of Directors had solemnly addressed them on the dignity and responsibility of their position. They had been informed that they were to be the future governors of India; they had been told that it was their duty to demean themselves as Christian gentlemen, to become a light to the heathen, and the leaders of Oriental civilisation. Is it then a matter of wonder that these young men on arriving in Calcutta found it somewhat difficult to submit themselves again to anything having the name or the appearance of college or scholastic discipline? Be it remembered that each young man on his arrival in India was entitled to an income equivalent to nearly four hundred pounds a year. A gentleman commoner at an English university with £400 a year and confiding tradesmen to give him credit, is not usually found a good subject for discipline. What, then, could be expected from the young men in Calcutta, with a salary of £400 a year, and open access to the purses of every wealthy money-lender in the country? Nor was this all. The Government, aware of the danger of the native money-lender’s fatal influence, endeavoured to anticipate and avert it. Each young civilian, whilst in college in Calcutta, was authorised to borrow a sum of £400 from Government. The object of this benevolence was to prevent him from getting into the clutches of the native money-lenders. What was the result? The taste of blood is said to lead to the appetite for more. The young man who had found a loan of £400 almost forced on him by a paternal Government, experienced no difficulty in borrowing several thousand pounds from the native money-lender, who, it may be said, felt confident that the Government would eventually see that he was repaid. The wildest extravagance naturally resulted from this system. The nabob who in the plenitude of his acquired wealth ordered “more curricles,” was practically outdone by the young civilian who, with a nominal income of £400 a year, maintained an establishment in Calcutta in which he would not allow the Arab horses in his stable to be counted. He seldom had less than forty horses, but he considered it unlucky to count them. This officer rose subsequently to the highest eminence in the service, and not only paid all his debts, but acquired a respectable competency. A cousin of this gentleman, who also achieved the highest official honours, had a similar love for horses. He had a stud of English race-horses and an English jockey in charge of them. It would be easy but tedious to enumerate other splendid examples of youthful extravagance. It was the fashion to get in debt to the amount of a lakh of rupees, or £10,000, before leaving college. The cautious and canny young man who did not condescend to borrow the £400 proffered to him by Government, was looked upon with very little feeling of respect by anyone, except perhaps his mother.