19 APRIL 1902, Page 2

Lord Curzon evidently intends that the Coronation festivity at Delhi

shall be a most impressive ceremonial. All the native Princes not in London will be there, and there will be a kind of Royal procession down the splendid central street. A great body of troops will be present and elephants in hundreds, some of which have already commenced their march from distant provinces. The natives will be greatly pleased, for to them, with their incapacity to forget, Delhi is still the capital of the Empire, Calcutta being new, and therefore vulgar, and Bombay a gigantic " go-down," or ware- house for goods. It is rather a pity that we cannot found a capital for India where great buildings, libraries, and treasures might accumulate through ages, but the design, though repeatedly entertained, has always broken down before execution. Allahabad, at the confluence of the Jumna and the Ganges, would be the fittim place, but% is opposed by the irresistible desire to live in the hills, and by the secret feeling of the dominant race thatithey are only camped in India. The original cost, too, would be considerable, and the Indian Treasury even when rich has ten claimants for every rupee.