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CHAPTER VIII.

[1836-1837.]

LAST DAYS IN INDIA.

Revocation of Lord Heytesbury's Appointment-Lord Auckland GovernorGeneral-Abolition of the Agra Presidency-Metcalfe's Doubts and Uncertainties-Investiture of the Bath-Acceptance of the Lieutenant-Governorship-Departure for Agra-Administration of the North-Western Provinces.

WHILST Sir Charles Metcalfe, under the impression that he would be succeeded by a Tory GovernorGeneral, was giving effect to the great measure to which the preceding chapter has been devoted, a Whig Governor-General was making his arrangements for the voyage to Calcutta. The Government of Sir Robert Peel was doomed to perish in its infancy. It had scarcely met the new Parliament when it was demonstrated, in the most unmistakeable manner, that his Majesty's Ministers had not the confidence of the country. Sir Robert Peel and his colleagues, therefore, resigned; and the old Whig cabinet, with some slight modifications, was reconstructed under the auspices of Lord Melbourne. Mr. Grant, now created Lord Glenelg, went to the

Colonial Office, and Sir John Hobhouse became President of the Board of Control.

One of the first acts of the new Ministry was to revoke Lord Heytesbury's appointment. He had received the usual valedictory entertainment from the East India Company; he had drawn the outfit allowance granted to every new Governor-General; he had made every preparation for his voyage to India by the Jupiter-but he had not sailed. The Whigs were just in time to arrest his departure. They determined that Lord Heytesbury should not be Governor-General. They had full confidence in the man who held the reins of Government, and although they would not abandon what they called their principles, by appointing a Company's servant permanently to the Vice-regal office, they were wonderfully consoled by the idea that the public interests were not likely to suffer by any delay that might occur in the appointment of a Whig nobleman to that honorable and lucrative post.

To Metcalfe these changes were only of importance so far as they unsettled and held him in a continual state of incertitude. "We are in expectation," he wrote to Mr. Tucker, "of hearing soon of the nomination of Lord Glenelg, or Lord Auckland, or some other Lord, as Governor-General, and of the abolition of the Agra Government. I may, therefore, soon follow this letter. My prospect is very comfortable; for whatever may happen to me, I shall be happy, grateful, and content. When the worst is a return to England to enjoy independence and retirement, good is the worst."

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In another letter he wrote more fully, still to the same correspondent, regarding his future prospects; and in reply to some remarks of Mr. Tucker, on the Landed Revenue of the North-Western Provinces, spoke of his own views regarding that and other matters connected with the financial condition of the country:

"I had made up my mind to go home, when the Agra Bill seemed so rapidly to approach completion, but am thrown into uncertainty again by the uncertain fate which now awaits it. I expected to be relieved from my temporary charge here by Lord Heytesbury two months ago, and now I look forward to resign it to some one else, two or three months hence. We speculate on Lord Glenelg or Lord Auckland; but as no one thought of Lord Heytesbury before his actual appointment, so we may have a stranger whom no one thinks of now, or Lord Heytesbury again, in the event of another change in the Ministry. Whoever it may be, my best assistance shall be at his command, if I can render any. My views remain as before. I have no wish to throw up service if I hold an office which will not discredit me; but am quite willing to go if I experience a loss of confidence, or have only the option of remaining in an inferior appointment compared with what I have filled, as would have been the case in the Lieutenant-Governorship appointed by the Government in India, which I could not, I think, have held with credit, after being member of Supreme Council, Governor, and temporary Governor-General, although the duties would have been as interesting and important as those of Governor.

"As Governor of Agra, I wrote a letter recommending permission for permanent settlements to be given, for eventual use, at the discretion of the Governor, on occasions which might justify it. I think that they might be beneficially introduced into the Western Provinces in many instances. The idea has

met with some opposition; but the letter has gone for your consideration. I trust that the apparent decay of our Land Revenue was only temporary, and owing to temporary causes. I have been trying of late to find out our real financial condition, which does not appear in the accounts, from the manner in which they are prepared. The result shows in the present year, on estimate, a surplus in India of above three crore and twenty lakhs to meet home expenditure; but this is in part composed of an estimated increase of Land Revenue in Bengal and Agra of about seventy-five lakhs, besides an increase of other branches, which, if not all realised, will affect the result. The prospect, however, is better than it was, when it appeared from the accounts that our Indian surplus was only a crore, or a crore and twenty-seven lakhs. This appearance induced us to address the Court, proposing strong measures of retrenchment, which will not be so urgently required, if the information now elicited from the Accountant-General's office prove correct. Nothing would rejoice me more than to see that we had really an income equal to all our charges, at home as well as in India. After that I should have great hopes of prosperity; but to go on borrowing in time of Peace is a very disheartening business."— [October 4, 1835.]

It was not until the close of the year that tidings of the nomination of Lord Auckland to the GovernorGeneralship reached Metcalfe in Calcutta. Of that nobleman he knew little, except that they had been shoolfellows at Eton; but the circumstance, trifling as it was, tended to increase his kindly feelings towards his successor. Whether he would remain in the country to aid the new Governor-General was still an open question. Much depended upon the manner in which the new Agra Bill, then before Parliament, would be shaped. To Metcalfe himself, as he continued to write to Mr. Tucker, the issue was

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of little consequence, as regarded his future happiness:

"I am looking out," he said, "for the arrival of Lord Auckland, which may, I conclude, be soon expected, and am quite uncertain as to my own movements. I have been watching the Agra Bill, but cannot trace it beyond the second reading. The Agra Government abolished, and nothing else done, my course would be clear enough; but if the Governor-General arrive without sentence having been passed against the Agra Government, but with the verdict still hanging over it, I shall be puzzled; as I shall neither like to abandon the Government. to which I have been appointed, nor be quite satisfied in resuming it, with so near a prospect of its dissolution. There is no use, however, in troubling you with my uncertainties. I must determine for myself, when the time comes, as may seem to be most according to duty. If I go home, I shall, I trust, find in the enjoyment of health, and the same energy of character which you have so conspicuously displayed in upholding the honor of the Court of Directors, in the extraordinary period during which you were their leader-not, I trust, for the only time. I shall not be surprised, but should think it most natural, if this letter found you again in one of the Chairs; and my anxiety for the good government of India makes me wish that it may be so."-[December 27, 1835.]

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I am, as you may suppose, in daily expectation of Lord Auckland's arrival; but we do not yet know when he actually sailed. My movements will be determined by the character of the position in which I may find myself, after delivering over the Supreme Government. The limit that I have ever fixed for my public service in India is the point at which I cannot continue to serve without a sense of descending from a higher position to a lower. The descent from the Governor-Generalship I do not regard in that light, because it was avowedly a temporary and provisional appointment, in