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September 30, 1854.] THE LEADER. 927
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LIFE AND COBRESPONDENCE OF LOUD METCAXFJ...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Although This Is Magazine Day, We Have O...
executive arm in the States , the expedition in question will yet sail for the coveted shores of the Pearl of the Antilles . " As to its success , that appears problematical . The writer concludes by advising the Spanish Government to close with the American offer to purchase , if repeated : —• " Whilst contemplating the gloomy , or at least uncertain prospects of the Spanish treasury , I am forcibly reminded of Cuba and of American proposals for its purchase . I have not heard a statement of the exact amount the Slates are disposed to give ; but I have been assured , on no mean authority , that it would suffice to pay off the whole of the debt , home find foreign , and that a handsome surplus would still remain
for roads and railways . Besides these advantages , Cuba , once sold , Spain might safely rectuce her fleet and army , for she would then have no reason to apprehend war with the United States , as she at present kas none to anticipate aggression or interference on the part of any European power , . ^ lieved of her heaviest burthens , and blessed with an honest government ( if indeed it be possible that such endure in a country upon ¦ which the curse of misgoverament seems to rest ) , Spain might soon and easily forget the loss of that cherished colony , whose retention , under present circumstances , is more a question of pride than of * profit , and to whose loss without compensation , she must , I fear , by the force of events , be prepared sooner or later to submit . "
In the course of the article , a graphic picture is given of the departure ( almost escape ) of Queex Cubistina from Madrid : — " The determination -was come to on the evening of the 27 th August . On the 28 th , at seven in the morning , the ministers were at the palace , to witness the Queenmother's departure . Tlie adieus were brief . Christina betrayed no emotion at parting from her daughter , -who , on Tier part , dropped a few decorous tears , but was not very greatly afflicted . There has never been much affection between the two queens , although the elder of them , by her astuteness and superior strength of character , has exercised great influence over the younger . The Queen-mother then took leave of the ministers , whom she must heartily detest ; recommended her daughter to the care and watchful guardianship of Espartero , and entered a large travelling-vehicle , accompanied by her ^ -husband , who looked grievously dejected , and attended by an ecclesiastic of high rank , and by several persons of her household . Her children ' s departure had preceded hers . Some were in Portugal , others were in France . Escorted by two scjttadrons of cavalry , under the command of the well-known General Garrigo , she reached by short stages , and without molestation , tie frontier of the former country . "
The present number of Blackvjood is not a little enlivened by an editorial letter .. to My dear Eusebius , upon the congenial subjects Civilisation—The Census . Spirited , paradoxical , and epigraniatic , it is of course a composition to defy analysis . The Dublin University Magazine , always pleasant , has an agreeable biographical article entitled Biographical Sketches and Anecdotes , with little points about Makshal Ttjkenxe , Menage , Inez de Castko , Jjope be "Vega , Madbmoiseixe de Maupin " , and the two Michael Angeios . Not much connexion ; but that is a charm in those literary ramblings . The Slave Trade , from an American Point of Vieie , is a disappointment ; considering the gravity of the subject , It is meagrely treated-, There is little need to reproduce those American arguments which attribute the continuation of slavery to free-trade , in order to convince English readers of their absurdity ; but we have need of an enlightened exposition of the complication upon this point , in which every State in the Union is now entangled .
September 30, 1854.] The Leader. 927
September 30 , 1854 . ] THE LEADER . 927
Life And Cobrespondence Of Loud Metcaxfj...
LIFE AND COBRESPONDENCE OF LOUD METCAXFJB . Life and Correspondency of Lord Metcalfe . By John William Kaye . Bentley . Parliamentary institutions mischievously limit a nation ' s Pantheon . Parliament engrosses public attention , and Parliamentary men become the only leal public men . Lord Metcalfe came home after being Governor-General of India , and yet he found himself so insignificant a personage in the country lie had so splendidly served , tbat he hung about the offices of Parliamentary agents in search of a comfortable " sear , "—unaware , in his Indian ignorance , that , like Olive , like Mackintosh , —like most men who get eminence outside Parliament , —he was very uncertain of House of Commons' position . When he came home a second time , after having governed Jamaica into peace and prosperity , ho was not oven " called upon ; " he found himself
neglected and unnoticed , so tliat at last he thouglit it an lionour to be invited to dine at Windsor Castle , where , " accidentally , " he met Sir Robert Peelfor the first time—Sir Robert Peel being ; the minister whoso reign ho was illustrating by a great colonial success , when ho carao home a third time , after his Canadian exploits , he had become a peer , but except in Indian and colonial society , he was still a nobody—he was not one of the public men the public attended to . This Lord Metcalfo , who had thus governed , and with absolute success , and by peace , not wai ' , the three greatest dependencies of the British Crown , and who figured in these illusn tr ious stations , in our own time , d y ing but a fow years before Sir Robert Peel , is a man of whom England still knows very little indeed . And , as he ia one of a great class of public servants , the moral of has career may thus bo pointed out , somewhat to the detriment of Parliamentary institutions as a machinery for the encouragement of greatness in a nation . A contemporary , concluding a thoughtful and graceful notice of Mr . Kave ' s Biosrranhv .
recommends it to the attention of all those who servo the Crown , But if it toachos anything , it must teach them this , that England , as Englishmen understand it , means merely their own island . They havo no conception of the genuine greatness of a great proconsul . The greatness of MetcaHo was no doubt ralhcr that of character than of intellect . Ho had a swoet nnturo , affectionate , generous—his mind was philosophically calm—his temper beautifully balanced and equable—and the thorough integrity of his character hud thus an irresistible influence—he made no enemies , and he reconciled to ono another men . who wore enemies . Ho was so placed in lifo that his business consisted in making friendships : m India men get on by avoiding giving oflbneo ; in Jamaica ho had merely to repress excitements and induce logical temperate viowa ; and in Canada , ho gained hia victories by conciliation of men who wore robula or oppositionists because they bcliovod a British viceroy must bo a despotic monarch . Ho was firm , straightforward , sangnino ; and he got on because naen . inatinctively trusted him , and , knowing his objeotu , involuntarily » b it wore , began to aid him . in carrying them out . But / after all , there woro no
traces of superior intellect about him . From a boy he waa thoughtful and studious : and he was always making the most of his brains—working hard and remembering , and applying well . He never , however , was a brilliant or a striking man . There are no signs of original vigour , in his minutes , and despatches , and speeches ; his letters are calm and pleasant , not clever , not witty , not profound ; and throughout all the productions of bis pen there ia the fatal evidence of conscientious mediocrity—cumbersome prolixity . Mr . Kaye , the biographer , selected by Lord Metealfe ' s family , and who has dealt with theX . ife as with a brief , is charmed with the succinctness of the Indian minutes , and admires Lord Metcalfe because he always went straight to the point . JVIr . Kaye is not the best judge in such a matter , or surel y he would have produced a better book than this . It is a dull , though a painstaking and complete book ; and the dullness is inexcusable , seeing that the career of Metcalfe is not only individually interesting , but that it constitutes a considerable chapter in imperial history . .
The grand positions attained by Charles Metcalfe do not necessarily imply that he impressed his intellect upon his contemporaries and " authorities ;" though as our successive Ministers were perpetually saying in Parliament that Metcalfe was a hero , the nation , believing that as an abstract assertion , ought to have supplied worshippers . The . just , gentle , unassuming man , with a passion for doing his duty and sacrificing himself , was precisely the sort of man authorities" are partial to—his laborious habits and experienced tact guaranteeing that he would be tolerably equal-to trying emergencies . And there never was a more remarkable instance of succesa . by routine promotion ^ Metcaue was one of Foi-tune ' s pets . He was born into a great civil service career . Son of an Indian Director , who was also an M . P ., and ia the good Indian times when patronage was patronage , young Metcalfe had his path cut out for him ; and " the girl he left behind him" having . ( so we infer —it is not stated ) jilted him , he lost all inducements to vary or . to slacken Indian prosperity by runs . home and ' European degagements . He appears to
have buried his broken heart in work , careless of the life-destroying chniate he worked in . Everybody loved Mm , and . everybody helped him . . oft ; and , gallant , good , and discreet , he was pushed on rather than got on ,, during the best years of his life . His several Residences were successes—he had nd enemies , not even in the Calcutta Council , which controlled him—his firmness quelled native dishonesty , and his good dinners and parties charmed Indian society . His becoming Governor- General was mere luck—he merely got the position as senior member of Council , in the interval between the death , of one Governor-General in India and the appointment and arrival of another out from England . It was mere luck that the Press question came to be decided by him , he getting the enduring fame , during that brief interval . No matter who had been in that office , the thing would have to have been done . Mr . Kaye , following precedent , exalts the act as wise ,, and takes all tlie credit for Metcalfe ^ because Metcalfe had been- for year s advocating the liberty of the Indian . Press .
We do not see that the measure is entitled to such extravagant encomiums . In India , the question as to a free press' was not a question of freedom or slavery— it could only be a question of police . The best thing that can be said for the measure is , that it has done no harm , and has stopped squabblings between newspaper speculators and officials with tempers disappearing after their libels . This inconsistency remains noticeable—that a free p ^ ress ia granted in a country which is made up of serfs ( natives ) and " services "civil , ' military , and , uneovenanted , who are serfs too . With regard to Metcalfe ' s second great act in his Indian history , his exposure of the frauds by the English bankers on the Nizam ' s revenues , there isthis _ to be said : that he was tardy in the exposure long after he had become familiarised with the facts , and that it was his oivn over-considerateness and delicacy which ex *
posed him to the misconceptions resulting in England in a parliamentary attack on him . But he did expose a bad system of British plunder of native princes ; and there is no doubt that his conduct established a precedent that enabled other Residents to insist on common honesty ,- ^ — so initiating a new system , not yet , alas , invariable , but progressively more pure . _ He behaved like an honest , just man ; and the chai'acter was a novelty in India— notwithstanding the incessant encouragement given by the Indian authoritiea to Christian missionaries among the available natives . It is , however , not for the purpose of dwelling on lus Indian or on his-Jamaica , careers that we , tliis week , refer to this clumsy book . Our object isto call attention , at the moment of a ministerial embarrassment in Canada , to the difficulties Lord Motculfc had to deal with when sent out there ten
years ago—when the theory of " responsible Government , ' now consummated by Lord Elgin , first began to be spoken of . Our statesmen are glorying in our success with Canada : and it is indeed wonderful to see how calmly Canadians can now manage a ministerial crisis —the Governor-General being of no account at all in the arrangements . For England's success in that great dependency the main credit is duo tothc beginning made by Lord Metcalfo , in proving the possibility of constitutional Government in a colony , and that colony , half French , half Catholic at the moment wliolly discontented . The success of Metcalfe -was the more surprising that ho was an old Indian—trained in a despotic and brutal
system . It was a success attributable to his being the only man m the colony who kept his temper—that , again , boing a marvel , for , all the time he was dying , and knew it , of cancer . Ho bore with the cancer , and stuck to hia post , because ho felt it was his duty , and that he alone could do the work . Ho was an heroic gentlo , man . Ho reached Kingston , Canada , in 1843 . " His firat care on establishing himself at Kingston , " aays naif Mr . Kaye , " was to make himself thoroughly acquainted with the character of the Government over whioh he was commissioned to preside . "—a sentence that indicates the commonplace tljouguc of tha whole biography .
Ho found in Canada a Legislature embracing , «« i » Jftnuuon , tliwo wnaUtaoni parts : — tho Governor , or rcproHonlntivo of the Crown ; tlio Legislative Counc i , noimnatod |> y tlio Crown « ami iho Ifc . pnmonUtlvo A / woinbly , « jl « cted by tlio people , j m there vas a very Important dlflbroncc , In ro « po « t of the mnnnw m which _ hoGovern mont wu « practical y administered , between the Wct-Indten . aland and tlio North Amorkiui province , ; for vhtronn In Iho former tho I * g i » * tlv « i » nd Executive Coanm wa « ono , and tho offlco-hiMom of whom It wab coinpowl retained their f «™ ™ % Rood comh . ot , | n tho latter tl . oro wan a separate Itxocutlvo fa » ndVholtog offt ^ tuollyby the sufferance of tho popuJar branch of tho Legtelatuxe , though nowmOl
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 30, 1854, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_30091854/page/15/
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