ALUE OF TRAINING AT
HEAD-QUARTERS; ARISTOCRACIES; AGAINST INTERMEDDLING--THE SITANA FANATICS--
HIMALAYAS--ROTUNG PASS--TWIG BRIDGE--ILLNESS--DEATH--CHARACTERISTICS--
BURIAL PLACE.

[Sidenote: Duty of a Governor-General to visit the Provinces.]

At a very early period of his stay in India, Lord Elgin formed the opinion,
which was indeed strongly impressed upon him by Lord Canning, that it was
'of the greatest importance to the public interest that the Governor-
General should see as much as possible of men and things, in all parts of
the vast empire under his control; and that a constant residence in the
narrow atmosphere of Calcutta had a tendency to impair his efficiency.'
Writing to Sir C. Wood on the 17th of September, 1862, he said:--

No man can govern India in ordinary times, such as those in which we
are living, if he is to be tied by the leg to Calcutta, and prevented
from visiting other parts of the Empire. Canning, although he lived in
times by no means ordinary, and although he was compelled by
circumstances to be more stationary than he would otherwise have been,
was as clear on this point as anyone. He urged me most strongly to
proceed northwards at the earliest moment at which I could contrive to
do so. When I referred to the difficulty which the assembling of the
Council for legislative purposes might occasion, he assured me that he
had never intended to make himself a slave of the Council; that he had
taken the chair at the commencement of the proceedings, but that he
should certainly have objected to the establishment of the principle
that his presence was indispensable to its deliberations. He was
especially anxious that I should tour, in order that I might satisfy
myself as to how his arrangements affecting natives, &c., worked,
before modifying them in any degree. And, apart from Canning's opinion
altogether, this is a point on which I have had some personal
experience. I have been now steadily in Calcutta for a whole hot
season. No man, I venture to affirm, in the situation I occupy, has
ever been more accessible to those who have anything to say, whether
they be civilians, soldiers, or interlopers. But there is a blot on my
escutcheon which can easily be hit by anyone dissatisfied with a
judgment pronounced in my name. It can always be said: "What does Lord
Elgin know of India? He has never been out o