of retired leisure, when his next call came to serve his country this time in the shape of an offer of the important post of Governor-General of Canada. His sense of duty to his country again led him to accept the appointment. The high office that he had now undertaken was to tax all his powers. He was destined to be in continual conflict with one party or another that tried to get all power into their own hands. He did not consider it consonant with his duty to his sovereign that her representative should be regarded as a nonentity in the Government but his characteristic qualities, and especially his marvellous patience, never deserted him. A political writer of the day thus described one scene at which he was himself present. 'I never witnessed such patience under provocation. I am speaking now of what I saw myself and could not have believed without seeing. It was not merely quiet endurance, but a constant goodhumoured cheerfulness and lightness of heart in the midst of trouble enough to provoke a saint or make a strong man ill. To those, who, like me, have seen three Governors of Canada literally worried to death, this was a glorious spectacle.' This display of patience was all the more wonderful, as all this time Metcalfe was suffering intensely from his deadly malady: he had already lost one eye, and his work had to be done in a darkened room; and whenever he drove abroad he had to be carefully protected from all dust and glare. An eminent surgeon had been sent out by the Queen's Government to see what he could do, but he had found he could do nothing, and had returned to England. Metcalfe had recently been created a peer of the realm, and he was now Lord Metcalfe this had been some consolation to him in his sufferings: he still held on to the post of duty with undiminished courage and resolution and only when he felt his sufferings were impairing his efficiency, did he suggest to the English Ministry that he should be allowed to retire he left the final decision, however, with his own ministers in Canada, whom he called together to discuss the matter with them at his country-house. The historian has thus recorded the incident: It was a scene never to be forgotten by any who were present on this memorable occasion in the : Governor-General's sheltered room. Some were dissolved in tears; all were agitated by a strong emotion of sorrow and sympathy, mingled with a sort of wondering admiration of the heroic constancy of their chief. He told them that if they desired his continuance at the head of the Government, he would willingly abide by their decision: but that the Queen had graciously signified her willingness that he should be relieved and that he doubted much whether the adequate performance of his duties had not almost ceased to be a physical possibility. It need not be said what was their decision. They besought him to depart, and he consented. A nobler spectacle than that of this agonized man resolutely offering to die at his post, the world has seen only once before.' The present generation has had an example of similar fortitude and devotion to duty under almost similar circumstances. The late Sir Denzil Ibbetson, when Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab, had been recommended to proceed to England to undergo an operation for a similar malady at a time when there was every prospect of such an operation proving successful. A crisis suddenly occurred in the country, and he refused to leave his post till it was over. malady had by this time obtained a grip, and the possibility of a successful operation became exceedingly doubtful. He proceeded to England, and prudence would have counselled his remaining there. He returned to India with the sentence of death upon him. The circumstances under which he decided to return have been thus recorded in The Times: There had been base insinuations against him of timidity in the least reputable section of the vernacular Press, when illness compelled him to come home, and it is quite possible that his resignation before the expiry of his leave would have been wilfully misrepresented as an indication that he had lost the confidence of his official chiefs. So he returned to Lahore, and in spite of grave physical infirmity laboured for a few months longer with fortitude and zeal, making the impress of his strong personality felt on all branches of the administration. From the same sense of duty, he resigned his charge when no longer able to fulfil its obligations efficiently; and he came home to certain early death, calm and courageous The to the last.' It was a noble end to a noble career, and the writer of this sketch may congratulate himself that he served for a time under such a man, and is himself one of those who have felt the impress of his strong, and at the same time kindly, personality. Lord Metcalfe returned to England only to die, and within a few months after leaving Canada, he passed away peacefully. His biographer relates that the last sounds which reached him were the sweet strains of his sister's harp, and his last words were "How sweet those sounds are Forty-five of the sixty-one years of his life had been spent in strenous public service "in foreign lands and under hostile skies and during the whole of that time he had scarely known either home or rest.' , To Lord Macaulay was entrusted the task of composing an inscription on a tablet that was erected to his memory, by his friends, in his old parish church it is an inscription worthy of the man whose merits it immortalizes, and of the man who composed its noble language. Near this stone is laid Charles Theophilus, First and Last Lord Metcalfe, a Statesman tried in many high posts, and different conjunctures, and found equal to all. The three greatest Dependencies of the British Crown were successively entrusted to his care. In India his fortitude, his wisdom, his probity and his moderation are held in honourable remembrance by men of many races, languages, and religions. In Jamaica, still convulsed by a social revolution, he calmed the evil passions which long suffering had engendered in one class, In Canada, not yet recovered from the calamities of civil war, he reconciled contending factions to each other and to the Mother Country. Public esteem was the just reward of his public virtue, but those only who enjoyed the privilege of his friendship could appreciate the whole worth of his gentle and noble nature. Costly monuments in Asiatic and American cities attest the gratitude of Nations which he ruled; this tablet records the sorrow and the pride with which his memory is cherished by private affection. He was born the 30th day of January, 1785. He died the 5th day of September, 1846. CHAPTER VII THE BRITISH SETTLEMENT OF NORTH-WESTERN INDIA JAMES THOMASON, 1804-1853. MR. JAMES THOMASON has been described as one of the most successful Englishmen that have ever borne sway in India, and as a statesman of the highest rank in civil administration: a short sketch of his career, the key-note to which was practical utility, should therefore be an interesting study. In order to form some idea of the evolution of a man's mental and moral qualities, it is necessary to know something of his ancestry, and of the influences brought to bear upon him during his early youth. His father was the Reverend Thomas Thomason, who was an intimate friend of Charles Simeon, a man whose influence on the religious life of his time has been described as unique. Thomas Thomason was a chaplain in India for several years, and had won a considerable reputation there as a classical scholar : he had studied Arabic, Persian, and Urdu, and had utilized his knowledge of these languages in making translations of the Scriptures. He had also interested himself in the matter of the provision of a system of national education both higher and primary, and had received a commission from the Marquis of Hastings, whom he had accompanied on one of his tours in Northern India, to prepare a general scheme. His suggestions were not carried into practice at the time, but they eventually bore fruit. One man sows and another man reaps." 2 So it was with Thomas Thomason: he had been the pioneer in the field of elementary education, and his son James was destined to carry on his work to fruition. Altogether James Thomason's father seems to have been an exceptional man, and Sir Richard Temple has said of him: Take him for all in all he was one of 6 |