his former popularity among his countrymen, but he continued to enjoy the confidence and esteem of his English friends; and when, after his death, some few years later, a public meeting was called for the purpose of getting up a memorial to him, it was attended by such a large number of influential persons of all classes as testified to the sincere and widespread respect in which he was held.
In the meanwhile, the Maharajah had returned from Europe and claimed his wife, and having attained his majority in 1883, he took the administration of his affairs into his own hands.
The State of Kuch Behar is situated in the north-eastern corner of Bengal. It is surrounded on all sides by British territory, and occupies an area of about thirteen hundred square miles; that is, about the size of Kent, or Hampshire. It is a well-watered plain, and the soil is fertile and well cultivated, the general green of the fields being diversified here and there by graceful clumps of bamboo or by the orchards which surround the homestead of some substantial farmer. The country is thickly populated, but there is only one town, and hardly any villages, the dwellings of the inhabitants being scattered over the fields or grouped round the residence of some well-to-do family. In former times a different state of things must have prevailed, for the ruins are still to be seen of two extensive walled cities; but they are
