In the Indian hierarchy H.E. the Commander-in-Chief of India comes next in rank and position to H.E. the Viceroy and Governor-General. But although to all military men “the Chief” is naturally the most important personage professionally, it is seldom that “the Chief” and his _entourage_ make a very deep impression on the social life of the country. There is a sort of military court-circle whilst the Chief resides at his summer quarters at Simla, where he holds periodical levees, and gives dinner-parties and picnics, and sometimes a ball, but that is chiefly to his official friends and acquaintances. When the Chief descends to Calcutta, he occupies the house assigned to him in Fort William, and thereby unintentionally assumes a sort of exclusive position against non-official society. It is not every merchant or barrister or other civilian who has time or courage to face all the sentries, and cross all the drawbridges of the fort, which hedge the divinity of the Chief. The fort is a sort of large and ingenious rat-trap, in which there is one cardinal rule—that you must not retrace your steps, or go out by the gate through which you entered. Sentries bristle at every corner, sometimes English, sometimes native soldiers; all evidently full of aversion to stray visitors. So that when you have at last scaled the Chief’s staircase and written your name in his visiting-book, under the supervision of a good-looking A.D.C., you make your retreat with considerable satisfaction, and with a feeling of profound relief as soon as you find yourself again outside the precincts of the fort. The official position of the Chief is also somewhat anomalous, as he is a member of the Viceroy’s Council, although there is also a Military member of the Council, whose function it is to advise the Viceroy on military matters, and thus apparently to keep the Chief under a sort of control. Theoretically it may be presumed that the Chief should be at the head of his army, wherever it is engaged in war. This was actually the case when Lord Gough was Commander-in-Chief in the great campaigns in the Punjab, when the Sikh army threatened our existence. And still more so was it the rule during the mutinies of 1857–58, when Lord Clyde, as Commander-in-Chief, shared all the perils and labours of those brave men who then reconquered India. But in later times, and also before the mutinies, it was not always so. It is a matter of tradition that Sir William Gomm was the best man at Simla at the interesting game of cup and ball, there being only one civilian who could, but would not, beat him at it. In the days of Sir William Mansfield his excessive zeal in the domestic economy of his household led to scandals and a court-martial, which has become only too famous in military history. When Lord Napier of Magdala was Chief, the state of India was generally peaceful; and although the late genial Commander-in-Chief would gladly have taken the command in person in the