on foreign missions. But to estimate correctly the minister's
power and authority, the word "send" perhaps ought not to be used in this
case, since he was a self-appointed ambassador; and his next brother was
left by him to perform the arduous duties attendant on the important
office which he vacated for a while.

And now that he is returned to resume the reins of government, and once
more become involved in the petty intrigues of his highland court, it is
natural that he should look back with delight, not unmingled with regret,
at the wonders he has so lately witnessed--the, to him, magical effects
of the operations of steam--the still more incomprehensible electric
telegraph--our institutions--our court--the magnificence of the
successive entertainments, of which he could say "Magna pars fui," and at
which he was not more the spectator than the spectacle: but, above all,
was it a matter of astonishment to him that such hospitality should have
been shown to an unknown and ignorant stranger by a nation whose
enterprise is no less stirring than her resources are vast, and in the
midst of a social machinery to him so incomprehensibly intricate in its
details.

"Why," he would observe after his return to Katmandu, "should I attempt
to tell these poor ignorant people what I have seen? It would be as
ridiculous in me to suppose they would believe it as it is hopeless to
attempt to make them understand it." And he feels that the information
he has acquired has been too extensive to allow him to sink to the level
of those by whom he is surrounded. But, while anxious to increase his
popularity, with his attempts at conciliation is combined a patronizing
air, which he cannot conceal, and which is calculated to render him
unpopular, even could he bring himself to return to the old system of
embracing instead of shaking hands; of taking off his shoes when entering
the Durbar; of salaaming ere he addresses his Monarch--all which acts of
devotion and homage are repugnant to the man who has had an interview
with the Queen of England, and received a visit from the Duke of
Wellington. "When that great warrior called upon me," he says, "I felt
it to be the proudest moment of my life:" and at Benares, when, upon the
occasion of his visiting a native Rajah, there was a question of whether
he should go in state or not, he decided the matter by saying, "I shall
go just as I went to return the Duke's visit;" or, at another time, "I
wil