reasury and Imperial Secretariat Building at the
present time]

[Illustration: Department of Commerce and Industry, Council House
Street, built on site of Old Foreign Office. _Photo by J & H_]

[Illustration: _Photo. by B. & S._ Foreign and Military Secretariat,
built on the site of the "Belatee Bungalow"]

[Illustration: _Photo. by Bourne & Shepherd_ Dalhousie Square, showing
Post Office and Writers' Buildings.]

My friend, Willie Bonnaud, the present popular Clerk of the Crown,
held for some time the responsible position of Chief Presidency
Magistrate, and by his considerate and courteous manners, combined
with the able manner in which he discharged the duties of his office,
won the approval and respect of Government as well as of the public,
both European and native. He only vacated the appointment on account
of the age-limit and because there was no pension attached to the
office.

THE GENERAL POST OFFICE

As I have already said, was originally situated on the site of the
Small Cause Court, close to the old Ice House on the west side. This
is one of the very few buildings in Calcutta about which I have the
least recollection, I suppose owing to it having been one of the first
to be demolished. It was no longer in existence at the time of the
great cyclone of 1864. As far as my memory serves me, it was a
low-roofed, one-storeyed building, having a decidedly godownish
appearance, fenced in on the south side, which was the entrance, by a
row of low, green-painted palings with an opening in the centre. It
was however notwithstanding a place of great interest for the time
being, more particularly to boys like myself having recently landed in
a strange country, for on the arrival of the mail steamer at Garden
Reach, which occurred at about 3 o'clock in the afternoon, we used to
go down after dinner to get our home letters, which in those days, I
think, were more highly prized than they are now. I quite forget what
occupied the site of the present post office building.

THE GOVERNMENT TELEGRAPH OFFICE.

I think most people will be surprised to hear that the magnificent
pile of buildings stretching from Old Court House Corner along
Dalhousie Square to nearly half the length of Wellesley Place, housing
a most important Department of Government, had in the old days a
habitation within a portion of the premises now occupied by George
Henderson & Co. It was originally only an ordinary sized house, having
one entr