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Rh many eminent persons have striven to do well. But he possessed facilities in this respect which have never fallen to the lot of anyone else, and the opportunities, of which he admirably availed himself, have not been enjoyed equally by any other ruler of India. The term of incumbency for a Governor and Lieutenant-Governor has for a long time past been limited to five years; but he was under no such limitation, having held his high office for ten years when he died; and apparently he might have retained it indefinitely if so minded. On this ground alone, then, it is impossible for other rulers to study their provinces as he studied his. Some rulers, too, have often had capital cities like the Presidency towns, of vast magnitude, which by themselves absorb much thought that might otherwise be given to the interior of the country; but he had no such capital of consequence to rivet his attention. Some rulers, again, have been distracted by war, or frontier difficulties, or other emergencies, or internal calamities; fortunately he was spared from such disturbance. Consequently very few have been enabled to give such unremitting care, for so continuous and lengthened a term, to the work of visitation as he gave. Thus no historic competitors have ever had quite the chance of equalling him, but even if they had, it is hardly conceivable that they would or could have outstripped him.

During all these years his headquarters were at Agra, where he found the early summer to be such as to render the place one of the hottest abodes on earth.