d in some high public position. The story of his life is
well and modestly told by his friend Colonel Palfrey, and may be
specially commended to readers capable of being stirred and stimulated
by memories and examples which have certainly not been dimmed by the
greater lustre of those of a more recent date.

It would be unfair to expect in such a narrative the rich and varied
interest that belongs to the autobiography of Meadows Taylor, whose
career was as eventful and exciting as that of any hero of romance, and
who has told it with a vividness and graphic power which few writers of
romance have equalled. "He was one of the last of those," remarks Mr.
Reeve, "who went out to India as simple adventurers." His boyhood and
youth were full of precocious adventure and achievement. At the age of
sixteen he obtained a commission in the military contingent of the
Nizam. At seventeen he was employed as interpreter on courts-martial,
and at eighteen was appointed "assistant police superintendent" of a
district comprising a population of a million of souls. The duties of
this post "involved not only direct authority over the ordinary
relations of society, but the active pursuit of bands of Dacoits, Thugs
and robbers," and occasional military expeditions to reduce some lawless
chief to obedience. But the most remarkable and laborious years of his
life were those during which he filled the office of "political agent"
at Shorapoor, administering the affairs of that principality and holding
the guardianship of the young rajah during a long minority, while cut
off from intercourse with Europeans and exposed to continual plottings
and intrigues of native functionaries and court favorites. The skill,
tact and courage with which he executed the delicate and complicated
functions of this anomalous position, and encountered its difficulties
and perils, make themselves felt and appreciated in all the details of
the narrative, while the picture presented of Eastern character and
manners is one which only the most intimate knowledge, combined with
rare faculties of delineation, could furnish, and differs in many
features from any other to be found in European descriptions of life in
India. "Meadows Taylor was never, properly speaking, in the civil
service of the East India Company or the Crown, nor did he hold any
military appointment in the British Indian army. He was throughout life
an officer of the Nizam. He never even visited Calcutta or