388
AMRAOTI — AMRITSAR
those were right who, during the early fifties, urged so was, as has been truly said, “Not the death of a man but (m. g. d.) strongly the importance of having a duly accredited agent of a generation.” Amraoti, or Umrawattee, a town and district of at the Papal Court. The line taken by him during the Vatican Council has been criticized, but no fault can justly India, in Berar or the Haidarabad Assigned Districts, be found with it. Abreast as he was of the best thought under British administration. The town is 1222 feet of his time—the brother of Arthur Russell, who, more above the sea; the railway station is six miles from Badperhaps than any other man, was its most ideal representa- nera junction on the Great Indian Peninsula line. Poputive in London society—he sympathized strongly with the lation (1881), 23,550; (1891), 28,946, excluding 4709 views of those who laboured to prevent the extreme in the civil station. Amraoti raw cotton is quoted on the partisans of papal infallibility from having everything Liverpool Exchange. There are 11 cotton presses with an their own way. But in his capacity of clear-headed out-turn of 70,000 bales; and a mill at Badnera, with observer, whose business it was to reflect the actual truth 248 looms and 18,900 spindles, employing 1186 hands, upon the mind of his Government, he was obliged to make which, in 1897-98, produced 5796 bales of twist and yarn, it quite clear that they had no chance whatever, and in and 2442 bales of cloth. There are two high schools, conversing with those whose opinions were quite unlike his with 354 pupils; and a school for European boys and own, such as Cardinal Manning, he seems to have shown girls, maintained by a Roman Catholic mission. The that he had no illusions about the result of the long town has four printing-presses, one issuing a vernacular debate. In 1868 Odo Russell married Lady Emily newspaper. Theresa Villiers, the daughter of Lord Clarendon. In The district of Amraoti has an area of 2759 square miles; 1870 he was appointed assistant under-secretary at the population (1881), 575,328; (1891), 655,645; (1901), Foreign Office, and in November of that year was sent on 630,245, showing a decrease of 4 per cent. The land a special mission to the headquarters of the German army, revenue and rates in 1897-98 were Rs.l / ,01,35/, the where he remained till 1871. A little later in the same incidence of assessment being R.l:l:4 per acre; the year he received the*well-deserved reward of his labours by cultivated area was 1,414,361 acres, of which 8745 are being made ambassador at Berlin. irrigated from wells; the number of police was 623; the During the months he passed at the Foreign Office he number of boys at school in 1896-97 was 14,065, being was examined before the committee of the House of 27'5 per cent, of the male population of school-going age ; Commons, already alluded to, and had an opportunity of the registered death-rate in 1897 was 60-5 per thousand. stating very distinctly in public some of his views with The district is crossed by the main line of the Great regard to his profession. It was before the same com- Indian Peninsula railway. In 1899-1900 it suffered mittee that he said that “if you could only organize severely from drought. diplomacy properly, you would create a body of men who Amravati, a village of British India, in theKistna might influence the destinies of mankind and ensure the district of the Madras Presidency. It is situated in peace of the world.” In these words we have the key to 16° 34' N. lat. and 80° 24' E. long., on the right bank of the the thought and habitual action of one of the best and river Kistna, near the head of its delta. Here are, or wisest public servants of the time. If more people could rather were, the ruins of the finest Buddhist monument be converted to his views, the diplomatic service suffi- in India. It was a stupa, or “tope,” built to enshrine ciently increased, the means of getting adequate informa- a ‘ relic of Gautama Buddha. It is enthusiastically detion from abroad improved, and that information properly scribed by Hwen Thsang, the Chinese pilgrim, who visited digested, the cost of some regiments and not a few iron- it in 639. In the beginning of the 19th century elaclads might be saved. borate excavations and drawings were made by Colin Lord Ampthill remained at Berlin, with only brief inter- Mackenzie. The sculptures subsequently carried off by vals of absence, from 16th October 1871 till his death at Sir Walter Elliot now line the great staircase of the Potsdam on the 25th August 1884. He was third plenipo- British Museum, and are figured in Fergusson’s Tree and tentiary at the Berlin Congress, and is generally credited Serpent Worship (1868). Further researches were conwith having prevented, by his tact and good sense, the British prime minister from making a speech in French, ducted on behalf of the Government in 1877 and 1882, which he knew very imperfectly and pronounced abomin- and the best of the remaining sculptures were taken to ably. In 1874 Odo Russell received a patent of precedence Madras. A handsome memoir by Dr James Burgess wasraising him to the rank of a duke’s son, and after the Con- published in 1887, as one of the volumes of the Archaeogress of Berlin he was offered a peerage by the Conservative logical Survey of Southern India. Amritsar (Umritsur), a city and district of British Government. This he naturally declined, but accepted the honour when it was offered by the Liberals. He became India, in the Lahore division of the Punjab. It has a a privy councillor in 1872 and was made a G.C.B. some- station on the North-western railway 32 miles east of what later. At the conference about the Greek frontier, Lahore. Population (1881), 151,896 ; (1891), 136,766 ; which followed the Congress of Berlin, he was the only (1901), 162,548, showing an increase of 19 per cent. British representative. During all his long sojourn in the Municipal income (1897-98), Rs.4,42,372; death-rate Prussian capital, he did everything that in him lay to (1897), 36 per thousand. A Sikh college for university bring about close and friendly relations between Great education was opened in 1897. The other public buildBritain and Germany. He kept on the best of terms with ings include two churches, a town hall, and a hospital. Bismarck, carefully avoiding everything that could give any There are also a municipal college; 5 high schools for cause of offence to that most jealous and most unscrupu- ♦boys; 3 secondary schools for girls; 17 printing presses, lous minister, whom he, however, did not hesitate to with- issuing 10 newspapers and periodicals; Hindu, Sikh, and stand when his unscrupulousness went the length of deli- Mahommedan literary institutions. berately attempting to deceive. What might have happened The area of the district of Amritsar is 1601 square miles; if Lord Ampthill’s life had been prolonged, and the population (1881), 893,266; (1891), 992,697, showing an Emperor Frederick had come to the throne at about the increase of 11 per cent., and an average density of 620 period of life at which it would have been natural for him persons per square mile; (1901), 1,023,902, showing to do so, in the first half of the ’seventies, it is impossible an increase of 3 per cent. The land revenue and rates to say. The death in 1888 of the Emperor Frederick in 1897-98 amounted to Rs.12,44,644, the incidence
