connected with agriculture. I may call myself a colleague of
many of you present as a farmer on a small scale, and I only
hope that I may never have occasion to be a pensioner of this
institution. It is impossible, I think, for any British
gentleman to live at his country place without taking an
interest in agriculture, and in all those things which concern
the farmers of this great country. I thank you also for the very
kind way in which you have mentioned the health of the Princess
of Wales and the rest of the Royal Family.
"Before I sit down I beg to propose a toast--one which is never
left out at great gatherings of Englishmen, and which here ought
to be brought most prominently before your notice--'The Army,
Navy, Militia, and Reserve Forces.' The very backbone of the
country, the best recruits of the Army and Navy, come from the
agricultural districts. Since we know, also, that our commercial
and agricultural interests depend upon the valour and efficiency
of our land and sea forces, you will, I think, agree with me
that it is a toast especially for this meeting, one most
suitable for this agricultural feast. It is a toast which I feel
sure you all, gentlemen, will drink most heartily. With the Army
it gives me great pleasure to couple the name of General Sir W.
Knollys, and with the Navy that of Sir J. Heron Maxwell."
Sir W. Knollys, in responding for the profession to which he belongs,
including the Militia, the Volunteers, and the Reserve Forces, dwelt
upon the habits, the physical well-being, and powers of endurance which
fit the agricultural population of this country for the profession of
arms. They bring with them also that contentment and discipline which
till recent events particularly distinguished the agricultural labourer,
and are always ready to fight for country and Queen.
Sir J. Heron Maxwell having replied for the Navy, the toast-master, Mr.
Goodchild, announced a bumper toast, and the Prince of Wales said:--
"The toast which I now have the honour of proposing to you is
that of 'Success to the Royal Agricultural Benevolent
Institution.' Gentlemen, this excellent and charitable
institution has been only in existence for the space of fifteen
years, and its object is the relief of farmers who have been
reduced by failure of crops, loss of stock, bad seasons, and
other reasons. It has been founded, as I say, for that purpose,
but there is one thing which is absolutely necessary to entitle
to relief, and that is that the recipient of the pension must
have, as his exclusive means of support, cultivated at least
fifty acres, or rented land at £100 a year at least for twenty
years. And those farmers who receive pensions must prove to the
society that they do not possess an income from other sources of
more than £20 a year. Among those, also, who are benefited by
the society are the widows and children or orphans of farmers
and their unmarried daughters.
"One main object of the managers of the institution is to
maintain in their own districts those who have not the means of
providing for themselves, so that, instead of their going to the
workhouse, or having to remove to distant parts of the kingdom,
they may be kept as much as possible in the counties where they
were born and bred. Pensions varying from £20 to £40 a year are
granted, and since the foundation of this society as many as 432
pensioners have been elected, and 53 children have been educated
and maintained at a cost of not far from £40,000. At present
there are 302 pensioners and 41 children on the books of the
charity, and these numbers will, I understand, be augmented
during the present month by the election of 51 pensioners. The
total cost of the year will be nearly £8500, and I am sorry to
say the donations and annual sums received amount to little over
£6800. Therefore, you see that although this institution is in a
highly prosperous state, at the same time the funds are not as
great as we could wish. It is for that reason that we assemble
here--to augment those funds.
"When I look around and see so large a number of gentlemen, who
have come great distances to support me on this occasion, I feel
I shall not ask them in vain to extend their support to so
excellent an institution. You were kind enough just now to drink
in a cordial manner my health, but I think if I had put myself
before you as a surgeon whose health you were going to drink you
might not have received me so cordially. On this occasion I hope
you will look upon me as a surgeon. The few words I have to say
to you are my lancet, with which I have to bleed you--and you
will all feel much the better for it.
"Many may think, 'Why should we give money to those who possibly
by their own fault may have got into distress?' But that is not
the object mentioned. All will agree that the cleverest
agriculturists who thoroughly understand their business may,
through bad seasons, failures of crops, and a variety of other
causes which you know, gentlemen, far better than I do, have
found themselves suddenly in the most abject want. It is a great
pity that the farmers' clubs and agricultural societies do not
do so much as they ought in support of so excellent an
institution.
"I see by your applause it is only too true, and I must call
upon you this evening to show that you have supported this
charity in the most material manner. I thank you once more for
the kind and attentive manner in which you have listened to the
few words which I have uttered. I only regret that it has not
fallen to the lot of another than myself to bring the subject
before you, and I am sure that you will take the will for the
deed. 'Prosperity to the Royal Agricultural Benevolent
Institution!'"
The toast was drunk with all the honours, and the Secretary, Mr. C.
Bousfield Shaw, read a list of subscriptions headed by the Queen with
£25. The Prince of Wales gave, in addition to his annual subscription of
ten guineas, a donation of 100 guineas. The largest list of collections
was Mr. Naish's, of £465. The total amount was no less than £8000.
Mr. C. S. Read, M.P., then proposed the toast of "The Executive Council,
the Secretary, and the Honorary Local Secretaries." In the course of his
speech, he remarked that it had been well said by His Royal Highness
that agriculture is exposed to more vicissitudes and difficulties than
almost any other industry, and it was surprising that it should have
existed so long without any benevolent institution. They must not forget
in that room that they owed the fact that such an institution now exists
to the kind and generous heart of their old friend, Mr. Mechi, the
founder of this society; and the tenant-farmers of England would never
forget the day when the Heir Apparent to the Throne of England
condescended to preside at their annual banquet.
The Marquis of Huntly responded, and said as an example of the good done
by active local energy, that in Cheshire they only had last year a
donation of ten guineas, and subscribers of thirty-one, while from
Norfolk, the Prince's county, with a smaller agricultural population,
they had donations of £826.
The Prince of Wales then said:--
"The list of toasts which we all have before us has now come to
an end, but I shall take the liberty of proposing one more
toast, the last, but by no means the least. We have been
honoured on this occasion by fair ladies, and I think it would
be very wrong if we were to separate without cordially drinking
their health. We see especially how much the comfort, the
well-being, prosperity, and happiness of farmers and
agriculturists depend upon a kind wife to cheer them by the
fireside at the end of their day's work, and to lighten by
female influence the load of difficulties. It affords me the
most sincere pleasure to couple with this toast the name of one
to whom this institution is so much indebted--Mr. Mechi. Lord
Huntly has been mentioning to you the word 'energy'; and if it
had not been for the energy of Mr. Mechi this society would
never have existed. Let me also say, it would not be so
prosperous as it is now if it were not for those energies and
the assistance which he has given it. I hope the words and
expressions which the noble marquis has lately made use of will
not be lost by this company, and that all those who wish to
further the work so worthily begun by Mr. Mechi will continue
it, so that it may never decrease in funds for the excellent
object for which it is designed. I beg to propose the toast of
'The Ladies,' coupled with the name of Mr. Mechi."
Mr. Mechi, in the course of his reply, said that the help of His Royal
Highness would be of the greatest importance to the institution.
The way in which the Prince introduced the toast of the founder of the
Institution was in his happiest vein. Mr. Mechi's death was a great loss
to the agricultural community, for no one more efficiently brought their
claims before the public. It may be added, that the tenant-farmers of
the kingdom have no truer friend than the Prince of Wales.
THE INDIAN EMBASSY.
_November 1875-May 1876._
The visit of the Prince of Wales to India, apart from what it brought of
personal information or amusement, must be regarded as one of the most
important services he has yet rendered to the Empire. This is why we
call it an embassy rather than a tour or a journey. It appears that as
far back as the year 1858, the idea of a tour in the Eastern
possessions of the Crown was suggested by Lord Canning to the Prince
Consort, as part of the education of the Heir Apparent. But he was then
only seventeen, and the proposal was made merely as an incident of
foreign travel. A succession of events, both at home and in the East,
caused the scheme to be postponed, nor was it seriously renewed till the
Prince had attained an age, and acquired an experience in affairs, which
would secure for the expedition high consideration for political and
imperial, as well as personal, purposes.
In the beginning of the year 1875 it was rumoured that the project was
seriously entertained, and on the 16th of March the Marquis of Salisbury
made an official announcement to the Indian Council of the intended
visit. Many arrangements, however, had to be made, and many difficulties
surmounted, before actual preparations for the journey commenced. All
these are recounted in detail by Dr. W. H. Russell, in the introduction
to his book on the 'Prince of Wales's Tour,' a reprint in expanded and
permanent form of his letters as the special correspondent of the
_Times_. Dr. Russell had the advantage of accompanying the Prince as one
of his personal suite, under the title of Honorary Private Secretary. It
is fortunate that the journey had such a historian. The work not only
gives a Diary of the tour in India, with a full record of the
proceedings of the Prince, but is in itself a most interesting and
instructive book of travel, full of information, conveyed in the graphic
and bright style which has made the author famous as a man of letters.
To this book the reader of these pages is referred for the story of the
Royal expedition, both in India and in the countries through which he
passed on the outward and homeward journey.[A]
[Footnote A: 'The Prince of Wales's Tour: a Diary in India, with some
accounts of the visits to the Courts of Greece, Egypt, Spain, and
Portugal.' By William Howard Russell, LL.D. With illustrations by Sydney
P. Hall. Sampson Low & Co.]
The Prince was fortunate in the companions of his journey, even to the
humbler and useful attendants. It is greatly to the credit of his
judgment and his right feeling that the first to whom he expressed a
wish to accompany him was Sir Bartle Frere, a wise and good man, and
whose Indian experience would be of immense value. In the suite there
were, of his own household, Lord Suffield, Sir Dighton Probyn, Colonel
Ellis, and Sir Francis Knollys. The Duke of Sutherland, Lord Alfred
Paget, Lord Aylesford, Lord Carington, Colonel Owen Williams, Lord
Charles Beresford, Captain Fitz George, were invited to join the
expedition. Canon Duckworth was selected as chaplain, and Sir Joseph
Phayrer as physician; Mr. Albert Grey, secretary to Sir Bartle Frere,
Dr. Russell, and Mr. S. P. Hall as artist, completed the list of those
who formed the suite of His Royal Highness. Several of these--General
Probyn, Colonel Ellis, and Dr. Phayrer--had long Indian experience; and
Lord Charles Beresford had accompanied the Duke of Edinburgh in his
Indian tour the year before.
The route to be laid down required much consultation, partly from public
considerations and partly from questions of climate and care for the
Prince's health. The best time of starting had also to be considered. At
last all was arranged, and on the 11th of November the Prince started.
The route was to be viâ Brindisi, to Greece, Egypt, Bombay, Ceylon,
Madras, Calcutta, Lucknow, Delhi, Lahore, Agra, Gwalior, Nepal,
Bareilly, Allahabad, Indore, Bombay, and home by Egypt, Malta,
Gibraltar, Spain, Portugal. The departure from Lisbon was on the 7th of
May, and on the 11th the _Serapis_ anchored off the Isle of Wight, where
the Princess of Wales and the children, in the _Enchantress_ yacht,
awaited the arrival. "The scene at the landing at Portsmouth," says Dr.
Russell, "was a becoming prelude to the greeting which the whole country
gave the Prince of Wales on his return from the visit to India, which
will be for ever a great landmark in the history of the Empire."
The numerous and diverse events and incidents of the months in
India--the sight-seeing, the adventures (some of them strange and
perilous), the shooting parties and hunting expeditions, the manifold
amusements and excitements of travel--all these were enjoyed by the
Prince as much as if he were only the most light-hearted tourist or
keenest sportsman. But at the same time, so far as official ceremony and
public affairs were concerned, he bore himself all through with a
thoughtfulness and dignity worthy of his high position, and of the
important mission with which he was entrusted as representing Royalty
and the British nation.
There was ceremonial reception at Athens, and again in Egypt in the
court of the Khedive, but the first official and formal event of the
Prince's mission was the investiture of Prince Tewfik, the Viceroy's
eldest son, with the Order of the Star of India. This was done in the
palace, with imposing ceremony.
The next official event was the reception of an address from the
inhabitants of Aden, which was presented by a Parsee merchant, on behalf
of the community. The address of the Parsee showed very clearly how well
the object of the Prince's visit was understood throughout the East. The
Prince made an appropriate reply, which no doubt was speedily wired to
Bombay, and read in the native newspapers all over India.
On arriving at Bombay it was again a Parsee who headed the first
deputation and read the first address to the Prince on landing in India.
It was from the Corporation of Bombay, the second city in the British
Empire, in population if not in wealth. The address set forth in glowing
terms the historical and commercial claims of the city to distinction,
and expressed the pleasure of seeing among them the heir to the Crown,
whom the Queen had sent to become personally acquainted with the people
of India. The Prince replied in the following words:--
"It is a great pleasure to me to begin my travels in India at a
place so long associated with the Royal Family of England, and
to find that during so many generations of British rule this
great port has steadily prospered. Your natural advantages would
have insured a large amount of commerce under any strong
Government, but in your various and industrious population I
gladly recognize the traces of a rule which gives shelter to all
who obey the laws; which recognizes no invidious distinctions of
race; which affords to all perfect liberty in matters of
religious opinion and belief; and freedom in the pursuit of
trade and of all lawful callings. I note with satisfaction the
assurance I derive from your address, that under British rule
men of varied creeds and nations live in harmony among
themselves, and develop to the utmost those energies which they
inherit from widely separate families of mankind, whilst all
join in loyal attachment to the British Crown, and take their
part, as in my native country, in the management of their own
local affairs.
"I shall gladly communicate to Her Majesty what you so loyally
and kindly say regarding the pleasure which the people of India
derive from Her Majesty's gracious permission to me to visit
this part of Her Majesty's Empire. I assure you that the
Princess of Wales has never ceased to share my regret that she
was unable to accompany me. She has from her earliest years
taken the most lively interest in this great country, and the
cordiality of your greeting this day will make her yet more
regret the impossibility of her sharing in person the pleasure
your welcome afforded me."
This reply, so happily conceived, and delivered with quiet earnestness,
delighted all who heard it. But the echoes of it would soon reach every
part of India, and the chiefs and rulers, and also the leaders of
opinion in the native press, would from these words of the Prince
receive a lesson of true statesmanship and constitutional government.
The greatest event at Bombay was the reception of the Rulers and Chiefs
of Western India, a scene of truly Oriental magnificence, the
description of which forms one of the most brilliant chapters in Dr.
Russell's book. All the established forms of Indian ceremony were
observed. The greatest rulers were saluted with the largest number of
guns, the Maharajah of Mysore, for instance, having a salute of
twenty-one guns, while others were fifteen-gun chiefs or eleven-gun
rajahs, as the case might be, according to the population and wealth of
the territories over which they ruled. Their dresses, and jewels, and
retinues, and the modes of reception, as well as their personal
characteristics, are all duly recorded. The Viceroy of India, Lord
Northbrook, was with the Prince of Wales at one grand Durbar, and his
position in regard to the Royal Envoy from the Queen, the arrangement of
which had caused some difficulty in anticipation, was gracefully managed
by the Viceroy and the Prince themselves. The Bombay Durbar passed off
admirably. It was the Prince's birthday, the 9th of November, and no
such scene as on that day can he expect again to witness. The "Carpet,"
which takes an important place in Oriental durbars, the nuzzars or gifts
of homage, and other points of ceremonial, as well as the number of guns
in the salute, had all been arranged by official notices to the
political officers attached to the native courts. But the cordial
bearing of the Prince, and his kindly words when he was told that any
visitors knew the English tongue, gave more satisfaction than the formal
ceremonials.
A State banquet was given by the Governor in honour of the Prince's
birthday. In returning thanks for his health, proposed by the Governor,
the Prince made a short but telling speech. He said:--
"It has long been my earnest wish--the dream of my life--to
visit India; and now that my desire has been gratified, I can
only say, Sir Philip Wodehouse, how much pleased I am to have
spent my thirty-fourth birthday under your roof in Bombay. I
shall remember with satisfaction the hospitable reception I have
had from the Governor, and all here, as long as I live, and I
believe that I may regard what I have experienced in Bombay as a
guarantee of the future of my progress through this great
Empire, which forms so important a part of the dominions of the
Queen."
These last words were a true forecast of the Royal progress throughout
India. What has been said of Bombay, must serve to give an idea of what
everywhere had to be recorded. But we must refrain from further details
of what occurred at other Presidencies, and only add that the crowning
public event of the whole tour, the chief ceremony of the mission of the
Prince, the holding the Chapter of the Order of the Star of India, came
off, at Calcutta, on New Year's Day, 1876, with brilliant _éclat_.
This only may be said, that no more successful embassy than that
undertaken by the Prince ever went forth from England. It may be added
that the great ends accomplished by it cost to the British Exchequer
less than £60,000; and this, although no expense was spared in carrying
out the mission with due display and munificence. Nor ought it to be
omitted that the Prince was most generous, as he is at home, in his
gifts to useful and charitable institutions, visited by him in the
course of his journey. But we must leave the fascinating story of the
Indian visit, to resume the record of the humbler, but not less
honourable duties, undertaken by the Prince after his return to England.
LICENSED VICTUALLERS' ASYLUM.
_May 7th, 1877._
The "Licensed Victuallers," as might be expected from so numerous,
wealthy, and ancient a Corporation, possess several charitable
institutions. They have a "Permanent Fund," founded as far back as 1794,
and incorporated in 1836, which grants weekly allowances to about two
hundred and sixty persons, at an annual outlay of £4770; grants £300
yearly for the maintenance of twelve children in the Society's School;
and dispenses temporary relief amounting to £500. The School just named,
founded in 1803, situated in Kennington Lane, Lambeth, wholly maintains
and educates 200 children of deceased or distressed members of the
Incorporated Society of Licensed Victuallers. Its income from all
sources averages £6000. Besides these charitable operations, there is
the Licensed Victuallers' Asylum, in the Old Kent Road, founded in 1827,
and incorporated in 1836, for the reception and maintenance of decayed
aged licensed victuallers, their wives or widows, and for granting
weekly allowances of money to fifty candidates, while waiting for the
more substantial benefits of the Society. The Asylum comprises 170
distinct houses, with a common library, a chapel and resident chaplain.
The property covers six acres of freehold land, and the annual expense
is about £8500.
In support of this useful and well-managed Asylum, the Prince of Wales
presided, at a special jubilee festival held on May the 7th, 1877. The
Duke of Sussex was its first patron in 1827, and he was succeeded by the
Prince Consort, on whose death the Prince of Wales assumed the office. A
large number of influential persons accepted the invitation to be
present, including Earl Granville, several members of the House of
Peers, many members of the House of Commons, and three Bishops, in all
about 300 supporters of the institution.