, after long
experience, and so many subsequent triumphs as almost to eclipse
their splendour, he recurs with peculiar satisfaction. So far from
underrating, as is the fashion with many of the military servants of
the Crown, the merits of a successful campaign in India, the great
captain of the age, than whom there can be no better judge, rates the
laurels that he gathered in his earliest fields as highly as those
wrested from the soldiers of France, glorying in the title given him
by Napoleon, of "the Sepoy General."

Few things can be more agreeable than listening to anecdotes told at
the dinner-table at Parell of the Duke of Wellington by officers who
have formerly sat at the same board with him, who have served under
his command in India, and who delight in recording those early traits
of character which impressed all who knew him with the conviction that
he was destined to become the greatest man of the age. The Duke of
Wellington, though wholly unacquainted with the language spoken in
India, was always held in the highest esteem by the natives, with
whom, generally speaking, in order to become popular, it is absolutely
necessary to be able to converse in their own tongue. He obtained,
however, a perfect knowledge of their modes of feeling, thinking, and
acting, and by a liberal policy, never before experienced, endeared
himself to all ranks and classes. It is recollected at this day
that, in times of scarcity, he ordered all the rice sent up for the
subsistence of the troops to be sold, at a moderate price, to
the starving multitude; and that, while more short-sighted people
prophesied the worst results from this measure, it obtained for him
abundant supplies, together with a name that will never be forgotten.

A re-perusal at Parell of the "Life of Sir James Mackintosh" also
affords interest, though of a different kind. The house which Sir
James designates as large and convenient, with two really good rooms,
has been much improved since his time. It could not be expected that
a man like Sir James Mackintosh would employ many words in the
description of a mansion chiefly interesting on account of its
former occupants; but that he should have dismissed the whole of the
presidency in as summary a manner, seems perfectly unaccountable.

It does not appear that the importance and value of British India ever
made any strong impression upon Sir James Mackintosh, who seems to
have looked upon its various inhabitants w