To Sir Charles Trevelyan.

    Simla:  June 17, 1863.

[Sidenote:  Council to meet at Lahore.]

On the first occasion of transferring the Council from Calcutta to another place, we ought to select some considerable town—­the capital of a Province or local Government, if possible.  What we wish to do is to give effect to the scheme embodied in the ninth clause of the Councils Act, and we should do so in such a manner as to carry public opinion with us.  If the plan answers, we may exercise a greater liberty of choice on future occasions.

I adhere to the opinion which I first expressed, that, on the whole, Lahore is the place which unites the greatest number of advantages.  It is the capital of a province which is loyal, which is under the Government of India, and which, moreover, has a good many special characteristics of its own, with which it may be well that the Supreme Legislature should acquaint themselves on the spot.  Against these recommendations is to be set the greater distance from Calcutta, which does not affect communication by telegraph, and, for more bulky communications, as compared with Delhi, is only a question of a few hours.

    I have no wish to legislate at a purely military station; my object is
    to select a place of meeting where we may obtain some knowledge of
    local and native feeling, which does not reach Calcutta.

* * * * *

    To Sir Charles Wood.

    Simla:  August 30, 1863.

After reaching this place, I soon came to the conclusion that the reasons for meeting at Lahore were much more forcible than those which could be advanced in favour of any other place; and circumstances which have occurred since then have tended strongly to confirm me in this opinion.  Independently of the prestige which attaches to the province of which it is the capital, and to the Sikh population which inhabit it, the state of affairs in Afghanistan, and on our frontier, would render a demonstration which would at once afford evidence of our military strength and gratify the pride and self-importance of the Sikh chiefs, at this moment especially opportune.

I have arranged with the Commander-in-chief to hold his camp of exercise there; the Lieutenant-Governor is to have a great Agricultural Exhibition, which I am to open; and if we mean to establish ourselves for a couple of months there in our legislative capacity while all this is going on, I think that it will have an excellent effect both on our own people and on our neighbours.

[Sidenote:  Sitana fanatics.]

Late in the month of September, during the last days of Lord Elgin’s stay at Simla, occurred the only break in the otherwise peaceful tenor of his government, in the shape of an outburst of certain Wahabee fanatics inhabiting a frontier district in the Upper Valley of the Indus.  The outburst is not without historical interest, as connected with similar disturbances which have assumed more serious proportions; but it is noticed here chiefly as illustrating the view which Lord Elgin took of the policy and duty of the British Government in such cases.