ome time, although but a lad in
years, spent his leisure hours in attending the hospital, and reading
to sick soldiers, where it is believed he contracted the disease. Of
the living, conventional usage forbids all mention, but I have deemed
it right to reproduce as appendices to this skeleton and imperfect
memoir the notices that appeared in the principal Indian papers of
William McNair's death, as also the obituary notices taken from the
proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society for October and November,
1889.

The extract reprinted from the _Pioneer_ editorial gives the most
complete and faithful description of Mr. McNair's achievements during a
too brief day of usefulness. Portions of that editorial need a passing
word so far as the subject of this memoir is concerned. With regard to
the disapproval of the Indian Government of McNair's venture in
entering Kafiristan without the permission of his Government, I never
heard a word from his lips by way of complaint, although no doubt the
paper accurately describes the facts.

Nor did I ever hear a syllable from the brave, unselfish man of
disappointment at the way in which his worldly prospects were never
advanced in the slightest by the nobly adventurous work he had done. By
nature he was too bent on doing the work in hand to theorise about
anything. By character he was too loftily absorbed in loyalty and
reverence for the law of obedience as a root-principle of his life, to
deplore any want of appreciation of his worth on the part of the
Government which he had so loyally served. It is true, as the "Pioneer"
points out, that on the Russian side such a man would have had honours
and distinctions showered upon him. He would have been dragged out of
his retirement and made to feel he was the favourite of the monarch,
for the risk to life he had undertaken in spontaneous devotion to the
State. Not only is such warmth and enthusiasm not the English method,
but the Indian Government is a huge machine which goes grinding on in
its mechanical way, and is besides, a bureaucracy which has a good deal
of pride in regarding any new departure as a dangerous token of
disrespect to its old and consecrated tradition of simple obedience to
written orders and codified instructions. The highest originality is
smothered in a secretariat as its fitting cabinet. McNair knew these
attributes of the Indian Government, and never troubled his head about
preferment or official promotion. I