4 SEPTEMBER 1869, Page 3

The grand Durbar which was to have been held at

Agra in the presence of the Duke of Edinburgh has been given up. The native chiefs who had been invited were determined to display all their grandeur before the Empress's son, and their grandeur depends very much upon the number of their followers. There was more than a possibility that the camp would include a quarter of a million of souls, most of whom would have had to cross districts half ruined by drought, and all of whom would have fed themselves before they suffered the villagers to eat. The accounts from Rajpootana and Gwalior, moreover, were very disheartening, and the Government, therefore, at last abandoned a scheme which could have been of very little practical benefit to the country.