64 Lord Ciu'zon [Feb. 



tlie most glorious galaxy of monnments in the world. Noverfclieless, 

 with these interruptious and exceptions, which I hope may never again 

 recur, the progess has been positive, and on the whole, continuous. Tt 

 was Lord Canning who first invested archaeological work in this country 

 with permanent Government patronage by constituting in 1860, the 

 Arcliacological Survey of Northern India and by appointing General 

 Cunningham in 1862 to be Archaeological Surveyor to Government. 

 From that period date the pablications of the Archaeological Survey of 

 India, which have at times assumed different forms, and which represent 

 varying degrees of scholarship and merit, but which constitute, on the 

 whole, a noble mine of information, in which the student has but to delve 

 in order to discover an abundant spoil. For over 20 years General 

 Cunningham continued his labours, of which these publications are the 

 memorial. Meanwhile orders were issued for the registration and 

 preservation of historical monuments throughout India, local surveys 

 were started in some of the subordinate Governments, the Bombay 

 Survey being placed in the capable hands of Mr. Burgess, who was a 

 worthy follower in the footsteps of Cunningham, and who ultimately 

 succeeded him as Director- General of the Archaeological Survey. 

 Some of the Native States followed the example thus set to them, 

 and either applied for the services of the Government archaeologists, 

 or established small departments of their own. 



In the provinces much depended upon the individual tastes or 

 proclivities of the Governor or Lieutenant-Governor, just as at head-quar- 

 ters the strength of the impetus varied with the attitude of successive 

 Viceroys. Lord Nortlibrook, who was always a generous patron of the 

 arts, issued orders in J 873 as to the duties of Local Governments ; and 

 in his Viceroyalty, Sir John Strachey was the first Lieutenant-Governor 

 to undertake a really noble work of renovation and repair at Agra — a 

 service which is fitly commemorated by a marble slab in the Palace of 

 Shah Jelian. The poetic and imaginative temperament of Lord Lytton 

 could not be deaf to a similar appeal. Holding that no claim upon the 

 initiative and resources of the Supreme Government was more essentially 

 Imperial than the preservation of national antiquities, be contributed in 

 1879 a sum of 3| lakhs to the restoration of buildings in the North- 

 Western Provinces ; and proposed the appointment of a special officer, 

 to be entitled the Curator of Ancient Monuments, which, while it did not 

 receive sanction in his time, was left to be carried out by his successor. 

 Lord Ripon. During the three years that Major Cole held this post, 

 from 1880 to 1883, much excellent work in respect both of reports and 

 classification was done ; and large sums of money were given by the 

 Government of India, inter alia, for repairs in the Gwalior Fort and at 



