The British Government is desirous to take advantage of this favourable opportunity, not to extend the bounds of its dominions, but to develop the resources and draw forth the natural wealth of India, and thus to promote the well-being and happiness both of rulers and of the people.
With this view many measures of improvement and progress have already been introduced, and among them, I may name, as most conspicuous, the railway and electric telegraph, those great discoveries of this age which have so largely increased the wealth and power of the mightiest nations of the West.
By diffusing education among your vassals and dependents, establishing schools, promoting the construction of good roads, and suppressing, with the whole weight of your authority and influence, barbarous usages and crimes, such as infanticide, suttee, thuggee, and dacoitee, you may, Princes and Chiefs, effectually second these endeavours of the British Government, and secure for yourselves and your people a full share of the benefits which the measures to which I have alluded are calculated to confer upon you. I have observed with satisfaction the steps which many of you have already taken in this direction, and more especially the enlightened policy which has induced some of you to remove transit and other duties which obstructed the free course of commerce through your States.
As representing the Paramount power, it is my duty to keep the peace in India. For this purpose Her Majesty the Queen has placed at my disposal a large and gallant army, which, if the necessity should arise, I shall not hesitate to employ for the repression of disorder and the punishment of any who may be rash enough to disturb the general tranquillity. But it is also my duty to extend the hand of encouragement and friendship to all who labour for the good of India, and to assure you that the chiefs who make their own dependents contented and prosperous, establish thereby the strongest claim on the favour and protection of the British Government.
I bid you now, Princes and Chiefs, farewell for a time, with the expression of my earnest hope that, on your return to your homes, health and happiness may attend you.
[Sidenote: Muttra.]
Proceeding northwards from Agra, up the valley of the Jumna, they arrived, after three days' march, at Muttra.
The mornings (he wrote) are cool, almost cold; and were it not for clouds of dust, the marching would be pleasant, although the country traversed is flat, and not very interesting…. Muttra itself is interesting from the sanctity which the Hindoos attach to it. Special blessings are earned by those who bathe in the river here; and the town is consequently largely resorted to by pilgrims. A great many fairs are held at Muttra during the year, which enables the Hindoos who resort thither to combine devotion and business. To ride through the narrow streets of the sacred town on an elephant, and find oneself on a level either with the upper stories of the houses which are frequently decorated with elaborately carved oriel windows, or with the roofs on which holy monkeys in great numbers are disporting themselves, is a very curious spectacle.
[Sidenote: Delhi.]
On the 23rd of February the camp left Muttra; on the 3rd of March it was pitched under the walls of Delhi—'unquestionably the place of greatest interest' visited in this part of the tour.