Page:Littell's Living Age - Volume 125.djvu/252

238 keen sense in detecting humbug in any one — perhaps too keen a sense for the present state of human development — and is apt to act upon it occasionally in a manner unpleasant to the person in whom he detects it; but that is only after he has made up his mind against a man. I had come across his Excellency before, on the march to Peking, and was struck by his vivid recollection, after so many years, of the China Englishmen who accompanied the Peking expedition, and by his happy manner of sketching off their peculiarities. One man was "always producing dead birds out of his innumerable pockets;" another "had a way of disappearing for days among the Chinese, and throwing the whole expedition into anxiety for his safety," — and so on. Notwithstanding his long and laborious services in India, there seemed no failing either of mental power or physical endurance in the commander-in-chief; and the officers at Simla said he could easily take the field again, as his conduct at the camps of exercise sufficiently proved. He has the eagle eye of a great soldier, and when he retires from India he may render great services to the State in connection with the English army and its organization. I should think no commander ever was a greater favourite with his troops, or knew them better, or knew better how to manage them, or devoted himself to their welfare in a more persistent or more enlightened manner. At the dinner given to Lord Napier by the Anglo-Indians in London, on the occasion of his having been created a peer, he said, in effect, and almost in these words, — "I landed in India a young officer of engineers, with only my sword, and now it has come to this." There was a simplicity and an honest healthy pride in the remark, which had nothing of vanity in it. I have met men who thought that, as peerages go, he had got his peerage rather easily by the Abyssinian war; but I never heard any even of these critics grudge it to him in the least. It is true that the China war of 1860 was scarcely less difficult or brilliant, and was productive of more important results; and the fact that Sir Hope Grant got no high reward for his skilful and humane conduct of it goes some way to prove that Sir Robert Napier was fortunate in the time and circumstances of his Abyssinian campaign; but he was under a great temptation to enter on that campaign without the means necessary to carry it to a successful conclusion. Many an officer would have snatched at the opportunity without stipulating for all the requisite means; and, even as it was, the most skilful use of them was necessary to accomplish the end which the expedition had in view, if not to save it from absolute ruin. It should be borne in mind, also, that Lord Napier's command in Abyssinia was only the last of a series of brilliant and valuable services which had commenced almost from his landing at Calcutta, fresh from Addiscombe, forty-six years ago. In the battles and sieges of the Panjáb; as chief-engineer of that province, when so much had to be done upon its transit to English rule; as chief-engineer of Lord Clyde's army during the Mutiny; in the pursuit of Tantia Topee; in China, where he planned the capture of the Taku Forts, and was second in command of the expedition; and in Bombay as commander-in-chief, — the officer of whom I write had rendered services which might have made half-a-dozen great reputations; so that, even as peerages go, his was fully due by the time he had taken the heights of Magdála. I was much indebted to his Excellency and his military secretary, Colonel Dillon, for maps, advice, &c., in regard to my Tibetan journey; and their genuine kindness of disposition at once established confidence and gave a charm to all intercourse with them. The relationship between these two distinguished officers has been a long and close one. Colonel Dillon's popularity is somewhat diminished by the fact that devotion to his work hardly allows of his going into society; but his value to the commandder-in-chief and to the Indian army is very great.

Of the other Simla celebrities whom I had the pleasure to meet with I can only write briefly. Mr. C. U. Aitchison, the foreign secretary, has more of the European statesman about him than almost any other Indian civilian; and one cannot fail to see that he has a great deal of weight of brain, and of that quality which is most easily described by the phrase "long-headedness." He was one of the very first of the competitionwallahs. Some very excellent men came forward at first under the competition system, and continue to do so occasionally; but of late the system has become one of cram, and the best men from the universities and elsewhere are chary of entering into a competition in which success can only be hoped for by disregarding the aims and methods of a liberal education, 