The Prince of Wales' Tour: a diary in India; with some account of the visits ... to the Courts of Greece, Egypt, Spain, and Portugal ... With illustrations by S. P. Hall

Front matter

H.R.H. The Prince of Wales, Photographed from Life ly Lock and Whitfield. July 17, 1876. The Prince of Wales' Tour: A DIARY IN INDIA; with some account of THE VISITS OF HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS TO THE COURTS OF Greece, Egypt, Spain, and Portugal EY WILLIAM HOWARD RUSSELL. > WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY SYDNEY P. HALL, M.A., ARTIST IN' THE SUITE OF H.R.H. THE I'KINCE OF WALES. LONDON: SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE & RIVINGTON, CROWN BUILDINGS, 188, FLEET STREET. I877. [Ali rights reserved.] DEDICATED BY PERMISSION TO HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS ALBERT EDWARD j PRINCE OF WALES. > TO THE READER. '•.*:< A few words to the reader to explain some matters connected with this book. It is a Journal or Diary kept from day to day, in which the Prince of Wales is the central figure round which all the things, persons and events mentioned in it revolve, so that if his name and title occur repeatedly in the same page, it is necessary, from the nature of the work, that they should do so.

The impressions recorded by the writer are his own ; and if, as is rarely the case, opinions are expressed on questions of policy or of government, they must not be ascribed to anyone but to him who states them. Wherever the word "we" occurs, the reader is prayed to take it as meaning " the Royal party," not as the pronoun in an editorial sense, or as indicative of any intent to involve the identity of the Prince with that of the gentlemen who accompanied him. WILLIAM HOWARD RUSSELL. Middle Temple, 1877. b

Introduction

. — «.:*;o The Prince of Wales told a distinguished audience which had been invited by the Governor to meet him at a State Banquet soon after his arrival in Bombay, that " it had long been the dream of his life to visit India." The idea of a tour in the Eastern possessions of the Crown appears to have been first suggested by Lord Canning, whilst he was stiU in India, to the Prince Consort as part of the education of the Heir Apparent ; and it was no doubt included in the great scheme of instruc tion devised for the Prince by one who thoroughly appreciated the value of the eye, when it is quick and observant, in aiding the other faculties in the acquisi tion of knowledge, and the power it has of impressing the mind — Segnius irritant animos demissa per aurem, Quam quæ sunt oculis subjecta fidelibus et quæ Ipse sibi tradit spectator."

It is probable that the Prince Consort, with his acute intelligence, would have perceived the advantages of sending the Prince of Wales to learn something of the Empire over which he was one day to reign without any such suggestion, and that he would have recommended the Queen to include her Indian dominions in the programme of travel laid down for him. Lord Canning — the first Vice roy, as Lord Northbrook was the last — ruled India more

INTRODUCTION.

. VIII absolutely, perhaps, than his successors, because he was charged with the conduct of affairs during the greatest strain to which the Imperial Power had been subjected ; but he was deeply convinced, even in the hour of triumph, of the necessity of creating some substitute for the prestige of the great authority which had been overthrown for ever. The East India "Company" to the princes and peoples of India was not an empty abstraction. In the recesses of the national brain, mixed up with images of mythological personages and of their heavenly attributes, there was a dim conception of it, as of a great physical force, of which there were manifestations in the paraphernalia of executive power,, the dignit^of^the magistrature, and in armies terrible with banners. Tb the princes and peoples the Governor-General was, after all,, only the servant of the "Company," for they saw that theN haughtiest and most powerful of them all was so swayed by its decrees that, if the "Company" pleased, he could be swept clean off the scene of his apparent domination.

When the Queen's Pro clamation, which may be styled the Magna Charta of India, was read to the Chiefs assembled at Allahabad on the ist November, 1858, there were few of them — and they were not many there — who could understand what was the power which had destroyed the East India Company, and what authority replaced it. The Oudh Talukdars, who remained in arms, would not give faith to promises made to them in the name of "the Queen." Even the soldiers of the British regiments of the East India Com pany's army refused to recognise the right of the Crown and of Parliament to transfer their allegiance and services without their consent ; and a very great danger arising from their discontent, which Lord Clyde and Sir W. Mansfield regarded with profound apprehension, was only averted by management and concession. The Governor-General saw

INTRODUCTION.

. IX how desirable it was, at a time when the basis on which our authority rested had been shaken to the very foundation, that India should have an outward and visible sign of the personal existence of the Power which had control of her destinies ; and he appreciated the great benefits which would accrue from personal intercourse with her princes and people to one who would occupy a position in which he must exercise immense influence over the direction of affairs — not the less because exercised indirectly and without responsibility. But the Prince of Wales was only seventeen years of age. Circumstances, such as the lamented deaths of Lord Elgin and General Bruce, caused the intended visit to be deferred, after it had been accepted as an incident in a general scheme of travel ; and the activity of the Prince's disposition found opportunities for development, meantime, in tours in foreign countries, and in constant participation in functions of State importance, or of a national character, at home.

The journey of the Duke of Edinburgh, which had been seized upon by the Princes of India as an occasion for lavish offers of splendid hospitality, and for profuse munificence, had given already some indication of the manner in which his elder brother, Heir to the Throne, would be feted and welcomed whenever he could go amongst them. But the deplorable assassination of the Earl of Mayo, coupled with the memory of other sinister events, suggested the necessity of caution, and increased the dread of responsibility of those who were charged with the action of government in such a matter. The Prince of Wales could not travel incognito in India. His mover ments would be known to all the world beforehand. There, no doubt, were men who would esteem themselves happy in venturing their lives on the chance of destroying one so dear to Feringhee rulers. Religious passion " and study

INTRODUCTION.

. X of revenge, immortal hate," might arm many a desperate hand ; and certain exhibitions of the fanaticism of the Wahabee, or of the strong prejudices of the Hindoo, showed that the apprehensions of those who considered that no precautions should be neglected were worthy of the gravest consideration. In the winter of 1874, the project of a tour to India in the autumn of the following year became the subject of anxious deliberation, and communications passed between the authorities with a view to an understanding as to the manner of the visit. There were obstacles to be over come, or at least there were objections to be removed in high places, for such an expedition had never been under taken by any personage in the Prince of Wales's position in any period of our history. Royal visitors India has had and to spare.

They came upon her — nameless Chiefs at the head of their invading hordes — long ere Alexander, well knowing that there were more worlds to conquer beyond its waters, was obliged to abandon the object of his heart's desire on the banks of the Beas. Timour and Baber, Mahmoud of Ghuznee, and Nadir Shah — these were terrible visitors indeed. Each represented the temporary overthrow of ancient dynasties, invasion, and wide spread destruction, or conquest, occupation, and the per manent establishment of foreign rule. More recently there have been visitors of royal races of a more amiable type. Prince Adalbert of Prussia rode by the side of our victorious Generals in one of the most famous of Indian battle-fields, when the supremacy of Great Britain was challenged by the Khalsa. The King of the Belgians, ere he was called to the throne, included part of India in his course of travel.

The Duke of Edinburgh, in the course of his interesting but rapid excursion, had some experience of the honours which would await the Heir INTROD UCTIOaN. XI to the Throne. But the position of the Prince of Wales, not only in its relation to the State at home and to the Indian Government, but in its bearings on the politics of Hindostan, was totally different from that of any previous visitor. Never, with the exception of the Prince Regent, had an Heir Apparent been so much before the public eye, and never had any Prince of the Blood in direct succession to the throne been entrusted in the lifetime of the reign ing Sovereign with so large a part of the functions of Sovereignty. The Prince was, owing to circumstances of which no one questioned the force, in such a position that it seemed scarcely possible that his absence from the country for half a year and more would not be attended with serious inconveniences.

Those who followed the course of his life, as it was evolved from the exercise of one public act after another, best understood how in cessant had been his labours in endeavouring to meet the demands of the country for Royal sanction and personal encouragement of the works of which they are considered the fitting complement. The Prince of Wales, however, felt that it was his "mission" to go to India, and he resolved to fulfil it. But for the strong insistance of the Prince, the dream of his life might not have been realised ; and whatever advantages may be derived from the tour must be attributed to the power of volition before which obstacles vanished, and to the force of conviction which defeated objections and overcame dissuasion. In the beginning of January, 1875, it was known that the project was seriously en tertained, and soon afterwards it was spread abroad that the visit would be made in the ensuing autumn.

Long before the intention was communicated to the world at large, programmes were sketched out and plans were prepared, the Indian authorities were consulted, and the

INTRODUCTION.

XII Residents at great Native Courts had warning that the Prince might appear among them. On the 1 6th of March the Marquess of Salisbury made an official announcement to the Council of India of the intended visit of the Prince of Wales, and the Council then passed a resolution that the expenses of the journey should be charged on the revenue of India ; but at a meeting of the Council on the 27th of April, they passed a further resolution that it was only the expenditure which was actually incurred in India which should be charged on the revenues of that country. The ' Times ' of Saturday, March 20th, contained a short paragraph to the effect that the report of the Prince of Wales' intention to visit India towards the close of the year was true. This statement must have appeared to those in authority to have been a little too absolute, for on Monday, 22nd, there appeared another paragraph, inserted in the space usually allotted to official announcements, as follows : — " We have authority to state that the report of the intention of his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales to visit India is well founded, and that his Royal Highness will leave England for that purpose — should no unforeseen obstacle arise — in the month of November.

Sir Bartle Frere will accompany the Prince of Wales at the express wish of his Royal Highness." A flood of articles was at once poured out by the press. There was a general expression of opinion that it was right for the Prince to visit Hindostan. India had lately gained a new and rather painful interest for the people of England. The country, they were told, had just been rescued from the jaws of famine. About that time the deposition of the Gaekwar of Baroda and the inquiry into his complicity in the attempt to poison Colonel Phayre, caused people who would have been puzzled a short time before to decide whether the Gaekwar was a person or a

INTRODUCTION.

. XIII thing, a man or a State, to read about India. The general relations of the great feudatories — the Chiefs of States with Treaty rights — and of the Crown were critically ex amined, and many homilies were delivered on the duties of Sovereign States to their dependencies, and on the blessings of civilisation to uncivilised nations. A sensation of surprise was experienced by many people at the discovery that there were Native States in India which had some sort of autonomy — a despotism tempered by Residents — and something like alarm evinced when the papers reproduced from an Indian journal a most formidable looking muster-roll of the " armies " of the Native Chiefs, with their many thousands of horse, foot, and cannon. The common " Aryanismus " ofthe races was, however, much urged on the notice of the world as a reason for mutual relations.

It was pointed out that the Hindoo and his master were after all made of the same clay, that " Blacks were not so black — nor Whites so very white." It may be quite true that at some period, which conjecture cannot aspire to reach, Central Asia, the sceva mater of nations, poured forth the hordes which peopled Europe and Hindostan alike, though it is as difficult to persuade the Englishman of to-day that the Hindoo is his brother as it was to impress on the average Englishman of the early part and middle of the last century that the Negro was a brother, or that he was a man at all. " An immense respect (wrote the ' Times ' on 23rd March) is due from the conquerors of India to the venerable kingdoms, institutions, and traditions of which they have become the political heirs, and an adequate manifesta tion of this feeling has always been one of the great wants of our Indian administration. Changes of dynasty are the lot of all nations, but the English dominion must in some respects have represented this revolution in a peculiarly

INTRODUCTION.

. XIV unpalatable form to a people with whom the hereditary principle is not a secondary but a primary nature. The rule of strangers, who to their eyes carry no hereditary dignity, could not fail to be especially distasteful." These are sentiments which many Indians feel ; but the policy of the Prince's visit was eventually justified by the impression produced by his presence. There were not wanting some who predicted greater benefits than could reasonably have been expected from it ; nor were others who asserted that the difficulties of the Government of India would be in creased, by the paling of their splendours, left voiceless. Hitherto they would appear to have been false prophets. The final step was taken. There were reasons which would always justify uneasiness at the protracted absence of the Heir to the Throne from the United Kingdom ; but there were also reasons which rendered it highly desirable he should visit that portion of the Empire, in right of which the Crown is Imperial.

If there was a feeling that there would be a void in society and in all "the great functions over which Royalty usually presides while he was away, it was felt, too, that his Royal Highness had earned his right to such repose, and that he was entitled to a little respite from ceremonial observances. The effects of the protracted, and all but mortal, illness which brought the nation, as it were, to the doors of Sandringham, rendered it expedient that the Prince should not be exposed to another winter in England if it could be avoided. The anticipations of repose were scarcely justified, for there was but little cessation of work in India ; but the strength and energy which the Prince displayed proved that his medical advisers had judged rightly of the beneficial effects of escape from an English winter.

It was now necessary to provide the Prince with a following suitable to one who would be regarded by princes INTR OD UCTION. XV and people as an Imperial Ambassador of a rank and dignity towering far above the highest of their ancient dynasties. But those who imagined that the presence of the greatest statesman or noble would lend additional dignity or importance to the Heir Apparent's avatar, could not have understood how very ignorant and indifferent most of the Chiefs and the masses of the people are to what pass in Great Britain as matters of deepest gravity. The more intelligent natives are acquainted with the names and views of those who deal with Indian topics in Parliament ; but the Resident, the Collector, and the Magistrate represent to them the whole force — they certainly do not always represent the splendour — of the State.

The Duke of Sutherland's name, known so widely in Great Britain, had reached the ears of comparatively few in India. On the other hand, the name of Sir Bartle Frere, which only became familiar to all people at home after his successful mission to Zanzibar, was a household word with millions of people in Bombay and in the north-west of India. In the early part of 1875 latter was informed that the Prince of Wales wished to have the benefits of his experience during the Expedition ; and about the same time, or somewhat earlier, the Duke of Sutherland received an invitation to form one of the suite to which his rank gave such weight. Lord Suffield, the head of the Prince's Household, was naturally selected to accompany his Royal master ; Colonel Ellis, Equerry to the Prince, who had served in India, was also nominated, and was charged with most delicate and difficult functions in administering, in conjunction with Sir Bartle Frere, the affairs of finance and presents.

Major-General Probyn, whose confidence in the success of the visit, which he strenuously advised, was strong from the beginning, was engaged in making arrangements for horses, transport, and sporting at an

INTRODUCTION.

XVI early period of the year. Mr. Francis Knollys, the Prince's Private Secretary, completed the list of selections from members of the Royal Household. A valued servant of the Queen, Lord Alfred Paget, Clerk Marshal, who had known the Prince from his earliest childhood, undeterred by any consideration respecting the possible influences of an Indian climate on a frame which, despite robust health, had lost the resisting forces of youth, was desirous to accompany one to whom he was so much attached, and his desires were gratified. The Rev. Canon Duckworth was selected as Chaplain to the Prince, and Dr. Fayrer was entrusted with the onerous and responsible duty of watching over the Prince's health. The Earl of Aylesford, Lord Carington, and Colonel Owen Williams, personal friends, were invited to join the party.

Lieutenant Lord Charles Beresford, who had accompanied the Duke of Edinburgh in his Indian tour, lent his unflagging gaiety, his practical knowledge and professional experience, to the Royal suite, which received another agreeable accession in the person of Lieutenant FitzGeorge, of the Rifle Brigade. Mr. S. P. Hall, whose sympathetic and skilful pencil had gained him high reputation, received a commission to sketch the incidents of the tour. Mr. Albert Grey, Private Secretary to Sir Bartle Frere ; and the writer of this record, temporarily attached as Hon. Private Secretary to the Prince, completed the list of those who formed the suite of his Royal Highness. There was but one cloud resting on the horizon to which all eyes were turned. Those concerned in the government of the State, and responsible to the country for the trust on which so much depended, could not but perceive the objections to the absence of the Princess of Wales from her children ; and it was equally obvious that it would be most unwise to expose them to the climate of

INTRODUCTION.

. XVII India at the time of life when it is most dangerous. It may well be conceived how painful it was to know that a separation, which would cause so much grief to her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales, was drawing near at hand. When the map of India was laid on the table, immediately there came to the surface the difficulty of getting many places within the limits of the time which the Prince could devote to his visit. In a general way, the limits of his Royal Highness's tour in India were marked by the thermometer. Dr. Fayrer was very decided in putting the beginning of November as the earliest date at which the Prince should arrive, and in fixing on the early weeks of March as the latest period at which he ought to attempt to come home through the Red Sea. There were certain broad lines to be followed ; but a line ends in points, and at the outset there was some hesitation in determining whether it would be better to begin at Calcutta or at Bombay.

The claims of Cashmere and of Ceylon seemed to clash. The passes into Cashmere are not open till the hot weather has begun in the plains, and it was of the first necessity that the Prince should not be exposed to long journeys at unhealthy seasons, and to rapid transitions from cold to heat. Several attempts were made to divert the Prince from his purpose of visiting Ceylon, but he was inexorable as well as penetrating ; and it is said that once, at one little "Indian Council" at Marlborough House, there was a map produced in which Ceylon did not appear, when the routes were being laid down and discussed, but that a Royal demand, "Where is Ceylon?" rendered the stratagem, if such it were, of no avail. The trip to Cashmere assumed an uncertain aspect ; that to the Deccan was, for several reasons, doubtful ; but to Ceylon the Prince adhered with invincible firmness, undeterred

INTRODUCTION.

XVIII by "sanitary considerations" and medical reports, which, sooth to say, were damaged in their authority by the very opposite opinions of the cognoscenti. As early as the third week in May, the routes of the Prince were laid down from the 17th of October, on which day he was to set out on his voyage, to the date of his arrival in Calcutta, before Christmas Day. Already the Residents at the Native Courts were enabled to convey most satisfactory intelligence respecting the manner in which the Princes had received the announcement that the Prince would visit India ; and the demands made for his Royal Highness's presence a few days here and a week there, urged with the most perfect conviction, could not have been satisfied in a twelvemonth. Already requests were made from India that there should be no further delay in buying horses for the Prince and his suite ; and it was suggested that an officer of the rank of Major-General, with a proper Staff, should be placed at the head of the carriage and transport department.

At the period of which I speak, the Government had given no intimation of their intentions as to money ; and if the Prince was to start in October, there was not much time to order carriages and gifts of honour ; but until the money had been voted, it would have been impossible to have laid down any precise scheme of expenditure. The preliminary arrangements were, how ever, advanced as far as was practicable. It was decided that the presents should be placed in the charge of a special Staff from the India Office ; that gold and silver medals should be struck for presentation to the Chiefs ; and it was further understood that the Queen would issue a warrant to authorise the Prince of Wales to hold a special Chapter of the Order of the Star of India at Calcutta. The interest which was taken in the visit increased as

INTRODUCTION.

. XIX the country had time to reflect upon the subject. Articles in the press, and communications between the authorities in India and at home, increased in number and importance. Whatever might be the wishes of the Government, it was plain that the Prince could not be other than paramount when in India ; and it was therefore matter of consideration that his exalted position should not cause that of the Viceroy and Governor-General to be unduly depre ciated. It may now be asserted that the apprehensions which were entertained on that ground had no solidity. Even if the brightness of the Viceregal luminary had been subjected to temporary eclipse, it is evident that there could have been no permanent diminution of it after the Prince's transit, and that as long as the transit was occurring, no official measures could have prevented some little dimming of the splendour of the official sun.

On the 15th of April Mr. Hankey put a question to the Government. He asked "whether it was intended, in the event of the Prince of Wales visiting India, to pro pose to Parliament to make such provision as would enable his Royal Highness to discharge such duties as might be considered befitting his position as the representative of Her Majesty with becoming dignity ?" Mr. Disraeli's reply evinced a certain dislike to any early announcement of the intentions of the Government ; he would not even admit that the Prince was going to India at all, and described the question as " hypothetical." He apprehended, he said, that, in -the event of the Prince visiting India, he would not visit it as the representative of the Queen. The Viceroy would continue to fulfil the duties of that ojfice. But he might say generally, that if the Government had to make any public communication on the subject the House of Commons would be the first body in the country to which that communication would be made. c

INTRODUCTION.

. XX Doubtless, on grounds which commended themselves to official prudence, Mr. Disraeli refused to acknowledge that there would be any demand made on the Exchequer, even as late as the 3rd of June. Replying on that day to Mr. Leith, who asked "whether the expenses of the Prince of Wales would be charged to the Imperial or to the Indian Exchequer?" the Prime Minister protested against honourable members "assuming that there was to be a grant of public money proposed, and on that assumption asking questions " which should be reserved till such a proposal was made. On the 5th of July, however, Mr. Disraeli gave notice that he would the week following make a statement on the House going into Committee of Supply respecting the visit of the Prince to India, and that he would submit an estimate of expenditure.

On the 8th of July the Premier made the promised statement to a full House, and succeeded in attracting the sympathies of his audience in no ordinary degree to the objects of the Prince's intended journey ; but in the phraseology of the Minister there might be detected a sense of the responsibility which rested on those who had any share in sanctioning the enterprise. He alluded to the previous travels of the Prince in various parts of the Queen's dominions, and drawing a distinction between what was best suited to those who were, and to those who were not, Royal personages, observed that though he could not say that travel was the best education, he would venture to assert that travel was the best education for Princes. But the visit of the Prince of Wales to India would be, he said, unlike his previous travels.

The rules and regulations which sufficed for the Prince in Canada and in the Colonies would not be adapted for India. One remarkable feature of Oriental manners was the exchange of presents between visitors and their hosts. The Viceroy,

INTRODUCTION.

. XXI thought that ceremonial presents need not be given or received, but it was necessary to place the Prince in a position in which he could exercise the spontaneous feelings of generosity and splendour which belonged to his character. It was also necessary to gratify the feelings of the Native Princes. The ordinary rule was that the presents made by Native Chiefs were sold, and the amount carried to the credit of Government, which made presents of corresponding value to the donors ; but it was evident that, on the occasion of the visit of the Prince of Wales, such a course would be undignified and distasteful. The Prince would be the guest of the Viceroy from the moment he landed on Indian soil. That was the strongly-expressed opinion and wish of the Viceroy, who highly approved of the visit, and believed it would be attended with great benefit to India and to this country.

The expense of that part of the reception would not be considerable, for it would be confined to the rites of hospitality, and the sum of 30,000/. had been mentioned casually as the amount which might be charged against the Indian Budget on that head. The estimate of the Admiralty for the expenses of the voyage to and from India, and of the movements of the fleet in connection with it, came to 52,000/. With respect to other charges, Mr. Disraeli pointed out that the Prince did not go to India as "the representative of the Queen," but as "the Heir Apparent of the Crown." Without interfering in any way with the legal and constitutional character of the Viceroy, the Prince would nevertheless be placed in a position which would impress the mind of India with a sense of his real dignity and importance.