ife, social pleasure, display of dress and finery, etc., Calcutta
excels every other place in the world.

[Illustration: PARSEE FAMILY.]

My exequatur not having arrived from London, I had to obtain a special
recognition from the viceroy as American consul-general, after which my
formal presentation took place. The Marquis of Ripon was viceroy during
my stay in India. On presenting my credentials I had a lengthy
conversation with him, and learned to admire him from that moment. From
my memorandum book written on that day I quote the following:

"Lord Ripon is a plain, manly man, whose character, head, and heart
would have made him a great man even if he had been born in obscurity,
but now he ranks as one of the highest, and is one of the wealthiest
of the English nobles. He said, among other things, to me: 'I like
America and her people very much. I was there on a commission which
tended to make America and England better friends, and all such
efforts are well worthy all men (he referred to the Alabama treaty, in
which as Earl de Gray he was one of the commissioners). With American
and English ideas of liberty it is hard to understand how to rule
India. I would educate the natives,' said he, 'even if I believed that
it would be dangerous to English power, because it would be right to
do so; but I don't think it is dangerous. India has always had a few
very able and highly-educated men, while the millions have been in
utter ignorance and superstition, and such a condition is more
dangerous to English rule than if all are raised in the scale of
knowledge. My only object, and I think England's, in India, is to
benefit India. Our schools and railroads are doing away with
ignorance, and are fast destroying the _caste_ system. Considering the
natives as enemies, we must put on a bold front and fear no danger,
but be always on the guard.'"

Afterward I became intimately acquainted with this truly noble man, and
was proud and happy to be counted by him as one of his very few friends
in India who stood by him when the powerful Anglo-Indian bureaucracy
turned against him on account of his humane efforts to raise the natives
socially and politically. Unfortunately for India, she has not had many
British rulers like Lord Ripon, but most of them, in conjunction with
the office-holding class, rule India, not for the good of India, but for
their own interests.

Our British friends are certa