Page:Hyderabad in 1890 and 1891; comprising all the letters on Hyderabad affairs written to the Madras Hindu by its Hyderabad correspondent during 1890 and 1891 (IA hyderabadin1890100bangrich).pdf/132

Page 124 months she would be no more. She wrote the greater part of the concordance published by her husband several years ago of the two plays he had discovered to be Shakespeare's and not Beaumont and Fletcher's as generally believed. And she was a frequent contributor to the local papers while here; her happy translations from German poets-I may tell you she know German, and Italian besides English and letters on various subjects over the signature of Lotus Flower" were ever looked forward to by her readers. The one thing she used to be enthusiastic about just before she bade us good-bye was travel- ling together with Pandita Runmbai in disguise to distant places visiting scenes of historical importance all over India and writing a book thereon. What good results might have been accomplished thus we could not say. But she who conceived the plan sleeps on a distant shore far off from home and country amidst the rear of waters that never sleep. May she rest in peace! If it is true that generally Englishmen leave behind at home their liberalism and sense of justice when they start for India to serve the Indian Government, it is equally true that they unlearn most of what they have learnt, the efficiency with which they have worked elsewhere or cease to care to be useful and be worthy of their 'hire' when they enter the service of this unfortunate state. Many Englishmen have come and gone, have been in service and have retired from it on liberal pensions; but such of them as have done justice to their duties, or discharged them as well as they could or would under the British Government-have been very few indeed. But to come to the point I have in view: His Highness the Nizam's Public Works Department is the most advantageously-placed Department in the State. It is all under English management. Yet it is worse than most of the other departments of the State in respect of the quality and quantity of work it turns out. We are not lacking in highly-paid officers and assistants, nor are the budget allotments made by the Government with a niggardly hand. But how all the "talent" in the department is engaged,