The momentous nature of the events of the last two years of Lord Elgin's Viceroyalty and the prominent place that they still occupy in the public mind have seemed to give them a claim to prior consideration. It is not that the earlier years (1895 and 1896) are without incident or interest. In 1895 a member of the reigning dynasty of Afghanistan for the first time paid a visit to England. On the part of the British and Indian Governments and of our Royal Family every effort that courtesy, hospitality and goodwill could suggest was made to welcome the visitor. Unfortunately he was not qualified, either by breeding, tact, understanding or intuition, to appreciate or show his appreciation of all that was done for him. We must, it is true, make some allowance for his upbringing and youth, although these do not account for his absolute lack of good taste and manners. The man himself was wanting. Dignity and gentlemanly bearing are by no means foreign to the Barakzai princes. The Amir Abdurrahman Khan is said both to possess these qualities himself and to value them in his children. This being so, we can only wonder that his own instinct and the experience of European society and etiquette which his intercourse with Russians and Englishmen had gained for him, did not warn him that Sardar Nasrullah Khan was not the man to select for a visit of ceremony to Her Majesty's Court and kingdom. If the visit was intended to cement more friendly relations between Afghanistan and Great Britain, it was a failure.

In 1896 it was found necessary to support General Kitchener's operations on the Nile by sending an Indian contingent to Suakin. Subsequently a keen discussion arose concerning the payment of the cost of this contingent. Lord Salisbury's Cabinet decided that the Indian Exchequer should pay for its maintenance. This decision was not received without strong demur. When, however, we consider how vitally important it is to India that Egypt and the Red Sea should be under British control, there appears

to be no unfairness in asking the Indian Government to pay some share of the cost of military operations in that quarter. In his speech in the House of Commons on the 26th January, 1867, urging the despatch of an expeditionary force to rescue King Theodore's prisoners, Sir Henry Rawlinson used the following words: "It would seem only fair that India should pay a moiety of the (Abyssinian) war, as she did in the case of the China and Persian Wars." We certainly think that India may very well contribute her share to all military operations which enhance her security and prosperity. She is "the pivot of our Eastern Empire," and every political, commercial or industrial advantage that the Mother Country wins either in the Near or the Far East will redound directly or indirectly to her benefit.

When we look back on the events of 1897, we may be forgiven if we feel that the shadow of a curse must have rested on India during that year, the year of Her Majesty's Diamond Jubilee. What should have been an epoch of happiness was a period of disaster. Famine, pestilence, disaffection, murder, war and earthquake, combined to mar the Jubilee of one of the best and noblest of Queens and women. That is now passed: 1898 has for India been a season of comparative calm.

The great political interests of the year have centred around China, Egypt, the United States, and Spain. If we cannot look back to the frontier fighting of 1897-98 with unmingled satisfaction, we can at least be proud of the grand soldierly qualities displayed both by officers and men. The splendid defence of the Malakand position under the command of Brigadier-General (now Sir William) Meiklejohn, was the most successful episode in the fighting. For gallantry in life and unto death the name of Colonel Haughton of the 36th Sikhs will, we trust, be long remembered. No better soldier fought in the Tirah campaign. The whole of that frontier fighting from first to last was, as far as British interests go, the purest waste of

blood and money. Much heroism was displayed, but not a few reputations were buried. A veil has been drawn over the graves of those reputations. Let us not disturb it.

We will rather, now that the old Viceroyalty is drawing to its end—and that an honourable end, for all men feel that Lord Elgin is a man who has conscientiously tried to do his duty and succeeded—we will rather pass onwards from the disappointments of the past to the seemingly bright promise of the future. No Viceroy could enter on his duties under better auspices than does Lord Curzon. All men and parties have wished him God-speed, and India has sent him her message of welcome. As it happens, he will, when he assumes office, find himself surrounded by officials almost as new to their posts as he himself will be, from the Commander-in-Chief and the Financial Member, the Foreign Secretary, and the Adjutant and Quarter-Master Generals down to many of the humbler bureaucrats. We think that a little new blood is wanted in Simla, more especially in the military circles. We know already for Lord Curzon has himself alluded to them in his recent speeches-several important points to which his attention will have to be directed to wit, finance, railways both inland and frontier, the Commissionership of the North-West Frontier, and last, not least, the watch and ward of the vast frontier of India from the coast of Mekran along the borders of Persia, Afghanistan and Tibet away to China, French Indo-China, and Siam. There is a Upas-tree, which though as yet but half grown, threatens to overhang India and year by year extends the area of its shade. It already overshadows Afghanistan. The time will come when its obtrusive branches will have to be pruned. One of the duties of Lord Curzon will be to check their overgrowth by the most approved method of diplomatic arboriculture, and at the same time to have the pruning-hook sharp and ready for use. His personal acquaintance with the Amir of Afghanistan cannot fail, we would hope, to facilitate the maintenance of friendly relations between that ruler and the

Government of India. A friendly and united Afghanistan is impervious to the subtle influences of the Upas-tree, and stunts its growth. It may throw out shoots (such as the Merv-Kushk railway) within its own limits, but it cannot transgress those limits. It at present finds a better opening for growth towards Persia, where the monarch is weak, the Government effete and corrupt, and the influence of British diplomacy sunk to a low ebb.

This

There is one other point to which no doubt Lord Curzon will give his attention during his Viceroyalty. He has himself discussed it in his work on "Persia." It is the Indo-European railway. Russia is the first in the field, with a line from the Atlantic eastward to the Pacific. northern route has the advantage of economising distance. The central route will have the advantage of traversing Central Europe, the Mediterranean basin, India and Central China, the most populous, productive and prosperous belt of the earth's surface. The overland route from Europe to the East has till now been in British hands. If it is to remain with us, we must devise and construct a railway that will not only rival but out-rival the TransSiberian route. The project is surrounded with difficulties, political and geographical. It is one which a Viceroy of India may be proud to advance; for such a railway, built by British enterprise and capital and under British control, will be a mighty rivet to link together our globe-encircling Empire.

THE PRESS IN INDIA: ITS ORIGIN AND GROWTH.

BY G. PARAMASWARAN PILLAI, B.A., M.R.A.S.

THE Indian press has been so prominently before the public both in Great Britain and in India during the latter half of last year and the early part of the present year that it may not be uninteresting to inquire into the origin of the press in India and how it attained its present position and influence in the country. Unlike the press in England which since its emancipation in 1695, has always been free, the press in India has had a chequered career. The press came into existence in India with the publication of the first newspaper in English in 1780. In 1799, it was subjected to a severe censorship which was removed in 1818; nevertheless, several restrictions were imposed on it and these were completely removed only in 1835. From 1835 to 1857, the press was absolutely free but in the latter year, a "Gagging Act" was passed which again was repealed in the following year. In 1877, however, the Vernacular Press Act came into force which was cancelled five years afterwards and the press enjoyed full liberty till the present year when the "Sedition Acts" were introduced. Roughly speaking, the history of the press in India may be divided into four periods: the first extending from 1780, the year of the birth of the first newspaper till 1835 when the press was completely emancipated by Sir Charles (afterwards Lord) Metcalfe the second dating from 1835 till 1857 when the 'Gagging Act" was passed by Lord Canning: the third commencing from that year and ending with the repeal of the Vernacular Press Act in 1882 by Lord Ripon and the fourth covering the period from 1882 up to the present time.

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FIRST PERIOD (1780-1835).

The first newspaper started in India was published at Calcutta on the 29th January, 1780, and was known as Hicky's Gazette. As its name implies, one Mr. Hicky