Alexander John Arbuthnot

“ In an elaborate minute recorded by the retiring governor-general on the eve of his departure, emphatic stress was laid on the prosperous and peaceful condition of affairs, qualified only by the remark that ‘no prudent man, who has any knowledge of eastern affairs, would ever venture to predict the maintenance of continued peace within our eastern possessions.’ Canning was not less desirous than the majority of his predecessors for a peaceful administration. ”

“ On 15 May 1858 the Madras government recorded their opinion of his work on the Godávery in the following words: 'If we have done our duty and have founded a system which will be a source of strength and wealth and credit to us as a nation, it is due to one master mind, which, with admirable industry and perseverance, in spite of every discouragement, has worked out this great result. Other able and devoted officers have caught Colonel Cotton's spirit, and have rendered invaluable aid under his advice and direction ”

“ In no profession is a talented and conscientious man enabled to exercise a greater amount of real influence for good. In few does he see more speedily or more tangibly the results of his labours. And in the duties themselves, especially in the higher branches of the profession, there is surely much that must afford a constant interest and gratification to a cultivated mind, — much that is perfectly consistent with the development of those qualities which go to constitute human greatness. ”

“ On the occasion of his retirement he was appointed, at the recommendation of the Marquis of Salisbury, then secretary of state for India, to be a member of the privy council, an honour which is very rarely conferred upon Indian civil servants.
Montgomery's official career was eminently successful. He was not a brilliant man, but he was an extremely useful public servant. As a very young man he was remarked for the carefulness and accuracy of his work. When he became the head of a district, he was regarded as one of the ablest district officers in the presidency to which he belonged. ”

“ If I were called upon to name the greatest man who has lived and died in this nineteenth century, I should select, not a great Statesman, not a great Orator, not a great General, not a great Lawyer, not a great Poet ”

“ Lord Ellenborough had studied Indian questions as president of the board of control, and had formed an exaggerated view of the weakness and defects of the company's government. Arriving in India at a juncture when the Indian administration seemed stunned and paralysed by the loss of the greater portion of the army in Afghanistan, he found himself in hopeless discord with many a time-honoured institution and recognised principle of Indian administration. Sir George Arthur had before his appointment to Bombay won the confidence of Lord Ellenborough, which he never afterwards lost. ”

“ In nominating Mackenzie for this post the governor-general remarked that 'the gallantry, ability, and endurance displayed by him at the time of the rising at Kábul are amply recorded, and in connection with the subsequent events of that period entitle him to a higher reward at the hands of the government of India than the command of a local corps in the Sutlej provinces.' Mackenzie had held his new command for some years when a mutiny occurred in one of the cavalry regiments of the contingent which nearly cost him his life. ”

“ General Anson was a man of unquestionable talent, and although he had never seen war except at Waterloo, where he served as a mere youth, those who knew him best had very high expectations that he would distinguish himself in his profession if an opportunity offered. It has been alleged that he showed vacillation and want of promptitude when preparing for the march upon Delhi; but the allegation has been amply refuted by a distinguished officer (Sir Henry Norman) who held an important position on the staff of the army at the time, and had the best means of forming a judgment. ”

“ The results of the examinations for degrees have not hitherto been so marked. Up to this time the degrees in Arts have been almost entirely monopolized by the Presidency College ; but the Provincial College at Combaconum bids fair to become a formidable rival at no very distant date, and if we may judge from the large number of Presidency College graduates who have received the ground-work of their education in the College on the banks of the Cauvery, it will need all the efforts of the older institution to maintain her position in the examination list. ”

“ The stock of provisions had fallen very low some time before the siege was raised. When it became apparent that famine might compel the garrison to surrender, the sepoys offered to give up the grain to the Europeans, contenting themselves with the water in which the rice was boiled. 'It is,' they said, 'sufficient for our support. The Europeans require the grain.' The defence of Arcot produced an immense effect upon the minds of the natives of Southern India. They had hitherto entertained but little respect for the English, ranking the French as greatly their superiors in military capacity ”

“ The effect of Cotton's works in preventing or in mitigating famines is unquestionable. In the great famine of 1877 four million persons are supposed to have perished in the more or less unprotected districts of the Madras presidency. In the districts protected by the great irrigation works, viz. Godávery, Krishna, and Tanjore, there were no deaths from famine, and it is estimated that the surplus food exported from these districts was sufficient to save the lives of three million persons. ”

“ It has rendered you more or less qualified to enter upon the study of any branch of Natural Philosophy or of Physical Science to which your tastes may lead you, and it has unsealed to you the copious, the inexhaustible stores of a literature, which in its variety, in its extent, and in its intrinsic value, surpasses all the literatures of the civilized world. ”

“ When, however, the peace of Paris was about to be concluded, Clive offered to Lord Bute, and procured the adoption of, various suggestions regarding those provisions of the treaty which related to India ; the chief one being that the French should be required to keep no troops in Bengal or in the northern sirkars. India, indeed, was the sphere to which Olive's attention was almost wholly devoted. At the India House he exercised considerable influence, having invested a large sum in East India stock, and being able thereby to command a large number of votes. ”

“ Before the war broke out in 1878 he accepted the appointment of chief commissioner of British Burma. When holding that office he raised two questions of considerable importance. The first was the question of the opium trade as bearing upon Burma. The second had reference to the relations of certain English public servants with the women of the country. Neither of these questions was dealt with officially by Lytton's government; but with reference to the second the viceroy intimated semi-officially that he disapproved of a circular which Aitchison bad issued, as mixing up orals with politics. ”

“ Writing on this subject little more than a month before his death, he said : 'I have frequently laid down what I believe to be the cardinal points of Anglo-Indian policy. They may be summed up in a few words. We should establish with our frontier states of Khelat, Afghanistan, Yárkand, Nipál, and Burma, intimate relations of friendship; we should make them feel that though we are all-powerful, we desire to support their nationality; that when necessity arises, we might assist them with money, arms, and even perhaps, in certain eventualities, with men. ”

“ A strong, erect, and hardy frame, a clear head and vigorous understanding, fixed principles, unshaken courage, contempt for pomp and pleasure, entire devotion to the public service, formed the character of Sir Barry Close a character one would rather think imagined in ancient Rome, than met with in our own age and nation.' Close appears to have been an accomplished Arabic and Persian scholar. ”

“ Incidents very similar have frequently occurred in war. At the same time it is right to bear in mind that if Clive and the same may be said of other commanders in more recent times had not carried daring to, and sometimes beyond, the verge of rashness, the conquest of India would never have been achieved. Had British Indian strategy been always governed by ordinary rules, neither Assaye nor Plassey would have been fought, nor would the strong position of the Afghans on the Peiwar Kotal have been taken by General Roberts with his small force of three thousand men in the last Afghan war. ”

“ Colonel Arthur's administration of Van Diemen's Land lasted for twelve years, and was marked throughout by a rare combination of humanity with firmness and courage, and, above all, by a shrewd common sense and practical judgment, which secured for him alike the respect of the colonists abroad and the confidence of statesmen at home. ”

“ The evil continued to grow till every mess-room became the seat of conspiracy and cabal, and till the sepoys could be kept in order only by wholesale executions' (Macaulay, Essay on Clive) . It was in these circumstances that a general cry arose, urged by the proprietors of East India stock, but at first resisted by the court, that Clive, as the only man qualified to deal with the crisis, should be induced to return to Bengal. Clive responded to the call, and, leaving England in the autumn of 1764, resumed the government on 3 May in the following year. ”

“ Other engineering questions, upon which the same engineer was employed by Sir George Arthur, were the improvement of the manufacture of salt by mechanical appliances, and the drainage and sanitary improvement of Bombay, both of which important works have since been carried out. Mr. Clark's report on the conservancy of Bombay was not only the starting point of such improvements in that city and in other cities in India, but was not without its influence on the sanitary improvement of our English towns, which about the same time was first taken up in earnest in this country. ”

“ 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 what are known as the non-regulation districts, and that for the districts of Bengal proper and of Behar all legislation should be entrusted to the governor-general in council. ”

“ The rivalry between the army and the navy, and the antagonism between the troops of the crown and those of the company, were then, as in later times, a source of difficulty. When Clive first reached Calcutta the committee of civilians which formed the so-called government of the factory, unmindful of the terrible calamity by which they had been so recently overwhelmed, resented the authority with which Clive had been invested by the Madras government, and called upon him to place himself under their orders. ”