Memories of Madras. By Sir Charles Lawson. (Swan Sonnen- schein
and Co. 10s. 6d. net.)— Sir Charles Lawson does not give us in this volume his own memories of Madras, but sundry passages from the history of that city. He begins with the "Founders of Port St. George." The place was selected after more than one failure elsewhere. The "Founders" were John Day and a colleague who seems to have missed his due share of the credit, Thomas Cogan. The fort, or the inner part of it, was finished on St. George's Day, 1640. "Diamond Pitt" comes next, the finder, or rather purchaser, of the great Pitt diamond. His letters, full of undignified complaints about the difficulties of selling, are curious reading. The great stone was not a convenient article of merchandise. It weighed when cut 136 carats ; and he wanted 2;1,500 per carat. He actually got, after waiting fifteen years, £125,000 from the Regent of France. On the whole, Governor Pitt made a good thing out of diamonds. His far- away descendant, the Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, governed Madras a century and a half later. Many famous names occur in the volume, among them Macartney, Coote, Cornwallis, and Arthur Wellesley. This last in 1801 declared that his "highest ambition was to be a Major-General in His Majesty's service." Fourteen years later he held every honour that a subject could hold. Soldiers and Civil servants occupy the chief place, but there is room for others, for Andrew Bell, for instance, the " educationist," who, however he made his money—and this is something of a mystery—certainly put it to a good use.
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