196 PATNA DURING THE MUTINY. 



whatever of my own, I was thrust into appointments which other- 

 wise I might have waited for through many years, and perhaps 

 never have gained at all. I had hardly passed my examinations, 

 when, as no one else was available, I was sent to officiate as the 

 Chief Magistrate of that sacred city, Gya ; the substantive appoint- 

 ment being worth :£'3000 a year. Then I was employed for three 

 years in taking up land for public purposes on a very high salary, 

 whilst living in tents; and then I was pitchforked on to the Bench 

 as Civil and Sessions Judge to try a cause celebre, in a manner 

 which made me think that after all there was really some reason 

 for supposing I was " heaven-born." 



Only one case of mine, if I remember right, was upset on appeal 

 to the High Court ; but the upset order of that one occupied a 

 whole sheet of the daily papers, and formed a nine day's wonder. 

 It was too long to read right through, but I culled passages here 

 and there, and so far as I could understand them, they seemed to 

 show that my ideas of the fundamental principles of Eternal Justice 

 differed widely from my critic's. But Sir George Campbell, the 

 Lieutenant-Governor, took my part, and the unfavourable comments 

 seemed to do me little harm, for I got promotion a short time after. 



Then I was one of the principal Famine Officers in 1876, and 

 when Sir Richard Temple kindly offered me a Commissionership, 

 which would have made me like a little king over a very large tract 

 of country, I conceived an overwhelming desire to see my native 

 land once more. 



Just then the men in the " new boat " were crying out and saying 

 that the rowers in the "old boat" were blocking the promotion 

 stream ; so I accepted an offer made to me and my contemporaries, 

 which enabled me to retire before my full period of service had 

 expired, on what I considered advantageous terms. I was compara- 

 tively young, my father was still alive, and I was able to settle 

 down under the shadow of my old home, where seated under my 

 own vine and fig-tree, I have been able to realize how true the 

 saying is, that, 



"A contented mind affords a continual feast." 



