We deeply regret to notice the death of Sir Henry
Yule, which occurred on December 30th, 1889, at what is now the premature age of sixty-nine. Sir Henry belonged to that limited but invaluable class of Indian officers who are good soldiers, great administrators, and thorough scholars. He knew, perhaps, more of the geography of Central Asia than any man alive, and his knowledge was always at the service of any explorer. He had a profound interest, too, in earlier explorers, as he showed in his editions of Marco Polo and "Hedges' Diary ;" but his first love was philology, a study which, strange to say, excited in him wit. In his " Hobson-Jobson Dictionary ; or, Glossary of Indian Terms," he poured forth not only stores of rare know- ledge, such as can come only to a man of unflinching industry and cloudless memory, but of charming humour, which make the book as readable as the best collection of " ana." The humour, as is so often the case, was associated in him with a tendency to melancholy, and a capacity for intense indignation ; but Sir Henry Yule was dearly loved by his friends, and in spite of his occasional hard-hitting, never, it is believed, made a persistent enemy. They will be missed, these men of the old Indian school, when they are all gone ; for the new men, though they rival them in capacity, dissipate their interests, and lack, therefore, the old devotion to " India " which made them always so invaluable, though occasionally such bores.
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