sternly forbidden were at once abandoned, the Brahmins merely remarking that if the widow was not permitted to burn she would infallibly be struck dead. This never occurred in my district or anywhere else so far as I know."

CHAPTER II.

SIR JOHN PETER GRANT, K. C. B., G. C. M. G.

Previous career.

1859-62.

IN the preceding Chapter, Sir Frederick Halliday's successor, Sir John Peter Grant, has been constantly mentioned. He was the second son (born 1807) of Sir John Peter Grant, Kt, (1774-1848), of Rothiemurchus, Inverness, M. P. for Great Grimsby and Tavistock, a Puisne Judge of the Bombay Supreme Court, and subsequently a Puisne Judge of the Calcutta Supreme Court from October 1833 to February 1848 (the latter had succeeded to the entailed estate of the Doune of Rothiemurchus on the death of his uncle, Patrick Grant, in 1790: he died at sea on his passage home, 17th May 1848, and was buried in the Dean Cemetery, Edinburgh.) He was educated at Eton and Edinburgh University; and appointed to the Bengal Civil Service from Haileybury, in 1826. He arrived in India on July 31, 1828, and had therefore done nearly 31 years' service before his appointment to the Lieutenant Governorship of Bengal. He served in the revenue and judicial departments in the N. W. Provinces, at Bareilly, 1829, Shahjahanpore and Phillibhit, 1832, and in Bengal, as Deputy Collector of Saran, 1833; as Secretary, to the Sadar Board of Revenue, Calcutta, and as Assistant Secretary and Deputy Secretary to Government, 1834; Deputy Accountant and Civil Auditor, Agra; Deputy Secretary to the Governments of India and Bengal, Judicial and Revenue departments, and Superintendent of the Botanic Garden 1835; Junior Member and Secretary, Prison Discipline Committee, 1836; Secretary to the Indian Law Commission, 1837; Deputy Secretary and Secretary to the Government of India, legislative, judicial and revenue departments, 1838; Private Secretary to the Governor-General, January 1839, and Deputy Secretary, General and Financial departments, 1839; Deputy-Accountant-General, exofficio Director of the Bank of Bengal, and Junior Secretary,

Financial branch, 1840; on furlough from March 1841 to 1844; Com missioner for payment of the Maharaja of Mysore's debts, 1844-47 ; Commissioner for inquiry into proceedings regarding Meria sacrifices in Ganjam, 1847; Secretary to the Indian Law Commission, 1848; Secretary to Government of Bengal, 1849; Secretary to Government of India, Home and Foreign departments, 1852-54; Member of the Governor-General's Council, 1854-59, but temporarily Lieutenant-Governor of the "Central" Provinces during the mutiny, 1857-58.

Sir J. P. Grant, it will be seen from the above summary, had a distinguished career. It is recorded of him that

Reputation.

his varied abilities, tact and judgment, combined "with his unbiassed opinions on all grave questions and his kind. feeling for the people marked him as a man suited to the time. His versatile qualities and his knowledge of details of administration in every department, it is said, peculiarly fitted him to deal in a masterly way with all difficult problems. When he was convinced of the soundness of any scheme or measure he would not rest satisfied ́until he gained over the opposition. Lord Macaulay regarded* him as one of the "flowers of Calcutta Society": one of the little 'circle of people whose friendship I value, and in whose conversation I take pleasure." Both Lords Dalhousie and Canning paid great regard to his counsels.

Mr. Seton-Karr writes (1899.) "The Governor-General, at that time in the very fulness and maturity of his powers and experience, found a colleague who, if he differed on some important questions from a statesman somewhat apt to carry all before him by forcible writing and by personal influence, did not at other times content himself with a brief Minute of concurrence, but supported his chief by State papers, in which cogent arguments were set forth in a style of peculiar dignity and clearness. Mr. Disraeli spoke of Grant's Minute on the Annexation of Oudh as one of the ablest papers in the whole Blue Book. And Lord Dalhousie acknowledged that 'opposition on some points was almost welcomed by the powerful support brought to bear on the discussion of others on which the Governor-General had set his heart, and in which his colleague concurred."

* Life and Letters, Chapter VI., 1834-38.