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which make a time of peace fruitful and glorious.
By their skill in agriculture, they have converted their country into
a garden; by their genius as traders, they have attracted to it a
large share of the wealth of other lands.
Let us take advantage of this season of tranquillity to confer similar
benefits on the Punjāb.
The waters which fall on your mountain heights and unite at their base
to form mighty rivers, are a treasure which, duly distributed, will
fertilise your plains and largely augment their productive powers.
With electric telegraphs to facilitate communication, and railways and
canals to render access to the seaports easy and expeditious, we shall
be able to convey the surplus produce of this great country to others
where it is required, and to receive from them their riches in return.
I rejoice to learn that some of the chiefs in this part of India are
taking an interest in these matters, which are of such vital
importance to the welfare of this country and the prosperity of the
people. It affords me, moreover, sincere gratification to find that,
under the able guidance of the Lieutenant-Governor, the Sikh Sirdars
in certain districts of the Punjāb are giving proof of their
appreciation of the value of education by making provision for the
education of their sons and daughters.
Be assured that in so doing you are adopting a judicious policy. The
experience of all nations proves that where rulers are well informed
and sagacious, the people are contented and willingly submissive to
authority. Moreover, it is generally found that where mothers are
enlightened, sons are valiant and wise.
I earnestly exhort you, therefore, to persevere in the course on which
you have entered; and I promise you while you continue in it the
sympathy and support of the British Government.
At Umballa Lord Elgin left the camp with which he had been travelling, and
struck up, nearly due northwards, into the Hills. The 1st of April found
him at Kussowlie, from which point he visited two places which greatly
interested him--the 'Lawrence Asylum' and the Military Sanitarium at
Dugshai.
[Sidenote: Lawrence Asylum.]
The 'Lawrence Asylum' (he wrote) is an institution originally
established and endowed by the late Sir Henry Lawrence, but now
transferred to Government, and maintained on an enlarged scale. It
receives and educates the children of European soldiers, both male and
female; and, considering what they are exposed to while they remain
with the regiments, or are left as orphans, it is an immense boon to
them, physically and morally. I found about 600 children at the
institution; and, so far as I could judge on a transient inspection,
the condition of things generally seemed satisfactory. Looking to the
returns, however, it did not appear that the sanitary state of the
school was quite as good as it might be, considering the fineness of
the climate; and I desired that some inquiries might be made on this
head. It is probable that the children may in many cases bring bad
constitutions with them; but it also appeared that the dormitories
were somewhat crowded, and that the uneven character of the surface
rendered it difficult to provide playgrounds--both of which
circumstances may be unfavourable to the health of the children.
[Sidenote: Dugshai station.]
The Military Station of Dugshai is situated on the pinnacle of a
mountain about 7,000 feet high. It looks bare and bleak, from the
total absence of trees; but the 42nd Regiment, now quartered there,
had all the appearance of health, and there were few men in the
hospital. The bad cases were those of men who had contracted at Agra,
when they were stationed in the plains, dysentery and fever of a
serious type, which were constantly recurring. The troops quartered on
these hills not only enjoy a congenial climate, but are also kept out
of the way of much mischief which they encounter on the lowlands. On
the other hand, it appears that they suffer a little from want of
occupation. It is curious to hear that hunting for butterflies is a
favourite pastime of the British soldier at Dugshai. The colonel,
however, informed me that the library and reading-room were much
frequented by the men; he observed also that many of the patches of
flat ground which lie scattered among the precipitous crags on which
the station is perched, had been converted by them into gardens.
[Sidenote: Simla.]
On the 4th of April,--Easter Eve--he reached Simla, which was to be his
home for the next five months. His impressions of this 'paradise of Anglo-
Indians' were given shortly afterwards in the following words:--
The houses which form the settlement are situated on three or four
heights, which are the crest of a mountain that lies among other
mountains of about the same elevation, scattered around it in groups
and rows, intersected by valleys, and closed in on the north by a
range covered with everlasting snow, and glittering from morning to
evening in the rays of a tropical sun. The hills on which Simla stands
are well clothed by trees, not of great stature generally, though of
much beauty; ilexes of a peculiar kind, deodars, and rhododendrons
being conspicuous among them; but there is little wood on the
surrounding mountains. No doubt the special charms of Simla are
enhanced by this contrast: and perhaps also by the character of the
scenery which the traveller meets on the whole route from Calcutta.
Nothing can he well imagined more uninteresting. On leaving Lower
Bengal, even the luxuriant tropical vegetation which distinguishes
that part of India disappears,--and the rest of the journey is
performed through a country perfectly flat, and apparently barren; for
notwithstanding occasional groups of trees, and good crops here and
there, the wide-spreading dusty plains give but faint indications of
the fertility which cultivation and irrigation can no doubt evolve
from them. Even when the mountains are approached, and the ascent
commences, the same character of barrenness attaches to the scene, for
their sides are almost bare of trees, and there is little to relieve
them, except the patches of vegetation which lie snugly in the
valleys, or creep in terraces up the slopes.
No doubt the greater luxuriance in foliage and vegetation which adorns
Simla is in some measure due to the presence of the European visitors
who prevent the trees from being cut, and protect in other ways the
amenity of the place.
But the climate and soil have also, it may be presumed, a good deal to
do with it. For the trees at Simla are not only more abundant, but
also different from those which are met with on the mountains nearer
to the plains. This probably accounts for what otherwise seems
strange,--namely, that Europeans, wishing to escape from the heat of
the lowlands, should have fixed on a spot among the Hills so distant
from the plains. It is not as inaccessible now as it was in former
days, because a road has been made which is practicable for carts. But
by this road the distance from the foot of the Hills to Simla is
fifty-six miles, and the journey for most people occupies three or
four days; whereas we ascended from the foot of the Hills to
Kussowlie, which is at an elevation nearly as great as that of Simla,
in a little more than two hours. It used to be supposed that mountains
overhanging the lowlands were less healthy than those farther removed
from them, but whether this be the case or not may be doubtful.
However, whatever may have been the reasons for the original selection
of Simla, it certainly has now greater attractions as a residence than
any spot lying between it and the plains.
In this pleasant retreat, with its 'dry climate, and temperature from 60°
to 70° in the shade,' he resumed with fresh vigour his ordinary official
work; corresponding constantly with the Secretary of State, with the
subordinate Governments, and with the members of his Council, gathering
ever fresh stores of information, and forming ever clearer views of the
problems that lay before him; looking forward to the great meeting to be
held next spring at Lahore, not only as an important experiment, but also
as in a manner the real commencement of his reign. Some extracts from his
letters of this period are subjoined.
_To Sir Charles Trevelyan._
Camp, Jeyt: February 23, 1863.
[Sidenote: Supply of labour.]
No doubt there is a deficiency of labour in some parts of India, and
an excess in others. Moreover, there are moral and physical obstacles
which put difficulties in the way of the transfer of labour from
places where it is redundant to those where it is wanting. But to
affirm generally of a country where labour-saving machines are, in
consequence of the cheapness of labour, as little used as in India,
that there is a 'want of labour' seems to me to be a paradox.
I will give an example:--If, in America, the climate made it necessary
that every private white soldier should have a punkah pulled over him
day and night, do you think that no agency but that of the human hand,
in its rudest and most direct application, would be employed in this
task? And why is it otherwise in India? Because labour is so cheap
that necessity, the mother of invention, does not stimulate the
ingenuity of man here as it does there.
Far from deprecating the introduction of capital, I should be
delighted to hear that the amount to be spent in India this year was
to be three times what it promises to be. I do not say to be spent by
Government, for to this there are objections, altogether irrespective
of the question of the amount of labour available.
The first effect of this enlarged expenditure would no doubt be to
raise the wages of labour. This would be in itself a blessing, for
which I should thank God.
But its second and more permanent effect would be to increase the
number of the class of skilled labourers, which the patient, sober,
and ingenious population of India is fitted to supply in so great
abundance, if due encouragement be given; and further, to drive
capitalists to the substitution of machinery for brute human labour to
a greater extent than is the practice now.
The ultimate result would, therefore, be to render the existing
stock of labour doubly productive; the fruits of this increased
productiveness being divided in proportions more or less equitable
between the labourers and capitalists.
I believe that the Railway expenditure is already exercising a
sensible influence of this salutary character. Bodies of navvies are
becoming attached to the companies, who follow them from place to
place, and render them comparatively independent of the local supply
of labour; and above all, by calling forth native talent in the form
of skilled labour, they are imparting that kind of education which
will, I believe, do more for the elevation of the masses than any
other which we can provide in India.
* * * * *
_To H. S. Maine, Esq._
Camp, Hodul: February 25, 1863.
[Sidenote: Special legislation.]
While I entirely concur in the opinion that the _onus probandi_ rests,
and rests heavily too, on the proposers of exceptional or particular
legislation, an assumption runs through ------'s letter to you which I
am by no means prepared to admit. He assumes that in such matters as
those with which we are now dealing, this _particular legislation_
must be in the exclusive interest of the landlord, and calculated to
increase in his hand powers which may be abused, and the abuse of
which is restrained by moral influences which operate less strongly
where landlords and tenants are of different races than where they are
homogeneous. He cites, strangely enough, Ireland, where these moral
influences, which are of themselves generally sufficient in England
and Scotland, are supplemented by wholesale evictions on one side and
murders on the other. But the law of landlord and tenant is, I
believe, the same in Ireland as in England, and it is quite possible
that a little _particular_ legislation, which would have given either
of the parties the protection of positive law against injuries which
can now be redressed only by a rude process of reprisals (one outrage
balancing another until the account is squared), might have proved
ultimately a benefit even to the party against which this particular
legislation seemed to be, in the first instance, directed.
The planters say, we have a grievance attributable to special
circumstances arising out of our relations with our ryots; unless you
give us a special remedy to meet our special grievance, we fall back
on our general powers as landlords. Are we quite sure that in refusing
the special remedy, we are consulting the interest of the weaker
party, viz. the ryot?
Of course, this is all general. There will remain the questions: Is
there a grievance at all? Is it one which has any claim to a special
remedy? I quite agree that the _onus_ of answering these questions
satisfactorily rests on the advocate of special legislation.
* * * * *
_To Sir Charles Wood._
Roorkee: March 19, 1863.
[Sidenote: Duty of officials in missionary matters.]
The religious question is, no doubt, a very difficult one; and I am
glad that you approved of the course which I took with reference to
the great missionary gathering at Lahore. I spoke to Sir R. M---- on
the subject when I met him at Delhi. He seemed to think that it had
done more harm than good to the missionary cause, as the presence of
high officials was sure to raise suspicions in the minds of the
natives. I told him that as regarded the acts of officials in such
matters, my opinion was this:--If an official says to me, 'I think
that I may, with perfect propriety, in my character of official, do so
and so, or take such or such a part in furtherance of an object which
I believe to be right,' I am quite ready to meet him on this ground,
and to join issue with him if I differ from him on the particular
point raised. But if he says to me, 'I know that it would be wrong in
me to do this as an official, but I do it in my private character,' I
can have no discussion with him; because I deny that it is possible to
establish any such distinction in the East, and I am inclined to
distrust either the honesty or the intelligence of the man who
proposes to act upon it.
* * * * *
_To Sir Charles Wood._
Simla: March 19, 1863.
[Sidenote: Financial credit.]
I am as desirous as you can be, perhaps even more desirous, to give no
excuse for the charge of cooking accounts, or making things look
pleasanter than they ought, because I am quite confident, that if we
can keep the peace and show an unimpeachable balance-sheet, we shall
soon have more capital sent to India than we know what to do with. I
could not help giving, a few days ago, a hint concerning my Canadian
experience on this point. When I was appointed to Canada, the first
Canadian official to whom I was introduced was the Finance Minister,
who was walking about the streets of London with £60,000 of Canadian 6
per cent. debentures in his pocket, which nobody would take. In 1849,
two years later, the Montreal merchants drew up an elaborate address
recommending annexation to the United States, alleging as one of their
principal reasons that so long as they remained colonists, they could
obtain no credit in England for public objects, and citing, in proof
of this allegation, the fact that in the United States several
thousand miles of railway had been constructed, in Canada only thirty
miles. Within three years from the date of this address, we had 2,000
miles of railway in Canada in course of construction, and our
Government debentures (6 per cent.) were selling in London at 119,
higher than those of the United States Government; in fact, we had
more credit than we could always employ properly. Now, how was this
change effected? Simply by showing a good balance-sheet, an improving
country, and a contented people, and leaving capitalists to draw their
own inferences from these phenomena. I do not despair of seeing a
similar state of things in India; and it was with the view of giving
an impulse in this direction that I stated publicly, at Benares the
other day, that we must look for the further development of our
railway system to _bonā fide_ private enterprise, aided, perhaps,
where circumstances required it, by Government, but not to the
extension of Government guarantees. Unguaranteed companies cannot get
money while guaranteed companies are competing with them as borrowers.
Therefore, if we intend to encourage the former, we must let
capitalists know that a limit will be put on the operations of the
latter.
[Sidenote: Seat of Government.]
As to the seat of Government question, I am strongly of opinion that
the proper thing to do at present is to give practical effect to the
provision in the Indian Councils Act, which authorises the Governor-
General to call his Council together in other parts of India besides
Calcutta. This would give to the Supreme Government a more catholic
character than it now possesses, and perhaps in some degree diminish
the jealousy of Calcutta influence which obtains so extensively.
I do not see my way towards recommending the entire abandonment of
Calcutta. It is an important place, and has certain traditional claims
which it is not quite easy to set aside. Moreover, although the
Calcutta community may have its faults and wayward tendencies, it is
an influential element in our body corporate and politic, and a
Government which knows its duty may effect a great deal of good, and
derive no little benefit, by coming into contact with it For the
present, therefore, I think that Calcutta should continue to be the
headquarters of Government; but that we should meet from time to time
at other places for Legislative purposes, so as to qualify Calcutta
local associations with other local associations. This plan will be
attended of course with some trouble and expense. I intend to make
some inquiries to ascertain what the latter is likely to be. I do not
see why we should not legislate in camp, if there be difficulty in
providing house accommodation.... I should like, if possible, to hit
upon a plan which would give us a sufficient range in choosing and
varying our places of meeting. More on all this hereafter.
* * * * *
_To Sir Charles Wood._
Roorkee: March 19, 1863.
[Sidenote: Value of training at headquarters.]
I confess I think it very important that the heads of the local
Governments should have had some training at headquarters. It is much
easier for an intelligent officer who has been so trained, to supply a
lack of local knowledge, than for one who has been constantly employed
in a particular province to grasp in a sufficiently comprehensive
spirit the general interests of the Empire, and duly to appreciate the
relative claims of its component parts. Already, among the high
officers in the Provinces, there is a considerable disinclination to
face the climate and labour of Calcutta. Situations in the Provinces,
where the work is lighter, where the summers can be spent on the
Hills, and where the holders are in a much greater degree monarchs of
all they survey, are naturally preferred to the sweltering metropolis.
This preference would be strengthened if it were supposed that this
provincial career was the road to the Lieutenant-Governorship.
Moreover, it is to be remembered that the patronage exercised by these
Lieutenant-Governors is very great indeed. It is important that it
should not fall too absolutely into the hands of the same local
cliques. So much on the abstract question of general _versus_ local
experience.
* * * * *
_To Sir Charles Wood._
Simla: May 6, 1863.
In a general way, I must say that I am inclined to give a preference,
in disposing of these high offices, to persons who have served in the
offices of the Supreme Government or in the Governor-General's
Legislative Council. I would not, of course, exclude men of proved and
eminent qualities because they had been employed only in the Provinces
or minor Presidencies; but my impression is that the work is lighter,
and that reputations are more easily won, in the service of the minor
than in that of the Supreme Government. Moreover, I think it desirable
that the best men should be attracted to the latter service; and I
observe a growing disinclination to abandon good opportunities under
local governments for those which the Supreme Government has to offer.
A local Government, with plenty of hill stations, &c., has many
attractions for persons who can contrive to be on good terms with the
Lieutenant-Governor. I think that something is due to those who face
the climate and the competition of Calcutta; not to mention the fact,
that they have opportunities of becoming conversant with the general
business of the country, beyond those which are enjoyed by persons
whose service has been confined to any one locality.
I think that the Legislative branch of the Governor-General's Council
should be a channel through which officers of the other Presidencies
may be introduced into the Secretariat and Council at Calcutta.
* * * * *
_To Sir Charles Wood._
Simla: May 21, 1863.
[Sidenote: Aristocracies.]
I have no objection _primā facie_ to an aristocracy, and I am quite
ready to admit that conflicting claims of proprietorship in the same
lands are an evil; but I also know that, even in our old Christian
Europe, there are not many aristocracies that have had salt enough in
them to prevent them from rotting. And when I consider what Oriental
society is; when I reflect on the frightful corruption, both of mind
and body, to which the inheritors of wealth and station are
exposed--the general absence of motives to call forth good instincts,
or of restraints to keep bad in check--I own that I do not feel quite
sure that, even if we could sweep away all rights of sub-proprietors
or tenants, and substitute for the complications incident to the
present system an uniform land-tenure of great proprietors and tenants
at will, we should be much nearer the millennium than we are now....
[Sidenote: Against intermeddling in foreign politics.]
I am wholly opposed to that prurient intermeddling policy which finds
so much favour with certain classes of Indian officials. It is
constantly thrusting us into equivocal situations, in which our acts
and our professions of respect for the independence of other nations
are in contradiction, and in which our proceedings become tainted with
the double reproach of inconsistency and selfishness. Nothing, in my
opinion, can be more fatal to our prestige and legitimate influence.
My modest ambition for England is, that she should in this Eastern
world establish the reputation of being all-just and all-powerful;
but, to achieve this object, we must cease to attempt to play a great
part in small intrigues, or to dictate in cases where we have not
positive interests which we can avow, or convictions sufficiently
distinct to enable us to speak plainly. We must interfere only where
we can put forward an unimpeachable plea of right or duty; and when we
announce a resolution, our neighbours must understand that it is the
decree of fate.
* * * * *
_To Sir Charles Trevelyan._
Simla: June 17, 1863.
[Sidenote: Council to meet at Lahore.]
On the first occasion of transferring the Council from Calcutta to
another place, we ought to select some considerable town--the capital
of a Province or local Government, if possible. What we wish to do is
to give effect to the scheme embodied in the ninth clause of the
Councils Act, and we should do so in such a manner as to carry public
opinion with us. If the plan answers, we may exercise a greater
liberty of choice on future occasions.
I adhere to the opinion which I first expressed, that, on the whole,
Lahore is the place which unites the greatest number of advantages. It
is the capital of a province which is loyal, which is under the
Government of India, and which, moreover, has a good many special
characteristics of its own, with which it may be well that the Supreme
Legislature should acquaint themselves on the spot. Against these
recommendations is to be set the greater distance from Calcutta, which
does not affect communication by telegraph, and, for more bulky
communications, as compared with Delhi, is only a question of a few
hours.
I have no wish to legislate at a purely military station; my object is
to select a place of meeting where we may obtain some knowledge of
local and native feeling, which does not reach Calcutta.
* * * * *
_To Sir Charles Wood._
Simla: August 30, 1863.
After reaching this place, I soon came to the conclusion that the
reasons for meeting at Lahore were much more forcible than those which
could be advanced in favour of any other place; and circumstances
which have occurred since then have tended strongly to confirm me in
this opinion. Independently of the prestige which attaches to the
province of which it is the capital, and to the Sikh population which
inhabit it, the state of affairs in Afghanistan, and on our frontier,
would render a demonstration which would at once afford evidence of
our military strength and gratify the pride and self-importance of the
Sikh chiefs, at this moment especially opportune.
I have arranged with the Commander-in-chief to hold his camp of
exercise there; the Lieutenant-Governor is to have a great
Agricultural Exhibition, which I am to open; and if we mean to
establish ourselves for a couple of months there in our legislative
capacity while all this is going on, I think that it will have an
excellent effect both on our own people and on our neighbours.
[Sidenote: Sitana fanatics.]
Late in the month of September, during the last days of Lord Elgin's stay
at Simla, occurred the only break in the otherwise peaceful tenor of his
government, in the shape of an outburst of certain Wahabee fanatics
inhabiting a frontier district in the Upper Valley of the Indus. The
outburst is not without historical interest, as connected with similar
disturbances which have assumed more serious proportions; but it is noticed
here chiefly as illustrating the view which Lord Elgin took of the policy
and duty of the British Government in such cases.
It was not without the greatest reluctance that he was induced to take up
the quarrel at all: for he had the strongest aversion for warlike
operations in the existing state of India, and particularly on the
frontiers of Afghanistan; and he had no small distrust of those military
tendencies and that thirst for opportunities of distinction which are apt
to characterise the ablest Governors of frontier provinces. But he had
prevented a Sitana expedition in the previous year; he was assured that the
recent inroads of the fanatics were the direct consequence of his last
year's supineness; and he was told that if he again held back, the
disturbances would be renewed another year with usury. Moreover, he was
assured that the projected expedition would secure the peace of the
frontier for a long period; and that the operation would be little more
than a military promenade, and would be over before his camp reached
Peshawur.
It was scarcely possible for a civil Governor to resist such a pressure of
professional opinion; and he consented to take measures of repression.
Writing to Sir Charles Wood on the subject, he said:--
The overt acts charged consist in the return of the fanatics to
Sitana, whence they were driven out by us some years ago; and the
frontier tribes in question are held to be guilty because they have
allowed them to return to this place, although bound by treaty with us
to refuse to admit them.... On a review of all the circumstances, and
looking to the well-known character and designs of the Sitana
fanatics, I came to the conclusion that the interests both of prudence
and humanity would be best consulted by levelling a speedy and
decisive blow at this embryo conspiracy.
Accordingly it was arranged that the Punjāb Government should at once take
the necessary measures for expelling the fanatics from Judoon, where they
had congregated, and then, if circumstances permitted, proceed to destroy
their place of refuge at Mulka.
But it is well known that in India, to use Lord Elgin's own expression,
'rising officials are instinctively in favour of a good row.' Some of those
around him were urgent that the expedition should be deferred until the
spring, and should then be organised on a larger scale, and with more
comprehensive objects. Lord Elgin set his face decidedly against this.
I wish (he wrote) by a sudden and vigorous blow to check this trouble
on our frontier while it is in a nascent condition. The other plan
would give it several months to fester and to extend itself; and, if
there be among the Mohammedan populations in these regions the
disposition to combine against us which is alleged, and which is
indeed the justification of the measure proposed, how far might not
the roots of the conspiracy stretch themselves in that time? The
Afghans in their distracted state might furnish sympathisers; we
should be invited to interfere in their internal affairs, in order to
oppose those among them who were abetting our Mohammedan adversaries;
in short, there is no end to the complications in which this
postponement of active operations might involve us. Everything is more
or less uncertain in such affairs; but in the absence of any very
palpable blunder, what we actually propose to do would appear to be a
pretty safe proceeding. The main purpose is to expel the fanatics from
Judoon; and it is hardly possible that we should fail in this, as they
are within easy reach of us there. The further objects--of punishing
other tribes, and destroying the refuge of the fanatics at Mulka--may
be abandoned if it be deemed advisable, without any loss of prestige,
though of course with some abatement of the completeness of the
movement. I therefore thought it necessary to adhere to my original
resolution.
[Sidenote: The Himalayas.]
On the 26th of September Lord Elgin left Simla _en route_ for Sealkote,
where he was to rejoin his camp and proceed with it to Peshawur, the most
distant station on the North-West frontier, before making his way to the
great _rendezvous_ at Lahore. On the way to Sealkote he was to traverse the
upper valleys of the Beas, the Ravee, and the Chenab, and the mountains
that divide them; his main object being to inspect the great tea
plantations, public and private, recently set on foot in those parts, and
to ascertain for himself what facilities or possibilities the country
afforded for commercial intercourse with Ladāk and China.
For the first week his route lay nearly northwards, through scenes very
similar to those which he had left at Simla. 'We are going through a
beautiful country,' he wrote on the 4th of October, 'and the people seem
cheerful and well-to-do.' Shortly afterwards, having passed over the Sutlej
at Komharsen, he crossed a considerable range of mountains by the Jalouri
Pass, and found himself in the fertile basin of the Beas. Directing his
course still northwards, he followed this river up to its source among the
hills; and thence crossed by the steep and high Rotung Pass from the valley
of the Beas into that of the Chenab--from the rich and smiling country of
Kuloo into a rugged and inhospitable tract called Lahoul. He did not,
however, remain long in these desolate regions; but, after crossing the
Twig Bridge across the Chandra, an affluent of the Chenab, and inspecting a
wooden bridge which had just been constructed to take its place, he
retraced his steps southwards to Sultanpore, on the Beas river. From
thence, on the 18th of October, he wrote as follows to Sir Charles Wood:--
[Sidenote: Kuloo.]
[Sidenote: Rotung Pass.]
[Sidenote: Twig Bridge.]
Thus far our expedition through the mountains has been very pleasant
and interesting. The scenery has been magnificent and the climate
enjoyable, though the changes of temperature have been considerable.
We are now at Sultanpore, in Kuloo, at an elevation of about 4,000
feet above the sea. But a few days ago we (the men of the party)
scaled the Rotung Pass, which divides Kuloo from Lahoul, and attained
in so doing a height of 13,000 feet, with a temperature low in
proportion. This pass is on the road from these provinces to Ladāk and
China, and I visited, on the other side of it, a new bridge over the
Chandra, which will be a great convenience to traders. Hitherto, if
the traders used mules or other animals of this magnitude, they could
cross the river with them only by making them swim; or, if sheep were
their beasts of burden, by driving them over a twig bridge, through
the meshes of which many fell into the river. I crossed the twig
bridge myself; and I found it about the most difficult job I ever
attempted. The new bridge will be completed in a few weeks. This road,
however, useful though it will doubtless be when improved, leads
through Ladāk, and the merchandise transported along it becomes
subject to the exactions of the ruler of Cashmere. The desideratum
would be a road which would be clear of his territory altogether.
The people in these regions seem good-humoured and merry-hearted,
producing for themselves all that they want; growing their own food,
making their own clothes; not much given to exchanges, and extremely
averse to labour. I asked a manager of a tea plantation the other day
how he was off for labour. He said that he contrived to induce
labourers to come to his plantation for a few days at a time, chiefly
for the purpose of earning money enough to pay the Government
assessment of their land; but his opinion was that, if there were no
assessment, no labour would be procurable. We have not yet come across
much tea. The plantations we have seen are on a very small scale, and
in a nascent condition; but they are promising. There seems no reason
to doubt that the climate and a certain portion at least of the soil
in this district are suited to the growth of tea. The climate, too,
does very well for the European constitution, though it is hardly as
healthy as I expected to find it. Both natives and Europeans are
subject to fever at certain seasons, especially in the valleys; but I
have no doubt that the latter may do well as employers of labour. This
place (Sultanpore) is only about 4,000 feet above the level of the
sea, and I have little doubt that, were the state of cultivation and
trade to justify the outlay, a cart road might be made to it without
great difficulty from the plain. This would greatly develop both its
natural resources and its capabilities as a commercial route.
The state of the forests which we have encountered during our route
has also engaged my attention. It is sad to see how they have been
neglected, and how much waste of valuable timber has ensued. The
natives have a practice of girdling fine trees, at a few feet from the
root, in order to strip off as much of the bark as they can
conveniently reach. It is rather a difficult practice to check; but,
if we can manage to draw a line between the woods in which the
villagers have rights and the public forests, we may impose heavy
penalties on the perpetrators of such offences.... The deodar forests
cease at the Rotung Pass. There are no forests of any value in Lahoul
and Spitti--scarcely indeed any wood at all.
We are now proceeding towards the Kangra Valley, where we expect to
find tea plantations in a more advanced condition.
[Sidenote: Illness.]
In this letter, and others of the same date, there is no hint of suffering
or of ill-health; but when they were written he had already received the
stroke which was to lay him in the grave. Before the departure of the next
mail symptoms had appeared of serious disease of the heart, probably long
lurking in his constitution, and now brought out into fatal activity by
fatigue and the keen mountain air; and on the 4th of November, having with
difficulty reached Dhurmsala, a station in the Kangra Valley,[3] he wrote
to Sir Charles Wood in an altered tone, yet still hopeful and cheerful; and
intent to the last in India, as at the first in Jamaica, and afterwards in
Canada and China, on mitigating so far as lay in his power the evils which
man brings on man.
[Sidenote: Last letter.]
You will not expect (he wrote, in this his last letter) to hear much
from me by this mail when you hear how I am situated. The Hill
expedition, of which I gave you some of the details in my last, had an
unexpected effect upon me; knocking me down prostrate to begin with,
with some symptoms of an anxious character behind, which require
looking into. The nature and extent of the mischief are not
sufficiently ascertained yet to enable me to say positively whether my
power of doing my duty is likely to be in any degree impaired by what
has happened. But Lady Elgin has brought up from Calcutta the medical
man who attended me there, and he arrived this morning; so that a
consultation will take place without delay. Meanwhile I have got over
the immediate effects sufficiently to enable me to do such business as
comes before me now. No change has taken place in our plans. We move
rather more slowly, and I have given up the idea of going to Peshawur;
but this is rather occasioned by the desire to confer with the Punjāb
Government, while these affairs on the frontier are in progress, than
by my mishap.
I think that the expedition (against the Sitana fanatics) will be a
success; and I labour incessantly to urge the necessity of confining
its objects to the first intentions. Plausible reasons for enlarging
the scope of such adventures are never wanting; but I shall endeavour
to keep this within its limits.
Lady Elgin is bearing up courageously, under a great pressure of
labour and anxiety.
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