The next official event was the reception of an address from the inhabitants of Aden, which was presented by a Parsee merchant, on behalf of the community. The address of the Parsee showed very clearly how well the object of the Prince's visit was understood throughout the East. The Prince made an appropriate reply, which no doubt was speedily wired to Bombay, and read in the native newspapers all over India.
On arriving at Bombay it was again a Parsee who headed the first deputation and read the first address to the Prince on landing in India. It was from the Corporation of Bombay, the second city in the British Empire, in population if not in wealth. The address set forth in glowing terms the historical and commercial claims of the city to distinction, and expressed the pleasure of seeing among them the heir to the Crown, whom the Queen had sent to become personally acquainted with the people of India. The Prince replied in the following words:—
"It is a great pleasure to me to begin my travels in India at a place so long associated with the Royal Family of England, and to find that during so many generations of British rule this great port has steadily prospered. Your natural advantages would have insured a large amount of commerce under any strong Government, but in your various and industrious population I gladly recognize the traces of a rule which gives shelter to all who obey the laws; which recognizes no invidious distinctions of race; which affords to all perfect liberty in matters of religious opinion and belief; and freedom in the pursuit of trade and of all lawful callings. I note with satisfaction the assurance I derive from your address, that under British rule men of varied creeds and nations live in harmony among themselves, and develop to the utmost those energies which they inherit from widely separate families of mankind, whilst all join in loyal attachment to the British Crown, and take their part, as in my native country, in the management of their own local affairs.
"I shall gladly communicate to Her Majesty what you so loyally and kindly say regarding the pleasure which the people of India derive from Her Majesty's gracious permission to me to visit this part of Her Majesty's Empire. I assure you that the Princess of Wales has never ceased to share my regret that she was unable to accompany me. She has from her earliest years taken the most lively interest in this great country, and the cordiality of your greeting this day will make her yet more regret the impossibility of her sharing in person the pleasure your welcome afforded me."
This reply, so happily conceived, and delivered with quiet earnestness, delighted all who heard it. But the echoes of it would soon reach every part of India, and the chiefs and rulers, and also the leaders of opinion in the native press, would from these words of the Prince receive a lesson of true statesmanship and constitutional government.
The greatest event at Bombay was the reception of the Rulers and Chiefs of Western India, a scene of truly Oriental magnificence, the description of which forms one of the most brilliant chapters in Dr. Russell's book. All the established forms of Indian ceremony were observed. The greatest rulers were saluted with the largest number of guns, the Maharajah of Mysore, for instance, having a salute of twenty-one guns, while others were fifteen-gun chiefs or eleven-gun rajahs, as the case might be, according to the population and wealth of the territories over which they ruled. Their dresses, and jewels, and retinues, and the modes of reception, as well as their personal characteristics, are all duly recorded. The Viceroy of India, Lord Northbrook, was with the Prince of Wales at one grand Durbar, and his position in regard to the Royal Envoy from the Queen, the arrangement of which had caused some difficulty in anticipation, was gracefully managed by the Viceroy and the Prince themselves. The Bombay Durbar passed off admirably. It was the Prince's birthday, the 9th of November, and no such scene as on that day can he expect again to witness. The "Carpet," which takes an important place in Oriental durbars, the nuzzars or gifts of homage, and other points of ceremonial, as well as the number of guns in the salute, had all been arranged by official notices to the political officers attached to the native courts. But the cordial bearing of the Prince, and his kindly words when he was told that any visitors knew the English tongue, gave more satisfaction than the formal ceremonials.
A State banquet was given by the Governor in honour of the Prince's birthday. In returning thanks for his health, proposed by the Governor, the Prince made a short but telling speech. He said:—
"It has long been my earnest wish—the dream of my life—to visit India; and now that my desire has been gratified, I can only say, Sir Philip Wodehouse, how much pleased I am to have spent my thirty-fourth birthday under your roof in Bombay. I shall remember with satisfaction the hospitable reception I have had from the Governor, and all here, as long as I live, and I believe that I may regard what I have experienced in Bombay as a guarantee of the future of my progress through this great Empire, which forms so important a part of the dominions of the Queen."
These last words were a true forecast of the Royal progress throughout India. What has been said of Bombay, must serve to give an idea of what everywhere had to be recorded. But we must refrain from further details of what occurred at other Presidencies, and only add that the crowning public event of the whole tour, the chief ceremony of the mission of the Prince, the holding the Chapter of the Order of the Star of India, came off, at Calcutta, on New Year's Day, 1876, with brilliant éclat.
This only may be said, that no more successful embassy than that undertaken by the Prince ever went forth from England. It may be added that the great ends accomplished by it cost to the British Exchequer less than £60,000; and this, although no expense was spared in carrying out the mission with due display and munificence. Nor ought it to be omitted that the Prince was most generous, as he is at home, in his gifts to useful and charitable institutions, visited by him in the course of his journey. But we must leave the fascinating story of the Indian visit, to resume the record of the humbler, but not less honourable duties, undertaken by the Prince after his return to England.