India at a
place so long associated with the Royal Family of England, and
to find that during so many generations of British rule this
great port has steadily prospered. Your natural advantages would
have insured a large amount of commerce under any strong
Government, but in your various and industrious population I
gladly recognize the traces of a rule which gives shelter to all
who obey the laws; which recognizes no invidious distinctions of
race; which affords to all perfect liberty in matters of
religious opinion and belief; and freedom in the pursuit of
trade and of all lawful callings. I note with satisfaction the
assurance I derive from your address, that under British rule
men of varied creeds and nations live in harmony among
themselves, and develop to the utmost those energies which they
inherit from widely separate families of mankind, whilst all
join in loyal attachment to the British Crown, and take their
part, as in my native country, in the management of their own
local affairs.

"I shall gladly communicate to Her Majesty what you so loyally
and kindly say regarding the pleasure which the people of India
derive from Her Majesty's gracious permission to me to visit
this part of Her Majesty's Empire. I assure you that the
Princess of Wales has never ceased to share my regret that she
was unable to accompany me. She has from her earliest years
taken the most lively interest in this great country, and the
cordiality of your greeting this day will make her yet more
regret the impossibility of her sharing in person the pleasure
your welcome afforded me."

This reply, so happily conceived, and delivered with quiet earnestness,
delighted all who heard it. But the echoes of it would soon reach every
part of India, and the chiefs and rulers, and also the leaders of
opinion in the native press, would from these words of the Prince
receive a lesson of true statesmanship and constitutional government.

The greatest event at Bombay was the reception of the Rulers and Chiefs
of Western India, a scene of truly Oriental magnificence, the
description of which forms one of the most brilliant chapters in Dr.
Russell's book. All the established forms of Indian ceremony were
observed. The greatest rulers were saluted with the largest number of
guns, the Maharajah of Mysore, for instance, having a salute of
twenty-on