Life of the Marquis of Dalhousie

Prefatory Note

The following works have been consulted for the purposes of this biography : —

Sir E. Arnold's Administration of the Marquis of Balhousie ; the Duke of Argyll's India under Balhousie and Canning; Sir C. Jackson's Vindication of Balhousie' s Indian Administration ; Lord Dalhousie*s Review of his Indian Administration ; Selections from the Beccyrds of the Government of India, No. III. ; Punjab Administration Reports ; Indian Progress Reports; Thornton's Indian Public Works; Kaye's Improvements in the Administration of India ; Clements Markham's Memoir of Indian Surveys; Marquis Wellesley's Indian Bespatches ; Indian Blue Boohs; Indian Office Records; Parliamentary Papers; and the Calcutta Gazette.

Biographies : — Edwardes and Merivale's Life of Sir Henry Lawrence; Bosworth Smith's Life of Lord vi FBEFATOBY NOTE,

Lawrence; Temple's Life of Lord Lawrence; Sir W. Napier's Life of Sir Charles Napier ; Bruce 's Life of Sir Charles Napier ; Gambier Parry's Life of Beynell Taylor ; Lady Edwardes' Life of Sir Herbert Edwardes ; Sir F. Goldsmid's Life of Sir James Outram ; Marshman's Life of Havelock; Kaye's Lives of Indian Officers,

Sir R. Temple's Men and Events of my Time in India and Beport on Nagpur ; Sir H. Edwardes' Year on the Punjab Frontier; Sir G. Lawrence's Forty Years' Service in India ; Raikes's Notes on the North- West Provinces; The Punjaub, by an old Punjaubee; Lawrence Archer's Punjaub Campaign ; Sir W. Sleeman's Diary in Oudh; Sandford's Jowrnal of a Subaltern; Laurie's Second Burmese War; Kaye's History of the Sepoy War; Marshman's History of India; Trotter's History of India under Victoria; Chesney's Indian Polity ; Evans Bell's Empire in India ; Beveridge's History of India ; Sir W. Hunter's Indian Gazetteer; Talboys Wheeler's India under British Bule; Trotter's History of India from the Earliest Times.

For Dalhousie's career in England: — Dean Ramsay's Scottish Life and Character; Sir T. Martin's Life of

PBEFATOBT NOTE. vii

the Prince Consort ; C. Greville's Diaries ; Hanna's Life of Chalmers,

Obituary and other notices in : — Allen's Indian Mail ; The Friend of India ; Mofussilite ; Agra Messenger ; Calcutta Englishman; Delhi Gazette; Timss; Scotsman ; Standard ; Spectator, and the article on Dalhousie in the ninth edition of the Encgclopsedia Britannica,

To all who have personally aided me in any way with materials for the work now completed, I beg to offer my sincere thanks. There is one kind friend, however, to whom such thanks are especially due for services which no words of mine can adequately express. To the zealous co-operation of Dr. Alexander Grant this book is indebted for most of those personal details which serve to fill up and enliven the narrative of a great man's public career. Besides the valuable body of notes and reminiscences which he placed so generously at my disposal, the perfect confidence placed by Lady Connemara in the discretion of her fathers intimate friend enabled him to furnish me with other information, such as her Ladyship would have deemed herself precluded by her father's instructions from giving directly to a mere stranger.

As one who served in India during the first six years viii PBEFATOBY NOTE.

of Lord Dalhousie's Government, and again during the Mutiny, I may claim to have had some direct acquaintance with many of the topics handled in these pages. My subsequent studies of Indian history, carried on now for nearly thirty years, have enabled me, in my History of India under Victoria, to follow up the good work begun by those who first undertook the task of vindicating the greatest and noblest of Indian Viceroys from the reproaches cast upon him by his own countrymen during and after the catastrophe of 1857. Further research in the writing of the present volume has served only to deepen my former conviction of the injustice which clouded the last years of a life remarkable for rare achievements and heroic sacrifices in the cause of duty.

L. J. T.

Chapter I. From Harrow To The House Of Lords

1812-1838. '

Birth of the Marquis of Dalhousie — His parents and ancestors — Canada and Harrow — Letter to Dr. Butler — Cardinal Manning's recollections — Lord Hastings' visit — The holidays — Christ Church — Studies and vacations — Death of Kamsay's elder hrother — His degree — Ramsay stands for the City of Edinburgh and is defeated — Member for Haddingtonshire — Death of his father — The Scottish secession question — Breach with Dr. Chalmers . p. 1

Chapter II. Dalhousie As A Cabinet Minister. 1839-1847

Death of Lord Dalhousie's mother, and his marriage — The Queen's visit — He becomes Vice-President of the Board of Trade — Promoted to the Cabinet — The Railway Commission — ^Plan for placing the railways under State control — Business of the department — Lord Dalhousie's talents — The Corn-Law debates — Lord Register |L;j of Scotland— Stories of the Duke of "Wellington — Resignation of Ijfl^ the Ministry — Dalhousie is offered the Governor-Generalship of India — His hesitation and his aunt's opinion — Farewells and departure — The A.D.C. p. 16

CONTENTS.

Chapter III. The Second Sikh War

1848-1849.

Landing of Dalhousie at Calcutta — State of India — Affairs of the Punjab — Murder of Vans Agnew and Anderson — Complicity of Mulraj — Siege of Multan and general revolt of the Punjab — Dalhousie's change of policy — Military preparations — Story of the war — Gilbert's flying column — Dalhousie's differences with Sir H. Lawrence — John Lawrence pronounces for immediate annexation — Sir H. Lawrence withdraws his resignation . p. 31

Chapter IV. The Annexation Op The Punjab

1849-1852.

The deposition of Dhulip Singh — The Koh-i-Nur — Dalhousie's letter to the Secret Committee — Favourable reception of the annexation — Its results — Punishment of the disaffected and of Mulraj — The Board of Administration — Character of the Government — The Lawrences and Mansel — Dalhousie and Napier — The clashing of authorities — J^apier's resignation — The last passages of arms- Pacification of the Punjab — Collisions with Henry Lawrence — The Lawrence Asylum — Lord Stanley's visit to India . p. 51

Chapter V. Progress In The Punjab And The Conquest Of Pegu

1849-1853.

Dr. Grant — His impressions of Dalhousie — Activity of the Governor- General — He recommends, the planting of the Punjab — The Agricultural Society — Prosecution of Lalla Joti Parsed — A list of reforms— The Wahabi fanatics— Border raids — Disorders in Oudh and the Deccan — Insolence of the Burmese — Dalhousie

CONTENTS, xi

demands satisfaction — The appeal to arms — Dalhousie organizes victory — The ultimatum — Landing of the forces — Conquest of the sea-board — Dalhousie's orders to Godwin — His visit to Rangoon — The annexation of Pegu sanctioned — The relief of Pegu — The province passes under British rule — Conclusion of the war — Beneficial results of the annexation — Dalhousie's statesmanship p. 75

Chapter VI. Public Services And Private Sorrows. 1853-1854

Prosperity in the Punjab — Friction between the Lawrences — Sir Henry Lawrence offered the Political agency in Rajputana— His consequent mortification — John Lawrence appointed Chief Commissioner — His work — Reynell Taylor — Death of Mackeson — Appointment of Edwardes as Commissioner of Pesh§,war — Treaty with Dost Mahammad — Death of Sir Henry Elliot — Dalhousie's voyages — Death of Lady Dalhousie — Appointment of Outram to Baroda — Institution of cheap postage — Liauguration of Indian railways — The guarantee system and broad gauge — ^He discountenances the atmospheric principle — Establishment of the telegraph — Its use during the Crimean War and the Mutiny — The Ganges Canal — Irrigation works and steamers — Construction of hill-roads — A port and floating bridge for Calcutta— IneflQciency of the Military Board — Establishment of the Department of Public Works — Renewal of the Company's charter — The new Legislative Council — Visit to the shrine of Jagannath — Ill-health of Lord Dalhousie — His determination to finish his work p. 99

Chapter VII. Social Reforms. 1850-1855

Law regulating succession to property — Satti, thaggi and kindred practices — Female infanticide — Improvement in the condition of

Xll

CONTENTS.

the soldiers— Native education — Punishment of Dacoity — Bill for legalizing the marriages of widows — Alleviation of punishments — Abandonment of Bethune's Bill — Neutrality towards rival princes, and frontier policy — Punishment of law-breaking princes — Outbreaks in Calicut, Bengal and BoMram . , • P- 128

Chapter VIII. ^ Territorial Absorption. 1848-1856

The question of adoption — Its application to Jhansi and Angria Colaba — Absorption of Satdra and Sambalpur — Difficulties at Nagpur — Dalhousie annexes Nagpur and Jhansi — Treatment of the heirless princes — Criticism of Dalhousie's policy — Affairs in Mysore — Absorption of the Camatic and Tanjore — Nana Sahib — The Moghul — Cession of Berar by the Nizam — Continued disorder in Oudh — Dalhousie's recommendations — Annexation of the province — Dalhousie's dislike to the proceeding . . p. 143

Chapter IX. Last Days In India. 1855-1856

Visit to Madras — Reforms in the Indian Medical Service — Summary of Dalhousie's work — His relations with the Court of Directors— The legislative council — Opinions of Outram and Temple — His insight into character — His intellectual pride — Relaxations of discipline — Real tenderness of his disposition — Letters to Captain Metcalfe and Mrs. Lawrence — Intercourse with the natives — Dalhousie as a companion — His habits — Hospitality and industry — His power over details — The Services — Love of order — Freedom from jobbery — His Minutes on the military establishment— Reports from the provinces— Farewell addresses — Dalhousie's reply — Note to John Lawrence — Minute on the Punjab — Last appearances — Letter to the Queen — Departure from Calcutta p. 162

CONTENTS. xiii

CHAPTEE X.

FROM SCOTLAND TO MALTA.

1856-1858.

The Farewell Minute — Congratulations to Outram and Lawrence — Sufferings in Egypt — In the Solent — A Pension is voted him — Message from the Queen — Letters to Dr. Grant — Visit to London — Letters during the Mutiny — Outcry against his policy — Letters to Dr. Grant — Life at Edinburgh — Journey to Malta — "Winter at Valetta — Hostile criticisms and preparations for defence — Article in " The Friend of India " — Change for the worse — Comments on Indian and home affairs — Return to England . p. 194

Chapter XI. The End

1858-1860.

The stay at Malvern — Last letter to Dr. Grant — Letter from Sir John Lawrence — Dr. Smith — Marriage of Lady Edith Ramsay — Improvement in Dalhousie's health — Death of Captain Mecham — Last Illness and Death — Conditions of his will — Tributes to his memory — Concluding remarks p. 216

LIFE OF

THE MARQUIS OF DALHOUSIE,

Chapter I. From Harrow To The House Of Lords

1812-1838.

Birth of the Marquis of Dalhousie — His parents and ancestors — Canada and Harrow — Letter to Dr. Butler — Cardinal Manning's recollections — Lord Hastings' visit — The holidays — Christ Church — Studies and vacations —Death of Ramsay's elder brother — His degree — Ramsay stands for the City of Edinburgh and is defeated — Member for Haddingtonshire — Death of his father — The Scottish secession question — Breach with Dr. Chalmers.

James Andrew Eamsay, first and only Marquis of Dalhousie, was born on April the 22nd, 1812, at Dalhousie Castle, the ancient seat of his forefathers, a few miles from Edinburgh. He was third son of George, ninth Earl of Dalhousie, a handsome, noble-looking Colonel of Foot, who had foug^ht under Wellinorton in j^^Spain, had led his regiment at Waterloo, and was * B

2 LIFE OF THE 3IABQUIS OF DALEOUSIE.

presently to see himself Governor-General of Canada. In 1805, Earl George had married Christian, only child of Charles Broun of Colstoun, in Haddingtonshire. The Countess Christian could trace her lineage through several noble families back to the old Norman Counts of Poitou. On his father's side, James Ramsay came of an old Saxon stock, which had struck root in Scotland six centuries before his birth, and had since produced some names worthy of remembrance in Scottish story, from the renowned but ill-starred Sir Alexander, Warden of the Marches under David II., down to the Ramsays who fought at Namur and "Waterloo.

The first Lord Ramsay won his peerage for loyal service rendered to James VI. of Scotland, whom he had rescued at a critical moment from the hands of his murderous jailor, the Earl of Gowrie. In 1633, his grandson, William, was made Earl of Dalhousie. Early in the 18th century, another kind of honour was bestowed on the Dalhousie of that day by the immortal author of The Gentle Shepherd, who extolled his patron in the well-known lines : —

" Dalhousie of an auld descent, My pride, my stoup, mine ornament."

When James Ramsay was three years old, his father took his seat for the first time as a Peer of the United Kingdom in the House of Lords. A few years later, his wife and two children — the second boy, Charles, iiad lately died — accompanied him to Canada,"] where

JAMES BAMS AY AT HARROW. 3

little James spent some years of happy childhood amid scenes the memory of which was never to leave him. The one place in the world which he afterwards most longed to revisit was Canada. In his tenth year the boy was sent home in a small sailing brig, to begin his school life at Harrow, under the headmastership of Dr. George Butler. Even at that early age he had taken kindly to the practice of keeping a diary. To his school studies he brought a mind naturally quick, thoughtful, retentive, and already conscious of its latent powers. As a younger son of a poor Scotch lord, he knew how much depended on his own exertions, and got through his daily tasks with an industry spurred, no doubt, by the pride he always felt in his Ramsay forefathers. In after years his friends declared that he was prouder of being a Ramsay than of his fame as Governor- General of India.* With him, however, such a feeling bore the only fruit which can ever be held to justify it. Hector's prayer, that his son might live to be deemed " much better than his father," typifies the spirit in which men like James Ramsay accept the heritage of an old and honoured name.

At Harrow, both James and his elder brother, Lord Ramsay, were private pupils of the good Dr. Butler, whose son, now Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, bears witness to the warm regard with which both his parents used to speak of " Jemmy Ramsay." That the regard was mutual, may be seen from the letter which, in 1850, the whilom pupil wrote to his old master, then

* Dr. A. Grant's MS. notes.

B 2

Dean of Peterborough. The Dean had sent the Governor-General some "Bills of the School" — lists, namely, of the school as it stood in former years, with notes indicating what had since become of the boys. Dalhousie wrote thus in reply : —

" My dear De. Bctlef, — For I must address you by the name which is the old familiar friend, rather than employ its more dignified successor, — you did not over-estimate the interest which I feel in all that belongs to Harrow, when you sent me the little pacquet of school bills that accompanied your letter.

" It was like meeting a company of old friends to read over the list of 1826, and sad enough too ; for in all the wide circle of my charge here, I know of only two or three of the whole catalogue. I will send a copy to each of them.

*' I have seldom seen the old place since we parted there in '27. Each time there was a change for the worse, and I felt more reluctant to return. One could bear up under the loss of even such a dignitary as ' Peach y's devil ;' but when on my last visit I found the studies burned down, and No. 1, Lower Eow, among the things that had been, I gave it up, and have never been there since. It gave me great pleasure to hear, however, that it was flourishing before I left England.

" The tidings you give of your health are far from being so good as could be desired ; and I truly hope that the rest you are giving yourself now may repair, even at your years, the mischief which overwork has done.

" It must be interesting to you to watch the various walk through the world of those who long since were under your hand, and it would not be unwelcome to you to know that, as one of that number, I often recal with gratitude the care you bestowed upon me, and which has helped to raise me to the unexpected height on which I stand ; while I remember even more gratefully still the constant kindncts with which you treated me.

" As one goes on in life, many odd corners get hoarded up in one's memory. Still, numerous as they are, the little corner in the Library next the pupil-room door, where I used to sit and work alone, fills a

HIS GEABACTEB. 5

prominent place among them ; Farnaby and puns to the contrary notwithstanding.*

" With my best thanks for your kind letters, and my best wishes for you and yours, I remain always, my dear Dr. Butler,

" Yours sincerely and gratefully,

" Dalhousie.

" The Very Rev.

" The Dean of Peterborough, &j. &c. &c."

This letter is still preserved at Harrow among the contents of the Vaughan Library, to which it was presented by Dr. Montagu Butler, who succeeded Dr. Vaughan as head master.

At school young E,amsay won for himself, not only the regard of his masters, but the good opinion of his schoolfellows. From one of these, the venerable Cardinal Manning, who remembers him "perfectly as he then was," and who watched his after career with much interest, we learn that he was " very popular among the boys, and his character and bearing were, as they were through life, gentle, intelligent, and self-controlled.'' Of his intellectual gifts he is " less able to speak," for Ramsay was two forms below the future cardinal-archbishop ; and after their school and college days they hardly ever met again. But Eamsay's look and appearance, writes his Eminence, " are before me as if it were yesterday."

One incident of his school-boy days may have helped to

* Peachey kept the school-key, and rang the bell from Dr. Butler's house before school. His "devil," or assistant, was old Stag lies , (Thornton's llarroiv School). " Puns " is short for punishments, i.e., " impositions."

G LIFE OF THE MABQUIS OF DALHOUSIE.

kindle his young ambition. In 1823, the Marquis of Hastings returned home from India, which he had governed for nine years, with rare ability alike as a soldier and a statesman. In the following year he paid a visit to his old school, and won the hearts of the Harrow boys by giving them a present of two sovereigns apiece. So princely a largess from a gray-haired hero of such fine manners, of a presence so commanding, must have filled many a boyish heart with other sentiments than gratitude alone. The conqueror of the Marathas stood there in all his glory, and young Ramsay for one w^ould see in that s])lendid old Harrovian the embodiment of a greatness which he, too, might hope some day to rival.

The boy's holidays were usually spent in Scotland among his own kith and kin. One of his father's special friends was Dr. Smith of Lasswade, the family doctor, whose son, Baird Smith, of the Bengal Engineers, was afterwards to bear a leading part in the siege of Delhi, and to die, in 1861, of the exhaustion caused by heroic efforts to grapple with an Indian famine. When Dr. Smith went the round of his patients, James Ramsay often rode beside him on his own pony, listening eagerly to the good man's stories about the people and traditions of the surrounding country. The Waverley Novels fed his young fancy with a rich store of characters and incidents dear to every Scottish reader ; and his mother's friend, Dean Ramsay of Edinburgh, must often have anmsed his hearers at the Castle with tales like those which have since gained so wide a celebrity in print.

BAMS AY AT OXFOBD. 7

In those Beminiscences the Dean himself descrihes his old and valued friend, the Countess Christian, as " a very remarkable person .... eminently distinguished for a fund of the most varied knowledge, for a clear and powerful judgment, for acute observation, a kind hear^ and a brilliant wit." From her, no doubt, the future Marquis derived some of the finer intellectual qualities, which marked his boyhood, and shed their full lustre on his riper years. The Earl himself, who had meanwhile come back from Canada, took a right fatherly interest in the mental progress of his favourite boy, and looked forward with proud confidence to his ultimate success in the life-battle which a poor Scotch lord's youngest son might be called upon to wage. The son on his side had a warm heart, in which the memory of his father's loving trustfulness was to flourish green and tender to the last.

In the summer of 1829, the old Laird of Cockpen, as the Earl was often called from the parish he lived in, sailed with his son. Lord Ramsay, for India to replace Lord Combermere as Commander-in-Chief. Some months earlier, his son James had quitted Harrow for Oxford, where he matriculated in October. As a commoner of Christ Church, he found himself amidst a group of clever young men who were all to win high distinction in after years — Mr. Gladstone, Lord Canning, James Bruce (the future Lord Elgin), Kobert Phillimore, and Mr. Liddell, afterwards the scholarly Dean of Christ Church. The last-named had rooms adjoining Ramsay's, on the first floor of the '' Old Library." The two young men, beingof the same term, attended several courses of lectures together, and soon became very intimate friends. At the University, James Ramsay, with Mr. Temple for his tutor, threw himself manfully into the work that lay before him, and impressed all who knew him with a strong conviction of his intellectual and moral worth. There was no lack of ballast to all that brain. *^ Never man," wrote his friend. Dr. Liddell, " worked more honestly and patiently to achieve success ; and we all believed that the highest honours would reward his exertions.'* His great talents and untiring industry would have marked him out for distinction in almost any walk of life ; and at that time he himself cherished the hope and purpose of achieving eminence at the Bar or on the Bench.

For pure scholarship of the Bentley or Porson type Ramsay was never remarkable, although at Harrow^, under Henry Drury's genial guidance, he had learned, says Dr. Liddell, to take a keen delight in the poetry of Horace and Catullus. But in those days at Oxford deep and accurate scholarship was not the chief requisite for a first class in litteris humanioribus. The examinations served rather to test a man's knowledge of Ancient History and Greek Philosophy, together with his success in answering general questions on these and kindred subjects, as treated by modern writers of accepted repute. Dr. Liddell has no doubt that in these directions his friend's "clear head, bright intelligence, and excellent

BAMS ATS SCHOLABSEIP. 0

memory," would have enabled him to carry off the highest honours ''without reaching a very high standard of scholarship." Such an opinion from a judge so competent, who was soon to stand among the foremost scholars of his day, must not be lightly regarded in view of circumstances which left it an opinion still.

During one of his vacations Ramsay refreshed his mind and body by travelling through Northern Italy, then pining under Austrian rule. He happened one day to pass a sign-post pointing to the little town of Sirmio, which Catullus glorified in his graceful poem. In Sirmiiim. There, nineteen centuries ago, dwelt the Latin poet in a villa overhanging the deep waters of Virgil's Lake Benacus, now known as Lake Garda. Dean Liddell well remembers the delight expressed by his friend in recalling Drury's comments on the poet's verses. On another occasion, when the two young men were reading Aldrich's Logic together, the joy with which, after some perplexity, Ramsay threaded his way through the mazes of the syllogism, was a thing which the Dean could never forget.*

With all his self-confidence, Ramsay displayed none of the vanity or the self-conceit for which clever young men are often remarkable. He was at once too proud and too modest to put on the airs of a superior person. An event which presently for a time broke ofi" his Oxford studies gave a new turn to the course of his future life. In 1832, the last illness of his eldest brother, Lord Ramsay,

* Dean Liddell's letter to tlic author.

called James Ramsay home to attend the death-bed, and to busy himself in his father's behalf with more urgent duties than that of reading for a First Class. " Just at the critical time " — says Dr. Liddell — " when a man preparing for the schools ought to review the work of his academical life, and gather up all the knowledge he has acquired in a form fit for examination, Mr.Ramsay succeeded to his brother's inheritance, and was obliged to quit Oxford for some time to settle matters of family business."

Owing to the break thus caused in his university training, Lord Ramsay, for such was now his courtesy title, resolved after his return to Oxford to forego all chance of taking high honours with his degree. At the "Great Go" examinations of 1833, he went up for an ordinary pass. So well did he acquit himself, that his examiners invited him to compete for honours. This he declined, preferring the safe obscurity of the pass list to the doubtful issues of a struo^j^le for which he deemed himself but ill prepared. The examiners therefore could only do what in such cases lay within their discretion. Instead of " gulfing " him with the herd of mere passmen, they marked their sense of his merits by granting him an honorary Fourth Class.*

Meanwhile, his father had returned in broken health from India to rest for a few years by his "ain fireside," and enjoy the companionship of his only surviving son. With the recent change in his fortunes, Lord Ramsay turned his

♦ Dr. Liddell's letter to the Times, December, 1860.

HIS FIBST CANDIDATUBE. 11

thoughts away from the Bar to the wider and stormier prospects of political life. The Whig Ministry, which had ridden into power on the flood- tide of Parliamentary Reform, was already breaking to pieces in 1834 ; and Peel was rallying the discomfited Tories around his new^ Conservative flag. Under the short-lived Ministry of "Wellington and Peel a general election ushered in the new year, 1835. Lord Ramsay's sympathies and social surroundings drew him towards the party of which Peel was now the virtual head. With the boldness of youth he stood as candidate for the City of Edinburgh against such formidable opponents as Sir John Campbell, the future Lord Chancellor, and Mr. James Abercromby, who presently became Speaker of the House of Commons. His speeches at the hustings and elsewhere showed him master of a terse, fluent and vigorous style, lightened up by sallies of playful humour and quick repartee. In the very first days "of his canvassing he asserted his personal importance with a quiet firmness which caused some of his backers to open their astonished eyes. His election committee at their first meeting proceeded to discuss their plan of action without a thought of any need for consulting the candidate himself. At length, when everyone else had done speaking, Lord Ramsay stood up, and, remarking that he was the person chiefly concerned, began pointing out courteously, but firmly, to each member his proper place and functions in the common enterprise. The committee listened at first with amazement, anon with admiring assent to the words of wisdom that fell from the lips of one so young, yet clearly so capable of conducting his own cause.*

The young patrician bore himself manfully throughout a contest waged after the rough fashion of those boisterous days. Once, as he stood on the hustings, a dead cat was thrown at his head. That same evening the man who threw it was present with himself at a freemasons' meeting. As if to show that he bore no malice, Lord Eamsay went up to his assailant and shook him heartily by the hand.

The speech in which he returned thanks to his supporters, after his inevitable defeat, gave no uncertain sound with regard to the future : —

" I return," he said, " to my own pursuits with the sensation common to every man who feels that he has not to reproach himself with having buried his talents in the earth ; that so far as in him lay he has done his duty to his country, his fellows, and himself; and that, having cast his bread, upon the waters, he has only to await in patient confidence the day when it shall again be found."

Not the least telling point of his speech was the joke which followed up its graver passages. Referring to the majority which had thrown him out, he clinched the goodwill of his audience by quoting the refrain of a familiar Scotch song: " Ye're daft to refuse the Laird o' Cockpen." It is easy to imagine what roars of goodhumoured laughter followed the speaker as he turned away.

His next opportunity came with the general elections in the summer of 1837, when Lord Ramsay won his seat