that the Assembly are not lawyers, still less diplomats; and that, come what may, speaking the truth can do no harm.

Then Cavour rose. His attitude was careless-almost slovenly. With the left hand buried deep down in his pocket, his right played nervously with a paper-knife, which he kept swinging to and fro. (Ah, me! what a treasured relic that paper-knife must be to some one now!) His sentences at first came slowly and hesitatingly; and, as they ended, he seemed to falter constantly, as though he was doubting what next to say.

As

he went on, however, you perceived that the order and sequence of those halting sentences was perfect; that the man was speaking, not because he had a speech to make, still less because it was a pleasure to him to speak, but because he had something that needed saying. Even if the speech itself had not an interest of its own, the last words of so great a man are worth' recording.

The

reports of the Italian papers are, to our notion, very curt and meagre; but, comparing them with my own recollections, I think I can state confidently that Cavour spoke much as follows::

"Because one has the honour of re"presenting the government of one's 66 country before foreign powers, one is 66 no less a patriot for that. I am bound "to explain to you the motives which "direct my policy. I admit freely that "all who took part in the noble defence "of Venice have deserved well of their "country. The only question is, whe"ther we ought to recognise the grades "conferred by the provisional govern"ment of that city. If we admit the "principle for Venice, we must admit it "for all the other provisional govern"ments, including that of Rome. We "cannot act on one principle for Venice, "and on another for Rome. I ask you if the time has come to recom66 pense all the sacrifices made for the cause of Italy? If you declare that every sacrifice is to be recompensed "and every loss made good, you must (6 renounce the idea of war. War is not "possible if all injuries received by it are to be compensated for afterwards.

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"The question is not whether the officers "who have fought at Rome and at "Venice have deserved well of their "country, but whether we are bound to "repair the losses they have suffered. "My duty is a painful one. As Minis"ter of Marine I have proved my sym"pathy for those officers by admitting

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many of them into the royal service. "I am afraid, however, you will recog"nise a dangerous principle. If you "once admit the right of these officers "to a pension, you bind us to repair all "the losses incurred by war. I am "convinced that the majority of these "officers received their grades for ho"nourable reasons; but you know that, "in troubled times, you must accept "everybody's services; and necessarily provisional governments commit "number of mistakes. You wish the Government to recognise all these "grades indiscriminately. This, I think, "is undesirable. The consequence would "be that, as we did not recognise the 66 grades of those officers who entered "the national service, those who have "not taken up their arms would be "better off than those who fought for

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us. I am told that the only ques"tion is about a handful of persons. "Let an order of the day then be passed, "requesting the Government to look "into this matter; and the Government "will be ready to use its best powers "for meeting the wishes of the Cham"bers. A measure shall be prepared "for the purpose; and, meanwhile, the "officers shall receive the indemnity "voted for them heretofore.

"Do not suppose that we are influ"enced by external considerations. "Courage, indeed, was required to treat "of the Venetian question in 1850, "when the reaction was triumphant "everywhere; but, at present, I declare explicitly that there is no need to "trouble ourselves about the diplo"matic side of the question.

"I call, therefore, on the Chambers "to vote my order of the day; which "requests the ministry to study the question, but not to recognise the "grades indiscrimately."

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When the Premier sat down there

was a loud murmur of assent rather than of applause. I suspect that, save under exceptional circumstances, Cavour's oratory was never likely to create much enthusiasm. There was too obvious an expression of the feeling that he spoke not to influence the decision of his audience, but because he thought it due to them and to himself to explain the reasons on which he called on them to follow his decision.

In strange contrast to Cavour's hesitating accents, the deep, sonorous, somewhat funereal, voice of Brofferio now resounded through the house. A tall, thin, sallow, bilious man, with that fatal flow of words, and that disinclination to the show of white linen which seem to me characteristic, all the world over, of the disappointed democrat! He spoke well, and, though pompously, with force. The occupants of the public tribune cheered from time to time the terminations of those well poised sentences; and the pointed, laboured sarcasms told with success. "If he was a "lawyer," so I remember a fragment of his speech ran, he loved to defend a "just cause. Count Cavour had misre

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presented the whole matter in dispute. "It was not a question of compensation, "but whether blood shed for the cause "of Italy should be refused a refuge on "Italian soil. It was all very well to "talk about Rome and Venice; but the "time was come not to talk but to act. "He was sent to represent the Italian nation, and he would fulfil his duty."

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In spite of Brofferio's sarcasms, he could obtain no notice from Cavour. The gallery might cheer; but the Minister sat silent, playing with his paperknife, and smiling with a smile that was almost contemptuous, as if long ago he had taken his assailant's measure and found him not worth combating. It It was curious to see how Cavour's manner changed when Brofferio gave place to Bixio. The slight scornful smile was laid aside, and the Minister listened carefully to an adversary whom he seemed to think required listening to and answering. Bixio, in truth, spoke freely. He told him he himself had fought at Rome and been wounded

there; and, when he added that at Rome and Venice the Italians had been fighting in their own houses and for their own homes, it was not the gallery or the left alone that cheered his words. The speech of General Fanti, the war minister, in reply, was one of those which injure the cause they advocate. Strictly speaking, no doubt he was in the right; but, when he expatiated drily on the technical inconveniences of granting military pensions to men who had not served regularly, the feeling of the House was clearly not with him. Cavour was obviously aware of this; and, when Tecchio rose again and proposed, as a compromise, that pensions should only be given to those Venetian officers who had applied unsuccessfully for service in the Sardinian army during the great war of independence in 1859, the Premier accepted the proposal readily. And so, for the day the matter rested. The sittings are not long in the Italian Parliament; and by half-past five the debate was

over.

The next day, the last of Count Cavour's appearance, I was present at the opening of the sitting. This time I took my place in a private tribune, for which I had been given a ticket; but I do not know that I was better off than in the public gallery. No question of much interest was thought likely to come under discussion, and the House was not so full as the day before. I have fancied since, while thinking the matter over, that there was a slight change visible in Cavour's look and manner. He seems to me now, though I own the reflection is one I made afterwards, to have been somewhat nervous and restless. This I know, that he changed his seat several times from one part of the ministerial bench to another, and that more than once during the debate he left the house, as though, in that hot, sultry, storm-laden atmosphere, he needed fresher air.

The orders of the day comprised a good deal of dry matter; but, as happens sometimes in other Parliaments, almost all the sitting was occupied in a discussion about which nothing could be found in

president, Ratazzi, proceeded, as a matter of form, to propose Tecchio's amendment-agreed upon the night beforeto the house, Brofferio got up suddenly, and moved, as an amendment, that the words, " and Roman" should be inserted after Venetian. He was too acute an orator not to make the most of Cavour's admission on the previous day, that the same principle must be adopted about Rome as about Venice. He dwelt bitterly upon the logical inconsistency of rewarding the defenders of the one and neglecting those of the other, compared the dictatorship of Mazzini at Rome to that of Manin at Venice, and wound up with a declamatory paragraph loaded with antithesis and alliteration, somewhat of this kind:-"If, then, "gentlemen, the circumstances of Rome "and Venice are alike; if the men "who fought on the shores of the "Adriatic and those who died on the "banks of the Tiber are great alike; if "the consequences are alike; if a like "justice urges us, and a like right com"mands us- -then why should we not "do an act of like justice?"

Tecchio's motion was put from the chair and carried unanimously; and then, when Brofferio's amendment was placed before the House, Cavour opposed it in these words :

"The honourable deputy, Signor "Brofferio, taking advantage of an ad"mission I made yesterday, has pro"posed the present amendment. I do "not withdraw, and do not wish to withdraw, the words I then spoke ; "but the honourable gentleman ought "to remember that at the same time I

came to the monarchy, and said, 'We "recognise you, we offer you our "services;' and all who so came were "accepted readily. An honourable "Gentleman calls out that all so came, "but I am not of his opinion-I "wonder indeed how such an opinion

"We accepted the motion of Signor Tecchio, because he declared that it "referred only to these officers who "offered their services to the govern"ment during the campaign of '59. "But did all the officers of the Roman

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Republic do this? This very Cernus"chi, on whom Signor Brofferio passed "such an eulogium, never came near us, and preferred keeping a lucrative appointment he has got at Paris. Amongst the defenders of Rome there are indeed many who gave in their "adhesion to the national cause; and, "if they took no part in the war, it was "from no want of good will on their part. On this account we are bound "to pay regard to them.

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"It is difficult to lay down any exact

"law which would apply to this case; "but I declare positively that the 66 government will look to the interest "of this class of our fellow-citizens who "have deserved well of their country."

It is not surprising that this speech (the personal allusions in which it would take too long for me to explain here) should have led to a bitter and rambling discussion. The Mazzinian triumvirate at Rome, the Nicotera demonstration at Leghorn, the private character of Signor Cernuschi, and the question how far Brofferio was justified in talking of the conquest of Sicily by Garibaldi, were all dragged into discussion. Perhaps, if I were describing the debate alone, these incidents in it would be what I should dwell on most; but for meand I think for my readers also-all in those days' debate in which Cavour took no part has ceased to have any interest. It is enough to notice these two facts. Several members of the right supported the minister, but without ability; and even then I was struck with what now strikes me still more painfully-how completely the discussion was, not between the right and the left, but between the opposition and Cavour alone. It is pleasanter to me to remember how, when Brofferio having implied that Ricasoli had broken his faith to Nicotera, the ex-ruler of Tuscany rose and said, "His simple “ answer was that, throughout his life, "he had never to his knowledge "failed either in his word, or in his "honour!" Thereupon, the house cheered the words of the present Premier of Italy, as of one in whose mouth that proud answer was no empty boast.

The afternoon was getting on, and the debate becoming more personal as it continued, when Bixio -that strange fire-brand peace-maker-sprang up, and, saying that the house was getting all to sea, proposed as a compromise a general resolution, "that all who had fought for "the national independence deserved "well of their country." Logically Logically speaking, the conclusion was impotent enough. Happily for themselves, the Italians are not much troubled with logical difficulties. Bixio's motion was

a fortunate escape from a discussion which was touching on dangerous ground; and, after Cavour had supported it with the words, "Till our foreign "relations are settled, we must stifle all

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party disputes; when that is done things will be different; the best act "therefore of conciliation we can per"form is to vote for General Bixio's "order of the day," the motion was carried by a large majority, the opposition for the most part abstaining from voting at all.

These were the last words which Count Cavour spoke in the Italian Parliament. He very shortly left the house, never to return there again; and, after some little formal business, the house itself adjourned also. The next day was the great national feast of the "Corpus Christi ;" and, though-from the refusal of the higher clergy to celebrate the approaching feast of the "Statuto "— the Assembly took no official part in the religious festival, yet on that day there was no meeting of the chambers. On that evening, having seen all I wanted to see, I left Turin. For the next few days, I heard little and thought but little of Italian affairs. I saw indeed a chance notice in the papers of Cavour's illness; but I attached little importance to it. So many times in Sicily and Naples I had been told that Cavour was dying or dead. At Rome, it was such a common 66 ruse of the priestparty to spread a report of Cavour's death, that it had become almost a joke there, when no other news was stirring, to say that the only news was that Cavour was dead. In fact I had heard "Wolf" cried so often that I had ceased to believe in the existence of the danger. It was just a week after I had heard Cavour speak that, in an obscure part of London, my eyes were caught by the placard of a penny paper pasted on the wall, announcing "The "death of Count Cavour ;" and then, standing there, I had no need of reports to tell me of the mourning in Turin, where every shop was closed, with the words written across the barred shutters, "Pel lutto nazionale."

IT would be difficult to mention any profession which is so often asserted' as the Indian Civil Service is, to be a sure path to great worldly prosperity. Every one has heard of briefless barristers, starving curates, shabby authors; of doctors without patients, of merchants without business, and of soldiers and sailors without promotion. But who ever heard of an Indian civilian who was not rolling in wealth, pomp, and power? Who ever heard the Civil Service of India described except as "the finest service in the world, sir"—the one glorious certainty in the pursuits of civilized life. The Indian civilian is, indeed, to the present age almost what the Indian nabob was to a former age. He is studiously represented as a lazy, luxurious being, in the enjoyment of extravagant pay, and of improper privileges and immunities of all kinds, and with nothing but the dangers of the climate, and the discomforts of expatriation, to mitigate his almost superhuman felicity.

So long as the government of India and the right of nomination to the Civil Service remained in the hands of the directors, these misconceptions could do but little harm. But now that the government has been transferred to the Crown, and the service thrown open to the public, the most serious evils may result from them. They may lead to the unreflecting reduction of Indian civil salaries, and they may induce men to compete for writerships who have no No. 22.-VOL. IV.

inclination whatever for such a life as the Indian civilian's actually is. It is surely desirable that, before the salaries are reduced, it should be well understood what the work is by which they are earned; and that, before a youth enters the service, he should know what the service is.

To supply this information is the object of the present paper. We will first

sketch the career of a civilian in the North West provinces; then mention the chief incidents of his service; and, lastly, endeavour to place the service in its true rank as a worldly profession. In applying our results to other parts of India, variations of detail will, indeed, be necessary. But they will hold good generally of both the upper and lower provinces of Bengal,-the presidency to which the majority of probationers will probably always be sent, and in which the highest rate of salaries prevails.

On his arrival in India, the new civilian spends his first year in Calcutta, studying two oriental languages. He is now said to be "in college." The college is the college of Fort William, which has degenerated from Lord Wellesley's ideal into an examining board, a library, and a crowd of Moonshees and Pundits. Every student is provided with a Moonshee, with the loan of books, and with about 4007. a year pay, which, although it sounds enormous to English ears, is little more than enough to enable the young civilian to keep up his position in so expensive a city as Calcutta. It