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462 direction, its own people testify to their contentment and hopes of its bright future, while travelers from other lands add their evidence to the peace and prosperity which have followed the sorrowful chapters which we have traced. The appreciatory words lately uttered by the Hon. W. H. Seward, after having traveled through India, will be in the remembrance of the reader. Mr. Seward's opinion is well sustained by another American gentleman, Dr. Prime, of the Observer, just returned from a visit to India. With a candid appreciation of the present, as compared with the past, he uses the following language:

“I have spoken of the complete change which has come over the government of India in its being made directly responsible to, and dependent on, the British Crown. A still greater change has taken place in the objects for which the government is administered. For two centuries and a half India was ruled for the benefit of the East India Company. . ..

“But that is all changed, or, if not all, the purpose of the Government is changed. It is ruled now for the good of India, for the sake of the people of India. I take the greatest pleasure in bearing testimony to the high character of those who have the administration of affairs in that empire, and to the aspect of the country in its material, educational, social, and religious interests, as being full of promise. I doubt if any country has more conscientious and intelligent public officers controlling its destinies than has India. There are reforms yet to be consummated. The extreme caution of rulers prevents them from entirely giving up a sort of complicity with idolatry; the great work of education which the Government is carrying on, to which I shall again allude, is confined too much to a privileged class; but it has been a great pleasure to me to find this land making such rapid progress in all that is calculated to promote the highest good of the people who dwell in it, to whatever race they belong. Overlooking all the past, I heartily rejoice that India is to-day under British rule. Long may that rule be undisturbed! May it not be broken until the tribes of the land shall be able, intelligently and wisely, to govern