y a most cordial and respectful welcome to the
Capital of Oudh.

The long and valuable services rendered by Your Excellency to the
Crown and the country are well known to, and are deeply appreciated
by, us. Your Excellency's wise and vigorous administration of Her
Majesty's Army in India has won for you our respectful admiration;
while your prowess in the battlefield, and your wisdom in Council
during the eventful period of your supreme command of Her Majesty's
Indian Forces, have inspired us with confidence in your great military
talents and your single-minded and earnest devotion to duty. In many
a battle you have led the British Army to victory, and the brilliant
success which has invariably attended the British Arms under Your
Excellency's command has added to the glory of the British Empire.

But the pride and pleasure we feel at being honoured by Your
Excellency's presence in our capital town give place to sorrow and
regret at the approaching retirement of Your Excellency from the great
service of which you are an ornament.

In grateful acknowledgment of the most important services rendered by
Your Excellency to our Empress and our country, we beg to be allowed
the privilege of presenting you with a Sword of Indian manufacture,
which will, we hope, from time to time, remind you of us and of Oudh.

Wishing Your Lordship a safe and pleasant voyage home, and a long and
happy life,

We subscribe ourselves,
Your Lordship's most humble
and obedient servants,
THE TALUKDARS OF OUDH.

* * * * *

APPENDIX XVII.

(Referred to in Chapter LXVIII, Footnote 12.)

_To His EXCELLENCY GENERAL THE RIGHT HONOURABLE SIR FREDERICK
SLEIGH, BARON ROBERTS OF KANDAHAR AND WATERFORD, BART., V.C., G.C.B.,
G.C.I.E., D.C.L., LL.D., R.A., Commander-in-Chief in India._

YOUR EXCELLENCY,

Viewing with concern and regret your approaching departure from India,
we beg--in bidding you farewell--to express our admiration of your
life and work as Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Forces in India,
and to request you to permit your portrait to be placed in the Town
Hall of Calcutta, in token for the present generation of their high
appreciation of your eminent services, and in witness to a
future generation of the esteem in which you were held by your
contemporaries.

With foresight denoting wise statesmanship, Governments which you have
served have initiated and maintained a policy of Fro