We regret much to notice the death of Colonel Meadows
Taylor, an Indian administrator of rare qualities of mind. Fifty years ago, he entered the service of the Nizam, and after nearly thirty years of experience was appointed manager of the Shorapore principality, and subsequently of one of the Ceded Districts of Berar, under the British Government. In the latter capacity he worked miracles, and the story of his sudden and complete suppression of brigandage, of his resettlement of the tenure, and of the prosperity he brought both to the peasantry and the 'Treasury, is not surpassed by any similar story in India. At home he was chiefly known as an author of books of very unequal merit, one of which, though admired, has never, to our thinking, received full justice. We should deliberately place "Tarn" first among all books ever written to illustrate native life, and in the very front rank of novels. Colonel Taylor never received justice either in promotion or honours from the Indian Government, partly because he was not in the regular service, and partly be- cause his bearing gave no impression of his powers. Colonel Taylor would have made Sicily a flourishing province and as safe as a drawing-room in five years, but he could not talk.
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