to those who at a later date are themselves to hold the reins of Government, it is almost indispensable. They thus familiarize themselves with the principles which underlie the conduct of affairs. They observe their application, and become acquainted with the views of men of experience and ability from all parts of India. They see in what spirit public business is habitually approached by those who have the conduct of it; in what manner it is handled; whereabouts they may look in affairs for the line which separates the practicable from the preferable. This kind of work makes of an Indian civilian a full man and an accurate man. It is deficient only so far as it fails to make him a ready man. State affairs, while he is thus working out his novitiate, pass under his eyes; characters and situations are discussed, problems probed; the stir, the complex movement, the march of public life in all its variety and amplitude, goes on before him. But he is only a spectator of the scenes which are being enacted. One day he will be called upon, possibly, to sustain a principal rôle. Then it will be well for him if he has for an interval exchanged, at some previous period of his career, the pen of a critic for the part of a performer.
During those years while acquiring much knowledge of affairs, Mr. Colvin strengthened his intimacy with many who became life-long friends. Foremost amongst these was Mr. (afterwards Sir Charles) Trevelyan; who, in his Memoir, recalls some pleasant instances of his friend's generous self-dis-
