IT may be, albeit I was told the anecdote as an authentic fact, that this is a caricature, but in any case it departs from the reality less than many might, as a first impression, be inclined to think. In truth, the rapidity with which casual visitors to the East occasionally form their opinions, the dogmatism with which they assert those opinions, which are often in reality formed before they cross the British Channel, and the hasty and sweeping generalisations which they at times base on very imperfect data, is a never-ending source of wonderment to those who have passed their lives in endeavouring to unravel the tangled skein of Eastern thought and have had actual experience of the difficulties attendant on Eastern government and administration. The scorn and derision excited by these mental processes have found expression in the creation of an idealised type, under the name of ‘Padgett, MP,’ who is supposed to embody all the special and somewhat displeasing characteristics of his class.*