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any man living. But too soon the hand of death snatched from the roll of distinguished Indian soldiers and statesmen the honoured name of the victor of Kineyree and Suddoosain.

In his private relations Sir Herbert Edwardes was greatly beloved by his friends, and we cannot close this memoir better than in the simple words of the message sent to him by the dying hero, General Nicholson:-"Tell him I should have been a better man if I had continued to live with him, and our heavy public duties had not prevented my seeing more of him privately. I was always the better for a residence with him and his wife, however short." And Sir Neville Chamberlain, who sent this message from the death-bed of their mutual friend, added:-"What purer gratification could there be in this world than to receive such words from a dying man? I can imagine no higher reward."

MAJOR-GENERAL SIR HENRY MARION

DURAND, C.B., K.C.S.I., R.E.

Durand's early Service in India in the Public Works Department-Proceeds to Afghanistan-Assists in blowing in the Gate at Ghuznee-Durand and the Cabul Cantonment Returns to India-Is appointed Military Secretary to Lord Ellenborough-Durand during the Gwalior Campaign-Is employed in TenasserimTakes part in the Punjaub Campaign-The Indian Mutiny-Is compelled to fly from Indore-Campaigning with the Malwa Field-Force-Proceeds to England -Serves in the Indian Council-Final Return to India-Is appointed LieutenantGovernor of the Punjaub-Death and Character of Sir Henry Durand.

NEW YEAR'S DAY of 1871 will be memorable in Indian annals as that on which our great Eastern dependency sustained a severe public loss by the death of Sir Henry Durand. Eminent alike as a soldier and a statesman, the country can ill afford to lose such men, and that at a time when the signs of the times seem to portend the approach of events which will try the clear heads and bold hearts of all those of England's sons who are placed in positions of responsibility in that country.

We have not been able to discover anything very definite regarding the parentage of the late Sir Henry Durand, but it is known that he used the Percy arms, with the bâton sinister. He was born in 1812, and was educated at the East India Company's military seminary of Addiscombe, where he was a cotemporary of Lord Napier of Magdala, who passed out and proceeded to India two years before young Durand. In June, 1828, he entered the army as second-lieutenant in the Bengal Engineers.

Henry Durand sailed for India in a ship among whose passengers was another great spirit, though distinguished in more peaceful fields than those in which his fellow-passenger earned renown. This was Alexander Duff, the missionary, one of that eminent and unselfish band of soldiers of the Cross which includes the names of Marshman and Martyn. The ship

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was wrecked on Dassen Island, and the friends were separated; but long years after, in May, 1870, the successful soldier-statesman, whom all India congratulated on his well-earned nomination to the Lieutenant-Governorship of the Punjaub, wrote in reply to a letter from Dr. Duff, expressing the pleasure of the writer at Durand's promotion to so congenial a sphere of duty, that he considered his career to be "a mere flash in the pan,' when he contrasted it with the enduring and admirable work of Dr. Duff. The anecdote is worth preserving, as showing that Durand possessed that modest appreciation of his own merits which is one of the attributes of true greatness.

In India the young Lieutenant of Engineers quickly became noted for his professional ability, and for the zeal with which he pursued the scientific researches which were then newly introduced into the East. The early part of his career was uneventful. Like many officers of his standing, who have since earned distinction in the field, he arrived in India soon after the termination of the first Burmese war and the siege of Bhurtpore.

Between the years 1829 and 1838 he was chiefly employed in the north-west provinces, and from 1834 until he went on active service, a period of four years, he held the office of Superintendent of Feroze Shah's Canal. Meantime, young Durand acquired an intimate knowledge of the agrarian tenures, the productive capabilities, and the economical conditions of the north-west provinces. So conspicuous was his ability in this direction, that he was appointed Secretary to the Agra Board of Revenue-an unprecedented appointment for a military officer.

A period of profound peace supervened on Durand's arrival in India, and the country progressed greatly under the enlightened administration of Lord William Bentinck, the successor of Lord Amherst. Not a cloud as large as a man's hand portended the disturbance of the serenity of the political sky. The military "sister Anns" must have sighed frequently and deeply as they watched for the coming of the armed man who was to usher in the period of wars and fighting, and put an end to the stagnation in promotion that had so long prevailed. How these ardent men of the sword must have cursed their ill-luck when they learned that another peacefully-inclined Governor-General had been appointed to succeed Lord William Bentinck. We can fancy the lugubrious expressions on the countenances of gallant officers of all the Presidencies, as they anxiously scanned the report of the speech of Lord Auckland, at the farewell banquet given to him at the Freemason's Tavern, just prior to his departure for India, wherein he stated his firm resolve that the doors of the Temple

of Janus should not turn on its hinges during his vice-royalty. But the portals of the ancient heathen edifice were not destined to rest where they stood during the memorable years that marked the tenure of office of the late Whig First Lord of the Admiralty. Though he came in a peaceful guise, and with the most sincerely "benevolent intentions" animating his breast, yet the time of annual Indian surpluses in the revenue, and of remissions of taxation, had gone by, not to return for a quarter of a century. Ere six months had elapsed since the accession to office of the new Governor-General, he appeared to the astonished gaze of the world as a man bent on " restoring our just influence in Central Asia." Thousands of ardent spirits responded with alacrity as the order went forth once more that the sword was to be unsheathed, and this time in the almost terra incognita of Afghanistan; and yet but a few short years passed quickly by, and many of these brave hearts had ceased to beat amid the snows and horrid defiles of that barren and sterile country to which hope had beckoned them with her "too flattering tale," as the scene where honour and glory and the "bubble reputation" were to be won.

In 1838, on the assembling of the army for service in Afghanistan, Lieutenant Durand, anxious to see service as a soldier, threw up his good civil appointment with its high pay, and was appointed to the engineering department of the expeditionary army, under the orders of Captain Thomson. No noteworthy incident occurred to Durand during the march into Afghanistan. After a delay of ten weeks at Candahar, the army set out on its march to Cabul, the Commander-in-Chief intending on the way to capture Ghuznee. Sir John Keane, it is true, neglected to take with him his battering train, and would have been responsible had there been a failure, but the blame of the omission rests chiefly with his advisers, who assured him that it would not be required, as Ghuznee could not be defended.*

* On this point Captain Thomson, the chief Engineer of the army of the Indus, has stated in a memorandum:-" Why the battering train was left behind at Candahar -Before doing so, Sir John Keane took every precaution by requiring the opinion of all concerned. When called on for mine, I made particular inquiries, which satisfied me that the guns should be left. I can recollect that the commissariat were much pressed for cattle, and the quantity of ammunition was not sufficient to breach a good mud wall, though it might have answered for such stone, or brick, as we anticipated before entering the country, and the politicals assured us that Ghuznee would not be defended. In a letter to a brother now in my possession, dated July 29, 1839, I wrote, All the prognostications of our politicals have turned out false, though repeated daily with such phrases as, "I stake my credit there will be no attempt at resistance." These induced Sir John Keane to leave our four battering guns at Candahar, and such was the scarcity of cattle, we could only bring in ammunition sufficient for one day's consumption. Therefore, if there was blame, it does not rest with Sir John Keane." The present Lord Keane, who was an

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Ghuznee was about 86 miles distant from Cabul, and 230 from Candahar, and, on the arrival of the army before the walls of this hitherto considered impregnable fortress, it was discovered that it was garrisoned by 3,500 Afghans under command of Hyder Khan, a son of Dost Mahomed Khan, who had made some preparations for slight defence. Parties of the enemy were posted in the villages and gardens round the fort; but the light companies of the advancing force soon dislodged them. The morning of the 21st July was spent in brisk skirmishing, and a close reconnaissance of the place was then undertaken by the Engineers, who reported the fortifications as equally strong all round.

At daylight on the following morning, Sir John Keane reconnoitred Ghuznee with the officers of his staff, and then, seeing the impracticability of battering down the walls with his field guns, adopted a plan which, with the intuition of genius, Captain Thomson had propounded to him the previous day. The Commander-in-Chief says in his report, "Instead of the tedious process of breaching (for which we were ill-prepared) Captain Thomson undertook, with the assistance of Captain Peat of the Bombay Engineers, Lieutenants Durand and MacLeod of the Bengal Engineers, and other officers, to blow in the Cabul Gate, the weakest point, with gunpowder; and so much faith did I place in the success of this operation, that my plans for the assault were immediately laid down, and the orders given." Captain Thomson had arrived at this decision after a conversation with one Abdool Rashed, the nephew of Dost Mahomed, who had been bribed to turn traitor by Mohun Lal, the famous Moonshee of Sir Alexander Burnes. "I introduced him," says Mohun Lal in his memoirs, "to the Envoy, who placed him under the immediate disposal of Lord Keane. The information which he gave to the chief Engineer, relative to the fortifications of Ghuznee, was so valuable and necessary, that my friend Abdool Rashed Khan was requested to attend upon him in all his reconnoitring expeditions.' From this man it was learned that all aide-de-camp on his father's staff, wrote on the 4th May, 1869, with reference to some points in the author's memoir of Sir George Macgregor, in a military magazine:-"Sir John Keane left his four heavy 18-pounder battering guns behind at Candahar owing not only to the infinite trouble they had given in dragging them by bullocks up to that city, but mainly in deference to the representations of Major Todd, who had seen Cabul and Ghuznee, that they would not be required. It was, perhaps, fortunate that they were left behind, as they would have much delayed the march of the army, and their presence might have induced the Engineers to recommend a regular siege, in place of the brilliant coup-de-main by which the fortress was taken, and for which Sir John Keane always gave Major Thomson full credit.

"The sword of Hyder Khan, the Governor, was bought at the sale of the prize property, for 4,000 rupees, or 400/., and presented to the Commander-in-Chief by the Bombay column. It is now in my possession."