through the land—­to restore the bond of good feeling between the Government and governed, where it has for a time been severed or impaired by accident—­to provide the people with works tending to improve their comfort and convenience—­to mitigate sufferings from calamities of season, and to encourage all to exert themselves honestly in their proper sphere.  In carrying out the views of Government in such measures, and such only, has my life in India been spent; and for doing so to the best of my humble ability I have, I believe, done much to make its rule revered throughout India.  It is by such measures that the respect and confidence of the great mass of the people have been secured, so as to enable Europeans, male and female, to pass from one end of the country to the other with the assurance, not only that they will suffer no personal injury, but no mark of disrespect.  Should anything occur to deprive us of this confidence and respect among the great mass of the people, the recollection of our victories, and assurance of our superior military organization will avail us but little; and it is as one who has zealously and successfully aided Government in securing them, that I now venture to address you, in the hope that you will—­if you can do so consistently with your public duties and pledges to others—­open to my son the same career of usefulness by conferring upon him a nomination to the civil service of India.  He is now five months above seventeen years of age; and by the time he is eighteen, he will, I hope, under Mr. Yeatman’s judicious care, be able to pass his examination for Haileybury, should he, through your means, obtain this the utmost object of his ambition.  Over and above the desire to follow his father’s footsteps in India, he is anxious to avoid the necessity of encroaching so much upon the small means I have to provide for his four sisters, by entering so expensive a branch of the public service as the Dragoons.  I know the great nature of the favour I ask from you.  It is the first favour that I have ever asked from any member of the Home Government of India; and I solicit it from you solely on the ground of service rendered to the Government and people of India.  I am told that I must address my application to an individual; and I address it to you, under the impression that you are the member with whom such ground is likely to meet with most consideration;—­not that I think any member of the Honourable Court would disregard it; for I believe, after long and varied experience in public affairs, and much thought and reading, that no body intrusted with the Government of a distant possession ever performed their duties with more earnest solicitude for its welfare than the Court of Directors of the Honourable East India Company; but because your public career has inspired me with more confidence than that of any other member of the Court as now constituted.  If you cannot grant me the favour I ask, you will, I know, pardon the liberty I have taken in asking it.