manners, and education a little gentleman;
and in time he will, I hope, become a good officer.

If I might take the liberty, I would pray your Lordship to offer, in
such terms as may appear to you suitable, my grateful acknowledgments
for the consideration I have received, to his Grace the Duke of
Wellington, and to Lord Fitzroy Somerset. My London Agents, Messrs.
Denay, Clark, and Co., of Austin Friars, have been instructed to pay
for my son's commission and outfit, and to provide him with the funds
indispensably necessary in addition to his pay.

We shall now look with much interest to the Parliamentary discussions
on Indian affairs, for we must expect some important changes on the
renewal of the Charter. Whatever these changes may be for the home or
local Government, I trust the benefit of the people of India will be
considered the main point, and not the triumph of a party. The
statesman who shall link India more closely with New Zealand will be
a benefactor to both England and India, and that colony also. It
might, with advantage to itself, take those children of Indian
officers who cannot find employment of any kind in India, and ought
not to be thrown back upon the mother-country. With this view, it
might be useful to transfer our orphan institutions to that island,
to direct that way our invalid and pensioned officers, who, while
subsisting upon their pensions or stipends, would be able to
establish their children in a climate suitable to the preservation of
their race, which that of India certainly is not.

India is at present tranquil, and likely to remain so. We have no
native chiefs, or combination of native chiefs, to create uneasiness;
and if we continue to satisfy the great body of the people that we
are anxious, to the best of our ability, to promote their happiness
and welfare, and are the most impartial arbitrators that they could
have, we shall have nothing to fear. The moment that this mass is
impressed with the belief that we wish to govern India only for
ourselves, or as the French govern Algiers, from that moment we must
lose our vantage ground and decline. We may war against the native
chiefs of India, but we cannot war against the people--we need not
fear what may be called political dangers, but we must guard
carefully against those of a social character which would unite
against us the members of all classes and all creeds.

But I must no longer indulge in speculations of this sort, in whi