Page:Lord Amherst and the British Advance Eastwards to Burma.djvu/177

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THE ENGLISH IN INDIA IN 1824
169

and Travancore complete the list, with one exception. Mr. Gardner was Resident at Khátmándu, and his assistant was Mr. Brian Hodgson, who is, we are glad to say, alive to this day.

Of the ecclesiastical establishment we have to speak elsewhere. Reginald Heber had left, after much misgiving, his quiet parish of Hodnet. and was now Bishop of Calcutta. In Bengal alone there were over thirty chaplains.

Compared with the civil list, the list of military officers is of enormous length. But many of them were engaged in civil work. Indeed, in the early days of the Company, no distinction at all was drawn between liability to service in the field and at the desk ; and to the end of our rule the army will no doubt furnish British India with able administrators as well as gallant defenders.

The College at Fort William was the place where the newly arrived nominees to the Civil Service got their training—where they were supposed to learn the language, and at any rate get acquainted with each other and see something of life. The Asiatic Society, with its long list of members, showed that there was scholarlike taste and archaeological ardour among those who had to face the rough and tumble of affairs.

But of special interest to us in a survey of this kind is the careful register kept of 'European inhabitants'—other than covenanted servants. Far the largest portion of these were in Bengal. Scattered