the expense of His Highness, whose generosity and hospitality are not limited to his own subjects.  The throne of the idol Krishna in that temple is a masterpiece of wood carving and bears $60,000 worth of gold ornaments.  Artists say that this temple, although entirely modern, surpasses in the beauty of its detail, both in design and workmanship, any of the old temples in India which people corne thousands of miles to see.

Fate at last overtook the strange man who did all these things and he came to grief.  Indignant at Colonel Phayre, the British Resident, for interfering with his wishes in regard to the pearl carpet and some other little fancies, he attempted to poison him in an imperial manner.  He caused a lot of diamonds to be ground up into powder and dropped into a cup of pomolo juice, which he tried to induce his prudent adviser to drink.  Ordinary drug store poison was beneath him.  When Malhar Rao committed a crime he did it, as he did everything else, with royal splendor.  He had tried the same trick successfully upon his brother and predecessor, Gaikwar Khande Rao, the man who built a beautiful sailors’ home at Bombay in 1870 to commemorate the visit of the Duke of Edinburgh to India.  Colonel Phayre suspected something wrong, and declined to drink the toast His Highness offered.  The plot was soon afterward discovered and Viceroy Lord Northbrook, who had tolerated his tyranny and fantastic performances as long as possible, made an investigation and ordered him before a court over which the chief justice of Bengal presided.  The evidence disclosed a most scandalous condition of affairs throughout the entire province.  Public offices were sold to the highest bidder; demands for blackmail were enforced by torture; the wives and daughters of his subjects were seized at his will and carried to his palace whenever their beauty attracted his attention.  The condition of the people was desperate.  In one district there was open rebellion; discontent prevailed everywhere and the methods of administration were infamous.  It was shown that a previous prime minister had been poisoned by direct orders of his chief and that with his own hands the gaikwar had beaten one of his own servants to death.  Two Hindu judges of the court voted for acquittal, but the remainder found him guilty.  As the judgment was not unanimous, Mahal Rao escaped the death penalty which he deserved, and would have suffered but for the sympathy of his judicial co-religionists.  He was deposed and sent to prison, and when an investigation of his finances was made, it was found that during the last year of his reign he had wasted $3,500,000 in gifts to his favorites, in gratifying his whims and fancies, and for personal pleasures.  All of which was wrung from the people by taxation.