labour and responsibility, requiring much tact, much method, sound judgment, an even temper, and a prudent tongue. But, compared with the office as it existed in 1836, the present duties are greatly changed in character. There is more correspondence nowadays with London; constant telegrams from all quarters must be received and replied to; a weekly mail from England must be mastered, and a mail to England must be weekly despatched. The railways flood the table with letters, and the anteroom with visitors. In 1836 telegrams and weekly mails were unknown; there were no railways, fewer posts, fewer strangers from the provinces or elsewhere. But if less time was taken up in maintaining communication with Europe, more was absorbed in matters of purely Indian administration. At present the Viceroy has a Lieutenant-Governor in Bengal to take from off his shoulders the burden of Calcutta and the government of seventy-one million of people. The patronage is transferred with the duties. The movements of every Bengal official, from the magnate in the Court of Appeal to the latest little fledgeling who has alighted from England on the Calcutta strand, have no longer to be disposed of as in 1836 in the Private Secretary's Office. The departments of the Government of India are divided now among the members of Council; and, subject in a few cases to the concurrence of the head of the Government, which is rarely withheld, each member, with the rest of his work, disposes of the claims of officials under him. Much of the patronage
