unpleasant things touching what would have been
their state and prospects "in his time," and did
not hesitate to liken them to "young bears with
all their troubles to come." There was also a
subaltern officer who had been out to India
sufficiently long not to like it, and to prefer
being at home on sick leave, which a certain
class of servants of the extinct East India
Company appear to consider the natural and
proper state of things in a civilised universe
and any invasion of which, even after three or
four years spent in the most vigorous amusements
at home, they consider a violation of
their privileges.

At Marseilles we passed Christmas-day, upon
which occasion the people of the hotel treated
us to a French version of the pudding of Britain,
which would possibly have been a very delightful
production had it appeared in a solid instead
of a liquid form; but for great travellers (in
prospect) like ourselves it would have been
inappropriate to have betrayed any insular
prejudices, so we all sipped it philosophically, like
citizens of the world. The following day saw
our embarkation on board the Vectis, one of
the swiftest of the P. and O. ships, employed
expressly for the mail service between Marseilles
and Malta. The conditions of this short voyage,
like the rest of the sea route, were the same as
in the present day; but the transit through
Egypt varied considerably. The railway at that
time was among the things that were to be, but
was not; and the Nile boat was our means of
passage to Cairo: a preliminary boat taking us
to the Nile, along the canal as far as Atfeh.
To any person looking upon these boats in the
light of hotels, and attaching much importance
to personal comfort, it must be confessed that
the experience was decidedly unpleasant; and
as the majority of the passengers did take this
view of their claims upon the company in
consideration of liberal passage-money paid beforehand,
you may be sure that the grumbling was
no joke, and that threats to write to the Times
were the rule rather than the exception. But
the more sensible minority took a philosophical
view of the matter, made themselves independent
of bad refreshments by undergoing a little
temporary starvation, and of bad accommodation
below by contenting themselves with the
deck, and gave themselves up to the mental
enjoyment of the new scenes by which they
were surrounded. At Cairo came more change
and new sensations in abundance; and the
old mode of transit across the desert, in
vans, had charms in the way of novelty and
excitement compared with which the railway is
tame indeed.

But all these things have passed away, and
the journey through Egypt is now as prosaic
as a trip from London to Liverpool by the
express train. It is not until we get once
more on ship-board, in the Red Sea, that we
feel ourselves really in the East. And it is
here that these reflections occur to me, while
reclining under the awning on the raised
forecastle, whither sensible men retire to smoke,
and to get whatever amount of air is to be had,
which is sure to be at the bows.

My fellow-passengers will most certainly find
a great many things changed, besides the overland
route. India to-day is not the same India
that it was yesterday—yesterday being understood
as a playful way of alluding to ten years
ago. Yesterday the East India Company were
the kings of the country. To-day, her Majesty
reigns in her proper person. The old régime
had its good side as well as its bad. The
Company was a good master, at any rate, to those in
its employ, who deplore its downfal with tears
in their eyes, and a great deal less in their pockets
than they had in the days of its prosperity. The
Company's servants in those times had the loaves
and fishes of the State all to themselves. Small
chance was there then for the barrister of seven
years' standing, or the interloper of any kind,
to get a share of them. The Supreme Court
judgeships, to be sure, were given to members
of the British bar; but the judges of the Sudder,
or Native Court of Appeal, were more highly
paid, and were, besides, eligible for even more
elevated appointments. As for the non-professional
interloper, he had nothing to hope for but
subordinate posts, which if not posts of honour
were certainty posts of danger, for he was always
exposed to the chance of being thrown out of
employment at the caprice of his superiors, who
were not bound to provide for him for life, as in
the case of the patented, or covenanted, men.
The outsiders, indeed, whatever their natural
social position, belonged to a different class
altogether—so separated by the official barrier
that there could be no mingling of the two in
private intercourse, except in very rare cases.
In the military service the Company's officers
enjoyed equally exclusive rights. For them,
and for them only, were the great majority of
staff appointments, the snug little things—and
the snug great things too—in civil employ,
always much coveted by military men in India,
who in most cases seemed to take up the
sword mainly as a means of carving their way
to the pen. A Queen's officer got the command
in chief, to be sure, and generally the presidential
commands; but there was very little else
within the grip of her Majesty's service, whose
presence, even in the country, was looked upon
almost in the light of an impertinence.

There are men—very good men, very sincere
men, and by no means very foolish men—not
quite so extinct as the dodo, who believed, and do
believe, that the old system was a far better one
than the new; that India was better governed
under the Company than it is under the Crown;
that the natives were more attached to our rule,
and that we held the country under less hazardous
conditions than in the present day. The very
objection most frequently made to the old
system, they consider to have been one of the
main sources of our strength. The administration
was given up to about a dozen families, who
monopolised the nominations to the services,
and by consequence monopolised everything
else that preferment could procure. The more