Page:The Marquess Cornwallis and the Consolidation of British Rule.djvu/117

Rh dinner was prepared. The toasts were, as usual, echoed from the cannon's mouth, and merited this distinction from their loyalty and patriotism. In the evening the ball exhibited a circle less extensive, but equally brilliant and beautiful, with that which graced the entertainment in honour of the King's birthday. Lady Chambers and Col. Pearse danced the first minuet, and the succeeding ones continued till about half after eleven o'clock, when the supper tables presented every requisite to gratify the most refined epicurean.'

The King's birthday was the 4th of June, but was kept in Calcutta in the cold season. Colonel Pearse was a distinguished officer of artillery, and Lady Chambers was the wife of Sir Robert Chambers, one of the Puisne Judges of the Supreme Court.

Cornwallis does not appear to have found the time or to have acknowledged the necessity for many visits to the interior. Lord Wellesley spent months in a tedious journey to the North-West Provinces, by boat, stopping at all the principal stations on the Ganges. But Cornwallis for two seasons was much occupied in the Madras Presidency with the campaign against Tipú. And during the earlier years of his administration, the work that he had to do was precisely of that kind which could best be accomplished by conference with his colleagues, and by an exchange of notes and Minutes. Until he had reformed and re-constituted the Civil Service, and