The death of Sir Lewis Pelly, at the age of
sixty-seven, terminates the career of one of the many Indian soldiers who have distinguished themselves as political agents, and to some extent as interpreters of Eastern literatures. He was a soldier in the Bombay Army at the age of sixteen, and served in 1856 in the Persian Campaign under General John Jacob. Between 1862 and 1873, he served as Political Agent on the Per- sian Gulf, putting down piracy, and repressing the lawlessness of the wild Indian border tribes. At this time he made a col- lection of the poems relating to the death of Hasan and Husain, the grandchildren of Mahommed, and subsequently published an English translation of these poems. He entered Par- liament as Conservative Member for North Hackney in 1885, when he obtained a majority of 416. In 1886 he increased his majority to 1,503. The Gladstonians are likely to contest the seat, as Mr. T. Arrowsmith Meates had been selected some time ago to contest it at the General Election, and the Con- servatives are not ready with a new candidate, Sir Lewis Pelly having declared his intention to stand again. Whenever the contest comes off, we trust the Unionists will carry the seat by a considerably larger majority than the majority of 1885, though hardly, perhaps, by so great a triumph as that of 1886.
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