
his division, to pass an examination, and had taken
the opportunity of returning by Delhi to see the
imperial city. He stayed there a couple of days,
but did not see much, "as it was very hot, and I
am never very ardent about seeing things that every
one is expected to visit." He went to look at the
Great Mosque, but
there was an immense flight of steps to be ascended, and a
good many true believers sitting at the top. I was alone,
and dared not face their disapproving countenances, which
I knew would glare upon me as I laboured up the steps,
although they of course would not dare to do anything but
look savagely at me. Besides, I hate going peeping about
in places where you are considered an intruder.

i857] THE CHUPATTIS 59
Hardly a month later the Europeans in Delhi,
men and women and children, were being brutally
massacred by the true believers, and the Great
Mosque had become the centre from which was
preached the holy war of extermination.
The letter goes on to criticise at length an edition
of Bacon's ' Essays ' which his mother had sent him,
and then to touch upon the condition of the sepoy
army. "You will have seen in the newspapers," he
writes, " that a great deal of mutinous disaffection
has appeared among the native soldiers," and he
points out how " fearfully dangerous to our Indian
empire a general mutiny would be." He then tells
her the well-known story of the chupattis, or oatmeal
cakes as he calls them, which were made in every
village of the district by the village police, and
passed on —
No one knew, or would tell, whence they came, or whither
the cakes were to go, or who gave the order. Each man had
received the awful command from the next village. . . .
They seemed to obey with a sort of superstitious awe, which
prevented any questioning or reasoning, as if a curse would
follow any neglect. No one has been able to make anything
of this. I am apt to consider the phenomenon as a sort of
fiery cross sent over India to warn all to be ready. . . .
In this instance I really think something is about to happen.
But the letter passes to various unimportant
matters, and finishes up with the sentence, " My
coatemporaries are marrying very fast. Shall I
follow their example ? "
By the time his mother received this letter the

60 ALFRED LYALL [1857
English papers had in all probability published the
news of an outbreak at Meerut, and of the massacre
at Delhi. The anxiety in Harbledown as to the fate
of the much-loved son must have been intense.
Meanwhile Alfred Lyall was working away with
out any immediate apprehensions. But the whole
country was then full of arms, and his district was
no exception. It was therefore thought desirable
to disarm some of the little forts and fortified villages
with which the district was studded, and he was
employed on this duty. On the 24th of April he de
scribes the process to his father, and then turns to a
totally different question, his own money affairs —
In spite of your good advice I do not yet intend to save
a rupee, but to enjoy my life for the present as much as
I possibly can. Why should I save ? My pay will go on
steadily increasing, so that if I wait for five years I can
marry without the least anxiety on that score. Besides, I
won't pass all my life in hoarding up rupees. I declare I
would just as soon throw the surplus of each month into
the Ganges, which is now flowing under this balcony.
This is petulant, to say the least of it ; but he was
perhaps getting irritated by repeated admonitions.
As late as the 3rd May, a week before the out
break, he writes to his mother a long letter describing
his life: a gallop at sunrise; work from seven till
noon ; then breakfast, and a torpid period until about
half-past five, with the house shut up against the
blazing heat; then a plunge in the swimming-bath.
The letter contains not a word about the disaffection
in the army, but gives a sympathetic description of

1 85 7] OUTBREAK OF THE MUTINY 61
the fights between different villages, and between
landlord and tenant, during the harvest season —
I never saw such a pugnacious race as these men. They
are mostly tall wiry men, and each carries a club five feet
long, generally loaded with iron at the end. The better class
wear scimitars, that is great heavy curved swords. . . .
They work themselves up into fearful passions, and then
go to work, utterly regardless of any legal consequences.
. . . Down in Bengal the landlords bully and grind the
wretched cultivators. Up in these parts it is rather the
tenant who bullies and defies his landlord, sitting night
and day over his little stock of wheat, in company with
two or three other grim villagers who may have joined their
stores to his. I can see their watch-fires from my verandah
all over the plain at this moment. 1 take much interest in
this primitive style of life, and could go on writing about
it for ever.
By the time he despatched his next letter the
storm had burst. The native troops had risen in
the great military station of Meerut, forty miles
away, murdering many Europeans, and had marched
off, unpunished, to Delhi. In his own station about
fifteen English people had rapidly collected in
the Magistrate's house, — mostly travellers, who had
come in for protection. All were armed, and kept
incessant watch, lest any body of insurgent troops
should march on Bulandshahr. It is curious and
instructive to read Lyall's long accounts of what
followed during the next few days. The native popu
lation did not rise against the white man, but the
moment they thought the white man was powerless
they rose against each other, the rival castes and

62 ALFRED LYALL [1857
villages plundering and fighting in all directions :
the Hindu Gujars raiding the Hindu Jats, and the
Mahomedans raiding all Hindus impartially — while
the English Magistrate and his young Assistant rode
about from village to village followed by a few native
subordinates and fighting men, vainly trying to keep
order and punish the rioters. In the course of their
operations they had some promiscuous fighting, and
Lyall saw for the first time men killed and wounded.
Indeed he did more, for he was obliged himself to
pistol one man, a sepoy mutineer, who had shot one
of his native followers, and was fighting savagely.
To a boy of his age the excitement and action were
of course delightful, and after a week of it he writes
to his father : " I really think that I have hardly
ever enjoyed myself so much." His heart is naturally
full of rage against the mutineer sepoys, who had
butchered English women and children ; but, " all
the other natives," he says, " are just like a set of
mischievous schoolboys whose master has met with
an accident. They turn to, and fight and rob each
other, whereby the whole party is easily dispersed."
At the time he evidently hoped that order might
soon be restored —
I wrote you a long letter yesterday. ... As I suppose
you are very anxious, I write again to-day to tell you that
our prospects are looking up. We expect reinforcements of
staunch troops to arrive here to-morrow, when we shall be
safe, and have leisure to come down on all the rebellious
villagers, who are getting worse and worse. There is nothing
but robbery and murder all over the district, but they dare
not come near us at the station. . . . We do not fear the

1 85 7] THE RISE OF THE VILLAGERS 63
villagers in the least. . . . You can understand what a state
of fury we all are in, when I tell you that the mutineers
performed atrocities on the women and children of the
Europeans in Delhi, which can only be compared to the
worst days of the French Revolution. ... I am at a loss
to account for the fact that I am in excellent spirits. Just
as I had written the word " spirits " there arose a fearful row,
and I jumped up and substituted a revolver for my pen, and
rushed to the door. A vast volume of smoke was seen rising
above the town, so the Magistrate and I got on our horses
and galloped down. We found that an enormous stack of
wood had caught fire, and was blazing furiously before a
strong wind. Luckily the stack was on the leeward edge
of the town, or the whole city would have burned. We could
do nothing to extinguish the flames, as we do not keep fire-
engines in India, so we retired to the roof of a high house,
and stood contemplating the burning city. I proposed to the
Magistrate to send for a fiddle as his Rome was burning, but
he would not see the fun of the thing.
This comparatively satisfactory state of affairs was
soon over. On the 21st of May came news that the
troops at the next station had risen, and as the
detachment of sepoys in charge of the Treasury at
Bulandshahr belonged to the same regiment, the
look-out was bad. All the Europeans thereupon
left for Meerut, with the exception of the four civil
officers, who remained at their posts. They had
with them thirty irregular troopers, who seemed
staunch, and the detachment of sepoys had as yet
remained quiet, so they hoped at least to save the
treasure. The hope was fallacious, for in the evening
we had loaded the treasure on carts, the sepoys were in
order round it, and the troopers in the saddle, when all of

64 ALFRED LYALL [1857
a sudden the van of an immense body of armed villagers
appeared through the trees not 200 yards from us. Then
began a wonderful row. The sepoys fired at them in defence
of the treasure, and drove them off, but some burst into the
town where they began murdering and plundering, while the
rest swarmed over the country in every direction, invading
every house and garden like locusts.
Two of the civil officers, TurnbuU and Lyall, with
a few troopers, pursued the first body and cut up a
considerable number, driving them out of the town,
while the townspeople also fired at them from the
roofs, and killed all who fell into their hands ; but on
returning from the pursuit, TurnbuU and Lyall found
that their own houses were in flames, a strong body
of villagers having attacked from that side.
I could see them dragging out my furniture and smashing
open the boxes, &c., &c. We could not charge them, for at
this moment the officer commanding the sepoys came up to
say that they had tumed upon the treasure. We went up
to them, and found that they had picked a quarrel with
the troopers, whom they threatened to shoot, whereupon the
said troopers rode clean away. Then we desired the sepoys
to march off with us, bringing the treasure. They marched
out of the gate, and then coolly took the opposite road to that
which we ordered, and thus walked off with the treasure.
So ended the gallant attempt of the civilians to do
their duty. Joined by the officer of sepoys, but
deserted by every native foUower, TurnbuU and LyaU
saw that the game was up; so they turned their
horses' heads towards Meerut, and made a dash for the
open country, past their blazing houses. The village
bands were swarming round them, and the forty-mile

1 85 7] HOUSE AND PROPERTY BURNT 65
ride was a perilous one ; but favoured by a very dark
night the three Europeans managed to steer through
the various parties they encountered, and got safely
to Meerut. They had lost almost everything they
possessed ; but owing to the comparatively good con
duct of the troopers and sepoys they had escaped
with their lives, and in that they were luckier than
many others.
In Meerut Lyall found the other two civil officers
from Bulandshahr, who had cut their way through a
body of villagers and escaped.
His stay in Meerut was short, for before his arrivaL
a regiment had been sent off to Bulandshahr, and was
expected to arrive in a day or two. So three of the
four civilians rode back to their station with a small
force of native troopers. They found the station com
pletely sacked and burnt, and all the houses in ruins.
" I have lost everything that I had in my house, furni
ture, crockery, electroplate, and above all every one of
my books." He gives a list of his possessions, most of
which he had just bought, but adds : " However, I do
not much mind the loss, as it is wonderful how well
I get on with a horse, a revolver, a double gun, and
a shirt, without requiring anything else in these fight
ing times." The outrages inflicted by the armed
villagers upon innocent people had stirred his wrath.
"These cowardly villains," he writes, "have robbed
and murdered hundreds of travellers and others," and
he sets to work to punish them with stern satisfaction.
" The villagers rose in thousands, and sacked a large
native town within ten miles of us yesterday, kiUing
E

66 ALFRED LYALL [1857
men, women, and children. . . . These men have not
the slightest excuse for all this horrible outrage." So
it was all over the disturbed country ; and it is worth
remembering that directly our power seemed to have
collapsed the worst sufferers were the natives them
selves, who were slaughtered in thousands. No doubt
we suffered too, and LyaU writes : " What wretched
work this is ! so many men whom I knew well
killed in this miserable manner by mutineers. I am
always repeating to myself Homer's ' dW eyyv? davaros
Kai fioipa /AcXaii/T/.' " But the number of natives killed
by the insurgents was immeasurably greater than the
number of white men.
The work of punishment, though begun, was
soon interrupted, for a neighbouring landholder, the
Nawab Walidad Khan, succeeded in getting some
insurgent sepoys to come out from Delhi, and with
their aid laid a trap for the English officers which
very nearly succeeded. Decoyed into the town,
they were suddenly attacked with musketry and
grape, and nothing but the speed of their charge
saved them. They got clear with the loss of a few
troopers, but had again to leave Bulandshahr and stay
at a place half-way to Meerut, watching their old
station, and listening to the boom of the guns at
Delhi, where a small British force was attacking the
mutineers. Meanwhile news of rising after rising,
and massacre after massacre, came in from the stations
aU round, and Lyall's heart grew hot within him. " I
was greatly struck," he writes to his father, "with
the appropriateness of the first lesson of last Sunday,

1 85 7] HINDUS AND MAHOMEDANS 67
which told how Joshua went up against the royal city
of Ai and smote the inhabitants with the edge of the
sword. I intend to draw my morality from the Old
Testament for some time to come." But the royal
city was to hold out for three months yet against our
small army, outnumbered by three or four to one.
The vengeance, when it came, was not wholly in
sufficient, but it was long in coming, and Lyall in
common with all the English in India chafed fiercely
at the delay.
Meanwhile, the Bulandshahr district having got com
pletely out of hand, he had gone in to Meerut, and had
attached himself as a trooper to a party of Volunteer
Horse. With this party, numbering about forty men,
he joined in several rapid expeditions against bodies
of insurgents, who were burning and plundering all
the peaceable villages in the neighbourhood. Some of
these expeditions were not carried out without sharp
fighting, and Lyall thoroughly enjoyed himself In
the course of it all he came to change his opinion
about Hindus and Mahomedans,
There is always something very laughable to me in the
way these Hindoos will walk off with their enemy's property
the moment that he is down. Plunder always seems to be
their chief object, to obtain which they will perform any
villainy, whereas the Mahometans only seem to care about
murdering their opponents, and are altogether far more bloody-
minded. These last hate us with a fanatical hate that we
never suspected to exist among them, and have everywhere
been the leaders in the barbarous murdering and mangling of
the Christians.

68 ALFRED LYALL [1857
This view he repeats at intervals in his Mutiny letters,
and, in a sense, it remained with him to the end of
his life. He had in later years many Mahomedan
friends, but he always seems to have regarded the one
religion as far more hostile to us than the other. A
good Ulustration of his feeling in the matter is given
by his short poems entitled 'Studies at Delhi, 1876,'
where the attitude of the two faiths is sharply con
trasted. He often said that he hoped to see the
expulsion of the Turk from Europe.
In one of the fights of the Volunteer Horse Lyall
had a narrow escape. They were pursuing the beaten
enemy through some fields of sugar-cane, when "a
man suddenly sprang up from the high cane under my
horse's feet, and made a furious blow at me with his
tulwar. I parried it just in time, or he would have
cut me in two. My horse gave a tremendous plunge,
and his second blow descended on her flank, inflicting
a mortal wound." . . . The mutineer was killed by an
English rifleman, and Lyall goes on —
I escaped thus unhurt, with a sword bent by the blow, but
my poor white mare, who was the admiration of the whole
troop, and my special pride, was so fearfully wounded that it
was necessary to shoot her immediately. I shed lots of tears
over her, and altogether made an exhibition of myself, but I
had come quite to love the poor creature, and can hardly bear
to think of her now.
Still he enjoyed the fighting, for in a letter written
not long afterwards he expresses his pleasure at find-

1 85 7] A NARROW ESCAPE 69
ing himself suddenly brought back to the dark ages,
and placed in a country which has relapsed into a
state of barbarism —
I can realise exactly what the old life of foray and plunder
must have been. I can understand how easily men get
accustomed to arid like this sort of life. . . . Every man does
what is right in his own eyes; villages are fighting against
villages, Hindoo Rajputs against Mussulmans, and petty chiefs
starting up in every direction. The Rajputs are the best
fighters among the Hindoos, but they generally get beaten
by the Mahometans, whose worst enemies must confess that
they are the most warlike of all. There is something in their
religion that makes warriors of them.
He comments upon the fierce hatred shown to us by
the Mahomedans, and puts down the whole Mutiny
to this. Then he tells a story of a fight between
three thousand Hindu Jats and two thousand Mussul
mans of his district, " horse, foot, and artillery," who
are routed by a sudden charge. Their leader had
been trying to collect revenue. The victors in this
affair are apparently on the best of terms with the
English civil officers, " and I never was so delighted
as when the Hindoo leader, a tall, grey - bearded
veteran, who had fought in the Cabul campaign on
our side, recounted to me how he led his brotherhood
on to that desperate charge." And this was at the
very height of the Mutiny, which is so commonly, and
so wrongly, regarded as a national revolt against the
British. At the same time Lyall describes how curiously

70 ALFRED LYALL [1857
timid these pugnacious villagers were against white
men —
The natives have acquired a sort of awful fear of us (I mean
the villagers), and will not fight us at a hundred to one ; but
they are no cowards for all that, and fight desperately among
themselves. It is very curious, but I have seen a man, after
beating off three or four of his fellow countrymen, drop his
sword and fly at the sight of a single European.
Lyall adds that, of course, the regular mutineers are
different ; but all readers of Mutiny history must have
been struck by the apparently impossible odds against
which our victories were usually won ; and without
this " sort of awful fear " of the white man it is difficult
to account for them. No doubt the leading of the
British officer had much to do with it, and the want
of good leading on the other side ; but there was more
in it than this. Any one who wishes to understand
the feeling of the native towards the white man, as
described by a native, should read a little work,
'From Sepoy to Subadar,' which throws a curious
light upon the subject.
A month later Lyall writes to his father —
Delhi has fallen, after a bloody fight, at which unluckily
I was not present, being laid up at Meerut. I am quite well
now, and shall start for Delhi to-morrow morning at 4 A.M.,
in order to enjoy the pleasure of seeing the imperial city of
the Mussulmans in ruins. I have left the Volunteer Horse, as
I am ordered to join the " movable column " which is forming
at Delhi for the purpose of sweeping the Doab (Do Ab — two
waters), or country between the Ganges and the Jumna, down
to Agra. I am afraid that we shall see no fighting of any im-

1 85 7] SERVICE WITH TROOPS 71
portance, as all the rebels are pouring across the Ganges. . . .
I have just been made a Joint Magistrate. Tremendous
promotion !
His service with the movable column was short, for
the first move was on his own station, Bulandshahr,
which was held by a force of mutineers and fanatic
Mahomedans. Here he saw his first fight on a con
siderable scale, with artillery on both sides. Know
ing the ground thoroughly, he was able to do useful
service, and found himself in the thick of a cavalry
action, in which the opposing horsemen fairly met
hand to hand. The end of it was that the enemy
were driven across the river, but, to his extreme
disgust, not pursued.
But [he writes very sensibly] I own that I know nothing
on military matters, having already, in the course of these
little campaigns, discovered the excellent wisdom of meas
ures which I had on my own judgment declared to be
utterly absurd. . . . All the little skirmishes of the last four
months seem child's-play to this sort of work. Artillery is
such a fearful machine of destruction. I fear it most heartily,
far more now than ever, only I have learnt that it is of no
use to bob one's head.
At Bulandshahr Lyall was left by the movable
"column, which marched on to other fields, and Lord
Roberts, who was attached to it, describes in his
book, ' Forty-One Years in India,' the anxiety which
was felt for Lyall's safety. "We left Bulandshahr,
and said good-bye to LyaU, on the 3rd October, feeling
that he was being placed in a position of considerable
risk, thrown as he was on his own resources, with

72 ALFRED LYALL [1857
general instructions to re-establish the authority of
the British Government." But he seems to have felt
no anxiety himself, and set to work without delay to re
store order and deal out punishment. In this last duty
he was severe ; and those who knew him only in the
latter part of his life wiU perhaps be surprised to hear
it. They will not easily imagine him as a " hanging
judge." But even then, severe as he undoubtedly
was, knowing well the criminal folly of any weakness
in such times, he was not pitiless. " A great many
of the enemy were killed," he writes, "and their
skeletons still lie all over the place, picked clean
by the dogs and vultures. Also the people about
were for the first few days continually bringing in
wretched mutineers, wounded in all sorts of disgust
ing ways, whom they had dragged from some hole or
hedge where the poor creatures had lain hid." That
is not the tone of the merciless butcher. It is true
that he also writes : " We are exercising unsparing
revenge and hang people daUy," but his letter shows
that at the very same time he and others were getting
abused for checking indiscriminate punishment. The
unsparing revenge and hanging were for murderers
only, and mainly for the murderers of natives. Few
if any white men had been kiUed in the district.
Through it all his love of reading crops out —
I have now not a book, and have learnt to do without them,
but still I should like something. I wish you would send out
all the new books worth reading. I will pay the bill, and
beg you not to economise on my account. ... I want also
some poetry. Can you get me pocket editions of Shelley and

1 85 7] PUNISHMENT OF MUTINEERS 73
Keats, also a little Homer, and the poetical works of Ernest
Jones ?
Many Englishmen of the present day would perhaps
be puzzled to say what were the poetical works of
Ernest Jones. It is possible that Lyall was attracted
by the title of one of them, "The Revolt of
Hindustan." As to the murderers who were being executed, he
writes —
I have somehow got lately a strange fear of what the old
Greeks call Nemesis, so I just do my duty in hanging them,
and nothing more. For this same reason I nover insult or
curse them, . . . but am particularly polite and deferential to
them up to their last moment, insomuch that some here
have been deluded into the idea that I was going to let
them off. . . .
My father warns me against engaging in skirmishes, as I
am inexperienced in war. It is true that I know nothing of
regular warfare, but five months' irregular skirmishing has
taught me something, and I am very well armed. Besides,
everybody must fight in these times. No one can sit looking
on and plead the inexperience of a civilian. ... I know
something about sword exercise, having learnt it at Hailey
bury (do you remember how displeased my father was at
having to pay the bill ?), otherwise I should probably have
been cut down when my mare was killed ; and you know
that I am pretty well accustomed to firearms. But I will not
boast, fearing Nemesis. ... I only regret my books, which
can never be replaced, and whose loss will have ruined all my
ideas of keeping up my classics and French. I must give all
that up and sink into barbarism. I feel the change already.
In old times I was miserable without something to read.
Now I hardly ever wish to look into a book, which is in some
degree fortunate, as I have none. ... I used to study

74 ALFRED LYALL [1857
regularly before this. . . . Pray remember me to . . . and
beg her to pardon me for not writing to her. I will do so
when all this work is over, when I shall have washed my
hands and made myself morally decent.
For the rest of the year Lyall was out in camp,
watching the river frontier of his district, as a large
force of mutineers was only a few miles away, and
constantly threatening an attack. The whole force
in the district consisted of forty white men and four
hundred Beluchis and Afghans, so this was rather
anxious work ; but his letters are happy and confi
dent. He had as one of his companions another
Godmersham boy, an officer in the army, and they
evidently got on well, at one time making an un
successful attempt to capture a mud fort, at another
marching through the night towards an enemy ten
times their number; Lyall, according to his own
account, convinced that they were going to commit
suicide, but nevertheless cheering up when they had
lit a fire, and soon "immensely merry over a cold
peacock and gin and water." He tells his mother
that he will not take any money from her —
Money is no use up here, and there is nothing to buy. . . .
I want warm clothes and cannot get them, and, worst bf all,
my tobacco is running short. ... At present I travel with a
tent, chairs, and a bedstead, and do not require anything else.
I am rich in articles of real value at the present time, as I
have four horses, a rifle, and a revolver, besides a whole
armoury of swords.
A special law had given magistrates unlimited
authority for a year, so he was in the position of a

1 85 7] IN CHARGE OF DISTRICT 75
despot, and he laughs at the way the natives of the
district treat him —
Also my youth and general politeness point me out as a
subject susceptible to adulation. . . . They are lost in admira
tion of my desperate courage, and relate stories to each other
in my presence, illustrating the manner in which I am sup
posed to have mowed down the enemy. They shout with
laughter at the idea of any one standing before me in the
fight, or treat the idea when put forward by another with
contemptuous pity.
It is a faithful picture. What Englishman dressed
in a little brief authority has not winced under similar
flatteries ? They are in accordance with the custom
of the country, and the people of the country would
think it mannerless to omit them.
Then bodies of mutineers appear in the neighbour
hood, and the little army marches away, Lyall being
left in charge of the station. He fortifies the jail,
and mounts the old guns over the gate in case of
attack. If the Mussulman patriots therein confined get up an
Smeute, I shall be under the melancholy necessity of turning
the guns inward. . . .
People in England dispute whether this is a national revolt
or not. In my opinion a national revolt, in the European
sense, is unknown in India. The villagers and towns either
side with some neighbouring potentate, ... or more generally,
and almost universally, side with no one at all. They are
delighted at being relieved from all government whatsoever,
and'instantly set to work fighting among themselves. Every
man of enterprise and a little influence collects his clan, and
plunders all the weaker villages around him. In particular,

76 ALFRED LYALL [1857
he strips the money-lending traders. . . . Money, cattle, com,
clothes, everything is taken, and the fat, well-to-do trader
remains a half - naked blubbering wretch, who beseeches
Government to get him back his bonds, and is horribly
vindictive when his tum comes round again.
Towards the close of the year, Bulandshahr having
become comparatively quiet, Lyall applied for service
in the neighbouring province of Rohilcund, where
many Europeans had been massacred, and there
seemed to be a chance of further fighting. He was
getting sick of mere punishment.
It is curious to see how soft-hearted many of us are, I
among the number, when we really come to putting men to
death. Every one cries for vengeance, and abuses those in
power for not carrying it out, but I have seen many, who
talk most bloodily about shooting and hanging, become utterly
unable to act when they saw a wretched villain before them
begging for his life.
To his father he writes that an example must be made
of the mutineers —
However, I am pretty sure that if the people in England
who are screaming for wholesale slaughter were obliged to do
the work in proprid persond, they would very soon become
disgusted with it. . . . Queer thoughts about the divine right
of revenge come into your head when you really have to send
a string of fellow-creatures out of the world, at least it happens
so with me. However, I have made up my mind, and can
superintend executions with very little emotion.
At the same time he writes to his mother again
refusing offers of money, and describing an expedi-

1858] PERSONAL COURAGE 77
tion with some Afghan horsemen to punish a rebel
village —
I think that I could get a short leave when all this shall
have finished, though I really like the excitement so much
that, as far as regards myself, the country may never be
settled. This sort of situation improves everybody, and pro
motes good fellowship and unselfishness, besides showing
clearly what every man's real character is.
The beginning of the next year, 1858, found him
still in Bulandshahr, for though his application for
service in Rohilcund had been accepted, that province
was in the hands of the enemy. Meantime he writes
to his brother-in-law, Holland —
I am really ashamed at being complimented by you and
others at home upon my " personal courage." I really and
truly am not peculiarly gifted in that way, not the least more
than any one else, and am nothing in comparison to many. I
have been perfectly astonished at the bravery of some of the
professional soldiers, who really seem to care for nothing.
He repeats his opinion about the missionaries —
Christianity will never flourish here, at least a Protestant
form. It has not fire enough. Ministers sent out to convert
the heathen with a decent stipend and a comfortable house
will never do any good. If you will give us a religious cry
to respond to Allah Akbar, as in the olden time, and organise
a sort of crusade, you will make some impression, but the
orthodox method will not pay. Every nation seems to me to
form its own phase of religion, according to its own peculiar
idiosyncrasy, and it is idle to think of ingrafting the rigid
and 'simple faith of the Saxons upon the Hindoos. . . .
I would not be at home now if I could be transported
thither. I should become bored in a week. This is a fine

78 ALFRED LYALL [1858
stirring life in these times, and I do not care how long the
disturbance lasts. I am sitting now in the verandah of a
house on the high bank of the Ganges, and every now and then
look up from my work to watch the movements of a picket
of enemy's cavalry who are clearly visible on the other side.
It is now beautiful weather, — you in England have no idea
of what clear, bright, dry days compose an Indian winter in
the north. I had sooner be here than down in St Dunstan's,
where it must be cold, damp, and raw, with not a vestige of
an enemy on the Harbledown heights.
Soon afterwards he tells his mother that the enemy
had brought five guns down to the bank of the river
" and began to pound us." As some of his men were
under fire, and as he " felt conscious of being horribly
afraid of the cannon-balls that come ricochetting along
the sand and raising clouds of dust," he determined to
conquer his faint-heartedness and ride down —
The first sight I met was one of our men lying on the
ground with the back of his head carried away by a shell. I
own that, having nothing to do, I crept under the shelter of a
boat, and lay down on the sand as the balls whizzed over my
head. However, seeing Knight (his Godmersham friend)
walking about the open plain as if nothing was going on, I
emerged from my hole and joined him. ... I am honourably
mentioned in the despatch of the Bulandshahr fight.
He writes to his father —
I am still out with the camp on the Ganges, but have no
more warlike adventures to relate, and am beginning to fear
that I am come to the end of my fighting experiences. In
stead of that, I have descended to the lower work of arresting
criminals and confiscating the property of rebels.
He is sent to make a sudden descent upon the fort

1858] SURPRISES A FORT 79
of a Mussulman chief, and succeeds in surprising it,
but feels very much disgusted with the work of con
fiscation, and is evidently so worked upon by the
old retainers and the women and children, that he
promises to speak a good word for the head of the
house, who would certainly have murdered him if
victorious —
He has committed simple rebellion. If he had been in any
way concerned in the massacres, I would have been hung
myself before I could have said a word for him, but mere
rebellion is a gentlemanly offence. . . . Our native subordin
ates are making hay while the sun shines, and reaping a rich
harvest from the fears of those who are " shaky."
He is sad at this time because of his want of
clothes. " I am ashamed to go into Meerut in the
ragamuffin attire which I wear now. . . . You may
laugh at my caring about such things, but I have
always done so, and now I feel my sense of propriety
shocked by baggy trousers and sack-like coats." A
year's campaigning does play havoc with one's
wardrobe, especially in India, and no doubt he was
by this time in a fairly disreputable condition. But
his self-respect probably suffered more than it need
have done. Though he did not know it, he always
looked his best in loose clothes and a " wide-awake,"
and only spoilt himself when he conformed to
regulation. A letter to Francis Holland, of March 1858, gives
a ghastly story of the murder of two English ladies,
and one of the same time to Mrs Holland describes
how quickly all the villagers in his district have

80 ALFRED LYALL [1858
settled down, though they had been " fighting des
perately among themselves during the whole of
last summer, ... in reality every man was fighting
for his own hand. However, it was grand fun."
The hot weather found him still out in camp, and
resentful at the way people were beginning to talk
in England —
As I always prophesied, the excitement being over, the
English people have taken a strong turn in the direction of
clemency. This is all very well, but some are going farther,
and are beginning to denounce us all as dastardly murderers.
Well, 1 do not so much care now, as we have had our innings,
but I detest that cheap philanthropy which prompts men to
write letters from their Clubs to 'The Times' protesting
against unnecessary severity.
He goes on to point out how the Mahomedans had
deliberately planned and tried to carry out a war of
extermination, and how they had made conversions
at the point of the sword —
I know a great many half - castes who abjured their
religion during the terror of the rebeUion, and I myself
spoke with one man who positively declined to return to
Christianity.^ To his mother he tells the story of a friendly
Rajput landholder just across the river —
About ten days ago a swarm of villains suddenly fell upon
him, stormed his little mud fort after a desperate fight, and
killed him and all his brethren to the number of 50 souls.
. . . However, I got out a small boat and succeeded in
1 " Look at that half-caste clerk in his tears, whining aloud the name
of the prophet." — 'Theology in Extremis.'

1858] READING VOLTAIRE 81
rescuing his wife and little son, 18 months old, the sole
remnant of the family. Is not this a nice country, where
such things are of daily occurrence ? . . . James . . . says
you are anxious as to the discomfort in which I may be. Let
me assure you that I am very comfortable as I am, and wish
that these stirring times may last.
Soon afterwards he hears that his father has
refused to pay for some books ordered by him,
among which was Voltaire, and he says it was a
mistake that the bill was sent to Harbledown.
" But," he writes to his mother, " I consider that I
have a right to read whatever I choose, and that it
is not such an awful matter to possess Voltaire as you
seem to think." He proceeds to explain at length,
and finishes by carrying the war into the enemy's
country. " I am ready to lay any wager that . . .
and my father himself have both read every word of
Voltaire. Just ask them."
Before the end of May 1858 he had got his wish,
and was posted to Shahjehanpore, in the still dis
turbed district of Rohilcund. From there a few
weeks later he writes to his mother —
Your letter of June 23rd reached me to-day. The
description of hayfields and tea out of doors in the long
summer evening was almost too much for me. Just fancy
the contrast ; I was lying with a swelled and aching face in
my bed in a little stifling room, with a native doctor putting
on leeches. . . . And now it must be about midnight, and I
am sitting up because I cannot get a wink of sleep. It is
rather trying, but somehow I do not feel those low spirits
that I used to feel before this war broke out. . . . You see
we are all playing a certain part in the grand drama of
F

82 ALFRED LYALL [1858
' India Reconquered,' and it is something to feel that one is
taking a share in events that are world-famous and will
become historical, so that I can bear many discomforts in
order to see the play well played out.
A large body of rebels had assembled twenty miles
away, and there was some chance of an attack —
However, you need not fear for me, as the fighting days of
civilians are over, and I am not such an idiot as to thrust
myself among regular English troops, where I should only be
in the way. Those were grand times ! I have never enjoyed
myself half so much as I did from May to December 1857.
The rebel army has come a little nearer, . . . but its move
ments are so undecided that no one thinks that the mutineers
will make up their minds to come on before the end of the
month. ... In the meantime we are going to have races
to-morrow, and my Arab is to run for the Ladies' Purse,
although, I fear, there are no ladies within fifty miles. . . .
This is almost the anniversary of the assault upon Delhi.
This time last year I was out with the Volunteers within
20 miles of that city, and heard every morning the breach
ing guns thundering against the Cashmere Gate and Moree
bastion. I do not know anything so exciting as the distant
sound of artillery, and at that especial time we knew that
all our lives depended upon those guns.
At this time he was hoping to get another step in
promotion and a considerable increase in pay —
I think I could get it now if I chose to take an appoint
ment in Oude, but I have uneasy scruples as to the way in
which we got that country. . . . What an enormous number
of natives must have perished since May 1857. Those whom
we killed are not half the number. Everybody has been
killing his neighbour, and they have not left off yet in Oude
and Bundelcund.

1858] FIGHT WITH REBELS 83
He gives various cases of the kind, one, for
example, in which two men murdered each other's
brothers, and then rushed into court with petitions,
each hoping to get the other hanged —
I put both into prison, explaining that I intended to hang
both, or neither, whereupon the relations of both sides took
care that no evidence should appear, and the case was
quashed. I am always glad to see these cases settled quietly,
for I very much doubt our right to punish men for actions
committed during the year of utter confusion which ended in
May 1858, and during which time our rule had been com
pletely subverted in Rohilcund. These men never attempted
to do such things under our sway, but they thought that we
were all gone, and reverted to the fashions of their fore
fathers. He was to see and share in at least one more sharp
fight, for in October 1858, the rainy season being
over, a large body of rebels advanced into his district,
burning villages, and he was sent as civilian officer
with the troops — "political officer," as the Indian
phrase is. He found the enemy strongly posted, and
expected a tough resistance —
But our artillery was too much for them, and they
evacuated their position before the long gleaming line of
bayonets had got within charging distance.^ I was quite
astonished to see them bolt, for they, the rebels, fought far

1 " As our fathers fought we fight.
But a sword and a matchlock gun,
'Gainst the serried line of bayonets bright,
A thousand moving like one. "
— Rajput Rebels.
Ih this instance, however, the rebels were largely composed of well-armed
sepoys.

84 ALFRED LYALL [1858
better last year. ... I galloped to the Afghan cavalry with
orders to charge and pursue, and I found their officers riding
up and down in front of their men, alternately swearing at
and praying to their wild troops, who were like a pack of
eager hounds when the game has broken cover, and could not
be kept in order. The word being given, the whole body set
off with a chorus of furious shouts and yells of delight, and
we all went helter-skelter through the thick jungle in a
manner which would have horrified the Horse Guards,
Emerging from the jungle we found the place covered with
flying sepoys, who were darting across the clear spaces left
between the fields of high Indian com, and diving into the
cover in every direction. This was just the style of warfare
which our Afghans understood. They scattered all over the
country, cutting down, shooting, and spearing the fugitives in
a perfect ecstasy of delight. It was not, however, always
done with impunity. I saw one desperate sepoy turn and
await his pursuer with one knee on the ground, taking a
deliberate aim. The Afghan gave a shout and charged down
upon him, striking his enemy over the head, and receiving
the contents of the musket in his stomach. " Ya Allah," the
accompanying Afghan gave a howl of vengeance, and buried
his sabre in the sepoy's neck with &, slish that set my teeth
on edge.
The action was completely successful, and the
rebels were driven out of the district. Lyall remarks
that the rebels have lost heart, and comments on the
misconduct of their leaders, who " always run away
and leave their men to be cut up." This, no doubt,
was one of the main secrets of British victories
against hopeless odds, — the difference in leading.
England had much cause then, as she has had much
cause before and since, to thank God for the "stupid"
British officer.

1858] BRITISH OFFICERS 85
Lyall himself was now " in delightful heart " again,
with the return of cool weather and excitement. A
few more skirmishes, and the rebels had all been
chased out of the district.
I have a lurking sympathy with the Oude rebels, and
the great landholders of the country. . . . The Mussul
mans never could subdue the great Hindoo chiefs of
Oude, and the Rajputs still hold the land as they held it
2000 years ago. There are one or two rank rebels, but
penitent, from Oude, who live here under surveillance, but
come and see me sometimes, and I like to talk to them about
the eternal state of siege and petty warfare in which they
have been used to live.
He notes as a curious instance of the rapid way in
which the country becomes disturbed and settles
down, that on the 30th October he is shooting duck
and teal close by the place where he had seen the
fighting on the Sth.
In November he writes to his father —
The more pleased to see your handwriting because you so
very seldom write to me. . . . Agonistes found his match in
the insurgent Goojurs, who offered him up to the gods of
Hindooism in company with a hecatomb of classics, and that
poor little edition of Dean Swift which used to figure in the
dining-room bookshelves at Harbledown. I wish I could get
more books, but I have none, except Voltaire, who arrived
safely, diabolo volente. . . . This life is very enjoyable to me,
and I never regret that I gave up King's College for India.
I regj-et it less and less every year, as I get accustomed to the
country and the people. In spite of all that has happened, I
take immense interest in the natives of India, and like to be
constantly among them. . . .

86 ALFRED LYALL [1858
He tries to learn about the tribes, religions, and
social customs of the Hindus. The Mahomedans, he
says, are bloodthirsty fanatics, and he would like to
join in & regular crusade against them in any country
where Christians dwell. . . . Meanwhile "I have
begun many letters to newspapers, journals, and notes
of events, but I never can finish them, as my only
leisure is in the evening, when I am much too tired
for any serious work."
Before the end of the year he was camped with
some English, or rather Scottish,^ troops, on the
banks of the Sardah river, at the extreme north of
his district, watching some rebels who were still
" out," and it is evident that he was at last getting
tired of warfare. He writes to his sister that there
has been a bloody little bush fight, and that he hopes
it is the last in those parts —
The sepoys fought us like demons, and nothing but the
wonderful pluck of the British soldier carried us through.
You women at home are quite right to think much of the
Army, but you would think much more if you really saw
them fight. I do not believe that there is any one in the
world who can come near a good English regiment in fighting.
Officers and men go in at the foe with a cool gallantry that
is beyond words. You should have seen the two companies
of the 42nd Royal Highlanders charge into a thick jungle
under a shower of balls, and drive five hundred sepoys before
them at the bayonet's point. And you should have seen the

' Though almost a pure Soot in blood, LyaU had no jealousy about the
use of the word " English " to denote all the inhabitants of the United
Kingdom — "les Anglais." A good substitute for it is often difficult
to find.

1858] THE 42nd HIGHLANDERS 87
dark jungle, trampled and bloody, with dead men lying in
every ghastly attitude.^ ... I think it is all over now, I
mean the war, and I hope so, for it is now nineteen months
since I saw the first shot fired in anger. ... I have been
campaigning ever since, and I am heartily tired and sick of
it. Last year I felt very bloodthirsty, and was foolish enough
to express my feeling in letters to people at home who could
not possibly sympathise with me, but, you know, they should
not have touched women and children if they expected us to
treat them according to the rules of civilised warfare.
A few days later he writes to his mother —
The 42nd Highlanders . . . are, without exception, the
best regiment that I have ever met, and I shall be very sorry
to part with them, after living with them almost as one of
themselves for two months. The men, too, are such fine
handsome fellows, and I never felt more the horrors of war
than on seeing five of ^ them lying dead and bloody upon the
grass after the fight of the 15th. Last year all this sort of
thing came as a matter of course, but this time I had made up
my mind that we had done with fighting and death scenes.
... I heard the first shot fired in anger on the 15th May
1857, and saw the first sepoy killed. ... I shot him with my
revolver, and now I fervently hope that I have seen the last
dead sepoy on the 15th January 1859. ... I fear that I shall
soon be transferred from this station, but I do not care, as I
am the most restless of mortals, and cannot live for a few
months in one place without longing for a change. I want a
place where active outdoor work is required, and where the
strict rules of legal and official routine are less rigidly observed
than in these old provinces.

1 " Mid the broken grass of the trampled glade.
Where bayonets met and the fight was sorest."
— After fhe Skirmish.

88 ALFRED LYALL [1859
He was, in fact, contemplating an application for
some appointment in Oudh, " if they are wise enough
to introduce a simple and summary form of govern
ment into that much injured country."
Soon afterwards his younger brother James, also in
the Civil Service, came up from Calcutta ; and after
three weeks in camp Alfred Lyall rode up with him to
the mountains to meet their elder brother Walter.
For a night all three slept in a little tent together,
and then Alfred rode back thirty-five miles to his camp
on the Sardah. There he misses James badly. " We
always talked up to late at night, and for quiet rumi
nating conversation over a camp-fire James is an
unequalled companion, especially to me." The two
brothers, though they differed in character, and in
many of their views, had in common a keen sense
of humour and a deep interest in the people of
the country. At this time Alfred Lyall felt very
strongly about the annexation of Oudh, which, as I
have said before, had perhaps been one of the main
causes of the Mutiny. He writes to his mother about
"the scandalous cant with which we tried to white
wash " that proceeding, and says it has entirely
uprooted all trust in our good faith among natives.
One can imagine how he poured out his indignation
to his brother over the camp-fire. Later in life he saw
reason to modify these views, which were in great
measure unjust ; but they are worth noting as an
indication of his sympathy with native feelings, and
of his independence of thought.
My belief is that he had at this time been con-

1859] THE ANNEXATION OF OUDH 89
siderably impressed by the opinions of his kinsman
and friend de Kantzow,^ an officer of the Indian army,
who was then serving in the same part of the country,
and had greatly distinguished himself Lyall admired
him as " a very original character, and far superior to
ordinary young England. . . . His great beauty is
his almost feminine gentleness of manner which covers
the most daring courage." De Kantzow's knowledge
of the vernacular, and of native ways, was extraordi
nary ; and he realised the native point of view as few
Englishmen did. While he served most gallantly
against the mutineers, he was filled with an intense
and almost passionate sense of the wrongs under
which they believed themselves to be suffering ; and
this chivalrous spirit led him at times, perhaps, to be
rather hard on his own countrymen.
Lyall goes on —
I always find myself diverging into Indian politics, for I am
interested heart and soul in the affairs of the country, and
am always thinking of the probable fortunes of our Empire,
and trying to conceive it possible to civilise and convert an
enormous nation by the mechanical processes of the present
times by establishing schools and missionary societies. Also,
having civilised them, and taught them the advantage of
liberty and the use of European sciences, how are we to keep
them under us, and to persuade them that it is for their good
that we hold all the high offices of Government ? WeU, it does
not much matter to Harbledown.
Pity that it does not matter more to " Harbledown "
— to the homes of England. It must matter much
to them all some day whether England understands
1 Now Colonel de Kantzow.

90 ALFRED LYALL [1859
India or not. Considering that almost every family
in England has probably, at one time or another,
sent a son or a daughter to India, and that for
centuries a large proportion of the wealth of England
has . been drawn from her Indian trade, few things
are more remarkable than the ignorance and indiffer
ence shown by Englishmen in general with regard
to Indian affairs.
Alfred Lyall was expecting some photographs and
other presents brought out from home by his brother.
" I want to see the photographs above all. . . . Your
face," he writes to his mother, " I was not likely to
forget," and he promises a picture of himself if
possible ; but the only photographer in the North-
West Provinces had been murdered by rebels in a
village near Meerut.
In a letter to Mrs Holland a little later he explains
the position of a civilian in India, and especially of
one in the field with troops, managing to a great
extent the intelligence department and the commis
sariat, and the relations with natives generally. " As
is usuaUy the case with civilians, especially when
working with military men, I get no praise if all goes
well, and am certain to be the scapegoat if anything
goes wrong." That is too broadly stated ; but his
experience of service in the field had been instructive,
and proved of great use to him twenty years later,
when, as Foreign Secretary, he had to control the
work of the political department during the Afghan
War. His camp life with the troops ended at the be-

1859] EFFECT OF HOT WEATHER 91
ginning of the hot weather of 1859, and he went back
to Shahjehanpore to read for his law examination,
which he found very irksome after his long freedom
from book-work. But he was speciaUy exempted by
the Government in consideration of the judicial and
other services he had rendered during the Mutiny,
and was much relieved thereby. "It is now a great
thing to know that I shall probably never have to
undergo another examination until after my death."
He deplores his want of leisure for reading and
study. " This is a drawback to Indian life." But
he goes on —
Life in India is just now very dull. There is a sort of
reaction after the excitement of the last two years. ... As
far as I am concerned, as long as I am unmarried I care very
little what may happen ; it would be a very bad thing, indeed,
that could be worse than twenty-two years' routine work in
an office. ... I am now amply provided with books, thanks
to my father's great kindness. ... I feel very much the
kind self-denial of my father in sending out to me his own
classics. I wish he had not done so.
When the hot weather really sets in he is building
a house, living meanwhile in native quarters in the
town, and, as usual at this time of year, his letters are
less contented. He often notices this himself, and
writes to his mother : " The effect of the climate and
the seasons upon the tone of my letters must seem
almost laughable to you. But so it is. In the cold
weather I never wish to change my lot, in the hot
weather I fancy that any position is preferable."
The fact was that in the hot weather he was more

92 ALFRED LYALL [1859
or less ill with fever, toothache, and other aUments.
Even so he was in no hurry to leave India. "I
should be perfectly contented if I had a prospect of
being able to quit the country after ten years." Now
that he had learnt to speak and understand the
language well, and to feel that he was no longer
dependent upon native subordinates, he liked his
work. " The administration of justice and finance is
certainly the most honourable profession of all," he
writes, " barring that of arms." But the North-West
Provinces had become now too settled for him, and he
tells his mother he is going to apply to be posted to
Central India, and go right down to the wilds.
What made you send the ' Contes Morales ' to me ? Their
flavour is rather flat after Voltaire. For St Simon I am very
much obliged. It is just the sort of book that I want, an
inexhaustible fund of light reading. But of all the books
which you have sent out, de Tocqueville on the ancient regime
interests me most. The European counterpart of an Indian
civilian was the Intendant of a Province under Louis XIV.,
XV. He had exactly the same sort of duties: magisterial,
executive, and financial, and held his province en tutelle
exactly as a civilian holds his district, interfering in every
sort of affair from the highest to the lowest, and corresponding
about everything with a centralising Government. Lord
Dalhousie's centralising policy resembled strongly that of the
late French Government, and led to much the same results
when a strain came upon the carefully fabricated machine of
administration. This is thoughtful comment for a man of four-and-
twenty, who has just spent two years in the stress of
the Mutiny. It is to be noted that his liking for

1 859] CONTENT WITH INDIA 93
French literature did not incline him to the French
side in other respects. He had just heard of the
Austrian defeat at Magenta. " I am sorry for it," he
writes, " and hope that the Teutonic kingdoms will
unite and exterminate the French invaders. I think
they will do so in the end."
In July he writes to his father —
I am sorry to find that my occasional expressions of mis
givings as to my choice of an Indian career have made you
somewhat uneasy. You have certainly nothing wherewith to
reproach yourself if I come to grief, for you were always
opposed to my wish for India. . . . In long solitary journeys
on horseback I have often argued over the question to myself
in my mind, and have always come at last to the conclusion
that I was much happier out here than I should have been at
home. I am just as restless as Walter. ... I am sure that
I should have become terribly sick of college life. . . . But
this work in India is becoming very dull, and I look forward
with dismay to long years of peaceful office life.
He goes on to discuss Indian political questions, and
asks for his father's ideas upon the subject, adding,
with what reads like a touch of gentle irony, —
You are quite mistaken in assuming that your letters, if
filled with dissertations, would be less amusing than if you
confined yourself to the chronicle of local events.
You have no idea of the delightful spirits produced by the
first cool mornings which come in the latter half of September.
With me these first whiffs of the cold season always produce a
violent impatience of inaction. ... I did not come out to
India to live a domestic life in a quiet station, and I shall cut
adrift from Shahjehanpore next year. . . . Racing is certainly
the pleasantest sport that I know, in its pure state. I mean

94 ALFRED LYALL [1859
when it simply consists of matches got up by the owners of
horses among themselves, when there is no betting, or very
little. ... As for shooting, I really do not care much about
it, and no one bores me so much as a man who is eternally
talking about shooting.
He describes to his mother his hard and miscellane
ous work, and the strain of transacting important
business, trying cases and hearing evidence, in a
foreign tongue,
and I seldom can attempt any severe reading at night. ... I
cannot bear a lonely dinner, and I frequent messes, and the
assemblies (masculine) of my fellow-countrymen. I am per
fectly certain that nothing is so bad for a young Englishman
as living alone in India.
He proceeds to discuss the tendency of Protestants
towards Atheism and Deism, and probably shocks his
mother by the remark —
I have often thought that, as every nation has its own form
of Christianity, it can really matter little whether a Christian
be Protestant, Roman Catholic, or Greek.
Every Sunday we pass by the broad stone slab which covers
the bodies of those who were murdered at the Church porch
here in 1857. I believe that it will be looked at with more
interest fifty years hence, if any one remains till then in the
country. . . . What a long time ago it seems already. I
often sit and think of those days, and dream of what I will
do if such another opening ever occurs. If I am only un
married and in independent command I will play my part
well. This is the first sign of ambition to be found in
his letters ; the Mutiny had evoked it.

1859] DISARMING THE DISTRICT 95
He writes to his father that he is at work dis
arming the district — a work which he dislikes
particularly, — and moralises on the results of our
government —
And the wildest, as well as the shallowest, notion of all
seems to me that universally prevalent belief that education,
civilisation, and increased material prosperity will reconcile
the people of India eventually to our rule. De Tocqueville's
Study of the Ancien Regime and the Causes of the Revolu
tion, which I have read and analysed more attentively than
I ever before read a book, appears to me to demonstrate
most logically that it was the increased prosperity and en
lightenment of the French people which produced the
grand crash.
He is encamped near a ruined fort demolished in
the Mutiny, and talks of an Oudh chief,
a sturdy rebel, who has now surrendered, received back his
lands, and dwells sulkily in a small town about five miles
off, no doubt cursing the Feringhis night and morning. To
this fort on our borders he used to retire in the good old
times when the king's officers came to demand the revenue,
so that if fighting were not prosperous he might escape over
the border for a while. The country, like all that I have seen
of Oude, is half uncultivated and covered in parts with thick
jungle, but all the north of our district is in much the same
condition, and I suspect was hardly cleared at all 100 or 150
years ago." ^ 

1 " The king took tithe if he might.
He was paid by a rogue or a fool.
We held our lands on a firmer right
Than is given by parchment rule.
Our fathers of old had cleared it
From the jungle with axe and sword." — Rajput Rebels.

96 ALFRED LYALL [i860
He cannot help contrasting his life in the jungle
with
a moderately successful career among my countrymen at
home, and the society of clever and accomplished men. I
do not wish to seem vain, but I believe that I appreciate
intensely all intellectual pleasures. . . . Also, I cannot get the
books I want, . . . and I detest all novels, except the very
best in an artistic point of view, quite as much as you can
do yourself. . . . But yet I am not in any way sorry that I
have come out to India ; the Mutiny was worth ten years to
a young man, and if I had any prospect of returning for good
after ten years, I should be perfectly contented.
The Shahjehanpore country he finds most beautiful.
" I feel that if I wished to settle down I could not
choose a better spot in India; but I don't wish to
settle down."
In February 1860 he hears that he has been ap
pointed to the little district of Pilibheet, at the foot
of the mountains, and is pleased because the Joint-
Magistrate in charge is practically independent, and
rules his small kingdom according to his fancy. He
is horribly plagued with the toothache, which is the
curse of his life, but gets some excitement from shoot
ing a magnificent tiger, and likes Pilibheet well enough
except for the solitude in the evenings. He occupies
himself with writing verses for the papers, and sends
his mother a copy, which has disappeared, saying he
" wrote them all one evening when alone in my tent,
and sent them to the paper next morning." He
promises to send more, "anything that seems likely
to please you, but I much fear my father's criticism.

i86o] DULNESS OF PEACE TIMES 97
Also I have a much meaner opinion of my own verses
than I formerly had. I often tear up my rhymes
the day after writing them." He deprecates exag
gerated ideas as to bis feats in the Mutiny, and
says that it makes him feel painfully ridiculous to
read one estimate of them by a friend in England,
when he has only " gone through a few skirmishes,
such as our ancestors went through every year at
least." Then the loneliness oppresses him. " I am
utterly unable to live in solitude. I feel the want
of some excitement at any station, but I am perfectly
wretched alone." He blames himself for this, but
cannot help it. " I sit alone in the evening, and
long for something to happen. . . . The whole
country is hopelessly quiet ; there is not even a
murder or a highway robbery, . . . life in peace
times is completely stagnant." Shooting he can get,
but he is tired of it. He complains of his restless
ness. By the middle of May he cannot stand it, and
gets leave to go and see his brother in the mountains.
" We are all peculiarly impatient of inaction, and
incapacitated for a quiet humdrum existence. That
is why India is the very best place to which you
could have sent your two elder sons."
By August he writes from Naini Tai in the Hima
layas that he is getting tired of doing nothing, and
is going back to the plains. "And all our famUy
are naturally impatient of doing nothing, and have
that jcraving for excitement of some sort which is
most strongly developed in Walter." About this
time he must have received, though his letters make

98 ALFRED LYALL [i860
no mention of it, a despatch from the Secretary of
State for India, which I have found among his papers.
It is as foUows : —
India Office, June 11, 1860.
SiE, — The excellent service performed by you during the
Mutiny and disturbances in India in 1857-58 has been
brought to the notice of the Queen. As Assistant Magis
trate at Bolundshuhur, you are reported to have joined in
several successful excursions in the Dadree and Secunderabad
Pergunnahs, and to have been repeatedly engaged with the
rebels. You afterwards joined the Volunteer Cavalry at
Meerut, and were engaged in the affairs at Busadh and
Buroth, and I have been commanded to convey to you the
gracious approbation of her Majesty of your conduct during
that critical period. I am, your obedient servant,
C. Wood.
A. Ltall, Esq.
In November he is again at Pilibheet, " very tired
of my own company ; . . . altogether it does not pay
in spite of the charm of independence and petty des
potism." His horse falls with him through a bridge
of planked boats.
I make it a point of honour to ride over my own
bridges, which most people consider quixotical. . . .
There is great joy in Pilibheet, ... for it was justly re
marked that any other horse might have tumbled through
fifty times without any notice being taken, whereas I have
ever since been particularly careful in putting together my
bridges. There is nothing to do in this place but to shoot ducks. . . .
It is very unlucky that I have tired of shooting in four
years.

i86o] LESSONS OF THE MUTINY 99
But his next letter shows that he is shooting again,
and he tells the story against himself with evident
enjoyment —
I . . . shot a buck antelope, when a large tiger sprang up
with a roar, and ran off. ... As he lived in a wilderness of
high grass — a regular prairie, — I tried the old plan of driving
the cattle into it. The tiger was delighted at my civility, and
instantly killed three cows — gave me one shot — which I
missed — polished off another stray cow . . . and walked off
to his fastness in the jungle, leaving me to pay the price of
the cows to the villagers.
With this letter, written in December 1860, Alfred
Lyall's first period of Indian service practicaUy closes,
for in the following spring he left India, taking fur
lough on medical certificate. He had now been five
years away from England, and had undergone much
hard work and exposure. He was not actually ill,
but was tired and " run down," and wanted a rest.
I have possibly devoted too large a space to this part
of his life ; but it was a very important part. When
it began he was still a boy ; at the end of it he
was a man. He had passed through scenes of extra
ordinary interest, and had learnt to bear responsi
bility — to think and act for himself. He might well
say the Mutiny was worth ten years of exile to a
young man. A lifetime of official work under ordi
nary conditions might not have taught him as much
about India and its people, or have left so deep an
impress upon his character. The lessons of the
Mutiny are clearly to be traced in his writings, es
pecially in his poems. Of these several — among them

100 ALFRED LYALL [i860
perhaps the best — were directly inspired by the scenes
of 1857 and 1858, and others show almost as plainly
the effect of those stirring days upon his mind and
feelings. In his later years he turned to prose as
a better instrument for the expression of his philo
sophical and historical views ; but many of his prose
writings also show signs of the old influence. In
fact, those five years from 1856 to 1861 were per
haps the most important of his life. No doubt
his ideas were afterwards enlarged by study and
experience; but when he left India in 1861 his eyes
had been opened to the realities of things, and the
main lines of his character had been laid down.

CHAPTER VIL
FIRST FURLOUGH TO ENGLAND, AND SECOND PERIOD
OF INDIAN SERVICE.
1861-1868.
Sails for England, April 1861— Life at Harbledown— His sister Barbara
— He becomes engaged to Cora Cloete — Married November 1862 —
BishopWilkinson'sdescriptionof him— His sister, Mrs Holland— Starts
for India — Voyage out— Posted to Agra— Contented with India — Cold
weather in camp — Mrs Lyall — Transferred to Central Provinces in
charge of a district, 1864— Richard Temple— The district of Hoshung-
abad — Lyall writes "The Old Pindaree" — Acting Commissioner of
Nagpore, 1865 — His father's death — Temple beginning to recognise
value of his work — Occasional verses — Deputy Commissioner of Jub-
bulpore, 1867- Commissioner of West Berar, 1867 — Akola — He begins
to be tired of Indian life— Berar Census Report, the germ of 'Asiatic
Studies' — Takes furlough, April 1868.
In April 1861 Lyall sailed for England, where he
remained nearly two years, recruiting his health.
His letters at this time are scanty, as might be ex
pected ; but from the few that remain, and from refer
ences in later letters, it would appear that he spent
much of the time in the home circle at Harbledown,
renewing his acquaintance with old friends and neigh
bours, hunting with the East Kent hounds, and thor
oughly enjoying the return to English life. In the
course of the first year, before the hunting began, he
went over to France, and I find in a letter to his
mother a long account of his stay in Paris, but he
was soon back again among his own people. His

102 ALFRED LYALL [1862
younger sister Barbara, who when he left England
had been a child of ten, was now nearly grown up,
and, the elder sisters having married, she seems to
have been constantly with him. They had much in
common, for like him she was quick-witted and bright,
with a keen sense of humour ; and, to judge from
what he afterwards wrote, the brother and sister,
one twenty-six, the other sixteen, had " many pleas
ant walks, rides, railway journeys, and talks" to
gether, and jolly days passed in " nonsense, rhyming,
and inextinguishable laughter." Apparently his re
ligious views, under the influence of Voltaire and
India, had developed in a direction which was far
from orthodox ; and his mother, poor lady, seems
to have spent long evenings in vain efforts to bring
him back to her own belief. But, though this troubled
him somewhat, he retained a very pleasant recollec
tion of his first furlough. It was closed by an event
which was of great importance to him, for in 1862,
when paying a visit in Suffolk, he met and be
came engaged to his future wife, Cora Cloete, a
beautiful and attractive girl who, like him, had gone
through the perils of the Mutiny. She belonged to
a well-known Cape family of Dutch descent ; but two
of her aunts had married English officers, and with
one of them she was staying. The engagement was
short, for though his father and mother considered,
with some reason perhaps, from their point of view,
that he was hardly in a position to marry, he insisted
on doing so without delay, and the wedding took
place at Cavendish on the 12 th of November. Lyall's
best man was the then curate of Cavendish, now

ABOUT l86l.

1 862] MARRIAGE 103
Bishop Wilkinson, of Northern and Central Europe,
who to the end of his life remained one of his most
respected friends.
Bishop Wilkinson writes of him —
At that time he was slightly built, of medium height. His
languid grey eyes would flash up delightfully when you
touched the humorous spring that was ever ready to respond
to a joke. Naturally shy and reserved, it was necessary to
go two-thirds of the way to meet what when reached was
a character of unusual interest. Like all the Lyalls, when
with those he knew well and liked, he threw aside all reserve
and overflowed with quizzical fun. I have rarely known
any one so quick at seeing the ridiculous in persons and
things.And the Bishop tells an amusing story of Lyall
bursting into his room one morning, convulsed with
laughter at having seen the rector of the parish
hunted round his own garden in his nightshirt by
a swarm of bees, and trying to shelter himself from
their wrath under the gooseberry bushes.
The "jolly days" came to an end with the autumn
of 1862, and Lyall's twenty-eighth birthday found
him halfway on his voyage out to India, a married
man with new responsibilities. Just before leaving
Harbledown he writes to Mrs HoUand : "I feel a
bit anxious and uncertain as to the future ; ... if I
do not get on well professionally in the next six years
I shall feel that I have lost my chance. . . . Good-bye,
my dearest sister." He was not to lose his chance,
for professional success was not long in coming, and
his anxiety was soon over.
At such times, when leaving England for the East,

104 ALFRED LYALL [1863
a man is apt to feel low-spirited, but the feeling soon
wears off if one is young and happy; and before
reaching Alexandria, Lyall writes to Mrs Holland in
a different strain —
It was a beautiful dawn, reminding me so vividly of the
fresh bright mornings of winter in Upper India, that my
small amount of home-sickness vanished at once, and I felt
a longing to get back to the old life. There is a peculiar
charm about the East, a real pleasure in the light and air
which I have never felt in England, and of which an Eng
lish summer gives no idea. . . . Cora has had bad headaches,
but never complains, and is much more an aid than an im
pediment in the journey.
He goes on to speak of returning after six or seven
years, and adds what may read strangely to those who
regarded him as a cynical and undemonstrative man —
Meanwhile do not forget me: sisters do not often have
brothers who love you so much as we do, and small credit
to me at least, for until I met Cora you were the only
woman of whose society I never remember to have been
tired for one minute.
In February 1863 he was back at his work as
a district officer, having been posted as Assistant
Magistrate to Agra, one of the hottest but pleasant
est stations in the North-West Provinces. Here he
seems to have been as happy as his restless nature
would ever allow him to be. He still felt the re
action after the stirring scenes of the Mutiny, and
his letters show that the drudgery of peaceful work
wearied him. But he had some society and many
of the amenities of life.

LADY LYALL-About 1862.

1863] POSTED TO AGRA 105
I have plenty to do [he writes to his mother], and I like
the Magistrate who is over me, so I am not unhappy, but
I am never contented, and never wish to be so, until I obtain
something worth having. ... I suppose the country has
never been so dull as since 1860. ... I should not person
aUy object to the most frightful convulsion. There is nothing
to do or to write about, and I continually flnd myself looking
back to the old disturbed times as to the only piece of
romance I am ever to enjoy.
But he writes in another letter —
You must not fancy that I am anxious and unhappy. I am
neither. I have only a vague wish for what I cannot exactly
tell : it certainly is not riches. I think it is distinction.
That he was keeping in touch with the currents of
religious thought is evident from his reference to a
heterodox bishop —
Colenso is of course by this time almost extinct at home,
he never made much noise out here; a country which has
three or four rival creeds does not excite itself about minor
heresies. You are quite right in making the general remark
that it is more easy to believe than to doubt, and, moreover,
it is more comfortable.
In the course of the summer Lyall was offered the
acting charge of a " district " in Oudh, which was a
compliment for a man of his standing, but he was
obliged to refuse for pecuniary reasons, and supposed
that he should soon get rid of any romance about
distinction. A few days later he went for a short
visit to his old station of Bulandshahr, where he
found all traces of the Mutiny had disappeared ; and
then to Delhi, which was in a very different condition,

106 ALFRED LYALL [1863
the walls still riddled with shot-holes and the great
breaches only half repaired. He gazed at the famous
ridge with a touch of the old enthusiasm, but Delhi,
seen under a gloomy and cloudy sky, looked melan
choly. "It is an unlucky place," he says, " with its
history marked by sack and massacre." For the rest,
he was still contented enough.
I do not dislike India. I often examine myself, and always
conclude that this country suits me best altogether, and that
if you discard the elements of comfort and quiet ease there is
not very much to regret in a common English life. But this
life is fast sinking into monotonous propriety, and the chance
of a catastrophe seems growing less and less.
Trevelyan had lately published his " Competition
Wallah," and there had been considerable discussion
about the new system of recruitment for the Indian
Civil Service. On this point Lyall writes —
My great objection to the Competition Civilians is that
they are too like clever office men at home, very good at
writing precis, and accurate in their legal functions, but with
out sympathy for the semi-barbarous natives whom they
govern, and only liking the respectable educated native, who
to me is a bore. ... I have been much refreshed lately by
talking with Rajah Dinkur Rao, . . . the famous Gwalior
Prime Minister, ... he is the type of an acute intellectual
Hindoo. He always assures me that the natives prefer a
bad native government to our best patent institutions, and I
know he is right.
Lyall correctly represented the views of Sir Dinkur
Rao. It was my good fortune many years afterwards,
when I was in the Indian Foreign Office, to know this

1863] RAJA DINKUR RAO 107
remarkable man, to whose sagacity and courage we
owed much in the Mutiny. He never changed his
opinion about our rule in India, and I can see now his
keen bright eyes, and hear his little cynical chuckling
laugh, as he pointed out to me in the frankest terms
the absurdity from the native point of view of some
choice measure of reform.
On the 30th August Lyall writes to his mother —
After all, our trade is government on a rather grand scale,
and I would sooner work at this in India than do mercantile
or legal drudgery in England. The real thing in which
England beats India is the social life, though after all Agra
beats most country towns. It is at any rate the severest
punishment which you can inflict on my errors to devote
two-thirds of your letter to polemics. If hours of vivid
discussion in long evenings last year could produce small
impression, how can you expect two pages of notepaper
to do it ?
Altogether, he was happy enough, working hard,
but riding, swimming, playing racquets ; while his
wife enjoyed her housekeeping and the amuse
ments of the place. She was in strong health, and
he rejoiced in her triumphs at archery, croquet, and
driving. Their house commanded a view of the
grand fort on the river-side and of the famous Taj ;
and they had "the best pair of mares in Agra."
What more could young people want ? But the
close of the year brought them further happiness;
for early in December, during the delicious cold
weather of the North-West Provinces, in which he
always reveUed, Lyall describes how he went out to

108 ALFRED LYALL [1863
camp with his wife and his first chUd, being wonders
for health and strength. "The child," he says, "has
eyes like the fishpools of Heshbon, with wondrous
depth of intelligent gaze."
He got back to Agra for Christmas, for there was a
great gathering to meet the Lieutenant-Governor of
the Province, the district officers coming in from
every station within a radius of a hundred miles. As
in all these Indian gatherings — very pleasant they
used to be — there was much hospitality, and festivities
of every kind ; and Lyall writes with pride that his
wife had won two archery prizes —
driving one arrow up to the notch into the very centre of
the target, so that it was only discovered by looking behind.
She certainly shoots like a lineal descendant of the Chevy
Chase archer who unto Sir Hugh Montgomery so right his
shaft did set.
His mother had written to congratulate him on the
birth of his child, and he answers —
I am much touched by the deep affection expressed in your
letter of the I7th Dec"^- to me, the more so that I feel my
self so unworthy of it that I am sometimes puzzled to account
for it; and I value it beyond all price as the highest and
purest possession which can be allotted to me. . . . But this
is not a subject on which I can say much.
At this time died his aunt, widow of the Dean of
Canterbury, and Lyall writes to his mother —
I felt real affection for her, and now one branch of the
family has utterly passed away, leaving nothing ... to
remind us of my poor uncle, whose memory, I cannot tell
why, always brings tears into my eyes now. I suppose it is

1 864] SCEPTICISM 109
because somehow I lost nerve when I went to bid farewell to
him in 1855.
Alfred Lyall's affections were not widely diffused or
easy to win ; but where his own people were concerned
they were singularly strong. It seems only right
to bring out the fact, for he was often described as
cold and unloving.
In the course of his long camping season in the
Agra district, so full of historical interest, he saw
Akbar's city of Fatehpur Sikri, with its beautiful
ruins, and the great emperor's tomb at Secundra, and
the fortress of Deeg, which half a century before had
repulsed Lord Lake's repeated assaults. It was his
last cold weather in the North-West Provinces, for he
was soon to be transferred.
Meanwhile he was writing to his sister Barbara,
much as he had written before to Canon HoUand,
about the work of our missionaries. " Paid mission
aries have never done rien que vaille." But if he
was not satisfied with Protestant missions, he found
no great satisfaction in his own religious views —
I wish I could see any way out of the dreary desert of
scepticism in which I am wandering, but it seems to me that
we overrate altogether the importance of the human race, its
doings and its destinies. I am haunted by Darwin's struggle
for existence and the desolate grandeur of the ideas in parts
54, 55, 56 of " In Memoriam."
Returning to a happier subject, his wife, he says
shehas certainly great physical nerve, and would have made a
man after Kingsley's own heart. I am afraid she can beat me

no ALFRED LYALL [1864
at all things which a man and woman can both do — riding, for
instance, and yet I take credit to myself for having " gone
in" for all these manly sports more than any known member
of the family.
In the spring of 1864 Lyall received the offer of a
district in the Central Provinces, and his eight years'
connection with the North-West came to an end. He
had done good work, especially during the Mutiny,
and had become known as a capable officer ; but it
does not seem that he had then made any remarkable
impression. A few days ago I received from a native
gentleman in India a letter about him. It dwells
especially upon his treatment of his old friends, when
he had become Lieutenant-Governor of the province.
Lyall, the writer says, was "just the same as when he
was an assistant magistrate " ; and this was greatly
appreciated. But when he was a young man
there was nothing peculiar or extraordinary in the disposal of
the cases, or the management of the affairs of the Tehsil, or
district, committed to his charge, which gave any promise or
indication that he would one day rise to the position he did,
but the power of his pen manifested itself even in those days ;
he was regarded as a great munshi — prose writer.
However this may be, Lyall was picked out as one
of the young civilians best suited for transfer to the
Central Provinces.
This was a wild and backward stretch of country,
" vast jungle tracts cut out of the very centre of
India," which had lately been taken in hand by that
peculiar but most energetic and able man, Richard

1 864] TRANSFER TO CENT. PROVINCES 111
Temple,! who had distinguished himself in the Punjab
as secretary to John Lawrence. Temple was looking
about him everywhere for capable assistants, " trying
to crimp for his ship all the best men from other
crews," and Lyall's name was brought to his notice
by his cousin and private secretary, Rivett-Carnac,
the author of ' Many Memories,' who describes the
circumstances in his pleasant book.^
It happened that just at this moment Lyall's District
Magistrate had taken four months' leave to England,
and Lyall had been appointed to act for him. . . .
" So," as Lyall says, " I got two good offers at once."
He writes, after his manner, that he had been very
much disturbed in spirit thereby. He was always
worried by having to choose between two courses.
However, in this case he was not long in doubt, for
though the acting appointment at Agra gave him
temporary good pay and rank in the gayest station in
the North-West Provinces, and the other offer was
that of Hoshungabad, a dull little place in the wilds,
the second meant permanent independence and a
salary of £120 a-month, which, as he said, was "pro
motion and an opening for the future, at the expense
of some present discomfort and great social loss."
Moreover, in one of his moments of restlessness and
craving for a more active life, he had volunteered for
service in the new province, and he could not well
' Afterwards The Rt. Honble. Sir Eichard Temple, Bart., G.C.S.I.,
&c.. Governor of Bombay, and then a Member of Parliament.
2 Now Colonel J. H. Rivett-Carnac, CLE., F.S.A., late Aide-de-Camp
to Queen Victoria.

112 ALFRED LYALL [i86zi
have drawn back from his word. So at twenty -nine
years of age, after eight years of Indian service, Lyal]
was a full-fledged district magistrate, one of the real
rulers of India.^
It was a great change for the young wife, who,
as Lyall writes to his sister, was just going to move
into a beautiful house in Agra, and to assume the
management of the Archery Club, and had " acquired
a certain social distinction " by her pre-eminence in
riding and driving and other sports. She had to
leave all at ten days' notice, to dispose of her fur
niture as best she could, to pack up all portable
possessions, and to set off with her baby on one of
the most wearisome journeys which could well be
imagined. But that was the way in India, and
doubtless she made no complaints. After twenty-
four hours in the train the Lyalls arrived at Mirza-
pore, which was their real starting-point, and were
almost immediately set down to play croquet, a game
which he regarded as " most stupid. . . . But Cora
excels in this, as in other muscular sports, and aston
ished the natives." It was then the height of the
1 To the vast majority of the Indian population the magistrate of the
district was the Govemment. The Indian peasant hardly ever saw an
officer of higher rank ; and, though supervised, the magistrate had in
fact almost unlimited power within his own charge. A distinguished
Indian once said in the Legislative Council : " The Viceroy represents the
might and majesty of the Empire, but the Viceroy is not so potent as the
district officer who has found his way to the hearts of the people. . . .
Many an English administrator has left behind him a name which is a
household word in ovir villages and towns." These men are unknown in
England, but with the equally unknown soldiers who carry on our Indian
wars, they have been and are the real builders and upholders of the
British Dominion.

1 864] ROUGH TRAVELLING 113
hot weather, and the rest of the journey had to be
made at night in a carriage drawn by bullocks, "at
the humUiating pace of 2^ miles an hour." After
a week of this slow progress the traveUers reached
Jubbulpore, cheered on the road by the light-hearted
company of a Madras captain of foot, who
was a great comfort to us, especially when our pole broke.
... I wonder whether one ever meets in England with men
who, out of sheer good-fellowship, volunteer to share all one's
discomforts and delays simply because they happen to have
fallen in with one on the road. We should have come to
unspeakable grief but for the aid of our friend, who put
me to shame by the jovial manner in which he helped to
patch up our broken carriage in the middle of the night,
and admitted me with my luggage to a share of his
own cart.
Arrived at Jubbulpore Lyall found the place
wonderfully green and fresh after Agra. The perfumed air
and the fireflies remind me of Ceylon. It is hot enough,
but it is more like the languid heat of the tropics . . . than
the fiery scorching blast that sweeps over the bare plains
of North India.
He had to push on again, another hundred and
sixty miles, before reaching his own station, Ho
shungabad, on the Nerbudda river ; " but," he says,
I am now on friendly ground, as the other district officers
have welcomed me with a cordiality remarkable when I con
sider that I have been brought in over the heads of many,
and I shall be forwarded by their aid.
That again was the way in India — where English
men, whatever their faults, were loyal.
H

114 ALFRED LYALL [1864
Directly after he took charge of his new district
he had to ride off twenty miles to meet his fiery
chief, Temple, who was sweeping across it in one of
his incessant tours of inspection. Temple's energy
amused but rather alarmed Lyall, who was con
stitutionally averse from interference with native
ways, and did not take very kindly to dry-nursing
a district. " The country is very backward, and he
is determined to shove it forward ; the country resists
inertly as long as it can, tumbles back as often as
Temple props it up, and when forcibly driven for
ward runs the wrong way, like a pig going to Cork
market." But, though now in responsible charge of
a large tract of country, Lyall was still under orders,
and he writes that " as long as I am young I do
not mind giving up my own theories of government
to the will of my official superior." Meanwhile the
brave young wife was doing her share.
You must forgive her for not writing [Lyall tells Mrs
Holland], she really is very busy in her own way — man
aging the making -up of fumiture, repairs of the house,
poultry, cows, sheep, and encroaching daily on my stable.
This is her line — objective, — she cannot write long accounts
of what she does, but she does a great deal, and as we are
now in a primitive place where shops are not, such qualities
are very valuable.
At this primitive place, Hoshungabad, he settled
himself down, regretting somewhat the social life
of Agra, but determined at last to save a little
money, or at all events keep out of debt. From
his first letter it appears that he had been writing

1 864] BECOMES DISTRICT MAGISTRATE 115
" a story in a very inferior magazine out here,"
so that from a literary point of view he was not
wholly idle.
As time goes on he regrets Agra more, and com
plains that he is getting too much wrapped up in
his work, because there is nothing else to do.
I often lament that I have not enough play, for I am
certain that this continual work narrows the mind. . . .
Agra was excellent in that way. I could ride across country
after a jackal with the station pack in the morning, work
all day, and go to a party in the evening ; here I can only
get excitement out of my work.
Still there was some variety. His district con
sisted of "150 miles of the Nerbudda valley, lying
between two ranges of hills, and composed of black
alluvial soil which turns into bottomless mud after
much rain " ; and he had rather perilous journeys in
the rainy season, swimming the Nerbudda on an
elephant, or riding his Arab mare across the swollen
streams. In the station itself he could occasionaUy
play cricket. Also he was reading French books,
and was keenly interested in Newman's ' Apologia.'
He did not agree with it, " but still I can understand
and respect Newman, and have not the remotest idea
of mocking him. I thought Kingsley's rejoinder . . .
a very poor and unworthy performance — a mere
throwing of dirt after his victorious antagonist."
In November 1864 Lyall writes to his father about
his marriage —
"I have a sort of faith in the old idea that good -luck
should follow a man who boldly follows his first real impulse

116 ALFRED LYALL [1864
in these matters, and that at any rate he deserves to be
wished good-luck."
And in another letter he proceeds to describe the
life in camp with wife and child, the wife
" riding again and getting into order my fidgety Arab mare,"
the child "coming on a great deal too fast, and developing
the family restlessness, running about eternally, and pulling
everything to pieces. ... I have vowed not to interfere
with the nursery, but I sit and predict every possible ill
for her future career to a perfectly callous mother, who does
not even object to her tearing up my valuable despatches
to Govemment."
Was there ever a mother who cared a straw about
the fate of despatches to Government, and would it
be an unmixed evil if they were more frequently
torn up ?
In the course of this year Lyall composed the first
poem which really brought him into notice as a writer
of verse, and Rivett-Carnac induced Lyall to let him
publish it in an Indian newspaper. This was "The Old
Pindaree," which now stands first in the volume of
Lyall's poems. It is a fine stirring piece, though less
finished than some of his later work ; and it had a
great success in India, where people were able to
appreciate the knowledge it shows, and the local
humour of some of its passages. In a letter to
his mother, written later, he says : " Tennyson's
' Northern Farmer ' gave me the keynote, though
you would not now find it."
At this time LyaU had begun to speak of "the
terrible idle years which, if I live, will follow my

1 865] "THE OLD PINDAREE" ii7
retirement from this very active service." The ap
prehension constantly recurred, and grew stronger
as years went on. It was early to begin, before he
was thirty. Few men at that time of life look so
far ahead, or look ahead in that spirit. He was
always old for his age, and a little inclined to take
a gloomy view of the future.
He closes his year's correspondence with the
words —
"There is a mountain about 50 miles off, 4000 feet its
highest peak, and it has just been made over to my district,
with orders to me to make it habitable and accessible, so
I am going up there after Christmas."
This mountain is now the flourishing little hill
station of Pachmari. It does not seem that he ever
had much to do with the work of making the place
habitable, for his time at Hoshungabad was drawing
to a close, but the words are quoted as an illustration
of the multifarious duties imposed upon the Indian
district officer. His successors doubtless had to carry
out the scheme.
The following year, 1865, opens with a rather
melancholy letter to Mrs Holland, The Christmas
festivities in his remote district had not been very
successful ; and he wonders that his wife does not
feel as much as he does the change from the bright
ness of Agra. He is oppressed by the sense of age —
I am in low spirits ever since yesterday, when I com
pleted my thirtieth year, and therefore, being married, can
never more be called a young man. I cling like a pagan
to youth, and strength, and the flying years.

118 ALFRED LYALL [1865
But he finds comfort in the fact that "the old
notion of Russian encroachment towards Kabul is
reappearing. I always believed in it, and perhaps
may live to see a second reoccupation of Afghanistan
and the revival of real foreign politics in India,"
A dozen years later he was not only to see it, but to
be one of the chief actors in the drama. Meanwhile
he says he is getting to bear solitude much better
than formerly, though " as always I don't care about
anything in the world half as much as the company
of persons with whom I like to talk." He is having
a new house built, and is living comfortably —
Our live stock increases in patriarchal fashion; we have,
besides horses, a flock of sheep, three cows, two oxen, — or
rather a bull and an ox, — and a camel, also 16 baggage camels
on hire for the cold season ; goats and a deer need not count.
I lay in large stores of hay and grain, and feel a man of
Substance though I have no rupees.
The picture is pleasant enough, but thoughts of
home come in sharply at times, and he looks back
with regret to his hunting in Kent. " After all, I
declare that there is nothing in life like the swing
of an English gallop, and the muffled thunder of
horse-hoofs over turf"
Before he had been a full year in Hoshungabad,
the only year he ever spent as magistrate in charge
of a district, LyaU received, to his surprise, the offer
of a higher appointment, — the acting charge for six
months of the Commissionership of Nagpore. This
meant the control of three or four districts, or of a
country as large as a minor European kingdom, with

1 865] COMMISSIONER OF NAGPORE 119
considerable increase of pay and rank. It was, more
over, an agreeable change of residence, for Nagpore, the
capital of the Central Provinces, was a large city with
a military garrison and some society. Lyall's posi
tion was in some ways rather delicate, as he had been
put over the heads of many seniors ; but that could
not be helped, and he had already had some experi
ence of the loyalty with which Englishmen in India
accepted such incidents. His letters show no elation
at his good fortune, which at his age was remarkable.
" I cannot quite make out," he writes to his father,
" why I am sent for to Nagpore, as I have certainly
distinguished myself lately in no way ; " and he is
inclined to attribute his success to his beard, " which
is doing well," or to a dinner he had lately given to a
high official, with the help of two bottles of champagne
borrowed from a bachelor friend. He does not think
of " The Old Pindaree," which had drawn Temple's
attention to him and his official work. But he accepts
the offer without misgivings, and just as his new
house at Hoshungabad is finished he leaves it for
Nagpore. It was another rough journey for a lady and child,
in the hot weather, and therefore at night, " over the
most horrible stony tracks," and Lyall describes to his
mother how " during most of the journey I was en
gaged in holding on behind as a drag to the carts
downhill, and helping to push uphill." But they
got. through safely, and were received at Nagpore
with the usual hospitality and kindness. His mother
had evidently been reverting to the old subject of his

120 ALFRED LYALL [1865
extravagance, for in his first letter from Nagpore he
writes to her —
I am amused at your having discovered that much of our
failings in this matter is owing to your omission to teach us
economy as children. I have often thought that our ex
travagance was owing to the unceasing lessons upon economy
which I remember to have received from earliest childhood,
and to the care with which, as I now think, the family re
sources were underrated. But the truth is, that it was of no
use to impress economy upon us and to send us to Eton, for
we had not strength of character to resist the trial.
Nevertheless he argues that he is no longer extrava
gant, and it is true that from the date of his marriage
he began to change his views rapidly in this respect.
When I knew him a few years later he had given up
the old reckless Indian ways, and was a careful man
enough, with an eye to the future. He finishes his
letter by saying that he has in him " too great a
tincture of the ' Bohemian ' to care as much as I
should for family hearths," and finds it a drawback
that his professional rise brings him more among
earnest respectable society, and less among easy
going comrades.
His promotion was not allowed to pass without
some criticism from the Indian newspapers, one of
which referred to the matter as follows : —
These two appointments, bad as they are, scarcely come up
to " Sir John's last job, and worst — until the next." ^ There
are several able and distinguished officers, we hear, who well

1 Sir John Lawrence, afterwards Lord Lawrence, was then Viceroy
of India.

1 865] RAPID PROMOTION 121
remember seeing Mr Lyall an infant in arms when they had
entered the service, and who have for many long years waited
patiently and laboured faithfully in the hope of obtaining
just such an appointment as that to which this young gentle
man has been thus suddenly elevated. We have not a word
to say against Mr Lyall ; he is a gallant young fellow, and
behaved well at Bulandshahr during that fatal month of May
when others who shall be nameless showed perhaps less
favourably. But is he the only civilian who showed gallantry
during the Mutiny ? Has he ever been conspicuously meri
torious in any one way ? And if not, for truth demands that
the question be answered in the negative, why is he thus
allowed to supersede not only the able officers named above,
three or four of whom would have probably gladly accepted
the post, but more than fifty others, V.C.'s, C.B.'s, old standing
collectors, deputy commissioners, &c., to every single one of
whom the appointment would have been great and, in many
cases, well-deserved promotion ?
But all remarks about his youth Lyall took philo
sophically, remarking that the imputation had once
been brought against Pitt, and that "nothing could
be more advantageous than to be advertised as the
subject of unheard-of promotion, when my assailants
can find no trace of nepotism or private interest to
allege as the cause thereof."
His first impression of Nagpore was agreeable.
The people were, he thought, more than usually dull,
because the military element was ten miles distant ;
but he had a good house, and the country was attract
ive. " Perhaps you are not aware, I was not, that
with the exception of the great Gangetic valley, and
the Punjab, Hindustan is a country of hiUs and un
dulating plateaux." But he regrets the friends he

122 ALFRED LYALL [1865
has left behind at Hoshungabad, and writes to his
people about one of them, Charles Elliott, "a very
clever man, who will some day distinguish himself, . . .
a great reader, and almost too much a litteraire for
India. " EUiott, afterwards Sir Charles Elliott, K. C. S. I. ,
became Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal ; and when he
had retired from India, did good work in England.
He was an admirable example of the men the Indian
Civil Service used to produce — a colossal worker,
whom nothing seemed to tire, physically or mentally ;
and withal one of the most upright and kind-hearted
of men. Lyall and he were friends as long as they
lived. The surrender of the Confederates at Appomattox
had just been telegraphed, and the Indian cotton
market had immediately gone down, a curious example
of the interdependence of distant countries. " I
hope it will never rise again," Lyall says, " for the
Government wearied the life out of us district officers
by making us turn cotton fanciers. ... I am terribly
sick of the name of cotton, and I am very glad to see
the honest rustics of Hoshungabad returning to wheat
crops." He was to have much more to do with cotton
during the next ten years ; but for the time he had
other and less unpalatable work on his hands. His
first duty as Commissioner was the trial of a number
of " dacoits," or gang robbers, some of whose raids, he
sympathetically remarks, must have been very good
fun ; and the general supervision of his extensive
charge kept him fully occupied.
I cannot find that he was doing any literary work.

i865] BROWNING'S "PROSPICE" 123
" A ride in the morning, office work all day, and the
severe exercise of racquets in the evening, followed by
a drive in the twilight, takes me through the day fast
enough ; we dine very late and go to bed at 10 p.m."
In this letter he is writing to his mother, and the
subject he had so often discussed with her comes up
again —
And to speak the truth, I always saw that you had too
good an intellect to be able to solace yourself satisfactorily
with religious commonplaces. I am not sneering at real
religion, but I believe that none but dull and self-complacent
people of the incapable sort ever really managed to console
themselves for drawbacks in this life by a sense of fitness for
the next, about which, say what you will. We know nothing
distinct whatever ; . . . people of real energy or intellect can
not deceive themselves thus, nor confuse simple ennui with a
longing for the world to come.
He advises her to read Browning's "Prospice,"
"which I take to describe the right way of looking
forward to the inevitable end." The advice, coming
from him, is curious, for, after all, " Prospice " shows
the most joyful confidence in a future life.
He turns to a less personal subject —
Yes, the Church is very strong in England, in spite of the
wonderful vagaries of its ministers and the absence of dis
cipline. As long as the upper and middle classes keep power
it will never be hurt, but it is intimately connected with
" State," and I think that the triumph of democracy would
be its ruin.
As to his official work Lyall did well, but it was
rather against the grain. Although he liked power, as

124 ALFRED LYALL [1865
most able men do, he was, as already explained, averse
from unnecessary interference with Oriental ways.
I have now got through three out of my six months [he writes
to Mrs Holland], and I don't know that I have made any mis
takes. I have in all sincerity a healthy contempt of my own
powers, amounting at times to the feeling that I am an im
postor who must soon be exposed, which keeps me from many
blunders, but, on the other hand, my real sympathies and
tastes are not with a pushing, go-ahead administration like
this of Mr Temple's.
At the same time he appreciated the merits of such
men. " Indian statesmen are far below English in
their wide knowledge of finance, economy, and the
machinery of complicated institutions, — they cannot
manage a steam-engine, but they can drive restive
and ill-trained horses over bad roads ; " and he had no
great opinion of the "highly educated, clever, fair-
weather governor " so often sent out from England to
India and the Colonies.
The same letter has a remark which reads curiously
to those who knew Lyall late in life. Speaking of a
man whose closing years had been remarkably success
ful, he says : " I know how utterly different mine will
be, for I have not the knack of making many friends."
The " prospect of a retired Indian's comfortable ob
scurity" was always most distasteful to him. "I
don't know that I look forward to anything in partic
ular," he wrote, "except to see once more two or three
people in the world ; " but in point of fact this would
never have sufficed to make him happy.
MeanwhUe, one of the two or three people in the

THE REVEREND ALFRED LYALL.

1 865] DEATH OF FATHER 125
world whom he hoped to see again had passed away ;
for he writes to his mother —
Yesterday's mail brought letters from my sisters giving an
account of my father's last illness and death. There is no
reason why 1 should try and describe to you how deeply I
was afflicted by the narrative, or how I have now for the first
time realised the feeling of a great, irreparable loss. You can
understand well enough. Now I am looking back on my past
life and recalling all the old memories of scenes and faces,
from the days when I leamed Latin by his side in the God
mersham dining-room, to the meeting in Paris when I came
home from India, and the last parting at Dover. And beside
the remorseful recollection of faults and omissions that now
come up. . . . However, it is too late now, and ... to us out
here such an end to life as that described by my sisters seems
almost enviable — to die at seventy years in one's own country,
surrounded by those one loves best, and to be laid in the old
churchyard on the hill above Canterbury. ... It is a great
consolation that his illness was so short.
A little later he writes to an aunt —
The news of my poor father's death affected me deeply. I
had the greatest respect and veneration for his character, as
well as love for him personally, and I had always hoped to see
him once more.
On November 24th he writes to Mrs Holland —
I do not know that I have any great cause to reproach my
self in regard to my conduct towards him, but 1 would give
much to live over again the last year of my stay at home. I
often think how he used to like those drives with me in the
dogcart, and I feel that I might have done more to please and
amuse him.
Lyall's acting appointment having expired, he took

126 ALFRED LYALL [1865
short leave and went up to his old haunts in PUibheet,
hoping to meet his brothers, but the meeting fell
through, and he returned disappointed. Neverthe
less the leave did him good, for he had spent a few
weeks in a bracing climate and met some old friends.
I am beginning to have a better opinion of myself [he
writes], now that I find that there are men in the world who
seem glad to see me and talk with me, men whom most people
are glad to meet. I don't think I make many friends among
womankind, I do not lay myself out much in that direction now.
He was, in fact, beginning to be understood and
liked by many of those with whom he came into con
tact — women as well as men ; and his professional
reputation was rising fast. On his return to Nagpore
he heard that he had been chosen to act for a time as
Secretary to the Government of the province, and this
further promotion was a gratifying compliment.
Referring to the death of his father and other mem
bers ofthe family, he writes to his mother at this time —
Such losses as we have suffered leave no sting, nothing but
the feeling of remorse or failure should embitter after-years,
and you can have neither feeling. I hope, my dear mother,
that you will not analyse or intensify your emotions too much ;
you have a peculiarly susceptible and very imaginative
temperament, do not give it too much subjective or self-
conscious play, especially in religious matters. "Laissons
I'enf er au bon Dieu," as some Frenchman says ; there are none
who trust in God's wide mercy and benevolence so little as
those who pay the most implicit reverence to His written
word ; the letter of the law obscures the spirit. . . . The great
object of education is to learn to think for oneself, to clear the
mind of illusions, to see things as they really are, and to

1 865] RELIGIOUS VIEWS 127
understand that God is not the God of the dead, but of the
living — that we did not find out everything that is to be
found out about the eternal destinies 2000 years ago, and that,
as Kingsley says, it is a miserable delusion to think that what
would be unjust for a man to do could by any possible proof
be shown to be just on the supposition that God did it. It is
most difficult, as Gladstone says, to separate the essential
from the accidental — the changing from the immutable — in
all that we read of the past and see before our eyes; but
among jarring creeds and tottering traditions a man can
always know the right from the wrong, and can hold to that.
And he who lets any dogma, however solemnly announced,
warp his straight view of justice, or stand in the slightest
degree between him and the few people who really love him,
under the notion that he will get his profit in another world,
will, in my belief, be terribly disappointed when he comes to
give account of his work and demand his wages ; he will find
that he has been misled as to the character of his employer.
I don't know whether I ought to send you such outpourings
as the above ; but I write to you as to an intimate friend.
There are flaws in the argument perhaps ; life would
be very simple if a man could always know the right
from the wrong. But it is a characteristic letter, in
more respects than one.
The cold weather of 1865 brought a large gathering
to Nagpore, for a Central Provinces Exhibition had
been organised by the provincial Government, and he
was kept hard at work in connection with it ; but in
the following May, having reverted to his commis
sionership, he was out in camp on a tour of inspection.
From there he writes —
I suppose there is no wilder or less known part of India
than the interminable forests south-east of Nagpore, towards

128 ALFRED LYALL [1866
the sea ; it is a hilly forest country inhabited by what we call
aboriginal tribes, with here and there an oasis of cultivation
and civilised settlement by the superior races. . . . The sad
fate of the many Englishmen whose bones lie in these remote
comers of a strange land always haunts me for a long time
after seeing their graves. . . . However, with good pluck and
good luck I hope to see again the old country, when I come
back tired with life in jungle and tent, with toil and travel
ling wellnigh spent, eastward never again to roam.^
In July 1866 he writes to Mrs Holland —
We are still at Nagpore, and likely to remain ; the Chief
Commissioner seems disposed to keep me here to do odd work
and fill up intervals created by absence on leave of higher
officers. I am now employed in selecting and compiling a
list of laws from the statute-book. I have also got some
historical papers to put into shape, and other semi-literary
jobs which suit me well.
The fact was that Temple and others were beginning
to recognise that Lyall's pen was a very useful asset,
and to take advantage of it. It does not seem that
he was contributing much to literature proper, except
that he published this year some verses in an Indian
paper. Like many of his contributions to the press,
these verses were only of local and temporary interest,
and he did not preserve them ; but as usual they con
tained some spirited if not very careful lines —
"Who were the soldiers that India won?
Men who recked little of life or labour,
Charged to the mouth of a Punjab gun,
Matched their steel with an Afghan sabre."

' These words were afterwards brought into one of hia " Horatian
Reminiscences."

i866] OCCASIONAL VERSE 129
Another of these hastily written pieces, " The
Nagpore CindereUa," is republished in Rivett-
Carnac's ' Many Memories.' It contains the following
stanzas : —
" Where foaming o'er her curb of stone
Nerbudda leaps, and leads her fountains,
Or deep in southern forest lone
Where far Godaveri bathes the mountains.
She wandered here, she lingered there,
She knew no books, she wore no bodice ;
With leaf and flower she decked her hair —
A simple nymph, a rustic goddess.
Sometimes through moonlit highland glade,
Like Grecian hamadryad flitting.
Or by the creaming cool cascade,
A naiad in the noon-day sitting.
And oft, when thus the savage wight
The lonely girl perchance had seen, he
Adored the huntress of ihe night,
Or scattered flowers to fair Undin^."
In September 1866 Lyall was still at Nagpore, act
ing for the third time as Commissioner, and absorbed
in professional work, but uncertain as to his future,
the more so because he had lost his first savings in
a disaster which overtook the Bank of Bombay. He
was evidently interesting himself in English politics,
for a little later he writes to Mrs Holland —
As for politics, I am more and more Radical every year. I
think that we have had enough of Govemment by comfort
able country gentlemen and the oligarchy of the House of
Commons. If I had a little more talent and money I would
set up as a fierce demagogue on my retum to England.
When the cold weather came he was still unsettled,
I

130 ALFRED LYALL [1867
having been for eighteen months " doing other people's
work in other people's hduses," without a fixed ap
pointment, and being now obliged to go off, twelve
days' march, to another exhibition. So, in the spring
of 1867, he sent his wife and children to England,
where they were lovingly received by his mother,
remaining by himself to face the constant moves
which at that time seemed to be his lot in life. In
June he was sent to Jubbulpore as Deputy-Commis
sioner, but with a warning that he might soon be
transferred to a higher post. He writes to his
mother —
Jubbulpore is one of the pleasantest little stations in India.
I am loth to quit it for temporary promotion, but I never
allow personal discomfort to stand in my professional path —
if I can master my distastes that is, for I am getting lazy
and cynical, more inclined for books and dilettantism than
for rough outdoor work. I wish I could feel, like so many
people, that I had a " mission " to do this or that, that ordin
ary business was a high and holy work — in short, that I
could whip up more enthusiasm, which others seem to feel
about matters to me uninteresting. You will do me the
justice to believe that I am not affecting to be blas4 in writing
to you; there are certain things which make me passionate
enough, — what I mean is that I rather envy men who believe
that they do a vast amount of good to their fellow-creatures,
and whose daily work is gilded by that conviction.
There was, in fact, no affectation in what he wrote.
It was alike his strength and his weakness that he
was not so entirely possessed by the demon of work
as most Indian officials are. What Lord Dufferin
called "the traditions of gigantic industry," which

i867] WORK IN INDIA 131
characterised the Indian CivU Service, never fully laid
hold upon him, as they did of his friend Charles Elliott,
and Temple, and John Lawrence, and many others.
He was, as he once said of himself, a born sceptic about
everything ; and his abnormally keen sense of humour
prevented him from taking his work too seriously.
If, on the one hand, his comparative indifference in
this respect prevented him from doing all that he
might have done as an administrator, his attitude of
comparative detachment, rather English than Indian,
gave him more leisure for thought and study and
writing. This was a great gain — not to him only ;
but it must be admitted that the successful adminis
tration of India by a few hundred Englishmen would
have been impossible if they had not brought to it
unbounded enthusiasm and labour.
Soon afterwards the railway reached Jubbulpore,
and Lyall writes to his mother that
the far-off roar at night of the coming train reminds me of
Harbledown on a summer evening. Well, I am very glad to
have seen the old India of long-stretching rides far into the
night, and of incessant galloping night and day in a perilous
mail-cart — when distance had to be overcome quickly ; but it
is a grand benefit never more to have to drag ladies and
children for days along bad roads and across unbridged
ravines — when the Government was pleased to transfer you
from place to place.
I am spending a Sunday out on the Nerbudda, at a place
called the Marble Rocks. ... It is a most wonderful place,
but descriptions are stupid by letter. . . . The water in the
big pool just at my feet is fresh and clear — we have been
watching a crocodile that has stationed himself under water
at the ford. He is easily seen from our high rock, but below

132 ALFRED LYALL [1867
he is probably invisible. . . . Just above us is the grave of
a poor fellow who was drowned here by the wild bees : he
was out shooting in a boat, and disturbed their nest — they
drove him into the water and drowned him.
Lyall was not left many weeks at Jubbulpore, for
in July, six weeks after his arrival, he heard that he
was to go for a year or so to a place called Akola, to
act as Commissioner of West Berar. This was one
half of a large tract of country taken over from the
native state of Hyderabad in payment for the upkeep
of a disciplined force placed at the disposal of its
Chief Berar, according to Lyall's description, was
about the size of Greece, with a larger population,
and for a young man of thirty-two the position was
a fine one. But Akola itself was at that time out of
the way and dull, and he could not help repining at
the move.
I am reluctantly preparing to leave this pleasant place [he
writes to his mother], and to go down into the bare hot
plains of Behar, all for money. I don't like the prospect at
aU, for my headquarters will be at a small station, and I have
nearly lost what capacity I had for living by myself, but I
cannot stop short on my road out here. ... So I must make
up my mind to a dreary year before me.
And he proceeded once more to break up his estab
lishment, after the manner of India, selling off his
furniture and other heavy things, and starting his
horses and servants and carts for a long march in the
rainy weather.
As a matter of fact, he never returned to the
Central Provinces, and Akola was to be his head-

1 867] TRANSFER TO BERAR 133
quarters for a long time to come, but that he did
not know ; so he settled down for his year of solitude
on " a wide upland, with a few bungalows dotted here
and there," congratulating himself that his wife and
children had been spared the rough journey. As he
truly said, he had "no great liking for children" —
it was one of his weak points — and a journey in India
with his family was misery to him ; " but in my own
way I used to think the two infants pleasant little
things, and I often miss them when I come home
about dusk." He tells his sister that he is just now
in good spirits, being a very successful civilian ; but
as usual he is in two minds about it all. His friend
EUiott is
" enraged at my longings after the society and the fleshpots
of Jubbulpore, so I suppose I was right to come here ; " but
nevertheless " I have been thinking lately that without doubt
I should have done better to go to Cambridge. . . . India is
just tolerable at a large station, but I have contracted an
antipathy to outposts. Of course I need not stay here, for
I have four districts under me, and I shall go rushing about
to keep off ennui, but still I am wasting my short lifetime,
and I doubt whether the money is worth it."
This is the note which now gets stronger with him
year after year. The novelty and romance of India
had faded, and his restless spirit was chafing in its
bonds. It is doubtful whether in reality he would
not have been much more restless and discontented
if he' had remained in England. He enjoyed English
life thoroughly afterwards, when he was tired of
jungle and tent, — when the intellectual and literary

134 ALFRED LYALL [1867
side of his nature had become predominant ; but in
his younger days the uneventfiil round of existence
in Europe would have tried him severely. However,
he advises his sister not to send her son to India.
The son was Bernard Holland, who had just gone
to Eton, and Lyall writes about this —
Certainly I don't envy poor little Bernard, for at 11 years
the return from home to school gave me sheer anguish, but
then I did not get on socially at school until I was about 14.
I think that we inflict on boys much unnecessary pain ; they
gain very little by going early to school, and suffer a good
deal. Of nothing am I so persuaded as of the error com
mitted by overteaching boys. They learn nothing at all,
except merest rudiments, until about 15 ; from 15 to 20 they
learn a good deal of superficial knowledge, which they forget
altogether if they leave books after 20. From 20 to 30 is the
real education time of man, and the reason why you women
are mostly uneducated is that you finish before 20, and don't
go on, having no object in doing so. But take my advice
and train Bernard's body carefully. Really it is as useful
in life to be able to ride as to know most sciences, while a
general knowledge of games brings a youth to the front
wonderfully in society, but riding is of immense value.
It does not seem that Lyall greatly altered his views
on these points in later life.
In the same letter he sends his young nephew a
Homeric parody, the piece printed in his first collec
tion of 'Verses Written in India,' under the title of
" Sky Races in the Grecian Camp before Troy."
" Paste it into some book," he says ; " I have no
other copy."
In September 1867 he writes to his mother from

1 867] A "PRESENTABLE" MAN 135
one of his outlying districts — he was presumably
" rushing about to keep off ennui " — and asks her to
keep very much to herself her pleasure at his success,
for you are aware how utterly uninteresting such petty
triumphs are to our general acquaintances, more especially
how indifferent English relatives are to the doings of Anglo-
Indian connections. After all, I have only had one or two
successive turns of good -luck. ... If I had never met
Temple, I should be nowhere in the race for promotion ; and
you will laugh at my conceit when I say that I secretly
believe that he has pushed me on not more for my ability
to work than because I am what I have heard him call a
" presentable " man — he meant — what did he mean ?
The question may be answered in the words of a
man who knew Lyall well about that time —
His figure was slight and wiry, and he had the appearance
of being tall. He moved well, and sat a horse well. His head
was that of a Konkani Brahmin, his eyes were wonderful, and
he had an indescribable charm which attracted men and women
alike. His way of speaking was very courteous, and some
thought studied. Although he unbent with his intimates, he
was generally dignified and reserved. We would sometimes
laugh and say he had the manners of an ambassador.
Temple came of an old family, and had a certain
liking for presentable men ; so that Lyall's belief was
probably correct enough. But Temple was above
all an enthusiastic administrator, and would never
have pushed on a man who was not thoroughly
efficient in his work. However this may be, LyaU
would have been better pleased if his success had not
been due so entirely to Temple. The foundation, he
thought, was too narrow to be soUd. Nor did he find

136 ALFRED LYALL [1867
Temple altogether congenial. In one letter about him
LyaU writes — and all who knew him must admit the
accuracy of the touch : "He cackled with hideous
laughter when he found that half a dozen of us had
lost all our money in the Bombay Bank, aud he told
me that he never did such things." Laughter on such
subjects is apt to be irritating, and it must be allowed
that Temple was not exceptionally tactful. Never
theless Lyall had a real respect for his uprightness of
character, and for his powers of work.
In September of this year, 1867, Lyall wrote to in
form his mother that he had been confirmed in his
new appointment, and was now a substantive Com
missioner, so that before he was thirty-three he had
reached almost the highest grade of the administra
tive service. He had now under his charge four
districts, governed by officers much senior to himself;
and his income was £3000 a-year. He certainly
had little reason to be dissatisfied with his position
in life.
He had written not long before the piece which
is to be found among his ' Horatian Reminiscences,'
under the heading " Aequam memento rebus in
arduis." Apparently it was first published in a mis
cellany brought out by a knot of young civilians
and soldiers. In a letter to his mother about his
desire for a visit to England in the following year,
he writes —
What puzzles me is your saying, " Much as I desire to see
you, I cannot wish you to incur the expense of a journey for
six months," just what used to strike me in my poor father's

1 868] CONFIRMED AS COMMISSIONER 137
affectionate letters — he never could keep from his imagination
the ghost of unthrift. ... I make sober calculation when I
assert that I could do nothing better with my money than
spend it in visiting you next year. I suppose money is to be
spent to buy what one most values, and I value the trip to
England most.
And he asks her to read his poem — "it contains in
epitome the life philosophy of this benighted pagan." ^
The year 1868 opens for Lyall with a retrospect of
the past five years, since his last visit to England, and
he says that what pleases him most is the great ex
tent of country which he has traversed —
I have been marching every cold season, and almost always
in a different district or province, so that although very many
have seen more of the high roads of India — have taken a wider
range of travel — yet I believe that very few have seen the
interior of so many districts.
It was just this experience which was so useful to
Lyall, and gave him his intimate knowledge of native
life and character. He was very tired of tent life,
and he found Akola terribly dull even for India, but
these dull years in the jungles completed the work
of the Mutiny. And, at the same time, they
gave him leisure for writing. He tells his mother
that he had been contributing to a paper several
rather grotesque articles on the value of Human
Life. One would like to see them, for the subject
was well suited to his rather cynical humour ; but
^ " Soon you must leave your favourite wold,
And the pleasant villa by Isis laved.
And the heir will reckon your piles of gold,
Hardly won, and thriftily saved."

138 ALFRED LYALL [1868
they are probably buried in the back files of ' The
Pioneer ' or ' Times of India.' Referring in the same
letter to his Homeric translation, he observes —
It is not, as you say, exactly a parody — it is more an attempt
to render the spirit of the original in a modem shape — it is
impossible to describe to you how Homer kicks off his grand
epic buskins and becomes a mere enthusiastic sporting man
when he gets among horses. Nothing is more delightful than
the way he gets excited in the passage which I have trans
lated : " But when they had reached the turn of the course,
Far on the shore by the breakers' foam,"
and I hope that Bernard may some day feel the " wild pulsa
tion " which somehow the rush of thoroughbreds stirs up in
every true Englishman. Anyhow he will read the Iliad of
Homer, which is worth all the rest of the world's poetry,
except two or three masterpieces. You remember that even
Chapman's translation inspired about the finest sonnet ever
written, that one by Keats ending —
" Or like stout Gortez when with eagle eyes
He stared at the Pacific — and all his men
Look'd at each other with a wild surmise —
Silent, upon a peak in Darien."
I am bound to say that in Lyall's letter these lines
are shockingly misquoted — a good example of the
tricks which memory plays the man who does not
verify his references. I have taken upon myself to
restore the original words. The Homeric piece is
omitted from the published volume of Lyall's poems.
At this time he had also finished another piece of
literary work, which, though official, a Berar Census
Report, contained some matter not usually found in

1 868] BERAR CENSUS REPORT 139
official reports. This was a dissertation on sects and
religions, and he had contemplated writing from it
an essay on the beliefs of the Hindus. The Berar
Census Report, which he sent in with an apology
" for entering upon matters Theological," was in fact
the germ of the ' Asiatic Studies,' afterwards perhaps
the best known and most valuable of his published
writings. A few days later he is on the point of starting for
England, and, of course, he grows uneasy.
Somehow, as the idea of England gets closer and closer, the
enchantment of the far-off prospect begins to fade — my re
collections of the former visit grow more distinct — and I
recall mistakes, mishaps, and the ennui of country life without
occupation. That was very like Lyall. In spite ofhis restlessness
and love of change, the actual setting out upon an
expedition, however easy, invariably worried and de
pressed him. He used to conjure up all sorts of
unpleasant possibilities, and half wish he were not
going. Even a visit to England, which in his heart he
desired beyond everything, filled him with misgivings
at the last moment. It was this curious sensitiveness
and touch of pessimism in his character which so
many people mistook for infirmity of purpose. As a
fact it caused him much unnecessary, at times almost
ludicrous, wear and tear of mind ; but it never affected
his action.

CHAPTER vm.
SECOND FURLOUGH AND THIRD PERIOD OF
INDIAN SERVICE.
1868-1871.
Six months in England— Publishes " Theology in Extremis," September
1868— Sails for India, October 1868— Visit to Hyderabad, 1869—
Dislike of jungles and soUtude — He defends Temple against attack —
Working at Berar Gazetteer — Origin of the Gazetteer of India — Lord
Mayo succeeds Lord Lawrence — New Viceroy visits Berar, 1870 —
if Lyall's views about women's rights — Writes " The Land of Kegrets "
— Visit to Bombay — Furlough, AprU 1871.
Lyall spent his six months in England much as an
Indian official usually spends them, "cruising about
the kingdom " on visits to friends, but passing a large
part of the time among his own people. Naturally, he
was not doing much work ; but in one of his letters
there is a passage which shows that he had offered
something to an English magazine. It was, in fact,
his poem, "Theology in Extremis," which was pub
lished by the 'CornhiU' in September 1868, and
attracted considerable notice. This was the begin
ning of a long course of writing for publications in
England, which went on almost without interruption
until his death forty -three years later, and was a distinc
tive feature of his Indian career. He did well to begin
with " Theology in Extremis," for it is perhaps the
finest piece of verse he ever wrote. It was his own
favourite, and many good judges agreed with him.
Before he sailed for India again he went to Suffolk

i868] "THEOLOGY IN EXTREMIS" 141
for some partridge-shooting, and found the close-cut
stubbles very different from old days, " birds terribly
wild, that new plan of mowing the crops as if you
were shaving the earth's chin has destroyed all cover,
and partridge-shooting has now entirely changed its
character." But, as a matter of fact, he now cared
little about shooting of any kind. Here, in Suffolk,
with his sister, Mrs Petre, he left his two elder child
ren ; and on the 8th of October he had once more set
his face eastward. At Marseilles he felt " heavy at
heart as the anchor on being torn from the soil of
Europe," but his visit had been a happy one.
I have gained undiluted pleasure from your society [he
writes to his mother], since I do not remember one moment of
coolness or misunderstanding. ... I fear I vexed you some
times by my taste for argumentative fencing, I mean by my
way of taking a side and defending it merely as an exercise
for amusement, the real truth being that there are many
topics on which I have not definitely discovered what I really
do think. ... I am sure that I cost you money, and I feel
compunction at the liberal style of your table, which was
mostly on my account.
His apologies are considerate ; but one may be sure
his mother did not grudge the money, or feel any
great vexation at the argumentative fencing. It was
always a trick of his. He erred, if it was an error, in
good company, that of Samuel Johnson.
He landed at Bombay determined to be very careful
in his official work, for he had now attained a position
above which comparatively few civilians ever rose, and
he felt that any false step might ruin his chances of
selection for the great prizes of the service. Never-

142 ALFRED LYALL [1868
theless I see that his first letter from Akola deals
with literary matters. Before leaving England he
had apparently sent to the ' Cornhill ' his " Joab,"
which stands as No. XVI. in the last edition of his
Verses. He seems now, for the first time, to have
contemplated such a volume, for he says of " Joab " :
If it be rejected I shall send it to an Indian paper.
I think I could in time produce a sufficient number
of dramatic sketches in verse to form a small book
worth printing in India."
The present Editor of the ' Cornhill ' writes that the
Magazine published two only of Lyall's pieces, " The
ology in Extremis " and the " Hindu Prince and
Sceptic." Presumably, therefore, "Joab" was rejected.
It may have appeared in an Indian paper.
As usual he soon got tired of the dulness of Akola,
and went into camp for Christmas. His letters written
about this time contain two pieces of self- analysis
which seem interesting. They refer to parting from
his children, and to his literary work.
I for one never wish any one to grieve on my account, being
conscious myself of no acute pain at such partings. In the
world there seems to me to be so much sharper griefs than
these temporary separations, that I must confess I regard
them little after the first moment. Any thing like an
estrangement, or loss of esteem or affection which I value,
would touch me a hundred times more. ...
I do not like marching about because it disarranges my books
and papers. Somehow I find more and more occupation as I go
on living, and I should do very well if I could overcome a cer
tain fidgety impatience of delays, and a trick of getting tired
with any business that wants long application. If I were other-

1869] VISIT TO HYDERABAD 143
wise qualified, I think I could not write a book ; I should ex
haust my interest half-way through the subject. ... I wish
for the energy of those people who write three- volume novels.
I myself always get disgusted with any subject after about
ten pages.
On these extracts it may be remarked that Lyall
came to feel more acutely in after years the partings
which form so sad a feature of Indian life. As to his
literary capacity, this early judgment is not wholly
incorrect. In after life he wrote some good books,
but his strength lay rather in essay and review
writing than in larger works.
Early in the year 1869 he spent some time in the
Native State of Hyderabad, on a visit to the Resident,
C. B. Saunders, who was ex officio head of the Berar
administration, and his immediate superior. It was
a long march from Akola over " the wide stony wolds
of the Deccan," and it greatly interested LyaU, who
for the first time saw something of a great chiefship
under native rule. This was a useful experience
in various ways, for the Native States were very
different from the provinces under British adminis
tration, and Hyderabad was the most important of
them all, with a territory as large as England, and a
population of more than ten miUions. At the capital
he met the distinguished Minister, Sir Salar Jung,
whom he described as " one of the ablest men in
India, and withal a high-bred handsome Mahometan,
very courteous to Englishmen."
Lyall returned by mail-cart and rail, a roundabout
journey of 700 miles, but quicker than the march

144 ALFRED LYALL [1869
across country. He stopped on the way at Poena,
where he contrasted the miserable " hotel " with the
ceremonious establishments of the old regime at
Hyderabad. Indian hotels of those days were, as
he said, "always nasty, untidy places, where you
are tended by unclean natives of the baser
sort." Altogether he was considerably surprised and im
pressed by what he had seen of the great Moslem
chiefship. After his return to Akola he found himself very
busy with the preparation of his annual report, one
of the many burdens imposed on the Indian official,
and with the ordinary work of his large division ; but
he escaped the worst of the violent heat by a month's
stay in the little hill station of Chiculda, where his
wife and child were spending the summer. He was
not fond of hUl stations, which cut him off from the
daily contact with native life ; but such breaks are at
times the salvation of men who have to toil in an
exhausting climate, and he was the better for the
change. In August his friend Charles Elliott passed
through Akola on his way to England, recalled by the
sudden death of a brother, and Lyall got into the
railway carriage and travelled some little way with
him, — " a rough-looking irritable man with ten times
the softheartedness and sensibility of myself." Yet it
was a kindly thing to do. Then, after seeing the
train depart into heavy rain and thick darkness,
Lyall sits down in the lonely railway station to write

1 869] NO EAR FOR MUSIC 145
to his mother. He hopes his daughter in England
has some notion of music —
I feel myself a certain grievance against nature, which
chooses to send me through a world full of grand music
without the capacity to understand it. I am well aware that
my taste in music is like the taste of those who admire, say,
Longfellow in poetry — a thoroughly fourth-class taste, if npt
lower. The remark is quoted because it touches upon one
of his peculiarities. He had no better ear for music
than he had for languages. The two things are, no
doubt, quite distinct, and a man may have one
without the other. Lyall had neither. Yet in his
own way he felt music acutely. I have more than
once seen him moved almost beyond control by some
sudden touch in a song. As to the American poet,
Lyall became in later life much less impatient of
Longfellow's simple sentiment and want of finish than
he had been when he was a younger man. He spoke
to me in that sense on the occasion of the Longfellow
centenary in 1906. But it was a class of poetry which
never really appealed to him.
On the 22nd of August Akola was enlivened by a
cricket -match against another station, and Lyall's
mind was divided between official and sporting cares.
" Much rain falls, good for cotton, bad for cricket ; "
but he was now looking forward to another visit to
England in 1871, and was already beginning to count
the time like a schoolboy. Early in October he
writes that his house in Chiculda has been much
damaged by rain, but he takes it calmly. " Our busy
K

146 ALFRED LYALL [1869
season wUl begin in a fortnight. I have many places
to go to, and much to do, if I am well the next six
months wUl fly fast, and then there will be only
twelve months before I go home again." His letters
touch more than once upon the vain longings of
Indian officials for England, and the disappointment
in which they usually end, yet he cannot refrain
from them.
At this time he was not apparently writing
much. I wish I could make some more verses [he says to his
mother], but I have been struck dull ever since I got back to
India, and my leisure intervals are apt to be invaded by low
spirits. Now I detest what people call subjective _ poetry,
the setting forth of your inner feelings in verse, unless you
can set them in some new and striking frame of circum
stance.The instinct was surely a right one. He knew how
artificial and useless — if not mischievous — such poetry
is apt to be. One of the chief merits of his own
verse was that it rested on less shadowy foundations.
Whatever its faults, it was never mere dream work.
When the rainy season was over, the first breath of
cold autumnal air gave him as usual a restless desire
to be off to camp. " Yet every year I dislike the
jungle and solitude more and more, and look toward
congenial society as the only pleasure I may hope for
in life." This was the feeling that grew stronger and
stronger upon him as life went on. Meanwhile he
begged his mother to send him good French books,
memoirs or histories. As he told her, he read history

1869] DEFENDS SIR RICHARD TEMPLE 147
more willingly than anything else. It is curious to
see how his mind, which was reflective, and indeed
imaginative, beyond most, yet seemed always hungry
for facts. Fiction, unless redeemed by a speciaUy
artistic setting, always wearied him. It was like the
detested subjective poetry — unreal, and therefore un
attractive. The year gave him an opportunity of showing
what was always a remarkable and very admirable
characteristic of his — a certain vehement indignation
against injustice. His old chief, Sir Richard Temple,
had lately got into difficulties with regard to the
financial policy of the Government of India, which
he was then conducting, and LyaU was stirred
to wrath by what seemed to him the unfair and
merciless attacks which appeared in some of the
Indian newspapers. In these circumstances he felt
compeUed to act, and though precluded by his official
position from coming out into the open, he sent to the
Editor of a leading Indian paper, which had often
published contributions from him, a fiery letter of
protest. This letter, which was itself unjust to
men whom he did not know, is not of any import
ance now ; but it did credit to his generosity and
courage. He writes to his mother about it : "I am
much concerned now about Sir R. Temple, whose
financial ministry has not succeeded as yet ; he has
bitter enemies, and I am shedding the best ink in
my bottle on his behalf" Whether the protest
affected the tone of the paper he does not say, and
Temple's rather tough skin did not perhaps suffer

148 ALFRED LYALL [1869
from the attacks made upon him as much as Lyall
supposed ; but the attitude which he took in this
matter, verbally and in writing, is pleasant to see.
Most men stand aside in such cases. With him,
though few suspected it, the sight of a man in unde
served trouble was enough to make him do at once
what he could do to help. He required no appeal for
aid, and looked for no thanks. It is not a common
quality ; and in a man whose personal affections,
though deep, were not broad-cast, — " a rather callous
man," as he calls himself, — it was specially remarkable.
Of course he was by this time getting very weary
of Akola, never having before held an appointment
half so long ; but he was bringing out a Berar
Gazetteer, which interested him. Though it was, as
he told his mother, full of Indian matter uninteresting
to English readers, it was a rather striking departure
in official work ; and it not only did much to increase ,
his growing reputation, but was one of the earliest
examples from which grew the various provincial
Gazetteers, and the great Gazetteer of India, edited
by Sir William Hunter. The exact circumstances in
which the idea originated are described by Rivett-
Carnac in his book, and, as there has been some mis
conception on the subject, his words are quoted —
At a recent meeting of the Royal Society of Arts, held to
commemorate the completion of a new edition of this Imperial
Gazetteer, Sir Alfred Lyall, who was in the chair, corrected
the incorrect views expressed that the Indian Gazetteers owed
their origin to Sir William Hunter. Sir Alfred said— and
having been Commissioner at Nagpore the circumstance must

1 869] BERAR GAZETTEER 149
have been well known to him — that the Gazetteers were first
started in the Central Provinces in Sir Richard Temple's
time, and that the suggestion to compile these records came
from me. This is quite correct.
Temple highly approved the idea, and, if I remember
aright, it was talked over with Alfred Lyall and Charles
Elliott when we met them both a few days later in the
Hoshungabad District. The orders then went forth for the
compilation of what was the Gazetteer of the Central
Provinces, and which was edited by Charles Grant. Later
Alfred Lyall undertook the Gazetteer for Berar. The Govern
ment of India did not fail to appreciate the merit of these
beginnings, and, determining to extend the system to the
whole of India, put Hunter in charge of the work. Until
then he had no connection with the undertaking, and had no
hand in it until after the Gazetteers of both the Central
Provinces and Berar had been compiled and published.
Rivett-Carnac explains that a Major Baldwin, who
was in charge of one of the districts of the Central
Provinces, had, of his own accord, compiled a sheaf of
notes " regarding nearly everything in his district " ;
and that this was the germ of the whole system.
During this year Lyall received, and greatly
enjoyed, a visit from his brother James, who was
doing well as a civilian in the Punjab ; ^ but his mother
noticed a tone of depression in his letters. For
instance, he writes to her —
I have missed one or two things in life which I might have
got — though, I suppose, every one would say the same. And

1 Temple had tried to " crimp " James Lyall, too, for the Central Pro
vinces ; but the answer had been, " He is the very best of our young men,
and don't you wish you may get him ? "

150 ALFRED LYALL [1870
so when I sit down to write I begin to meditate, and when
I meditate I fall into melancholy.
Still, on the whole, he is contented enough.
I am very busy out here just now, and I am not at all sure
that this is not where I am most happy. I rather despair of
ever finding steady occupation in England.
He had been invited to spend Christmas at Calcutta,
where there was to be a great gathering of all the mag
nates of the land to meet the new Viceroy, Lord Mayo,
who was succeeding Lord Lawrence. Lyall thought
it a good chance of emerging from his jungles and
making the acquaintance of the powers that were.
But there is in his letters no description of this
Christmas visit, and nothing to show that it ever took
place. At all events, in February 1870 Lyall was
back in Akola — preparing for the reception of the
Viceroy there. Lord Mayo was to visit Berar, chiefly
in connection with the cotton trade; and though
viceregal visits are, as a rule, expensive and trouble
some to local officers, Lyall looked forward to this one
as a break in the dulness of Akola. It went off
successfuUy enough. Lyall's house and tents were
full for ten days. The new Viceroy charmed every
one, as he always did, opened a new railway to
Khangaun, a great cotton mart, made a fine speech
about it for the benefit of Manchester, and departed ;
leaving Lyall with a bad headache, and with the
usual business of his division " severely damaged and
delated," but thankful all was over.
The story of this railway was a curious one. It

i87o] THE FIRST STATE RAILWAY 151
was, I believe, the first State Railway in India.
Rivett-Carnac, who was now Cotton Commissioner,
had been entrusted by Lord Mayo with the carrying
out of the work. The engineer appointed by the
Public Works Department reported the task impos
sible in the time allowed. Lyall came to the rescue
with a young Stanley engineer, Izat, who pushed the
matter through.^ When they had succeeded, Lyall
wrote to Rivett-Carnac —
I think you have managed admirably, and I have conceived
still greater respect than before for your capacity of putting
things straight and driving them on. I am quite sure that
very few men would have acted with such energy, and that you
deserve all the credit for the railway from [the ?] beginning.
This is a good instance of the generous way in which
he acknowledged the work of others.
Meanwhile he had written and sent to his mother
an article on Mill's ' Subjection of Women.' He never
thought much of Mill's reasoning ; and in later life he
was strongly opposed to Women Suffrage ; but at this
time he was inclined to regard English women as
hardly used.
I rather conjecture that on the whole, and in the present
state of society, the perfect equality of sexes may be best for
all. It will save women from a good deal of ridicule which
is at present thrown by fools and cowards on those who are
ugly, or peculiar, or merely poor. When women meet men on
plain equality, with no special privileges or disabilities, an ugly
woman will be no more mocked at than an ugly man.

1 Now Mr Alexander Izat, CLE., the well-known railway engineer.

152 ALFRED LYALL [1870
His mother evidently did not share his views, for
a little later he writes —
I am in despair that I cannot get you to believe in women's
rights and capacities. It is most vexatious that the women
who are living proofs of my argument should attempt to deny
it; a capable woman cannot prove women to be incapable,
she refutes her own words.
In July 1870 he writes to Mrs Holland, not very
seriously, in the same sense. He advocates women's
rights and responsibilities as the only way of enforcing
better education, for " nothing can be more lament
able than the low mental development of the average
British lady."
By this time he had written "The Land of
Regrets," which wUl be found in his published
verses. I hope you will understand [he says to Mrs Holland] that
" The Land of Regrets " was something of a cynical parody. I
have no such pangs myself, though, on the whole, I wish I had
gone to Cambridge. But the youth of the Civil Service have
lately set up dismal wailings, and I gave them those verses
to comfort them. Young Competition Wallah comes out much
elated at having won his appointment, and prepared to dis
tinguish himself at once among the provincials, also he marries
very early, so he soon gets worn by the drudgery and pinched
by poverty. Haileybury youth generally felt astonished that
any one could think them worth paying £500 yearly, and
beguiled the weary years of juniority by spending twice as
much. By the time you are forty a quiverful of children is
rather a heavier burden than a lump of debts contracted by
a jeunesse orageuse, and you have had your fun for your
debts.

1870] THE BRAHMO SOMAJ 153
He was impressed at this time with the pettiness of
Colonial affairs and interests as compared with the
scale of Indian administration.
Berar is just the size of the Kingdom of Greece, with a
much larger population, yet it is an obscure province. Port
Natal Colony, which has a Governor to itself, is about equal
in wealth and population to my best district, &c., &c. With
such thoughts do I console myself here at Akola.
He was further consoling himself with writing articles
for Indian newspapers, and he had sent to one of his
sisters, for an English magazine, an article on " Panee-
put," a great Indian battlefield, which article, however,
he was inclined to think hardly good enough. I have
not been able to trace it. Finally he writes on his old
subject of religion —
Why on earth are all the Divines making much of Keshub
Chunder ? ^ He says nothing new. Theodore Parker said it
all before, and it has no particular meaning. Now the New
Testament does at least mean something, and it is in earnest
about what it tells us, but the truth is that these windy
moralities of the Baboo are just the atmosphere which suits
such drifting Deans as Stanley and Alford. I have long
known Brahmoism, — it teaches no small contempt for the
Christian doctrine.
In the autumn of 1870 Lyall went down to Bombay,
his wife being ill and in need of a change. The trade of
the place was suffering much from the Franco-German
1 Babu Keshub Chunder Sen, the well-known reformer of the Brahmo
Somaj, was then on a visit to England. His pleasant manners and ready
eloquence gave him considerable success.

154 ALFRED LYALL [1871
war, and the visit was depressing. He was troubled
as usual, being idle, by what he calls unreasonable
restlessness. He tells his mother that " Reading does
not satisfy that feeling, writing does, but then as one
lives one perceives how very little one can write worth
writing." And he proceeds to meditate over his pro
spects, which leads him to the conclusion that he is
stranded in Berar for some years, having got through
the ordinary grades of promotion, and that he can
look only to a stroke of luck for deliverance from his
rather dull corner.
He soon returned to work again. In March 1871
he was once more in the great cotton mart at
Khangaun. It was the height of the cotton season,
and every one was " buying, weighing, ginning, press
ing, and packing, . . . French, English, and German
merchants, . . . who all stifle their animosities under
bales of cotton." The whole thing had always bored
him ; but it was part of his duty as Commissioner,
and he had to repress his feelings.
So, in rather uncongenial work, ended Lyall's third
term of Indian service. A few weeks later he had
sailed for England, intending, as there was no im
mediate prospect of promotion, to take long leave.
He had now been fifteen years in the Indian service,
and was thirty-six years of age. Though promotion
had stopped for a time, he had done weU, and had
acquired an exceptional knowledge of the real India, —
the India of the agricultural districts. Moreover, his
contributions to the press, and to official literature of

i87i] PROSPECTS AT THIRTY-SIX 155
the better sort, had brought him a certain reputation
as a writer. With the rupee at two shillings he was
pecuniarily in comfort ; and his health, though never
robust, had not seriously suffered. Altogether, he
had no reason to complain.

CHAPTER IX.
THIRD FUELOUGH IN ENGLAND, AND FOURTH PERIOD
OF INDIAN SERVICE.
1871-1874.
Summer at Windsor, 1871 — Winter in London — Begins to write for ' The
Fortnightly' — Henry Eeeve — Grant Duff — Fitzjames Stephen —
Henry Maine — John Morley — Visits to Paris and Manchester — SaUs
for India, October 1872 — Sees Lord Northbrook— Offer of Home
Secretaryship, February 1873 — Lyall joins Home Department in
Calcutta — Position of Indian Secretaries — Goes up to Simla, April
1873 — Death of Rowland Cockerell — Famine in Bengal — Arthur
Hobhouse — Max Miiller and the Science of Religions, 1874 — Lyall
appointed Agent to the Governor-General in Rajputana, October 1874.
Lyall passed the summer of 1871 at Windsor, among
the scenes of his boyhood, very happy in the society
of his brothers and sisters, who came to stay with
him ; but winter found him established in London,
reading and working up some of the literary material
which he had accumulated.
He had now made the acquaintance of Henry Reeve,
editor of 'The Edinburgh Review,' who apparently
showed him considerable kindness, and gave him some
introductions to people of note in Paris. This had
always been a favourite place with him, and it was
at the moment specially interesting on account of
the late war with Germany and the events of the
Commune. There, in the early part of 1872, he spent
a short time in a manner very agreeable to him,
meeting various political personages at the Due
d'Aumale's soirees ; listening in the National Assembly

1872] FURLOUGH IN ENGLAND 157
to Gambetta's fiery attacks on the Right ; wondering
at the savage caste hatred of the middle classes for
the proletariat; and, after his usual fashion, "loiter
ing terribly about the streets." Then he returned to
London, and set to work at his writing.
The most important feature, for him, of this period
of leave in England was his introduction to several
men of mark, who afterwards had much influence upon
the course of his life. On arrival he had met, and
had some talk with, Grant Duff,^ who was then at the
India Office, and in June 1872, to judge from the post
mark on his envelope, for his letter is dated only
"Sunday, midnight," he writes to Mrs Holland —
Fitzjames Stephen ^ very civilly came over here one morning
(I had written to propose a call on him), and sat with me more-
than an hour. I liked him much, and I think that at least we
amused each other ; he has that turn for clear free opinions,
with an edge on them, which greatly attracts me. I am
struck by the immense advantage to us Indians of getting
such men to go out to India ; the professional old Indian is
without honour in this country, and is supposed to have all
sorts of prejudice and esprit de corps. But when Maine ^ and
Stephen come home with strong views on our side, and strong
impressions upon the real state of affairs in the East, the
public listens to them.
In the same letter Lyall tells his sister that he
is going down " to stay a day with Morley,* the
1 The Right Honourable Sir Mountstuart Elphinstone Grant Duff,
Govemor of Madras, G.C.S.I., &c.
' 2 The Honourable Sir J. Fitzjames Stephen, Bart., K.C.S.I., Legal
Member of the Viceroy's Council, and afterwards Judge of the High Court.
' Sir Henry Sumner Maine, K.C.S.I., who was also at one time in India
as legal member of the Viceroy's Council.
* Now Viscount Morley of Blackburn.

158 ALFRED LYALL [1872
' Fortnightly ' editor, who proposes to make personal
acquaintance." This was the beginning of a friend
ship which lasted for nearly forty years, untU Lyall's
death, and had a great influence not only on his
literary work but, as he believed, on his official career.
He had then written two articles for the ' Fortnightly,'
the first in February 1872, on "Our Religious Policy
in India " ; the second in April, on " The Religion of an
Indian Province " ; and he was working at a third, on
" The Religious Situation in India," which appeared
in the following August. They were the forerunners
of several more.
Later in the year Lyall went down to Manchester,
to attend a great dinner which was being given by the
Chamber of Commerce to his old friend of the Central
Provinces, Rivett-Carnac, who was then in charge of
the operations of the Government of India for the
development of cotton cultivation. Rivett - Carnac
refers to the visit in his ' Many Memories.' It was
on this occasion that I first met Lyall, with whom I
was afterwards to be closely associated in India. I do
not think he was one of the speakers at the dinner,
for he never made speeches if he could avoid them ;
and I do not remember that I had much talk with
him ; but from that time we knew each other.
Writing for the 'Fortnightly,' and making new
friends in London ; lamenting " the grievous waste
of the finest race of women in the world that in
cessantly goes on here " ; shooting partridges, rather
against the grain ; and greatly enjoying the society of
his mother and sisters, — Lyall remained in England

1872] WRITING FOR 'FORTNIGHTLY' 159
until the autumn of 1872. Then once more he sailed
for the East, and by the beginning of November he
had resumed charge at Akola.
It was a place he had never liked, and he took up
his work again without enthusiasm. He had now
been Commissioner of West Berar for five years ; and
though he had spent about two years of that time in
England, he was very desirous of a transfer to some
less out-of-the-way appointment. " But," he writes
to Rivett-Carnac, " I do not see the most distant
prospect of it ; for even Saunders does not seem
inclined to further my views in that direction."
Saunders, the Resident in Hyderabad, doubtless knew
he had got a very useful man in his Commissioner,
and was loth to lose his services. Lyall had seen the
new Viceroy, Lord Northbrook, at Bombay, and found
him " cool, clever, and good at business, but as yet
more like an English official than an Asiatic ruler."
And the great dispenser of patronage had, naturaUy,
made no sign. So Lyall went into camp, not com
plaining, but not hopeful.
Promotion cometh slowly to all [he writes to Mrs Holland] ;
I have had my share ; and the special appointments are like
unto the pool of Siloam, unless one is on the spot at the nick
of time another steps in first. ... I am . . . meditating
another article for the ' Fortnightly,' but my mind gets much
dispersed by official pursuits ; and I am bothered out in camp
by little naked black men with agricultural grievances which
no one else will take the trouble to hear. ... I got a book
parcel by last mail, tore it open eagerly as one does in the
jungle. Tracts, by Jingo ! a translation from some German on
the evidences of Christianity, . . . alack, I am far beyond

160 ALFRED LYALL [1873
the evidences by special pleading and argument of leamed
Europeans ; you cannot imagine the disintegrating effect upon
one's faith in Paley's Evidences and Butler of a careful survey
of religions in the East.
We have been wandering in tents for the last three weeks ;
plenty to do, but nothing new ; I look after the Courts, the
revenue, the roads, the public buildings, the public feelings —
and anything else that it imports a Government to see to, —
and the days go fast enough. We have been for three days
encamped on the brink of a huge hollow or basin, four miles
round, and 420 feet deep, with steep sides, and at the bottom
a lake full of salt and soda, — it is guessed to be an extinct
crater of ages ago. My business has been to arrange for
working the salts to the profit of the State, and I want to
introduce scientific methods, but it seems that the salts have
supported a race of divers, who grope for the crystals under
the water, for centuries ; and that all the deities whose
temples surround this wonderful basin have a vested share
in the profits allotted to them to secure their aid in the
diving. So God and man are against my innovations; and
I, being at heart conservative, repent me that I ever advised
the State to meddle. I have been surrounded by petitions
and protests. It is a most curious natural phenomenon, this
lake, and on the highest point aibove it is a really beautiful
old temple, which I have cleared from the mould of centuries
as some small propitiation to the insulted deities. I am now
going farther westward, shall be back at Akola about the
middle of February. Soon after that I shall make an expedi
tion into the hiU country north of Berar, and thence retire to
Chiculda late in April. Plenty to do, but I am tired of the
jungle ; Berar is not bad for the cold season ; and I have yet
to try the heat again after my return this time from Europe.
I nourish some faint hope of a transfer from Berar within a
year or 18 months ; but I have no reason for hoping beyond
the idea that I may be gradually acquiring some claim on
the good offices of the governing people. I rather doubt being
able to get out of the comparative obscurity of this province.

1 873] APPOINTED HOME SECRETARY 161
But his wanderings in camp, and his dull years
in Berar, were now drawing to a close ; for on the
day that he was writing the words above quoted,
Lord Northbrook's private secretary, Major Evelyn
Baring,^ was writing that the permanent appointment
of Home Secretary to the Government of India would
shortly be vacant, and that Lord Northbrook had
desired him to offer it to Lyall. It need hardly be
said that Lyall saw in this offer the chance of dis
tinction, and of escape from the jungles, for which he
had long been hoping, and he accepted it by telegram
without hesitation. To Rivett - Carnac, who had
written to congratulate him, he answers : "Of course
I am lucky beyond calculation, and have now got
all that I can possibly wish ; it only remains to see
how I shall do the work." Other letters are in the
same strain. Shortly before, in writing to one of
his sisters, he had used words which more nearly
approach to a boast — a very rare thing to find in
his usually modest letters. " If I could get one more
lift into the current of things, out of this honourable
backwater, I would pull the rest with my own oars."
He had got his lift, and was now to make good his
words. It has been said that his connection with the ' Fort
nightly' and its Editor had, in his belief, a great
influence on his official career. Perhaps the offer
of the Home Secretaryship was an illustration of this.
No doubt the offer was largely due to the advice
of Major Baring, a very shrewd judge of men, who
' Now the Earl of Cromer.

162 ALFRED LYALL [1873
on meeting LyaU had at once formed a high opinion
of his capacity. But LyaU did not know this, and
was at a loss to account for Lord Northbrook's choice.
In a letter to John Morley, written in February 1873,
offering an article on "Witchcraft" for the 'Fort
nightly,' Lyall observes that the offer of the Home
Secretaryship was a marvellous piece of luck, and
goes on —
I own I believe that the ' Fortnightly ' articles had some
thing to do with catching the Viceregal eye, and that I have
some valuable friends in England whom those papers also
moved to consider me. I say this in order to pay my just
debt to the Editor of that very "leading periodical."
Morley's answer shows that there was foundation
for Lyall's belief —
I sat next to Sir Louis Mallet the other day, and we talked
about you. He said that Grant Duff named you as a promis
ing youth to Lord Northbrook, and sent Ld. N. your pieces
in the 'Fortnightly,' and other things; whereupon Ld. N.
called to you to come and sit on his right hand. I confess
the whole transaction gives me a thoroughly favourable idea
of the way in which Indian things are done.
Whether the Indian Services would have entirely
appreciated the humour of that reply may perhaps
be doubted, — the men who have written much for
the English public have not always been among the
best and most honest of Indian workers, — but cer
tainly in the particular case the choice was a happy
one. Grant Duff, to whom Lyall sent his thanks, an
swered that of all the appointments with which he

1873] JOHN MORLEY— GRANT DUFF 163
had been more or less connected none had given him
so much pleasure : " it is very seldom one gets an
opportunity of helping a man simply and solely be
cause one believes him to be supremely deserving,
irrespective of what are technically and quite properly
called ' claims '."
These two letters go on to deal with other subjects.
Grant Duff closes his with some remarks about Lyall's
verses —
I can well understand that having once written " Theology
in Extremis," which would do honour to any man who ever
wrote in the English tongue, you should be unwilling to
write much; but our possession of India has done so ridi
culously little for our literature that it is a great pity that
one who can do as you have done in that and the "Old
Pindaree" should not do more.
The reason why our possession of India has done
little for English literature is obvious enough, — that
the English in that country, a very small number
all told, are mostly officials, and are hard-worked,
often very much over - worked, in an exhausting
climate. Moreover, they are far away from the
literary atmosphere, and do not live surrounded by
libraries. But the fact pointed out by Grant Duff
is undeniable.
Morley's letter ends with the words —
Your portrait is in an honoured place: it strikes us as
excellent. But people say they would not like to meet you
in a lonely place in times of mutiny or civil disturbance;
there's a " whiff of grapeshot " look about you. I say, " Oh
yes ! he blows a syce from a gun if his horse is ill-groomed.
That's the demoralisation of subject races,'' &c.

164 ALFRED LYALL [1873
Those who knew Lyall only in his later days will
probably find the idea as amusing as Morley seems
to have done ; but the portrait, whatever it was,
did not give a wholly false impression. With all
his gentleness and courtesy of manner, Lyall could
on occasion be, or seem to be, rather pitiless to evil
doers — not cruel, but unsparing. Even in small
matters, in ordinary life, he would at times hit ex
tremely hard — harder than one altogether liked to
see — if he thought people required it. He had in
herited with his Scottish blood a certain measure of
Scottish dourness.
It may be well to quote here, out of place, the
earlier part of his letter to Morley —
I have some recollection that you invited me to send you
an occasional letter; at any rate I do not want to lose, by
any omission of mine, an acquaintance which I hold myself
lucky to have made. I reached India on the last day of
October last. For some time after my return I was much
discontented with my lot, and could not overcome my regret
for European life, and for that pleasant land of which we
Indians so foolishly think scorn when we leave it in youth ;
but I set deliberately to Orientalise myself, and to get back
into rapport with things I see and hear around me ; so that
I am now pretty well resigned to " do my duty in that state
of life," &c. And certainly India is most interesting to
those who try hard to understand it ; I am always regarding
it as the most complete and perfect specimen left to us of
the ancient civilised world; it seems to me to explain all
sorts of problems of history and religion which bother us so
long as we sit at home. The politics, too, are of a kind that
strikes one fresh from England; when one gets among the
chief official people and hears of princes to be kept in order.

1 873] DEMOCRACY IN INDIA 165
border tribes to be put down, Wahabi treasons, and Kooka
uprisings, one begins to realise the sort of business which
governing was in former days, when the feeling of " incedis
per ignes suppositos cineri doloso " was constantly present to
the mind as a condition of imperial rule. However, I believe
we are quite safe in India if we make no blunders ; though I
am very glad that Frederic Harrison is strengthening the
hands of those who would boldly proclaim the principle of
authority and of govemment by the fittest. Whatever may
be the drawbacks to applying his political theories to Eng
land, they, the theories, are exceedingly well adapted to
practise in India, where anything like democracy, above all
the sham democracy of the crude Bengalee who has no
strength behind his words, may yet drive us prematurely
into some unlucky collision. That is one small danger ahead
from our educated Aryan brethren, though I think it only
possible. When I asked a very well-informed and not imag
inative officer whether there was any possible risk of trouble
in the interior of Westem India, he said that a great saint
might one day arise who should preach a vast religious
revival, and might point his texts at us. He meant a Kooka
4m£ute, on a very much larger scale, and he told me that one
of his best native subordinates had just gone off working
miracles and proselytising to a purer faith. But these things
get into my head, so that when I write of them I am never
sure that I am not dreaming or talking wildly. I have sent
you by this post, addressed to Chapman «fe Hall, an article
on " The Relations of Witchcraft to Non-Christian Religions."
Here in India one loses the literary sense. I cannot judge
whether the paper is good or bad, but I am sure you can,
and by your judgment I am quite ready to abide. Nor do I
know whether what I say has been said before; you must
never forget that India has no libraries up country.
In the course of February 1873 Lyall was on his
way to Calcutta, to take over the charge of the

166 ALFRED LYALL [1873
Home Office ; and from Allahabad, on his way down,
he writes to Mrs Holland —
Here has my luck come all of a sudden. ... I have left
Berar for good, with a feeling of much relief, not that I
disliked the province specially, but I was contracting a super
stitious notion that I had got jammed into that comer. ... I
seem, however, to have been holding a better hand of cards than
I supposed. ... I might have worked myself into jungle brain-
fever without getting anything if I had not gone home in
1871, written 'Fortnightly ' articles, and talked to Grant Duff.
. . . My friends congratulate, and discover my eminent apti
tudes for the post ; whether they are right remains to be seen,
but I have resolved to be confident at least outwardly, though
you know that we brothers and sisters always have a lurking
belief that we are impostors about to be found out.
At Calcutta he was kindly received by two well-
known members of his service, Horace and Rowland
Cockerell, typical Haileybury men, whose well-ap
pointed and hospitable house was always open to
their friends. Mrs Lyall went straight up to Simla
to prepare their summer headquarters. Soon after
Lyall's arrival, a letter of congratulation came to
him from his mother, and he writes to her —
Your letter of the 20th gave me great pleasure. I see that
I am loved and liked by those whom I most love and like ;
and that is enough, I don't much care now about the rest. . .
Yes, one lives on the reflections which survive in that mirror
of memories, the brain, of pleasant or striking scenes in past
life. ... But the mystery is that totally insignificant scenes
every now and then fioat up to the surface of one's recollec
tions, without one having the faintest notion why they were
called up from the vasty deep ; and odours recall these things
in a poignant way.

1 8 73] THE INDIAN GOVERNMENT 167
Lyall seems to have made a good impression on all
with whom he came into contact, and the Indian Press
entirely approved his appointment. Nevertheless he
was in no way elated by his success, or inclined to
think too highly of the prospect before him. He was
soon deep in office boxes, for the mass of correspond
ence in the Home Department was always heavy,
and he was by no means sure of his fitness for " ex
pressing other people's thoughts in the language
which suits their taste."
It should perhaps be explained that a Home Secre
tary in India was not in a position of such independence
as a Home Secretary in England. The Govemment
of India consisted of the Viceroy and his Council — a
small body of five or six members, military and civil —
to which the secretaries did not belong. All questions
of serious importance were decided by this Government,
" the Governor-General in Council," whose orders the
secretaries had to carry out ; and of late years it had
become the custom for each civil member of the
council to concern himself specially with one or more
of the civil departments, so that, although each secre
tary had direct access to the Viceroy, he had always
in a sense a departmental superior. He was not con
stitutionally bound to obey, in all respects, orders from
the member of council specially concerned with his de
partment ; but in practice the member of council exer
cised much authority, and tended more and more as
time went on to assume the position of a Minister in
charge of a portfolio. This position was to some
extent recognised by statute.

168 ALFRED LYALL [1873
It may be well to note here that Lyall had now
definitely come to the conclusion that as a rule an
Indian career was a mistake. I was then just be
ginning my own, and after a few months' experience
of Calcutta had decided to resign the service and
set to work at the English bar, to which I had been
called. A friend with whom I was staying wrote
to consult Lyall about this, and his answer was : " I
think Durand is right ; my deliberate view of the
Indian service is that, on an average of chances, it
does not pay a man who can earn his living in
England." My resignation was not immediately ac
cepted, and circumstances afterwards prevented me
from pressing it ; but Lyall's clear opinion is
worth noting, for the prospects of an Indian
civilian have certainly not improved in the last
forty years.
In April, at the beginning of the hot weather, Lyall
started for Simla. The railway then ran as far as
Umballa, near the foot of the mountains, and in the
train Lyall passed his old station of Bulandshahr,
" looking out for a minute at the familiar road along
which we were pursued by hordes of armed villagers
in 1857, who shot at us fi-om behind walls and bushes."
He goes on to describe, in his first letter from Simla,
how after a hot journey of two days and nights in the
train, he rode up forty miles by a mountain - path,
which meant eleven hours in the saddle, arriving con
siderably beaten, and rather unwell on account of the
change of climate from excessive heat to mountain
cold. That was often the effect of a move to the hills

1873] LIFE IN SIMLA 169
and probably is so still, though the railway now runs
right through. But he soon got over it, and settled
down comfortably into a large house, which he and
his wife had agreed to share with George Batten of
the Civil Service. Lyall's under-secretary, Trevor
Plowden, and his beautiful and fascinating wife,
mother of the present Countess of Lytton, were also
to be of the household. It was an experiment ; but,
as Lyall told his mother, " they are all good-natured
people, except myself I have for some time perceived
that I am not good-natured." Such " chummeries "
were then not uncommon arrangements in India. As
a matter of fact, if not good-natured, Lyall managed
to make himself very agreeable.
He was struck, as all new-comers must be, by the
coup-d'oeil at Simla, but he says in his letter what
he used often to say in conversation, that he felt
as if the Government were almost dangerously cut
off from the vast country below. That feeling al
ways troubled him at hill stations — the sense of being
out of touch with the real India. However, for the
moment it was pleasant enough.
At first he had nothing to do, for the office boxes
had not arrived, so he turned to letter-writing.
I don't think the next generation will make such a coil
about religious doubts, or will discuss so warmly the question
whether we really know whence we came or whither we go,
for the whole difference is really between those who think
they know and those who think they don't know ; there is no
dispute about morals or duties, or about what is pure and
beautiful in this world.

170 ALFRED LYALL [1873
I am doing middling well in my work, I don't know that I
am doing more, but I am always haunted with the idea of
being discovered to be unequal to my reputation, which 1
perceive to have somehow spread in India. As a writer
of official despatches I don't think I am quite up to the
mark. I sit in a large room by myself, and work most of the day,
though it would be a mistake in you to suppose that I . . .
will ever kill myself by over- work; we are not any of us
painful toilers, and we very soon get tired of unbreak-
ing labour. If I only had the energy I could do many
things; but here have I totally left off reading and
writing in a literary way, because when I have done official
work I am too lazy to do anything else. Many men do
both. Lord Northbrook is very civil and kind. I like him much
as a man ; having respect for his thoroughly clear head, great
capacity for mastering points, governmental experience and
resolution, and, above all, for his untinctured honesty of pur
pose. But he is a little too cautious and unimaginative ; and
he will insist on parliamentary expressions in his writings,
being always glad to get hold of a colourless or indifferent
phrase, and to call a spade by that name as tenderly as pos
sible. He won't speak straight out, in his orders or resolu
tions, and say the thing that is, as we in India are accustomed
to do. ... I think he is wrong, and that I could do him good
by putting a little warmth and colour into him. . . . We are
told that Argyll's Duke is sick of the India Office ; I should
regret his departure, for he leaves us alone, "en grand
seigneur," and does not bother about details. India is quiet,
and Lord Northbrook a good Tory in Indian politics ; if we
can only leave the people alone and not bother them with
newfangled ideas we shall not " bust up " just yet. But no
one should expect that for many a day we can blow the horn
in India without hand on sword.
In the autumn of this year his friend Rowland

1 873] LORD NORTHBROOK 171
Cockerell, who had come up to Simla on leave, was
killed by the fall of his horse over a cliff. They had
been at Eton and Haileybury together ; and on the
morning of the Oth October Cockerell had started
from Lyall's house for a ride into the mountains. He
was brought back dead, and was laid in Lyall's room
until the funeral. Lyall was deeply distressed at the
accident, for he liked the two brothers, and he knew
how devoted they were to each other. Referring to
this and the death of another friend, he writes to
Mrs Holland —
And the complete vanishing of a familiar spirit is always
marvellous and awful, . . . the sudden flight of a weU-known
and understood intelligence sets one wondering at the mystery
of the thing, and I hold that all simple religions are born out
of wondering at the mystery of life and death.
I am rather pleased that the philosophers leave you much
where you were before, so does all reading leave me little
changed ; I can find nothing that makes me less forlorn, as
you find nothing that troubles your clear air. I see that
Herbert Spencer is muddling away among books, instead of
understanding men; and I perceive that a religion without
divinity is no religion at all, whatever else it may be. I
couldn't make any one understand the effect which has been
produced upon me by close study of Indian creeds, and I
don't want to try; but to me Strauss seems to be as far
from the truth as, or a good deal farther than. Archdeacon
Denison. Nobody has a word against my elevation, while there was
a good deal of applause in the newspapers ; and Lord North
brook, like all English, thinks a good deal of what the Press
say. My old relations with the Anglo-Indian Press help me
much here ; of course I never write anything now, but I know
editors and such folk a little.

172 ALFRED LYALL [1874
During the cold weather of 1873-74, owing to the
failure of the monsoon rains, there was considerable
anxiety about the prospect of a famine in Bengal,
and though as Home Secretary Lyall had no direct
official connection with relief operations, he was of
course much interested in the subject. His view was
that there had been a great deal of unnecessary alarm
and waste of money, and that the wild talk of certain
English newspapers about millions starving was ex
tremely mischievous. Any one who had to work in
the famine districts knows how true this view was.
Money was poured out like water, and a large portion
of it was thrown away. But there was comparatively
little loss of life, which was the main thing to be con
sidered, and some useful lessons were learned for the
future. Much credit was gained by Lord Northbrook,
who in Lyall's opinion managed things very well and
adroitly, and by Lyall's old chief Sir Richard Temple,
who as director of famine operations found full scope
for his vehement energy. A careful study of the work
done then was of use to Lyall when not long after
wards he had to deal with the same difficulties in
another part of India.
Meanwhile he had got firmly seated in the
Home Office saddle, and was pleased with his
position. \
My own business goes on very well . One soon discovers
whether one is considered in one's own department of
public affairs, and whether one has a fair weight of influ
ence. I think I am getting what belongs to my position, and
that is all I want. ... I see a good deal of the Hobhouses,

i874] HOBHOUSE— MAX MULLER 173
whom I like very much. Arthur Hobhouse^ is a man of
great power; and I study the style in which he handles
questions. I don't think he yet understands India so well
as Fitzjames Stephen; but he is infinitely superior to the
majority of us.
Lyall exchanged literary ideas with Hobhouse, to
the satisfaction of both. They lived in the same
street at Calcutta and met very often.
That summer, to avoid unnecessary expense and for
other reasons. Lord Northbrook gave up the usual
move of the Indian Government to Simla, and, in
common with the whole official headquarters, LyaU
remained in the moist heat of Calcutta. In spite
of this, and of his steady round of official work, he
found time to write ; and the ' Fortnightly ' of July
1874 contained an article from his pen on "Mission
ary Religions," which is of permanent value. It
criticised the views of Max Muller, who was then at
the height of his reputation, and Max Miiller's reply
was appended to it. The tone of the reply is very
considerate to a little known writer ; but the fact
is that Max Miiller's " Science of Religions " was
not too substantial, and that against Lyall's criti
cisms, based on practical study and knowledge, Max
MiiUer was rather hard pressed to maintain his
argument. Morley welcomed Lyall's article cordially.
" It is a thoroughly good work," he wrote, " to check
our literary theory-mongers by the results of obser-
va^iion in situ." But Lyall was always self-critical.
' Legal Member of the Viceroy's Council, and afterwards Lord
Hobhouse.

174 ALFRED LYALL [1874
" I rather fancy," he writes to his sister, " my
style is still a little exuberant in imagery, and over-
coloured — not simple enough — and I want above
all to avoid an ' ambitious ' style." The article was
afterwards republished in 'Asiatic Studies.'
In the same letter he writes —
I confess that I think dogmatic theology will be extinct, or
nearly so, a century hence among the cultivated classes, but
what will replace it nobody knows. The man who does the
most harm, among the average middle classes, to the popular
creeds, is Leslie Stephen. He is the Cobbett of religious con
troversy ; his straight-hitting, pungent essays circulate largely,
. . . and they are very effective, like Voltaire, in destroying
respect for the dogmas.^
Now without the dogmas you can't hold a faith together
long ; though such men as Maurice and Llewellyn Davies may
bale out the water for a time, yet when you have knocked
away the literal beliefs the ship's ribs are broken, and she
is sinking.The letter goes on to speak of his sister's son,
who was then a boy at Eton.
I am glad Bernard continues to be sent up for good. . . .
You will have explained to him that success in life belongs to
those who can master details without being mastered by them,
and that " finish " is the perfection of style, in action as in
writing. What the English excel in, where they do excel, is
finish ; just see how they turn out a ship, a racer, or a steam-
engine. . . . Tell him to be accurate in his scholarship. He
is sure to imbibe that feeling for style and classic form which

1 The reference is no doubt to 'An Agnostic's Apology,' and other
works of the same kind. Lyall's words show that his father and
mother had not been far wrong in old days, from their point of view,
with regard to the danger of reading Voltaire.

1 874] TRANSFER TO RAJPUTANA 175
makes one understand why a bit of poetry lives thousands
of years.
In August, during the rainy season, Lyall went
with Lord Northbrook to Assam, in the extreme
north-east of India, and had a pleasant and restful
tour, chiefly by river in the Viceroy's barge.
Lord Northbrook being very kind and easy in private life,
we pass the day mostly in reading, arguing, smoking, with
whist in the evening. When I watch the Viceroy shaking
hands with the junior officers, and saying a few words to
each, at the little stations which we visit, I think of myself
in 1860 in a comer of Lord Canning's tent in Rohilcund, and
of the trepidation which seized me when he said, " You have
seen as much of the Mutiny as most men, Mr Lyall."
If all Indian Viceroys realised, as some do, how
closely in the eyes of Englishmen serving in India
their position approximates to that of the King in
England — what intense satisfaction a few considerate
words can give to a man working hard in some lonely
station, and what cruel harm can be done by any show
of unfairness or impatience, — they would be specially
careful about this part of their duties. Sympathy
with the services has not always been a marked
characteristic of " Government House."
Lyall's term of office as Home Secretary was not to
last much longer, for in October he heard that he was
to be sent to act for a year as Agent to the Governor-
General in Rajputana. Lord Northbrook had decided
to appoint him to the Foreign Secretaryship, on the
next vacancy ; and, in preparation for this post,
wished him to make acquaintance with the Native

176 ALFRED LYALL [1874
States of India, which are under the control
of the Indian Foreign Office. The Rajputana agency
was one of the highest appointments in the Indian
" political " or diplomatic service, and to be selected
for it was a distinction ; but it meant another com
plete uprooting, and much expense, and Lyall was not
altogether pleased at the prospect. Still, he appreci
ated Lord Northbrook's intention, and looked forward
with some satisfaction to a year's relief from the strain
of secretariat work, especially night work, which was
trying his eyes and his general health.
It does not appear that during his tenure of the
Home Secretaryship he had to deal with any specially
important question : but the work is never unimport
ant, and he had gained much in reputation during his
time at headquarters.
Perhaps his ' Fortnightly ' articles had done him
sensible good in this respect ; for, as he said, they gave
the idea that he was something beyond an official.
People used to speak of him as a man outside the
ordinary groove. He had made his own mark.

CHAPTER X.
DIPLOMATIC WORK IK RAJPUTANA.
1874-1878.
Native States of India — The Indian political service — The States of
Rajputana — Their feudal system — Life in camp — Trial of the
Gaekwar of Baroda — Jungle tribes — Mount Abu — Eton education —
More 'Fortnightly' articles — Visit of the Prince of Wales to India,
1875-76 — Lord Lytton succeeds Lord Northbrook — Lyall writes for
' The Edinburgh Review,' July 1876 — Takes leave to England, August
1876 — Starts for India again, February 1877 — Returns to Mount Abu
— War between Russia and Turkey — His sympathy with Russia —
Tiger-shooting — Drought in Rajputana — Visit to Simla — Verses —
Appointed Foreign Secretary, 1878.
Until 1873 Lyall's Indian life, fortunately for him
self, had been spent entirely in administrative work ;
which brings a man into close daily contact with the
natives of India, and gives him a knowledge of the
country that nothing else can give. It is, so to
speak, the regimental work of the Indian Civil
Service. Then for nearly two years he had been on
Staff employ as Home Secretary ; but even in the
Home Office he had had to deal with administrative
questions, and most of the papers brought before him
referred to matters with which he was more or less
familiar. Now he was to undertake altogether new
duties. The Indian Empire is not made up entirely of
territories under the direct rule of the British
M

178 ALFRED LYALL [1874
Government. More than a third of its area consists
of protected States, which, for one reason or another,
have remained in the hands of native chiefs, and are
administered by them under the supervision of the
Governor-General in Council. The powers of these
chiefs, and the size and population of their States,
vary immensely. One of them, the Nizam of Hyde
rabad, rules, as stated before, a country as large as
England, with a population of more than ten millions ;
and, in common with many other chiefs, has full power
of life and death over his own people. Such chiefs
cannot make war, or have any direct dealings with
foreign nations ; but in their own country they have
most of the attributes of a sovereign, and the British
Government does not control the exercise of their
jurisdiction except in case of gross misrule. Then,
in the interest of the people, it will step in as
paramount power, and will even, if necessary, depose
a chief; but such cases are rare. From these great
chiefs, with a salute of 21 guns and almost unre
stricted sovereign rights, the scale descends to petty
rulers of a village or two, whose powers are very
small. Between the two ends of the scale are chiefs
with every variety of status.
The policy of the British Government towards
Native States in general is to interfere no more than
is necessary, and to maintain their existence even
when their chiefs are punished for misconduct. It
is a wise as well as a generous policy, and the wisdom
of it was clearly shown in the Mutiny, when the
native chiefs, in secure reliance upon the goodwill of
the British Government, almost without exception

1 874] INDIAN POLITICAL SERVICE 179
remained true to the British cause, and acted, to use
Lord Canning's words, as breakwaters against the
storm. But, though desirous of interfering as little as
possible in the internal administration of the Native
States, the Government of India must have means of
exercising its duty of general supervision and carrying
on its relations with the chiefs. To this end it main
tains a diplomatic, or so-called " political," service, the
members of which are stationed in the Native States,
and act as representatives of the Governor-General in
Council. As the English Foreign Office controls the
English diplomatic service, so the Indian Foreign
Office controls, directly or indirectly, the Indian
political service — the two services being nearly equal
in point of numbers. The political service has always
been largely recruited, as to some extent foreign
diplomatic services are, from among military men ;
but it has also contained a certain proportion of men
drawn from the Indian Civil Service ; and, as in
England, the Government has always reserved to
itself the right of filling the highest posts from out
side the departmental list. Of course, the English
and Indian services differ in many respects. One
main difference lies in the fact that the Indian
political officer deals ordinarUy with States under
British protection, whereas the English diplomatist
deals with independent Powers. A few Indian
political officers are stationed in countries outside
India, but the bulk of the service is employed in
the protected States.
As " Agent to the Governor- General in Rajputana,"

180 ALFRED LYALL [1874
Lyall became the chief representative of the British
Government in a vast tract of country containing
about twenty Native States, some of them the most
ancient and honoured of all Native States ; for the
Rajputs claim the bluest blood in India, and the
traditions of Rajput chivalry are really noble. One
Rajput chief, the Maharana of Oodeypore, can boast
that even in the proudest days of the Moghul Empire
no daughter of the house was ever given in marriage
to a Mahomedan emperor ; and his clan, the Sesodias
of Oodeypore, have worthy rivals in the Rahtors of
Jodhpore and others of equal fame. As a land of
poetry and romance there is perhaps no part of India
which can compare with Rajputana. And it is to be
noted that the Rajput chiefships, the most ancient of
Indian institutions, owe their continued existence to
the British, who, after the break up of the Moghul
Empire, saved them from being destroyed by the
Maratha hordes.
The headquarters of the British representative in
Rajputana were at Mount Abu, a beautiful " hill
station " in the central part of India, some 4000 feet
above the sea. Here he spent the summer, going
down in the cold weather to march with his camp
through the various States, and to visit the single
British district of Ajmere, which formed an enclave
among the chiefships. At that time there was no
railway to Mount Abu, and it was an isolated place,
to be reached only by a march of a hundred miles or
so across a wild and barren country.
At Ajmere, encamped by the side of a lake, under
the shadow of a picturesque fortress, Lyall spent the

1 8 74] DIPLOMATIC WORK— RAJPUTANA 181
Christmas of 1874. He found his new work very
different from that of the Home Office — rougher and
more personal, and in a sense less luxurious.
I haven't got half the regular grinding work I had, but,
on the other hand, my secretariat office went like good
clock-work. ... As Secretary I used to feel a throb of
pure pleasure on coming into a large, cool, quiet office-room,
with mountains of papers scientifically piled by a first-rate
head clerk on each side of an arm-chair. But it is plain that
I wanted to be free from that pleasant office-room. My head
won't stand continuous strains as it used. This morning I
wrote a long article on Mill's Essays in order to oblige
editorial friends, and I got up rather dazed. Nevertheless, I
am clear that I would have made my living as a journalist in
England, for I have got to like the craft. I may tell you by
the way that I think Mill's Essays rather poor stuff, and there
is nothing new in them.
As to his work, he was at first a little doubtful.
The whole of Rajputana, with slight exceptions, is held by
the Rajputs ; the chiefs are Rajput, and around them in each
State is a powerful body of feudal lords, who hold their lands
on pure military tenure, being bound only to furnish troopers.
They are always fighting with their chief, and keep him in
very strict order — they counterbalance the sovereign power
exactly as the barons of Europe did, and very effectively
prevent him from becoming an arbitrary despot. But under
these proud Rajput nobles the people is reduced to something
like serfdom ; so that I, with my modern Radical ideas, feel
rather out of sympathy with what is really the only free
institution of India — ^the feudal system of Rajputana.
But as time went on, and Lyall saw more of the
Rajput chiefships, the attraction of the great province
grew upon him ; and though his restless mind chafed at
times against the dulness and solitude of Mount Abu,

182 ALFRED LYALL [1875
he was on the whole happy enough. His experience
of service in the Mutiny enabled him to understand
and sympathise with the fighting traditions of the
Rajput clans, and he often spoke of them with warm
admiration. In January 1875 Lyall writes to his mother —
I am marching still, my life is perpetual motion, and I can
understand how people used to live years in moving camps
in old days. Indeed many of the natives still get caught up
in the crowd which follows me, and attach themselves per
manently. They come with a petition to present, wait a long
while, or do not get what they want, and travel along with
others in like circumstance. Soon they get to like the
company of a great camp, the roving life, and the ease with
which they manage to get pickings in fuel and petty supplies
out of the forage, which must always be provided along the
line of march. So they wander all the cold weather after
one, easing their conscience occasionally by a shout for redress
as I ride by, and season after season they reappear. Especially
the religious devotees, wandering ascetics, and suchlike, enjoy
tacking themselves on to the camp, where they perform their
simple mumbo-jumbo and are fed by the reverent camp-
followers. You should have seen my tag-rag army cross the
river Chumbul (about as broad as the Thames at Windsor)
two days ago : crowds of horses, camels, and elephants on the
banks, and great ferry-boats like those in the old pictures
bringing over men armed in every way conceivable ; the huge
bastions of Kotah overhanging on one bank. Barring Oriental
scenery and decorations, the whole feeling of this country is
medieval; the Rajput noblesse caracoles along with sword
and shield ; the small people crowd round with rags and rusty
arms; the king and his principal chiefs are lords of the
country, and the peasant is at their mercy. Every class and
rank has its place ; and the upshot of all is that this state of
society is not half as bad as it sounds, when the rajah is not

i875] TRIAL OF THE GAEKWAR 183
a fool or a brute. The chief nobles hunt, drink, and fight
when they are not prevented ; they eat the wild boar and get
tipsy in their castles. I suppose they are not much worse
than an average baron of Germany was;^ but they are as
different from the mild Hindoo of Bengal as you could
imagine. I am afraid that we do not altogether improve the
nobles by keeping them from fighting ; for in the fights the
best man came uppermost, whereas now the fools and cowards
survive as well as the strong men.
Sir Henry and Sir George Lawrence both held this appoint
ment, which is one of the finest political offices one could
have, and I am much honoured by succeeding them. I am
the first civilian who has ever held the appointment. ... I
fear I can neither match Sir Henry's earnest piety nor his
other great qualities, but then these are easier times than
his were.
A little later Lyall was exercised in mind by the
trial of the Gaekwar of Baroda, a large State just
beyond the border of Rajputana, who had attempted
to poison the British Resident at his court. Not only
was there a public inquiry, but the Government of
India was imprudent enough to place native chiefs
on the Commission, along with British officers, and
to allow the appearance of counsel from England.
1 It was one of Lyall's distinctive habits of mind that he was constantly
trying to understand and express Indian conditions in terms of Europe.
His literary work, whether prose or poetry, is full of instances. His
Rajput rebels never " harried an Enghsh hall " ; his Rahtor tribesmen are
"wild unruly clans of camel-riding caterans" ; his Rana of Oodeypore is
" reduced to the condition of the last of the Merovingians." It is this as
much as anything that makes his writings on Indian subjects more com
prehensible and attractive to European readers than the generality of
Indian books, which as a rule lack this illuminative touch, and are there
fore uninviting. The 'Asiatic Studies,' where the religious thought of
India is brought into contact with European speculation, are a good
example of Lyall's method.

184 ALFRED LYALL [1875
LyaU advocated treating the attempt as a political
crime, and dethroning the Gaekwar by a coup-d'etat,
"I am not at aU certain," he wrote, "that the trial
will result in a clean verdict of guilty, and if the
verdict is not unanimous it will have an awkward
effect." The result showed the correctness of his
judgment, for the native chiefs would not, probablyV.
could not, go against their order, and the inquiry
ended in a divided verdict. In the end the Govern
ment had to disregard the verdict, and to depose the
Gaekwar as an act of State. It was an unpleasant
incident, and illustrated the danger of applying
English ideas to Indian conditions.
From Baroda affairs he turns to English religious
questions. I trust the pother between Ritualist and R.C. has ceased
by this time — to me, alas, the whole question has long
ceased to be important, as between different phases of faith ;
but I feel a little savage against the Ritualists, who seem to
me to be leading away the people to worship strange idols,
and to abandon the spiritual faith which our fathers kept so
pure of old; for the Miltonic faith was high and pure at
any rate.
Lyall had to deal at times not only with the
Rajputs but with the aboriginal jungle tribes. He
writes to his mother from Mount Abu —
The wild people in the hills south-east turned out a few
weeks ago and knocked down our boundary pillars. . . . The
great object is to keep these wild creatures in order without
hurting them ; we don't want to fight poor people who use
bows and arrows, but occasionally they turn savage and kill

i875] JUNGLE TRIBES 185
people. They have never been subdued by any one; and
their chiefs can tum out, some of them, thousands of bowmen,
who swarm around like wild bees if you annoy them. Then
we have just heard that a convoy of baggage and stores
coming up to us from Ahmedabad has been plundered by
"mounted marauders," which gives a pleasant tinge of ad
venture to our position in these jungles. But the marauders
always keep clear of Britishers, though not of their goods.
I am leading a very quiet life up here, not much work, and
less play ; there is a billiard table to give me exercise ; and I
attempt whist a good deal, but can't play it very well.
At that time he certainly could not. Among his
political officers, all military men, were some excellent
whist players. None of them were his equals intel
lectually, but they used to tear their hair over his
play. The fact was that though he liked playing he
did not take the game seriously, and his thoughts
would often wander to other things. But in later
years he seems to have mended his ways, for an officer
who served under him when he was Lieutenant-
Governor writes : " He was a very fine player — the
best in the province." He afterwards took keenly
to bridge.
I hear hardly anything from other parts of India, but the
ways of Rajputana amuse me. When the Raja demands too
high taxes from a religious brotherhood, they solemnly bury
one of the brethren alive, and imprecate the curse of his death
on the king's head. Also they burnt an old woman alive, or
tried to do it. The Raja sends to us and implores us to
interfere, which we do, and then the holy men won't pay any
taxes at all. Also there is a fight going on at a neighbouring
castle, much in the medieval style; no one much hurt, but
the siege goes on for weeks, and both parties telegraph

186 ALFRED LYALL [1875
vehemently to the British Agent. I decline to interfere, and
intimate that they had best fight it out, so long as they make
an end quickly and don't disturb other States. They are an
outlandish people ; but they like their own life, though I am
afraid it won't last long.
Time flies rapidly, and my own generation is taking the
downhill road ; we have passed the watershed of life. I see
that Marillier, who was the first of my year at Eton College
— I was second — has died at the Cape, aged 40.
I doubt whether I could bear another season up here,
though in many ways the appointment is to my taste : not
much to do, and picturesque surroundings, with a great deal
of authority and very little law. The position makes one
rather lazy and disinclined for real hard work.
The political service is, in fact, very lightly worked
in comparison with other Indian services, though not
as lightly as the English diplomatic service. Still he
was not idle, for he was engaged on another article
criticising the views of Max MiiUer, " but," he writes,
" Miiller took my last attack so kindly that I am
ashamed to open fire again." Eventually he did so,
much to the satisfaction of John Morley. He was
greatly encouraged in this by seeing that Sir Henry
Maine, for whose ability and literary style he had
much admiration, had mentioned him in a lecture in
complimentary terms. Such aUusions, as he observed,
did him much good in his official life, and they always
pleased him.
I see that Maine entirely sees and assents to the object
of my paper, which is to dissipate the extraordinarily
false picture drawn of Indian religions by Max Mtdler and
others who accept the literary as if it were the popular

i875] ETON EDUCATION 187
account of Hinduism — for all the world as if a Hindu were
to go to Leviticus for an account of the belief and worship of
Kent, Muller goes to the Vedas for the creed and ideas of an
Indian rustic or shopkeeper.
Before the Abu season was over Lyall was getting
tired of his isolation, and wishing to be once more
en rapport with the powers at headquarters. He
writes to Mrs Holland —
I can always influence people by talking rather more than
by writing ; because my writing is a little too much pointed
and coloured for official reports, and produces a sort of
"insubordinate" effect on calm secretaries. You know the
downright nervous style of my mother ; well, my style keeps
a hereditary tinge of that, whatever I may do to repress it.
I am afraid I have just given the Govemment a dig in the ribs
for overriding me unduly, as I consider, upon a subject in
which they are all wrong. The consequence will be that the
Govemment will give me a bang over the head, if it has any
self-respect ; but in public affairs I have deliberately adopted
the rule of conduct which answers with plucky little boys at
school. When you are hit unjustly, always hit back; you
get a licking that time, but the big boy thinks twice before
hitting again. The difficulty lies in discriminating between
a merited and unmerited slap in the face.
What are your matured views about a boy's education?
Do you think that Eton is worth the cost ? I know that it
gives a boy a certain tone and savour of high tastes, but on
the other hand it wastes a lot of time in which a boy's mind
might be much more effectively trained; because, after all,
Eton is only playing at education ; there is no serious attempt
either to form or to instruct, unless matters and masters
have much changed. ... I myself only began to do anything
at school at between 15 and 16 years. . . . Encourage
versifying; it keeps open the emotions and also forms the
prose style ; you note that J. S. Mill places much value on it.

188 ALFRED LYALL [1875
Lyall's want of enthusiasm for the Eton education
is shown more than once in his letters, and it is
curious, for he also expresses strong views about the
utter ignorance of any high standard which is the
result of education at a bad school. He may have
underrated the value of the actual teaching at Eton.
A few years later a well-known army tutor, consulted
on the choice of a school for a boy, answered, " Send
him to Eton. I have never had a boy from Eton who
knew nothing, as I have had from many other schools.
Eton boys are often idle, but they have all learnt
something, because they are well taught." And, after
all, the " certain tone and savour of high tastes " — the
good effect on character and habits of thought — are
of greater value than any small difference in the
stock of book knowledge a boy can acquire. No
one exemplified this better than Lyall himself And
he sent his sons to Eton.
His desire to get back to the centre of affairs was
not to be immediately gratified, for in the beginning
of October he received from Lord Northbrook a letter
telling him that Sir Lewis Pelly,^ for whom he was
acting, was not to return to Rajputana for another
year. The fewer changes we have in the high political appoint
ments the better, and I fancy from what you said when I
last saw you that another year in Rajputana will not be
disagreeable to you.
Lyall took the announcement quietly, but he did
not altogether like it.
1 Colonel Sir Lewis Pelly, K.C.S.I., a weU-known political oflBcer.

i875] A VICEROY ON TOUR 189
I don't mind staying in Rajputana one year more [he
wrote to his mother], but beyond that, to stay would be to
return to the jungles whence Lord Northbrook plucked me
forth nearly three years ago, and I won't do that. This place
is pleasant and picturesque, but it is remote, with no society ;
the only real attraction is that it enables me to save a
little money.
Meanwhile Lord Northbrook and his party were
coming through the province on a cold-weather tour,
to see something of the Native States, and Lyall
explains to his mother what this means —
I have to arrange for their posting 200 or 300 miles
across a country where there is no ordinary conveyance to
be had, at the rate of 50 miles a-day, and to find them
sumptuous board and lodging wherever they stop. Not at
my own cost mind, except at Ajmere; but at an infinite
expenditure of trouble. We shall, by the aid of the great
chiefs, lay out above 100 pairs of horses ; and we shall have
escorts of cavalry along the whole route. Tents and dinners
will be improvised in the wilderness, and roads made straight
in the desert. All Rajputana produces its horses and drome
daries to help us along; and as no Viceroy has hitherto
crossed these wilds, it is a new undertaking. Our sons
and grandsons will look back with curiosity to the primitive
times in which these things were done ; when all the barbaric
pomp and power of the English Governors shall have been
thrown aside as medieval rubbish, and we go about in rail
ways, and halt at bad hotels. At present the most enjoyable
sight I have seen for long is a wild naked Bheel, with long
hair streaming down his head, a bow and quiver in one hand,
and a string of little bells (to keep off tigers) jangling in
the other, bringing the post up the hillside in the moon
light. On his way to meet Lord Northbrook, Lyall visited

190 ALFRED LYALL [1876
Oodeypore, " the capital of the oldest State in India,"
a beautiful city of marble palaces overhanging a lake,
amid wild rocky hills. Lyall must have enjoyed the
beauty of it, but on his first arrival he was weary
of travel.
I myself am writing under this eternal canvas of a tent,
from which I seem destined never to escape. I have got long
journeys and constant movement before me for another six
months, with the usual cloudy horizon. I mean cloudy,
because I can see no distance ahead. Camp life I detest,
because it is an incessant state of motion, and I can do
nothing unless my surroundings are to some degree stable;
if my papers are swept off into boxes every evening for
the next march I am unable to work.
Meanwhile a ' Fortnightly ' article had been written
on the " Origin of Divine Myths in India." It called
forth an expression of warm approval from Herbert
Spencer. In the winter of 1875-76 occurred the visit of the
Prince of Wales (King Edward VII.) to India, and
Lyall writes on the subject to John Morley —
It was very curious to notice the extraordinary reverence
with which the people regarded a king's son; the proudest
chiefs of Rajputana were quite ready to bow down before
him ; and I perceived that this was a natural effect of the
strong feelings of these chiefs towards royalty and, above
all, high lineage. I am convinced that our infiuence in India
is very much greater than we take it to be, and that the
upper classes are tending to become Anglo-maniacs rather
than haters of foreign rule. The masses and the religious
orders don't like us, out of that instinctive hatred for the
foreigner and the infidel which you can see always among

1876] LORD LYTTON 191
the same classes in Europe; but as to the rich men and
the nobles, my fear is that the next generation will be seen
squandering their revenues in the great hotels of Paris and
London, and demoralising England rather than improving
India by virtuous examples of the blessings of civilisation.
They will think scorn of this dull hot land, and will give
no heed to the advice of respectable officials.
Events have shown how much truth there was in
the forecast.
In the spring of 1876 Lord Northbrook was suc
ceeded by Lord Lytton, and LyaU was summoned to
Allahabad to meet the new Viceroy, who was on his
way to Calcutta. Lyall found that John Morley had
"much and kindly recommended" Lord Lytton to
make acquaintance with him. Fitzjames Stephen had
done the same.
I do hope and trust with all my heart you will not let
anything you hear prejudice you against Lyall. He is one
of the finest fellows I ever knew in my whole life, and, if
you cultivate him a little, you will find him a man of more
knowledge, more imagination (in the lofty and eminently
complimentary sense of the word), more intelligent interest
in the wonders of India than almost any one in India. . . .
It will be, as Byron says of Pope, a sin and a shame and
a damnation if you and he don't come together. He is the
one man (except Maine) I ever met who seemed to me to
see the splendour of India, the things which have made me
feel all that I have so often said to you about it.
(.Lyall was favourably impressed by Lord Lytton,
and wrote to his mother that his reception had been
most kind, but " I do not cease to regret Lord North-

192 ALFRED LYALL [1876
brook." A few days later he received from the out
going Viceroy the following letter —
Apra 14, 1876.
Mt deak Ltall, — I have fully explained to Lord Lytton
the arrangement I had contemplated if Aitchison ^ had been
appointed to be Chief Commissioner of Mysore, namely, that
you would have been appointed Foreign Secretary, and that
it was with the object of giving you experience which might
be useful to you in that office that you were appointed to
act for Sir Lewis Pelly in Rajputana.
1 hope some day to see you Foreign Secretary, as I think
you are the best man for that post. At present, as you
know, Mr Saunders goes to Mysore, which has upset all
these arrangements. — Yours very truly,
Northbrook.
And soon afterwards Lord Lytton wrote " a very
gracious note" to the same effect. Lyall received
these letters with mixed feelings. He was inclined
to resent, a little unreasonably perhaps, being
" shunted down to Rajputana " on a promise which
had not been fulfilled; but "secretly," he writes,
I feel lazy, and should be much dismayed if I were sud
denly summoned to Simla. The worst is that I am getting
too old for the Secretariat; not that it is not held by men
much older often, but I have a feeling that in a year or so
my full vigour of work will have declined, and that I shall
not shove the coach along as I would have done about 1875.
... At present I am very comfortable here, and only want
to be left quiet until the end of August, when I will start
for England.
1 Foreign Secretary, afterwards Sir Charles Aitchison, K.C.S.L, Lieu
tenant-Governor of the Punjab.

1876] 'THE EDINBURGH REVIEW' 193
It is rather amusing to find a man writing in this
way at forty-one ; but no doubt climate tells, and in
India a civil servant is ordinarily superannuated at
fifty-five. In the same letter he writes to his mother —
I have wellnigh given up verse-writing, what I do write does
not satisfy me, and I destroy it, there is a poverty of produc
tion about my brain ; I have lots of ideas, but putting them
into good words is a great labour.
Nevertheless he had written at this time his first
article for ' The Edinburgh Review.' It dealt with
Rajputana, and gave an interesting picture of the
country ; but it would not apparently have been
accepted by the editor had not Sir Henry Maine
decidedly advised him to publish it. Lyall was to
write many more articles for the ' Edinburgh ' in
later years, but for the time he preferred the ' Fort
nightly.' He was now looking forward with pleasure, mixed
with some apprehension, to getting away in August
for six months' leave to England. It meant seeing
his children, and his mother and sisters ; but it meant
also a march of a hundred and fifty miles to the
nearest railway station in the middle of the rainy
season, when the rivers were often in flood and im
passable. Arrived in England, he would have to set
up a house, with a complete set of new servants,
at heavy expense, after the manner of the Indian
exile without a home in his own country, — who often
finds the small savings of years sunk in a few months
of discomfort and disappointment, and goes back at

194 ALFRED LYALL [1876
the end of it, with heavy heart and empty purse, to
face another long period of separation. For Lyall at
that moment the prospect was further clouded by the
sudden fall in the value of silver, the rupee having
gone down from two shillings to one and sixpence,
" so that," as he wrote, " to get your money home you
have to throw one quarter of it into the sea."
At that time he had practically saved nothing, and
the fear of a narrow old age, with no provision made
for his children, was beginning to weigh upon him^
Nor was it pleasant to feel that he had not the least
idea where he would have to go on his return to India.
Rajputana might not be vacant ; and he might have
to take up some post a thousand miles away, which
necessitated packing up, before he left India, every
thing he had in the world.
No one who has not tried it knows how much
trouble, and what a heavy loss, these incidents of
Indian service entail ; and it was, perhaps, not won
derful that Lyall should have felt some shrinking from
another break up.
Not long before he left he was in correspondence
with Rivett - Carnac about his poem, " The Old
Pindaree," which Rivett-Carnac wished to republish
in 'Notes and Queries.'
It was characteristic of LyaU that he had never
kept a copy of the poem.
" The Old Pindaree " [he writes] looked rather rough
doggrel in that newspaper cutting you sent, and the verses
full of Indian words that sound barbarous to English ears, so
I have corrected the whole piece, and send you the latest

i877] FURLOUGH IN ENGLAND 195
edition, than which none other is now genuine. But, speak
ing sincerely, I don't think it worth sending home. ' N. and
Q.' wouldn't understand it.
Certainly no one could accuse Lyall of setting too
high a value upon his own verses.
About the middle of August, in spite of all his
doubts and apprehensions, Lyall and his wife left
Mount Abu for England, where- shortly after their
arrival a second son was born to him. I cannot find
that anything else of special interest occurred to him
during this period of furlough. He saw his children
and others whom he wished to see. He wrote an
article on the " Formation of Indian Clans and Castes,"
which appeared in the ' Fortnightly ' for January 1877.
And apparently he did a little shooting, for in a letter
to one of his sisters, which seems to be of this period,
he writes —
I don't exactly enjoy the shooting, but had as lieve do
it as anything else, if I must visit my friends — I would not,
though, trouble myself to kill a pheasant in ten years if no
one invited me to do so.
Meanwhile he had, by his absence in England,
missed the great Durbar at Delhi, when Lord Lytton
proclaimed the assumption of the Imperial title by the
Queen. But LyaU really disliked such ceremonials,
at which he was rather out of his element.
Early in February 1877 he was in Paris again,
on his way back to India, and he writes to his
mother —
I feel very much your great affection for me ; while I am
haunted by the faces of my two little girls, which faces, as

196 ALFRED LYALL [1877
such, are gone for ever, since they will be quite changed by
the time I return. . . . One gets softer in some ways as the
years multiply.
And in a simUar tone he writes to Mrs Holland—
I have been a good deal touched at the leave-takings this
time. ... It seems very hard that I should have to leave the
children, when every one else lives in his own home as a
matter of course. . . . Then my mother and sisters are more
to me every time I come home. However, I know most of
this tenderness will harden down as soon as I plunge again
into Indian work.
Happily all feel this in a measure. The lot of an
exile would be unendurable if it were not so. But
even in the press of work there come times of retro
spect and longing which are not easy to bear, and
they came to Lyall as to others.
Meanwhile Sir Lewis Pelly was being employed by
Lord Lytton on special duty, and Lyall was in some
doubt during his voyage whether he should return to
the Home Office, which was still his substantive post,
or to Rajputana ; but eventually he decided for Raj
putana, on the grounds of economy and leisure, and
early in April he was settled again in his quiet home
at Mount Abu.
I am sliding back into the old-world feeling of simple
notions and remote monotony which is always produced by
existence in this corner. I cannot make out how it is ; but
since I returned from England all restlessness and ambition
have gone out of me, and I feel quite content to live in these
jungles.

i877] AT MOUNT ABU 197
Lyall deceived himself. The restlessness and ambi
tion were still there. It was at this time that I began
really to know him. The Indian Foreign Office, in
which I had been serving as an attach^, had sent me to
act as his " First Assistant," or secretary in charge of
his office. There were four of us, one of whom is now
Colonel Yate, the Unionist member for the Melton
division of Leicestershire, — then a lieutenant in the
Staff Corps, and a noted hunter of big game. We were
all young, and more fond of sport than of the pursuits
in which Lyall took pleasure, so we were no companions
for him. He was sorry for the slaughtered beasts
which we used to bring back in triumph, and inclined
to look upon us as young barbarians. But he was
courteous and kindly, and in spite of the difference
in age and position I soon came to feel real pleasure
in his society. I have a vivid recollection, though
thirty-five years have passed since then, of the work
I used to take up to him, and of long walks over the
wooded hUlsides which surrounded our beautifiil
lake. Before long he began to show me his verses,
and to talk over all sorts of matters ; and I gained
some insight into the working of his mind. In certain
ways he was reserved; and one felt that he would
have resented any undue familiarity. But there was
"an indescribable charm" about him; and certainly
he never let me see any sign of the suspicious tem
perament which was often attributed to him. On the
contrary, after the first few weeks he treated me with
the most generous confidence. In that way he was
like the man whose life he afterwards wrote. Lord

198 ALFRED LYALL [1877
Dufferin. The two had another feature in common,
that they backed their subordinates with unswerving
loyalty against any attack.
No one who had to work with Lyall could fail to
admire the keenness of his intellect ; but there was
much more than this to admire in him.
I have written of him elsewhere —
To me, seeing him day after day, and watching his dealings
with those around him, nothing seemed more honourable than
his quick and warm sympathy for the chiefs and people of
India. There was no " gush " about it, no weak and ignorant
sentimentalism, but the broad - minded comprehension and
respect of a fine and chivalrous spirit. His consistent teach
ing to us younger men was not to be hasty or hard, above all
never to be contemptuous, but to recognise and admire all
that was admirable even in those who opposed us. His un
failing sense of humour helped him here. More than once,
though he was quick-tempered, I have known him pull him
self up and laugh, quietly, but with keen enjoyment, at the
success of some little manoeuvre, some bit of diplomatic sword-
play, which would have made many men seriously angry. He
always saw the amusing side of it, even if a man had got
under his guard and touched him.
The war between Russia and Turkey was then
going on, and almost every one in India was strongly
on the side of the Turks. Englishmen and Indians
alike seemed practically unanimous on that point,
I can well remember the interest with which the war
telegrams used to be received. We had at Mount
Abu " Vakils," or representatives of the Native States,
under Lyall's charge. These people used to come to
me constantly to study a map on which I marked the

i877] LEANINGS TOWARD RUSSIA 199
progress of the opposing forces ; and though they were
almost all Hindus, their sympathy with the Turks was
unmistakable. Lyall, with his experiences of the
Mutiny and his wide range of thought, was decidedly
for the Russians ; and it was then that he first began
to expound to me the doctrine that our proper policy
in Asia was to come to an understanding with them.
He fully recognised the fact that a sweeping Russian
success in Asia Minor might " overset the balance of
all Asia, and may threaten our cominunications with
India in more ways than one," but he wished them
such success as would break down the power of Turkey
in Europe.
With regard to less important matters he writes —
There is some tiger-shooting going on. I never go against
tigers on foot, being convinced that the risk is not worth
while ; but the young officers do, and one had the narrowest
escape here two days ago. In another part of Rajputana an
officer has just been killed by a tiger ; the news came as a
sharp commentary on the text I had just been preaching from
to my assistants. Ijmyself have a queer secret sympathy for
the tiger when alone with his claws only he defeats men armed
with powerful rifles.
The officer who had the narrow escape was Yate.
A tiger, headed by a shot from another of the party,
broke back and went at a gallop along a narrow jungle
track leading over a flat rock, on which Yate was
standing. From the opposite side of the ravine I
could see the yellow coat flashing through the bushes
at intervals. Yate, a cool, good shot, killed it within
ten feet of him with a bullet through the head.

200 ALFRED LYALL [1877
Maurice Le Breton, who had fired at it first, was a
brother of Mrs Langtry the actress. He was mortally
wounded by a tiger not long afterwards. Lyall was
right, no doubt ; the game was not worth the candle ;
but he would not have thought so fifteen years earlier.
On his way out he had written some verses, pro
bably those which are to be found in his published
volume under the title " A Night in the Red Sea."
He sent them to his sister Barbara from Mount Abu.
You will observe that they do not fulfil the conditions of
poetry. . . . What a difficult art is that of style ! Given a
certain set of words and phrases, 999 persons out of 1000
can never arrange them so as to produce the effect of poetic
form ; the 1000th does it at once, like Shelley or Milton, and
every one sees it when it's done. Swinburne, again, with all
his faults, has the gift; you may try as you like, you can
never make the same music or power come out of your setting
of words as come from his. On the whole, I begin to think
that Keats's lines, " As when, upon a tranced summer night,"
in " Hyperion," are nigh to the best in modem English poetry
for pure style.
At this time he was carefully studying the works
of Fitzjames and Leslie Stephen, of which he thought
highly. But the more I study the more I am oppressed with thp
belief that everything worth saying on morals and religion
has been said already ; and I have reasoned myself into the
fixed conviction that nothing can be actually discovered as
to whence we come or whither we go, so that I am falling into
a rather aimless condition of mind.
He was, as usual, getting restless, and tired of Abu.
He knew little of what was going on at Headquarters,

1 877] DROUGHT IN RAJPUTANA 201
which worried him, but from what little he did know
he was inclined to think that an active policy in
Afghan affairs was a mistake.
People try to scare us with fear of Russia beyond our
N.-W. Frontier, as to wliich I am utterly incredulous, and I
almost wish they would come, being sick of the policy of
intriguing with such wretched barbarians as the Afghans.
I am grieved at the Turkish triumphs, . . . and I think a
revival of military Islam bodes no good to us out here, where
the Muslim must ever be our enemies and rivals.
He was to see his wish fulfilled sooner than he
expected, and to be plunged deep into the whirlpool
of Afghan affairs, but this was not yet.
In August he was beginning to get anxious about
a different matter, the failure of the summer rains.
A large part of Rajputana consists of vast sandy
tracts where heavy rain is not usual, or much needed ;
but that year the drought had been extraordinary,
and there were fears of famine. I remember sit
ting with him on the hillside, looking out westward
over the plains of Jodhpore, and watching morn
ing after morning the clouds roll past our feet from
the south, like lines of great battalions ; but by
midday the sun seemed to have devoured them all,
and the sky was clear. Eventually, after six rainless
weeks, Lyall thought it necessary to leave Mount
Abu and go down to the threatened districts. He
left most of us in Abu, and we revelled in the shoot
ing which he deprecated ; for, the country around us
having dried up, the game came to the Abu hiU,
where the lake, though low, had still a plentiful

202 ALFRED LYALL [1877
supply of water ; and going out for a walk or ride
in the early mornings we used to find fresh tracks
in the dusty roads of the little station itself Lyall
did not return that season, for soon afterwards he
was summoned to Simla to discuss the prospects of
famine and some important Salt Treaties which were
to be negotiated with the Native States. He had
left Simla in November 1873, expecting to return in
a few months, and had not seen the place again for
four years. That is the way in India. He looked
" rather sadly " at the house where he had spent his
one Simla season ; but apparently Lord Lytton did
not want him in the Secretariat, and he writes —
I think I shall settle down in Rajputana and cultivate the
primitive races, trying also to save a little cash, if this be
possible. . . . This is a very pleasant, gay, easy-living place
among the pinewoods in the mountains, fifty miles from the
plains. The people who live here regularly can think very
little of the far-off deserts about Jodhpore whence I have
come, where the cattle are dying for want of forage, and
they are praying to all their gods for a little rain, where
you may see thin, gaunt, hard-looking men come riding in
across the sands on camels, with their matchlocks and water-
skins slung beside them.
One of his sisters had sent to ' The Cornhill
Magazine' about this time some verses of his, the
"Meditations of a Hindu Prince and Sceptic," and
he writes to his mother : " I don't think much of
my verses that the 'CornhiU' has taken, and had
rather not have published ; but it didn't matter a
farthing." At the same time he wrote specially re^
questing that the "Sequel," or any other verses of

1878] WRITING VERSES 203
his, might not be sent to any magazine or publication.
The " Sequel " was the piece which appears in his
volume of verse as "A Quest in Vain." In his private
collection of ' Verses Written in India,' it appears as a
" Sequel to My Queen."
Before the close of the year Lyall returned to Raj
putana, having in the meantime received near his
border at Agra, in a house lent by a native chief,
a four days' visit from the Viceroy. Lord Lytton
was, he said, "very civil and nice."
His next duty was at the capital of the Ulwur
State, where the Chief had just attained his majority.
As representative of the British Government, LyaU
had to seat the new Maharajah on his "gadi," amid
a great assemblage of Englishmen and Indians, the
ceremony being foUowed by two or three days of
festivities. It was a fine show, and the young Chief,
a handsome manly Rajput, bore himself bravely. He
had, alas ! a sad life and end. Practically this was
Lyall's last piece of work in Rajputana.
In January 1878 he writes to his sister Barbara
that he is sending her, not for publication, "some
verses inspired by my visit to Jodhpore last year."
These were the "Rajput Chief of the Old School."
Jodhpore, with its wonderful castle in the desert, the
stronghold of the fighting Rahtors, is just the place to
inspire such a poem, a spirited and touching piece, full
of sympathetic understanding. He goes on : "I am
quite puzzled by the success of the ' Hindu Sceptic,'
and I have never been properly satisfied with any
verses but 'Theology in Extremis'."

204 ALFRED LYALL [1878
As a matter of fact, the " Rajput Chief" was pub
lished in October of the same year by the ' Fort
nightly.' This was an exceptional compliment, for
the then editor, Morley, was not much given to
publishing verses. He had published earlier in the
year an article by Lyall on " Religious Beliefs and
Morality." A few days after the verses were sent home, Lyall
was at last offered the Foreign Secretaryship, and
his connection with Rajputana, as also with anything
which could be described as the jungles, came to an
end. The last four years had been of much value to
him. They had greatly increased his knowledge of
Native States and ruling Chiefs, with all of whom
the Foreign Secretary has to deal; and they had
given him a thorough rest before he entered upon the
period of hard work which was before him. They
had also given him leisure for thinking and writing,
whereby his reputation, not only in India but in
English literary circles, had gained considerably.
Though he had sometimes repined at the dulness
and isolation of Mount Abu, he had in reality much
reason for feeling grateful to that beautiful and
peaceful hill-top ; and in later years he came to look
back with pleasure and regret to the time he had
spent there.

CHAPTER XL
THE INDIAN FOREIGN OFFICE AND THE AFGHAN WAR.
1878-1881.
Work of the Indian Foreign Office — State of affairs when Lyall took charge
— Lord Lytton's policy in Afghanistan — The Lawrence policy — Rela
tions between Lyall and Lord Lytton — Colonel Colley — Death of
Lyall's mother — Failure of attempt to improve relations with Afghan
istan — Russian Mission in Kabul— War with Afghanistan, November
1878 — Death of Amir — Treaty of Gandamak, May 1879— Sandeman
and the Frontier tribes — Schools of Frontier policy — Massacre of
Kabul Mission, September 1879 — Advance of General Roberts on
Kabul — Lyall's consideration for political officers — His dislike of
annexing territory — Visit to Kabul — Resignation of Lord Lytton,
April 1880 — Lord Ripon succeeds — Defeat at Maiwand — Lord
Roberts marches to Kandahar — Lyall's anxiety and relief — He visits
Kandahar — Made a K.C.B. — Results of the war — Lyall leaves the
Foreign Office.
In April 1878 Lyall took over charge ofhis new post.
The work of the Indian Foreign Office at that time
fell into three main divisions.
There was, first, the foreign work proper — that is,
the control of the relations between the Indian
Government and countries outside India. These
relations were, of course, carried on with due regard
to the general policy of the Empire ; and the Eng
lish Foreign Office had its diplomatic representatives
in China, Persia, and other Asiatic countries. India,
therefore, in a sense, had no Foreign policy of its
own. Nevertheless there was a large amount of
work connected with such countries, for India had
long been in close touch with them, and the Indian
Government had its Residents, or Political Agents,

206 ALFRED LYALL [1878
in Turkish Arabia, in Persia, in Zanzibar, in Muscat,
in Burma, and at times in other places. It was,
moreover, in direct charge of our relations with
Afghanistan and Beluchistan, and had to watch the
state of affairs all over Central Asia, where the advance
of Russia had for generations disquieted the minds
of English statesmen.
Secondly, the Indian Foreign Office controlled our
relations with the Native States in India, which
covered more than a third of the Peninsula, and
contained a population of sixty or seventy millions.
Some of these States had in earlier days been inde
pendent powers, and formidable rivals to the British
Government. Tt) carry on these various relations with States
inside and outside India, the Indian Foreign Office
had under its orders, as before explained, a con
siderable diplomatic or " political " service ; and
attached to that service were several local corps of
infantry and cavalry.
Thirdly, the Indian Foreign Secretary managed the
great State ceremonials, durbars, investitures, and
the like ; and was in charge of all arrangements
connected with the Indian orders of knighthood, and
the numerous honours and distinctions, other than
military distinctions, conferred upon natives of India.
Besides these three main branches of work, the
Indian Foreign Office had to deal with the Consular
representatives of Foreign States, some of whom held
diplomatic rank, though their recognised duties were
concerned with commerce. It had also to supervise
the internal administration of certain British districts,

1878] THE INDIAN FOREIGN OFFICE 207
and of States whose chiefs were minors or incapable
of managing their affairs, and of tracts leased or other
wise transferred by Native Chiefs, but not annexed
or brought under the law of British India. Also the
Indian Foreign Office had charge of the operations
for the suppression of organised murder and gang
robbery, " Thagi and Dacoiti," and generally of the
system of secret police throughout India.
These were wide functions, and it is not surpris
ing that the Indian Chiefs, and Indians generaUy,
regarded the Foreign Secretary as holding an import
ant post. He was generally known as the " Sekutter
Azim," or Chief Secretary ; and it may be added that
among Englishmen too the appointment was regarded
as the blue ribbon of the Civil Service. It had heen
held by many of the most distinguished men in India,
and was a certain passport to the Council or the
Lieutenant-Governorship of a Province, if the Foreign
Secretary did not prefer to remain where he was.
It is true, as already explained, that the Indian
Secretaryships were not offices of such independ
ence as those of Secretaries of State in England.
The Secretaries were not members of the " Govern
ment of India " ; and most of them had in a sense
a departmental superior.
But in this respect the position of the Foreign
Secretary was exceptional, for the custom had been
that the Viceroy reserved to himself the special
supefvision of foreign affairs. No doubt a Foreign
Office question of serious importance was ordinarily
discussed in CouncU, either verbally at a CouncU
meeting, or in written minutes, or both. Still, except

208 ALFRED LYALL [1878
in rare cases, if the Viceroy and his Foreign Secretary
were agreed upon the course to be followed, their
view was not likely to meet with strong opposition
in Council, the members of which were interested
rather in military or administrative work than in
the affairs of Native States or other Foreign Office
business. And as a Viceroy, who had many other
things to do, could not be expected to deal personally
with more than a certain proportion of the questions
arising in the Foreign Office, the responsibility of the
Foreign Secretary was not small.
When Lyall assumed charge of the Foreign Office
the post was one of special importance, for during
the two years which had elapsed since Lord Lytton's
appointment as Viceroy the aspect of foreign affairs
had become very threatening. Lord Lytton had come
out to India in 1876, with instructions to take decided
measures for counteracting the dangers of the Russian
advance in Central Asia, and in particular for re-estab
lishing our influence in Afghanistan. It was asserted,
and with truth, that for some time past our relations
with that country had gradually changed for the
worse, until the Amir Sher Ali, who had been friendly,
was now almost hostile. The conclusion — a natural
conclusion enough, though much could be said on the
other side — was that the policy pursued of late, Lord
Lawrence's policy of " Masterly Inactivity," had been
mistaken, and that it must be abandoned. Lord
Lytton was strongly of this opinion ; and he had at
his elbow, in the person of his Military Secretary,
Colonel Colley,^ a man who not only shared his views
> Afterwards Major-General Sir George Colley, killed at Majuba.

1878] LORD LYTTON'S AFGHAN POLICY 209
but was remarkably bold and confident in advocat
ing a complete change of front. Accordingly the
Amir was invited to enter into closer relations with
the Indian Government, and some pressure was put
upon him to receive a British Mission. But the
result was to provoke suspicion and resentment on
his part rather than to bring about a more friendly
feeling ; he declined to receive a mission ; and in the
end he practically broke off all relations with Lord
Lytton's Government and turned to Russia for sup
port. Meanwhile there had been war between Russia
and Turkey, and the intervention of Great Britain
in favour of the Turks had aroused the most pas
sionate resentment among the victorious Russians.
Checked by us in Europe, when Constantinople
seemed to be in their grasp, they resolved to deliver
a counter-stroke in Asia, and it became evident that
before long we should have trouble upon our Indian
frontier. Such was the state of affairs in the early
part of 1878. To make matters worse, the foolishly-
provocative attitude of the King of Burma had very
nearly brought about an outbreak of hostilities in
that quarter.
Both to East and West, therefore, the sky was
lowering, and there was every indication that India
was about to go through a time of trouble. Lyall's
new post did not seem likely to be an easy
one. It may be added that Lord Lytton had shown no
great alacrity in appointing him to the charge of
that post. Though attracted by Lyall's literary tastes
o

210 ALFRED LYALL [1878
and culture, the new Viceroy had not, at first,
wished to bring him to the Foreign Office. This was
comprehensible, for Lord Lytton knew that Lyall's
views were in some respects opposed to his own. Lyall
was a convinced Liberal in politics, and his friends in
England were on that side. Lord Lytton was not
altogether easy about his correspondence with them.
Moreover, LyaU had been inclined to think that the
formal assumption of the Imperial title by the Queen,
in the manner proposed, would not be palatable to
some of the native chiefs ; and, later, it had been
reported to Lord Lytton that he had criticised some
of the features of the Imperial Assemblage of 1877,
which was not improbable. The Assemblage had, on
the whole, been a dignified and impressive ceremonial ;
but as regards some of the details connected with it,
the distance between the sublime and the ridiculous
had not always been maintained, and this had not
escaped Lyall's sense of humour. But though Lord
Lytton did not particularly want LyaU as Foreign
Secretary, he did not approve of the man who then
held the post, Charles Aitchison. It was an open
secret that Aitchison, a pupil and admirer of Lord
Lawrence, was not in accord with the new policy. A
man of the highest character, upright and unselfish to
a rare degree, he had loyally carried out the orders of
the Government ; but with all his loyalty he was a
man of decided views, and he had thought it his duty
to state them with uncompromising plainness. It was
perhaps only natural that Lord Lytton should wish
for a change ; and after trying another Punjab

1878] APPOINTED FOREIGN SECRETARY 211
civilian, Thornton,^ who proved to be no more
acceptable to him, he made up his mind to appoint
Lyall. The appointment was well received by the press
and the Indian public, and Lyall had to answer
innumerable congratulations. Amongst others, Lord
Roberts, then Quartermaster-General in India, wrote
to him : "I am so delighted to hear that you are to
succeed Aitchison ; I have long wished to see you
Foreign Secretary, . . . you are the right man in
the right place, I am sure." This represented the
general feeling, and Lyall was much pleased to know
that it was so.
That Lord Lytton was not altogether easy about
Lyall's correspondence with friends in England is
not surmise ; for in his letter offering Lyall the
Foreign Secretaryship, he stipulated, courteously but
clearly, that if Lyall accepted the appointment he
must not discuss foreign affairs with his private
friends in England ; or, at all events, must not
write against the new policy. The letter itself is not
among Lyall's papers ; but this was apparently the
tenour of it. The stipulation, though natural enough,
was perhaps hardly necessary, and Lyall was inclined
to be impatient at the doubt implied ; but Lord
Lytton's tone, he said, was really kind, and he
replied "with becoming humility." And certainly,
after his acceptance, Lord Lytton went out of his
way to assure his new Secretary of his entire con-
1 T. H. Thornton, C.S.I., D.C.L., well known for his good service in the
Mutiny.

212 ALFRED LYALL [1878
fidence and goodwill. I extract from a batch of his
letters, — picturesque letters many of them, with
very thick paper and magnificent monograms, and
beautiful handwriting, and equally beautiful style, —
one of the earliest, in which he explains his views
as to the nature of their future relations. Lyall
had written to him on the subject, and he writes
in reply —
It is quite essential that in the eyes of our native subjects,
feudatories and allies, the prestige and authority of the Foreign
Secretary should be upheld. But the Govemment of India is
still so necessarily a personal Government that it seems to me
as undesirable to reduce the Viceroy to an official machine as
to reduce the Foreign Secretary to a cipher. I think we were
quite d'accord that there is a juste milieu between the two
extremes. And^ indeed, I may say that one of the many
reasons why I have long wished to see you in your present
post is that the Foreign Department seems to me the one
of all others in which most depends upon the personality of
the Chief Secretary. He is more than any other Government
Secretary, and in some respects even more than the Viceroy
himself, the visible embodiment of the Government in its
relations with native India ; and to the affairs with which he
is constantly dealing, the saying that " C'est le ton qui fait la
chanson" seems specially applicable. Don't you think so?
Your letter reminds me that perhaps I have never sufficiently
explained to you the light in which I regard our official
relations. I wish them to be thoroughly and unreservedly
confidential. You may rely upon it that I will never con
sciously or willingly conceal from you anything I know,
think, wish, or have done in connection not only with the
affairs of your own Department, but also those of any other
Department which you may be interested to know about at
any time.

1878] RELATIONS WITH LORD LYTTON 213
These were frank and generous words, and Lord
Lytton steadily acted up to them during the re
mainder of his stay in India, the result being
that Lyall and he were throughout on the most
friendly and satisfactory terms. It is true that
in conversation Lord Lytton was at times inclined
to criticise Lyall as not sufficiently decided in his
views, and to complain that he saw all round the
questions which came before him rather than through
them, — that he would show every conceivable objec
tion to every course proposed, but would not plainly
advocate any other. The fact was that the two men
were very dissimilar in temperament : the one clever
and bold in his views, but impulsive, and apt at times
to do rash things ; the other equally clever, but by
nature cautious and reflective, with " the Lyall habit
of seeing both sides of a question," and with the extra
incentive to caution supplied by experience and know
ledge of India.
Viceroys and Governors fresh from England, much
better acquainted with European affairs and English
conditions than the men they find in India, are natur
ally inclined to look upon Indian officers from a rather
lofty point of view, and to be impatient of claims to
local knowledge, the value of which they are, for a
time at least, necessarily unable to appreciate. A
bold and confident spirit like Colley, who scoffed at
local knowledge, was more attractive to Lord Lytton ;
but it may be doubted whether that brave soldier,
with all his capacity and dash, was as good an adviser
for a Viceroy of Lord Lytton's temperament as the

214 ALFRED LYALL [1878
man who made him see all the possible consequences
of what he wished to do, and discouraged anything
like hasty action.
On his side Lyall liked and admired Lord Lytton, —
admired his cleverness, and his courage, and his good
looks. I remember Lyall being really annoyed one
day as we were walking down to his house, " Innes's
Own," because I would not agree in his view that
Lord Lytton was the handsomest man in Simla.
Afterwards, when I had seen more of Lord Lytton,
I got to recognise his courage, and the touch of
genius in him ; but at first he struck me as too
picturesque in looks and dress, and as contrasting
unfavourably with some of our soldiers. When
I said so, Lyall answered me more impatiently
than he had ever done before. But, with all
his sincere liking and admiration, Lyall thought
Lord Lytton too fond of scenic display, and too
hasty in his decisions. Also he felt that the Vice
roy, conscious of his own literary powers, was in
clined to like writing for its own sake, and to be
carried away by his artistic enjoyment of style.
Nevertheless, in the main, the two got on very well
together. I had by that time returned to the Foreign
Office as Assistant Secretary, and again saw much of
Lyall, both officially and privately ; and I had there
fore good reason to know that, in spite of some differ
ences of temperament and view, LyaU worked not
only loyally — he would always have done that — but
cordially with his new Chief The love of literature
was always a bond between them, and gave a pleasant

1878] RUMOURS OF WAR WITH RUSSIA 215
tone to their official relations. Their correspondence
is interesting and characteristic. One letter of Lord
Lytton's, for example, begins with something about a
telegram from Afghanistan, then goes on with two
pages of quotation, written in his own fine hand, from
Dante's " Purgatorio," and winds up with a few words
more on official matters. Nor is this an exceptional
instance. His letters to Lyall were rarely the letters
of an official superior pure and simple.
Early in 1878, soon after he had taken up his new
work, Lyall received the news of his mother's death.
He felt her loss very deeply, and his letters on the
subject are touching to read. " She was the incarna
tion of pure unselfish love," he said, and the words
are enough.
Meanwhile the cloud beyond the North-West
Frontier was darkening fast. Russia and England
were at that moment in a condition of dangerous
antagonism, and the prospect of war was freely
discussed. Lyall, always inclined to advocate an
understanding with Russia, earnestly hoped that war
might be averted, for though he thought we should
get the best of it, he disliked the quarrel. Moreover,
he felt that by our incessant writing and talking
about the Russian advance, we had imbued the
natives of India with the belief that we were afraid
of Russia ; and he knew the danger of such a belief
in case anything should go wrong at first. This
attitude of perpetual apprehension had in fact done
much harm in India. It was the less excusable be
cause until that time, and for some years afterwards,

216 ALFRED LYALL [1878
we were undoubtedly stronger than the Russians
for war in Asia.
As every one knows, war with Russia did not
take place ; but what came upon us was almost as
serious a matter. At the end of July 1878 India
was startled by the news that a Russian mission
had been received in Kabul, and a wave of excite
ment went through the country. In truth, the
position was one which no Indian Government could
regard without grave concern ; for the diplomatic
occupation of Kabul by the Russians, coupled with
our exclusion, meant a very discreditable if not
dangerous state of affairs. It was therefore decided
to send a "friendly" mission to the Amir, under the
charge of a distinguished officer. Sir Neville Chamber
lain, who was to insist upon going to Kabul unless
forcibly prevented. This was a step the wisdom of
which was much debated at the time, for it was
evident that the result might be an open rupture
with the Afghans. But it is not easy to see what
else, in the circumstances, Lord Lytton could have
done. The affront inflicted upon us was one in which
he could hardly have acquiesced. The mission ac
cordingly went forward, but was repelled by show
of arms, and a plain threat of force, on the part of
the Amir's representative.
This was a stormy beginning for Lyall's term as
Foreign Secretary. He had taken charge only in
April, and by September a rupture with Afghanistan
was practically inevitable. But he entirely agreed
with Lord Lytton. "I quite believe we have been

MRS LYALL.

i878] RUSSIAN MISSION IN KABUL 217
right," he wrote ; " I think we had no alternative but
to do what we have done." As to the Amir, " we
must now bring him to terms ; but we shall do as
little as possible."
These words are taken from a letter to his sister,
Mrs HoUand.
Lyall had now entirely ceased writing on such
subjects to friends in England outside his own family
— for example, to the late Viceroy, Lord Northbrook,
who with his usual straightforwardness had re
cognised at once, of his own accord, that on Lyall's
part such correspondence would no longer be proper.
Even to his own people Lyall wrote very little indeed.
But to make clear the views held by him during the
course of our Afghan troubles it is desirable to show
that, so far, he had been decidedly in favour of the
action t^-ken.
Then followed several weeks of negotiation ; after
which, finding that the Amir was not open to any
other argument, the Government of India demanded
an apology, and backed the demand with an ulti
matum. The apology was not sent, and war was
declared. By that time Lyall was beginning to feel the strain
of his work and responsibility. He doubted whether
he had "the head for rapid and precise working under
pressure. I get irritated and tired." But he had no
doubt that the course taken was the proper one.
It is curious to observe how minds, equal in apparent clear
ness and knowledge, differ entirely upon political questions —
Lord Lytton and Fitzjames Stephen certain that views are

218 ALFRED LYALL [1878
right, which Lord Northbrook and Grant Duff denounce to me
as utterly wrong. I go with the two former, after attentive
survey of the situation. We let loose our troops on the Amir
before he expected us ; we gave him to the 20th ^ to apologise,
and on the 20th evening, the Viceroy, the Commander-in-Chief,
the Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab, Sir N. Chamberlain,
and I sat round a table awaiting a telegram from Peshawar
to say whether a reply had come across the border by sunset.
It had not come, and the word went forth.
The campaign which ensued was short and deci
sive. Our troops advanced in three columns, striking
heavy blows. In the Khyber Pass the northern
column, under General " Sam" Browne, took the great
key fort of Ali Masjid, and opened the Pass, which
led direct to the Amir's capital at Kabul. In the
centre Sir Frederick Roberts stormed the Peiwar
Kotul and opened an alternative route by the Logar
valley. In the south, a few weeks later, Sir Donald
Stewart occupied Kandahar.
The regular army which the Amir, forgetting the
lessons of history, had laboriously created, fell to
pieces in his hands. Hopeless of holding Kabul, he
fled northwards to appeal to the Russians, who
advised him to make his peace with the English.
In February 1879 he died, "betrayed, heart-broken,
'twixt infidel friend and foe." His punishment had
been swift, and the attempt of the Russians to em
barrass us by a mission to Kabul had ended in dis
comfiture. Their own serious difficulties with the
Turkomans of Geok Tepe, which were to end not
much later in a severe repulse, added to the effect
' November 1878.

i879] WAR WITH AFGHANISTAN 219
of the British victories. Our star brightened in
the sight of all Asia, and the triumph of Lord
Lytton's policy seemed complete.
Still there was much to do before the position could
be regarded as secure. Our armed forces had indeed
prevailed, but we had no quarrel with the people of
Afghanistan, and no wish to occupy their country.
Our quarrel, according to Lord Lytton's proclamation
of war, had been solely with the Amir Sher Ali.
Now that Sher Ali was gone, our business was to
come to terms with his successor, to bring the war
to an end, and to make such arrangements as would
establish our future relations with Afghanistan upon
a satisfactory footing. Unfortunately, it is always
hard to persuade the people of a country that you
wish them well if you make war on their ruler and
invade their territory.
Sher Ali's successor was his son, Yakub Khan, a
man of pleasant manners, who in his youth had
gained some reputation among the Afghans for
courage and capacity. But his spirit had been
broken by years of confinement ; and though almost
immediately after his accession to the throne he
showed that he had no desire to continue hostilities,
it was not an easy matter to bring him to the point,
or to ascertain whether he had sufficient power in
his own country to carry his people with him.
Eventually, in May 1879, news was received that
the Amir had himself come into the British camp ;
and there followed some weeks of negotiation
between the Afghans and the officer whom Lord

220 ALFRED LYALL [1879
Lytton had picked out as his representative, Louis
Cavagnari. The upshot was that before the end of
the month the war was ended by the Treaty of
Gandamak. Under the provisions of that treaty we
seemed to have gained all that Lord Lytton had
desired, and played so boldly to obtain. The Amir
consented to receive a British Resident at Kabul,
and to abstain for the future from any political
relations with foreign powers ; Kandahar was to be
held by us for a time until the Amir should be
firmly established ; and the Amir handed over to us
certain districts, south of Kandahar, which we con
sidered necessary for the rectification and strengthen
ing of our frontier on that side. It seemed as if our
influence in Afghanistan had been fully established,
to the exclusion of all others, and that the policy of
activity in Central Asia had proved itself completely
superior to the policy of the Lawrence school.
It should be observed before going farther that the
old policy had to some extent been infringed before
Lord Lytton arrived in India ; for Lord Northbrook,
cautious as he was, and opposed to all rash advance,
had allowed Major Sandeman, a frontier officer who
had a real genius for dealing with wild tribes, to
march across our border into Beluchistan, and come
to an understanding with the chiefs of that country.
Lord Lytton, ori first arrival, had been inclined to resent
this step, and had thought of recalling Sandeman,
for he was contemplating other measures. Event
ually, however, he aUowed the enterprise to go on.
Sandeman, a Scotchman of extraordinary courage and

1 8 79] NORTH-WEST FRONTIER TRIBES 221
pertinacity, soon brought the chiefs of Beluchistan
under his influence, and established himself as a
power in the country. The result was the occupa
tion of Quetta, and the advance of our strategic
frontier to the line of the Khojak Amran mountains.
It was to secure that point — a great bastion, as it
were, thrown out beyond the line of the Indus —
that the Afghans were now made to withdraw fi:"om
the neighbouring districts of Peshin and Sibi, to
which I have referred above. Lord Northbrook was
in no way responsible for the military occupation of
Quetta ; but he was responsible for the first step of a
new policy, that of bringing the frontier tribes under
our influence instead of leaving them alone.
As this question of the frontier tribes crops up
more than once in later pages of this memoir, it
may be desirable to explain here what the question
is, or was at the time when Lyall was Foreign
Secretary. The following pages on the subject are
taken from an article written some years ago for
'The Edinburgh Review' —
The North-West Frontier of India, from the Himalayas to
the sea, is covered by a belt of rugged mountainous territory,
which forms a great natural barrier between our Indian
Empire and the countries of Central Asia. This mountain
belt is pierced here and there by more or less difficult passes,
some of which from time immemorial have served as trade
routes, and have also witnessed the march of invading armies.
It is inhabited by wild marauding tribes, which have for cen
turies been practically independent. The strength of these
tribes cannot be estimated with accuracy, but in all probability
the total population of the tract is between a million and two

222 ALFRED LYALL [1879
millions. When Sind and the Punjab were annexed, about
fifty years ago, our dominions were brought up to the edge
of the mountain belt, and ever since that time we have been
trying to solve the question how we ought to deal with the
tribes and their country.
There are two points of view from which this question can
be considered. In the first place, it can be considered as a
question of border management, affecting merely the peace of
our frontier districts and their security from tribal raids, or
at most affecting in some degree our relations with neighbour
ing Asiatic States. Secondly, it can be considered in a larger
aspect, with regard to the defence of India against attack by
a foreign European Power.
Unfortunately, from whichever point of view the question
be considered, whether as a question of border management
or as a question of defence against foreign invasion, we have
no general consensus of opinion among the authorities prim
arily concerned. On the contrary, we find that there is a very
sharp conflict of views ; and it is by no means easy for any one
who approaches the matter in an impartial spirit to arrive at
a definite and satisfying conclusion upon the arguments of the
opposing schools.
As regards the measures which we should take to make our
frontier secure against foreign invasion, the military authori
ties are not agreed. Some consider the Indus Valley our
proper line of defence. They hold that we should abstain
from any advance into the mountainous and difficult countries
beyond the confines of India, and should make ready to meet
attack upon our own border, concentrating and husbanding
our strength, and leaving to an invader the task of over
coming the great geographical difficulties in the way, and
the resistance of the intervening populations. Others declare
that, not only for purely strategical reasons, but in order to
maintain the confidence and loyalty of our native troops and
of India, and to carry with us the mountain tribes and the

1 879] NORTH-WEST FRONTIER TRIBES 223
doubtful populations of Central Asia, we must hold the moun
tain passes, and meet by a vigorous offensive defence beyond
those passes any enemy who may venture to approach us.
This is generally regarded as the view of Lord
Roberts. As regards the question of border management, we have
again a division of opinion between two schools. The one
school holds as a general principle that we should avoid all
unnecessary interference with the tribes, treating them in a
friendly manner when they behave well, and punishing them
when they molest us, but not attempting to occupy their
territory, to send British officers, among them, or to establish
over them any sort of control. The other school holds that
we should encourage our officers to enter into close personal
relations with the tribesmen and to enter their country, and
should endeavour in course of time to establish permanent
control over the tribes, and to introduce among them some
thing like peace and order.
This was the view of Sandeman. His school and
that of Lord Roberts were natural allies.
These passages state the question as it stood at
the beginning of Lord Lytton's viceroyalty. Sande-
man's advance into tribal territory at the southern
end of our long frontier line was the forerunner of
similar advances farther north, until at last, rightly
or wrongly, the methods he advocated have estab
lished themselves, with certain modifications, along
the whole line from the Himalayas to the Indian
Ocean. The Roberts- Sandeman policy has prevailed.
There has been much discussion about particular
phases of this operation, and some ebbs and flows
of feeling as failure or success seemed to attend

224 ALFRED LYALL [1879
them ; but, whether for good or for evil, the general
principle of the more active school has been accepted
by the Government of India. It should be borne in
mind that this refers only to the question of the
frontier tribes, not to the question of the " Forward
Policy" in Central Asia, which is a larger matter.
When the Treaty of Gandamak had been signed
and ratified Lyall felt much happier. He had
strongly advocated immediate action after the
repulse of the Chamberlain Mission, and he was
satisfied with the result. He was, of course, not so
sanguine as to suppose that all our difficulties in
Afghanistan were over. The good faith and capacity
of the Amir were almost unknown qualities, and on
them the smooth working of our new relations
would largely depend. Also LyaU regarded the
Afghans in general as treacherous barbarians, with
whom it was an unfortunate necessity to have any
dealings at all. He had carefully studied not only
the history of our first Afghan war, forty years
earlier, but the whole history of the Afghans, and
he knew what a turbulent race they were. " I fear
that our work is not over," he wrote to Cavagnari,
" and that many complications remain to be solved ;
but you have done a great deal towards a settle
ment." With Kandahar in our hands we had, he
thought, " a hook in the Afghan nose," and he hoped
all might go well. Still he was not over confident
nor in very good spirits. Our recent misfortunes in
Zululand, especially the slaughter of our troops at
Isandula, were, he said, a warning to all invaders.

1 879] AS A SECRETARY 225
and he was rather doubtful of his own capacity for
the work he had to do. Shortly before the treaty
was signed he writes to Mrs Holland —
I myself am doing pretty well ; though I repeat that I do
not make a first-class Secretary, the real habit and strength
of my mind is reflection, and when I have not the time to
reflect and work out ideas I become bothered and dispirited.
But others thought that he did make a first-class
Secretary. One could hardly imagine a better for
any Viceroy who was more than a figure-head. It
is true that in important matters working against
time troubled Lyall, and was a strain upon him.
When any question was presented to him he saw
much that the majority of men did not see ; and this
very quickness of perception made him at times seem
slow in coming to the point. Men who saw less
decided more easily. Yet, though he suffered from
being " hustled," he could make up his mind rapidly
enough when it was necessary to do so, and he was
very tenacious of his opinions once they were formed.
It seemed to me — and Under-Secretaries are apt to
be critical — that for quickness and depth of insight,
for knowledge of Oriental character, and for power
of expression in writing, it would have been hard to
find his equal.
It need hardly be pointed out that his work had
been incessant, and very responsible. While Lord
Lytton corresponded personally, and most laboriously,
with ^ the Secretary of State for India and many
others, both in India and in England, it fell to the
Foreign Secretary to carry on the large official
P

226 ALFRED LYALL [1879
correspondence which the war entailed, and to
manage the whole political department attached to
the generals in the field. It has usually been thought
desirable in our Eastern wars to have a staff of
political officers with our armies. They carry on the
dealings between the general in command and the
natives of the country, collect intelligence, and some
times supplies, and keep the Government in touch
with all that is going on. They have often been
given a position of too much independence, and
their proceedings have been much resented by mUi
tary commanders ; but in countries where military
operatioris are not carried on by regular armies on
both sides it has been found impracticable to dis
pense with them, and many commanders have known
how to make good use of their services. Lyall was
well fitted to manage this important and delicate
branch of his duties, for he had served with troops
in the Mutiny and knew exactly what was required
of political officers on active service. His keen
sympathy with soldiers was a further help to him.
But the work was almost overwhelming. His private
correspondence with the military chiefs — Sir Frederick
Roberts, Sir Donald Stewart, and others, and with
the numerous political officers, Cavagnari at Gandamak,
Sandeman at Quetta, St John at Kandahar — would
fill many volumes. Meanwhile he had to advise the
Government on every sort of question arising out of
the war, and to carry on simultaneously the ordinary
work of the office, which was always heavy enough in
itself

1 879] GRUDGES LOSS OF ENGLISH LIVES 227
Lyall had at this time a great pleasure in the
society of his younger sister Barbara, afterwards
Mrs Webb, who had come out during the autumn
to spend some months with him. She was a clever
woman, with much of his brightness in conversation
and quick sense of humour. Perhaps in some respects
she was more like him than any other member of his
family, and they were very happy together. Whether
she made it easier for him to maintain his reputation
as a grave official may be doubted, for she had a
deplorable habit of laughing at the most solemn
functions, and sometimes at the most solemn people ;
but her visit gave him much enjoyment, and relief
from the cares of office.
His satisfaction at the peace was due in part to a
feeling which often finds expression in his letters —
regret and something like anger at any waste of
English lives. The destruction of the 24th Foot in
Zululand moved him deeply, as did the unfortunate
accident by which a considerable number of the 10th
Hussars were drowned in the Kabul river. " I must
say," he writes, " that I grudge English lives in these
savage countries. I sometimes wish that the English
had stayed at home, and had not got into the way of
incessant fighting for land all over the world." He had
not entirely approved of the policy foUowed in South
Africa, but he writes of Sir Bartle Frere : " I can at this
moment quite realise his feelings, for I know exactly
how« we should all feel if the Afghans cut up a whole
regiment of ours in the passes." There was no man
less inclined than Lyall to a policy of rash adventure,

228 ALFRED LYALL [1879
for no one hated bloodshed more sincerely. He was
to suffer much in this way before he had done with
Afghanistan. But for the present there was no
prospect of further fighting, for the Government of
India had succeeded in avoiding a rupture with the
bloodthirsty maniac who then ruled Burmah ; and
on the side of the North-West the Empire seemed
to have been properly fenced in. The brave and
ill-fated Colley had left India for Natal. Cavagnari
had said good-bye to us all on the tennis-ground
at "Innes's Own," and started for Kabul to take
up his post as British Resident. Lord Lawrence
was dead, and his policy seemed to have died with
him. Lyall had been made a Companion of the Bath,
and was entirely satisfied with that not very excess
ive reward for his hard and responsible work. It was
a distinction, for unfortunately the order is, in India,
practically confined to soldiers. He had begun to think
of resuming literary work, which he had perforce com
pletely abandoned, and even to dream of another
visit to England, for he was longing to feel the atmos
phere of Europe again. But there was soon a terrible
interruption to the peace and happiness of that tri
umphant Simla season. Lord Lytton had just three
months in which to enjoy the congratulations of the
Ministry in England and of his numerous friends.
Then the blow fell which was to turn triumph into
mourning, and rest into the labours and anxieties
of another war.
On the morning of the 5th September I had gone
out for my early ride in the Simla woods, thinking of

1 879] MASSACRE OF KABUL MISSION 229
nothing less than any catastrophe in Kabul, where the
last telegrams reported all well. When I got back to
my house I found a note from Lyall asking me to go
over at once to " Innes's Own," and remounting my
pony I cantered over as fast as I could, by the narrow
downhill road among the pines and rhododendrons.
On arrival I went up to his study, and saw at once
that something had happened. His face was white
and drawn, and his manner disturbed. He asked me
sharply, in a tone very unusual with him, why I had
not come sooner. I told him that I had lost no time,
and felt inclined to resent his peremptory way of
speaking, but his next words drove every thought of
the kind from my head. He said there was bad
news from Kabul, that the Afghan troops had risen
and attacked the Residency, and that he feared the
whole Mission and escort had been massacred. He
was deeply moved, and though he began working at
once, despatching telegrams and letters with his usual
rapidity, he could not refrain from breaking off to
express his sorrow and pity at the fate of Cavagnari
and those who had fallen with him. Though by this
time I had got to know him well, I was surprised by
the intensity of his personal distress on their account.
He could not bear the idea that they had died with
despair in their hearts, longing for the help that
could not come. He even blamed himself for the
whole disaster. "We should never have aUowed
Cavagnari to take up his quarters in the Bala Hissar.
Even in Hyderabad our Residency is some distance
outside the city. We should have insisted upon the

230 ALFRED LYALL [1879
Amir giving them some place outside Kabul. That is
my fault. I ought to have made Lord Lytton insist
upon it. Of course he could not understand the
danger. If I had made him insist on it they might
all have been alive now."
This self-blame was wholly unjust. On such a
point we were bound to defer to the judgment of the
Amir. If he thought the Bala Hissar at Kabul the
safest place for the Residency, the Government of
India would have incurred a grave responsibility, one
which it had no right to incur, in overruling him.
Lyall soon came to recognise this, for I do not re
member his ever blaming himself again. Later in
the day the melancholy news was confirmed by
further telegrams.
The immediate result of the massacre was an
advance on Kabul by General Roberts, whose force
was nearer to that place than any other British
troops. As the attack on the Residency was repre
sented by the Amir in the light of a mutinous rising
which he had done all he could to suppress, he was
informed that General Roberts was coming to his
assistance, and he was requested to facilitate the
advance. In reality he did what he could to delay
it; but General Roberts refused to be stopped, and
on the 27 th of September the Amir himself arrived
with his Ministers in the British camp at Khushi.
Then followed a further advance ; a fight on the 6th
of October at Charasia, where, with or without the
Amir's consent, an Afghan force had assembled to
dispute our passage ; and, a couple of days later, the

1 8 79] GENERAL ROBERTS AT KABUL 231
arrival of our troops at Kabul itself On the 12th of
October General Roberts made his formal entry into
the Bala Hissar. Early that morning the unhappy
Amir had walked up to the British camp on the Siah
Sung heights, and expressed his intention of resigning
his throne. He was quite broken, and declared that
he would rather be a grass-cutter in the British
camp than make any further attempt at ruling the
Afghans. At this time I was no longer with Lyall, having,
to my great pleasure, been appointed to serve under
General Roberts as Political Secretary. During the
winter of 1879 I remained with the force, and there
fore knew only from the official correspondence, sup
plemented by occasional letters from Lyall, how affairs
were going with him in India. It must have been a
trying time ; for the Amir's abdication had left
Afghanistan without a ruler, and our Government had
to decide what to do with the country thus thrown
upon our hands. To make matters worse, there was
much excitement among the Afghan tribes ; and early
in December, after the departure of the Amir for
India, it became clear that serious trouble was im
pending. Armed bodies of Afghans began to collect
round our small force at Kabul ; on the 11th December
a British detachment was roughly handled in the
Chardeh valley ; and three days later, after striking
some heavy blows at the gathering clans, General
Roberts found their numbers so overwhelming that
he decided to withdraw from all isolated positions and
concentrate his troops in the fortified cantonment of

232 ALFRED LYALL [1879
Sherpur. The enemy was not finally dispersed until
just before Christmas ; and meanwhile there was the
deepest anxiety in India, where the disasters of the
first Afghan war had never been forgotten. It can
easily be imagined that this state of affairs brought
upon Lord Lytton and his Foreign Secretary much
vehement criticism. The new policy of activity in
Afghanistan was held responsible for the war and
all its consequences ; and the Lawrence school again
raised its head.
This part of the question need not be discussed now.
But incidentally the war showed me a side of Lyall's
character which was new to me, or which at least
I had not fully appreciated. During the last three
years I had learnt to admire very greatly not only
his abilities, but his strong patriotic feeling and
his pride in his countrymen. I now saw him from
another point of view, and soon came to under
stand that he possessed what is curiously rare
— a warm and steadfast loyalty towards men
serving at a distance. Anything more considerate
than his care for us, who, to use his words, were
"fighting for your lives in the snow," cannot be
imagined. While scrupulously careful to ask from us
nothing inconsistent with our subordination and alle
giance to the General in command — a General whom
no one could help loving — he tried to foresee all our
difficulties and to provide for them beforehand, I
never received from him a word of impatience or
criticism, — nothing but kindly appreciation and en
couragement. The difference between working for a

1 879] THOUGHTFULNESS FOR OFFICERS 233
man who has sufficient imagination and good feeling
to behave in that way, and working for one who is
selfish or careless, can be understood only by those
who have tried it. Every political officer in Afghan
istan owed a deep debt of gratitude to Lyall, and we
knew it well. As one Ulustration of his thoughtful
ness, it happened that on the day of the retirement
into Sherpur I had just finished the despatch of a tele
gram to the Foreign Office when the line was cut by the
enemy : an overdriven Foreign Secretary might well
have forgotten everything except the work in hand,
but it occurred to him that the news of hard fighting
and of our being surrounded would come as a shock
to my wife, and he at once telegraphed to assure her
that all was well with me.
Lyall's work during this winter, and during the
year which followed, was again very heavy, and the
mass of " demi-official " correspondence which remains
to attest it is enormous. There are in his boxes many
hundreds of letters to and from the military chiefs
and political officers across the border. But though
these letters are interesting, it would be impossible,
without writing this memoir upon a disproportionate
scale, to enter upon any review of the innumerable
questions with which they deal.
As regards one point — the permanent occupation of
Afghan territory — it may be noted that he held
throughout a decided opinion. In the end of 1879 he
writes that he had been
quite in favour of vigorous action last year to counteract
the Russians, who were establishing a footing in the country,

234 ALFRED LYALL [1880
and would have made themselves very troublesome, if not
dangerous, had we not struck in ; but I have been steadily in
favour of keeping free, so far as possible, from Afghan
complications, and I am dead against anything like annexa
tion. As things are now going, it may become a necessity
eventually to take part of the country, but I would hold off
as long and as strenuously as possible.
On that view he consistently acted, for he saw
clearly, as all thinking men must do, the danger of
extending our responsibilities when the supply of
British bayonets is so closely limited.
Early in 1880 the Under Secretaryship in the
Foreign Office fell vacant, and at his request Lord
Lytton appointed me to the post, which I joined in
the month of February, thus coming once more into
direct personal relations with Lyall, Soon afterwards
he decided to go himself to Kabul, to see the place
and discuss the situation with General Roberts and
Lepel Griffin, a well - known Punjab officer, who
had been sent up to help with the political work in
Northern Afghanistan, It was being strongly urged
at this time that the country should be broken up, a
permanent British garrison being retained in Kanda
har, and the Western Province of Herat being made
independent of Kabul, The question was what to do
with the Kabul province itself, which we did not
desire to annex or garrison,
LyaU started from Calcutta in March 1880, I was
dining with him on the night of his departure, and
noticed that he was depressed, as he was apt to be
when setting out upon a journey. Five minutes

ABOUT li

i88o] VISIT TO KABUL 235
before he was to leave the house he was warned that
the time was nearly up. He looked worried, and
said he wished he were not going ; upon which his
wife laughingly offered to go with him to Allahabad —
twenty-four hours' journey. " I wish you would," he
said. She got up, and went out of the room, to
return within the five minutes, a travelling-bag in her
hand, ready to start. Lyall went off looking much
happier. It was characteristic of them both, and of
India. After leaving the line of rail he had to ride some
two hundred miles over rough country, from the
border to Kabul. He arrived there safely, though
there was at the time some trouble on the road, and
one or two of our officers had been killed. Lyall en
joyed the long ride through the historic scenes where,
both in the first Afghan war and again in the second,
there had been so much hard fighting. His road lay
through the Khyber Pass, Ali Musjid, Jellalabad, re
nowned for its defence by the " illustrious garrison,"
JugduUuk, where in the disastrous retreat of 1842 the
remnant of our fighting men made their last stand and
were overwhelmed by numbers. At Kabul itself he
was received by General Roberts, who showed him
the Residency, the battlefield of Charasia, and other
notable places.
It was all deeply interesting to him; and the
change and exercise after so many months of desk
work were very refreshing. It was exactly the time
to visit Kabul, a delightful place in spring, when the
young crops are green, and the orchards coming into

236 ALFRED LYALL [1880
blossom, and the magnificent snow-clad Pughman
range seems to overhang the valley, with the " mys
terious Hindu Kush " in the far horizon.
I can easily sympathise [Lyall writes] with the Afghan's
love for his country, and his hatred against those who disturb
him, although he has no scruple in disturbing others, to the
best of his savage ability.
Afghanistan, Lyall found, was politically in chaos,
and he thought it very difficult to see a way out.
The powerful Khans of the hill tribes, the only solid
personages in the country, rather enjoy the confusion, and
strengthen themselves in their fastnesses; the men of the
plains and hill-.skirts, whose villages are all forts, have paid no
revenue for two years, and are all agreed to pay none except
on compulsion ; trade is at a standstill ; and the whole country
is waiting to see what we shall do. If we set up an Amir and
leave him, the people will roll him over in a month ; if we
leave without setting up any one, there will be fierce and
prolonged faction fighting throughout the land. I have
never witnessed a more curious or more awkward political
dilemma ; and I am mentally edging back towards old John
Lawrence's counsel, never to embark on the shoreless sea of
Afghan politics. But our hands were forced, first by the
Russian mission to Kabul, second by Cavagnari's murder. . . .
We have no friends here ; why should we have any ?
In April Lyall returned, riding fifty miles a-day
over the rough mountainous road, and rejoined Lord
Lytton. Not very long before this our difficulties in
Northern Afghanistan had been increased by the
appearance on the Oxus ofthe pretender Abdurrahman
Khan, whom the Russians had let loose after ten years'

i88o] LORD RIPON BECOMES VICEROY 237
detention in Transcaspia. He afterwards proved to
be most useful.
Before Lyall rejoined his post the general election
of 1880 had, to the surprise of Lord Lytton and of
most people in India, resulted in a sweeping victory
for the Liberals ; and as his policy in India had been
fiercely attacked by them, he decided to go out with
his political friends. I was with him in Calcutta
when the telegrams giving the result of the elections
began to come in, and I can remember the consternation
they caused. At first Lord Lytton was still hopeful,
believing that the counties might redress the balance,
but one evening he saw that all was over, and told
me he intended to resign. So, two months later,
with Afghanistan in dire confusion, and his policy
condemned and reversed, he handed over charge to
his successor. To make matters worse, there had
been a financial catastrophe, owing to an incompre
hensible blunder in estimating the cost of military
operations, and for this he was held responsible. It
was a tragic ending to his Viceroyalty, and an unfortun
ate precedent, for Viceroys of India should not be sub
ject to the vicissitudes of political parties in England.
In the course of the summer matters were arranged
with Abdurrahman Khan, and he was allowed to take
over the Province of Kabul, as Lord Lytton had in
tended, our troops under General Stewart withdrawing
to India. This they did without molestation, the
Afghans in the north having had enough of fighting,
and being, as Lyall said, " evidently resolved not to
tread on the snake's tail." But meanwhUe, in the

238 ALFRED LYALL [1880
south of Afghanistan, we had been overtaken by a
sudden and grievous disaster. At Maiwand, near Kan
dahar, a brigade of our troops had been completely
routed, with heavy loss, by the Afghan pretender,
Ayub Khan ; and Kandahar itself, where there was
a considerable British garrison, had been invested by
the enemy. This was a formidable beginning for the
rule of the new Viceroy, Lord Ripon. The fall of
Kandahar would have been a very serious matter,
and the defeat itself was bad enough. There was
not only sorrow but wrath and recrimination. Some
of the soldiers blamed the political officers, who were
said to have given imperfect information, while the
political officers thought the action of the military
commanders had been inept. LyaU was much dis
tressed at the loss of life and the discredit to our
arms. Not only had our troops suffered severely, but
as he said, " no such indisputable victory over British
forces in the open field had been gained by an Asiatic
leader in all our long Indian wars." He wrote about
it to Mrs Holland in the following words : —
You will have heard, long ago, that another vial of apoca
lyptic wrath has been uncorked upon our ill-fated Afghan
politics, and that chap. iii. of the history of the war has
opened with a catastrophe. You will never realise what it is
to sit quietly at one's table, and suddenly to open a telegram
conveying news of death and disaster. This has happened to
me twice within the twelvemonth. . . . But the disaster was
bad enough, God knows, a second Isandula, . . . and the
result is to plunge our Afghan policy into confusion again.
The consequences cannot yet be foreseen, but there will be
complications only to be cut by the sword. We were just

i88o] BATTLE OF MAIWAND 239
going to evacuate Kabul, having succeeded in placing Ab
durrahman on some sort of shaky throne there; and now our
poor troops have, instead of going home, to cut their way to
Kandahar. ... I should like to go up myself, and go I will
soon, again to see the faces of men hard-set with excitement
and danger, instead of sitting here opening telegrams. . . .
Well, I am very sick of it, and the stars fight against us in
their courses.
Lord Ripon, always cool and business - like, and
coming to the Afghan work with a fresh mind, un
disturbed by any responsibility for the past, set an
admirable example in meeting the difficulty. It was
at once arranged in communication with the military
authorities that General Roberts, with a picked force,
should march on Kandahar from Kabul and restore
the situation. Every one knows what followed, how
he covered the three hundred and thirteen miles in
twenty -two days, relieved Kandahar, and falling
upon the Afghan leader, Ayub Khan, totally dis
persed the besieging army. To all of us in Simla
the victory brought much pleasure and relief; and
it is difficult to overestimate the value of this
fine feat of arms upon public opinion throughout
India, for it cannot be denied that the destruction
of our force at Maiwand, and the investment of
Kandahar, had seriously compromised our military
reputation. The feeling had spread, not only among
natives of India, that Afghanistan was an unlucky
country for our arms, and that fresh mishaps were
always to be apprehended so long as we remained
beyond the passes. Even for General Roberts and his
picked force of 10,000 men, "the finest force that ever

240 ALFRED LYALL [1880
marched in India or Afghanistan," as Lyall said,
there was for a time considerable anxiety.
Upon no one did it weigh more heavily than on him.
He kept up a cheerful attitude throughout — and in
deed he felt, and expressed, the most implicit con
fidence in the "dash and fighting power" of General
Roberts, whose appointment to the command he had
earnestly pressed upon Lord Ripon. He also felt
certain that Sir Robert Sandeman, always to be
trusted in time of need, would push up from the
south every man available. But still there was room
for anxiety, and on the 24th of August, while the
march was in progress, came the news of an un
successful sortie from Kandahar, with heavy loss.
I am greatly grieved at the loss of our gallant officers
[Lyall writes to his sister]. I am the single person who gets
all this exciting intelligence, for St John, active, bold, and
energetic always, manages to get messages through to me. . . .
The result is that on the arrival of the news I edit and dis
tribute it all over India and to England, and this is often a
complicated and responsible business, for we can't tell every
thing to everybody, though we keep back no substantial news
from the public.
One evening the relieving force had been out of
touch with India for a day or two ; but we were
expecting to hear at any moment of its having
emerged near Kandahar, and were anxiously await
ing news. Lyall was more than anxious. He was
depressed by a foreboding of evil, and pictured to
himself another massacre in the Afghan defiles. But
he bore up well. I was dining with him that night,

i88o] VISIT TO KANDAHAR 241
as were several others, and he was as bright in his
conversation as ever. In the middle of dinner the
expected telegram came. The news was good, and he
read it out. I left the room and went up to his study
to send off some copies of the telegram ; but two or
three minutes later he joined me, and sat down in an
arm-chair by the writing-table. It was no doubt an
immense relief to him ; but he was silent, and almost
as much shaken as if he had received news of a
disaster. Though he was cool and steady in public,
his highly strung nature made him suffer intense
anxiety at such times, and none but those who saw
him from very near knew how much courage and
self-control were needed to make him go about with
a calm face and words of quiet confidence.
It is, I hope, hardly necessary to say that Lyall's
acute feeling was mainly unselfish. No doubt he felt
the weight of responsibility, but that was not what
troubled him most. The honour of the country, and
the lives of those who were facing danger for the
country's sake, were far more to him than any selfish
considerations. But this was practically the end of
our military troubles in Afghanistan, for no Afghan
force ever again made head against our troops.
In order to study the position in Southern Afghan
istan on the spot, as he had studied the northern
position earlier in the year at Kabul, Lyall went off in
September by way of Sind and Quetta, to Kandahar.
It was a troublesome journey, for at this time of the
year the weather in the north of India is rather
treacherous, with very hot days and cool nights. The
Q

242 ALFRED LYALL [1880
rainy season at Simla had given him a touch of sciatica,
and the first night in the train brought on a sharp
attack, which made it hopeless for him to face the
long ride from the Indus to Quetta. He had to get
out at Lahore, and remain there some days, chafing
restlessly at the contretemps. It was just the sort of
thing that worried LyaU disproportionately. He
would not go back — "one always cuts a poor figure
in a retreat," and he hated ridicule — while he felt
that he might be indefinitely prevented from going
on. However, after a few days he was able to go
on, and though in bad health, he got to Quetta in the
middle of October. The journey up from the Indus
impressed him greatly.
All is desolate as the shores of the Red Sea ; you don't see
a tree or a house in fifty miles of road ; and I am told the
desolation is worse between this and Kandahar. As I ride
through this wretched waste and think how many men have
died along these roads in the past two years, ... I own to a
fierce disgust.
In Quetta and Kandahar Lyall discussed matters
with Sir Robert Sandeman, Sir Oliver St John, and
others, and in spite of many opinions to the contrary
he remained opposed to annexation. This was the
view taken* by the new Government in England,
where the Afghan situation was then being considered.
In November 1880 orders were issued that Kanda
har should be evacuated, and in January 1881 this
policy was announced in the Queen's Speech. But
after much discussion the districts of Peshin and Sibi,
assigned to us by the treaty of Gandamak, were kept

i88o] KNIGHT OF THE BATH 243
in our hands ; and of course Quetta, with the com
mand of the Khojak Amram range, was also retained,
for its value had been amply demonstrated during
the war.
Lyall's term of the Foreign Secretaryship was now
drawing to a close, and it is certain that those three
troubled years had greatly increased his reputation in
India. No service in India, except sometimes military
service, can do much for a man's reputation with the
public in England ; but even in England, among the
few who had to deal with Indian affairs, his name was
now well known.
What Lord Ripon thought of his work was shown
in the end of 1880, when his name was sent up for the
honour of a Knighthood of the Bath. There was
some difficulty about the grant of this decoration,
but Lord Ripon persisted vigorously. He wrote to
Lord Hartington, then Secretary of State for India —
I proposed that he should receive that distinction for the
great and invaluable services which he has rendered to the
Government of India throughout all the negotiations which
have been going on with respect to Afghanistan. I have re
ceived from him throughout those negotiations an assistance
which has been simply invaluable, and if such services are tb
be left without acknowledgment, I should be very much in
clined to withdraw every recommendation which I have made
for rewards to any one. Whether he receives a K. C.S.I, or
KC.B. does not signify ; but I say without hesitation that I
am utterly ashamed to accept such thanks as you and Gladstone
hav^ been good enough to give me, if the man to whom those
thanks are much more really due is to be left without any
kind of acknowledgment. I must honestly say that I should
be deeply and personally disappointed if Lyall's services are

244 ALFRED LYALL [1880
not adequately acknowledged, and that it would place me in
a very painful position. ... I should be very sorry to enter
into any controversy '. . . as to which is the higher order of
the two — the Bath or the Star of India — but there can be
no doubt which is the oldest.
Such a tribute to the worth of Lyall's work
could hardly be set aside, and the K. C. B. was
given. It was said at the time that the reluctance to
grant the decoration was due to the opinion prevalent
in English official circles that Lyall was one of " Lord
Lytton's men," — Lord Lytton being then anathema to
the new Government ; but certainly Lord Ripon's
recommendation in his favour was as warm as any
sent by Lord Lytton. It is of more importance that
Lyall was criticised because he managed to work
for both Viceroys, and for both of two conflicting
policies. There is no ground for blaming him on
this account. The course taken throughout accorded
very closely with his views. He thought that when
a Russian mission was received in Kabul, whUe a
mission from us was refused, it was necessary to bring
pressure on the Amir and insist upon our being pro
perly treated. The situation was so entirely novel,
and so inconsistent with the assurances which we
had received both from the Amir and from Russia,
that it could hardly have been tolerated. That situa
tion once redressed, Lyall's inclination was, as he said
from the first, to " do as little as possible," and, above
all, to avoid any unnecessary annexations. If the
lessons of the war accentuated this natural inclina-

i88i] CONSISTENT POLICY 245
tion, it is not surprising ; but the whole bent of his
mind was against rash adventures, and from the
beginning he was a moderating influence. Possibly
Lord Lytton, sore at the unfair attacks made upon
him, may have been inclined to think that Lyall had
not been as staunch to his policy as he would have
liked ; but Lord Lytton knew Lyall's tendencies from
the outset, and hesitated on that account to make him
Foreign Secretary. It is difficult to see any incon
sistency in LyaU's course of action.
In the spring of 1881 he had gone up to Simla
with the Government of India. He was then not
in good health. " I go about," he writes, " tottering
and bent double, like one of those poor old Sussex
labourers who used to catch chronic rheumatism in
the clay ditches about Lyne." He was alone, too, for
his wife and sister had gone to England. But he had
arranged to share a house with his old friend, Charles
Grant,^ who was then Home Secretary, and the ar
rangement answered well, for Mrs Grant was a kindly
and tactful hostess. Before long Lyall was in good
health again and fairly contented.
All through his time as Foreign Secretary he had
been so much occupied by the affairs of Afghanistan
that it had been hardly possible for him to get
through the mass of other work which had to be
done. There used at times to be dreadful accumula
tions of boxes in his room at the Foreign Office, and
as Under Secretary I had to go to him periodically
and get him to come and clear them off. I used to
1 Afterwards Sir Charles Grant, K.C.S.L

246 ALFRED LYALL [1881
open box after box, and take out file after file, ex
plaining what each was about, while Lyall sat sighing
wearily at intervals, or gazing out through the pines
at the deep blue valley below us, and the grassy
slopes of Tara Devi beyond, and the eagles wheeling
in the cloudless sky. But his quick mind was seizing
all the points of the cases, and now and then he
would break in with some pertinent question. When
I had got to the end I would hand the file to him,
and he would look over it and write an order, and
toss it aside. I can hear the thud now as the heavy
file went down upon the druggeted pinewood floor,
AU cases dealing with district administration I left
alone, as my own training had been almost entirely
on the diplomatic side of the service ; and these he
used to put by with a sigh, as also any others about
which I had doubts. Sometimes I would find them
there next clearing day. But in this way he would
get through in two or three hours a stack of office
boxes six feet high. Then he would say : " That will
do, I cannot stand any more to-day. Come for a
walk," and we would stroll off round Summer Hill or
towards Jutogh.
On one of those walks we met at a rocky turn of
the road behind Prospect Hill a lady riding alone.
Her husband had been knighted some days before,
LyaU talked to her for some time — too long I thought.
When he went on he said something pleasant about
her, and I answered, rather maliciously, "Yes, but
you shouldn't have called her Mrs C — ," It was the
kind of little mistake which he intensely disliked

i88i] EVACUATION OF KANDAHAR 247
making, and he stopped short in the road and smote
his leg, and said, " Damn it."
On the 10th of April he writes —
We are just clearing out of Kandahar, and I am, as usual,
on the strain of ever-present anxiety about the course of
affairs. We shall walk out easily enough; but whether
Abdurrahman won't be walked out after us in a few months
is another question. If he is driven out by Ayub, people
will condemn the whole arrangement, and Lord Ripon will
get no credit at all from the Jingoes, &c., but the reverse.
To me, in my interior mind, it will make no difference ; I
don't think we ought to stay on any account, and I believe
all the Afghans agree with me. ... I was quite in favour
of the first war, when we struck down the Amir because
he took up with Russia, yet when it comes to annexing a
great province of Afghanistan I draw back altogether.
To any intermediate measure, such as a temporary
occupation, or the permanent retention of a garrison
in Kandahar without annexing, Lyall was thoroughly
opposed. He knew the danger of setting up a puppet
ruler, and he could see no use in delay.
There were but two things to do with Kandahar — to annex
the town and country round to make it a British possession,
or to give it back to the Afghans ; and I have no doubt that
the latter course is the right one.
We evacuated Kandahar without trouble, leaving
the Amir Abdurrahman to settle himself there if he
could, and the military operations in Afghanistan
were at last over. The war had been the ruin of
the " Forward Policy " ; but at the close of it we were
not exactly where we had been before it. The

248 ALFRED LYALL [1881
Afghans had lost faith in Russia, and had agreed to
have no dealings with foreign powers ; their hold upon
the Khyber Pass, the great highway from India to
Kabul, had been broken, and the Khyber tribes had
been taken into our service. Farther south we re
tained the Kurram valley, which gave us an alter
native route into the country. And instead of having
the Beluchistan deserts in front of us, we had taken
possession of Quetta, with the outlying districts of
Peshin and Sibi, and were in a position to march
into Kandahar in a few days at any moment. Un
doubtedly we were much better placed for fighting
an enemy in Afghanistan than we had been five years
earlier. Whatever the consequences to himself, Lord
Lytton had some right to feel that his work in India
had left its mark. No one, probably, now maintains
that the war was wholly without good results, though
in the course of it many mistakes may have been
made, and many wild schemes of advance into the
heart of Central Asia may have been put forward.
Above all, we had learned, though at great cost, some
valuable lessons both about our power and about its
limitations. On the Queen's birthday, the 24th of May 1881,
Lyall received his well-earned Knighthood of the
Bath, and innumerable congratulations thereupon.
For a few months longer he remained in Simla.
The situation was still not wholly free from anxiety ;
and though longing for leave and a rest in England,
he did not like to desert Lord Ripon so long as there
was any prospect of further trouble. It is true that our

i88i] LEAVES FOREIGN OFFICE 249
troops were now out of the country, and there was
therefore no chance of any such catastrophe as the
battle of Maiwand; but the Amir whom we had
recognised was being attacked by his cousin, the
victor in that battle, and there was at one moment
some probability of his overthrow, which might have
led to awkward consequences for us. Happily the
Amir held his own ; and before the middle of Septem
ber Lyall was able to take his furlough with a clear
conscience, handing over charge of the Foreign Office
to his old friend Charles Grant. It was well under
stood that he would not return to it, and that on the
expiration of his leave he was to become Lieutenant-
Governor of the North- West Provinces.
Before he left he was entertained at a large public
dinner, and made an excellent speech. This was not
a common thing with him ; for though the matter of
his speeches, when he prepared them, was always
good, his voice was neither clear nor resonant, and
his delivery was imperfect. But on this occasion he
spoke feelingly, and his remarks were very well
received. Lord Ripon also gave a farewell dinner
in his honour, after which there was held in the ball
room at Peterhof a special investiture of the Bath, at
which he was knighted and decorated. Charles
Grant, the new Foreign Secretary, having no full-
dress uniform at hand, I had to take his place as
Secretary of the Order, and it gave me real pleasure
to -assist in the little ceremony. Lyall "had an
accursed headache, and could not look other than
a knight of sorrowful countenance " ; but he was

250 ALFRED LYALL [1881
touched at the attention shown to him, and surprised
at finding himself so popular.
Three days later he left Simla, and I find a hasty
note in my diary : " Lyall left this morning, I must
say to my great regret, and he felt it a good deal.
His good-bye to me was really affectionate, and I
could not help a feeling of bouleversement at the
severing of our long connection. He has been a
good friend to me."
It speaks well for an official chief, I think, when
his subordinates feel in that way about him.

CHAPTER XIL
LAST PERIOD OF INDIAN SERVICE.
1881-1887.
Return to literature — Lyall becomes Lieutenant-Governor of the North-
West Provinces — Murder of Cavendish and Burke — Correspondence
with John Morley — The association of Indians with the adminis
tration — ' Asiatic Studies ' — Lord Ripon's Indian reforms — Was Lyall
suspicious? — Success of his verses — Theosophy — Study of native
opinion — The Ilbert BiU — An understanding with Russia — Local self-
government — Lord Dufferin becomes Viceroy — The Amir comes to
India — The Panjdeh incident — The conquest of Burma — Review of
Lyall's Lieutenant-Governorship — FareweU to India.
During his leave in England Lyall wrote for the
' Fortnightly ' an article on the " Relations of Religion
to Asiatic States" — the first article he had written
for three years, since he became involved in the heavy
work of the Indian Foreign Office. About this article
John Morley wrote in January 1882 —
The paper interests me, and will interest other people, ex
tremely. It is quite in the vein of your other pieces, and
is as successful as any of them in the strange luminousness
with which it brings obscure and unintelligible phenomena
of queer religions into visible order. You are the only living
master of this gift, which is worth a million times more than
any amount of abstract theory - spinning about the Three
Stefges, et cetera.
Your sharp concluding sentence makes me long for the
time when you shall think it seemly to say your say about

252 ALFRED LYALL [1882
the politics of Christianity. You must come to that business
some day, and I hope that I may be there to see.
It goes without saying that I welcome your paper for the
'Fortnightly,' — thrice and four times welcome. It shall go
in, of course, whenever you please. The sooner the better,
so far as I am concerned.
The article appeared in February. Beyond writing
it, I cannot find that Lyall did much ; he was thor
oughly tired, and wanted all the rest he could get.
He found it after his manner in the society of in
teresting people — John Morley, Henry Reeve of the
'Edinburgh,' Matthew Arnold, Fitzjames and Leslie
Stephen, Arthur Hobhouse, and others. He had
become a member of the Athenaeum, and during
the winter of 1881 was frequently to be found
there, reading and writing, or talking to a friend
in some corner where the sacred silence could legiti
mately be broken. He got much attached to the
Athenaeum, which is in truth a pleasant place for
men of his tastes. But that was later. In the
spring of 1882 he had to leave London to take up
his Lieutenant-Governorship.
Lyall had now reached the highest rung of the Indian
official ladder. Occasionally a member of the Indian
Civil Service is selected for one of the Governorships
of Madras or Bombay ; and in one instance, that of
John Lawrence, a member of the service has been
made Viceroy of India. But this was due to the
extraordinary circumstances of the Mutiny ; and
even the Governorships afford too valuable a field
of patronage to be often conferred upon men who

1 882] VICEROYS AND GOVERNORS 253
have no political influence, probably not even a
vote. ;
Moreover, British Governments no doubt sincerely
believe, and have some ground for believing, that
these high appointments can be better filled by men
of rank and standing in England than by men who
have spent their whole official lives in India, and
are supposed to be not only more or less out of touch
with English thought and feeling, but possibly imbued
with local prejudices and hampered by local connec
tions. As a set-off against the various advantages
which the English peer or politician is supposed to
have over the Indian official, experience of India
counts for little, and any claims on that score are apt
to be regarded with impatience. This is natural ; for
the value of such experience cannot be understood by
those who do not know the country. Englishmen who
are accustomed to see their army and navy managed
by civilians without military or naval experience
are not likely to imagine that there is anything of
anomaly or danger in sending men without any
expert knowledge to be Governors in India. The
cases are not parallel, and strong arguments could
be brought forward on the other side; but un
doubtedly there is much to be said for the existing
system, at least as regards the Viceroyalty. An
Indian civilian or soldier appointed to that great
office must find himself labouring under some dis-
ad-vantages, the most, serious and harmful of these
being the want of social and political influence in
England, which would make it difficult for him to

254 ALFRED LYALL [1882
hold his own in case of attack. This would be a
misfortune, not only for himself. The treatment
meted out to Warren Hastings cannot be forgotten.
He was, to use Lord Curzon's words, " the greatest
man ever sent out by England to govern India " ;
yet he was hampered and thwarted throughout his
term of office ; and on his return he was virulently
attacked by one party and left without support by
the other. Times have changed, no doubt, but the
position of a Viceroy without family influence might
still be a dangerous one. However this may be,
the existing system is firmly established, and in India
it is understood that, under ordinary conditions, the
Lieutenant-Governorship of a province is the highest
post open to a member of the Civil Service.
To this position Lyall had now attained. Beginning
as a young assistant magistrate in Bulandshahr, and
holding successively the charge of a district, of a
division, of the Home Office, of a great political
agency, and of the Foreign Office, he now found
himself the ruler of the Province in which he had
started twenty-five years before, together with the
adjoining territory of Oudh, which had lately been
added to it. The whole charge comprised a tract
of country nearly the size of Great Britain, with a
population of more than forty millions. It was a
fine position, in which a man had large powers for
good or evil.
Conditions have altered, and the personal power of
the officers who rule these great provinces is no longer
what it was. As a native gentleman lately wrote to

1 882] A LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR 255
me, a Lieutenant-Governor was regarded in those
days by the natives of India with a " respect and awe
of which the present generation has no idea." I
believe this is true ; and time will show whether the
change, which is largely due to our own action, is a
change for the better. But, however this may be,
Lieutenant-Governors were regarded thirty years ago
as officers of very high rank, whose opinions were to
be treated with respect, not only by natives of India,
but by Viceroys and Secretaries of State ; and among
all the provincial rulers of the day, none, I think,
came to the work with a better reputation than
Alfred Lyall.
On his way out to take up his post, he passed
through Egypt, and was much impressed by the
gravity of the state of affairs in that country. The
power of the Khedive was gone, his Ministers were
not much better off, and the army was really master
of the situation. What happens in Egypt is always
of interest to India, for various reasons, but especially
because so large a part of the Indian population con
sists of Mussulmans, It seemed to Lyall that the
situation was most unstable ; and, as a matter of fact,
the outbreak which he apprehended was not long in
coming. But for the moment Egypt remained at
peace, and the road to India was still open. On the
17th of April he took charge ofhis new duties.
During the hot weather the Lieutenant-Governor
ofthe North-West Provinces, and the principal officials
of his Government, used to spend some months at
Naini Tai in the Himalayas, six or seven thousand

256 ALFRED LYALL [1882
feet above the sea. Lyall had passed through it
during his first year in India, and in a way was
always fond of the place, for the climate was good
and the scenery beautiful, with a grand view of the
snowy range to the northward. Here he established
himself soon after his return to India, and in coolness
and comfort set to work upon the administration of
his province. The greater part of the charge con
sisted of old-established districts, with well-trained
district officers, and a good secretariat, and there was
practically no external frontier to give trouble. More
over, Lyall was thoroughly familiar by this time with
the various administrative questions which come before
a Lieutenant-Governor, and had much personal know
ledge of the people. To him, therefore, the work was
not overwhelming ; and he now found time to resume
his correspondence with friends at home, and to
indulge again his old love of literature.
LyaU's pleasure in taking over charge of the North-
West Provinces was not, however, wholly unmixed
with regret. He was not very well, and he had some
doubt whether it would not have suited him better to
be appointed a Member of Council in India, which
would have kept him at headquarters, and in touch
with the larger questions of policy there under dis
cussion. In the comparative isolation of Naini Tai, and
deaKng with local administration only, he was inclined
to feel a little " shelved." It was very much what
he had felt before, when he left the Home Office for
Rajputana. He had no ground for complaint in the
matter, for in 1881, before he went on furlough. Lord

1 882] REGRETS FOR COUNCIL 257
Ripon had practically given him the choice of the two
positions. But at that time it was believed that the
vacancy in Council would not occur until 1883, and in
the circumstances Lyall had decided for the Lieu
tenant-Governorship. As it turned out, the vacancy
in Council occurred at the same time as the vacancy
in the North-West Provinces, and it was then too
late to upset the arrangements made. This somewhat
troubled Lyall, who worried himself with the idea
that he had made a mistake. He was further some
what exercised in mind by hearing that her Majesty's
Government had some thought of sending a special
mission to Persia in connection with the northern and
eastern frontiers of that country, and that if he had
not been appointed to the North-West Provinces he
would not improbably have been selected for this duty.
The prospect of a diplomatic mission of this kind to
Central Asia had much attraction for him, and the
administration of a settled Indian province seemed
rather tame in comparison.
His first letters from Naini Tai therefore are not
written in very good spirits. I see that he wrote to
me, among others, about the Council, and I answered
that Lieutenant-Governors had the finer position of
the two — that he would be much more independent.
Others, I believe, gave a similar reply ; and as the
special mission did not take place he soon got over
his depression.
Just at this time occurred the murder of Lord
Frederick Cavendish and Mr Burke in the Phoenix
Park, a crime which aroused LyaU's indignation to a
R

258 ALFRED LYALL [1882
very high degree. Whatever men might say about
his tendency to see too many sides of a question, and
to be slow in making up his mind, he never had the
smallest doubt with regard to one thing — that every
Government is bound to maintain order with a strong
hand ; and in a letter to John Morley he lashes out
on this subject in no uncertain terms. Strong Liberal
as he was, he had come to feel a deep distrust of Mr
Gladstone's capacity for practical administration, and
he writes of
the dangerous toleration of incapacity exhibited by the
English people in allowing themselves to be blinded to the
terrible mess the Ministry has for six months past been mak
ing in Ireland,
In words curiously different from his usual style of
reserve he goes on —
However, you will have had plenty of this talk in the
opposition journals; only do throw all your influence into
the balance of simply going back to the first duty of Govem
ments — the protection of life — and stick to that resolutely,
discarding all other issues, such as whether the revolt is
political or social, on which Gladstone periodically lectures.
If ever the word " blood-guiltiness " should be used against a
politician, it applies to the men who let women and their own
officers be cruelly killed by assassins who could be put down in
three months. Our country is being disgraced in the eyes of the
civilised world ; nor is it the fault of our rulers at home that
misrule and violence do not spread abroad. India is just now
wonderfully quiet ; but what sort of a lesson are you teaching
to the dangerous classes in this country, when you show that
men can terrorise by assassination within a few miles of
England ? What has just happened in the Phcenix Park is
exactly what might have occurred in the heart of Afghanistan

1 882] IRISH MURDERS 259
to English officers; it is almost too bad, I think, for one
Afghan to have done to another. But I suppose you are all
deafened by the roar of London talk. I think it stupefies
our public men, and is thus bringing parliamentary govem
ment to paralysis of all organs but the tongue.
It is perhaps not surprising that this letter should
have evoked from a warm admirer of Mr Gladstone,
who was himself about to exchange literature for
politics, a letter which the writer rightly describes as
" vivacious." May 3l3«, '82,
My deae Ltall, — I don't wonder that you should be
strongly moved at the hideous crime in the Phcenix Park,
You may imagine what a blow it was to us on the spot,
especially coming as it did in the moment of a sharp political
crisis. Never shall I forget the shock of that terrible
Sunday. But I don't at all follow your moral about the "incapacity
of the English people." Surely we are not the first society in
the world that has found it easier said than done to deal with
a jacquerie or with secret societies. You say we are disgraced
in the eyes of Europe : does Russia find it so easy to put down
Nihilists ? Did Austria beat the Italian Carbonari ?
I don't agree with you that the first duty of Govemments
is " to protect life " — if you mean that they are to think of
nothing else at the same time. Such talk is merely in
principle the talk of George III. and Lord North — " We must
preserve the authority of the British Crown and Parliament ;
we won't parley with rebels ; let them surrender, and then
we'll see." No, said wise men like Burke, conciliate them.
For my own part, like Chatham in that case, " I rejoice that
Ireland has resisted." Our neglect has been infamous. The
landlords have been as greedy and insolent a set of tyrants as
ever ground the face of the poor in any country in the world.
I hope that the hour of their destruction is now striking. In

260 ALFRED LYALL [1882
the face of a great issue of this sort I am not going to turn
pale and run away because one or two of the common
atrocities of civil war (very few, indeed, mark you) are per
petrated. I am thoroughly glad that the French landlords
were sent flying for their lives a hundred years ago, in spite
of the bloodshed and injustice which marked the process.
" What sort of a lesson," you ask, " are we teaching the
dangerous classes in India." You mean that we are to bully
the Irish in order that you may bully the Indian. Well, that's
not my notion of the fitness of things. I have no particular
objection to your getting up Afghan wars and little trifles of
that kind for the sake of overawing your dangerous classes,
but I have the very liveliest objection in the world to making
the dangerous classes in India the arbiters in the domestic
struggles of our own country. If this is to be an argument, I
shall at last throw in my lot, might and main, with the
" Perish India " sect.
But now, look. I am as much for order — even temporary
and provisional order — as you are. You never quite under
stood my hostility to the policy of coercion. . . . Yet the
Government found out that I was right. The Coercion Bill
has practically vanished, . . , and Lord Spencer is doing
exactly what I said all along ought to be done, not locking up
politicians by lettre de cachet, but thoroughly reorganising
the police. That ought to have been done at first — mere
bullying isn't governing, and it has failed.
Now, my dear Lyall, I am out of breath. Excuse me if I
have been too vivacious. The truth is that I have fought this
battle alone ; and that produces certain tension in the mind,
and makes one dreadfully pugnacious. But be sure that your
heresies don't make me any the less than heretofore (in the
style of an iUustrious Earl of our acquaintance),
" Ever your very grateful and very affectionate," J. Morley.
If India does perish between now and the end of the year,
come home and edit the ' Fortnightly,' which I am giving up.

i882] PUSHING ON THE NATIVE 261
But LyaU stuck to his point.
What I say is, that if you don't put down secret political
assassination it will spread ; and that is a reasonable saying,
just as if I were writing of the cholera. You quote Burke
upon America, I could reply over and over again from Burke
upon France : anyhow I stick to my test that the business of
the Government is to stop assassination in Ireland . . . your
first duty, as a Government, is to stop it at all cost.
These letters are quoted to show a certain side of
LyaU's character which was often unsuspected by
those who did not know him well. His rather
cynical, tolerant attitude in most matters — "what
would I die for, and whom not spare ? " — was coupled
with a readiness for hard hitting in matters essential
which would have made him a formidable ruler in
time of trouble. He had shown it during the
Mutiny as a young man, when he punished with
discrimination, but with resolute severity ; and,
having seen much of him, I am certain that if at
any time in after life he had again been called upon
to deal with revolt or organised crime, he would have
been more dangerous to evildoers than many men
who talked vehemently and had a great reputation
for decision of character.
In the first of these letters he showed at the same
time how far he was from any tendency to depress or
distrust the native of India, for he writes —
I have just appointed a native judge to the Allahabad
High Court, the first who has ever been sent there. I want
to push on the native wherever I can,— our only chance of
placing Government here upon a broad and permanent basis.

262 ALFRED LYALL [1882
He says the same thing to his sister, Mrs Webb —
I intend to push forward the native, quietly and judg-
matically, all through my time. . . . What I want is time to
acquire wide influence among the natives of the North-West
Provinces, so as to carry them with me in anything I
attempt. This was, in truth, his policy throughout. He
wanted to move carefully in so important a matter,
and to make no mistakes ; but his sympathy with the
natives of India was exceptionally warm, and he was
convinced that it was sound policy to associate them
with us — the right classes of them — in the higher
branches of the work of administration. He more
than once spoke to me strongly from that point
of view.^
1 This did not necessarily imply a belief in representative institutions
for India. From time immemorial the Hindu had been accustomed to
regard it as natural and proper that there should be a governing class and
a governed. This was the principle upon which the Mahomedan con
querors proceeded to rule ; and when we took the place of the Moghuls
we followed the main hnes of their system. Akbar's policy, — a liberal and
wise pohcy, — was to associate the leaders of the Hindus with the Maho
medan Empire ; to make the Hindu of the governing class feel he was
Civis Romanus, and so to widen the base of the Imperial power. Simi
larly, the more thoughtful of British officials wished to associate Indians
of position and influence, Hindus and Mahomedans alike, with the British
Empire. But the introduction of representative government, of the
democratic principle, is a different matter — a radical interference with the
ancient institutions of the country. It remains to be seen whether the
attempt to impose such an essentiaUy Western system upon an Eastern
population will prove successful. It is a pouring of new wine into old
bottles, and it is by no means a proof of sympathy with Indian feeling,
rather the contrary. The two things should not be confused. We may
be right in trying to create a democratic feeling in India, but that has
nothing to do with the question of giving to Indians a larger share in the
govemment of the empire.

1 882] 'ASIATIC STUDIES' 263
In this year, 1882, appeared the first volume of his
' Asiatic Studies.' He had been in communication
with Morley about this work, which consisted largely
of papers published in the ' Fortnightly ' ; and when,
just at this time, Morley's connection with that
review came to an end, Lyall apprehended that the
publication of his book might be stopped. He was
not inclined to trouble himself on the subject, as he
felt that he could make a better book five years
later ; and he was always reluctant rather than im
patient to publish his work. He wished to put forth
nothing but his best. At this moment, for example,
his sister had sent to the ' CornhiU,' with his name
attached, one of his poems. He was much disturbed
at this, regarding the piece as " some scram
bling verses," and as he had always kept in mind
an early warning of Morley's against letting his
name appear too often, he withdrew the piece by
telegram. Meanwhile, his private collection of ' Verses
Written in India ' had proved a remarkable success in
England. He had given some thirty copies of the
verses to friends, and many people were asking for
them. It was suggested to him that he should
publish them, but he refused. "I will not publish
just yet," he wrote to his sister, "there are not
enough ; I will wait five years on the chance of some
fresh inspiration, though I feel very dried up." And
he more than once expresses surprise at so many
people liking them. As a matter of fact, when he did
publish, he had not added much.

264 ALFRED LYALL [1882
A little later, June the 2nd, 1882, he writes —
No use my saying anything more about the murders ; the
papers brought us the ghastly details yesterday. What
strikes me is the predominance, in the tone in which most of
the papers and meetings discuss the event, of the softer
virtues, sympathy, grief, horror, and compassion. I should
like a little more fierceness and honest brutality in the national
temperament. I am afraid that when the present excitement
has cooled down the stringent measures now passed will be
relaxed in practice, and we shall have Gladstone again ex
plaining that the qualities of real statesmanship are patience,
long-suffering, and consideration for the oppressed. . . . The
point is to stop organised murdering, and that was never done
anywhere in the world except by unfettered, well-directed
force. The whole thing is a question of police, and the power
of the police and of the law must be adapted to the strength
and savagery of the offenders. When we had to put down
Thugs, a secret strangling society in India, we did not begin
by improving the condition of the peasantry, although un
doubtedly the crime had been largely generated out of the
general confusion and misgovernment of the country. We
took our own measures for discovering who belonged to the
murdering society, and we soon broke it up. ... I would I
were at home, instead of going a dull round of provincial
work on this hill.
The Irish question had settled upon his mind and
troubled him greatly, leading him to take rather a
dark view of the future.
On the whole [he writes], . . . the survey of England from
this distance impresses one with gloomy forebodings, not
of immediate but of gradual decadence; owing to a great
concentration of wealth and luxury among certain classes,
producing a general indifference, relaxation of fibre, and care
lessness of what goes on in the outlying parts of the empire.

1 882] REFORMS IN INDIA

265

... I doubt if " society " would much care if India were lost,
so long as their Indian dividends were secured.
I won't write more about Ireland or Egypt. The Lord
deliver us, in any way that may seem fit, from W. E. G.,
who is evidently a helpless and futile man in rough times.
He is the sort of person who brings us, eventually, the
Saviours of Society, Cromwells and Napoleons, by whom
he is contemptuously hurled aside and stigmatised as
" ideologue." Before the end of his first summer in Naini Tai,
Lyall was becoming reconciled to his lot. He spent
much time in wandering about the hillsides, enjoying
the scenery ; and the independence of his post had
begun to appeal to him. He felt at times the isolation
of it, for, in this province, a Lieutenant-Governor is
rather cut off from general society ; and he felt also
the loss of the more exciting work of the Foreign
Office ; but still he was not unhappy, except for
" diabolical headaches," and for what haunted him
during the latter part of his Indian career — the
dread of a dull and narrow life after retirement.
As the day approached when he would leave India,
that dread grew on him more and more.
After the close of the Afghan war Lord Ripon had
been able to devote himself to internal reforms ; and
he seemed inclined to adopt as forward a policy in
this respect as Lord Lytton had adopted in foreign
affairs. It has been shown that Lyall wished to push
forward the native of India. But none the less he
wished to move carefully, and in the right direction.
Much as he liked and sympathised with Lord Ripon,
he knew that reforms in India, if injudiciously pressed,

266 ALFRED LYALL [1882
might be as dangerous as Afghan wars, or more so.
His letters show that at times he thought the Govern
ment was going too fast.
I am driving my own coach cautiously, and trying to
prevent the Government of India from driving me. . . .
W. W. Hunter has been stumping the country about educa
tion — a subject I am willing to let him have, as I have
no belief in it in Indian politics except as likely to add to
our eventual difficulties; but as education is a thing that
can't be refused, and that I would not if I could refuse, to
the native, I don't- mind its ultimate effects. Hunter has a
wonderful talent for dressing up a subject artistically, trot
ting it out, and generally making the most of it, as of a
horse for sale.
The conflict in Egypt — a conflict he had foreseen
— was now coming on ; and one of his letters of this
time has a remark which was characteristic of him.
With all his hatred of bloodshed he had no doubts
as to the power of the sword, and he writes —
I am constantly irritated by the new-fashioned historians
and philosophers ^including H. Spencer), who talk with con
tempt of histories that record battles. They are really and
truly the most important events in the world's annals, how
ever you look at them.
So he watched with keen interest General Wolse-
ley's movements against Arabi Pasha. Yet it is worth
noting that he had now contracted as strong a dis
like to Carlyle, the apostle of force, as he had to
Gladstone, who thought force no remedy, and to
historical theorists.
Some day our time will come again to be murdered in
India, and then if we don't hit out savagely, as we did in

1 882] SIMLA AND NAINI TAL 267
1857, we are lost. Carlyle I can't stand, he was a poet in
prose; but his scorn of better men than himself is intol
erable. Towards the end of the summer Lord Ripon invited
Lyall to pay him a visit in Simla, in order to discuss
various questions of interest, and in September he
found himself among the old familiar scenes and
friends — Charles Grant, who had taken his place as
Foreign Secretary, Evelyn Baring, now Financial
Member of Council, "Bill Beresford,^ comically re
spectful," and others. He spent a pleasant week
there, and returned quite satisfied with his lot in
life. I don't find myself in the least wishing myself back in
the place; the whole whirligig of Secretaries and Council
members, with boxes and red chuprassees, looks to me rather
spectral, . . . and Simla itself has, after Naini Tai, a Suburban
and shoppy aspect. The woods and crags and lake of my
petty capital are much more to my mind, so rapidly does
one get to like what one has accepted.
He was made the happier by the news of Wolse-
ley's victory at Tel-el- Kebir, wbich arrived during
his stay at Simla ; and by the information that his
youngest son Robert, aged six, had been led away
by the native servants at Naini Tai
to proclaim himself Lord Sahib in my absence, and insists
upon being so addressed; this is so purely Eastern, the
son rebelling while his father is on a distant expedition.

1 Lord WiUiam Beresford, V.C, Aide-de-Camp, and afterwards MiUtary
Secretary, a singularly capable man, and the best of friends.

268 ALFRED LYALL [1882
Before the end of the month he was back at Naini
Tai, where he received from his sister Barbara a letter
informing him that she had been dining with the
Poet Laureate, Tennyson, who had spoken well of
his verses "East and West." Lyall was no doubt
pleased at this appreciation, but not unduly elated :
" they look well enough in print," he writes, " and are
up to the level of a magazine, not beyond. I could
write more of that class, but I am always seeking to
strike a deeper note."
The victory at Tel-el-Kebir pleased him, for he felt
that much depended on it, in India as elsewhere ; but
he was not happy about the Egyptian situation in
general, for he foresaw that with such interests as
we jhad in Egypt it would be difficult to get out
again, and that we should be forced to leave a strong
body of troops in the country,
I hope people see now the wisdom of not having locked
up 12,000 men in Kandahar by determining to hold that
country — with Ireland, Egypt, and Afghanistan to keep
down, we should have been in a precarious condition as to
troops for our empire in any emergency.
In India things were then going quietly — foreign
affairs were asleep, and the authorities were occu
pied with Lord Ripon's scheme of Local Self-Govern-
ment. As to this, Lyall wrote : " I think the general
idea, if moderately developed, is good enough, but
it is all experimental." There is at that time no
sign in his letters that he apprehended any trouble
about the famous "Ilbert Bill," which was soon to

i882] LIFE IN LUCKNOW 269
cause such an explosion in Bengal. He enjoyed a
pleasant march in the " hills " with some friends,
revelling in what is perhaps the most glorious moun
tain scenery in the world, and then came down to
Lucknow, the capital of his province of Oudh, where
he was shortly to receive a visit from Lord Ripon.
At Lucknow he felt himself thoroughly at home.
I like the old familiar up-country life of rising early, taking
long rides, and seeing all sorts and conditions of natives, it
suits me far better than toiling at the Secretariat oar ; I feel
more in the real rfiilieu of India, and can rely better on
grasping the actual facts and sentiments around me. I am
convinced that the people are wonderfully easy to manage
if one only takes trouble.
It had been a pleasure to see Lyall during his visit
to Simla, and I saw him again at Lucknow, where I was
staying in the Viceroy's camp, within a few minutes'
canter. He had given me a standing invitation to
meals, so I was frequently in the house, and had some
interesting talks with him. One of those talks I re
member very well, and as it has some bearing on his
character I will mention it. After dinner one night,
when the party broke up, he asked me to come and
smoke a cigarette with him in his study. We sat down,
and he began by asking me whether the new Lieu
tenant-Governor of the Punjab, Sir Charles Aitchison,
was popular in his province. The two men, Aitchison
and Lyall, were very dissimilar, and had never been
on intimate terms. I answered that I did not think
Aitchison was as popular as he deserved to be —
among Europeans, — that his officers had not yet got

270 ALFRED LYALL [1882
to understand him. Lyall smiled and said : "I
thought so. But a Lieutenant-Governor is never
popular. I am not popular." He went on to put
the point plainly. "Tell me," he said; "you need
not be afraid of hurting my feelings. You must
have heard what people say. Isn't it the case?"
As a fact I had received, with great regret, some
rather unfavourable answers to my remarks about
him ; and thinking that perhaps I could help him
by telling him the exact truth, I answered : " Well,
as you ask me, I don't think that among Europeans
you are popular." " Why is it ? What do you think
is the reason ? I should like to know." " They say
you are suspicious, that you don't trust your men,
and let them see that you don't trust them." He
seemed taken aback, and said: "Suspicious? I am
not suspicious really, but . , ," then he stopped and
thought, and broke into one of his silent laughs.
" Yes," he said, "they are quite right. I am suspicious
— damned suspicious." I protested, as I had protested
before when people had said so, for to me he had
always been the most trusting and pleasant of chiefs ;
but he would not have it. He was particularly
friendly, and thanked me for teUing him the truth,
which he said he would bear in mind. I went away
that night rather unhappy, fearing I had hurt him,
and perhaps seemed ungrateful ; but he never showed
the smallest resentment, and throughout the rest of
our visit was as cordial as a man could be.
On this subject it may be as well to quote a
passage from one of his letters. He says —

1 882] ALLEGED SUSPICIOUSNESS 271
F. H.'s remark about my being "suspicious" is curious,
because true, though I did not know I showed it in the way
he mentions. I feel myself constantly suspecting that officers
are shirking their work, and my eye is almost too quick in
detecting little tricks played to mislead me in minor matters
of business, but I didn't know I greeted people suspiciously
when they bid me good-day. However, it's good to know.
Another letter, written a little later, has the
following —
An article in a paper said I was suspicious. So I fear
I am ; but something must be attributed to the uncontrollable
way in which my eyes express every thought passing my
brain. I can feel that.
All this has been written from the wish to show
Lyall fairly, as he was or appeared to others ; but I
repeat that I never served under a man who treated
me with a more generous confidence ; and I believe
that his so-called suspiciousness was more manner
than anything else. He talked to me at various
times very freely about other men ; and he was cer
tainly not uncharitable in his judgments, but ex
ceptionally tolerant and fair, even to men whom he
did not like.^
Before the end of the year Lyall received copies
of his volume of ' Asiatic Studies,' with a " kindly
but magisterial letter " from the Editor of ' The Edin-
1 Perhaps he was not quite fair at times to men of what he used to call
the " Plain John Lawrence " school— men who, he thought, affected to be
ruggedly honest and democratic in their ways. They always irritated him.
With some of them there was in reaUty no affectation whatever. Charles
Aitchison and Charles Bernard, for example, both shrewd and able men,
were by nature very simple and unassuming. To LyaU it always seemed
more or less a pose, and undignified.

272 ALFRED LYALL [1882
burgh Review,' for omitting to acknowledge in his
preface that one of the chapters was taken from an
'Edinburgh' article. LyaU had asked permission,
but had forgotten to mention it, and he now apolo
gised humbly, "pleading youth and inexperience as
an author." The book was very well received, and,
contrary to his expectation, sold in a satisfactory
way. His verses, too, were much in request, and one
of his sisters wrote to tell him so. He answered in
his usual tone —
As for your being asked for my poems, do you not seri
ously think that it is a fine position to have a mysterious
reputation for having written something good, and to be
saved from the risk of the illusion being dissipated when the
verses are published in the fiercer light of day ? I am certain
that only two or three short pieces are worth reproducing.
In after years Lyall was decidedly opposed to the
women's suffrage movement. His letters show that
thirty years ago, and more, he often thought over
the question. Some letters of his on the subject
have already been quoted. It was always a matter
of deep regret with him to see what he called the
waste of the finest race of women in the world, due
to the fall of the marriage rate in England ; and at
first he was inclined to take the view that if men
could not solve that problem in the proper way
they must let the malcontent women try their
experiments. He felt very keenly for the lot of
the widows. About one of his friends he writes —
The Lady of Shalott is the mystic type of such forlorn
ladies, who live down in some quiet country spot, thinking

1 882] WOMEN'S RIGHTS 273
of the days that are no more, as they look over the autumn
fields. But still marriage, he felt, was the real remedy
for women's discontent.
In short, if you give women something to do, or even
something to look back upon, I doubt their caring for
"rights." If you give them nothing to live for, they will
rush for politics or anything, just as men would, and will
probably play the devil. This being the case [he concludes,
with the gentle cynicism which some people took quite
seriously], one appreciates the deep philosophy of marrying
off all the girls, and then burning all the widows, as they
used to do in India before we upset the time-honoured
institutions of a thoughtful and far-seeing people.
Madame Blavatsky and her friends were at that
time trying to spread the tenets of Theosophy in
India. It need hardly be said that attempts were
made to convert to the creed a man who was known
to have such a strong interest in Hindu philosophy,
and generally in the workings of the Eastern mind ;
but LyaU's unfailing sense of humour made such
attempts utterly hopeless.
His views on the subject are shown by the words
he puts into the mouth of Vamadeo Shastri —
I attach no importance to such vagaries as those of the
Theosophists; though you will have noticed how a slight
dabbling in the occult practices of Indian yogis has tumed
a few honest English proselytes into poor demented gentle
men. The antics of Madame Blavatsky and her circle
were not much more distasteful to him than the

274 ALFRED LYALL [1882
well-meaning but rather spectacular methods of the
Salvation Army. He believed that a want of out
ward religion appealed in some measure to the more
educated and thoughtful Hindu, but that the pro
ceedings of the Salvation Army tended only to lower
our reputation for refinement of religious thought.
Sir Mountstuart Grant Duff had then taken over
the Government of Madras. Lyall always liked him,
but was amused by some of his performances.
Granty [he writes] has made himself very comfortable
with a French cook and all the newest publications, and
retails a large supply of anecdotes and bon mots to the
Madras public. He is sometimes over their heads, sometimes
below their moral standard — as when he shocked society in
an after-dinner speech by saying, " And now, as Lady Godiva
said at the end of her ride, I approach my close (clothes)."
Official society in India is prudish.
That last remark is one which may strike English
readers of Rudyard Kipling as curious; but it is
curiously true.
After much correspondence between Lyall and
Lord Ripon the Local Self- Government Scheme for
the North-West Provinces had been worked out,
and a few days before the close of the year LyaU
writes —
I have brought out a big Resolution on Local Self-Govem-
ment; I daresay it will be a good deal criticised, but all I
want is to be let alone. The whole machinery of Govern
ment in India is revolving faster and faster; and this is
entirely because the big wheel which moves all the others
—the Viceroy and his Council— is increasing its speed,— all
the little wheels rush round with multiplied velocity, and

1 882] STUDY OF NATIVE OPINION 275
the country passively submits to be worked upon. The more
I get down again to the bottom of things, — ^nearer, as it were,
to the tail of the actual plough, — the more I see that the
big Government people can only guess faintly and vaguely
what will be the effect of their measures, and what all these
vast masses of people think about it all. One thing is sure :
the natives all discuss our rule still, as a transitory state
of existence, a huge structure that may vanish any day,
inexplicably, as it appeared. I fancy that the Hindu phil
osophy, which teaches that everything we see or feel is a
vast cosmic illusion, projected into space by that which is
the manifestation of the infinite and unconscious spirit, has
an unsettling effect on their political beliefs; but of course
they are otherwise right, and it is true that our empire has
many elements of great instability.
It was one of LyaU's strongest points that in all
such questions he tried earnestly to get at native
opinion ; by which I do not mean merely or mainly
the views enunciated by the native press, or even
the views put forward, on inquiry, by native officials,
but the opinion of the Indian people — of all classes.
He was never a good linguist in the sense of speak
ing with a good accent or intonation — he had not
a good ear for languages — but his long service in
country districts had given him a very good know
ledge of the vocabulary, and of native methods of
thought and speech. He understood better than
most Englishman what a native of India meant to
say even when the meaning was put, as it often is,
in guarded language. And even when he was hard
pressed with the work of the Foreign Office, he
would spend hours of valuable time in long con
versations with aU sorts and conditions of men, not

276 ALFRED LYALL [1882
only with the chiefs and officials whom it was his
business to see, but with traders and yeomen and
peasants. It was not merely that he was courteous
and patient — many men are that — but he was really
interested, and felt that this was one of the most
important and pleasant parts of his work. The
knowledge that the office -boxes were accumulating
— boxes full of work that must be done — did not
seem to fill him with the sense of despair which
sometimes comes upon an overdriven secretary when
a visitor to whom time is nothing goes on talking
round and round, without coming to the point. He
was always working to get into touch with the real
India, the India that is hidden from so many eyes,
and the boxes did not trouble him. It is said that
Englishmen in India, year by year more heavily
loaded with paper work, know less of native thought
than they used to do. Certainly, as far as an Eng
lishman could know it, he knew it well ; and it was
that which gave to his views upon all Indian ques
tions so much weight and value.
Lyall spent a quiet Christmas at Allahabad. He
had as guests one or two people he really liked,
among them Lady St John, wife of Sir Oliver
St John of the Indian political service ; and though
rather isolated in his " Government House " from the
residents about him, he was for the time contented
enough. Fitzjames Stephen and Lord Lytton, who
had read his volume of Studies, both urged him to
write a comprehensive book on India, but be feared
he had not the power to do so. His writings, he

1883] DOCILITY OF THE PEOPLE 277
said, were too minutely thought out and composed
for a long flight. Still the estimate in which his
book was held pleased him ; and in other respects
all was going well.
Early in the following year, 1883, he was in camp
inspecting some of his many districts and receiving
addresses from various municipalities about the new
scheme of Local Self-Government, which the people of
the North-West Provinces took very quietly. He
describes their attitude in a letter to Mrs Holland —
The natives are eminently conservative, otherwise good-
natured, and quite willing to fall in with the whims of their
incomprehensible rulers; the 44 millions of the North-West
Provinces and Oudh are the most easily governed masses in
this world, if you don't touch their worship and don't tax
them grievously.
And these were the very provinces over which,
twenty - five years before, the great storm of the
Mutiny had raged as it raged nowhere else. No
doubt Lyall was right in his view, and the docility of
the people was natural, not due in any appreciable
measure to the punishment inflicted during the revolt ; ^
but it gives one an uneasy sensation when one reflects
how easily such a population was stirred to such a
convulsive outbreak. Nevertheless it should always
be remembered that, even here, except in the recently
annexed province of Oudh, the bulk of the population
rose against each other, not against the Government.
The Calcutta season of 1882-3 witnessed the extra-
1 In the course of the Mutiny the leaders of disaffection were, no doubt,
to some extent weeded out.

278 ALFRED LYALL [1883
ordinary explosion of race feeling which was brought
about by the so-called " Ilbert Bill," a measure which
gave to native magistrates in certain circumstances
jurisdiction over Europeans. Now that passions have
cooled down on both sides it is pretty generally
recognised that the root-principle of the measure was
sound enough, but that the Bill was in no way
necessary, that it was introduced under conditions
which tended to provoke resentment, and that even
in the substance of the Bill some mistakes were
made. The introduction of such measures in a country like
India is a delicate business, and requires very judicious
handling. Nothing can be more unfortunate than any
action, however harmless in itself, which tends to set
colour against colour. Lyall's view, when consulted
in 1882, was that any native of India who was made
magistrate of a district should have the jurisdiction,
on administrative grounds ; and this was perhaps the
general opinion of English officials in India. His
reasons for this view are clearly stated in a letter
written some time afterwards to the present Lord
Cromer, who was then the Financial Member of the
Viceroy's Council —
District magistrates form a class permanently limited in
number; they have serious executive responsibility over
definite areas; they command large staffs; they are really
and truly the mainspring of the whole administration, — the
most important officers in the executive service of the country.
To such a man you should give all the attributes of power,
and to make a native a district magistrate, and then to
weaken him by telling him he must not touch a European, is

1883] THE ILBERT BILL 279
unwise and inconsistent. He is responsible for keeping order
in his district, and he ought to be able to deal with all sorts
and conditions of men.
This was sound sense ; and if the Government of
India had quietly added district magistrates to the
list of those having jurisdiction, no objection would,
in all probability, have been raised by any one. Un
fortunately the Bill gave power to other magistrates
who had no such standing or responsibility as the
magistrates of districts, and it was introduced at an
unlucky moment. The English in India, very few in
number, not one in a thousand of the population, must
always be sensitive as to any encroachment on their
rights and safeguards. They had already been excited
by the discussion about Local Self-Government, which
some of them thought a foolish and dangerous measure,
and by an unfortunate attempt to reserve the Rurki
Engineering College for persons of " pure Asiatic
descent." Now came a measure which was represented
as placing unofficial Englishmen in isolated districts,
and their wives and children, at the mercy of natives.^
1 It is a mistake to suppose that this was a mere pretence. Behar, for
example, a part of the Bengal province, was dotted with indigo factories,
where the planters and their families lived for the most part in absolute
isolation, with no neighbours or police at hand to help them in case of
trouble. Moreover, by the nature of their business, they were liable to be
involved in land litigation, and the first move in such cases was frequently
the trumping up of a false charge in a criminal court — a method of war
fare which had been brought to the level of a fine art. The tea-planters
of Eastern Bengal were not very differently situated. It is not altogether
surprising that people in such circumstances should have been really
alartned and angry at the idea of being deprived of their right to be tried
by an EngUsh magistrate, or that the non-official community in Calcutta
should have sympathised with them. Many district officers in Bengal did
the same.

280 ALFRED LYALL [1883
The result was that the unofficial community, led by
the barristers and merchants of Calcutta, broke out
into passionate opposition. Then followed a state of
things which was most deplorable, and might have led
to the gravest trouble. The Europeans denounced the
Viceroy and all his doings, while the natives of
Bengal were enthusiastic in his favour, and allowed
their enthusiasm to carry them away into outrageous
press attacks upon Englishmen in general. A state
of antagonism was set up between white men and
black such as had not been known since the Mutiny.
At this juncture Lord Ripon's Private Secretary,
Henry Primrose,^ fell ill with typhoid fever, and
Lord Ripon asked me to take over charge of his
duties. It was a curious and painful time, for though
Lord Ripon was always brave and steady, he felt, as
any man must have felt, the storm of obloquy directed
against him. I could hear from my room at Govern
ment House, and so could he, the shouts of applause
and wrath at the Town Hall close by, where his
opponents were denouncing him ; and the language
used by the Calcutta press was violent to the last
degree. However, the matter ended for a time by
his undertaking to refer the Bill for the opinion of
the local governments throughout India ; and at the
beginning of the hot weather, when he went away to
Simla, the agitation died down.
Lyall summed up the situation as follows : —
In this'^instance, and still more in the question of Local
Self-Government, I think the policy sound ; but it has been

1 Now Sir Hemy Primrose, K.C.B.

1883] THE ILBERT BILL 281
badly handled. . . . Lord Ripon's idea of signalising his
Viceroyalty by inaugurating certain liberal reforms, and by
taking one or two decided steps forward, was good ; but India
is being stirred up by all these controversies, and government
will not hereafter be so simple a matter as it has been
hitherto. The Bill had at one time led to some slight mis
understanding between Lyall and Lord Ripon, who
thought Lyall had not stood by him with sufficient
firmness ; and I had the disagreeable duty of explain
ing Lord Ripon's views to Lyall personally. The fact
was that when the Bill was first mooted the local
administrators consulted looked upon it from the
purely administrative point of view explained above,
and did not perceive how dangerous it might seem to
tbe non-official.
I am afraid [Lyall wrote] we did not give much attention
to the matter, being, most of us, not much in the current of
non-official European opinion, and leaving the question of
policy to the Govemment of India. I am now very sorry
that we were not more circumspect.
When non-official opinion broke out passionately
against the Bill, and race feeling was roused, the
officials ranged themselves in an almost unanimous
body on the side of the non-officials. It was one
thing to give the jurisdiction freely ; it was another
thing to give it when the concession meant the
triumph of the Bengali over the European. I had
occasion to write to Lord Ripon about the matter in
AprU 1883, and I see that I told him that officials as
well as non-officials were " dead against the Bill." It
was an unfortunate affair altogether. Lord Ripon and

282 ALFRED LYALL [1883
some of those about him were perhaps too eager to
show their sympathy for the native, without much
regard for the feelings of the British community. On
the other hand the non-official English, not accustomed
to trust the natives as the officials were, exaggerated
the practical importance of the particular measure,
and some of them proceeded to behave in a way that
was quite indefensible.
In LyaU's province nobody wanted the Bill. The
Europeans, though moderate, were opposed to it, and
the great mass of the natives thought it not in the
least worth all the stir and bad blood it had caused.
That stir and bad blood was mainly, if not entirely, in
Lower Bengal, where the circumstances were peculiar ;
but Lower Bengal was an important province, and
what happened there attracted attention all over
India. Lyall maintained his usual guarded attitude.
He writes, " I have intrenched myself behind cautious
proposals, and am quoted by both sides." That may
seem at first sight a not very heroic policy, savouring
of the trimmer. But in his case it was a consistent
policy. He had been in favour of the principle of the
BiU, but not in favour of the hasty extension of that
principle, or of the rather spectacular and provocative
manner in which the Bill had been introduced. He
disliked " setting fire to an important wing of the
house to roast a healthy but small pig." The matter
unfortunately did not end with the return of Lord
Ripon to Simla. In the spring of 1883 Lyall
comments upon the increasing complication of the
business of ruling India, and points out haw Lords

1883] DEALING WITH ASIATICS 283
Northbrook, Lytton, and Ripon had all made bad
mistakes —
However, we must all do our best to pull the Viceroy
through, but I rather dread the isolation of the mountain-top,
it is difficult to deal properly with any big questions when
one is thus secluded from all but officials. I think we might
not have gone so readily for the Native Jurisdiction Bill
if we had been down among people in the plains when our
opinion was asked last year.
He was peculiarly isolated, for his fine house at
Naini Tai, perched on a hill some 1200 feet above the
lake, cut him off very much from even the official
society about him, and made him speak evU of Sir
John Strachey, a former Lieutenant-Governor, who had
built it there. A little later, during the summer, he
writes —
The tone of the native press grows more vicious and in
sulting, in Bengal, daily. I am constantly speculating as to
how far it can possibly be despised as impotent and absurd ;
a perpetual stream of mendacity and abuse, among ignorant
people eaten up with self-conceit, may end by leavening the
mass to a greater degree than we now fancy.
And there can be no doubt now that he was right
in his apprehension. He felt, too, that Viceroys were
at times to blame for stirring up dangerous ideas.
The next, he said,
will begin, as they all do, by fancying that the one thing
needful and easy is to conciliate the natives, and he will soon
find out the risks of bidding for native popularity and
stimulating native ambition. Nothing looks so simple, at the
beginning, as dealing with Asiatics, and nothing requires
longer experience.

284 ALFRED LYALL [1883
That was the opinion of a man who was more in
touch with the natives of India than almost any
Englishman of his time, — whose constant desire was
to advance their interests, and associate them with us
in the government of the country. But he wanted to
enlist the help of the well-meaning majority, and
knew the danger of playing into the hands of the
noisy and seditious few. His sympathy was of the
right kind, sympathy born of knowledge and guided
by knowledge. There are many Englishmen in India,
at all times, who have it. Good feeling and sympathy
are not confined to Englishmen who stay in England.
If the nation would only understand this, we should
be saved many difficulties, not only in India, but in
other parts of the world.
At the beginning of the cold weather of 1883-4
the British in Calcutta were as deeply incensed
against Lord Ripon as ever, and Lyall felt much for
him —
It is the most unlucky business that ever a Viceroy got
entangled in. ... I am sincerely sorry and troubled at Lord
Ripon's ill-luck.
A little later —
H.E. was very cool and plucky while here, and showied
considerable gameness; though, of course, he knew a dis
agreeable reception awaited him in Calcutta. I was touched
by his generous self-command : he might have shown some
umbrage at the rather lukewarm support he got from me.
I have since written a letter in strong support of his deter
mination to carry through a modified measure, and not to
withdraw the Bill.

1883] LITERARY WORK 285
The end of the matter was that during the cold
weather a modified measure was passed, and the
controversy was at last closed. To quote LyaU's
words, the Bill was " solemnly interred under a farcical
compromise which will do mischief some day." But
it was interred. Lyall regarded it as a " blundering
and unnecessary measure," and mourned over the
trouble it had brought upon Lord Ripon ; so he was
thankful when it was out of the way, and the open
strife between Briton and Babu in Lower Bengal was
finally covered up.
Meanwhile Lyall was once more occupying himself
with literature. He had been pleased at the recep
tion of his ' Asiatic Studies.'
I wish [he says] I could write more ; but I am so
desperately critical of my own writing, and find myself
taking more and more time to say exactly, to a hair, what
I want to say, that I get on slowly. ... I am secretly
wondering that the book should be so praised.
A letter of June 1883 is interesting as showing
the genesis of his poem " Retrospection." People have
asked whether this was based on any real incident of
the Mutiny. It was not. Lyall writes of it as "a
mere exercise in verse," and had evidently altered it
from a first version on different lines, or a prose story.
He says : " The notion was suggested by my visit to
Bulandshahr, and by looking at the trees under
which we had lain in some peril twenty-five years
ago." Lord Lytton much approved of the poem ;
but Tennyson said "the story is ghastly"; which
word, Lyall writes, "rather sinks into my brain,

286 ALFRED LYALL [1883
like David's pebble, by reason of its force and
truth." A little later he sent to his sister an
additional stanza. It is now printed as the last
but one — "a shout, a volley, a rushing ride." The
poem was not altogether a success in England, partly
because the story was ghastly, and partly because
people could not make out who fired the shot —
which, as he said, was a hopeless state of things.
It is remarkable that most men ask, "But who fired the
shot ? " and that all women scream out in reply, " Why, the man
himself, you goose." It shows, what I have always said, the
superior capacity for romantic wickedness preserved, in spite
of all civilisation, by the women. The greater number of
men couldn't do anything violently sinful, in any emergency
— almost all the women could work themselves up to the
crisis, like dear Lady Macbeth.
At this time Lyall was meditating an article in
' The Edinburgh Review ' on the Life of Mountstuart
Elphinstone, which the Editor had sent to him. He
thought that this was much better than Bosworth
Smith's Life of Lord Lawrence, which he character
ised as
not a high-class work, . . . almost all Indian biographies
are over-coloured and out of proportion to the real merits of
the subject. But the 'Edinburgh' don't suit me as the old
'Fortnightly' did. I am trying to write in the respectable
semitone of quarterlies, whereas the irreverent ' Fortnightly '
was better suited to my ideas.
The article was accepted by the Editor with very
complimentary remarks, and appeared in the number
for January 1884.

1 883] RUSSIA AND AFGHANISTAN 287
In the autumn of 1883 there was some renewal of
excitement about Russian moves in Central Asia, and
LyaU heard that there was a talk in certain circles
about forestalling the Russians by an advance to
Kandahar, or even Herat. He was inclined to scoff.
But the great thing is to keep cool, and to let the
Russians enter Afghanistan first, if they are coming, in
order that they may be the invaders, and that the Afghans
may be turned against them. I don't believe in the Afghans
joining them in an attack upon India ; the Afghan loves his
liberty above all, and is quite sharp enough to see that if the
Russians defeat us on the Indus they will and must convert
the country in their rear into a Russian province.
Some years later the Amir Abdurrahman used the
same words to me in Kabul.
In December Lyall sends his sister another copy of
" East and West." He criticises it, and suggests, as
one obstacle to publishing all his verses, " that my
later style is becoming different from (not better than)
my earlier." Shortly afterwards he writes —
I won't publish just yet. I want to write some more, and
to publish once for all a small volume which will just give
the faint brief note that I can strike amid the clanging tones
of the world's singing.
Some time before the close of the year Lyall had
heard that the first edition of his ' Asiatic Studies ' was
exhausted, and that a second was being issued ; also
tha^t a Breton gentleman, Mr Rene de Kerallain, had
offered to translate the book into French. This was
the beginning of a literary acquaintance which gave

288 ALFRED LYALL [1883
Lyall much pleasure, and led to a very interesting
exchange of letters. Some of them will be found in
the later part of this volume. The translation of the
Studies was duly carried out, and with remarkable
success. After LyaU's paper on Elphinstone had appeared
in the ' Edinburgh,' he was pressed by the Editor to
write more articles, but, as he said, he was not one
of those who were able to turn on the literary steam
when he pleased.
The " cold weather " was spent, as usual, largely
in camp, marching about the districts ; and among
LyaU's guests this year were the Duke and Duchess of
Connaught. The Duke had come out to command
the Meerut Division, which was in LyaU's province.
He enjoyed also a visit from his old friend Sir
Frederick Roberts, and one from Baron Hiibner, the
Austrian diplomatist, " who knows everybody and
everything." Finally, he had with him for a time
Mr and Lady Anne- Blunt. LyaU had small sympathy
with Wilfrid Blunt's ideas about Islam, but he found
much pleasure in the contact with a mind of such
capacity and culture.
He was deeply interested at this time in learning
that his views regarding an understanding with
Russia were bearing fruit.
I see signs [he wrote] that the Foreign Offices of India
and England have come round to the view which originated
with me in 1881, when I strenuously recommended that
instead of working against Russia in Central Asia, we should
propose to demarcate by formal treaty the boundaries of

1 884] UNDERSTANDING WITH RUSSIA 289
Afghanistan, the treaty to be not with the Afghans, but with
the Russians. This view is put in my ' Edinburgh ' article.
As a matter of fact the policy was on the point of
being accepted and put into practice, for Colonel
Ridgeway ^ and I were then in the Indian Foreign
Office, and during the winter we had both ar
rived at the conclusion that an arrangement with
Russia offered the best prospect of coming to a
satisfactory settlement of the Afghan question.
My own opinion in the matter was largely
coloured by LyaU's systematic advocacy of this
course of action ; and so perhaps was the opinion
of Lord Ripon, who accepted generally the views
put forward by Colonel Ridgeway and supported
by me. The result was the Afghan Boundary Com
mission of 1884-1886, which though it passed through
some troublous times, and very nearly ended in
war with Russia, eventually led to an agreement,
and paved the way for a general understanding.
The real difficulty at this time, and later, indeed
until the Japanese war, was not that the Govern
ment of India was averse from an understanding
with Russia, but that the Russians, firmly believing
"the twentieth century was theirs," were reluctant
to tie their hands by any comprehensive engage
ments with us. And this was natural enough.
Lyall had some right to claim that the new
policy originated with him, and he always did so.
I find among his later papers the proposal to which
1 Afterwards the Right Hon. Sir West Ridgeway, G.C.B., G.C.M.G.,
K.C.S.L T

290 ALFRED LYALL [1884
he refers. It is in an envelope which bears the
following docket in his handwriting —
Note of 1881 in regard to a treaty with Russia on the
subject of the Afghan north-western boundary. This con
tains the original suggestion upon which the boundary was
afterwards formally demarcated, and it also foreshadowed
the policy of an agreement with Russia in Asiatic affairs.
Lord Morley reprinted in (it?) in 1906 for the negotiations
with Russia.
In the spring of 1884, before going up to the hills,
Lyall was in Lucknow, trying to work out his poem
" The Amir's Message."
But I can't write the metre I want, to my own satisfac
tion. Take this line from the old black-letter version of
"Chevy Chase"—
" The Pers6 out of Northumberland, and a vow to
God made he," —
it has a rough roll and dash that isn't easy to reproduce, to my
ear. However, I will send you what I can make ; and luckily
few people are metricists, or have a jealous ear for verse in
the way people have for music.
The result was a poem beginning with the line —
" Abdurrahmdn, the Durdni Khdn, to the
Ghilzaie chief wrote he," . . .
A later letter refers to this —
I wrote off, very rapidly, a day back, my verses about
" The Amir's Message " ; and now I have to tone it down, and
to give it a quieter colour. Flaubert's Letters to Georges
Sand are interesting; he was an artist who sat for hours
searching for the word which gave the precise effect he
wanted, just what I am always inclined to do."

1 884] UNDERSTANDING WITH RUSSIA 291
Wilfrid Blunt, whose judgment on poetical matters
LyaU thought excellent, probably had some influence
on LyaU's methods of versification, I do not know
whether he saw this particular poem, but LyaU's
letter quoted above mentions Blunt's views on
Lindsay Gordon's "Rhyme of the Joyous Garde,"
and "The Amir's Message" may have been seen by
him at the same time.
Shortly before this the Russians had taken Merv
— "last home of the free-lance," — and LyaU's letter
is very Lyallesque — half literature, half practical
politics. It goes on —
The debate over Merv was not bad, and Lord Lytton's
speech very good, though his own policy would not have
prevented what has occurred. No tinkering at Afghanistan
or Persia will stop the forward movement of the Russians ;
the steel head of their advance-guard will pierce those loose
and weak states like a wedge driven into soft wood ; and if
we ally ourselves with such states against the only real
power in Central Asia, we shall be only encumbered, probably
betrayed, at the moment for action.
To which, however, it might have been answered,
and was answered, " But if Russia will not come to
terms, or, having come to terms, will not keep faith ? "
LyaU would doubtless have replied, " Then fight, but
do not depend on such allies." " Non tali auxilio nee
defensoribus istis." We have tried his plan now,
at a considerable sacrifice, and all of us must hope
that it will succeed,
Lyall was greatly troubled in mind at this time by
our entanglement in Egypt and the Soudan, He felt

292 ALFRED LYALL [1884
not only that it weakened our position with regard to
Russia, but that we were undertaking responsibilities
from which we should find it very difficult to with
draw ; and his letter ends with the words, " I fear
Gordon will fail in the Soudan ; no one can act with
out an army."
In April 1884 he was staying at Dera, a pretty
little place " betwixt mountain and plain," with a
small bachelor party consisting of his excellent
Private Secretary, Holmes, his Aide-de-Camp, Rose
of the 10th Hussars, and Hercules Ross of the Civil
Service, a famous sportsman. He was evidently
enjoying himself, and was pressing his sister Barbara
to come out to India again.
This is probably by far the best bit of my life. I have just
done two years of it, and thereafter I shall slide down hill, so
make up your mind to see me at my best, . . . life never waits;
it flashes by and changes like a kaleidoscope.
From Dera he sent to her his " Amir's Message,"
with which as usual he was not satisfied, The verses,
he wrote,
are rather in the old Byronic style, and they want the
delicate finish that is the note of good modem work ; but I
comfort myself with the idea that the Londoners couldn't
have written them with the true local colouring.
This is in reality one of the chief merits of LyaU's
poetical work. Possibly he underestimated his own
delicacy of finish as compared with that of most other
writers of the day ; but it is the accuracy and warmth
of his local colour, perhaps more than anything

1 884] EXPOSURE OF FALSEHOODS 293
else, which give to his Indian verses their special
value. Soon afterwards he was again in his mountain
home at Naini Tai, rather depressed by the prospect
of another five months in a place where he had few
companions and no outside visitors. But he was
writing for the 'Edinburgh,' and, as usual, reading
everything he could get on literary subjects.
He was much vexed at this time by an attack
made upon him by an Indian newspaper. The inci
dent is of no importance now, and was perhaps of
no great importance then, but it shows what LyaU's
views were in such matters.
Lord Ripon tried to persuade me [he wrote] that lies are
beneath notice. My answer was that, in public as in private
life, when one falsehood has been unanswerably exposed,
subsequent assertions by the same person are greatly dis
credited. ... I believe that one gains in the long-run by
hitting back whenever one is attacked.
Lyall was doubtless right in this view. As Lord
Dufferin once put it, " No public man can afford to
let falsehoods about him go without contradiction."
Lyall was still working over his Local Self-Govern
ment Scheme for the North-West Provinces ; and he
was going too slowly for Lord Ripon, who was naturaUy
impatient of delays in the carrying out of his favourite
policy. Lyall thought that the Viceroy suspected
him of playing with the policy, and was inclined to
be indignant, but no serious misunderstanding arose
between them. Lord Ripon was enthusiastic, and
very hard-working ; he had of late had much to pain

294 ALFRED LYALL [1884
and irritate him, and he knew that his term as
Viceroy was drawing to a close ; but he was in many
ways singularly generous, so that he was able to
regard without bitterness LyaU's apparent want of
enthusiasm for the cause he had at heart. At bottom
the two men sincerely respected each other.
" The Amir's Message " was accepted by ' The
National Review,' and this pleased Lyall; but he
makes a remark in a letter to his sister, which shows
the view taken in India of his literary inclinations.
He says that he prefers not to publish under his full
name —
Because the Indian papers always publish my bits with
heading in large capitals, "A new poem by Sir A. L.," and
with mild remarks about a poetic Lieutenant-Governor.
Please consider this. You must admit it is rather a stupid
and troublesome sort of publicity, which does me no good.
The fact is that, although when he was a man of lower
rank LyaU's verses had done much for his reputation,
there was a feeling in India that a Lieutenant-Governor
had better keep out of the magazines. And there is
something in the feeling. Though in England very
few know the difference between an Indian Lieutenant-
Governor and an assistant magistrate, yet a Lieutenant-
Governor is, or was, to Indian eyes, a notable personage.
The point of view in the two countries is necessarily
different ; and as Lyall himself put it in a later letter,
" it doesn't do for Lieutenant-Governors to be scribbling
verses in reviews." So he discontinued the practice.
Shortly afterwards he writes : " I have been reading
over my collection of verses, they seem very unequal ;

1 884] LIFE IN THE HILLS 295
they ought to have been published before I was
thirty." In the course of the summer Lyall went down to
the plains, though it was very hot weather, to open
the raUway bridge over the Jumna at Muttra, and do
some business in Lucknow. He invariably got restless
at Naini Tai, and on principle he disliked the summer
migration to the mountains.
I always feel better pleased [he wrote from Agra] when I
am down in the plains, seeing people and hearing the general
talk of all the affairs of the country-side, than when I am
perched on the top of the cool but remote hill; and un
doubtedly isolation in the hills encourages selfish comfort
among our officers.
This is an old subject of controversy, and there is
much to be said on both sides ; but LyaU's views on
the subject were strong. In his next letter he writes :
" I got back from the plains two days ago, rather
sorry to leave the heat and the natives ; there is
nothing so stupid or unreal as this hill station life,
where a lot of officials eat, drink, and play together."
But he adds, " I was rather tired with constant travel,
and came to the conclusion that I might have knocked
up if I had been sent on the Anglo-Russian Boundary
Commission." He was annoyed about this time by some gloomy
views upon the future of India which had been put
forward by certain English officials —
I am astonished at such feebleness. I am no optimist about
India, and I always feel the responsibility of driving the

296 ALFRED LYALL [1884
immense machine of Govemment; but with the commonest
courage and political sagacity we shall go on well enough for
another twenty-five years, and who can tell what may happen
in the next generation to Europe ? . . . The natives . . . are
loyal and quiet enough, if we will only keep down the knaves
and fools among them, . . . but of course a weak Government
that allowed itself to be frightened by a noisy or seditious
party of young India might gradually let power slip from its
hands. In the course of the summer it became known that
Lord Ripon was shortly to be succeeded by Lord
Dufferin, and in November Lyall went to Agra to
say farewell to the outgoing Viceroy. He found
Lord Ripon, who had suffered much during the last
four years, sensibly comforted by the sincere demon
strations of regret which the news of his retirement
drew from the natives of India. Nevertheless it was
a rather sad ending to a Viceroyalty, as Lord Lytton's
had been. The post is one of great dignity and
splendour, for a Viceroy of India rules three hundred
millions of men, but it is open to many mishaps.
Lord Ripon had been vehemently denounced in India ;
and, what was much more to him, his administration
had not been too favourably regarded in England.
Yet he deserved better fortune, for he was an upright
and warm-hearted man, prompt and business-like in
his work, and very cool and brave in time of trouble.
At the close of this year, 1884, LyaU sent to his
sister the final copy of his "East and West," with
strict orders that it should not be published under his
name or initials. It was in several ways a pleasant
year's end, for he now heard that she was shortly to be

1884] A CHARGING ELEPHANT 297
married ; and he was further cheered by a visit from
his brother James, who seemed in a fair way to be
come the next Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab.
Finally, Lyall learned that the editor of ' The Edinburgh
Review ' highly appreciated his articles, and that the
French translation of his 'Asiatic Studies' had been
excellently done. But his satisfaction was clouded
over by one of those separations which are the curse
of Indian service. His younger son, the rebel of the
year before, had now reached the age when it was
necessary to send him to England ; and early in 1885
the boy and his mother started for Bombay, homeward
bound, leaving Lyall " moved to something like tears "
at the parting.
Soon afterwards he was under canvas again.
We are here encamped on the edge of the forest, trying to
catch elephants . . . We have about a hundred elephants with
us; two nights ago one went wild, killed a man, and was
captured with great difficulty by being knocked over and
severely beaten by one immense elephant whom we keep to
do the policeman in camp. If any elephant misbehaves this
huge brute knocks him down, and the culprit is at once
chained up. There was a great fight in the dark ; the wild
elephant charged the tents ; Parson Adams held a great lamp
steady as a rock while Greig of the Forests fired at the beast's
forehead and turned him just as he came within the lamp's
fiash, a few yards off — rather a neat display of nerve on both
sides, and one worth a good deal of mashing in the London
streets. What think you ? he was going straight for the lamp.
The Rev. John Adams had won a Victoria Cross in
the Afghan War. A braver and more devoted man
never lived.

298 ALFRED LYALL [1884
At this time Sir William Muir left the India Office
Council in London, and his place was offered to Lyall,
who refused it. He hoped for a seat in Council after
his retirement, but he was not prepared to give up
two years of the Lieutenant-Governorship. Nor had
he definitely made up his mind to leave India if by
chance there should be an opening for him in the
Governorship of Madras or Bombay, or the Viceroy's
Council. Still, the offer was a compliment, and gave
him pleasure.
I was, on the 6th, within 16 miles of Meerut, so I drove in
to pay a final visit to the Duke and Duchess of Connaught,
who received me very well indeed. . . . The Duke and Duchess
are very sorry to leave India ; they like their independence
out here. . . . The Duke is a very capable man, and I hope
he may have high command some day. I always observe
with envy the finished good manners of these sort of person
ages ; they never seem to make the shaxiow of a mistake.
I have had Sir Frederick and Lady Roberts, . . . and Lord
Randolph Churchill, who was rather interesting, and very
decently reasonable. ... I observe that an English-speaking
native who can deliver himself of ordinary common-sense
notions, in correct English, upon politics, and who understands
the commonplaces of political discussion, somehow impresses
the travelling Englishman as a man of remarkable genius, by
utterances that would produce no effect at all out of the mouth
of a European. ... I showed him everybody and everything,
let him talk, never argued, and only tripped him up very
gently on matters of fact.
I constantly think of poor Gordon, shot down at Khartoum ;
observe that the solitary man sent out to hold his own among
Orientals is always killed, his infiuence and popularity
gradually wanes, and he is betrayed or openly murdered. We
have had to send an army to avenge Cavagnari and Gordon ;

1885] DIFFICULTIES WITH RUSSIA 299
we ought to have avenged Colley (whose case is different). I
am dead against the whole system of posting English officers
in outlying places. . . .
It is no use looking back ; most of us can hardly bear to
do that steadily ; it is like looking at a strong river carrying
away and out of sight all the scenes and friends that one has
cared for, and all the old visions and hopes. What we have
to do is to look the present steadily in the face, and to keep
the mind clear of the old illusions that have always tempted
people to despondency. There may be a good deal of quiet
happiness still to be had in our own lives ; and it is still pos
sible, on the other hand, to make some grievous blunder. Let
the current flow on.
Meanwhile the Boundary Commission which had
been sent to meet the Russians on the northern
frontier of Afghanistan was finding its task very
difficult ; there was again some talk of war ; and the
new Viceroy, Lord Dufferin, had invited the Amir to
meet him in India. Lord Dufferin, who had seen
Lyall, and at once appreciated his ability, had now
asked him to be present at the meeting, to which he
was looking forward. The situation was arousing
much interest among the natives of India, and lead
ing up to a remarkable display of loyalty. Lyall
writes —
The Russian negotiations about Afghanistan are stirring
India and doing much good, as all classes seem to turn to us
for protection from invasion, and from the terror of Russian
absolutism. I am struck with the manner in which the
natives seem to recognise their dependence on us, and their
interest in sticking to our rule. This is because the rule is
really honest and sound in principle, in spite of minor mistakes
and petty grievances. . . .

300 ALFRED LYALL [1885
The danger has made the Indian people very loyal ; they
much prefer us to Russia ; they are in great dread of some
widespread political revolution if we get an upset, and they
are all afraid of each other. In short, we represent peace and
a firm Government, whereas anything else leads towards
unfathomable confusion. . . .
I rather suspect that our own nervousness about Russia's
advance, and our constant protests against it for the past
twenty years, have encouraged Russia to push onward towards
a point that we so obviously desired to guard ; but since the
last Russo-Turkish war it has been clear that Russia i?
determined to take up a position whence she can threaten
England, through India, with effect. Whether she will fight
for this position we shall know in a few days.
Lyall might have added that our openly expressed
nervousness about the Russian advance in Central Asia
had done much to alarm the natives of India and
shake their confidence in our power.
The meeting between the Amir and Lord Dufferin
at Rawal Pindi was an interesting event, and had an
important bearing upon the course of our relations
with Russia. While it was going on, in April 1885,
there occurred the conflict between the Afghan and
Russian forces at Kushk, which nearly led to war
between Russia and England, — so nearly that at one
moment war seemed inevitable. In fact, nothing
prevented it but the Amir's presence in India, and
Lord Dufferin's personal influence with him.^ If war
¦^ General Kurupatkin, who afterwards commanded in the Russo-
Japanese war, a moderate and sensible man, told me in 1895 that he had
thrown all his weight upon the side of peace. No doubt this was true, but
if the Amir had caUed upon us to support him it is not easy to see how
we could have avoided going to war.

1 885] AMIR ABDUR RAHMAN 301
had broken out the excitement all over Asia would
have been tremendous ; but we had little to fear from
it, for Russia was then very weak in Central Asia,
and her position would have been one of great danger.
Lyall called upon the Amir with Sir Frederick
Roberts, and describes him as —
A big burly Afghan with a fat face and a gouty foot ; also
with plenty of brains and a bad heart.
He was in a red uniform coat, worn loose, breeches and
boots ; received us with much courtesy and bonhomie, meeting
us at the room door, shaking hands, and conducting us inside.
. . . His conversation very easy and well expressed, you had
only to start a subject and he would at once discuss it for five
minutes — he is distinctly loquacious — his long residence in
Tashkend has evidently given him a strong veneer of semi-
European manners ; he is quite unlike our stiff old-fashioned
Indian rajas. Such is an outline of the appearance of a man
universally said to be the most cruel and severe Amir that
ever reigned in Afghanistan — a prince who spares none. . . .
However, he is showing much readiness to fall into our
diplomatic views, though I trust him not ; and he dines with
the Viceroy this evening.
LyaU's dislike of bloodshed and cruelty made him
perhaps less than just to the Amir, who was certainly
unsparing in punishment, but had a difficult position
to maintain, and was obliged to hit hard. To use
Lord Dufferin's words, he was " a strange strong
creature," but I do not think he took any pleasure
in cruelty. However this may be, LyaU's presence
in Rawal Pindi was most valuable. Lord Ripon, when
leaving India, had appointed me to act as Foreign
Secretary, and as such I had to attend this meeting.

302 ALFRED LYALL [1885
LyaU's experience and knowledge were placed un
grudgingly at my disposal, and were of the greatest
help to me. Lord Dufferin consulted him freely.
The night before Lyall left our camp he was dining
with Lord Dufferin. He writes —
Lady Downe, who sat by me, said she read some bad news
in the faces of the Viceroy and one or two other high people,
so on the ladies' departure I closed up to Lord Dufferin, who
told me the Russians had driven the Afghans out of Panjdeh.
. . . After dinner there was a crowd to see a wild sword-
dance round a bonfire in the camp centre, and Roberts and I
talked earnestly in the shade outside the ring of people. Just
as in 1879 the military leaders have cause to look grave,'it
is not this time a matter of mere plucky hill fighting with
Afghans. . . . India is very quiet, and shows very goodwill ;
no class or section of the people seems to wish for our dis
comfiture, and all are fairly willing to stand by us, though
this would not last long if we were unlucky. Our Govern
ment has its faults, but none seems to wish it to be
suddenly interrupted or seriously endangered ; and if the
Russians were only near enough, I should not at all fear the
results of a collision with them. But these distant campaigns,
with vague and shifting " objective " (as the slang is), are
ruinous to us.
It was an interesting night, I had brought to
Lord Dufferin's tent, just before dinner, the deciphered
telegram announcing the Panjdeh fight. He was in
his close-fitting red uniform, having his innumerable
decorations fastened on by his valet. When I had
read out the telegram to him, and talked it over for a
few minutes, it was arranged that I should go to the
Amir, who was in a house two or three miles away,
and get his opinion upon the news. Lord Dufferin

1885] THE PANJDEH INCIDENT 303
felt that much would depend upon the view he
took ; so I drove over with Major Talbot of the
Political Service,^ had a long talk with the Amir,
and then returned. The wild sword-dance of tribes
men mentioned by Lyall was going on when we
got back to camp, and I went up and said a word or
two to Lord Dufferin, reserving a full report till the
party had broken up. He took the whole thing with
admirable coolness, as indeed the Amir had done,
though it appeared to make war nearly inevitable.
The Amir's answer when told that his general had
been killed was the answer of King Henry after Chevy
Chase : "I trust I have within my realm five hundred
as good as he " ; and with regard to the small body
of troops which had been routed, he said he had a
hundred thousand more. It was nothing, and I was
not to " eat grief" about it. A day or two later his
tone had changed, and he spoke fiercely of vengeance ;
but he had not in reality any desire to see his country
made the battle-ground for England and Russia, and
in the end war was averted. The incident had, on
the whole, an excellent effect in India. As Lyall said,
no class of natives wished to see us beaten by Russia ;
the native chiefs offered their contingents for service
in the field ; and
the educated native radical, who has been clamouring for
political privilege, is in great fright at the bare notion of a

1 Afterwards Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Adelbert Talbot, K.C.I.E. He was
perfiaps the best Persian scholar in India, and had been appointed to
assist in the negotiations, as a man upon whose judgment and silence
Lord Dufferin could thoroughly depend.

304 ALFRED LYALL [1885
Russian colonel governing him, and has lowered his political
tone materially.
No doubt our inaction, after the Russians had
attacked and routed an Afghan detachment, was
regarded by some as a sign of fear ; but this did no
serious harm.
Returned to his own province, Lyall began to
contemplate another ' Edinburgh Review ' article, and
to think of his verses asain.

~»-

It is pleasant [he writes to his sister] that Tennyson thought
my verses " East and West " fine ; they faU off at the end. I
would rather not publish them at all just yet, so kindly keep
them. "The Colonel "is being copied from book to book all
over the country. ... I notice, by the way, that it does im
press disagreeably some nice people ; they think it cynically
immoral, just as my mother would have thought it.
We are tossing up and down upon fluctuating telegrams
which prophesy peace and war alternately. ... If we are
decently prepared I am inclined to think we may as well fight
and have done with it. . . . General Dillon told me yesterday
that when the American General Grant came to London, and
surveyed the hubbub of Parliament and the general comfort
able talk of the town, he said, " If I were the English Govern
ment I would run your people into a bloody war ; it would
do them a damned lot of good"; and of course it would
purify us, though the regimen is dangerous. Meanwhile,
alarm at the idea of tumults and wars is making the Indian
very loyal, and the Bengali Baboo is lowering his seditious
agitations. ... X. shows his own foibles by being so easily
taken in by the pretentious talk of a class that depends
entirely upon us for its existence. It is one thing to have
won your liberties by the hard fighting of centuries; it is
another thing to get them all freely given you, as a girl gets

1 885] EDUCATED NATIVES 305
her trousseau ; and nothing will eradicate the difference in
race education.
We have been out to a hill forty miles inland from Naini
Tai, and have spent a lazy week on the top of it, wandering
in a fine old forest of oaks and rhododendrons. I am angry
with myself because I find my creative literary faculty not
under hand; I can't take advantage of vacant days to sit
down and compose an article — nothing seems worth saying,
which means really that the . . . tendency to refined indol
ence is creeping over me. . . . Life in Naini Tai makes me
dull and official ; . . . nobody takes any interest in the
high art of literature; and nothing else much interests me
now, except history.
By the way, I am very much grieved to hear that Fitzjames
Stephen has been rather seriously ill ; he is one of the firmest
friends I have in the world.
We have just heard that the Conservatives are going to
attempt forming a ministry. I must say I hope and believe
they'll fail. Lord R. Churchill, their promising man, is as
yet too young, and will make a mess of any serious business,
though I believe he will go far eventually. Perhaps, how
ever, the Conservatives will do better in foreign affairs — they
can't possibly do worse — than the Liberals ; but I look forward
to a reformed Liberal Cabinet, ruinus Gladstone.
India is very quiet; the Russian scare has strengthened
our hands for the time ; but I foresee internal fermentations
before long, as soon as the advancing and growing party of
eager, ambitious, hungry natives, who have been educated as
if they were dusky Englishmen, and who are anxious for
place and power, shall have organised their movements.
They are not disloyal nor malicious; they are noisy, inex
perienced, and determined to " get on " ; they will soon
resemble the class that has everywhere begum political agi
tations, and has everywhere, except in England, come to grief,
— either defeated by a resolute despotism or swept away
after a brief triumph by more thoroughgoing and violent
reformers coming up behind. . . . Yet I firmly believe that
cr

306 ALFRED LYALL [1885
there is nothing in all this that cannot be met by political
courage and capacity.
In the latter part of this summer — 1885 — Lyall went
up for a short visit to Simla, where he was received
" with great kindness and consideration by Lord and
Lady Dufferin " ; and he then, I think, first really
made acquaintance with the man whose life he was
to write twenty years later. He was impressed by
the new Viceroy's methods.
His system, as Viceroy, is to stand free of all detail, to look
only to the great questions, and to rely altogether for the
ordinary working of the great administrative machine upon
his councillors and secretaries. If, however, they blunder
or "let him in," he is the man to lay about him very dis
agreeably. LyaU was right in his description of Lord
Dufferin's system, though Lord Dufferin's extreme
kindness of heart made it difficult for him to "lay
about him" as disagreeably as people thought him
likely to do. He was, as Lyall noticed, the opposite
in many respects of his predecessor. Lord Ripon, for
Lord Dufferin did not care much about internal
administration, and was not fond of reading files of
official papers, in which Lord Ripon seemed to revel.
A little later Lyall received a visit at Agra from
Grant Duff, who was on his way from his Governor
ship in Madras to meet Lord Dufferin in Simla;
and Lyall enjoyed the time they spent together.
He was somewhat surprised to find that Grant
Duff was in Indian politics rather " a Tory despot "

1 885] LORD DUFFERIN'S SYSTEM 307
than a reformer, evidently regarding the con
tinuation of English predominance as India's only
chance of salvation. It is interesting to see how a
little personal acquaintance with the work of adminis
tration in India alters the English outlook in these
matters. There are probably few Viceroys or Gover
nors who do not return to England more conservative
in their views about Indian affairs than they were on
arrival. Ideas formed in a totally different atmos
phere, thousands of miles away, however sound and
reasonable they may seem, often faU to stand the test
of practical experience on the spot.
Lyall was now nearing the end of his long term
of service in India, and the thought of his future in
England, which had frequently troubled him, began
to press upon him closely.
From Agra I ran on to Lucknow for a night ; thence back
to Naini Tai, where we are on the eve of a grand ball (to
night) and a rush off into camp two days later, and so will
end our fourth hill season. Next summer will be our last,
et puis? What next? is a question I am eternally asking
myself, especially lying awake before dawn, and wondering
whether my career will suddenly come to a dead stop.
Meanwhile he was occupying his spare time by
writing an article on Afghan affairs for ' The Edin
burgh Review,' and was contemplating other literary
work. The inclination to write verse had left him,
for the time at least, but he says —
I should like to write one good novel or story before life
ends ; I feel I have it in me, if I could settle the plan of it.

308 ALFRED LYALL [1885
By the way, I suspect all reminiscences of early life are very
defective. I am sure mine would be most cloudy. I could
never trust myself to say anything of my early days in
India. It is a pity that Lyall never carried out his wish.
He was perhaps more fitted for essay writing than
for sustained narrative fiction, where his contem
plative nature and his fastidious taste in style might
have hampered him. " I am never satisfied with my
own composition, and go on revising it till it is spoilt
or I am sick of it." This was not the way of the
great novelists, of Scott or Thackeray or Dickens.
But a novel of Indian life from a man of his varied
experience and literary ability would nevertheless
have been interesting, and so would a volume of
reminiscences, which he did once contemplate. There,
however, his neglect to keep a diary would certainly
have placed him at a disadvantage.
The close of the year saw the overthrow of Burmah,
which was perhaps the most striking incident of Lord
Dufferin's Viceroyalty, As Foreign Secretary Lyall
had done all he could to stave off a Burmese war,
which would have been a serious complication while
the Afghan troubles were upon us ; but the time was
now ripe for putting an end to King Thebaw's inces
sant provocations, and Lyall agreed in the proposed
action, which Lord Dufferin discussed with him in
camp at Agra,
One thing is good about the present conjuncture of
Churchill and Dufferin: they are men of action, who like
"something accomplished, something done," and who settle

1885] WAR WITH BURMAH 309
questions that their predecessors have only discussed. . . .
He is doing his foreign business very well. . . . Natives don't
like our foreign wars and Afghan complications; they see
that this leads towards more spending and fresh taxation;
but they take it as natural enough that we should bowl over
Thebaw and annex his country. "Who wouldn't do the
same ? " . . .
I am not, however, quite satisfied that we are right in
building up a great Indo-Chinese dependency alongside of
our Indian Empire; it increases our stake and divides our
strength. . . .
I saw much of Mackenzie Wallace ^ and Durand, and heard
all that is going on ; there is not much doing, but the Amir is
a troublesome barbarian.
I have been reading Maine's book on popular government ;
it makes one or two good points, as that the real people is
always conservative, but is necessarily led by a violent min
ority, which takes possession of its suffrage in order to com
pass the minority's own ends. But . . . Maine won't take
enough trouble. Some of the historical generalisations are
interesting ; and I could add a good chapter by applying his
ideas to the subject of Oriental governments, and of the
English attempt to govern India on modern principles. There
is no doubt that the immense majority of Indians prefer a
simple despotism, and hate the reformers and improvers;
nevertheless the very small advanced and agitating minority
is gathering power even here, because it appeals to democracy
in England.
Lyall, by the way, had no great fear of excessive
democracy in England. In the same letter he re
marks : " The people of England are not in good
French earnest in their Radicalism."
At this time he had published, in the December
I Sir Donald Mackenzie WaUace, K.C.I.E., was then Private Secretary
to Lord Dufferin.

310 ALFRED LYALL [1885
number of the ' Fortnightly,' the first of his articles
written under the name of Vamadeo Shastri. They
have since been republished in the second volume of
his 'Asiatic Studies.' He was rather vexed that ' The
Athenaeum' announced him as the author, both
because it gave the press in India an opportunity
to criticise him, on the lines mentioned before, and
because he got credit for sharing the sentiments of
Vamadeo —
People take all the ideas that I put into the Brahmin's
mouth as my own, whereas I mean to show as near as may
be possible what are the ideas of cultivated conservative
Brahmins. The distinction is important. There was probably
not an Englishman living who was so competent, from
continual discussion of these subjects with natives of
India, to express their views. It was done so accur
ately that although the style is essentially English, a
prominent Brahmin gentleman believed the articles to
have really come from one of his countrymen. The
thing was not a mere trick and tour de force ; it was
a genuine attempt to represent a phase of Indian
thought ; and therein lies the main value ofthe papers.^
Nothing new here. Burmah will ferment for some time to
come, but will settle down steadily if nothing happens to
disturb the Indian Empire just yet, though people are dis-

1 Mr James Kennedy, late of the Indian Civil Service, who knew LyaU
weU, and was often consulted by him on Uterary and other subjects, writes
about this : " Vamadeo Shastri was meant by him for the dramatic repre
sentation of a famous Sunyasi at Benares, who, after being Prime Minister
of some native State, retired to Benares to cultivate the reUgious life."

1 886] 'VERSES WRITTEN IN INDIA' 311
covering already that our new conquest locks up a good many
troops that we should like to have in India. You can't go
on extending in this way without rather weakening your
position ; and the worst is that the real springs and motives
of annexation are essentially commercial, arising out of the
pressure at home to find new markets and fresh fields of
enterprise. All the talk about military and official ambition
spurring on to fresh conquests is superficial.
In the spring of 1886 Lyall was told that if he
wished to extend his tenure of the Lieutenant-
Governorship from April 1887 to the foUowing
November he could do so, and he accepted the offer.
Meanwhile he had reprinted, with some changes,
his 'Verses Written in India.' This reprint is the
edition which many of his friends possess. I had the
pleasure of helping him to go over the verses and
correct the proofs. We were neither of us very
good proof correctors ; but the verses not being
my own, I ought to have been better than he was,
yet there is a bad mistake in the most important
line of his " Retrospection." " And then ? One shot,
and her reign was free." But bad as this was, I
did not sin quite so grievously as the proof corrector
of a later edition — it seems a shame to tell the story
— who allowed that touching little poem, " After the
Skirmish," to open with the line " Mid the broken
glass of a trampled glade." That showed really
diabolical cleverness. Luckily Lyall saw and cor
rected the error in time. Of his reprinted verses
he writes to his sister —
Very curious that the " Colonel " should have got about in
London, and should have been recited as you mention. I

312 ALFRED LYALL [1886
accept it as a testimony of some kind of merit in the piece —
in India it is " The Old Pindari " that they recite. . . . They
are too fugitive and miscellaneous to be of any real value;
one must have written more to make any kind of mark with
them. To Henry Irwin of the Indian service he writes — :
I kept a copy of my verses for you. . . . "Theology in
Extremis" is the only piece of any real value in the whole
collection. The cold weather of 1886-87, the last Lyall was to
spend in India, brought as usual a great deal of
entertaining of one kind or another, and many visitors
— among them Lord and Lady Rosebery, Prince
Frederick Leopold of Prussia, and various Indian
officials. Then Lyall went down to Calcutta for a few
days to see Lord Dufferin, and came back to camp,
where he amused himself by seeing wild elephants
caught and broken in. As he had a brother from
England staying with him, and had just received
news that his brother James was to be the next
Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab, it was a pleasant
New Year.
It is worth noting, by the way, that, except in
this case, no two brothers have ever been promoted
in succession to Lieutenant - Governorships in the
Indian service. The Lyalls had charge of the two
most important provinces of India, with a popu
lation of about seventy millions ; and the younger
brother proved to be perhaps the better, certainly
the more popular, Lieutenant - Governor of the
two.

1 88 7] METHOD OF VERSIFICATION 313
In February 1887 Alfred LyaU sent to England his
verses on " Siva," which, as he says,
were evolved out of the contemplation of an idol adorned
with a necklace of skulls and various symbols of destruction ;
while his temple is filled with wanton and even lascivious
sculptures — the idea being the endless succession of death and
birth. The truth is that the pantheism of the Hindus — the
adoration of natural forces — and the science of the Europeans,
which explains everything by the operation of natural forces,
are being discovered to be very much the same thing.
The piece was not published until June 1888, after
Lyall had left India, when it appeared in ' The
National Review.' He showed me the manuscript
before he sent it to England, and it seemed to me a
true and powerful embodiment of the Hindu ideas of
the God ; but I believe that it does not appeal to
many readers, and no doubt the train of thought is
difficult to follow, unless one has seen in their fearless
graven reality the things he describes —
" The organs of birth and the circlet of bones,
And the light loves carved on the temple stones."
I remember his being much troubled, more suo, by one
line in this piece : " As the rolling flood of existence
runs." He had written it also " the moaning flood,"
the whole stanza being somewhat different, and he
discussed at some length the merits of the alterna
tive words. He used to strike off his verses very
rapidly, after the manner of the man he scoffed at,
Longfellow ; but, having done so, he would often tor
ment himself for months over a stanza or a word.

314 ALFRED LYALL [1887
They have made me a K.C.I.E., which is an honour, as I am
bracketed in a way with Sir F. Roberts ; James has got
nothing, but the Viceroy, like an Irishman, has evidently dis
tributed the pudding and the sauce separately, in order to
stop as many mouths as possible. He has given preferment
where he did not give honours, and vice versd.
I do feel . . . that my latest mistake was to take this
Lieutenant-Governorship when I might have had Council
first. And I have before me the position of retired Indians,
as good men as myself, living in dull obscurity at home ; so
that the thought of ending my active service at 52 is not
pleasant. In the beginning of May 1887 Lyall went up to
Naini Tai, diverging from his road to open a bridge
at Gauhati, near Bulandshahr, where in the Mutiny,
thirty years before, he had had a narrow escape. He
was riding into Bulandshahr, not knowing that it had
been seized by a rebel force, and would inevitably
have fallen into the midst of them, when he met on
the road a man he had known slightly, who stopped
him and warned him to go back. This man was in
fact the rebel leader. A year afterwards he was
under sentence of death, and Lyall was able to
save him.
It may be desirable here to sum up in a few words
the chief features of LyaU's Lieutenant- Governorship.
His province having no dangerous external frontier,
he was not troubled by any border expeditions or
simUar worries; while the internal peace of the
province remained throughout free from disturbance.
Lord Dufferin once said of India that " the bottom
was always dropping out of the bucket." Perhaps,

1 887] AS LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR 315
since the Mutiny days, the description has been less
applicable to the North West Provinces than to
most other parts of the country. In any case, during
LyaU's term as Lieutenant-Governor he was not called
upon to meet any sudden emergency of a serious
nature. Nor was he by temperament inclined to stir
up unnecessary difficulties. His natural tendency was
to let things alone so long as they were doing reason
ably well ; to interfere as little as possible with the
natives of the country ; in fact, to keep the machinery
of administration running smoothly rather than to
signalise his term of office by any sensational reforms.
Nevertheless, to use his own words, it happened that
among the questions and transactions belonging to
this period some were of more than ordinary public
interest. There was the Local Self-Government Scheme
already mentioned, by which district and municipal
boards were invested with larger and more inde
pendent powers. Again, Lyall attached much im
portance to keeping the people contented by lightening
as far as possible the burdens of taxation and improv
ing the relations between landlord and tenant. Some
steps were taken in that direction. The Oudh Rent
Law was amended, and the system of land revenue
assessment throughout the North-West Provinces was
carefully examined. Meanwhile, attention was paid
to public works, which have an important bearing
upon the prosperity of the people. Roads, railways,
and irrigation works were pushed on. Towards the
close of LyaU's term a Legislative Council was
established. Finally, just before he left India, an

316 ALFRED LYALL [1887
Act was passed constituting a university at Alla
habad, and he became the first Chancellor.
But, when all is said, there was in reality nothing
very unusual about LyaU's Lieutenant-Governorship ;
nor perhaps was he regarded as exceptionally strong
in the ordinary work of administration. He was a
good administrator ; but in India good administrators
are not rare. The three things which were reaUy
remarkable about him — if one may judge from the
talk of officers who served under him — were that he
held his own with unvarying success against any
interference from outside, that he always backed his
men against attack, and that as far as possible he
gave them a free hand in carrying out work entrusted
to them. He specially objected to interference on
the part of the Secretariat at Simla, holding that
local governments ought to be practically independ
ent, and if worried by any of the departments in the
name of "the Governor-General in Council," he would
deliberately choose his ground and bring on a conflict.
His skill of fence made him a formidable antagonist,
and he soon came to be respected and left alone. One
of his subordinates, who was by no means an indiscrim
inate admirer, says about this : " The consequence was
that LyaU's distinction was reflected upon us. In
stead of being at the bottom of the Provinces, we felt
ourselves at the top, and worked accordingly." The
same correspondent writes: "Lyall always defended
his officers against outsiders. As long as you were
doing your best you were always sure of his support."
He was " rather feared than popular " ; but appa-

1 88 7] AS LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR 317
rently, though he could be severe himself, in private,
to a man who went wrong, he would defend such a
man stoutly against attack from any one else.
" You must never flog your men in public," was one
of his principles. Finally, Lyall, it is said, was
always open to a suggestion, and if he found that
a man had struck upon a useful scheme, would let
him carry out the scheme in his own way, un
hampered by interference in details. This encour
aged men to keep their eyes open, and also to take
responsibility. Such was the reputation Lyall seems to have gained
in the North-West Provinces. It is the reputation of
a strong man. He was at the same time regarded as
a somewhat indolent man, and perhaps with justice ;
though it may be that what was attributed to indo
lence was sometimes due to deliberate policy.
In the course of his last summer Lyall had a
serious illness, and was for a time in some danger, but
he recovered ; and in October he went to pay a fare
well visit to Simla, where he had the pleasure of stay
ing with his brother James, now Lieutenant-Governor
of the Punjab. He found Lord Dufferin deeply
engaged in supervising the building of a new Vice
regal Lodge, which was a great improvement upon
Peterhof, the straggling cottage where so many
Viceroys had spent their summers. In Simla Lyall
remained some days, meeting many old friends, and
taking his last sight of the place where he had passed
through such anxious times. I notice that in a letter
written from there he regrets that he had not kept a

318 ALFRED LYALL [1887
diary, for the last twelve years at least. As his bio
grapher, I share the regret, for if he had kept one it
would no doubt have enabled me to give a more com
plete and interesting record of his life.
Leaving Simla, he returned to Naini Tai, where he
spent three weeks. "We are out on the hills — the
mighty mountains of snow unveil themselves to us
morning and evening — the climate is perfect — it is a
good life to have known." Then followed a few days
in Lucknow and Allahabad, " deeply engaged in vale
dictory functions, which are not very pleasant things
when the farewells are, so far as my numerous native
friends are concerned, really for ever." But the press
of engagements kept him from thinking too much ;
and just as he was about to lay down his charge he
was cheered by the engagement of one of his daughters
to a member of his service. Then, once more an
Englishman at large, after thirty-two years of official
work, Lyall left Allahabad for Europe. " We went
off honourably ; there were many sayings of regret,
especially for Cora, who is very popular. In a month
we shall be virtually forgotten."
A day or two later Lyall was on board the Verona
in Bombay harbour, homeward bound. He had
spoken of his native friends. The last to say good
bye to him was an old servant who had come with him
to Bombay. By chance I also sailed for England in
the Verona; and standing on deck just before we
started I saw them together. In a story of Indian
life, written not long afterwards, I have described
that parting — how " the two men stood looking at

1 887] FAREWELL TO INDIA 319
one anothe" in a silent life-long farewell that was
very pathetic," and how when the final signal was
given the Englishman patted his servant on the
shoulder "with something very like a caress." Then
he turned and went below. It was LyaU's farewell
to India.

CHAPTER XIIL
LIFE IN ENGLAND.
1888-1892.
Arrival in England — The Council of India — A full and busy life — Makes
many friends— Offered Governorship of the Cape — Writes 'Warren
Hastings' — Publishes book of verse — Revolt in Manipur — Lectures
at Oxford and Cambridge — Offered Governorship of New Zealand —
Indian frontier policy — Publishes ' Rise of the British Dominion in
India' — Change of Government — Lord Kimberley — Mr Gladstone
and Mr Balfour.
Lyall's voyage to England was not as pleasant as he
had hoped to make it. After the manner of Indian
officials, he had contemplated a stay on the Continent,
and visits to various interesting places which he had
long wished to see — perhaps a winter in Italy — but
these plans were given up.
He did spend some days in Cairo, where Major
Evelyn Baring was now established ; also a day or
two in Venice and Turin, and a few more in Paris.
Lord Lytton was at that time our Ambassador in
France, and Lyall was glad to see him again. But
the winter on the Continent was a very cold one ; and
LyaU's old restlessness was upon him, for he was
troubled about his future life in England, wondering
whether he should find anything to do. His letters at

1 888] ARRIVAL IN ENGLAND 321
this time show signs of depression and anxiety. Early
in January 1888 he was in London again.
His reception was such as to set his doubts at rest ;
for he had hardly landed, and seen his family, when
he was offered a seat in the Council of India, which
gave him immediate occupation.
He was still in the prime of life, just fifty-three
years of age, and in fairly good health. He had done
as well as a man could do in India, and was now
assured at all events of a comfortable position in
England, with some useful work, and yet with leisure
enough to indulge his literary tastes. Nor was he
debarred from the possibility of further employment
abroad if an opportunity should occur. Nothing
could really have suited him better ; and any depres
sion which he may have felt at the close of his Indian
career soon passed off.
He had not yet begun to keep a diary, and the
letters preserved by members of his family are fewer
after his return to England ; moreover, he had not
lost the habit of leaving them imperfectly dated, so
that it is not easy to follow closely the course of his
life ; but it soon became a full and busy one. During
his first year in England he was elected a member
of " The Club," of the Literary Society, and of the
Breakfast Club ; and innumerable houses were thrown
open to him, for his conversational gifts made him
welcome wherever he chose to go. Lord Dufferin
wrote of him, " I am delighted that LyaU should have
become a member of the Breakfast Club. He is one
of the most accomplished and delicate-minded spirits
X

322 ALFRED LYALL [1888
of our age, and has proved himself, in spite shall I say
of his great literary talent, a most able and practical
administrator." His India Office work, though not too heavy, was
enough to give him regular employment ; he was
also writing review articles ; and he soon found
himself being consulted on all sorts of subjects, official
and literary. From the first, therefore, his time was
fully occupied. His social success was specially re
markable. Perhaps his sister, Mrs Webb, had to some
extent prepared the way for him, for she had made
many friends ; but his own character and qualities
would in any case have brought him forward. A
man who was much in town at that time said to
me not long ago—
I got quite tired of being asked by London hostesses who
the Indian man was that every one was talking about. In a
month or two he was to be seen everywhere, and all the
clever women in London were his devoted admirers.
In some cases, no doubt, it was mere lion-hunting;
but he made many real women friends, who remained
his friends for the rest of his life.
Shortly after his arrival he writes to his brother
James —
The India Office is comfortable and convenient, but rather
depressing : in the first place, death visits the Council rather
frequently ; secondly, we have all rather the look of old hulks
laid up in dock, and are men who have said good-bye to
active service; thirdly, the distance and difference between
London and India makes one feel as if looking at things
through a glass darkly, not face to face, and in a year or two

1888] THE INDIA OFFICE 323
I shall begin to distrust my judgment. Lord Cross seems to
me an honest, straightforward, sensible man, doing his work
very well, and Godley^ is an excellent good fellow. In
Council we stand up and orate, which keeps down desultory
discussion, but is not good for thrashing out questions.
I am deeply grieved at Sir H. Maine's death, his place is
impossible to fill ; he was a man of unique capacity, we shall
not see his like again in England just yet. . . .
I have been leading a life that has been busy without doing
over much. I find the India Office gives as much work as
one will take ; and London somehow devours all spare time.
We took a house for six months in South Kensington, and
have now just bought one in Queen's Gate, near the Park;
though we shall not occupy it till November. In the mean
time we are at Canterbury for two months ; and I have run
over here ^ for a few days to see Dublin and to talk about
Irish problems on the spot. Balfour is here, and I have dined
with the Lord Lieutenant: I have also seen various other
persons. The main question seems to me to be whether a
great agrarian reform will remove discontent, or whether the
people will still insist on Home Rule when their chief,
perhaps only, grievance is removed. On this point the
difference of opinion is great, and it will only be settled by
actual experiment. . . . The atmosphere of Ireland is not
unlike that of some great station in India — the officials and
the garrison predominate in society — the etiquette at the
Viceregal Lodge is much the same; and there is the same
indefinable feeling of being among a people who stand aloof
from the English, although outwardly civil enough. The
country is quiet, except in Clare and Kerry ; but officials in
Dublin are never free from some risk, and the police hover
everywhere. I pass every day the spot where Burke and

' Mr Arthur Godley, now Lord Kilbracken, was then Permanent Under
Secretary in the India Office.
2 His letter is dated from DubUn Castle.

324 ALFRED LYALL [1888
Cavendish were murdered, right in front of the window of
Viceregal Lodge.
The following are a few extracts from letters to
M. Rend de KeraUain : —
I have left India, and have finally returned to settle in my
own country. But, as you anticipated, ... I have found no
literary leisure here in London. I had scarcely taken my
neck out of the official collar, when I was again put into
harness, and introduced to a pile of blue-books and papers at
the India Office. Moreover the stir and bustle of politics and
society in this huge town are very disturbing to a man who
has been for years leading the life of a contemplative Asiatic.
In short, I find the greatest difficulty in taking up anything
that requires thought and study.
I am sending you by this post a copy of the short notice of
the late Sir H. Maine, which I wrote for ' The Law Quarterly
Review.' The letter goes on to discuss Burnouf's ' Science des
Religions ' —
We also, in England, are substituting for the Science, the
History of Religions ; but here again there is a tendency to
go too far, and to discover a long connected filiation of ideas
and worship where no such systematic evolution has really
taken place. . . .
It is curious that you should have happened to see my
verses in ' The National Review.' I am afraid the great god
Siva's mystical utterances are not greatly appreciated amid
the smoke and wealth and noise of London. ... I believe that
they (the verses) represent not untruly the idea which that
divinity embodies.
Soon afterwards he writes again —
Your book reached me safely two or three days after I had

1889] OFFER OF THE CAPE 325
written to you about it. ... I have been reading your intro
duction with much pleasure, and I observe with pride the
honourable place accorded to my short notice of Sir H. Maine
that appeared in ' The Law Magazine.' . . . Did I mention in
my last letter that I have read and much appreciated M. James
Darmesteter's ' Lettres sur I'lnde ' ? I am going to place the
title of his book, among others, at the head of an article that
will soon appear in ' The Edinburgh Review.' . . .
I learn with great interest that you have Bougainville
among your ancestors. He was one of the enterprising and
valorous Frenchmen who in the eighteenth century so well
represented France beyond the seas. If you had had more
like him, and a better Government at home, England's place
in Asia and America would now be very different from what
it fortunately is.
A curious book might be written upon the psychological
problem which you suggest — whether the strong dose of
sentimentalism introduced (by the English above all) into
modem ideas about marriage, has or has not been detrimental
to that wondrous institution. It will end by profoundly
modifying the structure of the institution itself. Shake
speare, in whom we find all wisdom, says that when two
persons ride on one horse one must ride behind; but these
proverbs are becoming musty.
Early in 1889, when he had hardly settled down to
his London life, Lyall received an offer which surprised
and gratified him, but caused him some perplexity.
He was asked whether he would accept the Governor
ship ofthe Cape in succession to Sir Hercules Robinson.
The post was an important one ; indeed, Lord Dufferin
wrote that it had " now become the most important
post* that can be placed at the disposal of a public
man ; " and for those who knew LyaU it is interesting
to speculate what his attitude would have been during

326 ALFRED LYALL [1889
the eventful years which foUowed in South Africa.
One can hardly imagine two men more different in
character than Alfred Lyall and Cecil Rhodes. But
they never came together, for, after mature considera
tion, Lyall declined the offer. He writes to his brother
James —
I did not take the Cape Governorship, because I had just
enough to live on in my way so long as the Council lasts, and
it is hardly fair on my children that I should leave them
again so soon, for six years. . . . Also, I myself am lazy about
starting again on my wanderings ; and Colonial Governor
ships do not pay unless one goes in for a series, as Norman^
has done. But there was, I felt, a kind of presumption in
refusing what is well known to be the most difficult of the
Colonial appointments; for the control of the frontier dis
tricts and the protectorates is a very intricate business. The
miserable native chiefs are getting into the hands of great
speculating and mining companies, backed by powerful city
men, . . . and the Governor, as High Commissioner, must
either stand in with them, or run the serious danger of being
undermined and intrigued against at the Colonial office and
in Parliament if he stands up against them. ... In this sort
of atmosphere the simple Anglo-Indian, resting only on the
very weak knees of the Colonial Office, is likely to come to
grief. However, I think I shall take another Colonial offer
if I ever get one.
He had now undertaken to write a memoir of
Warren Hastings for the " Men of Action " series, and
he was also at last making up his mind, on the
repeated advice of good judges, among whom was
John Morley, to publish his poems. During the
1 Field-Marshal Sir Henry Norman, Governor of Jamaica and Queens
land.

1 889] TROOPS OF NATIVE STATES 327
spring of 1889 he paid a visit to Lord Dufferin in
Rome, which he enjoyed, for Lord Dufferin was
the most delightful of hosts ; and from him also
Lyall received encouragement to let his verses face
the criticism of the public. On the way he stopped in
Paris, and had an opportunity of hearing from Lord
Lytton something of French politics, which had
always interested him. At this moment they were
specially interesting because of the excitement caused
in France by the growing influence of General
Boulanger. After his return to England Lyall writes to his
brother about all these matters, and about various
questions connected with India. He was beginning
to be troubled by the restricted nature of his work
in the India Office, where, he felt, " one can prevent
some mischief, but do little good, on the Council " ;
and he did not altogether approve some of the
measures upon which the Government of India was
embarking. I was then in his old place as Foreign
Secretary in India; and, largely on the sugges
tion of Major, now Sir Howard, Melliss, had pro
posed a scheme for the reform of the armies of
Native States, so that they might be utilised
for Imperial service, and that some outlet should
be given to the military ambition of the higher
classes. As to this, Lyall writes —
I do not feel quite comfortable about Durand's project of
arming the troops of Native States, it breaks with a policy
that has been steadily adopted and gradually introduced

328 ALFRED LYALL [1889
throughout the country, ever since we relieved the States
of their old engagements to maintain troops for service
with our own.
He wrote to me more than once on this subject,
as indeed he did on many other questions. At times
I could not see matters exactly as he did, but I never
differed from him without extreme reluctance ; for his
thoughtful study of Indian history, — not only of its
facts but of the meaning of them, — and his con
sequent knowledge of Indian character and senti
ment, had deeply impressed me. Whenever I found
myself obliged to advocate measures which he dis
approved, I used to be haunted by an uneasy feeling ;
and the conviction that he sincerely disliked inter
fering with us who were on the spot, made this
feeling all the stronger. Nevertheless, in regard to
the armies of the Native States I am inclined to
think that the balance of argument was in favour
of the course adopted.
Another Indian question in which he took much
interest at the time was the tendency to centralis
ation, — to the increase of power in the hands of the
Supreme Gx)vernment in Simla, and interference with
the powers of the Provincial Governments. He had
always felt strongly about this, and had when a Lieu
tenant - Governor held his own very successfully.
" Provincial decentralisation," he writes, " subordinate
Home Rule, is obviously the right way of managing
our unwieldy empire ; and all the departments should
be entirely under the Local Governments." The
danger of over -centralisation in India is one which

1889] 'WARREN HASTINGS' 329
does not decrease with time ; and LyaU's view on
this point is worth noting.
In 1888 he had contemplated writing a memoir
of Sir Henry Maine, and had also thought of taking
up the story of Dupleix, whose career in India had
always interested him. Both these projects he had
to give up.
" I am pledged to ' Warren Hastings,' " he wrote,
" and this will occupy all my spare time, which in
London is little enough." ' Warren Hastings,' and
the long - delayed volume of verse, duly appeared
before the end of the year 1889, and Lyall received
many congratulations upon both. Fitzjames Stephen
wrote about the former, with a curious economy of
stops, that he had read it with the keenest possible
pleasure and with warm admiration.
It seems to me to do for Warren Hastings exactly what
I always wished to be done for him. No one can say it
is otherwise than completely put and what is more quietly
and unenthusiastically put, and as you read it you feel that
Burke's notions about him were simply mad injustice arising
mainly from want of information or rather excess of in
formation uninformed by sympathy so that he could never
for a moment see that the whole Indian enterprise was not
a tyrannical and detestable but essentially and potentially
the greatest of English one might almost say of human
enterprises. Stephen adds a remark which seems true. " I
don't much like your frontispiece. The portrait
in the Council Room at Calcutta is much better."
That fine portrait, with its enigmatical face, as Lord

330 ALFRED LYALL [1889
Reay called it in a letter to Lyall, often struck
people as having some likeness to Lyall himself.
About this book he received an interesting letter
from the famous war correspondent Archibald
Forbes —
I have been reading with great delight your ' Memoir of
Warren Hastings ' in the " Men of Action " series. . . . One
sentence struck me as a marvellous coincidence. Writing
of Hastings' first wife (p. 11) you have the following : " But
the poor lady died in 1759 after bearing him two children,
neither of whom survived childhood; and of this brief
episode in his eventful life only the bare facts remain, like
the names and dates on some obscure stone among the
historic monuments of a great church."
The coincidence I refer (to ?) is that between your simile
and the actual fact. Some years ago, wandering through
the graveyard of Cossimbazar, keeping a watchful eye for
inscriptions — and serpents — I came upon "the names and
dates on an obscure stone " of Hastings' first wife and their
two children — their names and the dates of their death.
Wilfrid Blunt wrote about the book of verses —
I feel sure it will be successful, for it is not like the
generality of books of poems, which have more manner
than matter, and by any one who knows the East it will
be recognised as astonishingly true and powerful. To me
it has been almost painfully so. . . . The pieces I like best
are " The Amir's Message," " The Old Pindaree," especially the
ending, and " The Hindu Prince." ... I also like extremely
the "Amor in Extremis" — and perhaps, best of all, "Bad
minton," which is quite perfect for a thing in so small
a compass. Grant Duff wrote : " Your delightful little volume
has reached my hands. You will now be recognised,
by all whose opinion is worth sixpence, as entitled

i89o] HIS VERSES PUBLISHED 331
to a very high place among English poets." The
book was well received by the public, and at the
beginning of 1890 Lyall writes to Sir Frederick
Roberts, then Commander-in-Chief in India —
I am very glad indeed to hear from you again ; and it is
a pleasure to know that you like my small book, which has
sold very well in England. Here they read the verses as
curiosities ; but I rely on India for appreciation of any true
value that the pieces may possess.
Similarly he writes to Henry Irwin —
I have always believed that they could be properly under
stood nowhere except in India, where they were written. . . .
I particularly value your appreciation. ... I notice that you
have put in italics the line in the "Amir's Message " which I
myself always thought the best —
" It is He gives wealth and vengeance, or tears o'er a blood-stained
grave."
LyaU always felt that readers who had not been
in India could not be expected to understand some
of the allusions, or appreciate the local colour. Rud
yard Kipling has shown both in prose and verse
how boldly a man may disregard this consideration ;
and LyaU perhaps attached too much importance to
it. But I have more than once found that Eng
lish readers who spoke highly of LyaU's poems had
completely missed the meaning of certain passages.
He writes to Mrs Webb—
. . . We were at poor Browning's funeral — the Abbey
looked mysterious in the half light ; and the music was very
fine — though it seemed a strange thing to lower a coffin down
into a stone vault, as if it were some precious thing to be

332 ALFRED LYALL [1890
carefully preserved and locked up in a store-house, instead
of actually committing earth to earth, according to the natural
putting off of our mortal vesture.
Early in the year he was paying some visits to
friends in Scotland, and had been in Edinburgh.
Drove round and round through the town ; saw Holyrood,
and went to Kirk on Sunday, to see the Presbyterian service.
Its simplicity attracted me^no prayer-books; a Bible and
hymn-book — singing, praying, and reading alternately. I
think it's nearer the true feeling than all the papistical soul-
destroying ritual of the High Anglicans and Romans, which
my Puritan Catechism calls spiritual whoredom.
I have little to tell. On Saturday we dined with Lady
Lyttelton where was Mr Gladstone. . . . After dinner I
found myself next the G.O.M. ; and we discoursed somewhat
on poetry, and somewhat on the Indian Councils Bill. He
talked in a powerful way; perhaps the manner more im
pressive than the matter, but very interesting.
I breakfasted with Leonard Courtney yesterday, to talk
politics with him on India, then I went to see Lord Herschell
on the same subject. I am much interested in the Indian
Councils Bill, and I find that unless one discusses such things
with English politicians, one entirely misses the parliament
ary point of view. I am going to-night to the Lords to hear
Lord Northbrook move an amendment to the Bill in Com
mittee. It is a much milder one than I expected. . . .
I went on Friday afternoon to Lord Hartington's garden
party, where I was well amused by seeing many folk. . . .
Lord Hartington's face as he shook hands with innumerable
guests expressed honest ennui ; but with him people rather
liked that. . . . Wednesday to Lady Ribblesdale, where
Oscar Wilde held forth with a series of half absurd para
doxes on art and literature. Morley, who was there, looked
grim at first, but soon entered into the spirit of the man,
. . . and so ends our season. I hope I shall settle down

1890] THE INDIAN ARMY 333
to some literature, and get rid for a time of office work,
which has been troublesome.
A little later he writes to Sir Frederick Roberts —
I am still rather uneasy about the arming and organising
of the troops of Native States; but I do not oppose your
measures in Council, because the Govemment of India ought
to take the responsibility. I myself like my work in
Council, it gives me enough to do — for I am Chairman of the
Public Works Committee — and does not occupy all my time ;
indeed, it sometimes gives me more work than I care for.
He soon got to dislike the Public Works Committee,
for it gave him more trouble than all the other
Committees put together, and, as he said, he was
not born to figures and calculating. From his Eton
days this had been his weak point. The reduction
in the number of the Council about this time did
not decrease the work ; and as Lyall was a member
also of the Political Committee, which dealt with
the work of the Indian Foreign Office, and, moreover,
was greatly interested in the proposed reorganisation
of our native army, he had his hands fairly full.
As to this last matter, he fully recognised the
necessity for strengthening our fighting line against
external enemies, by enlisting a larger proportion
from the martial races of northern India; but he
saw the danger of putting " too many of our eggs
in one basket," and also that of causing discontent
among the populations from which our old sepoy
army used to be drawn. It is one of our most
serious difficulties in dealing with the question of
our native army that in a vast country like India,

334 ALFRED LYALL [1890
where the population consists of many races differing
in language and religion and habits, fully as much
as the nations of Europe, the question has to be
regarded not only from the military but also from
the political point of view. With his keen sympathy
for the soldier, joined to his exceptional knowledge
of native feeling, LyaU's opinions were here par
ticularly valuable.
He was at this time troubled about the North-
West Frontier.
It seems to me as if the Indian Foreign Office were not
handling the Amir very tenderly ; and I should be inclined
to caution about treading on his skirts by pushing too far
inwards among the frontier tribes or beyond the Kojuk.
This was a question on which LyaU had to some
extent seen reason to modify his views. At the end
of his time as Foreign Secretary he had been inclined
to the opinion that although the Forward Policy in
Central Asia, as originally advocated by Colonel
Colley and others, was a mistake, it was desirable
to bring under our control, in one way or another,
the independent tribal country lying between India
and Afghanistan. Before Lyall left the Foreign
Office portions of that tribal country had in fact
been brought under our exclusive protectorate, —
notably some part of the country occupied by the
great tribe of the Afridis, the most powerful of all
the frontier tribes. And as late as the end of 1889
Lyall wrote to his brother, the Lieutenant-Governor
ofthe Punjab —

i89o] COUNCILS IN INDIA 335
There is much to be said for a policy of steadily advanc
ing our protectorate, until we have all that belt of country
well in hand, and avowedly within the sphere of our political
influence. Sandeman's proposals for pushing up from Zhob,
taking the Mahsud Waziris in the rear, and opening out
a through line by the Gomul Pass, seem to me good strategy,
for the frontier tribes can only be subdued and reconciled
to us by effective subordination to our power, and we must
have command of all the passes into India.
But as time went on he came to the conclusion that
we were going too far or too fast, and incurring
considerable risk of setting not only the border
tribes but also the Afghans against us. On this
point he spoke to me earnestly, and I afterwards had
much correspondence with him about it.
Lyall had long been an advocate of Provincial
Councils in India, and he writes to his brother —
I forget whether I have written since the Indian Legisla
tive Councils Bill passed the Lords. As I had much to' do
with the Bill framed by this office, I was interested in its
progress. Lord Northbrook intended to propose an amend
ment for the partial introduction of representative institu
tions — i.e., the elective principle; and I should have been
glad enough to agree if I could have seen my way to any
method of popular election that would not have thrown the
whole electorate into the hands of wire-pullers. I discussed
this with Lord Northbrook, who, when he came to the work
ing out of his view, was brought up by the same difficulty,
and finally carried a very mild amendment. . . . The difficulty
will be, as you say, to find the Provincial Councils something
to do ; but this may be overcome if the Government of India
are in earnest in decentralising legislative business.
The Government of India appears to be developing a

336 ALFRED LYALL [1890
forward foreign policy. I suspect that matters are being
pushed on too far and too fast in the quarter of Kashmir,
Gilgit, Chitral, and Hunza, that is. I doubt whether all
this extension of our protectorate is really useful or neces
sary, and Sandeman on his side is working with equal
activity. However, so long as the Government of India can
find the men and the money, perhaps no great harm is being
done — we shall see at the next great crisis. A supplementary
measure is the reorganising of the Native States armies, to
which I cannot reconcile myself. I think it is a dangerous
game, not worth the risk, and a new departure from an old
traditional policy.
But in the present state of things, when two rival Bills
for reforming the Indian Councils are before Parliament, I
am particularly anxious that travelling M.P.s should be well
posted up. . . . The Cabinet has resolved to resist any
measure for the present that involves electoral representa
tion in the Legislative Councils of India — but I hope a
Council of some kind will soon be established in the Punjab
and in every large province. Bradlaugh is, in truth, very
lukewarm about his own Bill — he is sensible enough, and
sees the difficulties of letting in all these talking Indian
politicians. I have been reading the papers regarding the extension of
our authority over the Zhob valley and the Gomul pass. I
think the measure on the whole good : and it will strengthen
our frontier arrangements — though we can't pronounce on
the policy until it has stood the test of another row in
Afghanistan. It works well enough in peace times ; but in
a war the tribes and levies might tum against us. . . . It
shows a want of real judgment to attack the " Lawrentian "
system because times have now changed — that was the best
system available before the Afghan war of '78-81, and Sande
man's occupation of Quetta, Peshin, gave us a real hold on
Beluchistan and South Afghanistan and on the Amir.
The dissertation (in Dilke's ' Problems of Greater Britain ')
upon Russia and Afghanistan is another instance of the way

1890] INDIANS IN LONDON 337
we go on cackling over Russia's advance, and all the dangers
of internal revolt and defeat in the field, until we shall en
courage not only the Russians to attack us, but the natives
to bully us by threatening a rise against us. . . .
I have seen something of A., son of your frontier chief —
but these youths are quite comfortable in London — they get
demoralised by Bengalis, who turn them all into Radicals,
with the assistance of Irish M.P.s, who assiduously preach
Home Rule to them.
I met C. and Mrs C. in town — they are loud in praise of
your hospitality, and seem really rather grateful, which is
rare. . . . However, I hope you won't be troubled any more,
save for very special reasons; and I am much indebted to
you for so kindly responding to my calls on you. Every
M.P. who visits India with honest political intent returns a
wiser and more sober man. I think even Bradlaugh was
made more cautious by his glimpse of Bombay.
During this year Lyall had written an article in
' The Edinburgh Review 'on " Polytheism," and sent
it to Mrs Holland.
I feel that I owe you a kind of apology for sending an
article that is redolent of Hobbism — the spirit of antagonism
to Catholicism. I forgot at the moment that it might very
reasonably jar on your conceptions of what is true and right.
I stand so much outside that circle of feelings that I am
stupidly numb towards them. I don't for a moment suppose
that it is good for a high intellectual faith to be put under a
despotic temporal power ; though I may hold that in the last
resource the civil law should always be supreme, even in
matters of faith and morals — and I am quite aware that the
Chinese level of morality is very low. I am dealing, as the
title of my paper denotes, with Polytheism, which is not a
serious form of religion, and may fairly be kept under
control. I have a sufficient contempt for people who are so
ignorant as to compare even Buddhism and Christianity.
Y

338 ALFRED LYALL [1890
It is interesting to see that however unorthodox
he may have been, he never lost his respect and
even affection for the faith of his fathers. A little
earlier in the year, while on a visit to his friend
Spencer Walpole in the Isle of Man, he went alone
to Peel, to see the ancient ruined Cathedral of the
Bishops of Sodor and Man.
The Bishopric [he writes] is, I think, the most ancient in
the United Kingdom. ... It is pleasant to . . . look out of the
windows over the quiet sea, feeling that one is at a point
where stood one of the earliest and most remote outposts of
primitive Christianity.
The year closed for him with the preparation of a
despatch to the Government of India on the vexed
question of Frontier Policy. The Viceroy, Lord
Lansdowne, had come to the conclusion that circum
stances had now made it " absolutely necessary to
abandon the policy of non-intervention in the affairs
of the frontier tribes." It was not his wish to in
terfere in any way with the independence of these
people, but he desired —
By means of tribal allowances in payment for service
rendered, and by cordially supporting the legitimate influence
of the head-men, to gradually establish in each of the tribes a
friendly and responsible authority on which the Government
of India can rely for the preservation of peace and order.
It was urged that the policy had not been unsuc
cessful where it had been tried, and it seemed " not
unreasonable to expect that it will succeed on the
Punjab frontier as it has elsewhere." In fact, the

i89o] THE PARNELL SCANDAL 339
policy inaugurated by Sir Robert Sandeman in the
south, and supported by Sir Frederick Roberts, had
prevailed over the non-intervention policy of the Pun
jab. Lyall drafted the reply, as any one knowing his
style could have told. By it Lord Cross accepted the
Viceroy's proposals, but urged that they should be
carried out cautiously, and with due consideration of
the importance of " maintaining friendship and a
good understanding with the Amir of Afghanistan."
About this time occurred the Parnell scandal and
the attack of the Irish party upon their chief Lyall
writes to Mrs Holland —
ParneU fights like a wild boar in one of Snyder's pictures,
ripping and tearing the hounds that are upon him. It is
interesting to see how the Irishmen and Irish women whom
I meet sypathise with his fierceness. Lady  , a Galway
woman, but a true Protestant and Unionist, cannot conceal
her liking for the man's fighting quality.
But though ParneU's courage appealed to Lyall,
as it did to most men, he was opposed to Home
Rule. He had written not long before that he
thought the Ministry would soon be out, " which I
shall regret, though I am strongly Liberal, for I don't
want to be governed by wild Irishmen." And his
feeling against Home Rule remained with him to
the end.
Lyall had now finally given up sport of all kinds,
and did not care to join in the shooting-parties to
which he was asked ; but he was enjoying many
country visits, and expeditions to the Continent and
elsewhere. For the next twenty years these journeys

340 ALFRED LYALL [1891
seemed to satisfy his restless spirit more than any
thing. Ireland, Scotland, Wales, the Isle of Man,
France, Switzerland, the Riviera, Italy, yachting tours
in the Mediterranean, — all were somehow combined
with a large quantity of solid work, official and
literary. He was never so happy as when he was on
the move. And already, after three years in Europe,
he was in better health and spirits than he had ever
been in India.
i, myself, never discovered [he wrote to Lord Roberts] how
much I had lost in India, until I returned to England, and
found how much I gained in strength and general freedom
from headaches and small maladies.
The year 1891 opened with a very deplorable
tragedy — the rising in Manipur, and the death of
some British officers and native soldiers at the hands
of the rebels, who were led by the Senapati, a brother
of the ruling chief Lyall was much distressed.
The Manipur disaster is lamentable. When the first news
came I felt, as in the old days of the massacre at Kabul, that
kind of mixed horror and anger produced by the imagination
of the cruel death of men whom one has known well and
valued. It has been noticed before how keenly Lyall felt such
things — much more keenly indeed than many men
who were regarded as more generally sympathetic.
His imagination was exceptionally strong, and no
doubt also his recollection of old Mutiny scenes en
abled him to call up a vivid picture of what had
occurred. That easy indifference to the fate of our

1891] REVOLT IN MANIPUR 341
people in distant parts of the world which one is at
times surprised to see, even in men of kindly natures,
was utterly foreign to him ; and he was always stern
in insisting upon the necessity for condign punish
ment. Much as he disliked bloodshed, he regarded
with indignation the weak sentiment which makes
men advocate mercy for those who have shown no
mercy. He thought it a cruel betrayal of the men
who were serving England, whether they were
Englishmen or Indians, to let the murder of any of
them pass unavenged. It would be well if our states
men all had as clear an understanding of the principle
that care for the lives of our servants is a nobler thing
than generosity to their enemies. In the Manipur
case due punishment was inflicted upon the leaders in
the massacre, and we who were in India knew that
on his part at least there had been no shrinking.
It had been a difficult position for Lord Lansdowne,
who was now Viceroy of India, and Lyall wrote to
me —
I do most heartily admire the justice and firmness of
purpose displayed in executing the Senapati. I hope there
will be no interference, in my absence, from the India Office.
This case, it may be observed, naturally seemed to
Lyall a warning against the policy of arming the
Native States. In another letter to me he writes —
I have, as you know, always thought the risk lay in the
chief losing control of his own disciplined force or weapons,
which would fall into the hands of daring leaders of revolt —
an Arabi Pasha or a Senapati, — and this would render the

342 ALFRED LYALL [1891
business of restoring order a much more serious thing than it
usually is now, when the Political Agent goes to arrange things
with a slender escort and a stout heart. ... I am not going
to oppose or thwart the policy now that it is adopted, but I
still think it dangerous — especially to the chiefs themselves.
Early in 1891 he was employed upon two lectures
regarding the Indian frontier, which he had under
taken to deliver at Oxford in the following term ; and
he was also engaged to give the Rede Lecture at
Cambridge. His subject in this case was "Natural
Religions in India." He was rather nervous about
these lectures; but they went off well, and he was
pleased. He received various letters about them,
among others one from Lecky, who wrote of the
Rede Lecture —
I have already read it once carefully through, and am in
the middle of it for a second time. It seems to me one of the
very best things you have done — as good as any of the ' Asiatic
Studies ' — and I am sure it will do much to raise the standard
of such enquiries in England. You must have added a good
deal to the spoken lecture. It is a deeply fascinating subject,
and I am not sure that we have got much beyond the Hindu
conception of the Universe with all our science.
About this time Lyall was asked to write a history
of India, a book on Modern India, and an article on
the religious future of India. All these invitations
he refused, but he took much trouble in working
through the proofs of Lord Curzon's book on Persia,
which no doubt profited by his suggestions. He had,
in fact, become recognised as a leading authority on
Asiatic subjects in general ; and his reputation in

1 891] LORD LANSDOWNE 343
this respect increased, deservedly, as years went on.
Meanwhile a portrait of him by Shannon had been
unveiled in the Convocation Hall of the Allahabad
University, which he had founded, and of which he
had been the first Chancellor; and in the speeches
delivered on this occasion, LyaU's services and char
acter were warmly eulogised both by the Viceroy,
Lord Lansdowne, and by the native nobles of the
Province. Lord Lansdowne's speech contained the
following words : —
He will certainly long be remembered as the Lieutenant-
Governor who gave these provinces a University, a Legislative
Council, and a Rent Law suited to the requirements of the
country, an act which, as Raja Shiva Pershad has justly said,
is a standing monument to the tact and ability with which
Sir Alfred Lyall handled that most difficult question. His
interest in public works, and particularly in the development
of the railway system of this part of India, was unceasing,
and served to prepare the way for many useful enterprises
which have since been brought to a successful conclusion. . . .
Of his brilliant and attractive personal qualities and attain
ments I hesitate to speak in the presence of those who know
him so well. He was, above all things, a student, and a
thorough student, from the day of his arrival in India until
the day when he left it. Probably no Indian administrator
has ever been at more pains to understand the country which
he helped to govern. He was one of those who are not
content with knowing the surface of human affairs, but who
seek rather to search out the sources of events, and the great
principles which underlie them. His knowledge was con
sequently exceptional in its extent and in its thoroughness ;
it gave him an exceptional insight into the life and character
of the people of India, and that sympathy with their feelings,
without which no Indian statesman can hope for success. To

344 ALFRED LYALL [1891
culture of this kind Sir Alfred LyaU added a remarkable
literary ability which gave a charm to everything which
proceeded from his pen. There can be little doubt that had
he preferred such pursuits to those of an official life, he would
have risen to the highest rank among modern writers of the
English language.
The speech pleased Lyall, who wrote to a friend,
" I am very sensible of the value of so public an
attestation, from such a Viceroy, of my services in
India." In June 1891 Lyall writes to his French corres
pondent, M. de Kerallain, who was thinking of trans
lating his Rede Lecture — -
I have some intention of publishing a second volume of
' Asiatic Studies ' towards the close of this year : but all that
I really had to say upon Indian religions I have, I fear,
already said, and the essays in the second volume will be
rather historical than religious.
The same letter goes on to speak of Warren
Hastings, and connected questions.
I think that the chief reason why the English fortunes
prevailed over the fortunes of France in the contest for India,
was that the English contrived, in the Seven Years' War, to
secure the command of the sea, and gradually to establish
their naval superiority. Other causes were local, and of
minor importance. A book of first-class merit has appeared
recently, 'The Influence of Sea Power on History,' by
Captain Mahan of the American Navy, which I particularly
recommend to the attention of all French politicians.
Is there any evidence, in your archives, that the English
East India Company employed large sums of money in France
to influence Ministerial personages in their decision to abandon
and recall Dupleix in 1754 ? We have such a rumour.

i89i] LECTURE AT CAMBRIDGE 345
My Rede Lecture has been delivered ; and the venerable
University of Cambridge, which has honoured me with the
degree of Doctor of Laws, was pleased to signify its approba
tion of the lecture by ordering it to be printed. I shall lose
no time in sending you a copy, which will be entirely at your
disposition for literary purposes. Before delivering my ideas
on Natural Religion to an audience which included the Vice-
ChanceUor and other dignitaries, I carefully corrected any
tendencies to divagate into remarks or allusions that might
seem to contain any application to matters of European faith
or doctrine, so that I think a skilful translator need have
no fear of the Inquisition. In short, I kept closely to my
subject, which is Religion in India.
It is a pleasure to see that shortly afterwards he
writes to his brother in India —
Pray do your best to keep up a friendly understanding with
Durand ; for my sake he will be inclined to work with you.
But he goes on —
I don't feel at all comfortable about India ; but then I have
always been haunted by presages, mainly by reason of the
steady growth of our responsibilities without equivalent in
crease to our strength. We are trading on a vast scale with
a very low reserve. I was against taking Burmah for this
reason, much too vague and general to be forcible. . . .
I have written to Roberts and Durand pointing out the
lesson given, as I think, by Manipur against arming these
Native States, and especially against allowing them cannon,
beyond their old pieces.
In the course of this year he lost his sister, Mrs
Holland, whose name occurs so often in these pages.
He writes —
For us brothers and sisters, Sibylla's death is a matter of the
deepest grief and an irreparable loss ; it is the flrst blow to our

346 ALFRED LYALL [1892
lifelong companionship, and the first serious gap in our circle.
. . . There was widespread regret among all classes at Canter
bury, where she was very much beloved.
Her letters, published by her son Bernard Holland,
give proof of a beautiful character ; and after reading
them one can weU understand the deep affection she
inspired. A year later I find Lyall writing fi:om Harbledown —
I came down here this morning — rather reluctantly, at the
last moment — for I knew it would be painful to see this house
again, and so it has been. Everything reminds me of last
September ; nor can I free my imagination from the figure of
dear Sibylla in the garden or the rooms. But she has gone,
borne down on the rolling flood of existence, and soon these
shadows of her will also vanish into oblivion.
In January 1892 Lyall was offered the Governor
ship of New Zealand, and had some inclination to
accept it. But this would have involved the loss of
his appointment in the Indian Council, and an ex
penditure considerably exceeding the pay of the
Governorship, so that after consideration he felt it
wiser to decline. He would have returned to India if
one ofthe Governorships of Bombay or Madras had
been offered to him ; for though he liked London life,
and especially his literary work, he always felt, and
more than once said to me, that as long as a man
could remain in active service of an honourable char
acter it was the right thing to do. Neither of these
posts, however, came his way, and he remained in
England. From the point of view of India it was no
doubt a waste of so much ability and experience ;

\ \

«1 / ' /
'. r, 1/

..ji--
/

i1^*

1892. FROM A PENCIL SKETCH BY THE MARCHIONESS OF GRANBY.

1892] EXPANSION OF INDIA 347
but my belief is that for Lyall's own happiness it was
better that he did not enter upon a fresh term of
Indian service.
About this time, the beginning of 1892, he writes
to Lord Roberts —
One line to convey to you my warm and hearty congratu
lations on your accession to the peerage. ... It is an honour
that gives great pleasure to all who have known your career
during the last 35 years. I think we met for the first time
at Bulandshahr in September 1857. ... I am delighted to
find my prophecy fulfilled.
You who are so influential on the Council will not mind
my saying that it seems to me that the Indian Government
is enlarging its borders rather rapidly. You have pushed
forward to the slopes of the Hindu Khush, where you are
occupying remote and exposed posts — you are widening your
skirts all along the Afghan hills, and you have taken a large
sweep eastward and north-eastward on the Burmo-Chinese
frontiers. The Government thus produces on me the impres
sion of a great trading firm that is constantly extending its
operations and locking up its funds without increasing its
reserve capital ; for your fighting army is much the same as
before, and you cannot safely augment it, unless you import
more English troops. ... Is it necessary to continue this
incessant expansion ? . . . I would ask your particular atten
tion to the alteration necessarily made in the balance, so to
speak, of our liabiliti^ss for defence of the Indian Empire by
our acquisition, since 1886, of a long and unsettled frontier
in contact with China on the east. Formerly our rear and
flanks, as we faced north-west, were tolerably secure; now
we have a powerful neighbouring State to take into account.
Lyall was well aware, and he said so in this
letter, that it was not easy from the distance of
England to estimate exactly all the bearings of

348 ALFRED LYALL [1892
the situation. He was therefore most reluctant to
interfere with the policy of the Indian Government
or of the men on the spot. But throughout his time
in the Council in England his advice was always the
same — that we should as far as possible husband our
resources, and refrain from any further extension of
our responsibilities. No one felt more strongly that
the foundation of our security was our force of Eng
lish troops, and that the supply of these was small
and difficult to increase. No doubt he was right,
but it is not always easy to prevent the extension
of responsibilities.
He writes to Rivett-Carnac-^
Life in England seems rapidly to shut out the ordinary
Indian associations ; one falls into other grooves and consorts
with new acquaintances; but you will find that one often
looks back to the quiet and ease of Indian existence at its
best, where there is no haste or crowding, and a peculiar
simplicity of life, even when it seems luxurious.
For myself I prefer having got back to England before 60
years of age; the past five years at home have been very
pleasant to me.
I am sorry that the young Nawab of  is coming to
London ; my own conclusion, after some experience, has been
that if the Indian princes get a run in civilised luxuries and
vices early, they are seldom content afterwards with the
primitive life among their own people.
Meanwhile LyaU's literary work was going on, and
he was being asked to undertake all sorts of tasks.
He was invited, for example, to contribute to ' The
Nineteenth Century' a sonnet on Tennyson, but he
answered that he had "given up the verse -making

1892] THE BRITISH DOMINION 349
business." His main literary effort during the year
was the conversion of some papers written for the
University Extension series into a book on the ' Rise
of the British Dominion in India.'
In the spring of this year Lyall was yachting with
his friend, Mr P. Ralli, and on the 15th of April was
at Constantinople. Then he went on to various places
in Greece, about which he writes in a rough diary,
the entries mixed up with dissertations on historical
and literary matters in a way which makes them very
confusing to any one but the writer. This is the first
attempt at a diary I have found among his papers.
It extends over several years, and contains valuable
notes, some of which I recognise in his published
works ; but it is rather a bewildering volume to deal
with, — beginning from both ends, and partly written
in pencil, and vague as to dates, after his manner.
About this time he writes to M. de Kerallain —
I am much obliged to you for directing my attention to
the 'Revue Historique' for April, where I have found the
notice of ' Warren Hastings ' ; nor have I the slightest reason
for dissatisfaction with your treatment of me or of my hero.
On the contrary, your remarks seem to me to be at the same
time impartial and interesting, a combination of qualities not
always easily attained; for I have observed that my own
writings have been occasionally depreciated as not being
sufficiently one-sided. The general reader likes to be told
distinctly whether a famous man is to be classed with the
devils or with the angels. ... I am struck with the justice
of your remark that, to judge by the treatment accorded in
England to Clive and Hastings, in spite of their wonderful
success, they would assuredly have fared no better than

350 ALFRED LYALL [1892
Dupleix and La Bourdonnais if they had failed. The fate
of Lally, however, would have been impossible in England.
Our Conservative Ministry is declining towards an end;
the mere anticipation of its fall naturally leads prudent poli
ticians to begin withdrawing their support. On the other side
the Gladstonians, having office in view, are becoming cautious
in their promises — as we say here, they are hedging — and I
prophesy that in the matter of Egypt they will prove no
warmer advocates of evacuation than their predecessors. I
am afraid that when such material interests are at stake a
foreign nation would be disappointed if it supposed party-
fencing to represent any earnest collision of opinions.
The Liberals were returned to power by the general
election which took place soon afterwards, and there
was a change at the India Office.
Before leaving town finally for his summer vacation,
Lyall went by appointment to call on the new Secre
tary of State, Lord Kimberley, and all who knew that
able and kindly man will recognise the picture —
Lord Kimberley . . . was very civil to me. . . . But he
is celebrated for talking incessantly at official interviews
instead of listening to the men he has sent for. . . . This
he did to me, the subject being our Afghan situation, and
the consequence was that by the time he slackened I had
got tired with the effort of following his oration, and when
ever I began to speak he recommenced. So I conveyed my
views to him very imperfectly. . . . But he is evidently a
strong man.
He was that, and much more besides ; but he
could not help talking. I remember going to see him
on my return from a mission to Kabul a year or two
later, and after my interview one of his colleagues in
the Cabinet said to me, " Have you seen Lord Kim-

1892] CHANGE OF GOVERNMENT 351
berley ? " " Yes, I saw him yesterday." " And I
suppose he told you all about Kabul and the Amir ? "
It was exactly what he had done, at considerable
length. Yet I have been told, and can readily believe,
that the India Office has not often had a better
Secretary of State.
In August 1892 Lyall writes to John Morley —
Although we hold different opinions on the question of
Irish Home Rule, I think we should find ourselves in virtual
agreement on almost every other political question. However
this may be, I feel so strong a private interest in your Minis
terial success that I cannot help desiring it very sincerely.
About the same time he writes to Mrs Webb —
On Friday I went to the House of Commons, — the place
was crowded beyond the memory of the oldest inhabitant —
every gallery, every step and gangway — ambassadors packed
like fish on their bench — ^peers and peeresses — poor little
 unable to get in, half crying at the door. In the
midst uprose Gladstone, who made the speech you've read;
very full and flexible voice, great dignity of attitude and
gesture, and (to my mind) much force of argument. A very
fine performance, worth witnessing. Balfour rose to reply —
nervous and rather stumbling at first ; a weak voice cracking
with the strain of the situation — a contrast with the large,
cool utterance that had just ceased. But he soon warmed
to his argument, and looked very well — a light, active, fiery
kind of spirit leading his men in serried ranks behind him.
He attacked the Irishmen with gesture and word directly
and very boldly, made a dashing speech full of fight and a
kind of defiance. His argument I did not think strong — he
denounced the Gladstonians as slaves of the Irish party, on
whom their majority depends. True ; but, as Gladstone said,
you must take all together, and treat the majority as a whole,

352 ALFRED LYALL [1892
as the verdict of the United Kingdom — you have 40 men
against you and out you must go. If the Irish went over
to the Tories, would the Tories in their turn be slaves ? and
so on.
It is an interesting and even amusing time. I dine to-night
with Sydney Buxton; to-morrow with Leonard Courtney.
Gladstone left the House after Balfour had been speaking
about 15 minutes. Mrs G. was waiting for him outside, and
they drove straight to the country. The Tories are making
a great deal of this — say it is unheard of that a party leader
should make his attack and not listen to the Chief's reply —
discourteous to Balfour; great sign of physical weakness-
how can he expect to lead the House ? For my part, I think
an old man of 83 who has just made a great effort may
well be allowed to slip away quietly — but they give him
no quarter.
One would think from this letter that LyaU's sym
pathies and reasoning were rather on the side of
Home Rule ; but it was not so, for the letter to John
Morley which I have quoted above was dated eight
days later. This tendency to see both sides of a
question was characteristic of Lyall, and perhaps it
was one of the reasons, besides his knowledge that
he had no gift of oratory, which prevented him from
ever trying to take an active part in political life.
He could never have been a real party man ; and it
was well that he never had an inclination to come
forward — for even if he had got into the House the
life would not have suited a man of his temper.

CHAPTER XIV.
1893-1903.
' The Rise of the British Dominion in India ' — Other literary work —
Home Rule Bill of 1893 — Disappointed of Viceroyalty — Serious
Ulness— Folklore— Visit to The Hague — Jameson Raid — The Indian
Frontier — Too old for Bombay Governorship — Second series of
'Asiatic Studies' — The Boer War — 'Alfred Tennyson' — John
Morley's appreciation — Privy CounciUorship — Close of official career.
' The Rise of the British Dominion in India ' had
been published; and in February 1893 Sir Thomas
Wade, formerly British Minister at Pekin, wrote to
Lyall of the "intense gratification" with which he
had read it.
Feeling keenly how much a work of the same kind on
China is called for, yours fills me with envy. It is so com
prehensive and clear, with, to my mind, the right measure of
philosophy to be looked for in a treatise for the use of adult
students ; of a class of men who do not require to be lured by
anecdote. I am glad to see that while you do splendid justice
to Hastings and Wellesley, you do boldly mark also that
which is censurable as violation of principle.
The book was in fact one of exceptional value ;
for it was full of careful thought, and brought out
especially two broad facts which, though obvious

354 ALFRED LYALL [1893
enough, had never till then been clearly enunciated
or recognised. These were that the foundation of
our dominion in India was superior sea power ; and
secondly, that, superior sea power once established,
the extension of that dominion over the whole
country was not fortuitous, but natural and almost
inevitable. Lyall did not think much of the book
himself He sent me a copy of it with the words —
It is a mere historic sketch, on lines which might suit a
much larger work, if any one found time to do it thoroughly.
. . . You will have noticed that my point is to explain that
the conquest of India was really a very easy business, and
that the French were never "in it" seriously.
Sir Thomas Wade's letter was not the only proof
given to Lyall at this time of the value attached to
his literary work. At the end of April he received
from Sir Thomas Sanderson^ a letter of which the
following is an extract : —
Lady Derby thinks it may interest and please you to hear
that during the last few days of his illness Lord Derby, whose
intellect remained clear and unclouded to the last, repeated to
her by heart several of your poems. I daresay you know
already that he admired them greatly, and said that they
represented to perfection the local colour of India.
And a little later the great Jowett writes, in his
minute and difficult hand, asking Lyall to visit Oxford.
His letter finishes, apparently, with the words —
Let me tell you with what great interest during the last
year I have read your book on Asiatic forms of religion : it

1 Now Lord Sanderson.

1893] LITERARY WORK 355
seems to me the most instructive book on the subject that I
have ever read, and the best calculated to make men realise
the difference between Indian and Greek and European
notions. Lyall had been asked by Lord Goschen to give a
course of five lectures on India before the London
Society for the Extension of University Teaching ; but
this he found impossible owing to other engagements,
and he was obliged to refuse also various requests for
contributions to magazines and reviews ; but he wrote
for the April number of the ' Quarterly ' an article
which attracted considerable attention, on the Life
and Speeches of Sir Henry Maine ; and in ' The Edin
burgh Review' of the same month appeared an article
by him on the Colonial Policy of France. It was
a subject in which he took much interest, though
he feared that his knowledge of it was very in
complete. During April he spent a week in Paris with Lord
Dufferin, who spoke of his visit as "a delight," and
wished it had been longer. Soon afterwards Lyall
writes to M. de Kerallain —
La Manche isole, as you observe ; nor do I as yet foresee any
near prospect of a "rapprochement" between France and
England. I was in Paris for a week or more last month,
and I confess that your politicians did not exhibit any great
increase of confidence in the friendly intentions of their
neighbours with regard to the various points under dis
cussion between us. You will remember that I prophesied
to you, long ago, that in regard to the exodus from Egypt
you would not find Gladstone more ready than Salisbury to
play the part of Moses. In fact, the Jews, French and

356 ALFRED LYALL [1893
English, are still bent on spoiling the Egyptians, as they
were in more patriarchal days.
My sister sent to you, I believe, my little book on ' The Rise
of the British Dominion in India.' I should be very glad if
you were some day disposed to let me have your appreciation
of its contents. I have given therein my view of the real
situation of the French settlements in the last century, and of
the true causes why the English power prevailed. I think
that Dupleix has been too much magnified latterly, and that
in the circumstances of that period the gallant attempt of a
few Frenchmen to found a solid dominion in India were
foredoomed to failure.
A letter to Mrs Webb, dated, after LyaU's manner,
" Monday evening 7 p.m.," appears to refer to the
introduction of the Home Rule Bill of 1893.
I went down to the House at 3 p.m. with Asquith, who took
me in by the private entry, and I was just in time to secure
my seat in the special gallery. The House was of course
densely crowded. Chairs were ranged for the members on
the fioor of the House, and all the galleries were full. Glad
stone came in precisely at 3.30, he began to speak at 3.45, and
spoke exactly two hours. I could not follow him well, for
after the first hour he was evidently losing strength, and his
voice dropped in ending his sentences ; but his opening was
finely delivered, though not very powerful argumentatlvely.
Lord C  , who was close to him, told me afterwards that
Gladstone was very much " done," but his style and oratorical
skill did not desert him. . . . When the speech was over I
strolled about in the lobby outside, which was crammed with
members eagerly discussing details. The impression seemed
to be not particularly favourable, especially as to the provision
whereby one set of Irish members are to form the Legislature
in Dublin, and another to come over here to the Imperial
Parliament. It was interesting to hear them all talking. It
was said that the Parnellites accepted the measure, but that

1893] THE HOME RULE BILL 357
the Ulster men are irreconcilable — that it will nevertheless
pass somehow.
Later in the year Lord Roberts, who was about to
deliver an address in Edinburgh, wrote to Lyall about
it, and he replied in a letter from which I extract the
following passages : —
It would be good to bring out clearly that Lord Dalhousie,
in annexing Oudh, acted under the orders of the English
Govemment at home. I say this because the commonplace
idea is that we Anglo-Indians have done all the annexa
tions. . . . Certainly the annexation expedited the Mutiny,
because so many of the sepoys were Oudh men, who had a
kind of attachment to their own dynasty. . . . The short
paragraph you propose about the quickness with which the
population in the North-West fell into disorder and anarchy,
might well be inserted. At Meerut not only the town roughs
but the neighbouring villagers rushed together to plunder —
especially the Goojurs, a wild cattle-stealing clan in those
days. The truth is, that outside the towns the country-folk
before the Mutiny were much in the old-fashioned half -bar
barous condition that they had been in before we took those
provinces — the traditions " of fighting and looting were only
dormant — and when law suddenly .ceased, when the Govern
ment suffered sudden total eclipse, every one went his own
way, took arms, and began to clear off old scores with his
neighbours, especiaUy money-lenders and land purchasers.
In Bulandshahr the country was " up " within three days of
the Meerut outbreak.
During this year Lyall, who had always studied
colonial affairs, was interested in the organisation of
an International Colonial Institute, which had been
projected by M. Chailly Bert and others. The pro
ject was carried into effect, and with some success.

358 ALFRED LYALL [1893
Altogether LyaU's life at this time was a full one;
and he writes to Rivett-Carnac —
The difference between official life in London and in India
(even in Simla) is this, that in London one's business is only
part of one's numerous avocations, whereas in India the office
rules everything else. I don't mean that here all time out
side office is devoted to society, though a great deal of it is ;
but there are all sorts of other calls upon one's time. I have
never been busier than in London, though I have worked
much harder in India.
Towards the close of the year he was made an
Honorary Fellow of King's College, Cambridge, of
which his old schoolfellow Whitting, with whom he
had competed for the Newcastle forty-one years before,
was then Vice-Provost. This was gratifying, but the
year 1893 was now to bring him a great disappoint
ment. Lord Lansdowne was about to retire from the
Viceroyalty of India, and the Liberal Government was
in considerable difficulties regarding the choice of a
successor. No suitable peer or other person of note
in England being ready to accept the post, it was
decided that a man of Indian experience should be
appointed ; and Lyall naturally hoped that in these
circumstances his claims would be thought as good
as any. Eventually, however, the choice fell upon
a distinguished Indian soldier, Sir Henry Norman,
then Governor of Queensland, who at first accepted,
but on reconsideration refused the offer. Norman
was a man of the highest character, conscientious
to a fault, and doubted whether at his age, sixty-
seven, he could properly undertake to discharge for

1 894] HOPES TO BE VICEROY 359
five years the work of the Viceroyalty. The view
taken about Lyall — a curiously mistaken view — was
that he had not sufficient decision of character to
make a good Viceroy. Lyall in action was a very
different man from Lyall in the deliberations of
Council. He had shown as ruler of a district, and
of a province, that he could make himself respected
and feared. However this may be, the end of it
was that Lord Elgin consented to go out, and LyaU
lost the chance of his life. He never complained,
or allowed the matter to prey upon his spirits, but
no doubt he felt deeply disappointed. Yet it was,
possibly, fortunate for him that he did not get what
he desired.
Early in the following year, 1894, Lyall writes to
John Morley —
I heard yesterday evening that you would remain faithful
to Ireland. ... I would it had been otherwise ; for we much
need some one who can stand up effectually for India in the
Commons. From the point of view of Indian politics, that
exemption of cotton goods from the import duties is a serious
concession to the self-interest of our people, which will do
much to damage the confidence of the Indians in the English
Govemment. I cannot believe that the manufacturers them
selves are acting wisely for their own advantage. However,
we all protested, vigorously and vainly, in our Council.
In May, Lecky writes to him regarding a new and
enlarged edition of ' The British Dominion ' —
Many thanks for the new edition. I have been reading the
new chapter with deep admiration and agreement. Quite in
dependently of all other considerations, your prose is a per-

360 ALFRED LYALL [1894
petual pleasure to me, and I do not think any other of our
time has a more enduring quality. I hope much more of it
is to come.
Much was, in fact, being written in the shape of
review articles, the ' Quarterly ' having one on
"History and Fable," and another on "Novels of
Adventure and Manners," while others were being
prepared. But towards the end of the year LyaU's
literary work was interrupted by a serious illness.
He had enjoyed and received benefit from a yachting
tour with his friend Ralli in the Mediterranean ; but
in the course of the summer he was prostrated by a
sharp attack of what afterwards turned out to be
appendicitis, and at the end of the year he was
obliged to undergo the then new operation, which,
at his age, very nearly sixty, was a grave matter.
He writes to his brother James in November —
Of course there is risk in this, but I am positively advised
that it is the best course open to me. If I am . lucky I shall
not be on my back above three weeks, though it will take
more time to get quite well. And I am prepared to face the
other contingency.
Under the skilful hands of Sir Frederick Treves the
operation was successful, " and," Lyall said, " Treves
regards me contentedly as a bit of good work." But
he remained ill some time ; and in later years he used
to say that if he had gone to the Cape or to New
Zealand he would in all probability never have re
turned. As it was, though he lived many years
longer, he had from this time to be careful about
his health. I notice that in the course of this year

1 894] TROUBLE IN CHITRAL 361
Lyall told Lord Roberts that he might some day
undertake " a memoir of what he had seen and
known during his Indian service." Later, when
asked by a publisher to write a volume of reminis
cences, he declined, and it does not seem that he
ever seriously contemplated the work. As I have
said before, he would have found himself at a dis
advantage owing to his having omitted to keep a
diary ; and this consideration no doubt prevailed
with him. But all who are interested in India
must regret the loss.
Meanwhile he was much troubled about the position
in Chitral, where our agent and a small body of
troops had been shut up and besieged. Lyall thought
we had mismanaged matters, and brought about
trouble by our imprudence. The question was very
fully discussed at the time, and there is no need to go
into it all again. But Lyall and his brother, now
returned from India, and Sir John Adye, did all they
could to " check the flow of the Jingo tide " on which
they considered Lord Curzon and others had embarked.
Whether they were right in their views time alone can
tell ; but the upshot has been that until now the
opposite policy has prevailed, and the country about
Chitral has remained under our control.
He solaced himself, after his fashion, by reading
philosophical works, and he writes to Mrs Webb
about his favourite, Hume —
All philosophical writing (except Berkeley's) seems to me
difl^ise and confused after this, — any one can understand his
arguments on the most profound subject, and he reasons so

362 ALFRED LYALL [1894
closely that I doubt if he has ever been fairly met and beaten
on his own ground. This does not mean that he was always
right, far less that he settled everything.
But he goes on —
You need not be wishing that philosophy pleased you more
— ^it is mostly a futile exercise, except when performed by the
masters of the art, who are all in the end destructive. They
tell you nothing, except that the Unknown Land is inacces
sible, and Shakespeare knew as much as any of them. The
great poets penetrate with divine vision through all these
clouds, and a few lines give the ultimate ideas, mostly
negative. Lyall had now made the acquaintance of Edward
Clodd, whose kindly hospitality he was to enjoy more
than once at Aldeburgh, and had got into correspond
ence with him on the subject of Folklore.
It appears to me that what Folklore principally needs is
the classification of its abundant material and steady guid
ance along certain main lines of research. I think you
have indicated very well indeed the points upon which
inquiries should be concentrated and the purposes which the
science can promote. The investigation of all these primitive
beliefs and practices throws new and strong light upon prob
lems of intellectual development, and must have greatly
changed the point of view from which certain theological
questions are examined, because the study explains the
growth of conceptions. But the science is apt to suffer from
a plethora of undigested facts, so that any theory may be
constructed by those who ingeniously pick out what they
want from the heap. I am sometimes inclined to wish that
your Society were empowered, like the Inquisition, to condemn
and bum all vagrant heresies and speculations ; and particu
larly to subject every new myth or story or custom reported

1 895] FOLKLORE 363
to you to a close scrutiny, for the purpose of ascertaining its
true value. As soon as a European goes about among wild
folk asking of their manners and customs, he gets all kind of
absurd off-hand answers, which are duly noted.
In regard to the diffusion of folk tales, the missionaries are
unconscious agents. They spread among savages the Bible
stories, and are astounded when these are reproduced to them,
with very quaint modifications, as tribal legends which indi
cate the survival of universal tradition. But no doubt this is
very well known to you ; though I am not sure whether
every one appreciates the constant action and reaction upon
each other of literature and legend in a country like India,
where they fiourish at the top and at the bottom of society
respectively. Many of the myths and legends have percolated
downwards — a few English story-books will set CindereUa
and Jack the Giant- Killer afloat among the fabulists; and
then comes the folklorist who is amazed at the similarities.
It was in this spirit that Lyall always attacked
such questions ; and the result was to make him very
sceptical about certain views which were popular in
England. Just as he had many years before broken a
lance with Max Miiller over the ' Science of Religion,'
so he had afterwards subjected to close scrutiny the
argument of that delightful book, the ' Golden Bough.'
Theories, however charming, found in him a rather
merciless critic. In the end he abandoned Folklore
altogether. It was, he said, " a bewildering and
fantastic pursuit."
In April 1895 he writes to Rivett-Carnac from
Cobham —
I have been shut up in two upper chambers of my London
house for almost the entire winter ; nor did I see the outside
of my front door for nearly three months until two days ago.

364 ALFRED LYALL [1895
when I came down here to a house lent me by Mrs Charles
Buxton. I have never been able to recover from the effect of
an operation in December last, and even now I stir very
seldom from a couch . . . the only consolation is, that it brings
out the good-nature of my friends. . . . My India Office work
has of course gone to pieces ; yet I have been writing Notes
about Chitral, and trying to ventilate my opinion that the
whole business has come out of not keeping in order your
ambitious political and military officers. They are very fine,
plucky, keen-minded fellows; but they should not lead a
great Government by the nose. However, the milk has
been spilt (not to mention the blood), and there's no use crying
over it.
Lyall was writing again for ' The Edinburgh Review.'
It had now come into the hands of Mr Arthur
Elliot, who had long collaborated with the late
editor, Henry Reeve ; and from this time onwards
until the close of his life sixteen years later, LyaU's
contributions to the Review were very frequent. In
1895 he contributed two articles, on "Twelve Years
of Indian Government " and " The Life of Sir Bartle
Frere." In September 1895 he was at The Hague attending
the meetings of the " Institut Colonial," and he writes
to his brother —
We meet in a large official room, where speeches are made
and papers discussed on colonial questions; the official
language being French, I have not yet made any oratorical
display. But my French enables me to understand very well
what is said, and to me the debates are interesting, especially
when the French members take part in it.
At that time the British Minister at The Hague was
Sir Horace Rumbold, who came of an old Indian

1 895] VISIT TO THE HAGUE 365
family, and kindly received Lyall at the Legation,
sparing him, as he said, the kind of trouble which
often prevented him from touring — hotel Ufe and
guide-books. Lord Reay was also at The Hague, and
Lecky, who had married a Dutch lady ; so Lyall saw
everything in the most favourable circumstances.
Altogether, in spite of his illness, the year was
for Lyall a busy and interesting one. Though he
regretted the overthrow of the Indian frontier policy
which he believed to be right, and the sudden change
of Government which took place at this time, he
recognised that the verdict of the country was against
his views.
I believe the country at large is just now in no humour
to care about proclamations. "Go in and win, and damn
the expense, especially Indian expense," is the general
feeling. We are in the position of the Liberal party that
tried to keep Lytton out of Afghanistan ; only unluckily it
is the beginning, not the close, of a Tory Govemment. There
is nothing more to be said. ... I suppose we must take our
discomfiture as an ordinary incident of the parliamentary
rdgi/me. With reference to LyaU's iUness, there is in
the ' Life and Letters of Leslie Stephen ' an inter
esting entry about him. Under date April 19, 1895,
Stephen, who, it is said, often repeated with enthu
siasm some of his verses, writes as foUows : —
' Eastern Studies ' is, I think, the most interesting work of
the kind I ever read. . . . When I came back from America
last time I made a reputation on board by reciting one of
his poems, " Theology in Extremis," at a sort of penny read
ing. ... I have never been the object of so many attentions

366 ALFRED LYALL [1895
before or since, and gave my autograph to a dozen ladies,
However, independently of that, Lyall is a man worth know
ing, and unluckily so popular in society that I don't often
get a chance of seeing him. So I have gained by his iUness.
What Leslie Stephen wrote was very true. Lyall
at this time thoroughly enjoyed London society, and
was to be seen everywhere. The following letter,
written to me after his death by Lady Lyttelton,
explains with a woman's insight the secret of his
personal charm —
The world seems so much duller without him. He was one
of the rarest spirits, and the profoundest mind I have ever
known, and yet — such a "pal," such a companion. Though
he seemed to bring all the wisdom of the ages to illuminate
anything he discussed, however small and human, however
fundamental and insoluble, — yet there was an undying youth
fulness and quickness of mind, the readiest laugh, the most
sensitive sympathy, moments of boyish impatience and
generous impulsiveness, an unfailing response to the adven
turous or heroic. All these things in personal converse with
him contrasted delightfully with the restraint, the fastidious
ness, the caution of his writings, and indeed of his conduct of
life as a whole.
The year 1896 opened inauspiciously with the
Venezuela trouble, and the defeat of Jameson's force
in the Transvaal. Lyall writes to his brother from
Cannes —
Like yourself, I am troubled by all these complications
abroad — indeed, they are never out of my head, and disturb
my mind perpetually. The Americans mean mischief ; -they
will do their best to humiliate us ; and if we are not skilful
as well as resolute they will succeed. . . . Then the Trans
vaal business, bad enough anyhow, is worse, to my mind.

1896] THEORIES OF BUCKLE 367
after Jameson's failure. Here have we again got ourselves
thrashed by these Boers, who trampled on the English flag
in 1881, and have ever since treated the Colonial Englishman
with contemptuous arrogance.
What was lacking on that border was a strong political
agent to prevent outbreaks, and to insist on the settlement
by Imperial mediation of the disputes between Boers and
Uitlanders. Early in 1896 Lyall was writing to M. de Kerallain
about Buckle, whose method he regarded as inadequate
and somewhat obsolete —
For myself I have always felt a prejudice against this
author, as being the type of men who work in a library,
surrounded by books, out of which they extract and co
ordinate the facts required for some theory. It was I who
suggested to Maine the unsoundness of Buckle's deduction of
various social and philosophical characteristics of the Indian
people from the assumption that they generally fed on rice.
. . . There is another similar generalisation of Buckle's which
is equally wrong. He says . . . that " according to the prin
ciples laid down" the deification of mortals could not be
expected in a tropical climate; and that therefore it is nat
ural that this should form no part of the ancient religion
of the Hindus. But the Hindu religion, ancient and modern,
is full of such deifications ; nor is any religion, except perhaps
Islam, free from them.
LyaU's distrust of " theory - mongers," as John
Morley called them, was no doubt legitimate ; but it
may be remarked, though the remark hardly applies
to Buckle, that a writer in England has often no
resource but to work in a library, surrounded by
books, and draw deductions therefrom. The mis
fortune is that too often the men who are thrown

368 ALFRED LYALL [1896
into contact with facts are, for one reason or another,
unable to make use of their opportunities for re
cording and analysing those facts, and are apt to
leave the theory-mongers a clear field. During a
large part of his life Lyall was specially fortunate
in having a certain amount of leisure. He used his
leisure exceptionally well ; but in India Englishmen
are so few in number that most of them are habit
ually overworked, and have none.
Lord Roberts was now bringing out his book,
' Forty-one Years in India,' and, like many other
distinguished men, he consulted Lyall freely about
many points on which his knowledge of India and
its people, and of Indian Foreign Policy, was of
special value. Among the letters from Lyall which
Lord Roberts has kindly placed at my disposal I
find a considerable number written at this time,—
letters full of thoughtful criticism and suggestion.
The two differed in their views about a variety of
matters, — for example, about the vexed question of
Chitral ; but each sincerely respected the opinion of
the other, and their old standing friendship was
increased rather than diminished by their discussion
of such debatable points.
This was Lyall's way, as I had good reason to
know. He opposed my own views on some questions ;
but his criticisms and arguments, though at times
pointed, were invariably friendly and fair.
Early in 1897 I returned to England for a few
months' leave, after two years' absence in Persia, and
found that the Indian frontier question had reached

1 897] THE INDIAN FRONTIER 369
an acute stage. The tribes were giving serious
trouble, and much discussion was going on about
the reasons for their hostility. As showing LyaU's
views on the subject I quote a letter which he wrote
to me later in the year, when our troops had been
forced to advance into the Afridi country. It shows
also the charming, almost amusing, politeness with
which he would always treat opinions which he did
not share, even those of a former subordinate.
Lord George's speech^ was excellent; he left himself
plenty of latitude; and I think affairs are now on the
right course so far as they can be in a situation where to
advance or stand still is equally difficult, while it was, as I
quite agree with you, impossible to go backwards.
With regard to your letter about the Russian question —
You are too well versed in diplomatic matters to believe that
Russia is deliberately meditating an invasion of India, or
even a crossing of the Oxus, without very good and solid
reasons. I know your view to be that we should gradually
establish ourselves in the tribal mountain-belt, to be prepared
for eventualities — but I would ask you to consider that this
system of steady pushing forward into those highlands plays
right into the hands of the thoroughgoing military party,
who wish to seize the whole country once for all. The tribes
understand the system as well as we do ourselves — what we
call gradual, they call stealthy; they are easily convinced
that we are sapping their independence, and that unless they
combine to resist our politic method of establishing ourselves
inside their country, they are lost. This was undoubtedly
the feeling that lay at the bottom of the present rising,
inflamed of course by fanaticism. Then comes a flght ; and
the thorough mUitaire gets his opportunity of pointing out

1 Lord George Hamilton was then Secretary of State for India.
2 A

370 ALFRED LYALL [1897
that unless we subdue the tribes and disarm them com
pletely we shall have all our work to do over again, — and
he is right, bar financial and political objections connected
with India itself, of which the army takes no note. I am
inclined to implore you, who take a larger survey of the
situation, to look all round before you throw all your very
material influence upon the side of gradual advance — except
upon lines, like the Khyber and one or two others, that may
be absolutely necessary. Wherever you set up posts you are
forced to occupy and administer a considerable space all
round you, and that leads to sure complications. This is
why I was dead against the Chitral route from Peshawar —
in which I think events have justifled me. I hear that
military men in India now want to abandon that route,
and to concentrate troops on their real front, toward Kabul
and Ghazni, wherein from the strategical standpoint I quite
agree with them.
This war is a great political calamity ; I am told that aU
our Mahometans in the north of India are sympathising
with the tribes, who have certainly not got the worst of
it thus far; though of course they will soon give in. The
Amir will be stronger than ever, and if he lives will soon
pose as the champion of Islam, with a formidable prestige
in our territory, which will make him more intractable than
ever in his dealings with us.
T won't write any more just now; I wish you'd run up
to jee me some time next week — on Tuesday or Thursday
about 3 P.M. for choice. Always yours very sincerely.
Similar views were expressed in letters to others.
This North-West Frontier war [he writes to Rivett-
Carnac] is a great political misfortune. The Govemment
of India has been listening too long to military advisers,
and is now stumbling heavily over the forward policy, which
has had a rapid fall in the political market, and will give
much trouble to the Ministry when Parliament meets.

i897] STORM OF DARGAI 371
There was, in fact, one of those sudden gusts of
feeling on the subject which are characteristic of our
Parliamentary system, and much discussion in the
newspapers and elsewhere ; but after that matters
settled down. It was too late to reverse a policy
which had been forced upon us by circumstances,
and was in reality the outcome of our occupation
of the Punjab fifty years before. From the first we
had been obliged to insist upon our right to deal
direct with the tribes upon our border, and as far
as possible to exclude Afghan interference in their
affairs. From that to some measure of control was
an almost inevitable step. But Lyall was no doubt
right in urging caution and abstention from unneces
sary increase of responsibilities.
The war brought to him a keen personal dis
appointment. The letter to me from which I have
quoted opens with a reference to his son, who
had been prevented from joining in the storm of
Dargai —
Poor Bob has been lying for a month in the Peshawar
hospital prostrate with fever caught during his long stay in
that crowded fort at Jamrud. He writes in the greatest
distress and disappointment — we hear that he has at last
been discharged, and sent to pick up strength at Rawalpindi.
In spite of all the risks, I am much troubled at his ill-luck,
for he will never have again such a chance as he has lost
by not being with the Gordon Highlanders in that brilliant
action of the 20th, his birthday.
That was characteristic of Lyall. Remembering
his own experiences, he had hoped the boy would see

372 ALFRED LYALL [1897
active service, and his regret at the mischance was
unfeigned. This feeling of sympathy for soldiers,
and admiration for their deeds, was with him to the
end of his life. I remember his cutting out from a
newspaper, and showing to me, a short time before
his death, a quotation from one of Henry Newbolt's
poems —
" Qui procul hinc, the legend's writ,
The frontier grave is far away.
Qui ante diem periit
Sed mUes, sed pro patria."
He had forgotten where the extract came from,
but greatly admired it, and asked me whether
I knew.With all his dislike for a military policy in frontier
affairs he never had a touch of the bourgeois dislike
for soldiers. Ever since his Mutiny days, when he
had seen the courage and self-devotion of our officers
and men, the profession of arms had been in his eyes
" the most honourable of all."
Meanwhile his literary life was going on as usual.
An admiirable article in the January number of the
' Edinburgh ' on Lord Roberts' book had begun the
year. There was another in July, on the Origin
of Primitive Religions. In October there was a
third, on Tennyson. He was asked by one publisher
to write his recollections of men and things in India.
Another asked him, most judiciously, to write a life
of Lord Clive. A third asked for a volume on the
Mutiny. He was also writing the chapter on India
for the Cambridge Press History.

1 897] DEATH OF MRS WEBB 373
In June he writes to John Morley —
I am much pleased that you have paid me the compliment
of sending me a copy of your Romanes Lecture, which I have
read, of course, with the keen interest that attaches to all
your studies of history. Machiavelli lived in a time when
all the Italian states were incessantly in what Hobbes. has
called " a posture of war " ; they were contending for exist
ence, and their statesmen subordinated political morality to
the instinct of self-preservation. This is briefly, I suppose,
the best excuse for his doctrines.
I quite agree with your suggestion at the bottom of
page 39 — the most of the wars of faith have been con
ducted on maxims of policy, at any rate by the leaders.
The year was greatly saddened for Lyall by the
death of his sister, Mrs Webb, who had been with
him in India. To Lord Tennyson, who had a warm
regard for her, he wrote : " She was my most in
timate companion and correspondent for many years ;
her loss is to me irreparable." She was, perhaps,
more like him in character than any other member
of his family, and could sympathise keenly with all
his varying moods. No one else was ever able to
take her place.
The year 1898 shows again a considerable output
of literary work. An article in ' The Nineteenth
Century ' on Louis XV. appeared in April, when also
he was considering an article on Thackeray for the
' Edinburgh,' which appeared in October. In the
following month appeared an article on the Theo
logical Situation in India in the ' Fortnightly.'
Throughout, offers of other literary work were being
pressed upon him ; and in June of this year

374 ALFRED LYALL [1898
he was awarded a silver medal by the Society
of Arts for a paper on " Chartered Companies and
Colonisation." It is in fact impossible to follow all
the threads of LyaU's literary activity, for as I have
said he kept no diary, nor did he even keep an
accurate list of his writings. A chance allusion in a
letter is often the only clue to an article of consider
able interest ; and, no doubt, in spite of much search
among masses of proofs and rough notes and scrap-
books, I have missed some papers which he wrote.
In July 1898 Lyall writes to Mrs Neville Lyttelton
— Colonel Lyttelton was going on service —
I wish you well and happily through this last week before
your husband's departure; after all, the roving Englishman
is the salt of English land, and one lives strenuously in the
pain and pleasure of the outward-bound farewell and the
homeward return. There is still a ring of poetry to be
brought out of these things.
For himself, though "tired of life in jungle and
tent," he was as incapable as ever of remaining a
month or two in one place ; and the comments in
his letters upon the uniformity and monotony of
ordinary existence in England are very frequent.
To the end, even when weakened by ill health and
the burden of years, there was in him the old im
patience of inaction. He could not sit still, mentally
or bodily.
Nor could he help at times wishing for more active
employment abroad. He writes to Sir West Ridge
way, then in Ceylon —

1 899] INTEREST IN ASIA 375
I ought to have written to you again some time ago, for I
really value your friendship and desire to keep up our corres
pondence. ... It may sound barbarous, yet I myself can say
honestly that my regrets are never for the many pleasant
years that might have been passed in England and were
passed in India; on the contrary, I am often looking back
with regret that I did not see more of Asia and things and
ideas Asiatic. And though I have now had ten very cheerful
years in London, I have constantly twinges about not having
gone to the Colonies when I might have so done.
The foUowing year opened pleasantly for him. His
younger son and daughter had both returned from
India, and he was happy in seeing them again. There
was at this time some possibility of his being sent out
as Governor to Bombay ; but he was now sixty-four,
an age which was held to disqualify him, and the
place went to Lord Northcote. He was not really
disappointed, for he was now thoroughly at home in
England, and, except for the Viceroyalty, would have
left the country with reluctance. From this time for
ward he knew that his day for active service was over,
and he resigned himself without complaint to the close
of that chapter of his life. There remained always
his Councillor's work in the India Office, where his
opinion carried great weight ; and, what he enjoyed
much more, literature. He had consented early in
this year to deliver lectures at Oxford on " India
during the Queen's Reign," and he was writing for
the ' Edinburgh ' upon Anglo-Indian novelists, and
was again being pressed to write his reminiscences,
and articles on Indian frontier policy. FinaUy, he
was as usual being consulted by all sorts and con-

376 ALFRED LYALL [1899
ditions of men. For example, Lord Northbrook was
writing a pamphlet, and sent it to him in proof for
criticism during his summer holidays. He criticised
carefully, and the result was the following —
My dear Lyall, — Here is the first part of my pamphlet
rearranged in consequence of your suggestions. I think it
reads better. Pick some more holes if you have leisure and
inclination. — Yours very truly, Northbrook.
The quantity of this kind of work which Lyall
good-naturedly performed — it is a troublesome and
often a thankless kind of work — was very considerable.
I have known him read carefuUy, and criticise at
length, a whole volume of verse or prose sent to him
by an inexperienced author, devoting to it many hours
of labour ; and to spend many more in preparing a
careful address to an audience of school-girls. In
patient kindness of this sort he was really admirable.
At this time he was bringing out the second volume
of his ' Asiatic Studies,' and they were to be translated
into French by M. de Kerallain, with whom he was in
correspondence, on this subject and others. I extract
from his letters the following criticism of a notable
Indian novel : —
A novel written two or three years ago by Mrs Flora Steel
called 'On the Face of the Waters' had an extraordinary
success. The story is of the Sepoy Mutiny in Northern India,
and the siege of Delhi. My own admiration of the book is
moderate ; yet it is well worth reading, because Mrs Steel has
a close knowledge of the manners and life of the lower classes
in India, and has studied carefully at first hand her scenes
and some of her characters. But she also undertakes to

1899] AN INDIAN NOVEL 377
impress upon the reader very distinct conclusions upon politi
cal and military questions — such as, whether the General who
commanded at Meerut when the first regiments mutinied and
fled to Delhi, was or was not an imbecile for his behaviour in
that crisis. I need hardly warn you against yielding to the
ardour with which a lady plunges into such controversies.
In the course of the year he received the following
letter from the present Archbishop of Canterbury : —
My dear Sir Alfred, — It happens that the Bishop of
Durham and I — with possibly the Bishop of Oxford — are
dining to-night quite alone and in a humble way in our rooms
at Lambeth Palace (Lollards' Tower) at 8 p.m. The Bishop
of Durham, whose keen and lifelong interest in India you wot
of, tells me how exceedingly anxious he is to see you, and
how he would value the chance of a talk with you. He has
'Asiatic Studies' at his finger ends. He leaves London to
morrow, and such a chance may not come again, so, on the
barest chance that you may be free, I send this note at a
venture, to say how we should welcome you. Don't dress
unless you like (we are humble folk in the Lollards' Tower),
and expect frugal fare. No answer required, come if you
can. But it would rejoice me beyond measure to see you and
Bishop Westcott in conversation  — Ever yours,
Randall Winton.
The invitation was accepted, for I find written
across the top of it in LyaU's hand, " Dined with the
three Bishops in the Tower. A.C.L." The Arch
bishop writes that he remembers it well, and that
Bishop Westcott and LyaU sat on till nearly 2 a.m.
I sat by as an eager learner and listener, while the two
prophets interchanged their thoughts on the fundamental
and characteristic elements of Indian life and history. They
were far less in disagreement than most outside critics would

378 ALFRED LYALL [1899
have expected. They had the advantage at the outset of
being, each of them, fairly familiar with the other's writ
ings. . . . Surely Sir Alfred was one of the small class who
possess the rare gift of genuinely understanding^ the position
of those from whom they differ fundamentally with respect to
the ultimate " sanctions " of human life.
And the Archbishop speaks of the "combined re
spect and affection" with which Lyall was regarded
by him.
The year ended sadly for all Englishmen, with the
early defeats of the Boer war ; and Lyall felt them
acutely. He had in some measure apprehended defeat
at first, for he knew that we were not nearly as strong
in numbers as we ought to have been, and that the
Boer in his own country would be a formidable enemy.
Also his experience of war in Afghanistan had taught
him that regular troops acting against large numbers
of irregulars, who fought on a wholly different system,
were apt at first to find themselves in difficulties.
But like the rest of us, he had not expected such
serious blows as we received, and they were never out
of his mind. His earnest desire from the beginning
was that the great capacity of Lord Roberts might be
utilised ; and the news that Lord Roberts was in fact
going out to take command relieved his anxiety.
From that time forward he felt confident of the issue.
But, as he wrote to John Morley, " In any case, we
must face misfortunes ' in the high Roman fashion.' "
LyaU's correspondence in 1900 was, as usual, varied
and interesting. The position in Persia had been
complicated by the return to power of the late

I900] THE BOER WAR 379
Atabeg Azam, a very masterful Prime Minister,
and by his influence over the Shah. As British
Minister at Tehran, I received from LyaU valu
able information and help in deaUng with the
situation, which was difficult, for a variety of
reasons into which it is not necessary to enter
now. At the same time he was corresponding
with Lord Tennyson, who was then in Australia,
upon the subject of the natives, and the progress of
the Australian Federation scheme, and the South
African war. In the progress of the war Lyall had,
at the moment, a personal as well as a patriotic
interest, for his eldest son, following the famUy tra
dition, had joined the East Kent Imperial Yeomanry,
and gone out to see some active service. Lyall took
the view of the war which was generally taken by
Liberals. In reality X's diplomacy landed us twelve months ago in
a costly and dangerous adventure, very badly begun, out
of which he was extricated by Roberts and the sheer fight
ing strength of the British army. I am altogether of opinion
that a war with the Boers had become inevitable, but it
might have been managed in a very different fashion. How
ever, the British nation does not care what scrapes it is run
into, so long as we fight our way out of the mess heroic-
aUy; and in this general election the Ministry are sure of
a triumph, if only there is no alternative before the country,
for the Liberals are in the same hopeless state of disorganisa
tion as they were just 100 years ago, in the great French war
time. . . ,
I met Lord Cromer last week, and had long talks over
Oriental politics, of which his fifteen years in Egypt have
given him great knowledge. There never was a time of

380 ALFRED LYALL [1900
greater demand for able administrators in all parts of the
Empire, for our Imperial responsibilities are multiplying fast,
. . . When one has once taken a hand in the world's affairs,
literature is like rowing in a picturesque reach of the Thames
after a bout of the open sea. I myself have returned to port,
and have no wish to put out again.
Literature was, in fact, occupying him at this time
to an increasing degree. His papers show many
applications made to him for articles and books on
various subjects, and he was writing steadily. He
contributed during the year an article on Heroic
Poetry to the new ' Anglo-Saxon Review,' one on
Brahminism to ' The North American Review,' one on
Byron to the ' Edinburgh,' for which he was also
working at a paper on the works of Leslie Stephen.
And some previous articles of his were being trans
lated in the ' Revue Britannique.' He was also
interesting himself in the Literary Society, in the
Synthetic Society, and, as ever, in all the best books
of the day, English and French. Altogether, his
quiet "reach of the Thames" afforded him constant
occupation and pleasure.
To Lord Cromer, who had given him to read the
proofs of a contemplated book on Egypt, with a
modest inquiry whether he " had gone wrong on any
big point," Lyall writes —
To my mind it is an excellent and valuable record of
remarkable work, and especially of experiences and impres
sions gathered during long residence in Egypt during an
extraordinary period of its history. What strikes me, as a
general observation, is that the Oriental question is much
the same everywhere ; the same or similar problems present

ABOUT 1900.

I900] MORLEY'S 'CROMWELL' 381
themselves, and especially the European protectorate over an
Eastern state involves the same political and military diffi
culties everywhere. If some Roman proconsul had written
a memoir on your lines, I guess that it would have described
a situation very little different. . . . But the whole of your
disquisition on the state of society, and the condition, moral
and material, of the various classes in Egypt, is full of that
kind of sound knowledge and insight that grows ripe only
on the tree of personal knowledge and long study at first
hand. . . .
Your description of the machinery of Govemment and of
the judicial system is very instructive, especially to those who
know something of such experiments ; and the wonder is that
such a complicated mechanism has worked at all ; but with
the power to move the wheels almost any car can be driven.
The Frenchman's share in the performance reminds me of the
quUl-driver in Voltaire's ' Candide ' : " Le plumitif lui dit : Je
suis sans credit pour faire du bien ; tout mon pouvoir se borne
k faire du mal quelquefois." I am sure it is eventually well
worth publication.
This was the foundation of Lord Cromer's ' Modern
Egypt,' which appeared some years later.
In this year, 1900, appeared Morley's ' CromweU,'
and Lyall writes to him —
It was a great pleasure to receive your book on 'Crom
weU,' from the author. All that you write is read by me
diligently ; and I am already some way through your volume,
being particularly interested in observing how you, who
began by dealing with the men of ideas, are now taking up
the men of action. Thus far, at any rate, have you now
come into accord with the temper of these times, although
I know that you, like myself, hold to the opinion that the
English folk have been swept too far by that stream of rash
energetic activity which is commonly termed Imperialism.

382 ALFRED LYALL [1900
Yet the main difference is that whereas formerly we did our
Imperialism quietly, so that people hardly knew what they
were about, we now proclaim it upon the housetops.
I fancy that I notice in your present book indications that
you are inclined to be less severe on Strafford than I should
be, for to my mind the unscrupulous despotism with which
he governed Ireland as Lord Deputy was the direct cause of
that bloody rebellion (1641) which did so much to ruin the
country. On the other hand, I question whether the shoot
ing of Lucas and Lisle at Colchester can fairly be termed
"a piece of savagery" (p. 118). When a country has been
generally pacified after a long war, those who take the lead
in a fresh and hopeless outbreak must expect to pay for it
with their lives; and Lucas had surrendered at an earlier
date on condition of never bearing arms again against the
Parliament. I much hope that your speaking power has
benefited by the rest you have taken, and that you are
generally very well. We must endeavour to meet when you
return to London.
He received about the same time a letter regarding
one of his own contributions to history which, coming
from a man whose historical writings are famous,' is
of special value —
Your ' British Dominion in India,' which I have now fin
ished, has interested me extremely. Indeed, if you will allow
me to say so, I do not remember to have come across a book
which contains so concise an account of a mass of facts, so
complicated as to breed confusion in most minds, connected
and interpenetrated by so many weighty reflections. One
would have to go outside our tongue or our time to find
parallels. As you tell me it has not sold very widely, the cause of

The Right Hon. James Bryce, O.M.

i9oo] JAMES BRYCE 383
this would seem to lie in the merits that have struck me, the
conciseness which strains the attention of an average languid
or hasty reader (as most men are), and the reflections which
give the book the character rather of a philosophical study
than of a narrative. You are almost austere in your exclu
sion of the juicy parts of history, and of the dilutions which
the modern reader is accustomed to. You nowhere condescend
to his liking for picturesque descriptions of events, and very
seldom even to the demand for the characterisation of dis
tinguished men. If you were re-writing the book it might
perhaps appeal more to the "general reader" if this severe
restraint were relaxed, and you were to let yourself go here
and there in descriptive passages. But as regards the serious
student, you give him, as it seems to me, exactly what he
wants, and cannot (so far as I know) find in any other book
about India.
I am interested in noticing that you remark on the parallel
(which struck me when I visited Armenia twenty-four years
ago) between its position between the Roman and Persian
empires and that of Afghanistan.
What wiU be the future of the British Empire in India ?
It is a wholly abnormal phenomenon, is it not ? The strangest
things do happen — though, as you have admirably explained,
the conquest of India by a few English was not so very
strange — but they do not stay for ever the same. We are
changing the conditions which made our conquest easy : will
the new conditions make retention easy ?
I hope we may have another Sunday soon together to dis
cuss these matters.
There is nothing to show what LyaU's answer
was, but his views on this question are indi
cated in many passages of his letters. He never
doubted that our policy wit,h regard to the education
of the natives of India, and in other respects, must
have the effect of increasing the difficulties of our

384 ALFRED LYALL [1901
position; but he did not think that this considera
tion would justify us in adopting an opposite policy.
Most Englishmen would say the same. And what
ever may be thought hereafter of our wisdom, it will
hardly be denied that in deliberately giving to the
natives of the country what we believed to be best
for them, regardless of the consequences, we showed
some unselfishness.
In 1901 Lyall undertook a book on Tennyson for
the "English Men of Letters" series. About this he
writes to Lord Tennyson —
I have imposed on myself, as I anticipated, an arduous task
in undertaking to write a serial volume upon your father;
for the work of reviewing his poetry has been often done
before, and by better hands than mine ; while for the inci
dents and course of his life I am entirely dependent on your
Memoir. You will not, however, I trust, disapprove of my
pail being let down in your pond, suitable acknowledgments
being always made to the proprietor. In regard to the words
that you have written to me about the Idylls, I confess that I
do not myself rank them so high as his very best poems, on the
ground, which you will probably consider inconclusive, that
the lofty ideal necessarily involves a kind of anachronism;
yet I fully appreciate the admirable execution of a very diffi
cult theme. But I am only at the beginning of my essay.
It is a serious drawback that I am prevented from consult
ing you and obtaining any fresh material that you might be
disposed to let me see, if you were now in England.
I have been in Scotland for about six weeks. I went to
see Lady Curzon for a day or two at Braemar, before her
return to India; and I met there George Brodrick. After
retuming to London I ran down to Winchester, and marched
in the procession to the Alfred statue, where we had a fine
address from Lord Rosebery, and a benediction from the

i90i] LORD TENNYSON 385
Bishop of Winchester. It was a very fair gathering of
representative men, from the Universities, and from various
towns. . . .
Then I came here (Milford House, Godalming) to see poor
Godfrey Webb, who is slowly declining towards his end. . . .
Yesterday I was on the Hind Head with Frederick Pollock,
and we looked across to the Black Dovni, with friendly re
collections of you and Lady Tennyson.
The war in South Africa trails on dismally, with depress
ing vicissitudes of fortune; and the nation watches the
course of events ruefully, seeing no remedy but perseverance
to the end. . . .
To another friend Lyall had written earlier of
the fine spirit which, so far as I have seen, animates the
women whose stake in this war is far heavier than that
which is risked by the men. . . . With regard to  's
picture of Englishmen going to the front, you will remember
that I have always maintained that only those who go out
of this civilised country, to see the rough work on the
frontiers and in the farlands, properly understand what our
men are like, and can do.
Shortly afterwards Lyall was asked, and consented,
to represent the Government of India in the course
of the following spring at the Congress of Historic
Sciences which was to be held in Rome. At this time
he was apparently in excellent health and spirits,
and was getting through with enjoyment a number of
visits and social engagements which strikes one as
portentous. He was welcome not only among students
and men of letters and bishops, but to a remarkable
degree among women of the more intellectual kind,
who did their best to spoil him. Perhaps he would
have been more than human if he had not been a
2 B

386 ALFRED LYALL [1902
little flattered by the attentions heaped upon him.
It says much for the steadiness of his head that he
remained throughout so unassuming in his manners,
and so perfectly free from any touch of conceit.
I have said that he had kept no diary. It is true
that here and there among his note-books and papers
I have come upon a few occasional jottings in diary
form ; but they are very few, and of no use for show
ing the course of his life. Now, at sixty-seven years
of age, when his official service was practically at an
end, he began to mend his ways in this respect, and
for each of the remaining years of his life there is
a small diary volume. But even now it is a very
imperfect record, a ' Pocket Diary and Almanac '
with a space of about an inch and a half aUotted
to each day, and that space often left empty, or
showing such entries as " Tring. Hard frost," and
,the like. Occasionally one finds a note of the names
of some fellow-guests at a dinner or country-house
visit, but very rarely indeed any expression of opinion
or other interesting matter ; and it is evident from
the entries that he used often to make them half a
dozen at a time, several days after the proper date.
Anything less complete or methodical cannot be
imagined. It was not in him to take the trouble of
keeping up a regular daily record, nor was he inclined
to attach over-much importance to anything he did ;
and his natural reserve no doubt prevented much
revelation of his inner thoughts and feelings. Still, the
little careless volumes are of some use, as showing
that he was at this time enjoying a varied round of

I902] 'ALFRED TENNYSON' 387
life. He would perhaps begin the day with breakfast
at Grillion's, and a talk with Sir Redvers Buller about
mUitary matters, or at the Breakfast Club — "Lord
Reay, Mackenzie Wallace, Grant Duff, Sir George
Trevelyan, Leonard Courtney." Then would come
the India Office ; lunch with some friend ; a meeting of
the Athenaeum Club Committee, or of the board of
Governors of Dulwich School, or of the Central Asian
Society ; perhaps a call or two ; dinner out almost
invariably, unless he was receiving friends at home ;
after dinner a game of cards, or an evening at the
Literary Society or the Synthetic Society, or occasion
ally a theatre. The country visits were innumerable.
And through it all, somehow, ran a thread of literary
work. In 1902 was published his volume on ' Alfred
Tennyson,' which must have meant much hard,
though pleasant labour. The book was well received,
but I cannot find in LyaU's diary, or elsewhere,
anything to show that he was pleased at the result.
Yet it must have greatly pleased him to receive
such an appreciation as the foUowing from John
Morley, who had induced him to write the book, and
to whom he submitted the proofs.
My dear Lyall, — I have read the book with real delight.
It is a true masterpiece, and shows that only a poet can judge
a poet with true inward feeling and effect. It is absolutely
free from the defects that disfigure nine criticisms out of ten.
It is just, it is respectful and appreciative, it is full of poetic
and meditative charm of its own, it is suffused with a con
tinuous and enchanting Tennysonian atmosphere.

388 ALFRED LYALL [1902
I am full of admiration and pleasure, and this I say in all
humility and all sincerity.
I have made a few trivial jottings, which I could go through
orally better than in writing. I shall be in town to-morrow
(Friday). You would find me at the Club at 10-11. Or at
3.30, if you be so kind as to drop me a card there.
With cordial felicitations. — Ever yours, J. M.
A few days later Morley writes again —
It is weak and "ower-blate" and not harmonious to say
"it is the writer's opinion."  them all, if it is your
opinion, that's enough to make it a truth for downright dog
matic assertion for all time.
The thing is a delicate, strong, subtle, deep, and delightful
piece of work, and there's no more to be said.
Shortly before this, in June, Lyall had been made a
Privy Councillor, which, Morley wrote, was " still a
real honour to a man who is known to have well earned
it." LyaU's diary for the 25th June has the entry,
" Nearly 70 letters of congratulation. Answered 40,"
The honour marked the approach of LyaU's retirement
from official service, for his long term as a member of
the Indian Council was drawing to a close. It did not
actually come to an end for some months more, but
Lyall wrote to Lord Roberts —
Your kindly letter was most welcome, for our acquaintance
began in the earliest years of my Indian service, and I may
regard you as one of my oldest friends. I am quite content
to leave the Indian Council, for in truth I am rather tired of
official harness — it is full time that I should make way for
younger men ; and there are other things which may give me
occupation.

I902] PRIVY COUNCILLOR 389
One of these things was a Life of Lord Dufferin,
which, at Lady Dufferin's request, he had now under
taken to write. In the early part of October he
went over to Clandeboye, and began work upon the
papers. But before this I find him writing to Lord
Tennyson from Mr Arthur Elliot's house at Fresh
water Bay, which he had taken for two months —
Very many thanks for your friendly congratulations on my
Privy Councillorship, which is a great honour that was quite
unexpected by me. I can now sing my " Nunc Dimittis " from
official life, for my membership of the Indian Council ends
with this year ; and I shall gladly slip off the official harness
that I have worn so many years, with the task of compiling
Lord Dufferin's biography to occupy me for some years to
come. My small volume on your father's life and works is ready
for publication, and I believe it will appear by this month's
end. ... I have some hope that you may like it ; for John
Morley has been unusually complimentary to me upon the
work ; whereby I was much reassured, as I had found it to
be a difficult subject to treat adequately, when so much has
been already said by very competent writers upon the poems ;
and, as you have said, it is in his poetry that we must look
for the chronicle of Tennyson's life.
Lyall had been, in fact, very diffident about his
book. He writes to one of his cousins, the Countess
Martinengo Cesaresco ^ —
I have little confidence in the success of my work. I have
given my own ideas freely, and it must take its chance.

1 The well-known authoress.

390 ALFRED LYALL [1902
That was LyaU's way, and no doubt Morley's cordial
words were a great help to him. In the same spirit
he writes to M. de Kerallain —
I have agreed, after much hesitation, upon Lady Dufferin's
request, to write Lord Dufferin's biography. I have never
before attempted a work of this kind, so that I am in much
doubt whether I can accomplish it adequately.
His diffidence about his books before they appeared,
which was no affectation, made him perhaps appreciate
all the more any commendation which they received ;
and the same letter has the following passage —
And perhaps I may add, to my own glorification, that a
friend recently heard the 'Asiatic Studies' quoted by a
missionary preacher in the Cathedral of Notre Dame at
Paris. LyaU's literary work at this time was not confined
to his Tennyson and his beginning of Lord Dufferin's
biography, for he was contributing to the centen
ary number of ' The Edinburgh Review ' an article
on English and Russian Relations, which the Editor
declares to be " excellent." He adds —
The ' Review,' however, owes you thanks for services very
far beyond those you have rendered to the present number ;
for you have helped for many years now to keep up to a
very high level the political and literary side of the ' Review.'
And an article on " Race and Religion " appeared in
the ' Fortnightly ' for December, which the Editor,
W. L. Courtney, regarded with "warm admiration."
The article was an amplification of a lecture delivered

1903] LEAVES INDIA OFFICE 391
a few months before at University College. At the
same time, I believe (but others besides Alfred Lyall
had the sinful habit of not dating their letters) he was
asked to act as President of the Literary Fund.
I had hoped in the course of this year to receive
Lyall at Madrid, where I was then occupying the
Embassy, for he wished to see again the place he
had last seen as a boy. The visit fell through on
account of the Coronation ; but I was in London in
the course of the early summer, and received a
kindly welcome from him. Physically he had now
begun to show some signs of age ; his eyes had lost
much of their old fire, and he had grown more
gentle in manner. Though he seemed as bright and
keen in mind as ever, he spoke doubtfully about
Lord Dufferin's Life ; and altogether he gave me for
the first time the impression that he was growing a
little worn and tired.
Lyall began the year 1903 by a visit to Mr and
Mrs Henry White of the American Embassy, with
whom he was for some years on very intimate terms ;
and at their hospitable home, Wilton Park, he spent
his sixty-eighth birthday. He had returned only a
few days before from a Christmas visit to his friends
the Spencer Walpoles.
On the 13th of January 1903 he attended his
last Council at the India Office. Three days later he
notes, after his curt matter-of-fact way —
This day my fifteen years tenure of Membership of India
Council terminates. Lunched with Lady E. Cecil. To
Dulwich School Committee. Wrote to Cromer at Cairo.

392 ALFRED LYALL [1903
And he writes to Rivett-Carnac —
I leave the India Office, and am quite content to do so, this
month. I have had enough of official work, and I can now
betake myself contentedly to other ways of employing my
time. Yet it can hardly have been without much retro
spection, and some regret, that Lyall finally severed
his official connection with India, which had lasted
nearly fifty years, since he joined the Company's
College at Haileybury. That he was greatly missed
is certain, for a man of his experience and capacity
is rare, and those who had been connected with
him knew it well.
Some months later Lord Curzon wrote to him —
My dear Lyall, — I always meant, upon your final retire
ment from the India Council, to write and bid you official
adieu as the last Viceroy whom you have assisted to keep in
order, and also to say on their behalf, as I am sure I might, as
well as on my own, how invaluable are the services which we
regard you as having rendered to the Government of India
through the Secretary of State, and how greatly that Govern
ment regrets and must suffer by their termination.
Somehow or other the good resolve got put on one side.
There were the Delhi Durbar and other things. Perhaps,
however, though late, the message may not be unwelcome, so
I venture to send it, adding the hope that many years may lie
before you, in which I doubt not that opportunities will still
present themselves to you of rendering service to the country
which you know and like so well.
The following is a letter sent to me by Lord
George Hamilton, who was Secretary of State for
India when Lyall retired, and had a better opportunity

1903] LORD GEORGE HAMILTON 393
than any one of forming a judgment upon the value of
his work in Council.
I was very closely associated with Sir Alfred Lyall during
the eight years I was Secretary of State for India, and he was
my right-hand adviser not only in many political and foreign
questions connected with the extemal policy of India, but also
on multifarious internal matters.
Great as were his literary attributes and powers of initia
tion and construction, his critical faculties were even more
fully developed. This made him at times somewhat difficult
to deal with, for he was very critical and cautious in the
tendering of advice as regards any new policy or any suggested
change. When once he could see his way through difficulties,
or came to the conclusion that those difficulties must be faced,
then his caution and critical instincts disappeared, and he was
prepared to be as bold in the prosecution of what he advocated
as he had previously been reluctant to start.
If his criticism could be overcome he was an invaluable
coadjutor, for his extraordinary power of writing and drafting
public documents insured that the policy to be put forward
appeared before the public in the most captivating form.
The wonderful ease with which he could convert a mediocre
dispatch, by a few apparently trivial alterations, into a docu
ment of first-rate literary merit, was well known to all
who worked with him. Though his work and life were
associated with the Foreign Department and with questions
concerned with Native States, he was in addition a most
sagacious judge and adviser on internal Indian questions.
It is often said, and I believe it to be true, that there is a
gulf between the Western and Eastern mind that few can
bridge, and that although conversations and communications
may be exchanged between an English official of high stand
ing %nd education and an Indian magnate equally qualified,
in which both apparently agree, still, the words used have a
distinct significance and meaning to each of the representa
tives of the two races. I once asked a most distinguished

394 ALFRED LYALL [1903
Anglo-Indian administrator what was the impression made on
his mind by his long Indian experience, and his reply was
" That I knew little either about India or the races inhabiting
India." Sir Alfred's subtle mind, his extensive oriental reading and
erudition, and the philosophical bent of his original and
powerful intellect, did much to abridge this gulf, and he
was, in consequence, a more prescient and clear judge of what
India wanted, and what we could do to satisfy her wants,
than any Anglo-Indian with whom I officially came into
contact. These special qualities, coupled with a lofty idealism and a
charming personality, made him an invaluable and delightful
colleague, and in looking back over a long official career I can
truly say that many of my brightest and happiest recoUections
are associated with Sir Alfred LyaU.

CHAPTER XV.
1903-1906.
Life of Lord Dufferin — Great variety of occupations — Historical Con
gress at Rome — Lord Curzon in India — Transcendentalism — View
about Mr Gladstone — Russia and Japan — Death of Leslie Stephen
— Visit to Edward Clodd at Aldeburgh — Signs of faiUng health^
Farringford.
Relieved of his official work, Lyall had now more
leisure for his life of Lord Dufferin ; but his engage
ments were still numberless. During the year I find
him lecturing on Heroic Poetry ; delivering an address
on Hinduism to future Indian civilians at Cambridge ;
attending meetings of the Literary Fund ; presiding
at Councils of the Central Asian Society ; making
speeches to the Girls' High School at Streatham ;
taking the chair at the Synthetic Society ; attending
the Historical Congress in Rome ; visiting Florence
and Genoa and Cannes and Paris ; presiding at a
meeting of the Social and Political League ; attending
as a member at a meeting of the British Academy, and
at meetings of the Institut Colonial ; visiting the train
ing-school for the Navy on the Warspite ; responding
for the Cambridge Academicians at Cambridge; at-

396 ALFRED LYALL [1903
tending the Navy Records Society ; going to the House
of Lords to hear debates ; making a " bad speech " at
the Mutual Provident Association; attending the
African Society, and the distribution of prizes at the
Kensington Girls' High School ; meeting the American
Naval Officers at the United States Embassy ; attend
ing at King's College Hospital, and the London
School of Economics, and the Dulwich Prize-giving;
going down on business of one kind or another to
Eton, and Portsmouth, and other places.
For a man of sixty-eight it was a busy and varied
life. The constant week-end country visits, and
dinners, were going on as before. Once or twice
there is in his diary an underlined and rather
significant "Dined at Home." Yet he found time
in spite of all this to do his writing, for he had
some articles in reviews, and on the last day of the
year he notes that he had " very nearly finished first
volume of the Dufferin Memoir."
About this period of his life his handwriting begins
to show signs of deterioration, becoming at times,
though only at times, smaller and less clear. The
difference seems to be due rather to haste than to
anything else, but it is marked. Still, his letters are
easy enough to read, and as interesting as ever. To
his friend Miss Oakeley, who was Warden of the
Victoria College at the McGill University in Canada,
he writes —
What you have written about my ' Tennyson ' has taken me
back to the little book, which I had laid aside on a lofty shelf.

1903] HISTORICAL CONGRESS 397
I am very glad to have your thoughts upon it, nor am I sur
prised that your tendency has been to take special interest in
the speculative aspect of Tennyson's poetry ; for he has put
into striking verse precisely the doubts and queries that
haunt sensitive and searching minds at the time when life
begins to be taken seriously. His " In Memoriam " struck a
deep note for the youth of fifty years ago, and indeed touches
chords that will always vibrate. ... I agree with you that
it is his strong sense of natural beauty and his interpretation
of the subtle affinities between human moods and emotions
and our environment, that constitutes the enduring power of
his poetry. Whether the idealistic conception of the world of
sense takes away the despondency produced by a conviction
of man's insignificance I cannot say. . . .
In April I was at Rome, attending a Historical Congress.
Some very distinguished foreigners were there, but I fear I
did not follow the proceedings very assiduously; though it
was curious to listen to a debate in the Latin tongue. Next
week we have here in London a meeting of the Institut
Colonial International, where representatives of various
countries are to discuss colonial questions. But I think that
except among Hollanders and Englishmen there is very little
colonial experience or practical knowledge worth ventilating.
The Germans are colonists, but they have no colonies. The
French have colonies, but they are no colonists.
To Lord Curzon of Kedleston —
It was with great pleasure that I read your very friendly
letter of April 9th, from Rewa, for I put the highest value
upon your appreciation of any service that I may have
rendered to India. In looking back over many years I am
sensible, as most of us must be, of numerous shortcomings ;
but I have never regretted that I chose India for my sphere
of work ; and I am fortunate in having witnessed, and taken
some part in, such historic events as the Sepoy Mutiny and

398 ALFRED LYALL [1903
the second Afghan war. I am now so entirely content to
retire that I rejoice in my freedom from official harness ; and
my inclination is toward turning my attention from Indian
affairs to other interests and pursuits.
I have read your speech on the Budget debate (of which
you kindly enclosed a copy) with real admiration of the
energy and breadth of view that it attests in your government
of India. With all that you have said about taxation I agree
heartily ; and I am particularly glad that you have been able
to make substantial reductions ; for moderate taxation is the
sheet-anchor of our rule in that country, and I believe that
the revenue will prove more buoyant in consequence. The
management of the land revenue is the most important and
difficult point of Indian administration.
That the Durbar should have been so eminently successful
at such an almost trifling cost is undoubtedly a financial
exploit. . . .
Your survey of the present position of India in Asiatic
politics, and indeed in the political world, is very striking. 1
quite agree that the Indian Foreign Department has become
for England what in Russia is called the " Bureau Asiatique."
The foreign relations of India are regulated by a kind of un
written Monroe doctrine. I mean that we maintain over all
the countries immediately adjacent the policy of allowing no
intervention by other European nations, and the predominance
of no influence except our own. It is this necessary attitude
that gives us such incessant occupation abroad in Asia, and
brings us into continual contact or collision with European
rivals. I am congratulating myself that some years ago, when the
Foreign Office offered to take over Somaliland, I eagerly
pressed the India Office to close at once with the offer, with
out any haggling over the terms of transfer. It seemed to
me that this bit of African territory would inevitably draw
us into complications, in which India would have little
interest, and would incur very troublesome responsibUitiea

1903] FREDERICK MYERS 399
But I also doubted whether the Foreign Office was capable of
managing the business it had taken up, and for some time I
have been apprehending serious difficulties.
To Miss Oakeley —
To hear from you is always pleasant ; though in regard to
the subject that we talked about here it is not so easy to
write; and new lights upon old questions are rare. About
H. Spencer's philosophy, I am so far in agreement with you
that on me, as on you, the early readings of his books made
an impression that has never left me ; though he has latterly
fallen out of fashion ; and perhaps his close compact reason
ing may seem arid to a later generation. I myself am in
clined to believe that the deepest thinkers of all ages do not
greatly differ in fundamental conclusions, however they may
vary as to ways and methods. Just now, however, I have
been attentively reading the recently published work of
Frederick Myers on Human Personality, which is certainly a
new form in Europe of what he calls Transcendentalism, the
science of discovering the future of the human soul after
death. He is quite sure that the Veil can be penetrated, and
that experiment and observation will carry us into the
Spiritual world, with which we are to open communication
by the development of abnormal natural faculties. Yet his
whole system resembles to a very remarkable degree the
methods by which Indian ascetics pretend to attain divinity,
to perform marvels, and to raise the soul into higher stages of
existence. Hypnotism, telepathy, the liberation of the soul
by throwing the body into a trance, are processes known and
practised in Asia from ancient times. . . .
Here we have the solidarity of empire which Chamberlain
is striving to cement — vainly, I think, for the world is mov
ing, to niy mind, in another direction, against great Imperial
associations and towards natural communities linked together,
perhaps by some loose and easy federation, but otherwise un-

400 ALFRED LYALL [1903
shackled, independent, having each its own life and paddling
in its own waters. My notion is that Chamberlain is no pro
phetic statesman. . . .
We have been living very steadily here, where you left us
(Vernon Holme), for more than two months, and we depart
for London at October's end. I shall leave reluctantly, though
the weather has been scandalous — incessant wind and rain ; but
I like to see the yellow leaves flying, and the moist air, with
gleams of light at morning and sunset; whereas London
has no horizons, and wears a livid look in the dark wet
days. . . .
I have not read Morley's ' Gladstone ' ; and I have heard of
nothing else worth reading. Reviews and magazines I seldom
see now, so of literary news I can give you none.
That he read Morley's ' Gladstone ' very soon after
wards there can be little doubt ; but the book was on
a subject which did not greatly attract him. He had
many years before lost all belief in Mr Gladstone as a
practical statesman. Of course Lyall recognised the
astonishing power and versatility of his talents, and
some of his other high qualities, but he thought Mr
Gladstone a theorist, and "reckless of the real inter
ests of the country." The fact was that Lyall was not
easily moved to enthusiasm or dominated by any man's
personality, while his political views were wholly
independent of party. By reasoning he was an
advanced Liberal ; by temperament he was a Con
servative ; by experience of men and affairs and the
study of contemporary history he had come to feel
that the first thing required was firm and capable
government at home and abroad. In that respect he
thought Mr Gladstone failed, and nothing would

I904] HIS POLITICAL VIEWS 401
make him believe in a leader who wanted the essential
quality. It was the same in everything. In 1902 he
had been in favour of Mr Balfour's Education Act.
He did not believe in Colonial Preference, and he
scoffed at Tariff Reform, but he was always against
Home Rule for Ireland. He did well to keep out of
party politics.
Lyall began the year 1904, or rather ended the
last, by resigning his seat on the Council of the Girls'
Public Day School Company, in which he had taken
interest. He had found that the work of visiting the
schools at prize-givings and attending other meetings
was more than he could manage. But immediately
afterwards he was asked to join the Committee of the
King's College Hospital, so that his attempt to reduce
his list of miscellaneous duties was not very successful.
In fact, he found as the years went on that they tended
to increase rather than diminish. And his Memoir
was giving him more trouble than he had expected.
He writes to Rivett-Carnac on the Sth of January —
I am very glad to be rid of official harness, but it is just as
well that I have found other work to occupy me, since idle
ness in London is intolerable. Yet my task of writing a
Memoir of Lord Dufferin is rather a burden, involving me in
more labour than quite suits me at this late period of my life ;
for I have had no experience of solid bookmaking, and I
flounder among a mass of papers.
Some time during this year, but his letter is un
dated, he writes to M. de Kerallain —
Your Breton peasants' saying about the third and ninth
waves is a fresh instance of the similarity in the folklore as it
2 C

402 ALFRED LYALL [1904
has survived on the coasts of France and England, where the
intercourse between the two peoples must have been very
frequent for centuries. The belief that a third wave is high
is well known among us, — to your quotation from Tennyson I
could add a line from Swinburne —
" Who swims in sight of the great third wave.
That never a swimmer will cross or climb."
And, like so much of folklore, the notion is probably founded
to some extent on fact. That is why the poets should be
read: they preserve the experience of many generations,
romantically expressed. I wish I had received before writing
my book your suggestion about making a study of Tennyson's
folklore. . . . Pray receive my best wishes for your health and
welfare during the coming new year, which I hope may
bring, among other good things, a steady improvement in
the friendly relations between our two countries, of which I
fancy that some auspicious signs are already visible.
Lyall was at this time President of the Central
Asian Society, which had been founded a few years
before by some men interested in Asiatic affairs for
the discussion of questions connected therewith. Al
ways inclined towards friendliness for Russia, Lyall
delivered in the course of the year an address in
which he leant to her side rather than that of Japan.
He thought that the triumph of the Japanese boded
ill, in the long-run, to European dominion in Asia,
and that the appearance of a formidable Asiatic
naval power might some day prove inconvenient to
England. "I must say," he observes in a letter,
" that my views by no means pleased the great
majority of my audience, and the discussion went
against me." But it was a thoughtful address, and

1904] RUSSIA AND JAPAN 403
attracted considerable attention among the small
number of experts who give heed to such matters. It
was followed a few months later by the North Sea
incident, which caused so much excitement in England,
and for the moment turned every one against the
Russians. Even LyaU commented upon " the in
credible rashness " of the Russian Admiral, and wrote
that it was
quite impossible to admit the pretensions of the Russian naval
commanders to flre upon any ships they may meet on the
mere suspicion that these ships may be hostile vessels.
But he earnestly hoped for a pacific solution of the
difficulty, and was greatly relieved when it came
about. " The English did well to be angry," he
wrote, " yet our Ministers did better to avoid war."
Nor did he ever change his views about the bearing
of the Russo-Japanese conflict upon European pre
dominance in Asia.
The most remarkable (because unexpected) phenomenon
is the appearance of a strong Asiatic naval power, a com
plete novelty in the world's history, for since the day of
Marathon the Asiatics have been powerless by sea ; and the
fact that the coasts of Asia have been always undefended
explains the ease with which the maritime European nations
have established themselves in India and elsewhere.
At this time he writes to Miss Oakeley —
I have been so completely occupied with my Memoir of
Lord Dufferin that I fear my correspondence has been
neglected ; though I read your letter with interest and much
pleasure. My work immerses me in documents pf all kinds,

404 ALFRED LYALL [1904
and compels me to wander in a labyrinth of old letters,
memoranda, and blue-books. It is a business for which I
have little capacity, so I am easily fatigued by it. But I
have been obliged to study Canada and Canadian politics, an
entirely new fleld for me, and I have picked up a certain
quantity of information about your adopted country.
LyaU's diary for this year, 1904, again shows him,
in spite of his work, attending numerous meetings of
the various societies to which he belonged, and, of
course, almost nightly dinners. I do not know that
there are any entries of special interest except those
which show that sick friends had to thank him for
some kindly visits. " Went to see Alfred Austin in
a nursing home " occurs more than once, and there
are the following entries in January and February :
" Saw Leslie Stephen in a dying state — very friendly."
" Went to see poor Leslie Stephen, who spoke affec
tionately to me when I left." " Leslie Stephen died
this morning."
LyaU had much in common with him and felt
his death keenly. In Maitland's ' Life of Leslie
Stephen ' the foUowing words are quoted from a
letter written by Lyall about him —
Conversation with him was always a great pleasure to
me ; he had a vein of fine humour and a masculine habit of
thought that gave expression to his straightforward char
acter. He was a man of whose strength and rectitude of
judgment I had a high appreciation, and on whose steadfast
friendship, whenever it might be put to the proof, I felt that
one might have relied confidently. During his last illness,
when I saw him so frequently, his unfailing cheerfulness and
fortitude made a deep impression on me.

I904] LESLIE STEPHEN 405
When, a few months after Stephen's death, some of
his friends met to consider the best means of doing
honour to his memory, Lyall was in the chair, and
Lady Ritchie received from him a letter on the
subject. He had brought forward the proposal that
a Lectureship should be founded at Cambridge.
I hope that this conclusion may win your approval. To
my mind a series of lectures given by distinguished men,
on some subject — History, Biography, or Ethics — associated
with Sir Leslie's own literary work and predilections, will
be a very effectual mode of commemorating his name, and
of keeping the remembrance of him alive in his University
and his College.
Your concurrence, as one of Sir Leslie's best friends, will
add to my pleasure in taking some part in promoting a
memorial to one whom neither of us, I think, is ever
likely to forget.
Shortly before this letter was written, Lyall at
tended the funeral of a very different but equally
remarkable man, Sir Henry Stanley. Lady Stanley
had for years been one of LyaU's most intimate
friends, and remained so until his death. Among
all those whom he learned to know during the latter
part of his life there was no one whose advice and
affection he valued more highly.
A short visit to the Riviera, a few days with
Lord Tennyson in Farringford, and two months at
Swinford during the summer, helped him through
his work ; and in October he was back in London at
the usual routine of society and societies, making bad
speeches, according to his diary, but getting through

406 ALFRED LYALL [1905
a variety of self-imposed duties. He did not forget
his old companions in India, but attended this year
the annual dinner of the Indian Civil Service, and
that of the "Political" or Indian Diplomatic Service,
of which as Foreign Secretary he had been the chief
twenty-five years earlier.
Christmas he spent with his friends the Spencer
Walpoles, and the end of the year found him at
Wilton Park with the Henry Whites. By that time
he had finished his Life of Lord Dufferin, and had
sent all the papers back to Clandeboye.
Lyall was now seventy years old. It is an age
when many men consider themselves entitled to rest
from their labours; but to him idleness was, as he
said, " intolerable," and on his seventieth birthday
there is an entry in his diary : " Met Prothero,^ by
appointment at the Athenaeum, to settle my contribu
tion to the Cambridge Modern History." Later in
the year he was at work on an article upon Afghan
istan for ' The Encyclopaedia Britannica,' and upon one
for ' The Edinburgh Review ' about Native States in
India. Yet perhaps, after the Life of Lord Dufferin
was finished, he took things more easily for a time,
giving himself up to the enjoyment of his leisure and
especially to the company of his children. It was a
great pleasure and happiness to him that for a portion
of this year they were all together, his younger son
and daughter having returned from India. With his
son, who had been absent six years, he went during
the spring to Rome, where he attended the Session of
1 Mr G. W. Prothero, Editor of ' The Quarterly Review.'

1905] 'THE GOLDEN BOUGH' 407
the " Institut Colonial," and found his friend Henry
White installed as American Ambassador. After a
visit to Milan and the Lago Maggiore he went on to
Wiesbaden, to meet his daughter, and then returned
to England. He had thoroughly enjoyed himself,
and his diary of the 12th May has the entry : " So
ends a very pleasant and successful expedition."
In the diary for June there are a few words
regarding a Whitsuntide visit paid by LyaU to his
friend Edward Clodd at Aldeburgh. He was to enjoy
more than once the hospitality of that pleasant house,
which has seen such a succession of interesting guests.
On this occasion the other visitors were "Picton,
Sir F. Pollock, Frazer of 'The Golden Bough'."
Lyall had criticised ' The Golden Bough ' rather
freely in ' The Edinburgh Review,' and perhaps both
men were a little shy at their first intimate meet
ing. Lyall certainly was. But on Whit-Monday
they all sailed down the broad river to Orford in
Clodd's boat the Lotus, and spent an hour in seeing
the old Norman castle and church. Then they found
the wind against them, and had a long row back,
Lyall and Frazer each taking an oar. After that,
there was not much shyness left between them ; and
the old Lotus, now, alas, "nail sick " and retired from
active service, saw them land together on the best of
terms. A little later I find Lyall dining with one of the
three >who had shared his cabin in the Ava when he
went out to India fifty years before, and then going
with his son Robert for " ten days' very pleasant tour

408 ALFRED LYALL [1905
in France " ; where, at Quimper, he made the acquaint
ance of his French correspondent, Monsieur Ren^ de
Kerallain, who has not only translated his 'Asiatic
Studies,' but has even succeeded in turning into
French " The Old Pindaree." From M. and Madame
de Kerallain, Lyall and his son received, as he notes
in his diary, " hospitality and friendliness unbounded,"
and the visit was one which he thoroughly enjoyed.
In the summer Lyall occupied for a couple of
months the rectory of Bishopsbourne, Hooker's par
sonage three hundred years before, an old-fashioned
roomy house with a pleasant garden and shady lawn.
Here his son and daughter joined him, and four
grandchildren ; and he was within driving distance
of his brother James at Statenborough. He was not
without other visitors, among them Miss Gertrude
Lowthian Bell, the distinguished traveller and writer,
who had become an intimate friend. It was, perhaps,
one of the pleasantest summers in his life.
Such times, unhappily, are soon over. On the
30th October he notes in his diary : " This evening
saw the last of our family bridge-parties," and next
day his son left London to take up again a "poli
tical " appointment in India. " We can look back on
many days spent together, and look forward doubt
fully to meeting again."
During the rest of the year Lyall was in London,
leading his usual life — much interested in a variety
of matters. Among these were the Curzon-Kitchener
controversy, in which he supported Lord Curzon's
views by a long letter to ' The Times ' ; the change

1905] OMAR KHAYYAM 409
of Government and the new Liberal Cabinet; the
affairs of Dulwich College, of which he was a
Governor ; meetings at King's College Hospital ;
the evolution of the Unionist Free Trade Club ; and
the composition of his stanzas for a meeting of the
Omar Khayydm Club, which will be found in his
volume of verse. The writer of the Upton Letters
calls Omar Khayyd,m's poetry " the most beautiful
presentment of pure Agnosticism that has ever been
given to the world " ; and apart from the exquisite
English in which FitzGerald has clothed it, it had for
Lyall a strong attraction. Christmas was spent, as
usual, at Hartfield Grove with the Walpoles, and the
year ended with a short visit to the Poet Laureate
at Swinford. It had been for Lyall a happy year,
leaving, as he notes, " pleasant recoUections of my
children's company." Two had now gone back to
India, and the last words in his diary are : "I hope
to see them again." Lyall was not generally regarded
as a very domestic man, nor was he ; and it is pleas
ing to get a glimpse of this side of his character.
I quote here a few passages from his letters written
during the year to M. de Kerallain —
The crushing defeat of the Russians by the Japanese is
an event of world-wide importance, which may change the
whole political future of Asia; and will undoubtedly affect
the political dominion of European States everywhere on
that continent. I agree entirely with your opinion that no
one can yet foresee what may be, twenty years or so hence,
the situation in the Far East ; but in England I am among a
very small minority of those who believe that unqualified
rejoicing over Japanese victories is a proof of little wisdom

410 ALFRED LYALL [1905
or foresight. France, I fear, has distinct cause for an
xiety about the eventual security of her Indo-Chinese
possessions. You will soon find, I think, that your protectorate over
Morocco may become troublesome. It is one thing to place
the Sultan's Government en tutelle, and quite another
thing to deal with the independent tribes, who care nothing
for diplomatic arrangements. We have had experience of
this sort in Afghanistan.
The European Govemments, who were quarelling over the
partition of China, have stirred up a nest of yellow hornets,
which are now swarming about the ears of their forembat
assailant, and will use their stings on all who go near
them. . . .
All Asia has been stirred by the success of the Japanese ;
but the difference between Western and Eastern Asia in race,
religion, economic conditions, and density of population, is so
wide that I doubt whether India and the Mahomedan king
doms will be much affected by the Yellow Peril.
I am glad that Frazer's ' Golden Bough ' is to appear in a
French translation almost simultaneously with your trans
lation of my article. My criticisms made little effect upon
those who swear by him in England. I have some hope that
readers in France may agree with me. . . .
I don't believe that the wisest man living can make a sure
guess as to what will be the political condition and distribu
tion of power in Eastern Asia twenty-five years hence. . . .
But I should not expect the yellow races to break out west
ward, unless the European Governments in Asia go on weak
ening themselves on that continent by internal quarrels. A
reaUy good understanding between England and Russia on
Asiatic affairs ought to raise a powerful barrier against any
such encroachments, but such a league is just now far distant.
... I hope, in the interests of both nations (France and
England), that republican susceptibilities will not damage our
present relations. France and England need each other's
friendship. Now that Russia is for the time disabled, France

I905] SIR CHARLES ELIOT 411
is alone in front of the Triple Alliance. . . . And the EngUsh
are honestly willing to shake hands with their former rivals,
and to make up old quarrels. Meanwhile, let us cultivate our
literary gardens.
To my mind the substantial benefit to Asia and Europe
that will be obtained by the victories of Japan, is that hence
forward all projects for the partition of China among the
European powers . . . will come to an end, . . . and the
commercial enterprise of Europe will no longer be able to
break into Chinese markets, backed by cannon and by mis
sionaries. This will be found disagreeable, but it is good for
our morals and our manners. I have instructed my London
bookseller to despatch to you ' Turkey in Europe,' by Odys
seus. . . . The preface is particularly well written, and the
whole book is the outcome of the personal observation and
experience of a very clever man.
I am glad that you like Sir Charles Eliot's book. He is
one of the few Englishmen who have caught glimpses into
the interior of the Oriental mind, and understand the
working thereof.
To Miss Oakeley —
John Brigbt's words . . . about popular education and
newspapers being a sure antidote to warlike propensities,
illustrate very well the futility of political prophecies, and
also betray a certain superficiality and narrowness of view
in his knowledge of the Demos. I think that all history
shows the Demos to be invariably pugnacious. . . . When
the Russian blunder in the North Sea occurred . . . the
daily newspapers, upon which Bright would have relied for
keeping the people straight, were quite reckless in their
efforts to turn heads in the wrong way. . . .
About psychology, as it is now taught, I agree with what
you write ; the tendency seems to be towards positivism and
the accumulation of facts ; the demand for accurate scientific

412 ALFRED LYALL [1905
training, in that sense, is rapidly prevailing everywhere, and
education becomes more and more utilitarian.
You will have noticed that a formidable attack is being
made upon Greek as a compulsory subject in University
courses. There is undoubtedly much to be said against
forcing it upon young folk who have not, and never will
have, any taste for that study ; but if the time comes when
Greek shall rank with Hebrew, as some openly desire and
propose, the eventual effect will be to damage still more the
influence of Ideas. There is a considerably numerous class,
to which I belong, who do not pretend to scholarship, but who
have kept up their smattering of Greek sufficiently for life
long appreciation of the literature — no small advantage on
the side of general culture, — but the smatterers are now likely
to disappear.
On education my own mind has never been clear ; so many
of those who are taught don't know how to use what they
are obliged to learn. The real students are a natural aris
tocracy intellectually, who will probably find their way upward
under any system that gives them their chance. And I
guess that compulsory Greek is entirely wasted on a majority
at school and college, as much as compulsory philosophy
would be. Compulsory mathematics were quite wasted on
me. And it is largely a question of national character ; the
Germans, I think, have always been a studious people — not
so the English. I wonder how far the Roman Empire pro
fited by high education; I do not know whether they had
state schools. I fancy that their dominion was due, like the
English dominion, to superior wealth and energy, and to
political experience. I doubt the power of education to
mould national character, though of course it is essential
to the successful direction of state affairs by the leading
men. . . .
The Russian Government is in perilous straits, with a
dangerous war on its hands, and the whole country in wUd
internal confusion. Yet I expect it will eventually emerge

i9o6] ILL HEALTH 413
without revolution or dissolution. The Japanese cannot strike
a fatal blow at the heart of Russia, and so soon as a peace can
be patched up this resolute despotism will turn fiercely upon
disorderly revolters, and will crush them. I doubt whether
any Government has ever lost power, and was overturned,
that did not first lose courage.
So far, though Lyall had never been a robust man,
and of late years had taken little physical exercise,
which, being spare by nature and abstemious by
inclination, he did not seem to require, he had on
the whole enjoyed fair health, and found himself
equal to any exertion, mental or physical, which was
demanded of him. He was now to receive his first
warning that old age was really coming upon him.
In the middle of February of the year 1906 he had
one night a sudden giddiness and fall, followed by a
momentary sense of confusion, which seemed to show
that there was something seriously wrong. He took
it calmly, as " a slight warning that my working days
are ending," and set about his business next day as
usual, presiding at a meeting of the Central Asian
Society. But, though his diary at this time shows
the customary round of social and business engage
ments, he was troubled by a feeling of languor and
dulness ; and soon afterwards he found it necessary
to put away an article he was writing for ' The Edin
burgh Review,' and to abstain for a month or two
from literary work, or anything which could put a
strain upon him. The symptoms did not last long,
and while they did last there is not in his letters or
diary the smallest sign of alarm or self-pity ; but they

414 ALFRED LYALL [1906
were the first indications of a weakness of the heart
which from this time increased upon him until at last
it ended in his death.
In May he was once more absorbed in his ' Edin
burgh ' article, and greatly interested in some meet
ings with Sir Arthur Nicolson, who was about to
take over the Russian Embassy. As I have more
than once noticed, Lyall had for five-and-twenty
years past steadily advocated an understanding with
Russia in regard to Asiatic affairs ; and he took the
opportunity to bring up the question again.
Soon afterwards he left England for a visit to
Dresden. It was a;n unlucky visit. Shortly before
reaching Hanover, Lyall stood up in the railway
carriage to light a cigarette ; the express train swung
rapidly round a curve ; he lost his balance and fell,
severely injuring his back. A rather imprudent ex
pedition to the Picture Gallery at Dresden made it
worse, and he found himself crippled for the time,
with "nothing to read but an Elzevir edition of
Pascal's ' Provinciales,' which I have brought from
home. Also a pocket Virgil." The injury turned
into an attack of pleurisy, but this was slight ; and
with the help of a borrowed Homer, and Thiers'
'Histoire de I'Empire,' Lyall riianaged to pass the
time till he was fit to travel again. A great pleasure
to him meanwhile was a visit from his old friend
Bishop Wilkinson, who had just returned from a
journey in Russia. They discussed the victories of
the Japanese, and the probable effect upon the pop
ulations of Asia ; and LyaU was much interested in

i9o6] SIGNS OF WEARINESS 415
the Bishop's account of the Russian situation. He
did not get back to London until after the middle
of June, and suffered considerably after his return.
Evidently his health and powers of work had been
really affected, for I find in his diary of the 24th the
words —
Finished laboriously my ' Edinburgh Review ' article ^ — dis
satisfied with it — hope it will satisfy the Editor. Probably
my last bit of literature — the knack of writing seems to be
leaving me — my ideas run very slowly into words.
It was far from being his last bit of literature. A
yachting trip with Lord Rendel to the North of
Scotland did him much good, and his cure was com
pleted, for the time at least, by two pleasant months
at Albury, with the picturesque Surrey scenery about
him. In August he delivered a lecture at Cambridge
on " The Establishment of the British Empire in
India," for the University Extension students, and
the peaceful time at Albury was broken by various
visits to other places. He was as restless as ever
about staying long in one spot. But he did have
some quiet, and found leisure enough to write another
article for the ' Edinburgh.' ^ In October he returned
to the old round of work and dinners and " week
ends." For the first time I find in his diary a sign
of weariness : "I am in much doubt whether these
week-end parties repay time and money spent upon
them." But he found interest in the quarrel between
1 " The PoUtical Situation in Asia."
^ On Swinburne.

416 ALFRED LYALL [1906
' The Times ' Book Club and the publishers, and also
in the project for founding a School of Oriental Studies
in London ; and in December he went down to Alder-
shot, where he delivered to a large gathering of officers
a lecture on " European Dominion in Asia." It was
a clearly written thoughtful paper, and was very well
received. A visit to the Walpoles at Hartfield Grove followed,
and then, after a day in London, where he notes
that he " dined alone at home — a rare incident," he
went on to Lord Tennyson at Farringford. He was
always happy there, and his diary for the 31st of
December has the words : " The usual walking, talk
ing, and smoking in the afternoon. So the year closes
pleasantly, among kind friends. No pleasanter hospi
tality for me than at Farringford."

CHAPTER XVL
1907-1911.
Sense of lessening literary power — Begins to grow tired of social duties —
French translation of 'Asiatic Studies' — Anglo-Russian Convention
— Variety of interests and offices — Congress of ReUgions — Charity
Organisation Society — Physical strength lessening — Warning of
danger — Indian reforms — Views on English politics — Votes for
Liberals, January 1910 — Votes for Unionists, December 1910 —
Writing for 'Edinburgh Review,' 1911 — Last days and letters —
Death.
In 1907 Lyall brought out a new and enlarged
edition of his ' British Dominion in India,' with a
supplementary chapter on our system of Protec
torates. This chapter is a valuable addition to the
book, but he was not satisfied with it. He writes
of it as "not well put together — on the whole
indifferent work — but no composition has given me
so much trouble for a long time. Evidently my
literary knack is forsaking me. ... I rack my
brain for the right word, and cannot keep on the
train of ideas." LyaU's sense of lessening literary
power was not perhaps wholly deceptive. The many
lectures and review articles which he was still to
write are all thoughtful and original, such as most
men might well be proud to have written ; and Mr
2 D

418 ALFRED LYALL [1907
Arthur Elliot, who edited the ' Edinburgh ' until
after LyaU's death, tells me that some of his best
work was done during his last four years. But the
work was not done so easily; though he used his
weapon with his old skiU, tbe hand that held it
was beginning to tire.
In April of this year Lyall was elected Chairman of
the Board of Dulwich Governors in the place of Lord
Davey. He had always taken a real interest in this
part of his duties, and he was pleased at his election,
though the office was at times not an easy one. That
he filled it with thorough efficiency was the opinion
of the whole Board.
He was pleased, too, by some unexpected tributes to
the value of his literary work. He met at the Break
fast Club the Prime Minister of the Australian
Commonwealth, Mr Deakin, and writes in his diary —
He came up to me after breakfast and said that he was a
great admirer of my ' Verses in India ' — often read them out
to his family. Also praised ' Asiatic Studies ' — so that 1
have appreciative readers in the distant colony.
At the same time an American editor was including
in an Oriental Historical Series his ' British Dominion
in India.'
He went over in June to Brussels for a meet
ing of the Institut Colonial International, and
his many business engagements did not decrease.
But he was at last beginning to feel weary of the
incessant round of social duties ; and the sudden
loss during the year of one of his dearest friends.

I907] SPENCER WALPOLE 419
Spencer Walpole, grieved him deeply. From this
time on I noticed in him, not any failure of intel
lectual grasp or of humour, but a disinclination for
going into the world, and a growing gentleness
of thought and manner. He had always been kind-
hearted at bottom, but he had not always seemed so.
Now the old touch of cynicism was giving place to
a certain humility and consideration for others which
were somehow a little saddening, but made him more
lovable. He spent the late summer months at Aldworth,
Lord Tennyson's beautiful house, near Haslemere, in
which the poet had died. From the terrace in front
of it there was a wide view over the Sussex Weald to
the sea, and the country about it was delightful.
Here LyaU was very happy, receiving the many
friends who came to see him, and doing some quiet
literary work. He had been asked to deliver the
"Ford" Lectures at Oxford, and was also preparing
review articles.
Edward Clodd, among others, came to spend a day
or two at Aldworth, and arranged with him for the
publication by the Rationalist Press Association of
some selections from his ' Asiatic Studies.' Lyall
agreed to the publication, though he hardly antici
pated that these Eastern subjects would find much
favour among the public at large. I am told that
over eight thousand copies of the selections have been
sold, mfany of these circulating in India. The French
translation of the 'Studies' was going on at the
same time, and in this Lyall was much interested.

420 ALFRED LYALL [1907
It was, he wrote, " an unique example of collaboration,
by an Englishman and Frenchman jointly, in dealing
with a curious and important subject." His letters
to M. de Kerallain were many and full. But there
is not space for them here.
Shortly after his return to London, Lyall met with
an accident which, to a man of his age, might have
had serious consequences. He was walking across
Parliament Street, when a man on a bicycle rode over
him and knocked him down. He was stunned, and
woke up to find himself badly bruised and shaken.
The thing was so sudden that he did not know what
had happened until some bystanders told him. But
no great harm was done, and he was soon well again,
and able to laugh at the indignity he had suffered.
I have mentioned Mr Deakin's praise of his verses.
In the course of the year he had a rather curious
proof of the influence exerted by them. He notes in
his diary —
A. told me that in his youth he had a mind to enter the
Church, but altered it after reading " Meditations of a Hindu
Raja" — my verses published just then.
His diarj' reminds me of some pleasant evenings
spent with him. He was then President of the
Omar Khayyam Club, to which he had introduced
me, and I went with him to the Club dinner, where
he read his Address. He was not fond of speaking ;
but he enjoyed these literary gatherings, where there
was no formality, much more than he did some of the
other entertainments he had to attend. At one of

1907] FAILING MEMORY 421
them, the Mutiny Veteran dinner at the Albert Hall,
he was characteristically uncomfortable. He rarely
spoke of his fighting days, having an extreme dis
like to posing as a soldier ; and he " slipped out at
the end, not quite satisfied with having been there."
He spent his Christmas with the Poet Laureate
at Swinford Manor, and his diary for 1907 closes with
the words —
So ends a year during which I have lost some valuable
friends and pleasant acquaintances by their death. For the
last month I have been engaged, rather laboriously, in the
work of preparing my Forde Lectures, of correcting proofs
of S. Walpole's two volumes for publication, and in examin
ing the proof of the French translation of 'Asiatic Studies.'
. . . On the whole, I feel as if I were bearing my years well.
But he was ageing — his hair had long been white,
and he was conscious at times of some want of
memory. He told me after his Omar Khayyam
dinner that he did not now like speaking without
notes. His diary of the 31st December mentions his
accident, and says it occurred during the month,
whereas it occurred in October. Yet his intellect
seemed as keen as ever, and his interest in the affairs
of the world. He was in frequent communication
with John Morley, now Secretary of State for India,
upon Indian affairs; and he was corresponding
with Lord Roberts about Native Chiefs and their
Imperial Service troops, about the aUeged spread of
disaffection among certain classes of Indians, and
about National Service in England. What his views
were upon that last point I do not know, for to the

422 ALFRED LYALL [1907
best of my recollection he never spoke to me ahout
it; but he attended the National Service meeting
at the Queen's Hall on the 16th May, and \#rote to
Lord Roberts about the manifest success of it.
This year 1907 saw the announcement of the
Anglo -Russian Convention, the principle of which,
an understanding with Russia, Lyall had so long
advocated. Naturally he approved of the Conven
tion ; and he was not disposed to attach much im
portance to the objections which were brought
against some of its terms, especiaUy the partition
of Persia into, very unequal, " spheres of influence."
In principle he was doubtless right. An understand
ing with Russia, on equal terms, carried out with
good faith and self-respect on both sides, cannot fail
to be of great advantage. And until the begin
ning of last century England and Russia had been
traditional friends. Whether he was right in think
ing that the terms did not much matter is another
question. They did not perhaps raise our reputation
in Asia. Moreover, it was argued for the Conven
tion, though not by him, that concessions were the
price we paid for assurance against invasion. That
is an argument of which it is difficult to speak with
patience. But it may be confidently assumed that
no such argument weighed with the framers of the
Convention, and that they really regarded the terms
as being fair to both parties. Yet one thing must
be said, that if the effect of the Convention should
be to make the nation rely for the safety of India
upon anything but our own military strength, it

i9o8] CONVENTION WITH RUSSIA 423
would involve serious danger. This Lyall thoroughly
recognised, as he had recognised the kindred danger
which might be involved in the Japanese Alliance.
But, taking the Convention as an honest attempt on
both sides to make an end of the old antagonism
and maintain the balance of power in Europe, Lyall
cordially approved of it.
In the spare page at the beginning of LyaU's
diary for 1908 is a brief memorandum which shows
the variety of his interests at this time, and the
estimation in which he was held.
In the last few months up to date I have been invited
to undertake office as follows : —
1. President of the British Academy.
2. Chairmanship of Dulwich College.
3. President of the Literary Society.
4. Chairman at a Conference of the Christian Conference
Society. 5. President of the Congress of Religions at Oxford.
He did not accept all these invitations. He
thought a younger man should be found for the
presidency of the Literary Society, and he did not
apparently think himself altogether fitted for some
of the other positions named. But he did, though
reluctantly and with diffidence, become President
of the Congress of Religions at Oxford ; and before
the end of the year the list of such invitations and
acceptances had increased.
Nevertheless, from this time he began to withdraw
in some measure from general society and to live

424 ALFRED LYALL [1908
a quieter life. He still went out frequently, for
he enjoyed mixing with his fellow-men ; but he felt
that he was growing old, and he now set himself
to face, with courage and calmness, the probability
that he would not live much longer. On his 72nd
birthday he writes —
Still retain fair health and some vigour. I begin to take
short views of life ahead, and feel a serious interest in con
templating its approaching end. All that I hope is that the
few years left will bring no grave misfortunes or losses.
And with that he turns to his work, his various
societies, his "Ford" Lectures for Oxford, and his
supervision and arrangement of Spencer Walpole's two new
volumes as they passed through the press, a rather laborious
and responsible work.
In June he was at Paris attending the meetings
of the Institut Colonial, and staying with Henry
White, now American Ambassador to France. He
enjoyed this visit ; but was saddened soon afterwards
by the death of his sister Mrs Petre, the third sister
he had lost since he returned to England. She had
taken charge of his children during his absence in
India, and with his strong family affection he felt
the loss deeply. It was, he wrote, "a hard and
heavy blow."
The later months of the summer he spent at
Aldworth, which he had again taken from Lord
Tennyson, and there he settled down to literary
work, but not with his old enjoyment. His address
for the Congress of Religions he found " a great

i9o8] SUMMER AT ALDWORTH 425
burden," and when it was finished he notes that it
is " not at all satisfactory, but must do faute de
Tnieux." Still it was a pleasant summer, made more
so by visits from friends, and to them. Baron
von Hiigel, with whom he always enjoyed a talk
on religious and philosophical subjects ; Mr Ralli,
on whose yacht he had joined in more than one
long cruise ; Lord and Lady Rendel ; Sir Frederick
Pollock ; Edward Clodd ; James Bryce, from America ;
his old schoolfellow Whitting, from Cambridge ; and
others. And when in September he attended the
Congress of Religions his address was well received.
Nevertheless, when I was with him at Aldworth it
seemed to me that he was not well — he could not
walk uphill without trouble, and there was a certain
languor about him which I was sorry to see.
On return to London he was invited to become
Chairman of the Charity Organisation Society ; and
to this important work he devoted a considerable
part of his time. I am told that he was a thor
oughly efficient chairman, rather masterful, and not
in favour of long discussions, but conscientious
and clear-headed. His diary for 1908 has many
entries referring to meetings of this Society, alter
nating with entries about the Committee on Oriental
Studies and other branches of work. And he had
written an article for 'The Edinburgh Review' on
"The Political Situation in Europe," which appeared
in the foUowing January. The year closed for him
happily enough. His daughter had come back from
India, his son was also expected, and he looked

426 ALFRED LYALL [1908
forward to seeing once more at least his whole
family together.
During this year he had received a copy of his
' Asiatic Studies,' in their French form, with valu
able notes by the translator, M. Rene de Kerallain.
The book was presented in July to the Acad^mie
des Inscriptions with a striking commendation hy
M. Barth.
The following are a few extracts from Lyall's letters
written during this year : —
To Lord Cromer —
Having now read with attention and great interest your
book on 'Modern Egypt,' I can appreciate thoroughly the
force and insight into Oriental politics with which it has
been written. It can hardly fail to open the average British
mind to a better understanding of the prodigious difficulties
that encompass the work of administration in the East, and to
diminish the risk of repeating the blunders and incoherences
which disordered the policy of our Government from 1880 to
1885. . . .
Your book on Egypt sets out the great problem for which
we are all seeking a solution — how to reconcile Oriental
populations with the dominion of Europe. We shall have to
find this solution or abandon the attempt, in the course of the
20th century. . . .
I am, of course, highly gratified by your reference to the
'Asiatic Studies,' in the footnote to page 231 of the 2nd
volume. It encourages me in the belief that we are working
in the same direction — towards explaining, in some degree,
the irreconcilable and ingrained differences between the ideas
and habits of Asia (including Egypt) and Europe.
. . . With regard to the events and transactions that pre
ceded the establishment of the English Protectorate in Egypt,

i9o8] 'MODERN EGYPT' 427
it is really wonderful that . . . Gladstone's incapacity or
unwiUingness to comprehend and face the situation did not
turn the whole business into confusion and failure, and pro
duce greater calamities than actually occurred. Material
interests, the heavy money stake of the European financiers
in Egypt, the pluck and tact of the men on the spot, prevailed.
Just as they will always prevail in India, where the immense
investments of English capitalists will always have a sobering
effect in England upon Liberal theories for that country.
I used to think that, apart from financial considerations, the
dispossession of Ismail Pasha in 1879 was of doubtful ex
pediency, because at the time I felt certain that any Khedive
set up and supported by European authority was sure to
break down. I believe it to be almost an axiom in Asiatic
politics that under those conditions a ruler invariably fails,
because the intervention of the foreigner turns all his country
men against him, as we have seen in Afghanistan, and see
now in Morocco. In Egypt it produced a sort of national
rising against Tewfik, and led straight to Arabi's military
revolt. . . .
What will be tbe eventual outcome of our position in Egypt
is impossible to predict. The weak point in it seems to me
that our occupation is still avowedly provisional, so that
the restless spirits can always speculate on a change. In
India our Government is an accomplished fact, so that we
can count on the support of the great Conservative party
in that country. Whether self-governing institutions can
ever succeed with an Oriental people, except in the Far East,
no one can say. We may well doubt whether European edu
cation will facilitate their establishment. But I may remark
that if Persia, the cleverest of Mahometan nations, succeeds in
transforming the old-fashioned despotism into any kind of
durable constitutional rdgiTne, their example wiU be a great
encouragement to the advanced politicians. They can now
look round the world, and perceive that India is the only great
country ruled by foreigners, who are not even inhabitants.

428 ALFRED LYALL [1908
To Colonel Rivett-Carnac —
Morley's constitutional reforms of the Indian Councils alaim/
many of the old school of Anglo-Indians ; but I myself con
sider that the experiment, though a bold one, is worth try^g,
and that some risks must be faced in order to satisfy the
natural desire of natives for a larger share^in the administra
tion. I do not think it possible that the system of governing
a vast Empire by a civil service, chosen by competitive ex
amination in England, can be prolonged indefinitely, — it is too
exclusively bureaucratic. . . .
The Bengali is a cowardly rascal. He puts forward school
boys and raw youths to throw bombs and to be the nominal
editors of seditious newspapers. The British Govemment
must show its teeth in earnest before long, or there will be
more murders. . . .
To Miss Oakeley —
I suspect that most people who have practical acquaintance
with the present state of education, would agree that too much
is attempted, and that many things are crowded into young
heads which can only accommodate them partially and super
ficially ; with the result that instruction on many subjects is
completely wasted, the knowledge being overlaid or oblit
erated by more immediately necessary or useful acquire
ments later. Bonar Law, a rather prominent M.P., addressed
AUeyn's School at Dulwich on Thursday, wben the prizes
were given. He mentioned that for five years he studied
hard and incessantly at Greek when a youth-^and he
declared that now he cannot understand a word in a Greek
sentence, — has much difficulty in reading the character.
The Congress at Oxford can hardly have failed to impress
those who had no previous familiarity with the subjects
discussed, with a sense of the extraordinary variety and
fecundity of the multiform religious instinct in man. Many
species are naturally disappearing before a changing environ-

i9o8] RELIGIOUS VIEWS 429
ment, and others are being transformed, but I believe it will
be very long before the human race abandons its belief in the
supernatural, though the notion of divine interposition in the
world's affairs may be relinquished, and the higher minds may
substitute religious ideas for the belief in historic facts. But
I doubt whether science will lead us back to a religious atti
tude — it disowns all connection with things beyond experience,
and refuses to concern itself with problems of which the sol
ution is not demonstrable. Science would agree that all its
researches are bounded by a mystery, but the mystical spirit,
which sees beyond by intuition, is not admitted.
It may be well, in connection with this subject,
to quote a passage from another letter of LyaU's,
not written at this time. It states that he had
reached the
conclusion, based upon a rather wide observation of religions
in various parts of the world, that to the vast majority of
mankind some form of religious belief, at any rate of Theism,
is a matter of primary mental necessity : it is inherent in their
constitution, and without it they would suffer serious im
poverishment. I am convinced that if the religious sense or
emotion, that feeling of reliance on spiritual aid and support
which is expressed in prayer, were generally to disappear,
mankind at large would fall to a lower moral level ; the only
spiritual influence which now raises their lives above mere
materialism would be taken away.
The question of religion had always the deepest
fascination for LyaU's contemplative nature, as his
published writings show ; and I have been astonished
more than once to hear him described as an irreligious
man. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Much
reading and thought, and the study of various

430 ALFRED LYALL [1908
religions, had left him with little belief in dogma ; but
his was an essentially religious mind, and from any
thing like ill-will towards Christianity he was wholly
free. One who knew him very well wrote to me
that aU who knew Sir Alfred LyaU must have been impressed
by his reluctance to say anything that might in the slightest
degree hurt the susceptibilities of others whose views might
differ from his own.
This, as I can say with confidence from many dis
cussions with him in old days, was the barest truth ; '
and there was more than this in him. Regard for the
susceptibilities of others is only what might be ex
pected from any one with the feelings of a gentleman.
Lyall had, beyond this, especially in his later years, a
genuine reluctance to say anything that might shake
the faith of others, — a certain reverence for spiritual
feeling in itself, — while old associations had much
power over his sensitive nature. There is a passage in
Lecky's ' Map of Life ' which makes one think of him^ —
Nor is it always those who have most completely abandoned
dogmatic systems who are the least sensible to the moral
beauty which has grown up around them. The music of the
village church, which sounds so harsh and commonplace to
the worshipper within, sometimes fills with tears the eyes of
the stranger who sits without, listening among the tombs.
The year 1909 opened brightly for Lyall with the
arrival from India of his younger son. He notes
' When he knew there was no danger of hurting one, he would permit.
himself a gentle hit. For example, " I think you are sure to be elected
at the Athenaeum, which favours men of distinction who are not Radicals
and who believe in HeU."

1909] ILL HEALTH 431
the fact in his diary, and a day or two later he
writes, " My 74th birthday ; I feel very well for my
age ; have preserved a certain degree of activity."
Nevertheless, a journey which he made with his son
in the spring to the Riviera and the Italian Lakes
and Venice, returning by way of Switzerland, made
him feel that his "physical strength was lessening";
and it struck me when I saw him occasionaUy at this
time that although he was inteUectuaUy as bright as
ever, and in excellent spirits — cheered by the arrival
of his son, and the marriage of a granddaughter —
he was beginning to look frail. As a fact, he was
in considerable pain at times ; and before the Lon
don season was over he was told that his heart
was dangerously affected, and that he must for the
future avoid sudden or violent exertion. He took the
announcement with his usual steadiness. " Perhaps,"
he wrote, " this tells me how I shall eventually
depart." But though after this time he became more
careful about walking fast or otherwise tiring himself,
his life was as busy as ever. The very day that he
was warned of his danger I find him entertaining a
party of friends at dinner ; the next day he attends the
Board of a Company with which he was connected,
then makes arrangements for the publication of a
cheap edition of Lord Dufferin's Life, then goes to an
Old Age Pensions meeting, and finishes up with a
dinner at " the Club" to celebrate the anniversary of
Samuel Johnson's death.
It was, in fact, for him a particularly interesting
season, and, in spite of aU, a pleasant one. Lord

432 ALFRED LYALL [1909
Morley was bringing in his BUl for reforms in India,
and Lyall seems to have had frequent discussions
with him and others interested in the question, —
among them Lord Cromer, Lord Curzon, and Lord
Reay. It would not perhaps be going too far to
assume that the measures introduced were to some
extent moulded on his advice. Lord Cromer writes
on this point —
Apropos of Lyall's views on recent Indian reforms, I think
it might be worth your while to read the speech I made in
the House of Lords on February 24th, 1909. . . . That speech
was made after several lengthy conversations with Lyall, and
though I am not prepared to say that he would agree with
every word of it, I can state pretty confidently that he entirely
concurred in the general line of argument which I adopted.
This statement is borne out by the foUowing letter
to Lord Cromer, which shows LyaU's views on the
subject : —
It may be worth while to send you in writing the substance
of what I said to you yesterday in conversation upon the
question of appointing an Indian member to the Viceroy's
Executive Council. , ,
My view of the situation is that the present bureaucratic
system of Government, though it is the best method of secur
ing efficient administration, cannot long be maintained. It is,
in act, a benevolent despotism, very effective for the impartial
dispensation of justice, for preserving order, promoting educa
tion, and pressing forward improvements in the material
condition of the people. But at the present time we can
perceive everywhere in Asia the beginning of a movement
toward giving the higher classes a larger share in the govern
ment of their respective countries, toward bringing men of
capacity and competence into the upper ranks of administra-

1909] EMPLOYMENT OF INDIANS 433
tion, and investing them with some power of exerting their
influence on the course of affairs. I believe that in India,
which is one of the greatest and richest empires in Asia, and
is under the sovereignty of a free self-governing nation, it
is impossible — certainly impolitic — to resist this movement.
No other considerable country in the world is ruled by non
resident foreigners, nor is any other administration in the
world almost entirely in the hands of a civil service of
officials selected in a foreign country by stringent educational
tests. In my opinion it is necessary to modify this system,
not only by widening the Legislative Councils, but also by
introducing, gradually, men of independence and influence
into the executive offices, remembering that in a properly
constituted government it is the executive authority that
initiates and determines all important legislation.
Now, for the purpose of accomplishing successfully the
introduction of reforms in the direction of self-government in
India, the policy of the English rulers should evidently be
to lean on the moderate party among the natives, and to
.strengthen it against the extremists. If we can satisfy that
party and acquire its support, I believe that the other faction
can be sufficiently restrained, for I hold that the moderates
represent the views and aspirations of a very great majority
of those among the Indian population whose opinions are
worth counting. We shall rely upon them to temper the
violence and discredit the excesses of the extremists by the
weight of their character and the force of their influence. In
short, we must enlist them on our side, and to gain this
advantage I would venture upon material concessions. I
would make a bid for their confidence by proving that we
have confidence in their attachment to the British rule ; and
I think that the appointment of a native member to the
Executive CouncU would prove that we trust them. I do not
undervalue the objections that have been raised against such
an appointment; the embarrassment that it might cause in
the conduct of business in the Viceroy's Council; the un-
desirability of entrusting the native member with secrets of
2 E

434 ALFRED LYALL [1909
State; the difficulty of selecting an Indian with adequate
merit, ability, and integrity; or of choosing one who will
honestly represent the interests of both Hindus and Maho
medans. But these objections are to my mind of compar
atively secondary importance and partly technical, and I
think that we have no right to assume their validity before
hand; while to admit arguments of this sort as conclusive
against making the appointment would be to shut the door
indefinitely against an Indian member, since they can always
be revived to defeat, a proposal to appoint him. I am con
vinced that the introduction of Indians to places of real and
high importance in our Govemment is a step that must be
taken sooner or later — however long we may postpone it—
because their assistance and co-operation in the arduous task
of governing modern India is essentially needed, and I should
prefer to take it soon rather than later. The proper decision
would be, in my opinion, to accept some risk of inconveniences
and disadvantages, and to treat objections founded upon
them as necessarily superseded by considerations of higher
statesmanship. Lyall was also interested in the movement against
woman suffrage, and became a member of the Associa
tion of which Lord Cromer was President. For the
rest he enjoyed going with his son to the Levee, to
the dinners of the "Political" service and Central
Asian Society, and elsewhere. One sad event, how
ever, threw a gloom over the close of the season. On
the 1st of July occurred the tragic murder of Curzon
Wyllie,^ one ofthe most unselfish and kindest of men.
"It has keenly distressed me," LyaU writes in his
diary, " an old friend for whose character I had a
strong regard."
1 Lieut-Colonel Sir WilUam Curzon Wyllie, K.C.I.E., C.S.I.

1909] ETON EDUCATION 435
The late summer months were spent at a house he
had taken — Flitwick Manor, near AmpthiU, with
occasional visits to other places, — for example, to
Manchester, where the University conferred upon him
the degree of Doctor of Letters ; and then he was
back in London working at the Charity Organisation
Society, lecturing on the Reading of History to the
Women Students of London University, writing for
the British Academy a paper on Sir Spencer Walpole,
and for ' The Edinburgh Review ' an article on OUivier's
Empire Liberal.
His heart was now giving him increasing trouble,
and pain. He was told that though nothing could
be done for him he might, if careful, live a quiet life
for some years, and he writes, " This is sufficient for
me." But he felt that the end might come at any
time ; and his diary for November contains an entry
which is hard to read with dry eyes. He goes to
Charing Cross one morning with his sons, the younger
returning to India at the end of his leave ; and Lyall
writes —
His stay of nine months has given us at home much
pleasure, so I hope he has been happy ; I hardly expect to see
his face again. " Sis memor nostri."
It has been noticed more than once that Lyall had
not a very high opinion of Eton education ; and among
his letters of this year is one to Mr Arthur Elliot, in
which he says roundly that in his time at Eton mind
and body were equally left to take care of themselves.
But there is also a letter to Lord Tennyson which

436 ALFRED LYALL [19Q9
may be worth quoting as a set-off to this unfavourable
view. Referring to the competition among boys for
school honours, he writes —
That eagerness to be placed high in examinations is dis
tinctly injurious to young boys, and I wish it were not so
much encouraged by the present system in schools and else
where. I believe that the success of Etonians in after life is
largely due to the fact that up till quite lately there was no
racing for prizes, so that the ingenuous youth did not strain
their mental powers prematurely.
In the latter part of this year, 1909, it became
evident that a General Election would shortly take
place ; and, being a candidate, I had some talks with
Lyall on the subject. He was, as ever, sympathetic
and helpful ; and, as ever, unable to take a " good
party view " of the questions dividing the two sides.
The Budget of 1909 he regarded with apprehension,
as a Socialist measure, the beginning of a general
attack upon the rights of property ; but he thought
the attitude of the House of Lords was dangerously
defiant and uncompromising. He was a convinced
Free Trader, and regarded the fiscal arguments of
the Tariff Reformers as sophistries which were never
likely to convince the nation ; nor did he believe in
Preference as a bond of union for the Empire ; but
on the other hand he was, as ever, steadily opposed
to Home Rule for Ireland, holding that firm govern
ment, with a stern repression of organised crime
and disorder, had done, and would do, more to
benefit the country than any measure of parlia
mentary separation. His sympathies were therefore

1909] NAVAL MATTERS 437
divided; and though he voted as a Liberal, he did
so only after careful thought.
As showing the breadth of his interests, some
passages are quoted from letters addressed to M. de
Kerallain —
I am sending to you separately the first portion of the
proof of a General Introduction to a volume which our Naval
Records Society has just published. The remainder of the
Introduction would have no particular interest for you, but I
think you will like to see, from the pages sent, the very con
siderable influence that French writers on naval tactics and
evolutions in the eighteenth century exercised on the develop
ment of English naval strategy, and the large use that we
made of French ideas. It appears that France supplied the
theories that England put into practice very successfully in
the naval wars with your country. I do not know whether
this is well known, even to experts in France, though, as the
French Admiralty is a subscriber to our Naval Records
Society, of which I have the honour to be a Vice-President,
it is possible that some notice of the facts stated in the
pages that I am sending you would attract attention in
France. . . .
Undoubtedly the Revolution ruined the French Navy, yet
I have seen indications, in naval history, that under the old
rdgime the aristocratic naval officers, belonging to a privileged
class, were occasionally insubordinate and slow to obey even
such admirals as Suffren ; so that the fleet did not always act
with effective union in a battle. . . .
I read the 'Revue des deux Mondes' regularly; there
have been some good articles on the situation in Turkey,
based on personal knowledge and information; and I wish
Taine had finished his educational story. But what interests
me most are E. OUivier's accounts of the proceedings and
exact circumstances of the ministry that plunged France into
that fatal war of 1870. It is keenly painful to think how

438 ALFRED LYALL [1909
easily might have been avoided a disastrous collision that
has broken down the balance of powers in Europe, and
altered the whole course of its history. . . .
I myself have become the Chairman of the Charity Organ
isation Society, which devotes itself to the arduous enterprise
of regulating the relief of the poor by opposing indiscriminate
gifts of money, and upholding the principle that men should
labour to earn their own living by thrift. You will easily
understand that in these Socialistic times we have a difficult
and unpopular task. Between Socialists and Women Suf
fragists the commonwealth is much vexed and troubled. . . .
I am really touched, and, of course, earnestly interested,
by hearing from you that M.  found pleasure in
reading Vamadeo's letters on his death-bed. There is in
France, as I have more than once perceived, a capacity for
quick and even ardent sympathy with ideas, that does not
exist to the same degree among Englishmen. ... I wish
that there were sure prospect for us all, Christians,
Academicians, and Bramins, who in this world are given
to calm discussions of questions relating to futurity, of
meeting again in some new stage of existence to compare
notes, and to discover which of us has come nearest to the
solution of the great enigma. I am honoured by the notice
bestowed by French critics on ' Asiatic Studies.' But clearly
I owe to your translation whatever interest the book may
have attracted in France. . . .
You know that in our country we do not nourish hostility
against Catholic writers on scientific subjects, and in matters
pertaining to religions it is quite possible that a devout
believer of his own faith may see and understand some
things more plainly than the amiable and intelligent sceptic.
I have known one or two missionaries in India whose know
ledge of Hinduism was superior. On the other hand, the
ordinary Englishman has a prejudice against heretics — he
does not approve outspoken attacks upon the text of his
Bible or the miracles of even the Old Testament. If Loisy

I909] ENGLAND AND GERMANY 439
had been an Englishman, I doubt whether he would have
obtained a Chair in any university here. . . .
I have to acknowledge with many thanks the Polybiblion,
and I have read the notice of your ' ^^tudes sur les Mceurs '
with appreciation. It is satisfactory that the reviewer holds
me to have broken to pieces ' The Golden Bough.' In Eng
land that book is still venerated as the Gospel of true Folk
lore. . . .
I trust you do not suppose us English to be indulging in
the niaiserie of believing that other nations love or even
like us. We know very well that we have never inspired
affection; that we must be well content if we are respected
as fairly honest in peace and able to give a good account of
our enemies in war. We know that our neighbours believe us
to be essentially egoists in politics, — my own belief is that
in that respect no nation is better than another. The
Germans think themselves superior to us intellectually, and
better organised for fighting ; and I have been told on good
authority that at times they fear we shall attack them
— that we shall destroy their fleet before it grows larger and
stronger. An English Bismarck would certainly propose to
do this. I am not sure that the idea would have been
rejected here 100 years ago, remembering that we seized
the Danish fleet in 1809^ or thereabouts, but now the pro
posal would be universally condemned.
Here in England the parliamentary battle goes on fiercely
over the Socialistic Budget. Most of us who have any
property are opposed to it. I myself believe that it will be
the first open step toward an assault upon capital, and that
it is economically pernicious. . .
The inauguration of your ancestor, Bougainville, must have
given you some real feeling of pride and pleasure, and I am
very glad that two British warships assisted. You will, I
hope, allow that the English still keep up the old tradition,
1 1807.

440 ALFRED LYALL [19 lo
so strong in France also, of gentlemanly manners between
antagonists, past and present. . . .
Lyall was now seventy-five years of age, and a
great-grandfather. He begins his diary for 1910
with an entry commenting upon the fact that four
generations of his family have been successively ex
ported to India ; and, as noticed earlier, one at
least of his uncles had died there ; so that India
had seen five generations of his blood. It is an
exceptional family record.
He was at this time far from well ; Lady Lyall's
health was causing him some anxiety, and the
winter seemed to have tried him also. He did
not talk about it, but he looked occasionally as
if he were suffering, and his heart was, in fact,
giving him increasing trouble. Though he con
tinued to work at his various societies and at
literature, the warnings became more frequent as
the months went on, and he found it necessary to
withdraw from many of his social engagements.
Still, he was a busy man. I find him, in January
alone, taking the chair at an Anti-Suffrage Com
mittee, attending Lord Cromer's Address to the
Classical Association at King's CoUege, lecturing on
Indian History to the women students there, finish
ing his OUivier article for the ' Edinburgh,' visiting
his friend and editor Arthur Elliot at Freshwater
Bay, sending off the last corrected proofs of a new
edition of the ' British Dominion in India,' writing
a paper on Asiatic History, attending business
boards, presiding at a Dulwich College Committee,

I9IO] DEATH OF KING EDWARD 441
going to a Council of the Central Asian Society,
and from that to a British Academy meeting, and
finishing the month with an afternoon's work as
Chairman of the Charity Organisation Society. For
a man of seventy-five this was not an inactive life.
It was, in fact, more than he could manage ; and
in the course of the spring he found himself obliged
to resign his office as Chairman of the Charity Organ
isation Society. It had brought him some useful
work, and some interesting acquaintances ; but he
was connected with so many other societies that he
felt he could not do justice to the work.
The death of King Edward VII. in May of this
year found Lyall in London, and he attended the
memorable meeting of the Privy Council on the 7th,
signing with other Councillors the Proclamation of
Accession. It was almost his last official act.
A ten days' visit to Aix-les-Bains shortly after
wards did him good, and he enjoyed it, as he always
did a change to the Continent. He returned with
fresh vigour to his London life ; and though obliged
to be more and more careful about taking exercise,
allowed himself for a time considerable latitude in
accepting invitations. He mentions in his diary
dining at " The Club " and various other places, and
seems to have been glad to return to his old ways.
But more than once his heart weakness forced him
to cancel engagements, and gradually he became
disincUned to accept them. Few of his friends
knew at this time how much pain he was suffering,
or how great the danger was; for he was always

442 ALFRED LYALL [19 lo
reserved about such matters ; but he was himself
under no illusions. He faced the prospect bravely,
determined to go on to the end showing a calm front,
and getting all the healthy pleasure he could from
what remained of his life.
In August he was once more at Aldworth, and
there he spent nearly three months of the late
summer, receiving visits from many friends. Among
them was the Hon. Emily Lawless, who afterwards
wrote of her stay as " a time which has ever since
remained extraordinarily bright against the back
ground." She had been a friend for many years.'
He found that he could now do little walking, and
often for days hardly left the garden ; but though
obliged to be careful, he was working as usual at his
literature. He had undertaken to write an Introduc
tion to Mr Valentine Chirol's book on Indian Unrest.
He was also writing for ' The Edinburgh Review ' an
article on European Dominion in Asia. And after his
return to town in October he resumed the course of
his attendance at society meetings. He resumed, too,
his dining out, and once more his diary shows a con
siderable number of evenings spent away from home.
His interest in public affairs was as keen as ever,
and there was little outward indication of illness or
depression. I remember dining with him in December,
a small and very pleasant party, and it seemed to me
that I had never seen him in better spirits. Yet at
1 A Uttle later he sent to her a piece of hers which she had forgotten.
He had cut it out from an old magazine and kept it. "May I add a
protest," he writes, " against your taking small care of true poetry ? "

I9IO] THE HOUSE OF LORDS 443
this time his heart trouble had increased so greatly
that he had even to give up playing bridge, as he
found it brought on pain.
The following passages are taken from his letters
of this year : —
To M. de Kerallain —
You will have seen by our newspapers that Mr Roosevelt's
speech at the Guild Hall, where I was present, has not
altogethei* pleased the English public. To me it did not
seem actually disagreeable, though I thought him rather
presumptuous in undertaking to lecture the citizens of
London upon the affairs of the British empire, and it was
clear to me that Roosevelt did not understand the complex
and delicate conditions of our situation in Egypt, and else
where in Asia. . . .
Egypt is giving us much trouble, but it is a small matter
by comparison with India ; we can master Egyptian sedition
whenever we choose to use force — though I should not be
sorry if we could find a pretext for throwing off that burden,
with honour. As for our situation here at home — there is
much truth in the observation that the Celtic element pre
dominates among our leading men ; though this is counter
acted by an infusion of the Scotch caution and sagacity.
But we English are being hurried on faster than suits our
traditions. I cannot tell what may be done about the House
of Lords; there is a very distinct divergence of aims and
purposes between the two parliamentary Houses. The Lords
have drawn up a Bill which, if it passed, would reform and
thus strengthen their House. The BiU which the Commons
are pressing onward is intended to weaken the Upper House.
They have no intention of strengthening it. Moderate people
hope for some compromise.
To Edward Clodd, Esq.—
You are a bold man to undertake Totemism, though I shall

444 ALFRED LYALL [1910
look forward to the article. It is a subject that has run wild
and needs critical compression. The defect, usually, in the
appUcation of the scientific or comparative method to loose
barbarous ideas or institutions is the straining of fanciful
analogies, the collection of a quantity of facts really unrelated
to the main subject and apart in their genesis, which are
hauled in by the ears to support a favourite theory. By this
system you can discover Totemism in the most unexpected
similarities of practice. Take the title of Dauphin. We are
told that the Dolphin was the heraldic crest of the Seigneur
who in the middle ages held the lands afterwards belonging
to the province of Dauphine — it became a patronymic in the
Seigneurial family some time in the 12th century. After pass
ing through various lordships, the lands were finally ceded
to a French king, on condition, it is said, that his eldest son
should always bear the title of Dauphin. Here, for the
theorist, is a fine instance of the transmission and survival
of the family Totem, if only the true origin were not his
torical, though perhaps you will say that it is an instance
of historical Totemism.
To Countess Martinengo Cesaresco —
. . . My years to come must be few. . . . The latest years
of a life ought at least to bring tranquiUity, when one's work
is finished, and one can look for no changes of fortune, except
in the loss of friends or kinsfolk. . . .
About our home politics I have little to say. Democracy is
in the ascendant, and likely, I think, to prevail in England as
elsewhere. When Demos has discovered his power, I don't see
how he is to be deterred from using it vigorously, though he
may get a check now and then. The Lords are now digest
ing the bitter fruit of their blunder in throwing out the
Budget. . . .
In India we have for the moment a lull, and I have some
hope that by skilful statesmanship we may soothe the unrest
for a time ; but the problem of holding that vast population

I9IO] VOTES AGAINST LIBERALS 445
by relays of Englishmen chosen by competitive examination
at home is of prodigious difficulty. To my mind our best
chance lies in enlisting the Indians of real influence and
high capacity into co-operation for the support of our Gov
ernment, but this must be done gradually, though it ought
to have been begun long ago.
I am more and more plagued by a weakness of the heart,
to the extent that almost forbids any exertion; for a very
slight walk gives me pain, and I fear that I can undertake no
more journeys, since even the mounting of a London staircase
is becoming arduous. . . .
I have been looking over La Banca's booklet, that you
kindly sent to me. He is in some respects a rationalist,
treating Jesus as a great moral teacher (wherein I thoroughly
agree with him) and rejecting all dogma. That Jesus was a
real historical personage is, to my mind, beyond question. I
should have thought that point needed, in the present day, no
demonstration ; and, as I have said to you before, I take him
to have been one of the greatest spiritual messengers who
have appeared so frequently in Asia, never in Europe, at any
rate not as the founders of any far-spreading faith. But it
has not yet been proved that any moral ideal, independent
of "confessioni dogmatiche," can take hold of the popular
mind. In June of this year Lyall had written to a friend,
" I myself intend to stand by the Liberal flag as long
as may be reasonably possible "; but the action of the
Government in introducing the Parliament Bill, with
the avowed purpose of granting Home Rule to Ireland,
convinced him that the time had come when he must
vote against his party ; and in November he agreed
to join his friend Arthur Elliot, who had come to the
same conclusion, in a letter to ' The Times ' explaining
their views. " I fear," Lyall wrote, " that my signa-

446 ALFRED LYALL [1910
ture will have little political value," but he signed the
letter, which appeared on the 26th November, under
the signature of Arthur Elliot, A. C. Lyall, and
Henry Hobhouse.
As this was one of the last important acts of LyaU's
life, and a good example of the bent of his mind with
regard to party questions, the letter is given below.

FREE TRADERS AND THE GENERAL ELECTION.
To THE Editor of 'The Times.'
SiK, — Only a few months ago at the late General Election
we, as Unionist Free Traders, thought it our duty to support
Liberal candidates where that could be done without seriously
endangering the cause of the Union. We believe that the
same action was taken by large numbers of Unionist Free
Traders in all parts of the country ; and it is surely a justifica
tion of that action that the Parliament then elected and now
to be dissolved did for the time being secure Free Trade and
did not endanger the Union. We believed that the main
issues before the electors last January were Free Trade versus
Protection, and the approval or rejection of the novel claim
of the House of Lords to exercise authority over Money Bills,
even over the annual Budget. On these issues a large
number of Liberal Unionists and Unionist Free Traders
thought that the Government were in the right, and held
these views, which we shared, strongly.
By the present Dissolution, taken on a worn-out register,
involving the disfranchisement of many thousands of the
electorate, the Government, we consider, have changed the
issue. They have hastily appealed to the country to support
them in their main policy, which appears to us directed
towards seriously weakening the efficiency of a Second

I9IO] SECOND CHAMBER 447
Chamber. If they succeed in carrying this, they obviously
intend to satisfy their Irish supporters by the introduction
of a Bill to establish a National Parliament and Executive
Government in Ireland. The Free Trade cause, however use
ful it may prove to the Liberal Party, will necessarily at the
present election occupy a subordinate position to these other
two issues.
As regards the Constitutional question, we think that the
speeches of Mr Balfour, Lord Lansdowne, and Lord Rosebery,
and, still more, the liberal and patriotic spirit shown by the
House of Lords itself, promise a far better prospect of a
reasonable and statesmanlike settlement of the Constitutional
difficulty than the passing of the Parliament Bill, a measure
which, whatever may be intended by some of its authors, is
being advocated in certain quarters as virtually establishing
a Single Chamber system.
We desire, ourselves, to see a reformed, enlightened, and
generally representative Second Chamber, not interfering
with finance, but exercising some control over legislation, and
ensuring that no reforms of vital or Constitutional importance
should be passed without the clear and decided expression of
the desire of the constituencies on those issues.
What action, then, should be taken by those who hold such
views ? There will no doubt be exceptional constituencies in
which the contest will turn, mainly or entirely, on the Tariff
issue. Here it may be too much to expect Unionists who are
strong Free Traders to set aside, for the emergency, their
convictions on Free Trade. But, speaking generally, we
consider that those who sympathise with the opinions we
have expressed wiU be acting wisely in supporting Unionist
candidates at the present election.
November 26, 1910.
LyaU's last year opened sadly. Two of his friends
had lately died, S. H. Butcher and F. Whitting.

448 ALFRED LYALL [191 1
Lyall attended the memorial service for the former at
St Margaret's, Westminster, and writes und©r date
the Srd January —
I had an earnest regard for him, and had known him for
some years. He was one of those with whom I desired to
cultivate close friendship.
Two days later he was at Cambridge attending the
memorial service to Whitting.
At 2.30 service in the Chapel, and procession after the
coffin to the College gate, where Nunc Dimittis was sung.
Whitting and I, born in the same year, were at Eton together,
and bracketed together for Select in the Newcastle Examina
tion. After my return from India in 1888 we renewed our
friendship, and often met at Cambridge.
Returned to London, Lyall was at once busy again.
On the 6th he writes —
To Henley's Board, then to meet Lord Morley at the St
James's Club, where I gave him lunch. Two hours of talk.
So the diary goes on, with entries about the affairs
of the Charity Organisation Society, about pictures
for Dulwich Gallery, about meetings of the Central
Asian Society Council and the Mahomedan Associa
tion, about one or two country visits, about dinners
at the Literary Society, Grillion's, "The Club," and
elsewhere. In February he drives down twice to
Wimbledon to inquire for his old friend Sir Charles
Elliott, then ill. He is appointed a trustee of the
British Museum, the last of the many offices pressed
upon him ; takes the chair of the English Literature

191 1] LAST LITERARY WORK 449
Committee ; attends a British Academy meeting for
the election of members and foreign correspondents,
and so on. In March I find him going down to
Putney Heath, to make inquiries about the sudden
death of a poor ex-Jesuit whom he had befriended,
" A most tragic end of a kindly and cultured man.
Miserrimus." During this month Lyall was still
dining out frequently, and still occasionally playing
bridge at the Athenaeum ; but he writes, " I must
give up the game, at the Club, but it is becoming no
easy matter to find occupation for my afternoons in
London." That with his love of literature he should have
suffered, as he did all his life, from this want of
" occupation " seems curious ; but the fact was, that
he did not care to do any one thing for long at a
time. Even reading, for hours together, tired or
rather bored him. His quick, restless mind wanted
frequent change. But it should be remarked that
he had accustomed himself for many years to read
only, or almost only, what was really worth read
ing ; and what is really worth reading generally
requires a closeness of attention which cannot be
indefinitely prolonged.
His literary work was going on as usual. Both in
January and in April of this year he had an article
in ' The Edinburgh Review ' ; the first on " European
Dominion in Asia," the second on "The Conflict of
Colour " ; and a new edition of the ' British Dominion
in India,' had lately been published. He was also
preparing to write, at the request of Lord Tennyson,
2 F

450 ALFRED LYALL [191 1
a paper upon the relations between Alfred Tennyson
and Edward FitzGerald, which paper was to have
been published in a new edition of Lord Tennyson's
Memoir of his father.
Regarding FitzGerald, Lyall was corresponding
with Edward Clodd, who lived not far from Fitz-
Gerald's old home at Woodbridge, and was, like
Lyall, a member of the Omar Khayyam Club, and
a warm admirer of FitzGerald's translation of the
'Rubayyat.' Lyall was also in correspondence with
Clodd about the article on Totemism, which has
been already mentioned ; and in a long letter, dated
the 2nd February 1911, he discusses this article
with the care and thought he was always ready to
give to a friend's work.
My acquaintance with the literature of Totemism and
anthropology generally is so slight that I can offer none but
a few superficial remarks on your article, which is full of
substance. P. 2. I presume the passage marked by me A. is a quotation
from Galton, though it is not so marked. Might not one
express a critical doubt whether he is right in saying that in
his Cambridge days many of the best-informed men believed
the whole history of the early world was in the Pentateuch ?
Galton was bom in 1822, and the ' Vestiges of Creation,' by
Chambers, appeared in 1824, and produced a profound sensa
tion. Moreover, from an earlier date in the 19th century
the history of organic life had been much discussed by scien
tific men. If you agree, I think you might put in a caveat.
All that I could venture to say about Totemism and Taboo
is contained in that chapter iv. of ' Asiatic Studies ' from
which you have quoted a sentence ; see also a few lines in the
preface to vol. ii. With your survey of the authorities on

191 1] TOTEMISM AND TABOO 451
these subjects I can't venture to meddle. My opimon, if it
must be given candidly, is that while you have set out an
excellent account of the various theories and conclusions
formed by investigators upon the data coUected, you have not
given us quite enough of your own criticism. . . .
My own notion is that the anthropologists are apt to go too
far back for the explanation of such institutions as Taboo
and Exogamy. I guess that in the course of many ages
the original ideas became profoundly modified by change of
circumstance and conditions. The absolute necessity of ob
taining wives by capture seems to me to account sufficiently
for the exogamic custom, though of course not entirely. See,
for instance, the story at the end of the last chapter of the
Book of Judges. The tribe of Benjamin, hitherto, as one
makes out, endogamic, is compelled to carry off the women of
another tribe. They had lost all their women, and this mis
fortune must have been common in times when women and
cattle were always the prize of the victor. It is not hard to
believe that this constant need of capture grew into a tribal
ordinance. . . . On page twenty-three you allude briefly to the
continuity of belief in psychical identity between man and
" brute." Could you not enlarge on this ? The growth of
civilisation tends to obliterate the familiar intercourse be
tween men and animals, which is closest, I think, in the
wilder stages of humanity, when the ways of human and
animal life differ not materially. The ignorance about
animals in cultured English society is now amazing. I quite
agree with the Blackfeet that animals have a reasoning
faculty ; and I think that the close and constant association
of primitive and uncivilised men and animals had very much
to do with the origin of Totems, Taboo, and animal worship
generally. A little later, to M. de Kerallain —
It is very satisfactory to hear that your son is enjoying
his Indian journey, and has found hospitality among the

452 ALFRED LYALL [19 n
acquaintances whom he has made. Sir Louis Dane's influence
will have been very useful to him in exploring the Punjab ;
and I hope he has made good use of his opportunities for
reconnoitring the Afghan Frontier. It is always a novel
sensation to meet for the first time the real barbarian, who
carries his life in his hand, and is quite prepared to shoot
a stranger on his land, as readily as the civilised sports
man would slay a deer. In Rajputana your son will
have seen a survival of medieval India, while Agra and
Delhi will recall by their architecture the glories of the
Moghul. This is a fine picturesque way of studying Oriental
history, bringing it up to date by the contrast of the methods
and results of utilitarian British administration. The con
trast, not to say collision, of old and new ideas will aid him
to a comprehension of the problems which we EngUsh are
endeavouring to solve in dealing with various races and
religions under a modem Empire. The article in 'The
Edinburgh Review,' which you mention, was written by
me on this subject. I am by no means satisfied with
it as an attempt to show the difficulties in ancient no
less than in modern times of rulership by Europeans in
Asia. . . .
My wife has been rather seriously ill, so I am living very
quietly at present, and I am going seldom into the world of
London. Meanwhile I have been elected to be one of the
Trustees, or Governing Body, of the British Museum, an
honour of which I feel very unworthy, since I have no pre
tensions either to science or scholarship ; and I confess that
I have never been attracted by archaeology. My erudite
colleagues will soon discover my superficiality.
Of LyaU's letters which have been sent by his
friends this is almost the latest. It is in small and
not very clear writing. The last of all is one of the
9th AprU, written to Miss Gertrude Bell from Lord
Tennyson's house at Freshwater —

191 1 J LAST LETTER

453

Your letter from Bagdad reached me just before I left
London for this place, where I am always most hospitably
treated. I ought to have replied long ago to your former
letter from Damascus— pray believe that I set high value on
your letters, as tokens of our friendship— but since February I
have been troubled by my wife's serious iUness ; luckily she is
now much better, though stUl in bed.
In this second letter you have passed over very quietly the
numerous hardships and incidents of the adventurous journey
across the desert, of which I should have known nothing if
Lady Bell had not lent me a copy of your letter to her, which
gives a most lively and picturesque narrative of real Asiatic
travel, and of your resources in contending with difficulties,
the whole of it suffused by your innate joy in the desert air
and in the ways of primitive folk. As a paper in some high-
class magazine it would be a prize to the inteUigent editor,
but I have not yet seen your article in last month's ' Black
wood,' having only just heard of it from Lady Bell. I see that
you have taken kindly to the Oriental habit of consoling
yourself for unmerited misfortunes by pious ejaculations, and
putting them down to Destiny, while Allah gets the credit of
any good luck. This is a philosophy which the progress of
Western civilisation in Asia is gradually undermining. Ener
getic Governors, like George Curzon, take upon the Adminis
tration the responsibility for plague, famine, and so on, with
the result that the Asiatic concludes that the Govemment has
undertaken the business of the Gods, and is obviously break
ing down. I have been much interested by what you have
written, in both letters, regarding the marked improvement of
Turkish administration under the new r4gims. It seems to
me that the party now in power is doing the right thing ; the
leaders have set up a fagade of constitutionalism, and are
building up behind it a solid fabric of strong government
backed by military force. This is, I think, the only method
by which the transition can be managed if it is ever to super
vene. And, of course, they are prompted, as you say, by that
intense desire to be rid of European domination which is

454 ALFRED LYALL [191 1
stirring [all Asia; they are following the lead of Japan in
taking what they really need from Europe, that they may
destroy the schoolmaster after profiting by his lessons. The
same notion is rife in India, but there the military force is in
our hands, and if we withdrew it or lost hold of it the
educated native would be swept away by barbarians. " En
revolution les honnStes gens sont toujours balay^s" is the
saying of a Frenchman who had seen rough times. Asia wiU
take long to set in order; the kingdoms have no settled
frontiers except where Europeans have laid them down, just
as the religions have no formal creed or articles of faith
excepting the brief profession of Islam ; and, as you observe,
there is no stable public opinion — how can there be, in
populations varying indefinitely as to race or religion, where
nationalities do not yet exist ?
I can give you no home news that others will not have
sent. No one pretends to foresee how the contest over the
Veto Bill will end, people vaguely hope for some compromise.
In the House of Commons the fighting grows hot, the temper
of the country at large continues to be phlegmatic, with an
inclination to acquiesce wearily in Irish Home Rule. The
Lords have proposed a Referendum, as a device for hobbling
the feet of the Commons. I myself am altogether hostile to
it. The "WiU of the People" seems to be illusory,— the
people, rightly, expect to be told what their will should be.
You must not carry political fictions too far.
The Suffragettes are using all the rope they can get to hang
themselves ; they camped out in the streets on Census night,
and performed various antics.
I am somewhat vexed by the hardening of my arteries, and
can walk only very short distances. ... I trust you continue
well and strong, we shall look out for another book next
year ? Meanwhile, remember that your letters give me very
real pleasure, and that I am always your affectionate
friend. The last entry in his diary shows a well-filled day —

19 ll] "COUNSELLOR AND FRIEND" 455
To Henley's meeting. Thence to Dieudonn^'s Restaurant,
where I gave lunch to Lady (NeviUe) Lyttelton. Then for
half an hour to Academic Committee, large meeting to hear
Haldane from the Chair, and Gilbert Murray's oration on poor
H. Butcher. Afterwards Dulwich Board, &c., from 3.45 to
5.30. A and B to dinner.
Lady Lyttelton writes about their lunch together —
We had such fun, laughed and talked endlessly, and he
promised to come to us for Whitsuntide. I miss him con
tinuously. He was such a counsellor and friend.
I had seen Lyall a few days before, when we found
ourselves sitting side by side at a Council meeting of
the Central Asian Society. He spoke, at rather un
usual length for him, about a matter in which he was
interested ; but, with his usual respect for the views
of others, did not press his own when he found that
there was some difference of opinion. After the
meeting broke up we walked back together towards
Queen's Gate. He walked slowly, but seemed quite
well, and talked with his usual brightness about
Indian affairs. When we parted he asked me to come
to dinner some day soon, but unluckily a note received
the next day invited me for an evening on which I
was already engaged. I never saw him again. In
the early part of April I went over to Switzerland, to
stay with his old friend Rivett-Carnac, and the day
after I arrived, as we were walking through the
streets of Vevey, Rivett-Carnac took a 'Times' from
a servant and opened it. The first thing he saw
was the announcement of LyaU's death.

456 ALFRED LYALL [1911
I learned afterwards that on the Sth of April LyaU
had gone down to Farringford to spend two or three
days with Lord Tennyson, and discuss the FitzGerald
article. The day was fine but cold ; and the crossing
in the boat, or the walk up the long pier, had tried
him, for it was noticed that he got into the carriage
with difficulty, and turned very white. But the
attack soon passed off, and by the time he arrived
at the house he seemed to have completely recovered.
Lady Tennyson had, as she told him, given him " his
own room," from which he could look out over the
downs and hear the sound of the sea. At dinner she
thought he was particularly bright and cheerful, and
afterwards he sat up late with Lord Tennyson, smok
ing and talking. The next morning he drove over to
Mr Arthur Elliot's house half a mile off, and spent a
couple of hours there. They had, Mr Elliot said, " a
delightful morning," but, short as the distance was,
Lyall sent for a carriage to take him back. He passed
the rest of the day, a beautiful spring day, wandering
about the garden, or talking with some of the other
guests in the house, and seemed to be thoroughly
enjoying himself Dr Warren, of Magdalen, who was
one of them, writes : " I have never known him more
engaging, more wise and clear, and to the point, and
at the same time so genial." The last of his letters,
given above, must have been written in the course of
this afternoon. He finished the evening as usual hy
sitting up with Lord Tennyson in the smoking-room.
When he went to bed at midnight he took with him
to his room Elliot's ' Life of Lord Goschen,' then just

191 1] HIS DEATH 457
out. Early next morning when his servant, Boyes,
came in to call him he was awake, reading a book
of Maeterlinck's, but he said he felt unweU, and had
better return to town. He then got up. A few
minutes later there was the sound of a fall, and
when his door was opened he was found lying on the
floor dead. The weak heart had failed. He was
spared what would have been a great trial to him, a
lingering Ulness, and he died among the truest of
friends. Many years before he had written from India that
to die as his father had died, and to be laid in the old
churchyard on the hill above Canterbury, seemed
almost enviable. It is there that he now lies.
There is little more for me to say. Alfred Lyall
lived longer than the three - score years and ten
allotted to man, and his life was a full and varied
one. I think also that in spite of his restlessness
and occasional discontent it was as happy as a man's
life ever is. He did not attain the position which
he might perhaps have attained if he had not chosen
an Indian career. But he was as successful in his
official work as a man could well hope to be, and
he won exceptional distinction in literature. The
years he spent in England after his retirement were,
perhaps, the most contented of all. With his simple
tastes he had enough of the world's goods ; " and
that which should accompany old age, as honour,
love, obedience, troops of friends," he had in fullest
measure. If in matters of dogma he had found no sure foot-

458 ALFRED LYALL [191 1
hold, his faith was one which brought serenity of
spirit. No one who saw him during the closing
period of his life could doubt that he became year hy
year more reverent, more gentle, more unselfish, and
therefore happier. There is not much wrong with a
man's religion if that can be said of him.
He had his faults, and I have not tried to conceal
them ; but as I sit writing the story of his life, and
thinking of him, in the house where the sense of his
presence still lingers, it seems to me that among the
men I have known there have been few of such rare
qualities and charm, and not one who had the power
of inspiring, in those who really knew him, a deeper
trust and affection.

CHAPTER XVIL
LITERARY WORK.
Enumeration of writings— Effect of oflacial Ufe on quantity and quality-
Truthfulness — Verses — Tennyson's opimon— Passages quoted — Prose
writings — Personality shown by them— Works separately examined —
Lyall's choice of essays for repubUcation.
Before closing this memoir it is necessary to say
something more about LyaU's literary work, by which
he is best known in England, and now, perhaps, even
in India. It will no doubt in the future be his fore
most title to remembrance.
I have touched upon the subject repeatedly in the
course of the preceding chapters, for literature, of one
sort or another, was a part of his life throughout ; and
no memoir of him would be truthful if the thread of
literature did not run through it from end to end.
These frequent references to his writings, and the
many opinions recorded about them by competent
critics, make it almost superfluous to add a general
review of this side of his life. The following pages
therefore are largely of the nature of an enumeration
and summary.
His verse,^ — all that he thought worth publishing, —
is to be found in one small volume containing little

460 ALFRED LYALL
more than thirty poems, none of which are long.
He wrote others, and he had no objection to being
credited with them ; but he did not think any of
them would add to the value of the book. His prose
output is much more considerable. It includes five
books published under his name —
'Asiatic Studies,' in two volumes; 'Warren Hastings,'
for the " English Men of Action " series ; ' Alfred
Tennyson,' for " English Men of Letters " ; ' The Life
of the Marquis of Dufferin and Ava,' in two volumes ;
and the ' Rise and Expansion of the British Dominion
in India.'
He also delivered several important lectures, and
contributed to various reviews and periodicals, in
England and in India, a great number of articles.
Some of these papers are republished in 'Asiatic
Studies,' and some are incorporated in the ' British
Dominion.' No attempt will be made to give a
complete list of them, for many were of temporary
interest, and many cannot now be traced ; but it is
worth noting that he contributed to ' The Fortnightly
Review ' fifteen articles, to the ' Quarterly ' four, and
to the ' Edinburgh ' no less than twenty-five.
It will be seen that when all is said LyaU's total
literary production, as compared with that of some
other writers, is not large ; but it is to be remembered
that literature was not the only, nor indeed the
primary, work of his life. Until he was sixty-eight
years of age he was an official, and during part of
that time a fairly hard-worked official, with a material
part of his day devoted to official duties. In India

ACTION AND LITERATURE 461
especially, where there are many disadvantages of
climate and surroundings, and where, even during
periods of comparative leisure, he was never free
from the burden of responsibility, literary produc
tion on a large scale would have been practically
impossible. The conditions which limited the quantity of LyaU's
literary work had an important effect upon its quality.
His writings, whether in verse or prose, show through
out the hand not of a literary man pure and simple,
but of a man of action with literary tastes. It is
possible that they lack in some measure the finish, the
perfection of technique, which as a rule comes only by
long and incessant practice at one craft ; certainly
they are fuUof the knowledge, and marked by the
tone of thought, which can be acquired only by
taking a part in the affairs of the world. Whether
the gain outweighs the loss, or the loss outweighs the
gain, may be disputed ; but in any case, as one would
expect, the loss is more apparent in verse, where
perfection of form counts for so much, while the gain
shows more clearly in prose. There, indeed, it is
not easy to detect any loss at all ; LyaU's work seems
to compare not unfavourably in the matter of finish
with that of most professional men of letters.
Apart from this question, the main characteristic of
LyaU's work, both in verse and prose, is its truth
fulness, its careful regard for the realities of life.
Though he had to an unusual degree the gift of imag
ination, he never allowed himself to be tempted too
far from the region of the known or the knowable.

462 ALFRED LYALL
He " detested subjective poetry " ; basing his poems
mainly on some definite incident or scene ; and the
accuracy of his local colour is scrupulously maintained.
With all his love of reflection and meditation, his
incessant study was history. Religion had for his
mind the strongest attraction ; his thought was con
stantly drawn towards the things which are not of
this world ; he had a deep and sympathetic insight
into the attitude of the mystic. Yet, even here, what
he was always seeking was a solid foothold, " a work
ing philosophy of religion." Of theories in general
he had an instinctive distrust. He could see the
aesthetic beauty of them, when they had beauty, but
unless they were based on ascertained facts they were
not for him. This constant respect for the truth was
evident in the manner as well as the matter of his
writings. His dislike of exaggeration was almost
excessive. It deprived him to some extent of the
warmth and brilliancy which are now so often attained
even by inferior writers ; but it gave him a certain
dignity of style which, lightened as it was by quiet
humour, made all he wrote singularly attractive.
His literary work, whether in verse or prose, leaves
in the mind of any careful reader a feeling not only of
keen pleasure but of conviction and confidence.
His verses were mostly written during his service
in India, and deal largely with Indian subjects. The
last edition of his published volume, if compared with
the printed but unpublished collection of 'Verses
Written in India,' which was circulated among his
friends in 1887, shows some changes and additions.

VERSES 463
It can hardly serve any useful purpose to go into this
matter at length; but I find that the published
volume omits three pieces, " Sky Races in the Grecian
Camp before Troy," " The Lorraine Widow's Dirge,"
and " Swinburne in Islam " ; while it includes six new
pieces: "Somnia," "Stanzas for the Omar Khayydm
Club," "Siva," "A Hard Bargain," "Inscription,"
and the first of the " Horatian Reminiscences." The
omitted pieces contain some fine lines, especially
perhaps " Swinburne in Islam," the soliloquy of an
Englishman who has turned Mahomedan ; it begins —
" I have cast my lot in a dolorous land ;
1 wander in dusty and weariful ways, —
Bare and burning the sky and the sand.
Ever they circle my desolate days.''
Hope he has little, and faith he has none; so he
shakes off the trammels of the Western world, and
throws himself into the life of the East, with its
scorching love and its simple sins. The poem ends —
" Oh far-off island where I was born !
That pleasant land which I held in scorn ;
'Tis little she cares if her exiles wrong her.
Little she reckons our word or deed."
But LyaU was doubtless right to let this and the
other two pieces join the number of those which he
had set aside as not of his best.
The six added pieces are almost all on Indian or
Oriental subjects, and one at least had been written in
India. The remaining differences between the two volumes
are mostly slight— stops, accents, notes, speUing, verbal

464 ALFRED LYALL
changes, rearrangements of the order of pieces or
stanzas, and the like. In two pieces, "Rajput
Rebels," and "A Sermon in Lower Bengal," he has
omitted, or altered for the worse, lines which, though
powerful, had been criticised as unpatriotic and likely
to do harm. The net result is that iiis published
volume is not, either in bulk or in general character,
very different from his ' Verses Written in India,'
and it may be regarded as the work of an Indian
official, inspired by Indian scenes and subjects.
It is difficult for any one who was in India, in the
atmosphere of LyaU's poems, a generation ago, to
escape from the influence of association, and consider
them dispassionately. At that time many of us knew
them by heart, and they are so familiar still, so
redolent of old memories and old scenes, that one
cannot feel impartial in speaking of them.
Mr Prothero in his commemorative address remarks
that Lyall is not to be ranked with his great con
temporaries — Tennyson, Browning, Swinburne, Ros
setti ; that his poetry is on a lower plane. And the
poet Tennyson himself had not as high an opinion of
LyaU's verse as some of those whose words have been
quoted in earlier chapters. He thought much of it
good — even " fine," — for example, " Theology in Ex
tremis" and "Badminton" ; but he regarded some of
it as wanting in finish. Tennyson's judgment on such
a point is almost conclusive, and one can only say in
extenuation that the standard of finish which he set for
himself was so abnormally high that he may possibly
have been inclined to expect too much from others.

PITY AND SADNESS 465
Yet, apart from Tennyson's judgment, it may perhaps
be admitted that in delicacy of ear at all events Lyall
was not extraordinarily gifted. His verse has much
delicacy of thought, feeling, and language, and as
a rule it has an easy flow ; but at times, in spite of
the care and labour which he bestowed on his work,
or because of them, the music is not perfect. He
knew, none better, that " a good poet's made as well
as born " ; he spared no toil to write a living line ;
but he toiled rather for the sense than for the sound,
and occasionally he seemed to let the music escape.
For the rest, as Prothero urges, and Tennyson would
have agreed, the small volume does contain, if not
great poetry, as some hold, yet true poetry. Lyall
had the lyrical emotion and the lyrical touch. No
doubt much of his verse is reflective rather than
passionate. Though there are spirited lines, and pas
sages of unquestionable power, the feeling as a rule is
tender and sad.
" Surely He pities who made the brain
When breaks that mirror of memories sweet,
When the hard blow faileth, and never again
Nerve shall quiver, nor pulse shall beat.
Bitter the vision of vanishing joys ;
Surely He pities when man destroys."
That is the note so often struck, the note of pity
and sadness, rather than the note of onset, or triumph,
or fiery love. But it is not the only note —
" Te have sought my aid and counsel, I must lead you, I must pray
That the God of Islam may restore your old imperial sway.
In the towns your fathers founded, in the provinces they named.
May revive a faith forgotten, and the rites that ye have maimed ;
2 G

466 ALFRED LYALL
That he prosper your conspiracy and send his spirit forth.
On the Arab of the Deccan, and the Afghan of the north ;
So the bayonet be dashed aside with the swing of a curved sword.
And ye reap a bloody harvest with the sickle of the Lord.
Strong must your heart and your hand be, no time for soft dreams is
before you ;
Woe to the coward who sleeps when the darkness that bound him
has fiown.
Firm be your faith and your feet when the sun's burning rays shall
be o'er you.
When the rifles are ranging in line, and the clear note of battle
is blown." ^
LyaU's best pieces do not lend themselves to quota
tion, but the foUowing lines from " The Old Pindari "
give a good example of his descriptive passages —
" It's many a year gone by now ; and yet I often dream
Of a long dark march to the Jumna, of splashing across the stream,
Of the waning moon on the water, and the spears in the dim starlight.
As I rode in front of my mother, and wondered at all the sight.
Then, the streak of the pearly dawn — the flash of a sentinel's gun,
The gallop and glint of horsemen who wheeled in the level sun.
The shots in the clear still morning, the white smoke's eddying
wreath ;
Is this the same land that I live in, the dull dank air that I
breathe?"
Any one who has lived in the country will feel the
truth and beauty of these few words —
" Here, in this mystical India, the deities hover and swarm,
Like the wild bees heard in the tree-tops, or the gusts of a gathering
storm ;
In the air men hear their voices, their feet on the rocks are seen,
Tet we all say, ' Whence is the message, and what may the wonders
mean 1 ' " 
1 The impublished edition has —
"When the Kafir is ranging Jiis line, and the stem note of battle is blown."

"THE HINDU ASCETIC " 467
There is much else in LyaU's verse; much that
shows how he could enter into the spirit of the
soldier ; much also that shows his sympathy with the
traditions and feelings of the people around him, and
his deep insight into their ways of thought. Perhaps
one of the most characteristic of his poems in that
last respect is a study at Delhi, " The Hindu Ascetic,"
which is short enough to quote —
" Here as I sit by the Jumna bank,
Watching the flow of the sacred stream.
Pass me the legions, rank on rank.
And the cannon roar, and the bayonets gleam.
Is it a God or a King that comes 1
Both are evil, and both are strong ;
With women and worshipping, dancing and drums,
Carry your Gods and your Kings along.
Fanciful shapes of a plastic earth.
These are the visions that weary the eye ;
These may I 'scape by a luckier birth.
Musing, and fasting, and hoping to die.
When shall these phantoms flicker away ?
Like the smoke of the guns on the wind-swept hill,
Like the sounds and colours of yesterday :
And the soul have rest, and the air be still 1 "
The piece immediately following this, " Badminton,"
another study at Delhi, is worth quoting also, for the
two are evidently meant to be read together ; and
they show how Lyall regarded the tendencies of the
two faiths, the Hindu and Mahomedan. His personal
sympathy was always with the first, which appealed

468 ALFRED LYALL
to his meditative and subtle mind, and it may be
doubted whether he was ever just to the other. But
the little piece is a good illustration of his feelings and
manner —
" Hardly a shot from the gate we stormed.
Under the Moree battlement's shade ;
Close to the glacis our game was formed,
There had the fight been, and there we played.
Lightly the demoiselles tittered and leapt.
Merrily capered the players all ;
North, was the garden where Nicholson slept.
South, was the sweep of a battered wall.
Near me a Mussulman, civU and mild.
Watched as the shuttlecocks rose and fell ;
And he said, as he counted his beads and smiled,
' God smite their souls to the depths of hell.' "
It is a temptation to quote more, but these extracts
will probably suffice to give to any one who does not
know LyaU's verses some indication of their scope and
quality. That they came home to many men is certain, and
to men of very different natures. If there was no
overpowering rush about them, no fine careless rapture,
or sensuous melody of words, there was something
which penetrated and charmed. Above all, there was
truth, and "Beauty is truth, truth beauty." He
wrote too little to make a deep impression on the
public in England, and his subjects are not familiar to
the English reader ; but in India he will not easily be
forgotten.

'ASIATIC STUDIES' 469
The more vigorous and catching strains of Rudyard
Kipling have perhaps to some extent overpowered his
voice ; otherwise he would have been the best known
of Indian verse- writers. Though, for evident reasons,
he would never have become to Englishmen in India
the popular idol that a delightful but less original
writer, Lindsay Gordon, has become to the Australians,
he would have held an equally distinct position ; and,
among those at least who take a real interest in the
country, his verses will not die.
Of LyaU's prose writings, the work by which he is
best known is ' Asiatic Studies.' It is undoubtedly a
book of the greatest interest and value to every man
who wishes to know something of Asiatic thought,
and especially of Indian thought. There is probably
no work in the language which contains such a
store of information with regard to the religions
and philosophies of the East. Lyall brought to it
qualities which are rarely found combined — a practical
acquaintance with men and administrative affairs in
India, a thorough knowledge of Indian history, an
intense sympathy with Indian feeling and thought, a
deep interest in religion, a singular freedom from
prejudice, a keen sense of humour, and an inquiring
contemplative habit which led him to search not
only into facts but into the causes and correlation of
facts. One rarely came away after hearing him talk
without having learnt something, and this is the
impression left whenever one comes into contact with
his mind in reading these essays. They are informing
and suggestive to an extraordinary degree, perhaps

470 ALFRED LYALL
even more so for one who has lived in India than for
one who has not.
Mr Prothero has pointed out, with much insight
and discrimination, the chief features of LyaU's
literary work; and he remarks that LyaU's person
ality is shown perhaps most of all in the 'Studies.'
This is comprehensible, for essays on religious and
philosophical subjects gave greater scope for the
exhibition of a man's innermost views and feelings
than historical or biographical works can do. " And,"
he says, " it was a rich and complex personality . . . shot
with strange hues and somewhat bewildering con
trasts, with its underlying strain of melancholy and
its delicate sensibility, its veiled humour and gentle
irony ; too sceptical for enthusiasm, too critical for
worship ; temperamentally indolent, but intellectually
alert ; humble, but independent ; emotional, but in
tensely sane ; bold in speculation, in action cautious,
even hesitating ; reserved and a little chilling to the
newcomer, but capable of unbosoming itself with warm
affection to intimate friends ; easy and fascinating in
conversation, but preserving always a certain aloofness
from the outer world." This is keen-sighted and
sound criticism. If it errs at all, it errs only where
every one erred who did not know Lyall very well
indeed — in not recognising that though perhaps "in
action cautious, even hesitating," he could yet be,
when necessary, both prompt and tenacious. The
words " humble, but independent ; emotional, but
intensely sane," are singularly exact, if the word
"humble" be meant, as it doubtless is, to express

'THE BRITISH DOMINION' 471
humiUty without self-abasement. But perhaps these
remarks are more suited to the earlier part of this
memoir than to a chapter upon LyaU's literary work.
It IS more to the purpose here to quote Mr Prothero's
assertion about the 'Asiatic Studies,' that "for the
student of comparative religion, for all who desire to
know, in particular, the religious mind of the Hindu,
his work has rightly become a classic." And this
means much, for it is to be remembered that the
religious mind of the Hindu is practically the whole
mind of the Hindu, with whom religion permeates
everything — is everything; and further, that the
reUgious mind of the Hindu remains to a great extent
unaltered even when he has accepted, or has had
imposed upon him, creeds which cannot be included
within the wide limits of Hinduism. The work, in
fact, is a classic not only for the students of compara
tive religion, but for all who desire to know what
India is — one might almost say what Asia is, for
Indian religious thought has overflowed far beyond
the limits of India.
I have spoken before of LyaU's historical work, ' The
Rise and Expansion of the British Dominion in India,'
and have quoted the opinions of others with regard
to it. Though short, it is the best book yet written
upon the subject. Dry statements of historical facts,
or supposed facts, we have in plenty, and some of
them are valuable as material for a historian. We
have also the vivid but misleading pages of Macaulay,
and the prejudiced, one can hardly help saying the
wilfully perverse, history of James Mill. We have

472 ALFRED LYALL
much else, by other writers, some of it very good.
But the first really illuminating work on this period
of Indian history is LyaU's. As Prothero points out,
it does not pretend to be based on original research,
nor does it add largely to our knowledge of events,
but it does more : it explains in the clearest and most
convincing manner the causes and consequences of
known events, and leaves us for the first time with
a reasoned and definite idea of the whole achieve
ment. It shows how by the gradual establishment of
her maritime supremacy Great Britain became the
strongest European nation in Southern Asia ; how,
when she came into contact with the artificial and ill-
knit principalities into which the Moghul Empire had
broken up, there was a practical certainty that these
must all, sooner or later, gravitate towards the one
solid efficient power among them ; how in effect the
various chiefships of India were naturally and rapidly
drawn together into one dominion, under the suprem
acy of the British Crown ; and how that dominion has
now consolidated itself and guarded its borders against
aggression from the outside. The story is a romantic
one, and until LyaU's book appeared it had never
been understood. People spoke as if British su
premacy had come about by some incomprehensible
accident. He showed that there was no accident in
the matter, that the British Dominion was in fact
the logical and almost inevitable outcome of certain
causes which, though obvious enough when pointed
out, had hitherto been overlooked. A complete and
exhaustive history of India during the British period

'WARREN HASTINGS' 473
has yet to be written, but it is safe to say that when
the future historian comes to his task he will approach
it by the light of this book.
Lyall s other books are of a more personal nature,
though one of them, his ' Warren Hastings,' is also
closely concerned with a phase of Indian history,
and the Life of Lord Dufferin touches upon a later
phase of it. I have already quoted the remarks
of Fitzjames Stephen on the first of these books.
It is a short but valuable work, and effectually
clears the reputation of Hastings from some of
the unjust charges brought against him. Lyall
might have said more than he has ; there is a
characteristic want of enthusiasm in the judgment
which he passes upon the career of one who has been
rightly described as " the greatest man ever sent out
by England to govern India." And there is also a
certain want of indignation, which is hardly char
acteristic of Lyall, at the vindictive cruelty with
which Hastings was pursued. But perhaps in a
sense the exculpation of Hastings is the more effective
on that account. At least no one can accuse the
writer of prejudice or exaggeration. The extreme
moderation, not to say coldness, of LyaU's language
in this instance may possibly have been due to the
fact that the book was written very soon after his
return from India, before he had established his
reputation for impartiality and sobriety of judgment.
He was conscious of the fact that the opinions of an
Indian official on any Indian matter are too often
regarded in England with something more than

474 ALFRED LYALL
suspicion, as likely to be warped by local feeling
and want of sympathy for the native races ; and he
may have been speciaUy careful to guard against this
danger. A few years later he would have spoken in
a different tone. Indeed, he did so, for in his 'Rise
and Expansion of the British Dominion in India'
he touches upon the controversy about the govern
ment of India in the following words —
When the Coalition Ministry took office Fox introduced a
Bill altering the whole of the Company's Constitution, which
was supported by Burke in a speech loaded with furious
invective against Hastings and the Company, both of whom
he charged with the most abominable tyranny and corrup
tion. Against some of the Company's servants the true
record of misdeeds and errors was sufficiently long; but
Hastings was a man of the highest character and capacity,
an incorruptible administrator who had done his country
great and meritorious services. Yet his integrity was
virulently aspersed, and all his public acts wantonly dis
torted, in speeches that invoked against him the moral
indignation of partisans engaged in the ignoble wrangle over
places, pensions, and sinecures, among whom none had been
exposed to similar trials of a man's courage or constancy,
and only a very few would have resisted similar tempta
tions. And in the same work, I quote from the edition of
1894, Lyall says of Hastings —
When the storm had blown over in India, and he had
piloted his vessel into calm water, he was sacrificed with
little or no hesitation to party exigencies in England: the
Ministry would have recalled him ; they consented to his
impeachment ; they left him to be baited by the Opposition
and to be ruined by the law's delay, by the incredible pro-

'ALFRED TENNYSON' 475
crastination and the obsolete formalities of a seven years'
trial before the House of Lords.
This is hardly the tone of the earlier book.
As to his ' Alfred Tennyson,' I have already quoted
Lord Morley's, or rather John Morley's, opinion —
It is a true masterpiece, and shows that only a poet can
judge a poet with true inward feeling and effect.
Prothero, on the other hand, says of it —
With aU its merits — and it has great merits — it is, perhaps,
the least successful of his books ... the criticism cannot be
said to be original.
Upon such a work there must be differences of
opinion. My own feeling is, though not for purely literary
reasons, that the least successful of LyaU's books is
the Life of Lord Dufferin. Prothero says of it —
It is good ; if another had written it one might say it is
very good; but it does not display the author at his very
best. This is no doubt a sound opinion. The fact is
that, never having worked in close connection with
Lord Dufferin, Lyall never got to understand the
inner and most essential parts of his character.
The picture is a good, even a fine, presentation of
Lord Dufferin's outer man, but it is not much more.
The heart and soul of the man are not shown.
With LyaU's reserve and dislike of anything ap
proaching exaggeration. Lord Dufferin's charming

476 ALFRED LYALL
touch of " blarney," which was purely super*
ficial, may have served to conceal in some measure
the real warmth and loyalty of a singularly lovable
and high-minded nature. In any case, a sustained
narrative of this kind was less suited to LyaU's tastes
than essay writing. The labour of arranging and
making selections from masses of papers was irksome
to him. He was not accustomed to it ; he was nearly
seventy years of age when he entered upon it ; and
it would not have been congenial to him at any
time. He could never without weariness keep his
mind upon any one subject for years or months.
Since these pages were written I have found two
of LyaU's letters which bear upon this matter. The
first, written in 1903, says —
I have no skill or experience in writing a biography of this
sort; while it entails upon me more actual labour in going
through miscellaneous materials than suits my working
capacity. ... I myself was never in close relations with
him. On the other hand, the second letter, written a
year later, has these words —
I have now been through Lord Dufferin's intimate and
confidential papers ; I think I know him pretty well, and I
thoroughly agree with all that you say in his praise. A
more kindly or a warmer-hearted man never lived ; the best
of friends, with plenty of courage and unfailing courtesy;
quick-witted and full of racy humour.
The letter goes on to show that Lyall understood
others of Lord Dufferin's fine qualities. Possibly,

'LIFE OF LORD DUFFERIN' 477
therefore, the apparent lack of complete appreciation
in the book itself is due rather to deliberate reserve,
and characteristic coolness of style, than to anything
else. What was really a pleasure to Lyall, and did show
him at his very best, was his essay and review work.
The following is a list, kindly supplied by the
editors, of the principal articles mentioned at the
beginning of this chapter : —
Fortnightly Eeview.
Our ReUgious Policy in India. February 1872.
ReUgion of an Indian Province. April 1872.
The Religious Situation in India. August 1872.
Witchcraft and Non-Christian ReUgions. April 1873.
Missionary Religions. July 1874.
Origin of Divine Myths in India. September 1875.
Formation of Indian Clans and Casts. January 1877.
Religious BeUefs and Morality. April 1878.
A Rajput Chief of the Old School. A Poem. October 1878.
Relations of Religion to Asiatic States. February 1882.
Race and Religion. December 1902.
The State in its Relations to Eastern and Western Religions. November
1908. Utider ttie pseudonym of Vamadeo Stiastri.
Moral and Material Progress in India. December 1885.
Brahmanism and the Foundations of Belief. November 1895.
The Theological Situation in India. November 1898.
Quarterly Review.
Life and Speeches of Sir Henry Maine. April 1893.
History and Fable. January 1894.
Novels of Adventure and Manners. October 1894.
The Second Afghan War. July 1903.
Edinburgh Review.
The Rajput States of India. July 1876.
Government of the Indian Empire. January 1884.

478 ALFRED LYALL
Life of Mountstuart Elphinstone. July 1884.
England, Afghanistan, and Russia. January 1886.
India in the Jubilee Year (1887). [This article postponed on account of
iUness.]
Curzon's Russia in Central Asia. January 1890.
The Golden Bough. October 1890.
The Colonial Policy of France. April 1893.
Twelve Years of Indian Government. January 1895.
Life and Correspondence of Sir Bartle Frere. July 1895.
Forty-One Years in India. January 1897.
Origins and Interpretations of Primitive Religions. July 1897.
Alfred Lord Tennyson. October 1897.
Thackeray. October 1898.
The Anglo-Indian NoveUst. October 1899.
The Works of Lord Byron. October 1900.
The English Utilitarians. April 1901.
England and Russia during the Nineteenth Century. [This article was
in the centenary number of the Review.]
The Political Situation in Asia. July 1906.
Characteristics of Swinburne's Poetry. October 1906.
The PoUtical Situation in Europe. January 1909.
Frontiers Ancient and Modern. July 1909.
L'Empire Liberal (OUivier). January 1910.
European Dominion in Asia. January 1911.
The Conflict of Colour. April 1911.

It will be seen that these articles deal with various
subjects. A large number, especially during his
earlier years, when he was writing for the ' Fort
nightly,' are connected with religion, and perhaps
these are of the greatest permanent value ; but many
also are on other subjects, historical, political, and
literary. The papers show wide knowledge, both of
books and of life, and they show deep reflection — a
combination of qualities which leads to luminous
groupings and conclusions, to clear ideas of things
hitherto unseen, or seen in a glass darkly. Read
ing over LyaU's articles, and comparing them with

ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 479
the majority of those which one looks through
month after month, one is struck by that special
feature in his work. It is to an unusual degree
illuminating and suggestive.
Shortly before his death, Lyall gathered together
some of these articles, adding one or two from other
sources, and left on the top of the file a list and
note to the following effect : " A selection from this
list might be made for republication in a small
volume. A. C. LyaU. January 1911." Some dates
and other details given in the list, and the full
signature instead of the usual initials, make it
probable that this note was intended for other eyes
in case of his death. The papers are, most of them,
not of very recent date, but they are too good to be
forgotten ; and if republished in book form they would
be a valuable addition to the volumes which he gave
to the world during his lifetime.

INDEX.

Abraham, Charles J., 9
Abu, Mount, 180, 196, 202, 204
Adams, Rev. John, 297
Adye, Sir John, 361
Afghan Boundary Commission, 289,
299
Afghanistan :
Indian relations with (1876-81),
2Q8 S., 216-17; war, 217-19;
settlement, 219 - 21 ; Kabul
massacre, 229 ; evacuation of
Kandahar, 242, 247 ; estimate
of Lord Lytton's work, 248
LyaU's views regarding, 216-17,
233-4, 242, 244-5, 247, 287
Maiwand disaster, 238
Russians unwelcome in, 287 ; hos
tUities, 300, 302-3 ; schemes,
336-7
Afghanistan, Amir of (Abdurrahman
Khan), 236, 237, 247, 249, 287,
300, 303, 339
Afghans, Lyall's estimate of, 201, 224-
Africa, South :
Boer war (1899), 378 ; LyaU's view
of, 379
Jameson raid, 366-7
Lyall's estimate of situation in
(1889), 326
Agra, Lyall posted to, 104
Aitchison, Sir Charles, 192 and n.,
210, 269-70, 271 n.
Ajmere, 180, 189
Akola, 132, 137, 159
Aldershot, LyaU's lecture at, 416

Aldworth, LyaU's residence at, 419,
424, 442
' Alfred Tennyson,' LyaU's work on,
384, 389 ; his letter on, 396-7 ;
estimate of, 475 ; Morley's esti
mate, 387-9
Allahabad University, 316 ; Lyall's
portrait unveiled at, 343
Almora, 37
' Anglo-Saxon Review, ' LyaU's contri
bution to, 380
Arnold, Matthew, 252
'Asiatic Studies,' germ of, 139;
publication of first volume of,
263, 271 ; reception of, 272, 285,
390 ; French translation of, 287-8,
419-20, 426, 438 ; second volume
of, 376 ; publication of selections
from, 419; estimate of, 469-71;
Prothero's estimate, 47 1 ; Jowett's
appreciation, 354-5
Athenseum Club, 252, 430 ¦n.
Austin, Alfred, 404 ; Lyall's visits
to, 405, 409, 421
Ayton, 2
Ayub Khan, 238-9, 247, 249
Baldwin, Major, 149
Balfour, Rt. Hon. A. J., 351-2
Bank of Bombay, 129, 136
Baring, Major Evelyn. See Cromer
Barlow, George Nelson, 21, 47
Barth, M., 426
Batten, George, 169
Bayley, Sir Steuart, 22-3, 26

2 H

482

INDEX

BeU, Miss Gertrude Lowthian, 408 ;
LyaU's letter to, 452-4
Bengal :
Famine administration in, 172
Ilbert Bill demonstrations in, 280,
282, 283
Natives of, Lyall's estimate of,
428
Berar, 132
Berar census report, 138-9
Berar Gazetteer, 148-9
Beresford, Lord William, 267 and n.
Bernard, Charles, 271 n.
Bert, M. Chailly, 357
Blavatsky, Madame, 273
Blunt, Wilfrid, 288, 291 ; estimate
by, of LyaU's verses, 330
Bombay, LyaU's visit to (1870),
153-4
Books, LyaU's fondness for, 32, 33,
50, 70, 85
Bores, 23-5
Bougainville, 325
Boulanger, Gen., 327
Bradlaugh, Charles, 336, 337
'British Dominion in India.' See
' Bise and Expansion of the British
Dominion in India, The '
British Museum, Lyall a trustee of,
448, 452
Broadwood, Mary. See Lyall, Mrs
AUred
Brodrick, George, 384
Browne, Gen. " Sam," 218
Browning, Robert, 123, 331
Bryce, Bt. Hon. James, 425 ; letter
from, on ' Rise of the British
Dominion in India,' 382-3
Buckle, Lyall's views on, 367
Bulandshahr :
Mutiny incident at, 314
Natives of, 61
Lyall posted to, 40 ; his recollec
tion of, 168
BuUer, Sir Redvers, 387
Burke, Mr, murder of, 257 ff.
Burma, Thebaw's rule in, 209, 228 ;
Thebaw overthrown, 308-9 ; re
sultant responsibilities, 309-11
Burnouf's 'Science dea Religions,'
324
Butcher, S. H., 447

Calcutta, 34
Canning, Lord, 33
Carlyle, T., Lyall's estimate of, 267
Carrington, Dean, 25
Cavagnari, Louis, 220, 224, 226, 298
Cavendish, Lord Frederick, murder
of, 257 ff.
Central Asian Society, 395, 402
Central Provinces :
Gazetteer of, 149
Lyall appointed District Magistrate
in, 110-12 ; Acting Commissioner
of Nagpore, 118 ff.
Central Provinces Exhibition, 127
Cesaresco, Countess Martinengo,
Lyall's letters to, 389, 444
Chamberlain, Rt. Hon. Joseph, 400
Chamberlain, Sir Neville, 216
Charity Organisation Society, LyaU's
chairmanship of, 425, 438, 441
Chiculda, 144
Children, LyaU's attitude towards,
133, 142
Chirol, Valentine, 442
Chitral, 361, 364
Churchill, Lord R., Lyall's estimate
of, 298, 305, 308
Clodd, Edward, 419, 425 ; LyaU's
letters to, 362, 443 ; his visit to,
407
Cloete, Cora. See Lyall, Lady
Cockerell, Horace, 166
CookereU, Rowland, 166, 170-1
Colley, Major-Gen. Sir Geo., 208,
213, 228, 299
Colonial affairs compared with Indian,
153
' Competition Wallah ' (Trevelyan),
106
Comyn, .Jane (Mrs Johu LyaU), 4
Connaught, Duke and Duchess of,
288, 298
'Cornhill Magazine,' LyaU's contri
butions to, 140, 142, 202
Council of India, LyaU appointed to,
321; his estimate of, 322; his
work on, 323, 327, 333, 359, 375
Courtney, Lord, 387, 390
Cromer, Earl of (Major B. Baring),
161-2, 267, 434; LyaU's letters
to, 278-9, 426, 432; estimate of
'Modern Egypt' by, 380-1, 426

INDEX

483

Cross, Lord, 339; LyaU's relations
with, 323
Curzon, Lady, 384
Curzon, Lord, of Kedleston, book on
Persia by, 342 ; frontier policy of,
361 ; letter from, 392 ; Lyall's
letter to, 397-9 ; Kitchener con
troversy, 408 ; quoted, 254
Dalhousie, Lord, 33, 92
Dane, Sir Louis, 452
Darmesteter's ' Lettres sur I'lnde,'
325
Darwin, 109
Davidson, Abp., of Canterbury, letter
from, 377 ; appreciation of LyaU
by, 378
de Kantzow, Col., 89
de Kerallain, M. , French translation
by, of 'Asiatic Studies,' 287-8,
419-20, 426, 438; Lyall's letters
to, 324, 344-5, 349, 355, 367, 376,
390, 401, 409, 420, 437, 443, 451 ;
LyaU's meeting with, 408
de Tocqueville, LyaU's comments on,
92, 95
Deakin, Mr, appreciation by, of
LyaU's works, 418
Delhi :
British attack and vengeance on,
66-7, 70
Durbar at (1877), 195
Durbar at (1903), 398
LyaU's visit to (1863), 105-6
Massacre at, 59
Mosque episode, 58
' Studies at Delhi, 1876,' 68
Dera, 292
Derby, Lord, Lyall's poems admired
by, 354
Dilke's ' Problems of Greater Britain '
cited, 337
Dillon, Gen., cited, 304
Duff, Rt. Hon. Sir Mountstuart E.
Grant, 157 and n.\ 218, 387 ;
Lyall's relations with, 162-3 ; his
estimate of, 306-7 ; estimate of
LyaU's verses by, 330-1 ; quoted,
274
Dufferin, Lord, 317 ; succeeds Lord
Ripon, 299 ; meeting with the
Amir, 300 ; LyaU's visits to, in

Rome, 327 ; in Paris, 355 ; LyaU's
Life of — undertaken, 389-90; in
progress, 396, 401, 403-4; com
pleted, 406 ; estimate of the work,
475-7 ; quoted, 293, 314 ; methods
and estimate of, 306 ; Lyall's
estimate of, 308-9, 476; LyaU
compared with, 197-8
Dulwich College, 418
Dupleix, 329, 344, 350, 356
Durand, Henry, 43
Edgar, Miss, 9, 11
' Edinburgh Review,' extract from,
221-3 ; LyaU's contributions to,
193, 271-2, 286, 293, 297, 307,
325, 337, 355, 364, 372, 373, 375,
380, 390, 406, 414-15, 425, 435,
440, 442, 449, 452; editor's
appreciation of, 390 ; number of,
460 ; list of, 477-8
Education :
Eton, 187-8
LyaU's views on, 134, 411-12, 428,
436
Women's defective, 134, 152
Edward VII. as Prince of Wales,
visit of, to India (1876), 190
Egypt ;
Condition of (1882), 255; war,
266-8
Lyall's views on, 291-2, 426-7,
443 ; on evacuation of , 350, 355-6
Elgin, Earl of, 359
EUiot, Hon. Arthur, editor of ' Edin
burgh Review,' 364; cited, 418;
political views of, 446 ; letter from,
390 ; Lyall's letter to, cited, 435 ;
his last visit to, 456
EUiott, Sir Charles, 131, 133, 149,
448 ; Lyall's estimate of, 122,
144; 'Turkey in Europe' by, 411
' Encyclopedia Britannica,' Lyall's
contribution to, 406
" English " or " British," 86 n.
Eton, Lyall at, 9 ff. ; his views on,
120, 187-8, 435-6
Folklore, LyaU's views of, 362-3,
401-2
Forbes, Archibald, letter from, 330
Ford Lectures, 419, 421, 424

484

INDEX

' Fortnightly Review,' LyaU's atti
tude to, 286 ; his contributions
to, 158, 173, 190, 195, 204, 251,
310, 373, 390; influence of, 162,
176 ; number of, 460 ; Ust of, 477
Frazer (of ' The Golden Bough '), 407,
439
French history, LyaU's comments on,
437-8
Frere, Sir Bartle, 227
' From Sepoy to Subadar ' cited, 70
Gaekwar of Baroda, trial of, 183-4
Gandamak, Treaty of, 220, 224, 242
Gauhati, 314
Germany, Lyall's views on, 439
Gipsies, 51
Gladstone, Rt. Hon. W. E., 264,
332 ; Lyall's attitude towards,
258, 265, 400 ; Home Rule speech
(1892), 351-2
Godley, Arthur (Lord Kilbracken),
323 and ra.i
Godmersham, 8, 19
' Golden Bough, The ' (Frazer), 407,
410, 439
Gordon, Gen., 292, 298
Goschen, Lord, 355
Govindpore, 35
Grant, Gen., quoted, 304
Grant, Sir Charles, 149, 245, 249, 267
Greystonelees, 1-3
Griffin, Lepel, 234
HaUeybury, 21-3
Hamilton, Lord George, 369 and n. ;
appreciation of LyaU by, 393-4
Harbledown, Lyall's home at, 1 9-20 ;
revisited (1892), 346 ; LyaU buried
at, 457
Hartington, Marquess of, 332
Hastings, Warren, Curzon on, 254 ;
Lyall's essay on, see ' Warren
Hastings ' ; portrait of, 329-30
Hay, Mr, 30
Highland Regiment (42nd), 86-7
Hindu philosophy, 275
Hindus and Mahomedans contrasted,
32, 67-8
Hobhouse, Lord, 252 ; LyaU's esti
mate of, 173 ; political views of,
446

Holi, Feast of the, 53
Holland, Bernard, 134, 174
Holland, Mrs (Sybilla LyaU, sister of
A. C. Lyall), letters to, quoted,
32-8, 46, 52, 56-7, 79-80, 86-7,
103-4, 117, 124, 125, 128, 129,
133, 134, 152, 157, 159, 166, 171,
187, 196, 217, 225, 238, 240, 277,
337, 339 ; death of, 345-6 ; LyaU's
estimate of, 104
Holland, Rev. Francis, Lyall's letters
to, quoted, 45, 77
Homer, LyaU's estimate of, 138 ; his
translation, 134, 138
Hoshungabad, 113-15
Hiibner, Baron, 288
Hume, Lyall's estimate of, 361-2
Hunter, Sh- WiUiam, 148-9, 266
Hyderabad, Lyall's visit to (1869),
143
Ilbert BiU, 278 ff.
Imperialism, 381-2
India (for particular districts, the, see
their ¦mfmes)
Administrative divisions in, 40-1
British apathy as to affairs in, 89-
90, 243
Civilians and soldiers in, con
trasted, 57
Council of India, see that head
ing
District Magistrates, position and
power of, 112 n.
Experience in, effect of, 307
Extension of responsibilities at
taching to, Lyall's view of, 309,
311, 345, 347-8
Foreign Office work, 205-7
Frontier tribes, 248 ; conflicting
views as to, 221-3 ; Frontier
difficulties and policy, 334-5,
338-9, 369-71
Gazetteer of, 148-9
Government of :
Decentralisation, Lyall's ad
vocacy of, 316, 328.
Description of, 167
Morley's reforms in, 428, 432-4,
445
Representative element in,
question as to, 262 n.

INDEX

485

Hill stations in, Lyall's view of,
144, 169, 283, 295
Ireland compared with, 323
Imperial Assemblage (1877), 210
Lieutenant-Governors, position of,
254-5, 294
Local Self-Government Scheme of
Lord Ripon, 268, 274, 277, 279,
293, 315
Lyall's early leanings towards, 14,
17; his arrival in, 29-30; hia
estimate of the position in
(1873), 164-5
Monroe doctrine in, 398
Mutiny, the :
Course of : preliminaries, 58-9 ;
Meerut outbreak, 61 ; inter
necine war, 61-2, 65-7, 75-6,
80, 83, 277, 357 ; Delhi mas
sacre, 59 ; Bulandshahr out
rages, 63-4 ; fall of Delhi,
66-7, 70 ; punishment of
mutineers, 72-3, 76-9, 277
Incident of, 314
Lyall's attitude towards, 68-9,
82, 87, 96, 97, 105 ; thanked
by the Queen for services in,
98 ; influenced by, 99-100
Misconceptions regarding, 69,75
Veterans' dinner (1907), 421
Native princes of, Lyall's view of
European training for, 337, 348
Native states of, 178 ; Army
reform policy, 327-8, 333-4,
336, 341-2, 345
Natives of :
Ascetic practices of, 399
Attitude of, towards Europeans,
70 ; towards Russians, 299-
300; towards British, 302-3,
309
Buckle's errors regarding, 367
Lyall's attitude towards, and
policy regarding, 114, 123,
265-6, 278 ff.; his sympathetic
knowledge of, 137, 154, 275-6,
284, 310, 467 ; his estimate
of, 277, 296, 305, 309 ; esti
mate of Bengalee, 428
Religious pre-occupation of, 471
North-west frontier, LyaU's views
on (1889-90), 334-5

North-west Provinces :
Advantages of, 54
Lyall's choice of, 70
Viceroys and Governors of, 252-4
Indian Councils BiU (1890), 332, 335
Indian Civil Service :
Competitive system as affecting,
106
Furlough, loss and trouble entailed
by, 193-4
"Government House," attitude
towards, 175
Laboriousness of, 130-1
Literary non-productiveness of,
163
Lyall's views on, 57 ; his estimate
of, as a career, 168
Loyalty of, 113, 119
Secretariat, 207
Work of, compared with official
work in London, 358
Indian Political Service, 179
Indian statesmen, LyaU's estimate
of, 124
International Colonial Institute, 357
Ireland :
Home rule — Lyall's attitude to,
339,351, 352 ; Gladstone's speech
(1892), 351-2; debate (1893),
356
LyaU's comparison of, with India,
323
Morley on, 259-60
Stafford's despotism in, 382
Irwin, Henry, Lyall's letters to, 312,
331
Isandula, 224
Izat, Alexander, 151 and n.
Jameson raid, 366-7
Japan :
British aUiance with, 423
Position of, in Asia, 402-3, 409-11
Jowett quoted, 354-5
Jubbulpore, 113, 130
Jung, Sir Salar, 143
Kabul, 235 ; massacre, 229
Kandahar, British acquisition of,
220, 224 ; evacuation, 242, 247 ;
Lyall's approval, 268
Kashmere, 336

486

INDEX

Keats quoted, 138
Kennedy, James, quoted, 310 ra.
Khangaun cotton mart, 154
Khangaun railway, 150-1
Khyber Pass, 248
Kimberley, Earl of, 350-1
Kingsley, Rev. Charles, 115
Kipling, R., 331, 469
Knight,  , 74, 78
Kuropatkin, Gen., cited, 300 n.
Kushk, 300
La Banoa, Lyall's estimate of, 445
Lansdowne, Lord, frontier policy of,
338; Manipur disaster, 341 ; eulogy
of LyaU by, 343-4
Law, Mr Bonar, 428
' Law Quarterly Review, The,' LyaU's
contribution to, 324
Lawless, the Hon. Emily, 442 and n.
Lawrence, Sir George, 183
Lawrence, Lord (John), 131, 252 ;
Afghan policy of, 208, 236 ; Bos
worth Smith's ' Life ' of, 286
Lawrence, Sir Henry, 43, 183
Lecky, W. E. H., 365; letter from,
342, 359 ; appreciation by, of
Lyall's literary work, 359-60 ;
'Map of Life' quoted, 430.
Literary Society, LyaU offered presi
dency of, 423
Loisy, 438-9
Longfellow, LyaU 'a estimate of, 145
Lorda, House of, reform of, 443
Lucknow, LyaU's stay at (1882), 269
Lyall (daughters), 108, 116, 195, 425
LyaU (elder son), 379, 435
Lyall, Dean (uncle), 56
Lyall, Mrs (aunt), 108
LyaU, Mrs Alfred (mother), marriage
of, 6 ; relations with her aon
Alfred, 9, 27, 102, 108, 141, 195 ;
letters to, 32, 43-4, 49, 54-5, 58,
59, 61, 66, 74, 77, 78, 80-5, 87,
94, 105, 120, 123, 125, 127, 136,
145-6, 149, 152, 166, 182, 189,
191, 195 ; death of, 215 ; estimate
of, 6-7
Lyall, Rev. Alfred (father), career
and estimate of, 4-7 ; visit to Spain
with A. 0. Lyall, 20 ; relations
with him, 27, 125; death of, 125

Lyall, Sir Alfred Comyn :
Ancestry of, 1 ff.
Appearance of, personal, 79, 103,
135
Career — Birth and early years,
8-9 ; at Eton, 9 ff. ; visit to
Spain, 20-1 ; at Haileybury,
21-2 ; saUs for India, 27-8 ; at
Bulandshahr, 40, 60 ; activities
in the Mutiny, 62 ff. ; escape to
Meerut, 64-5 ; with the Volun
teer Horse, 67 ff. ; punishment
of mutineers, 72-3, 76-9; posted
to Shahjehanpore, 81 ; to Pilib
heet, 96 ; takes furlough (1861),
99 ; marriage, 102 ; returns to
India, 103; Assistant Magistrate
at Agra, 104; District Magistrate
in Central Provinces, 110-12 ;
Acting Commissioner of Nagpore,
118 ff. ; secretary to Government
of Province, 126 ; financial loss,
129 ; Deputy Commissioner at
Jubbulpore, 130; Acting Com
missioner of West Berar, 132 ;
Commissioner, 136 ; Berar
Census Report, 138-9 ; second
furlough (1868), 140; literary
activities, 140-2; visit to Hydera
bad, 143 ; third furlough (1871-
2), 156-8 ; visit to Paris, 157 ;
returns to India, 159 ; appointed
Home Secretary to Government
of India, 161 ; Agent in Raj
putana, 175 ff. ; furlough (1876),
195; birth of second son, 195;
Foreign Secretary, 204-5, 209 ff. ;
death of his mother, 215 ; Afghan
war and settlement, 217 ff. ;
made C.B., 228 ; further Afghan
troubles, 229 ff. ; visit to Kabul,
234-6 ; visit to Kandahar, 241 ;
made K.C.B., 244, 248 ; Foreign
Office work, 245-6 ; furlough in
England, 250-2 ; Lieutenant-
Governor N. W. Provinces,
254 ff.; Native policy, 261-2;
Russian policy, 288-91 ; rela
tions with Bipon, 293-4 ; opens
railway bridge at Muttra, 295 ;
refuses post on India Office
Council in London, 298 ; call on

INDEX

487

the Amir, 301 ; made K.C.I.E.,
314 ; estimate of his Lieutenant-
Governorship, 315-17; farewell
to India, 318-19 ; appointed to
the Council of India, 321 ; social
activities, 321-2 ; visits Ireland,
323 ; refuses Governership of
the Cape, 325-6 ; publication of
' Warren Hastings ' and Book
of Verses, 329 ; travels and
work, 340 ; University lectures,
342 ; death of his sister Mrs
HoUand, 345-6 ; refuses Gover
norship of New Zealand, 346 ;
made Honorary Fellow of King's
CoUege, Cambridge, 358 ; liter
ary activities, 360 ; operation
for appendicitis, 360 ; at the
Hague (1895), 364-5; death of
his sister Mrs Webb, 373 ; pub
lication of ' Alfred Tennyson,'
387 ; made Privy CounciUor,
388-9 ; leaves the India Office,
391 ; many social activities,
395-6 ; at Congress of His
toric Sciences (1903), 385, 397 ;
visit to Dresden and acci
dent, 414 ; Chairman of Board
of Dulwich Governors, 418 ;
signa of old age, 419, 421,
424-5, 431 ; accident, 420 ;
President of Congress of Re
ligions (1908), 423-5 ; Chairman
of Charity Organisation Society,
425 ; increasing ill-health, 435,
440-3, 445 ; Trustee of British
Museum, 448, 452 ; death, 457
Characteristics :
Affection for his own people,
104, 108-9
Argumentative tendency, 141
Carelessness in letters, 38
Charm, 197, 394, 456, 458, 470
Comprehensiveness of view, 213,
225, 352
Courtesy, 164, 197
Critical aptitude, 394 ; fairness in
criticism, 368 ; self-criticism,
166, 170, 173-4, 194-5, 263,
287, 294-5, 308
Deliberation, preference for,
213, 217, 225, 470

Depression and peasimism, tend
ency to, 117, 139, 149, 234
Desultorinesa in work, 104,
142-3
Diffidence, 390
Emotionalism, 26
Enjoyment, faculty of, 14
Generosity, 151
Humour, 26-7, 47, 88, 131, 198,
210
Indolence and easy-going tem
perament, 305, 315, 317
Injustice, active indignation
against, 147-8
Keenness of intellect, 198
Laughter, inopportune tendency
to, 26
Loyalty — to old friends, 110; to
subordinates, 198, 232-3, 314-
17
Modesty, 14, 17, 386, 470
Musical sensibility, 26, 145
Patriotic feeling, 232
Practicality, 461-2
Reserve, 14, 22, 197, 386, 470
Restlessness, 17, 27, 28, 87, 93,
97, 133, 139, 164, 197, 200,
320, 374, 415, 449
Sensitiveness, 241, 470
Severity, 164, 261, 264, 266,
341
Sociability, 97, 118, 132, 146,
147
Suspiciousness, 270-1
Tenacity of opinion, 225
Tolerance and fairness, 271, 368
Unthrift, 60, 126
Domestic relations, 27, 28, 44, 104,
108, 125, 141, 158, 195-6
Estimates of :
Hamilton's, 393-4
Official, 359
Prothero's, 470
Social, 366
His Diary, 349, 386
lU-health and illnessee of, 9, 16,
96, 242, 245, 265, 340 ; illness
(1887), 317; appendicitis, 360;
heart weakness, 413-14
Letters of, characteristics of, 10,
14, 29, 38-9
Literary ambitions of, 307

488

INDEX

Literary capacity of, 110, 128,
143, 393 ; waning of, 417, 424-
5, 47fi
Literary work of :
Illuminating quality of, 478-9
Illustrative style of, 183 n.
Summary of, 460
Opiniona and attitude of mind on :
Books, 32, 33, 50, 70, 85
Children, 133, 142
Education, 134, 411-12, 428,
436
Folklore, 362-3, 401-2
Marriage, 115-16, 273, 325
Philosophy, 362
Poetry, 145, 146
Politics, 129, 210, 400-1, 436,
439, 444 ff.
Religion, 94, 105, 109, 123, 171,
174, 184, 332, 337-8, 428-30,
445, 458, 462
Women, 151-2, 158, 272-3, 286,
434, 454
Work, 13, 115, 130, 170
Poetical preferences of, 145, 146
Poetical works of :
"Amir's Message, The," 290-2,
294, 330, 331
"Amor in Extremis," 330
"Badminton," 330, 468
" East and West," 268, 287, 296,
304
" Hindu Ascetic," 467
Homeric translation, 134, 138
"Joab," 142
"Land of Regrets, The," 152
" Meditations of a Hindu Prince
and Sceptic," 202, 203, 330 ;
influence of, 420
"Night in the Red Sea, A,"
200
" Old Pindaree, The," 116, 194-5,
312, 330 ; translated into
French, 408 ; quoted, 466
"Rajput Chief of the Old
School," 203-4
" Retrospection," 285 - 6, 304,
311-12
" Sequel " (" A Quest in Vain "),
203
" Siva," 313, 324
" Swinburne in Islam,'' 463

" Theology in Extremis" :
Appreciation of, 140, 365
" Battle of Inkerman," com
pared with, 25-6
Germ of, 26
Lyall's estimate of, 140, 203,
312
Quoted, 80 ra.
" Verses written in India," see
that heading
Discontinuance of poetical work,
294; estimates of, 292-3,
461 ff., 465, 468-9; Pro
thero's and Tennyson's esti
mate of, 464-5
Popularity of, 250 ; social, 385-6
Prose works of (see also titles of
hooks) :
Essays and reviews, selection
of, for publication, 479
Estimate of, 461 ff.
Summary of, 477-8
Public speaking, shortcomings of,
249
Verse, facility in, 13
LyaU, Lady (wife), 102, 104, 107-10,
112, 114, 130, 153, 235, 297, 318,
440, 453
Lyall, Barbara, see Webb
Lyall, George (great - grandfather),
1-3
Lyall, George (uncle), 4
Lyall, James (brother), Alfred LyaU's
affection for, 88 ; Temple's efforts
to secure, 149 n. ; visit to Alfred
Lyall (1884), 297 ; Lieutenant-
Governorship of, 312 ; Alfred
Lyall's letters to, 39, 54, 335, 345,
360 ; his estimate of, 47 ; at
Statenburgh, 408 ; quoted, 17
LyaU, John (grandfather), 3-4
Lyall (second son), 195, 267, 297,
371, 406-8, 430-1, 435
Lyall, Walter (brother), 17, 35, 37,
88, 93, 97
Lylla, 2
Lyttelton, Lady, appreciation of
Lyall by, 366, 455 ; his letter to,
374
Lytton, Lord, Lyall recommended
to, 191 ; Afghan policy of, 208-9,
215 ff. ; attitude towards Lyall,

INDEX

489

209-10 ; letters of, to LyaU, 212,
215 ; LyaU's relations with, 213-
15 ; resignation of, 237 ; LyaU's
visits to, in Paris, 320, 327 ; his
estimate of, 203 ; otherwise men
tioned, 244, 276
Macaulay, Lord, 471
Machiavelli, 373
Mahan's ' Sea Power,' 344
Mahomedans :
Hindus contrasted with, 32
LyaU's view of, 67-8, 80, 86
Mame, Sir H., 157 and n.^, 186;
LyaU's estimate of, 309, 323 ; his
article on, 355
Maitland's ' Life of Leslie Stephen '
quoted, 404
Manchester, Lyall's visit to (1872),
158
Manipur disaster, 340-1
Marriage, Lyall's views on, 115-16,
273, 325
Mayo, Lord, 150-1
Meerut, mutiny at, 61 ; Lyall's
escape to, 65
MeUiss, Sir Howard, 327
MelviU, MaxweU, 22
Merv, 291
Mill, James, 471
Mill, John Stuart, LyaU's estimate
of, 151, 181
Miasionaries, Protestant, LyaU's
views on, 45-6, 77, 109, 438
Morley, Vis., of Blackburn, LyaU's
friendship with, 157-8 ; Lyall re
commended by, to Lord Lytton,
191 ; resigns 'Fortnightly' editor
ship, 263 ; advises publication of
LyaU's poems, 326 ; Romanes
lecture by, 373 ; LyaU's estimate
of 'CromweU' by, 381-2; appre
ciation by, of Lyall's 'Alfred
Tennyson, 387-8, 475; Indian
constitutional reforms of, 428,
432-4 ; letters to Lyall, 162-3,
251, 259-60 ; Lyall's letters to,
164-5, 190, 351, 359, 373 ; other
wise mentioned, 204, 290, 332,
421
Morocco, 410
Muir, Sir Wm., 298

Muller, Max, LyaU's criticism of,
173, 186-7
Mutiny, see under India
Mutiny veterans' dinner, 421
Muttra, 295
Myers' ' Human Personality,' LyaU's
criticism of, 399
Nagpore, Lyall appointed Actg. Com
missioner of, 118 ff. ; Exhibition
at, 127
Naini Tai :
Lyall's life and residence at, 255-6,
305, 318
Scenery and situation of, 36-7,
267, 318
' National Review, The,' Lyall's con
tributions to, 294, 313
National service, 421-2
Nerbudda river, 131
Nerbudda valley, 115
Newbolt, Henry, quoted, 372
Newman, Card., 115
Nicolson, Sir Arthur, 416
'Nineteenth Century, The,' Lyall's
contribution to, 373
Norman, Field-Marshal Sir Henry,
326 and ra., 358
'North American Review,' LyaU's
contribution to, 380
Northbrook, Lord, LyaU recom
mended to, 161-2 ; famine ad
ministration of, 172; frontier
policy of, 221 ; LyaU's estimate
of, 159, 170, 171 ; Lyall's Uking
for, 170, 191 ; his relations with,
175 ; on tour in Rajputana, 189 ;
letters to LyaU, 192, 376; moves
amendment to Indian Councils
Bill, 332, 335 ; otherwise men
tioned, 217, 218
Northcote, Lord, 375
North-West Provinces, LyaU's es
timate of natives of, 277 ; his
Lieutenant-Governorship of, 315-
17
Oakeley, Miss, Lyall's letters to,
396-7, 399-400, 403, 411, 428
' Omar Khayyam,' LyaU's attitude
to, 409
Omar Khayydm Club, 420

490

INDEX

Oodeypore, 190
Oudh: Annexation of, 31, 82, 88 ; effect
of, 357
LyaU's estimate of natives of,
277
Rebels in, 85, 95
Oxford, Congress of Religions at
(1908), 423-5, 428
Pachmari, 117
Panjdeh, 302-3
ParneU, C. S., 339
Peel Cathedral, 338
Pelly, Col. Sir Lewis, 188 and ra., 196
Persia :
Constitutional experiment in, 427
Situation in (1900), 378-9
Petre, Mrs (sister), 141 ; death of,
424
Philosophy, Lyall's views of, 362
Phcenix Park murders, 257 ff., 264
Pilibheet, Lyall appointed to, 96
Plowden, Trevor, 169
PoUock, Sir Fredk., 385, 407, 425
Poona, Lyall's visit to (1869), 144
Press lies, LyaU's view of, 293
Primrose, Sir Henry, 280 and n.
Prothero, G. W., 406 ; cited, 464-5 ;
estimates by, of ' Alfred Tenny
son ' and ' Life of Lord Dufferin,'
475
' Quarterly Review,' Lyall's contri
butions to, 355, 360 ; number of,
460 ; list of, 477
Quetta, 221, 243, 336
Rajputana :
Characteristics of, and conditions
in, 180-3, 185-6, 190
Famine in, 201-2
LyaU in, 175 ff.
RaUi, P., 349, 360, 425
Rao, Sir Dinkur, cited, 106-7
Rawal Pindi, 300
Reay, Lord, 365, 387
Reeve, Henry, 252, 364
Rendel, Lord and Lady, 415, 425
Rhodes, CecU, 326
Ridgeway, Rt. Hon. Sir West, 289
and n. ; Lyall'a letter to, 374-5

Ripon, Lord, becomes Viceroy, 238 ;
letter to Hartington quoted, 243-
4 ; native policy of, 265 ; Local
Self-Government scherae, 268, 274,
277, 279, 293; Native Jurisdic
tion Bill, 278 ff. ; violent opposition
to, 280 ff. ; Lyall's relations with,
293-4 ; close of Viceroyalty of,
296 ; estimate of, 239, 280, 296 ;
Lyall's estimate of, 284 ; other
wise mentioned, 249, 289, 293,
301, 306
'Rise and Expansion of the British
Dominion in India, The ' :
Enlarged edition of, 417
Estimates of, 471-3 ; Wade's, 353 ;
Lyall's, 354, 356 ; Lecky's, 359 ;
Bryce's, 362-3
Oriental Historical Series includ
ing, 418
Ritchie, Lady, Lyall's letter to, 405
Rivett-Carnac, Col. J. H., Lyall re
commended by, to Temple, 111 and
».2 ; •¦ Many Memories ' by, quoted,
129, 148-9 ; LyaU's lettera to, 151,
159, 161, 194, 348, 358, 363, 392,
401, 428; mentioned, 116, 158,
455
Roberts, Lord, in Afghan War, 218 ;
frontier policy of, 223 ; activities
after Kabul massacre, 230-2 ; re
lieves Kandahar, 239 ; visit to
Lyall, 288 ; ' Forty-one Years in
India,' 368; quoted, 71-2; in
South African War, 378; letter
to LyaU, 211 ; LyaU's letters to,
331, 333, 347, 357, 388, 421;
otherwise mentioned, 298, 301
Rohilcund :
LyaU's application for service in,
76-7 ; his appointment, 81
Native outrages in, 82-3
Roosevelt, T., 443
Rosebery, Lord, 384
Boss, Hercules, 292
Rumbold, Sir Horace, 364-5
Rurki Engineering College, 279
Russia :
Afghan Boundary understanding,
289
Afghanistan in relation to, see under
Afghanistan

INDEX

491

Anglo-Russian Convention (1907),
422-3
Eastern advance of :
Afghan complications, 209, 216,
218
British attitude to, 336-7
Lyall's view of, 201
Indian native attitude towards,
299-300
Japanese war with, Lyall's views
on, 402-3, 409-11, 412-13
LyaU's views on, and policy re
garding, 199, 288-91, 410, 414,
422-3
North Sea incident, 403
St John, Lady, 276
St John, Sir Oliver, 240, 242
Salt and soda lake, 160
Salvation Army, 274
Sandeman, Sir Robert, 240, 242 ;
influence of, in Beluchistan, 220-1,
226 ; policy of, 223, 335, 336,
339
Sanderson, Lord, quoted, 354
'Saturday Review, The,' LyaU's
estimate of, 49
Saunders, C. B., 143, 159, 192
Sen, Babu Keshub Chunder, 153
and n.
Shahjehanpore, 81, 96
" Shastri, Vermadeo," 310 and ra.
Sher Ali, Amir of Afghanistan, 208-9,
216-18
Simla, LyaU's feeling about, 169 ;
his visit to (1877), 202
Society, Lyall's estimate of, 264-5
Soldiering, Lyall's views on, 372
Somaliland, 398
Spain, Lyall's visit to (1853), 20-1
Spencer, Herbert, 171, 190, 266;
LyaU's estimate of, 399
Sport, 48, 55-6, 98-9, 141, 197, 199-
200, 297
Stanley, Sir Henry and Lady, 405
Steel, Mrs Flora, LyaU's estimate of,
376-7
Stephen, Fitzjames, Lyall recom
mended by, to Lord Lytton, 191 ;
Lyall's estimate of, 157 and ra.^;
estimate by, of LyaU's 'Warren
Hastings,' 329 ; otherwise men

tioned, 173, 200, 217, 252, 276,'
305
Stephen, Leslie, Lyall'a eatimate of,
174, 404 ; appreciation of LyaU
by, 365-6 ; death of, 404 ; other
wise mentioned, 200, 252
Stewart, Gen. Sir Donald, 218, 237
Style, 200
Talbot, Lt.-Col. Sir A., 303 and ra.
Tel-el-Kebir, 267, 268
Temple, Rt. Hon. Sir Richard, Bart.,
secures Lyall for Central Provinces,
111 ; LyaU's attitude towards,
114, 124, 135-6 ; his defence of,
147; famine administration of,
172 ; otherwise mentioned, 128,
131
Tennyson, Alfred, Lord (poet
laureate), LyaU's estimate of, 109,
397 ; estimate by, of Lyall's
poems, 268, 285, 464; Lyall's
book on, see ' Alfred Tennyson '
Tennyson, 2nd Lord, LyaU's corre
spondence with, 373, 379, 384-5,
389, 435 ; his visits to, 405, 416,
456
Theosophy, 273
Thugs, 264
Thornton, T. H., 211 and ra.
Totemism, 443-4, 450-1
Trevelyan, Sir George, 387 ; ' Com
petition Wallah ' cited, 106
Treves, Sir Frederick, 360
Turks, Lyall's attitude towards, 68,
109, 201, 453
TurnbuU,  , 64
Ulwur State, 203
Venezuela dispute, 366
' Verses written in India ' :
Australian appreciation of, 418
Dimensions of, 459-60
Published and unpublished ver
sions of, compared, 462-4
Reprint of, 311-12
Success of, 263
Voltaire, 81, 92, 174 and re.
Von Hiigel, Baron, 425
Wade, Sir Thomas, 353

492

INDEX

Walidad Khan, Nawab, 66
Wallace, Sir Donald Mackenzie, 309
and ra., 387
Walpole, Sir Spencer,. Lyall's visits
to, 391, 406, 409, 416 ; death of,
419 ; Lyall literary executor of,
421, 424
Warren, Dr, quoted, 456
' Warren Hastings,' 326, 349 ; esti
mate of, 473 - 4 ; Fitzjames
Stephen's estimate of, 329 ;
Forbes' comment on, 330
Webb, Mrs (Barbara Lyall, sister),
LyaU's companionship with, 102 ;
hia lettera to, 203, 292, 331-2,
351, 356, 361 ; death of, 373 ;
visit to her brother, 227 ; estimate
of, 227, 373 ; mentioned, 322
Webb, Godfrey, 385
Westcott, Bishop, 377
White, Mr and Mrs Henry, 391, 406,
407

Whitting, P., Vice-Provost of King's
Coll., Camb., 17, 358, 425 ; death
of, 447-8
WUde, Oscar, 332
Wilkinson, Bishop (of Central Eu
rope), 102-3, 414
Women :
LyaU's views regarding, 151-2,
158, 272-3, 286 ; anti-suffrage,
272, 434, 454
War stake of, 385
Wood, Sir Charles, despatch from,
96
Work, LyaU's attitude towarda, 13,
104, 115, 123, 130, 170
Wyllie, Lt.-Col. Sir William Curzon,
434
Yakub Khan, 219, 230-1
Yate, Col., 197, 199
Zululand, 224, 227

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Daily Chronicle. — "The exposition is fresh and independent, and high abo%e
the level of the ordinary work of this class  The book should prove a
great boon not only to secondary schools and colleges but also to private
students." Outlines of English Literature.
For Young Scholars, with Illustrative Specimens. By the Same Author.
Third Edition, revised. Is. 6d.
Spectator. — "To sketch English literature from Beowulf down to Lord
Macaulay in a hundred aud fifty pages without falling into the style of a
catalogue, is an achievement of which Mr Robertson may well be proud."
English Verse for Junior Classes.
By the Same Author. In Two Parts. Is. 6d. net each.
Part I. — Chaucer to Coleridge.
Part II. — Nineteenth-Century Poets.
School G-uaidian. — "Of the high literary quality of this selection there
can b6 no question. There is nothing here that is not classical in the
strictest sense of the word."

36 William Blackwood & Sons' List.
English Prose for Junior and Senior Classes.
By the Same Author. In Two Parts. 2s. 6d. each. *
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English Drama.
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Edited and Elucidated by the Same Author. Crown Svo, 3s. ; and in Two
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Athenseum. — "A very successful attempt to enlarge the range of Chaucer
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Passages for Paraphrasing. Verse and Prose. 6d.
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AthensBum.- " The pieces are well calculated to improve the grammar and
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logic. "

Educational Works.

37

Part I., Chaucer to Bums, clotb, Is. net.
Part II„ Wordsworth to Newbolt, cloth. Is. net.
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School Anthology
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38 William Blackwood & Sons' List.
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Educational Works. 39
The George Eliot Reader.
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Other Volumes in preparation.

40 William Blackwood & Sons' List.
BLACKWOODS' ENGLISH CLASSICS.
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General Editor— J. H. LOBBAN, M.A.,
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Guardian.— "A highly acceptable addition to our stock of school classics.
We congratulate Mr Downie on having found a field worthy of his labours
and on having accomplished his task with faithfulness and skill."

Educational Works. 41

BL4CKW00DS' ENGLISH CIXSSICS— continued.

Goldsmith — Traveller, Deserted Village, & other Poems.
By J. H. Lobban, M.A., Lecturer in English Literature, Birkbeck College,
London. Is. 6d.
Literature. — "If Goldsmith touched nothing that he did not adorn, Mr
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Guardian. — " The selection is made with taste, and the commentary is sound,
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Hazlitt — Essays on Poetry.
By D. Nichol Smith, M.A., Goldsmith's Reader in English, University of
Oxford. 2s. 6d.
Athenseum. — " The introduction is a capital piece of work."
Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Keats.
By A. D. IKNBS, M.A., Editor of ' Julius Casar,' &c., &o. 2s. 6d.
Academy.—" For Mr Innes's volume we have nothing but praise."
Scott — Marmion.
By Alexander Mackie, M.A., Examiner in English, University of
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Guardian. — " The volume is worthy to take its place with the best of its kind. "
Lamb — Select Essays.
By Agnes Wilson, Editor of Browning's 'Strafford,' &c. ; late Senior Enghsh
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Athenseum.-" Miss Wilson's edition is well equipped."
Milton — Samson Agonistes.
By B. H. Blakeney, M.A., Headmaster, King's School, Ely. 2s. 6d.
School World.— " Everything testifies to excellent scholarship and editorial
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By Professor J. Wight Duff, D.Litt., Armstrong College, in the University
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Academy and Literature.— "Nothing has been done perfunctorily; Professor
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some of the emotion he himself has felt." ,,,„,., ^ t^ a,,. j
Mr G. K. Chesterton in 'The Daily News.'-" Mr Wight Duff has made an
exceedingly good selection from the poems of Byron, and added to them a clear
and capable introductory study." „. ,. , ,,w;„i,+ ¦n.nff'o ¦RTrrnn wird
Professor R Wiilker in 'Englische Studien.'—" Wight Dutts Byron wira
sicheriich dazu bettragen des Dichters Werke in' England mehr zu verbreiten,
"es bisher geschelen ist. Aber auch in Deutschland ist das Buch alien
Freunden Byron's warm zu empfehlen.

42 William Blackwood & Sons' List.

HI5T0RY.

A Short History of Scotland.
By Andrew Lang. Crown Svo, 53. net.

LATIN AND GREEK.
Higher Latin Prose.
With an Introduction by H. W. AuDEN, M.A., Principal, Upper Canada
College, Toronto ; formerly Assistant-Master, Fettes College, Edinburgh ;
late Scholar of Christ's College, Cambridge, and Bell University Scholar.
2s. 6d. %• A Key (for Teachers only), 5s. net.
Educational Times. — "Those who are in need of a short practical guide on
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chosen are well suited for translation."
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on composition are first-rate, and should be of considerable use to the student
of style who has mastered the ordinary rules of prose writing  Altogether,
this is a very valuable little book."
Lower Latin Prose.
By K. P. Wilson, M.A., Assistant-Master, Fettes College. Edinburffh
2s. 6d. 6 . e
*»* A Key {/or Teachers only), 5s. net.
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Lower Latin Unseens.
Selected, with Introduction, by W. Lobban, M.A., Classical Master Hieh
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Athenseum.—" More interesting in substance than such things usually are."
Journal of Education.— "WUl be welcomed by all teachers of Latin."
School Guardian.— " The introductory hints on translation should be well
studied ; they are most valuable, and well put."

Educational Works. 43

Now issued at Is. 6d. net to meet the requirements of the
Education Department for a Latin Translation Book suited to
pupils in the early stage of the subject. In its more expensive
form the volume has been extensively used by the greater Public
Schools, aud is in its Twelfth Edition. A specimen copy will be
sent gratis to any teacher wishing to examine the book with
a view to introduction.
TWELFTH EDITION.
Aditus Faciliores.
AN EASY LATIN CONSTRUING BOOK,
WITH VOCABULARY. BY
A. W. POTTS, M.A., LL.D.,
Late Head-Master of the Fettes College, Edinburgh, and sometime
Fellow of St John's College, Cambridge ;
AND THE
Rev. 0. DARNELL, M.A.,
Late Head-Master of Cargilfleld Preparatory School, Edinburgh,
and Scholar of Pembroke and Downing
CoUeges, Cambridge.

Contents.
PART I.— Stories and Fables— The Wolf on his Death-Bed— Alex
ander and the Pirate — Zeno's Teaching — Ten Helpers — The Swallow
and the Ants — Discontent — Pleasures of Country Life — The Wolf and
the Lamb — Simplicity of Farm Life in Ancient Italy — The Conceited
Jackdaw — The Ant and the Grasshopper — The Hares contemplate
Suicide — The Clever Parrot— Simple Living — The Human Hand — The
Bear — Value of Rivers — Love of the Country — Juno and the Peacock —
The Camel— The Swallow and the Birds— The Boy and the Echo- The
Stag and the Fountain — The Cat's Device — The Human Figure — The
Silly Crow — Abraham's Death- Bed— The Progs ask for a King — The
Gods select severally a Favourite Tree — Hear the Other Side.
PART II.— Historical Extracts— The Stort of the Pabii : Histori
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Historical Introduction — The Conquest of Veii. The Sacrifice of
Degius : Historical Introduction — The Sacrifice of Decins.
PART III.— The First Roman Invasion of Britain— Introduction
to Extracts from Caesar's Commentaries — The First Roman Invasion of
Britain.
PART IV. — The Life of Alexander the Great- Historical Intro
duction — Life and Campaigns of Alexander the Great.
Appendix. Vocabulary. Addenda.
Two Maps to Illustrate the First Roman Invasion of Britain amd the
Campaigns of Alexander the Oreat.

44 William Blackwood & Sons' List.
First Latin Sentences and Prose.
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A First Latin Reader.
With Notes, Exercises, and Vocabulary. By K. P. Wilson, M.A., Fettes
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Tales of Ancient Thessaly.
An Elementary Latin Reading - Book, with Notes and Vocabulary. By
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Cambridge ; Headmaster of the Grammar School, Manchester. Is.
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Latin Verse Unseens.
By G. MiDDLETON, M.A., Classical Master, Aberdeen Grammar School,
late Scholar of Emmanuel College, Cambridge ; Joint-Author of ' Student's
Companion to Latin Authors. ' Is. 6d.
Schoolmaster. — "They form excellent practice in ' unseen ' work, in a great
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examinations the book is a thoroughly useful one."
Latin Historical Unseens.
For Army Classes. By L, C. Vaughan Wilkeb, M.A. 2s.
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entrance to Sandhurst, Woolwich, and the Militia."
5tonyhurst Latin Grammar.
By Rev. John Gbbabd. Second Edition. Pp. 199. 3s.
Aditus Faciliores Qrsci.
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Educational Works. 45

Greek Accidence.
For Use in Preparatory and Public Schools. By T. C. WbathkrheaD,
TVitit^ r ,1 ^*^^' ^°? ^'''^°°'' ^"5"= College, Cambridge; formerly of
Trmity CoUege, Cambridge, and Bell University Scholar. Is. 6d.
Grei^mdEnTilh"''"* *^^ '**°* °^ "° ™®"*^ '° ^^^ clearness of the type, both
Pilot.—" The most useful book for beginners we have seen."
The Messenian Wars.
4"-J'T™*"y,?™^'^ Reader. With Exercises and Full Vocabulary. Bv
?¦ • ; I^^i M. A. Principal, Upper Canada College, Toronto; formerly
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Cambridge, and Bell University Scholar. Is. 6d.
Saturday Review.— "A far more spirited narrative than the Anabasis We
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Higher Greek Prose.
With an Introduction by H. W. Auden, M.A., Principal, Upper Canada
College, Toronto. 23. 6d. *»* Key (for Teachers only), 5s. net.
Guardian.— "The selection of passages for translation into Greek is certainly
well made."
Journal of Education. — "A manual of well-graduated exercises in Greek
Prose Composition, ranging from short sentences to continuous pieces."
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By K. P. Wilson, M.A., Assistant-Master in Fettes College, Edinburgh.
23. 6d. *»* A Key (for Teachers only), bs. net.
School Guardian. — "A well-arranged book, designed to meet the needs of
middle forms in schools."
Higher Greek Unseens.
For the Use of Higher Forms and University Students. Selected, with
Introductory Hints on Translation, by H. W. Auden, M.A., Principal,
Upper Canada College, Toronto ; formerly Assistant-Master, Fettes College,
Edinburgh. 2s. 6d.
Educational Times.— "It contains a good selection quite difficult enough
for the highest forms of public schools."
Schoolmaster. — "The introductory remarks on style and translation form
eminently profitable preliminary reading for the earnest and diligent worker in
the golden mine of classical scholarship."
Greek Unseens.
Being One Hundred Passages for Translation at Sight in Junior
Classes. Selected and arranged. With Introduction by W. Lobban, M.A.,
Classical Master, The High School, Glasgow. 2s.
This little book is designed for the use of those preparing for the Leaving Cer
tificate, Scotch Preliminary, London Matriculation, and similar examinations in
Greek. The extracts are drawn from over a score of different authors, and regard
has beeu had in the selection to literary or historical interest, and in the arrange-
ment^o progressive difficulty.

46 William Blackwood & Sons' List.
Greek Verse Unseens.
By T. R. Mill's, M.A., Lecturer in Claasies, University College, Dundee,
formerly Scholar of Wadham College, Oxford ; Joint-Author of ' Student's
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School Goaxdian. — "A capital selection made with much discretion  It
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University Correspondent. — "This earefal and judicious selection should
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Greek Test Papers.
By James Moib, Litt.D., LL.D., late co-Rector of Aberdeen Grammar School.
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University Correspondent. — "This useful book  The papers are based
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Greek Prose Phrase Book.
Based on Thucydides, Xenophon, Demosthenes, and Plato. Arranged accord
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'Meissner's Latin Phrase Book.' Interleaved, 8s. 6d.
Spectator. — "A good piece of work, aud likely to be useful."
Athenseum. — "A useful little volume, helpful to boys who are leaming to
write Greek prose."
Journal of Education. — "Of great service to schoolboys and schoolmasters
alike. The idea of interleaving is especially commendable."
Aristophanes — Pax.
Edited, with Introduction and Notes, by H. SHARPLEY, M.A., late Scholar
of Corpus Christi College, Oxford. In 1 vol. 12s. 6d. net.
A Short History of the Ancient Greeks from the
Earliest Times to the Roman Conquest.
By p. Giles, Litt.D., LL.D., University Reader in Comparative Philology,
Cambridge. With Maps and Illustrations. [In preparation.
Outlines of Greek History.
By the Same Author. In 1 vol. [/«, preparation.
A Manual of Classical Geography.
By John L. Myrbs, M.A., Fellow of Magdalene College; Professor of
Ancient History, Oxford. [In preparation.

Educational Works. 47

BLACKWOODS'
ILLUSTRATED
CLASSICAL TEXTS.
General EDiiop— H. W. AUDEN, M.A.
Principal of Upper Canada College, Toronto; formerly Assistant-Master at
Fettes College ; late Scholar of Christ's College, Cambridge, and Bell Uni
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Literature,—" The best we have seen of the new type of school-
book." Academy,— "If the price of this series is considered, we know
not where to look for its equal."
Public School Magailne,—" The plates and maps seem to have
been prepared regardless of cost. "We -wonder how it ean all be done
at the price."

BLACKWOODS' CLASSICAL TEXTS.
Caesar— Gallic War, Books I.-III.
By J. M. Hardwich, M.A., Assistant-Master at Rugby ; late Scholar of
St John's College, Cambridge. With or without Vocabulary. Is. 6(5.
Cassar — Gallic War, Books IV., V.
By Rev. St J. B. Wynne WilIson, M.A., Headmaster, Haileybury College ;
late Scholar of St John's College, Cambridge. With or without Vocabulary,
Is. 6d. Vocabulary separately, 3d.
Caesar— Gallic War, Books VI., Vll.
By C. A. A. Du Pontet, M.A., Assistant-Master at Harrow. With or with
out Vocabulary. Is. 6d.
Virgil — Georgic I.
By J. Sargeadnt, M.A., Assistant - Master at Westminster ; late Scholar
of University College, Oxford. Is. 6d.
Virgil — Georgic IV.
By J. Sabqeaunt, M.A , Assistant-Master at Westminster; late Scholar of
^Iniversity College, Oxford. Is. 6d.

48 William Blackwood & Sons' List.

BLACKWOODS' CLASSICAL ThXTS— continued.

Virgil— >eneid, Books V., VI.
By Rev. St J. B. Wynne Willson, M.A., Headmaster, Haileybury
College. Is. 6d.
Ovid — Metamorphoses (Selections).
By J. H. ViNOE, M.A., late Scholar of Christ's College, Cambridge,
Assistant-Master at Bradfield. Is. 6d.
Ovid — Elegiac Extracts.
By R. B. Burnaby, M.A. Oxon. ; Classical Master, Trinity College,
Glenalmond. Is. 6d.
Arrian — Anabasis, Books I., II.
By H. W. Auden, M.A., late Scholar of Christ's College, Cambridge;
Principal of Upper Canada College, Toronto ; formerly Assistant- Master
at Fettes College. 2s. 6d.
Homer — Odyssey, Book VI.
By E. E. Sikes, M.A., Fellow and Lecturer of St John's College,
Cambridge. Is. 6d.
Homer — Odyssey, Book VII.
By E. E. Sikes, M.A., Fellow and Lecturer of St John's College,
Cambridge. [In preparation.
Demosthenes — Olynthiacs, 1-3.
By H. Sharpley, M.A., late Scholar of Corpus College, Oxford ; Assistant-
Master at Hereford School. Is. 6d.
Horace — Odes, Books I., II.
By J. Sargeaunt, M.A., late Scholar of University College, Oxford;
Assistant-Master at Westminster. Is. 6d.
Horace— Odes, Books III., IV.
By J. Sargeaunt, M.A., Assistant-Master at Westminster. Is. 6d.
Cicero — In Catilinam, I.- IV.
By H. W. Auden, M.A., late Scholar of Christ's College, Cambridge;
Principal of Upper Canada College, Toronto; formerly Assistant-Master
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Cicero — De Senectute and De Amicitia.
By J. H. Vince, M.A., Assistant-Master at Bradfield. [In preparation.
Cicero — Pro Lege Manilla and Pro Archia.
By K. P. Wilson, M.A., late Scholar of Pembroke College, Cambridge •
Assistant-Master at Fettes College. 2s. 6d.

Educational Works. 49

BLACKWOODS' CLASSICAL TBXTS— continued.

Cicero — Select Letters.
By Rev. T. NiCKLiN, M.A., Assistant-Master at Rossall. 2s. '6d.
Cicero — Pro Caecina.
By Rev. J. M. Lupton; M.A. Cantab., Assistant-Master at Marlborough
College. [tn preparation.
Tacitus — Agricola.
By H. ' P. Morland Simpson, M.A., late Scholar of Pembroke College,
Cambridge; Rector of Aberdeen Grammar School. [In preparation.
Xenophon — Anabasis, Books I,, II.
By A. Jaqoeb, M.A., late Scholar of Pembroke College, Cambridge ; Head
master, Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Mansfield. Is. 6d.
Sallust — J ugurtha.
By I. F. Smedlbt, M.A., Assistant-Master at Westminster ; late Fellow of
Pembroke College, Cambridge. Is. 6d.
Euripides — Hercules Furens.
By E. H. Blakeney, M.A., Headmaster, King's School, Ely. 'is. 6d.
Livy— Book XXVIII.
By G MiDDLETON, M.A., Classical Master in Aberdeen Grammar School;
and Professor A. Souter, D.Litt., Yates Professor of New Testament Greek,
Mansfield College, Oxford. Is. 6d.
Livy— Book IX.
Bv J A. NiCKLiN, B.A., late Scholar of St John's College, Cambridge;
Assistant-Master at Liverpool College. [In preparat^on.
Nepos— Select Lives.
Bv Rev. E. J. W. Houghton, D.D., Headmaster of Rossall School.
'' [In the press.
MODERN LANGUAGES.
FRENCH.
Historical Reader of Early French.
Containine Passages Illustrative of the Growth of the French Language
&om ihe larUest Times to the end of the 15th Century By Herbert A.
Stmnq LL.D., Officier de I'Instruction Pubhque, Professor of Latin,
University College, Liverpool; and L. D. Barnett, M.A., Litt D. 3s
Guitrdian.—" A most_ valuable companion to the modern handbooks on his
torical French grammar."

50 William Blackwood & Sons' List.
The Tutorial Handbook of French Composition.
By Alfred Mercier, L.-is-L., Lecturer on French Language and Literature
in the University of St Andrews. 3s. 6d.
Educational Times. — "A very useful book, which admirably accomplishes
its object of helping students preparing for examinations  It is on rather
novel lines, which commend themselves at once to any one who has had to teach
the subject."
French Historical Unseens.
For Army Classes. By N. E. TOKB, B.A. 23. 6d.
Journal of Education. — "A distinctly good book  Maybe unreservedly
commended." A First Book of "Free Composition" in French.
By J. Edmond Mansion, B.-As-Ia, Headmaster of Modem Languages in the
Royal Academical Institution, Belfast. Is.
School World. — "We recommend it warmly to all teachers of French, and
trust that it will have a wide circulation."
French Test Papers for Civil Service and University
Students.
Edited by Emile B. le FEANgois, French Tutor, Redcliff House, Win
chester House, St Ives, &c., Clifton, Bristol. 23.
Weekly Register. — "Deserves as much praise as can be heaped on it 
ThorougUy good work throughout."
All French Verbs in Twelve Hours (except Defective
Verbs).
By Alfred J. Wyatt, M.A. Is.
Weekly Register. — "Altogether unique among French grammatical helps,
with a system, with a coup d'ceil, with avoidance of repetition, with a premium
on intellectual study, which constitute a new departure."
The Children's Guide to the French Language.
By Annie G. Ferriee, Teacher of French in the Ladies' College, Queen
Street, Edinburgh. Is.
Schoolmaster.—" The method is good, and the book will be found helpful
by those who have to teach French to small children."
GERMAN.
A History of German Literature.
By John G Robertson, Ph.D., Professor of German in the University
of London. 10s. 6d. net.
Times.— "In such an enterprise even a tolerable approach to success is some
thing of an achievement, and in regard to German literature Mr Robertson
appears to have made a nearer approach than any other English writer."
Outlines of the History of German Literature.
For the Use of Schools. By the Same Author. Crown Svo, 3s. 6d. net.

Educational Works. 51
DR LUBOVIUS' GERMAN SERIES.
A Practical German Grammar, Reader and Writer.
By Louis Lubovius, Ph.D. , German Master, HUlhead High School, Glas
gow ; Lecturer on German, U.F.C. Training CoUege ; Examiner for Degrees
in Arts, University of Glasgow.
Part I. — Elementary. 2s.
Part II. 3s.
Lower German.
Reading, Supplementary Grammar with Exercises, and Material for Com-
position. With Notes and Vocabulary, and Ten Songs in Sol-Fa Notation,
By Louis LuBO-nus, Ph.D. 2s. 6d.
Athenssum. — "The volume is well designed."
Preparatory Schools Review. — "A capital reading-book for middle forms."
Progressive German Composition.
With copious Notes and Idioms, and First Introduction to German
Philology. By Louis Ltibovius, Ph.D. 3s. 6d.
Also in Two Parts : —
Progressive German Composition. 2s. 6d.
*,* A Key (for Teachers only), Ss. net.
First Introduction to German Philology, la. 6d.
Journal of Education. — "The passages for translation are well selected,
and the notes to the passages, as well as the grammatical introduction, give
real assistance  The part of the book dealing with German philology deserves
great praise."

A Compendious German Reader.
Consisting of Historical Extracts, Specimens of German Literature, Lives
of German Authors, an Outline of German History (1640-1890), Biographical and
Historical Notes. Especially adapted for the use of Army Classes. By G. B.
BEAK, M.A. 2s. 6d.
Guardian.  "This method of compilation is certainly an improvement on the
hotch-potch of miscellaneous passages to be found in many of the older books."
Spartanerjiinglinge. A Story of Life in a Cadet College.
By Paul von SzczBPAiisKi. Edited, with Vocabulary and Notes, by J. M.
Morrison, M.A., Master in Modem Languages, Aberdeen Grammar
School. 2s.
Scotsman.— "An admirable reader for teaching German on the new method,
and is sure to prove popular both with students and with teachers."
A German Reader for Technical Schools.
BvEwALD F. Secklbr, Senior Language Master at the Birmingham Muni
cipal Day School ; German Lecturer, Birmingham Evening School ; French
" Lecturer, Stourbridge Technical School. 2b.

52

William Blackwood & Sons' List.

SPANISH.
A Spanish Grammar.
With Copious Exercises in Translation and Composition; Easy reading
Lessona and Extracts from Spanish Authors ; a List of Idioms ; a Glossary
of Commercial Terms (English-Spanish) ; and a copious General Vocabulary
(Spanish-English). By William A. Kesseh, Teacher of Spanish, Hillhead
High School, Glasgow. Ss. 6d.
Investors' Review. — "To the student who wishes to master the Spanish
language for commercial or literary purposes this admirable little book -will
prove invaluable."
Commerce. — " Contains practically all that is necessary for the acquirement
of a working knowledge of the language."
MATHEMATICS.
Arithmetic.
With numerous Examples, Revision Tests, and Examination Papers. By
A. Veitch Lothian, M.A., B.Sc, F.R.S.E., Mathematical and Science
Lecturer, E.C. Training College, Glasgow. With Answers. 3s. 6d.
Guardian. — "A work of first-rate importance  We should find it hard
to suggest any improvement  We venture to predict that when the book
becomes known, it will command a very wide circulation in our public schools
and elsewhere."
Practical Arithmetical Exercises.
For Senior Pupils in Schools. Containing upwards of 8000 Examples,
consisting in great part of Problems, and 750 Extracts from Examination
Papers. Second Edition, Revised. 364 pages, 3s. With Answers, 3s. 6d.
James Welton, Esq., Lecturer on Sdmcation, and Master of Method,
Yorkshire College. — " Your ' Practical Arithmetic ' seems to me the most complete
collection of exercises in existence. Both idea and execution are excellent."
Elementary Algebra.
The Complete Book, 288 pp., cloth, 23. With Answers, 2s. 6d. Answers
sold separately, price 9d. Pt. I., 64 pp., 6d. Pt. IL, 64 pp., 6d. Pt.
IIL, 70 pp., 6d. Pt. IV., 96 pp., 9d. Answers to Pts. L, IL, IIL, each
2d. Answers to Pt. IV., 3d.
Educational News. — "A short and compact introduction to algebra  The
exercises are remarkably good, and the arrangement of the subject-matter is on
the soundest principles. The work is, on the whole, to bo commended as being
at once inexpensive and scholarly."
Handbook of Mental Arithmetic.
With 7200 Examples and Answers. 264 pp. 2s. 6d. Also in Six Parts,
limp cloth, price 6d. each.
Teachers' Monthly.— " The examples are mainly concrete, as they should
be, are of all varieties, and, what is most important, of the right amount of
difficulty.' Educational News.— "This is, as a matter of fact, at once a handbook and a
handy book. It is an absolute storehouse of exercises in mental computations.
 There are most valuable practical hints to teachers."

Educational Works. 53
Modern Geometry of the Point, Straight Line, and
Circle.
An Elementary Treatise. By J. A. Third, D.Sc, Headmaster of Spier's
School, Beith. 3s.
Schoolmaster. — ' ' Each branch of this wide subject is treated -with brevity,
it is true, and yet with amazing completeness considering the size of the volume.
So earnest and reliable an effort deserves success."
Journal of Education. — "An exceedingly useful text-book, full enough
for nearly every educational purpose, and yet not repellent by overloading."
Educational News. — "A book which will easily take rank among the best of
its kind. The subject is treated with complete thoroughness and honesty."
Mensuration. 128 pp., cloth. Is. Also in Two Parts. Pt. I., Parallelograms and Tri
angles. 64 pp. Paper, 4d.; cloth, 6d. Pt. IL, Circles and Solids.
64 pp. Paper, 4d. ; cloth, 6d. Answers may be had separately, price 2d.
each Part.
Educational Times. — "The explanations are always clear and to the point,
while the exercises are so exceptionally numerous that a wide selection i.s offered
to the students who make use of the book."
Higher Arithmetic.
For Ex-Standard and Continuation Classes. 128 pp. Paper, 6d. ; cloth, 8d.
With Answers, cloth, lid. Answers may be had separately, price 3d.

GEOGRAPHY.
Fifty.Fifth Thousand.
Elements of Modern Geography.
By the Rev. Alexander Maokay, LL.D., F.R.G.S. Revised to the
present time. Pp. 300. 3s.
Schoolmaster. — "For senior pupils or pupil-teachers the book contains all
that is desirable  It is well got up, and bears the mark of much care in the
authorship and editing." Ont Hundred and Ninety-Sixth Thousand.
Outlines of Modern Geography.
By the Same Author. Revised to the present time. Pp. 128. Is.
These ' Outlines ' — in many respects an epitome of the ' Elements ' — are care
fully prepared to meet the wants of beginners. The arrangement is the same
as in the Author's larger works.
One Hundred and Fifth Thousand.
First Steps in Geography.
By the Same Author. 18mo, pp. 66. Sewed, 4d. ; in cloth, 6d.

54 William Blackwood & Sons' List.
A Manual of Classical Geography.
By John L. Myrbs, M.A., Professor of Ancient History, Oxford. [ In prepajration.
CHEMISTRY AND POPULAR
SCIENCE.
Forty Elementary Lessons in Chemistry.
By W. L. Sargant, M.A., Headmaster, Oakham School. Illustrated.
Is. 6d.
Glasgow Herald. — "Remarkably well arranged for teaching purposes, and
shows the compiler to have a real grip of sound educational principles. The book
is clearly written and aptly illustrated."
Inorganic Tables, with Notes and Equations.
By H. M. TiMPANY, B.Sc, Science Master, Borough Technical School,
Shrewsbury. Crown Svo, Is.
Things of Everyday.
A Popular Science Reader on Some Common Things. With Blus-
trations. 2s.
Guardian. — " WiU be found useful by teachers in elementary and continuation
schools who have to conduct classes in the 'science of common things.'  Well
and strongly bound, and illustrated by beautifully clear diagrams."
GEOLOGY.
An Intermediate Text-Book of Geology.
By Professor Charles Lapworth, LL.D., University, Birmingham.
Founded on Dr Page's 'Introductory Text-Book of Geology.' With Illus
trations. 5s.
Educational News.— "The work is lucid and attractive, and wUl take high
rank among the best text-books on the subject."
Publishers' Circular.— "The arrangement of the new book is in every way
excellent, and it need hardly be said that it is thoroughly up to date in all
details.... ...Simplicity and clearness iu the book are as pronounced as its accuracy,
and students and teachers alike will find it of lasting beneflt to them."
Education.— "The name of the Author is a guarantee that the subject is
effectively treated, and the information aud views up to date."
PAL/EONTOLOGY.
A Manual of Palaeontology.
For the Use of Students. With a General Introduction on the Principles of
Palaeontology. By Professor H. Alleyne Nicholson, Aberdeen: and
Richard Lydekker, B A. F.G.S. &c. Third Edition. Entirely rev^itten
aud greatly enlarged. 2 vols. Svo, with 1419 Engravings. 63s.

Educational Works. 55
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY.
Fifteenth Edition, Revised.
Introductory Text- Book of Physical Geography.
With Sketch-Maps and Illustrations. By David Page, LL.D., &c.. Pro
fessor of Geology in the Durham CoUege of Science, Newcastle. Revised
by Professor Charles Lapworth. 2s. 6d.
Athenseum. — " The divisions of the subject are so clearly defined, the explana
tions are so lucid, the relations of one portion of the subject to another are so
satisfactorily shown, and, above all, the bearings of the allied sciences to Physical
Geography are brought out with so much precision, that every reader will feel
that difficulties have been removed and the path of study smoothed before him."
PSYCHOLOGY AND LOGIC.
An Introductory Text- Book of Logic.
With Numerous Examples and Exercises. By Sydney Herbert Mellone,
M.A. (Lond.), D.Sc. (Edin.); Examiner in Philosophy in the University of
Edinburgh. Fifth Edition, Revised. Crown Svo, Ss.
Scotsman. — "This is a well -studied academic text -book, in which the
traditional doctrine that has been handed down from Aristotle to the univer
sity professors of to-day is expounded with clearness, and upon an instruetive
system which leads up naturally to the deeper and different speculations involved
in modern logic  The book, in fine, is an exceUent working text-book of its
subject, likely to prove useful both to students and to teachers."
Elements of Psychology.
By Sydney Herbert Mellone, M.A. (Lond.), D.Sc. (Edin.), and Margaret
Drummond, M.A. (Edin.) Second Edition, Revised. Crown Svo, 5s.
Scotsman.— "Thoroughness is a feature of the work, and, treating psychology
as a living science, it wUl be found fresh, suggestive, and up-to-date."
Education. — " The authors of this volume have made satisfactory use of
accredited authorities; in addition, they have pursued original investigations
and conducted experiments, with the result that great freshness of treatment
marks their contribution to the teachmg of psychology "
A Short History of Logic. .,..,,¦ . ,
By Robert Adamson, LL.D., Late Professor of Logic in the University of
Glasgow. Edited by W. R. Sorley, Litt.D., LL.D., Fellow of the British
Academy, Professor of Moral Philosophy, University of Cambridge. Crown
' ' There is no other History of Logic— short; or long— in English, and no similar
short work in any other language."
FORESTRY.
The Elements of British Forestry. , ^ , „ ,„„„
A Handbook for Forest Apprentices and Students of Forestry. By John
Nisbet, do:.. Professor of Forestry at the West of Scotland Agricultural
CoUege, Author of 'The Forester.' Crown Svo, 6s. Od. net.
''"^Bv 1 T "oiL^NMlfwood Manager to His Grace the Duke of Northumber-
lan^K.6 Second Edition, Revisld. With 351 Illustrations. Demy Svo,
15s. net.

56 William Blackwood & Sons' List.

ELEMENTARY SERIES.
BLACKWOODS'
LITERATURE READERS.
Edited by JOHN ADAMS, M.A., LL.D.,
Professor ot Education in the University of London.
BOOK I  Pp.228. Price Is.
BOOK II  Pp.275. Price Is. 4d.
BOOK III  Pp.303. Price Is. 6d.
BOOK IV  Pp. 381. Price Is. 6d.

NOTE.
This new Series would seek to do for Literature what has
already been done by many series of School Readers for
History, Geography, and Science. Many teachers feel that
their pupils should be, introduced as soori as possible to the
<vorks of the great writers, and that reading may be learnt
from these works at least as well as from compilations
¦specially written for the young. Because of recent changes
in Inspection, the present is a specially suitable time for
the introduction of such a series into Elementary Schools.
in the Preparatory Departments of Secondary Schools the
need for such a series is clamant.
It is to be noted that the books are not manuals of
English literature, but merely Readers, the matter of which
IS drawn entirely from authors of recognised standing. All
the usual aids given in Readers are supplied ; but illustra
tions, as affording no help in dealing with Literature, are
excluded from the series.
" The volumes, which are capitally printed, consist of selected
readings of increasing difficulty, to which notes and exercises are
added at the end. The selected pieces are admirably chosen, especially
in the later books^ which will form a beginning for a, really sound
and wide appreciation of the stores of good English verse and
prose."— j4 tbenteam.
" The selected readings  are interesting, and possessed of real
literary value. The books are well bound, tne paper is excellent,
and the unusual boldness and clear spacing of the type go far to
compensate for the entire absence of pictorial illustrations. "—CFuartfyan.
'A very excellent gradus to the more accessible heights of the
English Parnassus  The appendices on spelling, word-building,
and grammar are the work of a skilful, practical teacher."— Pau
Mall Oazeite.
"If we had the making of the English Educational Code for
Elementary Schools, we should insert a regulation that all boys and
girls should spend two whole years on these four books, and on
nothing else."— Brad/orrf Observer.
"The books are graded with remarkable Biall."—aiasgoiir Herald.

Educational Works.

57

" Absolutely the best set of all the history readers that have hitherto
been published."— r^e Guardian.
THE STORY OF THE WORLD.
FOR THE CHILDREN OP THE BRITISH EMPIRE, (in Five Books.)
ByM. B. SYNQE.
witb Coloured Frontispieces and numerous] Illustrations by
E. M. Synge, A.R.B., andiMaps.

BOOK I. ON THE SHORES OF THE GREAT SEA. Is. 4d.
Colonial Edition, Is. 6d.

The Home of Abraham — Into Africa-
Joseph in Egypt— The Children of Israel—
The First Merchant Fleet — Hiram, King of
Tyre — King Solomon's Fleet — The Story of
Carthage— The Story of the Argonauts— The
Siege of Troy— The Adventures of Ulysses-
The Dawn of History— The Fall of Tyre—
The Bise of Carthage- Hannb's Adventures
—The Battle of Marathon— King Ahasuerus
— How Leonidas kept the Pass — Some

Greek Colonies— Athens— The Death ot
Socrates— The Story of Eomulus and Bemus
— HowHoratius kept the Bridge— Coiiolanus
— Alexander the Great— King of Macedonia
— The OoncLuest of India — Alexander's
City— The Eoman Fleet— The Adventures of
Hannibal — The End of Carthage — The
Triumph of Bome— Julius Caesar — The
Flight of Pompey— The Death of Csesar.

BOOK II. THE DISCOVERY OF NEW WORLDS. Is. 6d.

The Boman World- The Tragedy of Nero—
The Great Fire in Bome— The Destruction
of Pompeii— Marcus Aurelius— Christians to
the Lions— A New Eome— The Armies of
the North— King Arthur and his Knights—
How the Northmen conquered England—
The First Crusade — Frederick Barbarossa —
The Third Crusade— The Days of Chivalry
— Queen of the Adriatic — The Story of
Marco Polo — Dante's Great Poem— The

Maid of Orleans— Prince Henry, the Sailor—
The Invention of Printing— Vasoo da Gama's
Great Voyage — Golden Goa — Christopher
Columbus— The Last of the Moors— Dis
covery of the New World— Columbus in
Chains— Discovery of the Pacific- Magel
lan's Straits— Montezuma^Siege and Fall of
Mexico — Conquest of Peru — A Great
Awakening.

BOOK III. THE AWAKENING OF EUROPE, la. 6d.
Colonial Edition, Is. 9d.

Stoev of the Netherlands— The Story of
Martin Luther— The Massacre of St Bar
tholomew—The Siege of Leyden— WiUiam
the Silent — Drake's Voyage round the
World— The Great Armada— Virginia— Story
of the Bevenge— Sir Walter Baleigh— The
'Fairy Queen'— First Voyage ofthe East
India Company— Henry Hudson— Captain
John Smith— The Founding of Quebec—
The Pilgrim Fathers— Thirty Years of War
-^The Dutch at Sea— Van Biebeek's Colony

—Oliver Cromwell— Two Famous Admirals
— De Euyter- Tie Founder of Pennsyl
vania—The 'Pilgrim's Progress '—William's
Invitation— The Struggle in Ireland— The
Siege of Vienna by the Turks— The Story of
the Huguenots-The Battle of Blenheim-
How Peter the Great learned Shipbuilding
--Charles XIL of Sweden— The Boyhood of
Frederick the Great— Anson's Voyage round
the World— Maria Theresa— The Story of
Scotland.

58

William Blackwood & Sons' List.

THE STORY OF THE yfO^LD— contmued.
FOR SEA POWER. Is. 9d.
Copenhagen — Napoleon — Trafalgar — The
Death of Nelson— The Eise of Wellington—
The First Australian Colony— Story of the
Slave Trade— The Defence of Saragoza— Sir
John Moore at Corunna — The Victory of
Talavera — The Feasant Hero of the Tyrol-
The "Shannon" and the "Chesapeake" —
Napoleon's Betreat from Moscow — Welling
ton's Victories In Spain— The Fall of the
Empire- Story of the Steam Engine— Water
loo— The Exile of St Helena.

BOOK IV. THE STRUGGLE
The Story of the Great Mogul— Eobert
Clive— The Black Hole of Calcutta— The
Struggle for North America— George Wash
ington—How Pitt saved England— The Fall
of Quebec— "The Great Lord Hawke"—
The Declaration of Independence — Captain
Cook's Story— James Bruce and the Nile —
The Trial of Warren Hastings — Maria
Antoinette — The Fall of the Bastile —
Napoleon Bonaparte — Horatio Nelson — The
Adventures of Mungo Park — The Travels of
Baron Humboldt— The Battle of the Nile —

BOOK V. GROWTH OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE. 2s.

How Spain lost South America — The Greek
War — Victoria, Queen of England — The
Great Boer Trek- The Story of Natal— The
Story of Canada- The Wmning of the West
— A Great Arctic Expedition — Discoveries in
Australia— The Last King of France— Louis
Kossuth and Hungary — "The Crimean War —
The Indian Mutiny — King of United Italy
— Civil War in America — The Mexican Be
volution — Founding the German Empire—
The Franco-German War— The Dream of
Cecil Ehodes — The Dutch Eepublics in

South Africa — Livingstone's discoveries in
Central Africa — China's Long Sleep— Japan,
Britain's Ally — Eussia — The Annexation of
Burma — The Story of Afghanistan — The
Empire of India — Gordon, the Hero of
Khartum— The Eedemption of Egypt— The
Story of British West Africa— The Story of
Uganda — The Founding of Ehodesia —
British South Africa — The Dominion of
Canada — Australia — The New Nation-
Freedom for Cuba— Eeign of Queen Victoria
— Welding the Empire — Citizenship.

Also in 2 volumes, at 3s. 6d. each net, suitable as prize books.

Uniform with this Series.

THE WORLD'S CHILDHOOD.
with numerous Illustrations by Brlnsley Le Panu.

I. STORIES
Lit-tle Bed Bi-ding Hood.
The Three Bears.
The Snow-Child.
Tom Thumb.
The Dg-ly Duck-ling.
Fuas in Boots.
The Lit-tle Girl and the Cats.
Jack and the Bean -Stalk.
Gol-dy.Cin-der-el-la— Part I.

OF THB FAIRIES. lod.
CO'NTENTS 11. Cin-der-el-la— Part II.
12. The Lost Bell.
13. Jack the Gi-ant Kill-er.
14. Star-bright and Bird-ie.
15. Beau-ty and the Beast.
16. Peaeh-Dar-ling.
17. In Search of a Night's Best.
18. Dick Whit-ting-ton and his Oat.
19. The Sleep-ing Beau-ty.

II. STORIES OF THE GREEK QODS AND HEROES. lod.

A-bout the Gods.
The Names of the Gods.
Turn-ed in-to Stone.
The Shin-ing Char-i-ot.
The Laur-el Tree.
A Horse with Wings.
The Cy-press Tree.
The Fruits ofthe Barth.
Cu-pid's Gold-en Ar-rows.
Pan's Pipe.
A Long Sleep.
The Be-ward of Kind-nesa.

CONTENTS.

13. At-a-lan-ta's Eaee.
14. The Stor-y of Al-ces-tis.
16. The Bnow-White Bull.
16. The Spi-der and his Web
IT. I-o— the White Cow.
18. The Three Gold-en Ap-ples.
19. The 01-ive Tree.
20. A Boy Her-o of Old.
21. The Thread of Ar-i-ad-ne.
22. The Boy who tried to Fly.
23. The Gold-en Harp.
Teacher's Appendix.

Educational Works. 59
"If history can be given a form likely to make it palatable to young folks, "F"
has Bucceded in doing so in these ' Stories of the English.' It is uo exaggeration to
say that the book represents not only a masterpiece In literature tor children,
but a work of no slight value for the national good."— Scotsman.
STORIES OF THE ENGLISH
FOR SCHOOLS. By F.
FOR JUNIOR SCHOLARS.
Vol. L— FEOM THB COMING OF THB ENGLISH TO THB ABMADA. — Is. 6d.
CONTENTS.— The coming of the White Horse— The coming of the Cross— The Fight
with the Baven — Alfred the Great— Edward the Confessor — William the Oonquerer— The
Kings of the Golden Broom — Eichard Lion-Heart — King John and Magna Charta — Earl
Simon the Eighteous — Edward the Englishman — Bannockbum and Berkeley — The Lions
and the Lilies — A King dethroned — Prince Hal— King Harry- The Wars of the Boses—
Henry VIIL and the Eevolt from Rome— Edward VI. and Mary— EUzabeth, the Great
Queen : (1) EngUsh Adventurers and the Cruise of the Pelican ; (2) Mary, Queen of Soots ;
(3) Papist Plots and the Massacre of Saint Bartholomew ; (4) The Armada.
ILLUSTRATIONS. — Dover Castlo— The Pharos, Dover — Norsemen— Homes of our
Ancestors— Chateau*Gaillard—Tomb of a Crusader (Gervase Alard), Winchelsea Church-
Carnarvon Castle — Coronation Chair, Westminster Abbey— Knights of the Fourteenth
Century— Edward the Third— The Battle ot Creasy— Tomb of Edward the Third, West
minster Abbey— Tomb of the Black Prince, Canterbury Cathedral— Eichard II. on his
voyage to Ireland— Jerusalem Chamber, Westminster Abbey— Henry V. with Military
Attendants— Henry V. addressing his Army— Joan of Aro— The Crowning of Henry VII.
on Bosworth Field— Henry VIII.— Wolsey— Sir Thomas More taking leave ofhis Daughter
—Calais during the Sixteenth Century— Queen Elizabeth- The Armada— Drake— Mary,
Queen of Scots— Drake playing Bowls with his Captains— Sir Walter Baleigh.
FOR SENIOR SCHOLARS.
Vol. II.— the STBUQGLB FOB POWEB AND GEBATEB ENGLAND.— Is. 6d.
CONTENTS.— The First ofthe Stuarts— The Struggle for Power— The Puritan Tyranny
—The Second Struggle for Power : Charles II.— The Bevolution— The Fight with France :
The Dutch King— Queen Anne and Marlborough— Greater England— The Story of Anson—
The Story of Wolfe— The Story of Captain Cook— The Story of Clive— The War of American
Independence— The great French War— The Story of Nelson— The Story of the Great Duke
— The End of the Stories.
ILLUSTBATIONS.—Js.mes I.— Bacon— Charies L— A CavaUer— OUver CromweU— The
Great Fhe of London— The Seven Bishops going to the Tower— Landing of William of
Orange in Bngland—Marlborough—Gibraltar— Chatham— Fight between the Cm«i«-Km and
the Manila Ship— General Wolfe— The Death of Captain Cook— Washington-- Pitt^
Napoleon Bonaparte— Nelson— H.M.S. Victory, Portsmouth Harbour— Duke of WeUington
— Napoleon on board the BelUrophon.
Moira O'Neill, Author of ¦ Songs ofthe Glen of Antrim,' writmg to Mr Bhwkwood
savs- "F.'s 'Stories ofthe English ' was written for my httle daughter Susan. The
child ia quite fascinated by it, but equaUy so are all the ^own-up frienda to whom
I have shown it. I lent it once to a aaUor uncle, and he sat up to all hours of that
night with it, and afterwards told me that he could hardly beheve that such an
account of Nelson's great battles had been written by a woman because it was
teSally accurate.^ And a soldier friend and critic used ahnoat the same words
about the account of Marlborough's campaigns. F. is the most P**'™* f".^ faftiful
student of history that I know. She has such a strong hterary sense th;** =^« =™Ply
TOnld not write anything except in a literary form^ and combined with it she has
^Tr^e Sg, a judicSil mi£d. This, I think, gives her work a quite pecuUar
value."

6o

William Blackwood & Sons' List.

Standard Readers.
Revised Edition. With Supplementary Pages, consisting of "Spelling
Lists," "Word-Building," "Prefixes and Suffixes," &c. ' Profusely Illus
trated with Superior Engravings.

BOOK L
BOOK n.
BOOK III.
BOOK IV.
BOOK V.
BOOK VL

40 Lessons
40 Lessons
60 Lessons
60 Lessons

60 Lessons

8d.
9d.Od.3d.

Is. 4d.
Is. 6d.

Schoolmaster. — "We strongly recommend these books  Children will be
«ure to Uke them; the matter is extremely suitable and interesting, the print
very distinct, and the paper a pleasure to feel."

Infant Series.

FIRST PICTURE PRIMER.
SECOND PICTURE PRIMER .
PICTURE READING SHEETS.
1st Series. | 2nii Series.

Se.wed, 2d. ; cloth, 3d.
Sewed, 2d. ; cloth, 3d.

Each containing 16 sheets, unmounted, 3s. 6d. Mounted on 8 boards
vrith cloth border, price 14s. ; varnished, 3s. 6d. per set eStra.
Or the 16 sheets laid on linen, varnished, and mounted on a roller,
17s. 6d.
THE INFANT PICTURE READER. With numerous Illustrations.
Cloth, Ump, 6d.
Educational News. — "Teachers will find these Primers a useful introduction
to the art of reading. We consider them well adapted to their purpose."

Geographical Readers.

With numerous Maps, Diagrams, and Illustrations.
GEOGRAPHICAL PRIMER. (For Stand. I.)
BOOK L (For Stand. IL) 96 pp.
(For Stand.
(For Stand.
(For Stand.
(For Stand.

96 pp

BOOKBOOKBOOKBOOK
BOOK

II.
III. IV. V.
VI.

III.) 156 pp.
IV.) 192 pp.
V.) 266 pp.
VI.) 256 pp.
(For Stand. VII.) 256 pp.
Schoolmaster. — "This is a really excellent series of Geographical Readers.
lhe volumes have, in common, the attractiveness which good paper, clear type
effective woodcuts, and durable binding can present ; whilst their contents, both
as to quaUty and quantity, are so graded as to be admirably adapted to the
several stages of the pupil's progress."

9d.
9d.
Is. Od.
Is. 3d.
Is. 6d.
Is. 6d.
Is. 9d.

Educational Works.

6i

Historical Readers.
With numerous Portraits, Maps, and other Illustrations.

SHORT STORIES FROM ENGLISH
HISTORY ....
FIRST HISTORICAL READER
SECOND HISTORICAL READER
THIRD HISTORICAL READER

160 pp. Is. Od.
160 pp. Is. Od.
224 pp. Is. 4d-
266 pp. Is. 6d.

Schoolmaster. — "These new Historical Readers have been carefully compiled.
The facts are well selected ; the story is well told in language most likely to
impress itself in the memory of young children ; and the poetical pieces are
fitting accompaniments to the prose."
School Board Chronicle. — " The treatment is unconventional, but always
in good taste. The volumes will meet with much favour generally as lively,
useful, high-toned Historical Readers."

Standard Authors.
Adapted for Schools.
HAWTHORNE'S TANGLBWOOD TALES.
tions. 160 pp. Is. 2d.

With Notes and lUustra-

Aytoun's Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers.
With Introduction, Notes, and Life of the Author, for Junior Classes.

EDINBURGH AFTER FLODDEN
THE EXECUTION OF MONTROSE .
THE BURIAL-MARCH OF DUNDEE
THE ISLAND OF THE SCOTS .

32 pages, 2d. ; cloth, 3Jd.
32 pages, 2d. ; cloth, SJd.
32 pages, 2d. ; cloth, 3Jd.
32 pages, 2d. ; cloth, 3Jd.
Teachers' Aid. — " Capital annotated editions  Beautifully clear and
painstaking; we commend them heartily to our brother and sister teachers."
Educational News.— " Useful issues of well-known poems  The notes
are exceedingly appropriate, and leave nothing^ in doubt. For class purposes
we can specially recommend these little books."

School Recitation Books.

BOOK I. 32 pages
BOOK II. 32 pages
BOOK III. 48 pages
BOOK IV. 48 pages
BOOK V. 64 pages
BOOK VI. 64 pages

2d. 2d.
3d. 3d.
4d. 4d.

Schoolmistress —" These six books are a valuable contribution to school
literature The poems for each standard are judiciously chosen, the explanatory
notes and questions at the end of every lesson are very suitable.

62

William Blackwood & Sons' List.

Grammar and Analysis.
BOOK II. 24 pages
BOOK in. 24 pages
BOOK IV. 48 pages
BOOK V. 64 pages
BOOK VI. 64 pages
BOOK VII. 64 pages
Schoolmaster. — "This is a series of good practical books whose merits onght
to ensure for them a wide sale. Among their leading merits are simplicity in
definitions, judicious recapitulation, and abundance of well-selected exercises
for practice."
Teachers' Aid.— "For thoroughness, method, style, aud high -class work,
commend us to these little text-books  A practical hand has impressed
every line with individuaUty  We are determined to use them in our own
department."

Paper, IJd. ; cloth, 2^d.
Paper, IJd. ; cloth, 2i;d.
Paper, 2d. ; cloth, 3d.
Paper, 3d. ; cloth, 4d.
Paper, 3d. ; cloth, 4d.
Paper, 3d. ; cloth, 4d.

BOOK

I.

BOOK

II.

BOOK

IIL

BOOK

IV.

BOOK
V.
BOOK
VL
BOOK
VII.
Arithmetical Exercises. . Paper, IJd. ; cloth, 2Jd.
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HIGHER ARITHMETIC for Ex-Standard and Contmua-
tion Classes. 128 pp. . . Paper, 6d. ; cloth, 8d.
*»* ANSWERS may he had sepa/ratdy, and are supplied direct
to Teachers only.
Schoolmaster.—" We can speak in terms of high praise respecting this series
of Arithmetical Exercises. They have been carefully constructed. They are
well graduated, and contain a large and varied collection of examples  We
can recommend the series to our readers."
Schoolmistress. — " Large quantity, excellent quality, great variety, and good
arrangement are the characteristics of this set of Arithmetical Exercises."
Elementary Grammar and Composition.
Based on the Analysis of Sentences. With a Chapter on Wobd-Building
and Derivation, and containing numerous Exercises. New Edition. Is.
Schoolmaster. — "A very valuable book. It is constructive as well as analytic,
and weU-planned exercises have been framed to teach the young student how to
use the elements ofhis mother-tongue  A junior text-book that is calculated
to yield most satisfactory results."
Educational Times. — "The plan ought to work well  A decided advance
from the old-fashioned practice of teaching."
Paper, l^d. ; cloth, 2i^.
Paper, IJd. ; cloth, 2|d.
Paper, 2d. ; cloth, 3d.
Paper, 3d. ; cloth, 4d.
Paper, 4d. ; cloth, 6d.
Paper, 4d. ; cloth, 6d.

Educational Works. 63
Grammar and Analysis.
Scotch Code. STANDARD IL 24 pages. Paper, lid. ; oloth, 2Jd.
STANDARD III. 32 pages. Paper, IJd. ; cloth, 2^6..
STANDARD IV. 56 pages. Paper, 24d. ; oloth, 3^d.
STANDARD V. 56 pages. Paper, 2id. ; cloth, 3Jd.
STANDARD VI. 64 pages. Paper, 3d. ; cloth, 4d.
Teachers' Aid. — "These are thoughtfully written and very practically con
ceived Uttle helps  They are most exhaustive, and brimming with examples."
New Arithmetical Exercises.
Scotch Code.
STANDARD I. 32 pages
STANDARD IL 32 pages
STANDARD III. 56 pages
STANDARD IV. 64 pages
STANDARD V. 80 pages
STANDARD VI. 80 pages
HIGHER ARITHMETIC for Ex-Standard and Continua
tion Classes 128 pages . Paper, 6d. ; cloth, 8d.
*»* ANSWERS inay be had separately, and are suppUed direct
to Teachers only.
Educational News. — "The gradation of tbe exercises is perfect, and the
examples, which are very numerous, are of every conceivable variety. There is
ample choice for the teacher under every head. We recommend the series as
excellent School Arithmetics."
Merit Certificate Arithmetic.
96 pp. Paper cover, 6d. oloth, 8d
Mensuration. 128 pp., cloth. Is. Also in Two Parts. Pt. I., ParaUelograms and
Triangles. 64 pp. Paper, 4d. ; cloth, 6d. Pt. II. , Circles and SoUds.
¦14 pp. Paper, 4d. ; oloth, 6d. Answers may he had separately, price
2d. each Part.
Educational'Times. — "The explanations are always clear and to the point,
while the exercises are so exceptionally numerous that a wide selection is
offered to the students who make use of the book."
A First Book on Physical Geography.
For Use in Schools. 64-pp. 4d.
Journal of Education.— " This is a capital little book, describing shortly
and clearly the geographical phenomena of nature."

64 William Blackwood & Sons' List.
Manual Instruction — ^Woodwork. Dbbignbd to meet the
BiEQUIREMEHTS OP THB MiNDTB OF THB SCIENCE AND ART DEPARTMENT
ON Manual Instruction. By GEORGE ST JOHN, Undenominational
School, Handsworth, Birmingham. With 100 Illustrations. Is.
Blackwoods' Simplex Civil Service Copy Books.
By John T. Pearok, B.A., Leith Academy. Price 2d. each.
CONTENTS OF THE SERIES.
No. 1. Elements, Short Letters, Words.
II 2. Long Letters, Easy Words.
II 3. Capitals, Half-line Words.
II 4. Text, Double RuUng, Sentences.
II 5. Half-Text, Sentences, Figures.
II 6. Intermediate, Transcription, &c.
II 7. Small Hand, Double Ruling.
II 8. Small Hand, Single Ruling.
The Headlines are graduated, up-to-date, and attractive.
Blackwoods' Universal Writing Books.
Have been designed to accompany the above series, and teachers will find it
advantageous to use them as Dictation Copies, becauae by them the learner
is kept contmuaUy writing at the correct slope, &e. No 1. is adapted for
LOWBR Classes, No. 2 for Higher Classes. Price 2d. each.
ii,^?"*?"*^ Teacher.—" Our readers would do well to write for a specimen of
this book, and of the blank exercise-books ruled on the same princinle Thev
are worth careful attention." i-i- 3
School World.— " Those teachers who are anxious to train their pupils to
write in the style associated with Civil Service Competitions should find the
copy-books designed by Mr Pearce very useful. The writing is certainly simple ;
X^nK'J^ fv*- '^«,™'iuced to four elements, in which the pupil is rigorously
^tSg?'- '" ® " ^°°^^ ''^^°™ prdoeeding in later numbers to continuous
thfse!''°'*'™*^*^'-~"^°°' °^ ""'¦ '¦^*^*" ^ ^^'^"^ of °ew books should see
chfcWte anv^fc"°°-T"'^'''' ¦*''" ^^^ ^''^ g^'^«= *!>« hand, and thus
uecKmates any hias towards error in the slope."
UNIVERSITY CALENDARS.
St Andrews University Calendar.
Printed and Published for the Senatus Academicus. Crown Svo, 2s. 6d. net
St Andrews University L.L.A. Calendar.
Printed and Published for the Senatus Academicus. Crown Svo Is

9A2.

WILLIAM BLACKWOOD & SONS. EniNBUROH ANn London

6968

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