e guns, while others were fifteen-gun chiefs or eleven-gun
rajahs, as the case might be, according to the population and wealth of
the territories over which they ruled. Their dresses, and jewels, and
retinues, and the modes of reception, as well as their personal
characteristics, are all duly recorded. The Viceroy of India, Lord
Northbrook, was with the Prince of Wales at one grand Durbar, and his
position in regard to the Royal Envoy from the Queen, the arrangement of
which had caused some difficulty in anticipation, was gracefully managed
by the Viceroy and the Prince themselves. The Bombay Durbar passed off
admirably. It was the Prince's birthday, the 9th of November, and no
such scene as on that day can he expect again to witness. The "Carpet,"
which takes an important place in Oriental durbars, the nuzzars or gifts
of homage, and other points of ceremonial, as well as the number of guns
in the salute, had all been arranged by official notices to the
political officers attached to the native courts. But the cordial
bearing of the Prince, and his kindly words when he was told that any
visitors knew the English tongue, gave more satisfaction than the formal
ceremonials.

A State banquet was given by the Governor in honour of the Prince's
birthday. In returning thanks for his health, proposed by the Governor,
the Prince made a short but telling speech. He said:--

"It has long been my earnest wish--the dream of my life--to
visit India; and now that my desire has been gratified, I can
only say, Sir Philip Wodehouse, how much pleased I am to have
spent my thirty-fourth birthday under your roof in Bombay. I
shall remember with satisfaction the hospitable reception I have
had from the Governor, and all here, as long as I live, and I
believe that I may regard what I have experienced in Bombay as a
guarantee of the future of my progress through this great
Empire, which forms so important a part of the dominions of the
Queen."

These last words were a true forecast of the Royal progress throughout
India. What has been said of Bombay, must serve to give an idea of what
everywhere had to be recorded. But we must refrain from further details
of what occurred at other Presidencies, and only add that the crowning
public event of the whole tour, the chief ceremony of the mission of the
Prince, the holding the Chapter of the Order of the Star of India, came
off, at Calcutta, on New Year's