of the Society, a collection of the standard books of the day, and the principal publications as they appeared. It is due to the wide reading and sound literary taste of the author of Vindicia Gallica that the library of the Bombay Asiatic Society is so rich in the literature of the eighteenth century. The Society has also had frequent gifts of rare and valuable Oriental publications from the Bombay Government and the Government of India, and the library has grown up to be a goodly collection of thirty thousand volumes. Savants who visit India will receive at Bombay a warm and generous welcome from a learned Society, devoted to spreading through the land a spirit of philosophical inquiry and literary research, and owning a library rich in books of solid worth.

Retracing our steps from the Town Hall, we pass the Cathedral, and driving through Church Street we come to a spacious Platz, with a handsome fountain. The name commemorates the services of a great ruler, who, during his five years' tenure of office, changed an Indian city into one of the finest capitals of the Empire. Bartle Frere was appointed Governor of Bombay at the comparatively early age of forty-seven. "God grant you," wrote Lord Canning, "health and strength to do your work in your own noble spirit!" He did it, in spite of much opposition, in his own imperial spirit; and no Governor, except Mountstuart Elphinstone, did more to improve the condition of the people, or to increase the prosperity of the great Presidency entrusted to his charge. He won the respect of those he ruled by his courageous temperament, and their affection by his strong human sympathies. Man that is born of woman hath his faults; but with all his minor blemishes and infirmities, a high rank must be assigned to Bartle Frere among the great statesmen who served the East India Company.

At the corner of the Platz, where two roads meet, is a fine statue of the Queen-Empress, which stands as a monument

of the loyal attachment and admiration of the great Feudatories for the first Sovereign who has, since the dawn of history, ruled over all India. The statue was given to Bombay by the munificent Khandi Rao Guicowar, the ruler of the Baroda state. Her Gracious and Imperial Majesty is represented seated on an elaborately carved state chair, which is placed on a lofty marble platform led up to by steps. In the centre of the canopy is the Star of India, and above it the Rose of England is united with the Lotus of India, and around them are England's old motto "God and my right,” and India's watchword “ Heaven's light our guide.” Leaning against the handsome rails which encircle the statue are a group of rustics. There is the old father and his spouse, a matronly dame, two stalwart sons, black, wiry men from the coast, and their spouses-light-hearted, merry young women, whose crimson, blue, and orange robes fall in graceful folds over their supple figures. They are showing a little girl and a couple of half-naked boys, wearing gorgeous caps embroidered with tinsel, the beauties of the statue, and they are discussing with considerable volubility the Royal lady beyond the sea. Queen Victoria is in India no mythological personage, the wife of "John Company." Three of her sons have visited the land. The Prince of Wales by his gracious tact caused the great chiefs to feel that they are not merely important factors in a vast administrative system, but Royal Feudatories of a great sovereign. The Duke of Connaught has commanded a division in Bengal and the Bombay army; and in many a distant home, seated of an evening around the village fire, the sepoy on furlough has told his companions about the great Queen's son, who could address them in their own language. The private and personal virtues of the Queen long ago became known, and enthroned Her Majesty in the hearts of many millions of her distant subjects. In a remote village in the north of India a peasant had a grievance, and he called the

village schoolmaster to his aid, and they wrote a letter stating the case, and they addressed it "To the Good Lady in England," and the letter reached Balmoral. To be

known to distant subject races as "The Good Lady in England was an achievement of which any monarch might well have been proud.

From the Queen's statue to the statue of His Majesty as Prince of Wales runs a broad road known as Rampart Row, lined by lofty offices and splendid shops, which would do credit to Paris or London. The equestrian statue of the Prince, a good example of Boehm's best work, was the gift of the late Sir A. Sassoon, and commemorates the Heirapparent's visit to the city. On each side of the granite base are two well executed castings, one representing the historic scene of the landing of the Prince at the dockyard, and the other depicting the picturesque episode which lives in the memory of those who took part in it-the presentation of flowers to His Royal Highness by the Parsee children at the great children's fête held in his honour.

Not far from the Prince of Wales' statue is the Wellington fountain, a meretricious structure unworthy of the great name it bears. Colonel Wellesley came to Bombay in 1803, and during the hot months of March and April worked with his wonted ardour in getting ready the transports to convey the forces under General Baird to Egypt. It was intended that they should co-operate in the important object of expelling the French from that land, and Colonel Wellesley had been apointed second in command. A severe attack of fever, however, prevented him from accompanying the expedition. He was much disappointed at having lost what seemed a splendid opportunity for active service, but he remained behind to win the decisive battle of Assaye, while the vessel in which he was to sail was lost. On October 2, 1803, Jonathan Duncan, Governor of Bombay, received a letter from General Wellesley announcing in a few simple words the hard-won contest which made us masters of India.

After his great and decisive victory General Wellesley visited Poona, and descended the Ghauts to Bombay, and the capital received him with due honour. "I was feasted out of Bombay as I was feasted into it," he wrote to a friend. The victor of Assaye was glad to escape from steamy Bom

bay to the cooler Deccan, where he employed himself in writing State papers, urging a policy of conciliation and moderation. "The Governor-General may write what he pleases at Calcutta, we must conciliate the natives, or we shall not be able to do his business; and all his treatment, without conciliation and an endeavour to convince the Native Powers that we have views besides our own interests, is so much waste paper."

A short distance from the Wellington fountain is a splendid testimony of the wisdom of the soldier-statesman's policy in dealing with the native powers. The palatial Home for Sailors, whose foundation stone was laid by H.R.H. the Duke of Edinburgh, was the gift of the same great loyal Feudatory who caused to be erected the statue of the late Queen. Near to the Sailors' Home is the Royal Bombay Yacht Club, to which ladies accompanied by members are freely admitted, and where the traveller who has the privilege of honorary membership will find every comfort, and from the deep verandah overlooking the harbour will enjoy one of the most beautiful views in the world.

Returning from the Yacht Club, and bearing to the left, we come to a shallow expanse of water, bounded by two tongues of land-Colaba and Malabar Hill. Facing the bay is a line of buildings, imposing as a whole, but too suggestive of modern English taste and conventionalism. The Secretariat, where the offices of the Secretaries to Government are located, is a massive pile whose main features have been brought from Venice, but all the beauty has vanished in transhipment. It is as lacking in sentiment as the work conducted in it, and is the complete expression in stone of the spirit of an official architect. The University Hall, erected from designs by Sir Gilbert Scott, seems to have been meant for a western College Chapel, and is as exotic as the system of education which we have introduced into. the land. A few yards from the Senate Hall is the Univer