The approach to it through ten miles of a desolate-looking campagna, thickly strewn with funereal monuments reared in honour of the sovereigns and mighty men of former dynasties, reminded me of Rome.  The city itself bears traces of more recent calamities.  The Palace has been a good deal maltreated, and the Jumma Musjid (Great Mosque), a magnificent building, has only just been restored to the worshippers.  Beyond the town, and over the place where the camp was pitched, lay the heights which were occupied by the British troops, and signalised by so many deeds of valour, during the eventful struggles of 1857.

[Sidenote:  Hurdwar.]

After resting for two days at Delhi, he pursued his course north-eastward, through Meerut to Hurdwar, on the Ganges—­

a sacred place, near the point at which the great Ganges Canal leaves the river; resorted to by pilgrims, in vast crowds, from the Punjab, Rajpootana, and other extensive districts in India.  The Sikhs, who are a reformed Hindoo sect, hold Hurdwar in especial reverence.  To this spot was conveyed, in order that it might here be cast into the sacred water of the Ganges, what remained, after its cremation, of the body of the great Sikh Chief, the Maharaja of Puttialla, whom Lord Canning placed in the Council of the Governor-General.

In another letter, written from the immediate neighbourhood of this place, he took a more practical and utilitarian view of its capabilities and prospects: 

Hurdwar, where I have been spending two days, is a most interesting place.  It is curious to see the old Faith, washing itself in the sacred waters of the Ganges, and the new Faith, symbolised in the magnificent works of the Ganges Canal.  One regrets that these canals should be so little used for navigation purposes, or as sources of mechanical power; but there is some difficulty in combining navigation with irrigation works.  Moreover, in passing through districts which are dependent on irrigation, one cannot help being deeply impressed with a sense of the danger which will ensue if canals are entrusted to private companies, unless they are bound by the most stringent conditions to keep their works in good order, and to supply water at reasonable rates.  In the absence of such precautions, the population of whole districts might be, especially in famine years, entirely at the mercy of those companies.

[Sidenote:  Umballa.]

From this point the vast camp took a north-westerly direction towards the military station of Umballa, which was reached on the 27th of March.  On the following day Lord Elgin received in private Durbar a large number of influential Sikh chiefs, at the head of whom was the young Maharaja of the neighbouring state of Puttialla, the son and heir of the prince above mentioned.  In addressing these chiefs, he showed his usual tact in adapting his words to the character and disposition of his hearers:—­