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schemes, he found time to read books and talk about
literature, and came before the public as a
man of culture. He liked to extend liberal
Government patronage to compilers of books
supposed to be useful, and the role of Maecenas
pleased him —and perhaps the control of the State
finances made it the more easily practicable.
Ambition of worldly pre-eminence was an
instinct with him and spurred him on to his aims.
His consistency in pursuing them, his self-control
and patience under provocation amounting to
insult, I have known and admired. I remember
an occasion when a rude rejoinder was made by a
Departmental Secretary to some comment of his.
We were all shocked, but Hydari said not a word
by way of protest, and we respected him for it.
In 1930 Sir Akbar Hydari with two others was
sent to the Round Table Conference. His am-
bition had got on to the highway of success.
Hydari was one of those who might truly say:
" The world is too much with us/' The world,
we know, teaches us its own ways, and overlays
some of its own qualities upon our innate desires.
It never left him alone and never gave him breath-
ing time. It was indeed unfortunate that" enthu-
siasms of mere earth, " as he confessed in one of
his letters to me, should have prevailed with him
oftener than higher and more impersonal aims of
which he was not unconscious. Unfortunate,
too, that his untiring energy gave people the
impression that he was goaded on to constant
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