I may observe finally that if the above-mentioned qualities are, as the native speaker complains, deficient, it is simply because the climate of India is not favourable to their production. As an Indian gentleman once said to me in London, "Here I am glad to go out for a walk. In Madras I find it an exertion to walk across a room." That explains our presence in India, and the necessity for keeping all important active work in our own hands. The natives are not at all to blame for being deficient in the active virtues. We ourselves, our bull-dogs, and our vegetables would alike decline without constant renewal by fresh importations from England. FOOTNOTES: [11] The landed qualification varies from 100 rupees to 300 rupees, and the house and shop qualification from 13 rupees to 18 rupees. This arrangement has evidently been made to suit the wealth or poverty of particular parts of the country. This seems to be rather an inconvenient system, and it is difficult to see why the lower rates of qualification should not be made universal. [12] For all practical spending purposes in India the rupee may be reckoned at par. It is only when it requires to be turned into gold for the purchase of articles in England that its gold value must be taken into account. [13] The meeting now held was, I am aware, quite out of order, but as the Assembly had taken a new departure some laxness was permissible at first. [14] On looking at the Government Report of the proceedings of the Assembly for 1891 (which I may observe was not published till the year following), I find that, though 340 members were elected, only 262 attended. No less than seventy-eight members failed to put in an appearance, and the only probable explanation of this that I can give is that these members felt that they had nothing in particular to represent to the Government, and therefore thought that they might much better remain at home. CHAPTER IV. NATURAL HISTORY AND SPORT.