xlvi Proceedings of Royal Society of Edinburgh. 
These labours were interrupted in 1846 and 1848 by the first 
and second Punjab wars, in botli of which be saw active service. 
The confidence already placed in him by Lord Dalhousie was 
shown by his appointment to an important post in connection with 
the great scheme of Indian railways which that statesman had just 
introduced, and was pressing on with characteristic energy, a post 
entailing, from its novelty, much hard and anxious study ; and this 
led on to his appointment as Under-Secretary in the newly- 
established department of Public Works, to the head of which he 
succeeded on the retirement, after the Mutiny, of his friend and 
chief Sir W. Baker. In the meanwhile, during the Burmese war, 
he was despatched to survey the frontiers of Arakan, when he 
acquired the friendship of Sir Arthur Phayre, a capable and justly 
popular administrator, wdiose name will always be honourably 
associated with Burmese affairs. This acquaintance, no doubt, led 
to the appointment of Captain Yule as secretary to the return 
mission of reconciliation despatched to Burmah in 1855, after the 
war, under Sir Arthur Phayre. It was stipulated, however, by 
Lord Dalhousie that Yule should be the chronicler of the expedi- 
tion, a promise amply fulfilled in a Eeporb to Government, which 
was afterwards re-cast and published by Smith & Elder in 1858, and 
is interesting to us as his first independent work of importance. 
It has been said that his attention was first directed by his 
Burmese journey and studies to the affairs of those regions beyond 
India, on which he afterwards became so great an authority ; but 
the truth is, we find much of the knowledge, and of the literary 
intuition, here already, and even thus early in his career we wonder at 
the variety of information displayed, and the luminous generalisa- 
tions put forth, both alike destined — and this is no common 
praise — to stand the test of later and fuller investigations, now so 
much more easy to make. The illustrations are mostly from his 
own pencil, in the use of which he was no mean proficient. 
The work, compiled amid the absorbing labours of his Calcutta 
office, was finished, to judge by the concluding sentence of its 
preface, amid still more engrossing scenes. It is dated “ Portress 
of Allahabad, October 3, 1857.” 
“ If life be granted, I doubt not all my companions in the Ava 
Mission will look back to our social progress up the Irawadi, with 
