Previous appointments and brief sketch of career.

CHAPTER IV.

SIR WILLIAM GREY, K. C. S. I.

1867-71.

In each of the first 3 Lieutenant-Governorships there was an occurrence of the greatest importance-the mutiny, the indigo troubles, the famine-to test the statesmanship of the ruler of the province. There was no event of such magnitude in Sir William Grey's time, which was one of comparative peace and quiet. His official training had been on the same lines as that of his predecessors, so that he was well able to deal with the matters and controversies that fell to his lot. He was born, in 1818, the fourth son of the Hon'ble and Right Reverend Edward Grey, Bishop of Hereford, a son of Charles, first Earl Grey. His mother was a daughter of James Croft, Esqre., of Greenham Lodge, near Newbury, Berkshire. He matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, 19th May 1836, but left the University without a degree on being appointed by his cousin, Lord Howick, (the third Earl Grey), to a clerkship in the War Office. While serving there he was nominated to a writership in the Bengal Civil Service, the nomination having been placed at the disposal of his uncle, the second Earl Grey, the Premier of the first Reform era, by Sir Robert Campbell, Director of the East India Company. Entering Haileybury College in January 1839, he passed out in July 1840. The following account of his life is taken, almost verbatim, from the Dictionary of National Biography. He was not remarkable for studious habits in early youth. At Christ Church he incurred the displeasure of the Dean, Dr. Gaisford, in April 1837 by his indolence and inattention. In his first term at Haileybury he was rusticated on account of a late and disorderly wine party in his room. He made up for these delinquencies, however, in his later terms, and passed out of College after a shorter residence than was usual. He reached India on 27th December 1840, and soon devoted himself unremittingly to his duties, speedily establishing a character for industry and practical ability, combined with high principle and singular independence of judgment. His first appointment, August

1842, was as Assistant Magistrate-Collector of Rajshahi. After holding various subordinate offices in the mufassal, he was from September 1845 to 1847 Private Secretary to the Deputy Governor, Sir Herbert Maddock, and subsequently served for some years, December 1847-1851, in the Bengal Secretariat and in the Home and Foreign Secretariats of the Government of India. In April 1851, at the special request of the Directors, he was appointed Secretary to the Bank of Bengal, and discharged the duties until 1st May 1854, when he became Secretary to the Government of Bengal, on that province being constituted a Lieutenant-Governorship. In January 1857 he left India on Furlough, but in consequence of the mutiny returned in November of the same year, and after officiating for some 18 months in temporary appointments, one of which was that of Director-General of the Post Office, he was appointed by Lord Canning in April 1859 Secretary to the Government of India in the Home Department. In offering him this appointment in cordial terms Lord Canning wrote: "Judging from some experience I should think it possible to quit the duties of Post Master General without many pangs!" In 1862 he became a Member of the Council of the Governor-General, and had opportunities for displaying his administrative capacity to great advantage. During the greater part of this time Lord Lawrence was Governor-General. Between him and Sir W. Grey there was considerable difference of opinion on questions of the greatest moment. It was natural that their views on public affairs should be largely influenced by their very different antecedents. Their opinions notably differed with reference to the treatment of the talukdars and the subordinate proprietors and tenants in Oudh,—a question on which the Chief Commissioner in Oudh, Sir Charles Wingfield, held views directly opposed to those of the Governor-General. It was mainly due to Sir W. Grey's intervention that this question was solved by a compromise which furnished probably as equitable a settlement as was possible in the circumstances of the case. In other matters, and especially in resisting certain retrogade proposals made by Sir Charles Trevelyan when Financial Member of Council, Sir W. Grey exercised a salutary influence on the Government. While strongly opposed to the policy of excessive centralisation, which had cramped the energies of the Provincial Governments, he successfully opposed a proposal

for decentralising the Postal Department. He was also a staunch pponent of the income-tax, holding that it was totally unsuited to the circumstances of India. As a Member of Council he took an active part in discussions regarding the settlement of the land revenue in Orissa and other cognate questions which the famine brought into prominence. When he succeeded Sir C. Beadon as LieutenantGovernor, Lord Halifax, in congratulating him on the appointment, wrote: "There is no one I think so well qualified to fill it with advantage to the country." Very shortly after his assumption of the Government he had to consider and report upon various suggestions affecting the entire constitution of the Government of Bengal, made partly in Sir George Campbell's report on the famine, and partly at the India Office. One proposal was to the effect that the Bengal Legislative Council should be abolished, that the Lieutenant-Governorship should cease to be a separate and distinct office, and that the duty should be discharged by one of the Members of the Governor-General's Council, who, subject to the control of the Governor-General in Council, should be empowered to make laws for the "non-regulation" districts, and that for the districts of Bengal proper and of Bihar all legislation should be entrusted to the Governor-General in Council. From these suggestions Sir W. Grey emphatically dissented, designating the last as "a very startling example" of a vacillating policy, "if 6 years after introducing the experiment of a local, and in some sense a representative, legislature in Bengal, we suddenly abolish it and relegate all local legislation to the general legislature of the empire." "If there was one part of India," he added, " in which the native public were entitled to have a real share in legislation, it was the lower provinces of Bengal." Indeed it was "possible," he wrote, "to look forward to the time when a local legislature," or some local consultative body, should take part in regulating the expenditure of local taxation. So far from acquiescing in any reduction in the functions of the Bengal Government, he recommended that its constitution should be assimilated to that of the Governments of Madras and Bombay, where the administration was and is conducted by a Governor and an Executive Council. This discussion ended in the maintenance of the status quo in Bengal, (Assam being shortly afterwards constituted a separate Chief Commissicnership). Although Sir W. Grey's particular