Page:Sir Thomas Munro and the British Settlement of the Madras Presidency.djvu/49

 IVAR WITH HAIDAR ALT 41

SO graphically described, and while, as he puts it, ' poverty was his constant companion,' Munro and his brother Alexander, also in India, made up between them £100 a year which they regularly remitted to their father, who from a state of affluence had fallen into greater distress than when they left home, and was now with his family mainly dependent on his sons' help. The letters already quoted have shown what a master of style Munro was, whether in nar- rative, description, or banter. But for tenderness and beauty few published letters could equal those which he wrote to his mother, such as that on the death of one of his brothers, or the following, in which at a previous date he refers to his father's affairs and his efforts to help him : —

' Though my situation is not such as I might have expected, had Sir Eyre Coote lived, yet I still look forward with hope, and do not despair of seeing it bettered. The only cause I have for repining, is my inability to assist my father as I wish, and the hearing that your spirits are so much affected by the loss of his fortune. Yet I cannot but think that you have many reasons for rejoicing. None of your children have been taken from you ; and though they cannot put you in a state of affluence, they can place you beyond the reach of want. The time will come, I hope, when they will be able to do more, and to make the latter days of your life as happy as the first. When I compare your situation with that of most mothers whom I remember, I think that you