At the corner of the Platz, where two roads meet, is a fine statue of the_Queen-Empress, which stands as a monument of the loyal attachment and admiration of the great Feuda tories for the first Sovereign who has, since the dawn of history, ruled over all India. The statue was given to Bombay by the munificent Khandi Rao Guicowar, the ruler of the Baroda state. Her Gracious and Imperial Majesty is represented seated on an elaborately carved state chair, which is placed on a lofty marble platform led up to by steps. In the centre of the canopy is the Star of India, and above it the Rose of England is united with the Lotus of India, and around them are England's old motto " God and my right," and India's watchword " Heaven's light our guide." Leaning against the handsome rails which encircle the statue are a group of rustics. There is the old father and his spouse, a matronly dame, two stalwart sons, black, wiry men from the coast, and their spouses—light-hearted, merry young women, whose crimson, blue, and orange robes fall in grace ful folds over their supple figures. They are showing a little girl and a couple of half-naked boys, wearing gorgeous caps embroidered with tinsel, the beauties of the statue, and they are discussing with considerable volubility the Royal lady beyond the sea. Queen Victoria is in India no mythological personage, the wife of " John Company." Three of her sons have visited the land. The Prince of Wales by his gracious tact caused the great chiefs to feel that they are not merely important factors in a vast administra tive system, but Royal Feudatories of a great sovereign. The Duke of Connaught has commanded a division in Bengal and the Bombay army ; and in many a distant home, seated of an evening around the village fire, the sepoy on furlough has told his companions about the great Queen's son, who could address them in their own language. The private and personal virtues of the Queen long ago became known, and enthroned Her Majesty in the hearts of many millions of her distant subjects. In a remote village in the north of India a peasant had a grievance, and he called the village schoolmaster to his aid, and they wrote a letter stating the case, and they addressed it " To the Good Lady in England," and the letter reached Balmoral. To be known to distant subject races as " The Good Lady in England " was an achievement of which any monarch might well have been proud.
From the Queen's statue to the statue of His Majesty as Prince of Wales runs a broad road known as Rampart Row, lined by lofty offices and splendid shops, which would do credit to Paris or London. The equestrian statue of the Prince, a good example of Boehm's best work, was the gift of the late Sir A. Sassoon, and commemorates the Heir apparent's visit to the city. On each side of the granite base are two well executed castings, one representing the historic scene of the landing of the Prince at the dockyard, and the other depicting the picturesque episode which lives in the memory of those who took part in it—the presenta tion of flowers to His Royal Highness by the Parsee children at the great children's fete held in his honour.
Not far from the Prince of Wales' statue is the Wellington fountain, a meretricious structure unworthy of the great name it bears. Colonel Wellesley came to Bombay in i8o3, and during the hot months of March and April worked with his wonted ardour in getting ready the transports to convey the forces under General Baird to Egypt. It was intended that
they should co-operate in the important object of expelling the French from that land, and Colonel Wellesley had been ap 1 ointed second in command. A severe attack of fever, however, prevented him from accompanying the expedition. He was much disappointed at having lost what seemed a splendid opportunity for active service, but he remained behind to win the decisive battle of Assaye, while the vessel in which he was to sail was lost. On October 2, 1803, Jonathan Duncan, Governor of Bombay, received a letter from General Wellesley announcing in a few simple words the hard-won contest which made us masters of India.
After his great and decisive victory General Wellesley visited Poona, and descended the Ghauts to Bombay, and the capital received him with due honour. " I was feasted out of Bombay as I was feasted into it," he wrote to a friend. The victor of Assaye was glad to escape from steamy Bom bay to the cooler Deccan, where he employed himself in writing State papers, urging a policy of conciliation and moderation. " The Governor-General may write what he pleases at Calcutta, we must conciliate the natives, or we shall not be able to do his business ; and all his treatment, without conciliation and an endeavour to convince the Native Powers that we have views besides our own interests, is so much waste paper." A short distance from the Wellington fountain is a splendid testimony of the wisdom of the soldier-statesman's policy in dealing with the native powers. The palatial Home for Sailors, whose foundation stone was laid by H.R.H. the Duke of Edinburgh, was the gift of the same great loyal Feudatory who caused to be erected the statue of the late Queen. Near to the Sailors' Home is the Royal Bombay Yacht Club, to which ladies accompanied by members are freely admitted, and where the traveller who has the pri vilege of honorary membership will find every comfort, and from the deep verandah overlooking the harbour will enjoy one of the most beautiful views in the world.
Returning from the Yacht Club, and bearing to the left, we come to a shallow expanse of water, bounded by two tongues of land—Colaba and Malabar Hill. Facing the bay is a line of buildings, imposing as a whole, but too suggestive of modern English taste and conventionalism. The Secre tariat, where the offices of the Secretaries to Government are located, is a massive pile whose main features have been brought from Venice, but all the beauty has vanished in transhipment. It is as lacking in sentiment as the work conducted in it, and is the complete expression in stone of the spirit of an official architect. The University Hall, erected from designs by Sir Gilbert Scott, seems to have been meant for a western College Chapel, and is as exotic as the system of education which we have introduced into the land. A few yards from the Senate Hall is the Univer city Library, designed by the same architect, which seems a little too small for the lofty clock tower, built after the form of the campanile of Giotto at Florence, that adjoins it. The High Court is a large, imposing, ugly Gothic construction, out of character with the climate ; but the building is probably not more out of character with the climate than the mode of administering justice within its walls is out of character with the habits of the people.