constituencies. Entering the House in August 1847 as M.P. for Kildare, he retained that seat nearly four years—until March 1852. He was then returned for Coleraine, for which he sat five yearsuntil the general election in March 1857-when he was returned for Cockermouth in Cumberland, and represented that constituency down to the year 1868, when he accepted the Governor-Generalship of India. At the death of his father, on August 12, 1867, he succeeded to the earldom of Mayo; but, as an Irish peer, he still retained his seat in the House of Commons. He was throughout life an earnest and consistent Conservative. As such, he held a conspicuous position in each of the Derby administrations. The post he occupied in the first he resumed in the second, and again in the third government formed under Lord Derby's premiership. In all of them the Conservative Prime Minister appointed him the Chief Secretary of State for Ireland. Lord Naas first held that office nine months, namely, from March till December, under the cabinet of 1852. On the restoration to power of the Conservatives, he was reappointed to the same office in February 1858, holding it that time upwards of a twelvemonth, until the June of 1859. Seven years afterwards-in June 1866he was again named to the Irish Secretaryship. On the reconstruction of the Conservative ministry, nearly two years later, when Lord Derby, through ill health, on May 25, 1868, tendered his resignation as First Lord of the Treasury, and the premiership passed into the hands of Mr Disraeli, Lord Mayo under the latter was still the Irish Secretary. During the latter part of the autumn of that year, however, when the Disraeli government was fast approaching its close, Lord Mayo's career as Secretary for Ireland was terminated by his political chief, with a view to his advancement. In the early winter of 1868, having been created a Knight of St Patrick for his Irish services, he was appointed Governor-General of India. He arrived at Calcutta on the 12th of January 1869, and immediately entered upon his duties as Viceroy.

Lord Mayo, while in Parliament, was a most popular and influential member of the House of Commons, and as Chief Secretary for Ireland he displayed considerable ability in the administration of Irish affairs. He revived Pitt's policy of concurrent endowment, which met with the approval of all wise men, but was opposed by the leaders of the prejudiced masses, and the extreme demands of the Roman bishops gave him an opportunity of withdrawing from an impracticable attempt: the field was then left clear for Mr Gladstone's policy of disestablishment. It was probably in consequence of his being thus compromised that he was deemed unfit, in the approaching conflict, to act as the Conservative Chief Secretary for Ireland, and it was determined to transfer him to a field of action where his statesmanship could move untrammelled, where there was neither Whig nor Tory, neither Roman impracticability nor the bigotry of a party cry. But although during a triple term of office he discharged its onerous and trying duties with admirable tact and efficiency, yet his nomination by Mr Disraeli to the high and important post of Governor-General of India came upon the world with some surprise, and excited no small amount of hostile criticism at the time. How ill-founded were the Ir.

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fears or doubts which had been raised in the minds of some of the Liberal party on his selection for such high office, has been fully shown by the universally admitted success of his Indian administration; and it is now perfectly certain that Lord Mayo amply justified the sanguine expectations entertained of him by his friends and colleagues, and that he proved himself one of the ablest and most popular of Indian viceroys. The high tributes paid to him by the Duke of Argyll and Mr Gladstone in their respective places in parliament on the arrival of the news of his assassination, received the warmest assent from every one who had followed him through his short but brilliant career. In the House of Lords the Duke of Argyll, after referring to the circumstances of the viceroy's assassination, said: "It is my duty on behalf of the government to express, in the first place, the deep sympathy which we feel with the family of Lord Mayo in a calamity so unlooked for and so overwhelming. As regards the friends of Lord Mayo, this House is full of his personal friends. I believe no man ever had more friends than he, and I believe no man ever deserved better to have them. For myself I regret to say that I never even had the honour of Lord Mayo's acquaintance; but we came into office at almost the same time, and I am happy to say that from that time our communications have been most friendly, and I may say most cordial. I think I may go further, and say that there has not been one very serious difference of opinion between us on any question connected with the government of India. I hope, my Lords, it will not be considered out of place, considering my official position, if, on behalf of Her Majesty's Government, I express our opinion that the conduct of Lord Mavo in his great office the greatest, in my opinion, which can be held by a subject of the crown-amply justifies the choice made by our predecessors. Lord Mayo's Governor-Generalship did not fall in a time of great trial or great difficulty, from foreign war or domestic insurrection; but he had to labour under constant difficulties and great anxieties, which are inseparable from the government of that mighty empire. This I may say, I believe with perfect truth, that no Governor-General who ever ruled India was more energetic in the discharge of his duties and more assiduous in performing the functions of his great office; and above all, no viceroy that ever ruled India had more at heart the good of the people of that vast empire. I think it may be said further, that Lord Mayo has fallen a victim to an almost excessive discharge of his public duties. If Lord Mayo had a fault, it was that he would leave nothing to others. He desired to see everything for himself. On his way to Burmah, he thought it his duty to visit the Andaman Islands to see the convicts, and in what manner the rules and discipline of a convict prison were carried out there. It was in the discharge of this duty he met his death. I believe his death will be a calamity to India, and that it will be sincerely mourned not only in England and in his native country Ireland, but by the well-affected millions of Her Majesty's subjects in India.”

In like manner, in the House of Commons, Mr Gladstone thus concluded his observations on the same subject:-" But I cannot communicate to the House this most painful, most grievous information without stating on my own part, and on the part of the government, the grief

we feel at receiving it, and our sense of the heavy loss it announces to the Crown. Lord Mayo has passed a career in India worthy of the distinguished services of his predecessors. He has been outdone by none of them in his zeal, intelligence, and untiring devotion to the public service. So far as it is in our power to render testimony to his high qualities, so far as our approval can in any degree give him credit, I am bound to say that the whole of his policy and conduct has won for him the unreserved and uniform confidence of the Government." Similar tributes were paid to him by the Duke of Richmond in the Lords and by Mr Disraeli in the Commons.

The Government of India, about the same time, in a notification announcing the Viceroy's assassination, alludes to the public and personal merits of Lord Mayo in terms not less complimentary :-" The country has lost a statesman who discharged the highest duties that the Queen can entrust to any of her subjects with entire self-devotion, and with abilities equal to the task. Those who were honoured by the Earl of Mayo's friendship, and especially those whose pride it was to be associated with him in public affairs, have sustained a loss of which they cannot trust themselves to speak. The Government of India therefore abstains at present from saying anything of this great calamity."

Such were the expressions of feeling which emanated on this sad and impressive occasion from high official sources, and from independent members of both Houses of Parliament; and it is evident that they were not mere conventional words of eulogy and regret, or mere formal recognitions of meritorious public services. They were, in truth, a faithful echo of the feeling which pervaded all classes of the community, both in this country and in India. The calamity which befel Lord Mayo, independently of every feeling of personal regret, was deplored as a calamity to the State, and especially to the great province over which he ruled so well. Although a period of scarcely three years had elapsed from the time he entered on the duties of his office until he was struck down by the hand of a sanguinary fanatic, his viceroyalty was marked by the most extraordinary activity. No one ever in a similar space of time had seen so much of India, or so thoroughly made himself master of the condition of that vast empire. From the very outset he was determined to see and judge for himself; and this independence of thought and judgment soon produced the most beneficial results in every department of the Government. The development of agriculture and commerce, the removal of radical defects and abuses in the system of public works, the diffusion of education on sound principles, large schemes of internal communication by a railway and telegraphic system specially fitted for the country, were some of the measures of improvement and reform which he either initiated, advanced, or perfected. His dealings with the natives, high and low, were unexceptionable. He received the princes with becoming state, and with a dignified courtesy which made a deep impression on the Asiatic mind, and excited sentiments of personal attachment and regard. He held some of the most brilliant durbars that had ever been witnessed in India, and on these occasions of ceremony his bearing was dignified and imposing, and worthy of the

representative of royalty. The great durbar held at Umballah on the 27th March 1869 was one of the first events of importance in Lord Mayo's viceroyalty. The object of that conference was to form an alliance with Shere Ali, the Ameer of Afghanistan, and so present a barrier in that quarter against Russian encroachment on British India. The progress and attitude of Russia in Central Asia had long engaged the attention of Indian statesmen. Many ridiculed what were deemed the visionary traditions bequeathed by Peter the Great, and regarded a scheme of conquest so colossal as to embrace British India and China in the Russian Empire as chimerical and absurd. There could be no doubt, however, that the question of Russian aggression had caused serious alarm; and the practicability of converting Eastern Afghanistan into a barrier for the defence of British India had been seriously considered by several previous Viceroys. Lord Minto first entertained the project, but took no active steps towards its accomplishment. But in Lord Auckland's time Russian intrigues assumed such a threatening aspect that it was deemed advisable to secure an alliance with Afghanistan by armed intervention. Accordingly, in 1839 a large British force was sent into that country; Dost Mahmood, the father of Shere Ali, was driven out, and his brother Shoojah was placed on the throne. The disastrous results of this interference are well-known matters of history, and form one of the darkest pages in the annals of British India.* Lord Auckland was censured for taking up the cause of the wrong man, and his policy was condemned as the result of "blinded and pernicious activity." Lord Lawrence in his turn, when Shere Ali appealed to him for aid, was censured for not espousing the cause of the right man, and his policy was stigmatised as the result of "masterly inactivity."

Lord Lawrence, it is said, refused to aid Shere Ali until he had given further proof of his cause being successful. It was, perhaps, only natural that Lord Lawrence should be somewhat cautious, having before his eyes the disasters of Lord Auckland's time, and the recent history of Affghanistan, which was one continued struggle for the sovereign power, might, not right, constituting the best title to the

Of the early history of Afghanistan very little is known. In 1713 Nadir Shah conquered the country. Ten years afterwards, he was murdered by the Persians, and was succeeded by Ahmid Shah, the founder of the Dooranee dynasty, who was crowned at Kandahar in 1747. His reign, which continued for twenty-six years, was occupied with continual wars, external and internal. On his death he was succeeded by his son, Timúr Shah; who was again succeeded by Zeman Shah, a younger son of the deceased prince. The latter was in turn displaced by his elder brother, Mahmood, by whom he was imprisoned and deprived of sight. Mahmood was subsequently dethroned by another brother, Shoojah Ool Moolk, who imprisoned him. In the course of the intrigues and convulsions which succeeded, Mahmood obtained his freedom, reappeared in arms, and recovered the throne-Shoojah having fled and found a retreat in the British territory. In the year 1837 the British Government, thinking it advisable to establish a friendly alliance with the ruling princes in Afghanistan, restored Shoojah to the throne by means of a large armed force. In April 1842 the British were driven from the country under circumstances of the most atrocious barbarity and treachery, which, however, were amply revenged in the same year by another British army under General Pollock, who, advancing through the Khyber Pass, recaptured Cabul, and re-established British supremacy in the country. -Elphinstone's Cabul.

throne. Lord Lawrence, however, did ultimately grant a subsidy to Shere Ali. Such was the position of affairs with respect to Affghanistan when Lord Mayo become Governor-General. Having arrived at the seat of his Government at Calcutta on the 12th of January 1869, the new Viceroy at once addressed himself to what he rightly deemed the most urgent question of Indian politics. Viewed by the light of recent events in Khiva, the prompt and decisive steps taken by him to secure the friendship of the Ameer clearly shew what a correct view he took of the posture of affairs in 1869, and are creditable to his wisdom and sagacity as a statesman. In an incredibly short space of time his determined energy triumphed over difficulties which seemed well-nigh insurmountable. A conference with Shere Ali was arranged for the 27th March at Umballah. To the very last some of the "wise men of the East" were incredulous. It seemed to them all but impossible that Shere Ali, after all the treachery and vicissitudes he had experienced in his eventful life-after all the terrible disasters sustained by Englishmen in his country-could be induced to put faith in the simple assurances of a British Viceroy, and travel some 500 miles away from his own country to confer with a foreign potentate on foreign soil. It was therefore no matter for surprise that the proposed Durbar at Umballah should be watched by the Indian public with feelings of more than ordinary interest, and that its successful issue should have been hailed with intense satisfaction by all who could appreciate its historical importance. The memorable meeting between Lord Mayo and the Ameer took place on the 27th of March 1869. It was, indeed, a strange and significant fact to see the son and successor of Dost Mahmood received by one of Lord Auckland's successors as the lawful sovereign of Affghanistan and the equal and warm ally of a British Governor-General. Before the conference ended, its good fruits were already apparent; while yet at Umballah, the Ameer received intelligence that the Ameer of Badakshan and all the Sirdars of Turkistan had given in their allegiance to him, and that the son of his brother and rival, Azim Khan, had fled across the Oxus. The Ameer having expressed his warm thanks to Lord Mayo, left the British territory, greatly elated at this news, which he attributed, and no doubt rightly attributed, to the Umballah conference. All the heads of the Khyber tribes accompanied the Ameer from Jamrood. Thus ended the memorable Durbar of Umballah and if any doubts had existed in the public mind as to the state of Russian feeling with respect to British dominion in India, such doubts would have been immediately dispelled. No sooner had the news of the alliance with the ruler of Cabul reached Europe, than the leading journals of Russia launched forth into the most bitter invectives against England. Affecting to ridicule the proceedings at Umballah as a piece of solemn jugglery and empty pageantry, they affirmed that Shere Ali, after accepting presents and a subsidy from the English Viceroy, would the next day have willingly accepted Russian friendship and Russian gold. In a country where the utterances of the press are made subject to state control and direction, the unmistakable language used on this occasion was sufficiently alarming, and clearly proved that Lord Mayo was not mistaken in his views