V ,, . 
 
 **
 
 
 MILESTONES 
 
 ON MY LONG JOURNEY
 

 
 v MILESTONES 
 
 ON MY LONG JOURNEY 
 
 MEMORIES OF A COLONIAL GOVERNOR 
 
 BY 
 
 SIR CHARLES BRUCE, G.C.M.G. 
 
 GLASGOW 
 
 JJrinteb for the author at the gtnibfrsito JJress bti 
 
 ROBERT MACLEHOSE 6- CO. LTD, 
 
 1917
 

 
 TO THE GRACIOUS MEMORY OF 
 THEIR MAJESTIES 
 
 QUEEN VICTORIA y KING EDWARD VII 
 
 THESE MEMORIES OF SERVICE BY 
 
 FATHER MOTHER AND SON 
 
 ARE DEDICATED , 
 
 IN LOYAL DEVOTION TO 
 
 THEIR MAJESTIES 
 
 KING GEORGE V fcf QUEEN MARY

 
 FOREWORD 
 
 FOR the purposes of my Introductory Chapter, 
 I have availed myself of Notes drawn up by my 
 father between 1860 and 1869, the year after my 
 marriage and my entering the Colonial Service. 
 My aim has been to trace the evolution of the 
 social environment of my home life at that time, 
 and for this reason I have refrained from carrying 
 the narrative beyond the day of my passing into 
 a new social environment. 
 
 In the first part of my work I have given a 
 brief summary of my Colonial Service from 1868 
 to 1903. 
 
 In the second part I have recorded my return to 
 the environment of my youth, and my experiences 
 in advocacy of an Imperial policy based on the 
 reciprocity of interests in the two environments. 
 I have preached the faith that if one member of 
 the Imperial body-politic suffer, all the members 
 suffer with it.
 

 
 CONTENTS 
 
 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 PACE 
 
 NOTES RELATIVE TO MY FAMILY, THE BRUGES 
 OF BLAIRHALL, KINROSS AND ARNOT. RE- 
 CORDED FROM TIME TO TIME FROM THE 
 
 YEAR 1860 TO 1869 BY MY FATHER, 
 THOMAS BRUCE OF ARNOT 
 
 I. Blairhall, Kinross and Arnot - 3 
 
 II. Arnot - 23 
 
 PART I 
 
 CHAPTBR 
 
 I. SERVICE IN THE EAST MAURITIUS AND 
 
 CEYLON. 1868 TO 1885 47 
 
 II. SERVICE IN THE WEST BRITISH GUIANA 
 AND WINDWARD ISLANDS. 1885 TO 
 1897 - - 68 
 
 III. BACK TO THE EAST. 1897 TO 1903- - 90
 
 x CONTENTS 
 
 PART II 
 IN RETIREMENT 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 IV. 1904 TO 1908 - - - 143 
 
 V. 1909 TO 1914 - - - l82 
 
 VI. NEARING JORDAN - - 219 
 
 PAGR
 
 INTRODUCTORY
 
 NOTES RELATIVE TO MY FAMILY 
 
 Recorded from time to time from the year 1860 to 1869 
 by my father, Thomas Bruce of Arnot 
 
 DEBRETT, in his Peerage^ under the title "Elgin," 
 states that Edward Bruce of Blairhall y sixth in 
 descent from Robert of Germanyston, described 
 by King David II in 1359 as "dilectus consan- 
 guineus," left three sons, viz., Robert, ancestor of 
 the Bruces of Blairhall, extinct ; Edward^ ancestor 
 of the Earls of Elgin and Ailesbury ; and George 
 of Carnock, ancestor of the Earls of Kincardine. 
 But while a Bruce of Arnot exists it cannot be said 
 that there is no representative of the Bruces of 
 Blairhall although in the female line loyalty to 
 our Queen and to her Royal progeny forbid it! 
 On the death of the third Earl of Kincardine in 
 November 1705, his Titles, after a long suit
 
 4 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 before the Scotch Parliament and Court of Session, 
 devolved on his kinsman Alexander, who had 
 married Christian, daughter of Robert Bruce of 
 Blairhall, which Robert was also father of Sir 
 William Bruce of Balcaskie, afterwards of Kinross 
 and Arnot, my great-great-great-grandfather. In 
 a document in the Arnot Charter Chest described 
 as "an extract of the blazoning of the Coat 
 Armoriall appertaining to the Right Worshipfull 
 Sir William Bruce of Balcaskie," dated 1675, and 
 by " Lyon King of Armes," Sir William is stated 
 to be " a second sone of the Familie of Blairhall, 
 which Familie is lineallie descended of the house 
 of Clackmannan." He is similarly described in 
 Douglas's Baronage and Peerage and other genea- 
 logical works, as well as in numerous family 
 records. His sister Christian, Countess of Kin- 
 cardine above referred to, is also mentioned in 
 various documents in the Charter Chest. Her 
 name and signature appear in a "Band" in Settle- 
 ment executed by Sir William in 1709, the year 
 before his death, in favour of the " Lady Christian 
 Bruce, my Niece, Daughter to Alexander Earle of 
 Kincardine and Dame Christian Bruce my Sister 
 German." There are also two other " Bands " of 
 the same period in favour of two other nieces, the 
 Ladies Marie and Helen, who, as well as the Lady 
 Christian, signed their receipts for the money thus
 
 NOTES RELATIVE TO MY FAMILY 5 
 
 left to them at " Brumhall," l as it was then spelt. 
 Among our family portraits is one of Lady 
 Kincardine. 
 
 Sir William was the second son of the third 
 " Baron " (I use the language and titles of the 
 period as applied to the " minor Barons ") of 
 Blairhall by his wife Jean (or Catherine, for she is 
 sometimes so called), a daughter of Sir John 
 Preston of Valleyfield. Sir William's elder 
 brother, Sir Thomas, succeeded to the Barony, Sir 
 Thomas being succeeded by his second son. But 
 the latter dying unmarried, the Barony, as Debrett 
 says, became extinct. The destination of the pro- 
 perty I know not. Although Debrett describes 
 his first Sir Robert as " of Germanyston," it would 
 have been more correct to designate him as "of 
 Clackmannan," Germanyston having been included 
 in the grant of Clackmannan in 1359, as appears 
 from " a Pedigree of the House of Clackmannan " 
 in the Charter Chest, which quotes the Charter, 
 and the family always bore that designation. It 
 is this family from which, in the "Armoriall 
 Blazoning" before referred to, "the Blairhall 
 Familie is said to be lineallie descended." Hence 
 it is that the portrait of the famous Duchess of 
 Lauderdale (said to be by Sir Peter Lely) comes to 
 be in our possession. She was the elder daughter 
 1 Broomhall.
 
 6 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 and heiress of the first Earl of Dysart, his mother 
 being a daughter of the House of Clackmannan. 
 She married, first, Sir Lionel Tolmache, Bart., after 
 whose death she was created Countess of Dysart ; 
 and secondly, in 1671, the Duke of Lauderdale. 
 By her first marriage she had several children, the 
 eldest of whom, Lionel, succeeded his mother as 
 Earl of Dysart. By her second marriage she had 
 no family, and his Grace dying without male issue, 
 the Dukedom became extinct. 
 
 Sir William Bruce was created a Baronet in 
 1668. In 1665 he had acquired the Estate of 
 Balcaskie, in Fifeshire, now the property of Sir 
 Robert Anstruther, Bart., and in 1675 ^ e P ur " 
 chased the Estate and Barony of Kinross, or Loch- 
 leven as it was then sometimes called, from William 
 Earl of Mortoun " the Estate being almost in- 
 tirely wood sett by the Erles of Mortoun to several 
 creditors for sommes of monie borrowed by them 
 near to the value of the whole Estate." l 
 
 In 1684 he sold Balcaskie to Sir Thomas Stewart 
 of the Grantully family. 
 
 Sir William married, first, Mary, daughter of 
 Sir James Halket of Pitfirrane, by whom he had 
 several children, two only of whom survived him, 
 viz., Sir John, his heir, and Anna, of both of 
 
 1 Narrative of the Transactions betwixt Sir W. Bruce and the 
 Earl (Arnot Charter Chest).
 
 NOTES RELATIVE TO MY FAMILY 7 
 
 whom hereafter. He married, secondly, "Dame 
 Magdalene Scott," but by her had no family. She 
 is described in a Register of the Contract of 
 Marriage as lawful daughter of the " deceast David 
 Scott, brother to the Laird of Gallowshills, and 
 Relict of Umquhill George Clerk, Junior, Mer- 
 chant Burgess of Edinburgh." 
 
 The following extracts from Douglas's Baronage 
 refer to Sir William : " He was a man of extra- 
 ordinary parts, a steady loyalist, a firm and constant 
 friend of the Royal Family. He was too young 
 to have been very active in the troublesome reign 
 of King Charles I, but no gentleman in a private 
 capacity contributed more to bring about the 
 restoration of his son than Sir William. Being of 
 a fine address he found means to get acquainted 
 with General Monk, to whom, 'tis said that he 
 painted the distress and distractions of our coun- 
 try, and the glory that would be acquired in 
 restoring the Royal Family, in such lively colours 
 that the General at last opened his mind to him 
 and signified his intention to serve the King, but 
 that their measures were to be carried on with the 
 utmost caution and secrecy. These joyful tidings 
 Sir William had the honour to communicate to the 
 King. The happy consequences thereof are so 
 well known to everybody that we need insist no 
 farther on them here. The King did not fail to
 
 8 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 remember his faithful services, and immediately 
 after his restoration he appointed him Clerk to the 
 Bills, anno 1660, a very beneficial office in those 
 days." (to him?) 
 
 " As he was by far the best Architect of his time 
 he was made Master of the King's Works, and 
 contrived and finished the stately palace of Holy- 
 rood House as it now stands." 
 
 Having acquired from the Earl of Morton the 
 Lands and Barony of Kinross, he was ever after 
 designated by that title. He then built a fine 
 seat, of which a Scottish historian wrote, in 1710, 
 that " for situation, contrivance, prospects, avenues, 
 courts, gardens, gravel walks and terraces, and all 
 hortulane ornaments, parks and planting, it is sur- 
 passed by few in this country." He lived to a 
 great age, died anno 1709, and was succeeded by 
 his son (Sir John). The following Commissions 
 granted by Charles II to Sir William Bruce 
 and having the Great Seal are in the Charter 
 Chest : 
 
 As Clerk of Supply to the Lords of Council 
 and Session to collect the sums imposed on persons 
 bringing actions into the Court of Session and 
 payable to the King particularly in virtue of the 
 Act of 4th September 1662, &c. Dated 26th 
 May 1665. 
 
 As Collector or Governor of Taxes imposed by
 
 NOTES RELATIVE TO MY FAMILY 9 
 
 Act 23rd January 1667, for payment of the Forces, 
 &c. Dated I2th May 1667. 
 
 As Superintendent and Overseer of the Palaces 
 of Holyrood and others within the kingdoms of 
 Scotland, France and Ireland. Dated 3rd June 
 1667. 
 
 In 1 68 1 Sir William was enrolled as Commis- 
 sioner in Parliament for the Shire of Kinross. 
 
 Some of the modern Scottish Guide Books state 
 that Kinross House was built by Sir William for 
 the Duke of York. This, however, is a mistake, 
 whence originating I cannot imagine. It was 
 built, as Douglas says, for the family seat, and still 
 bears in various places externally Sir William's 
 arms, crest and monogram. Until it was ready to 
 receive them, the family occupied the old house 
 of Lochleven, as it was called. And from that 
 time until the time of my grandmother, when the 
 Estate passed into other hands under the circum- 
 stances described farther on, it was the family 
 residence. 
 
 The old ancestral and other portraits now in my 
 possession, the old china and other relics of the 
 Bruces and Hopes, all came from Kinross House, 
 and I may here observe that, with two or three 
 exceptions specially referred to farther on, the 
 names of the persons they represent were written
 
 io INTRODUCTORY 
 
 on the backs of the whole of the portraits when 
 I acquired them. But many of them having been 
 cleaned and the canvas renewed, I have had the 
 names painted on the fronts of the pictures of 
 most of them at least. 
 
 I have no actual record that Sir William was 
 interred in the family , vault in the old burial 
 ground at Kinross, 1 but there is no doubt on the 
 subject. Family and local tradition says that he 
 and his successors were all buried there, the first 
 break having occurred when my father was buried 
 near Clifton, and this is quite borne out by what I 
 saw during the restoration of the vault in memory 
 of her who was taken from me in 1859, as her 
 last earthly resting place and mine. On that occa- 
 sion a large number of coffins were exposed to 
 view, the older ones in outer shells cut out of solid 
 blocks of stone, and on several the inscriptions were 
 quite legible, but not on all. The coffins in the 
 best state of preservation were those of my father's 
 brother, his father and mother and his grandfather, 
 Sir John Bruce Hope. They are all under the 
 pavement of the vault as renewed. 
 
 The vault is said to have originally been under 
 the centre aisle of the Old Parish Church long ago 
 removed, but still extant when Sibbald wrote, viz., 
 in 1710. Its position in the very centre of the 
 
 1 The Parish Registers of the period are not forthcoming.
 
 NOTES RELATIVE TO MY FAMILY 1 1 
 
 burial ground renders this more than probable, and 
 it is still spoken of, and is described in a recent 
 lithographed plan of the burial ground as " the 
 Aisle." Above the former entrance to it was a 
 stone bearing the date 1675, ^ e 7 ear m which Sir 
 William purchased the Estate of Kinross. This 
 stone is now above the door, inside the vault. 
 And on the outside, in the gable, above the door, 
 I have placed two stones bearing the following 
 inscriptions : 
 
 On the upper one- 
 
 In Jttmcrriam 
 On the other- ggj^ 
 
 1860. 
 in the old English character. 
 
 We have two portraits of Sir William one 
 taken when he was comparatively a young man, 
 the other in old age. In the former he appears 
 with a crayon in his hand, referring, probably, to 
 his Office of King's Architect. As might be 
 assumed from all we know of him, he seems to 
 have been very intellectual looking and also very 
 handsome which his wife Mary Halket, if we 
 may judge from her portrait, was not. The earlier 
 portrait of Sir William is by M. Wright, and 
 bears the date 1665 ; the other by Sir John 
 Medina, whose initials it bears.
 
 12 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 As already observed, Sir William was succeeded 
 by his (only surviving) son Sir John, of whom 
 Douglas says : " Sir John Bruce of Kinross was 
 also a man of parts, and as he had got a liberal 
 education was looked upon as one of the finest 
 gentlemen in the Kingdom when he returned from 
 his travels." He married Lady Christian Leslie, 
 daughter of John Duke of Rothes, Dowager of 
 James, third Marquis of Montrose ; but dying 
 without issue the Baronetship went to his cousin 
 and heir male " Sir Alexander Bruce, second son 
 of the fourth Baron of Blairhall, who dying un- 
 married these honours became extinct." And so 
 ended the Bruce Baronetcy. 
 
 Sir John's marriage with the Marchioness took 
 place in I687, 1 the Marquis having died in 1683. 
 We have a portrait of Sir John as a young man by 
 Sir John Medina, and there is another taken in 
 later life at Leslie House. We have also portraits 
 of his wife and of her first husband, and one of 
 the Duchess of Rothes daughter of the Earl of 
 Crauford. 
 
 On the death of Sir John, the Baronetcy, as 
 stated above, went to his cousin Alexander, but 
 the Estates of Kinross and Arnot devolved upon 
 his sister Anna, who in 1679 na< ^ married Sir 
 Thomas Hope, fourth Baronet of Craighall. 1 
 1 Marriage Contract in A.C.C.
 
 NOTES RELATIVE TO MY FAMILY 13 
 
 By this marriage there were three sons, two of 
 whom died unmarried after succeeding to the 
 Baronetcy, viz., William, fifth Baronet, who, 
 dying before his mother, succeeded to the Craig- 
 hall property only ; and Thomas Bruce of Craig- 
 hall, Kinross and Arnot, sixth Baronet. The third 
 son, John Bruce, succeeded his brother Sir Thomas 
 as seventh Baronet, but only to the Estates of 
 Kinross and Arnot, his brother, the sixth Baronet, 
 having sold Craighall to his cousin Charles, first 
 Earl of Hopetoun. 
 
 Sir John married, first, his cousin Charlotte, 
 daughter of Sir Charles Halket of Pitfirrane, by 
 whom he had five sons, all of whom he outlived. 
 
 By his second marriage with Mariamne Denune 
 of Catboll, the representative of an old Ross- 
 shire family, Sir John had a son John and a 
 daughter Anna, but he outlived the former, as 
 he had outlived his five sons by the previous 
 marriage. His daughter Anna, of whom more 
 hereafter, was my grandmother my father's 
 mother. Lady Hope's elder sister, Christian, 
 married James Hepburn Congalton of that Ilk. 
 
 Sir John died in 1766, aged 82, a Lieutenant- 
 General in the Army. We have a very good 
 portrait of him in his General's uniform, and a 
 gold-headed cane, said to have been his companion
 
 i 4 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 in Marlborough's wars, is one of the relics which 
 have come down to us. In the Charter Chest are 
 many of his Army Commissions, and letters to 
 him from various eminent and distinguished per- 
 sons. From the former he appears to have been in 
 various regiments, both Cavalry and Infantry, 
 including the Grenadier Guards and the " Horse 
 Grenadiers." He also served in the Army of the 
 King of Sweden, and was at one time Governor 
 of the Bermudas, where his first wife died. He 
 was Member of Parliament for Kinross-shire. 
 
 On the death of Sir John the Baronetcy of 
 Craighall devolved upon his cousin, Thomas of 
 Rankeillor, a grandson of John, second Baronet, 
 now represented by Sir Archibald Hope of Craig- 
 hall, twelfth Baronet. The original Craighall 
 Estate was -sold, as incidentally mentioned above, 
 by Sir Thomas, the sixth Baronet, to the first Earl 
 of Hopetoun in 1729. But only a small part of 
 it is now in the Hope family, viz., one farm be- 
 longing to Sir Archibald and another to Mr. Hope 
 of Rankeillor and Luffness. 
 
 Our family portraits comprise three of the first 
 seven Baronets of Craighall. But of these the 
 most valuable, as well as that of the most historical 
 interest, is the portrait of Sir Thomas, first Baronet, 
 painted by Jameson, called sometimes the Scottish 
 Vandyke being one of the two portraits by that
 
 NOTES RELATIVE TO MY FAMILY 15- 
 
 artist mentioned by Sir Thomas himself in his 
 Diary printed for the Bannatyne Club in 1843. 
 The other is at Pinkie, and here, before going on 
 with the history of his descendants, I may appro- 
 priately go back to the original of the two portraits 
 himself the ancestor of all the families of the 
 name in Scotland, as well as of most of those now 
 settled in England, and of our own. He was 
 great-grandson of John de Hope, who came from 
 France in the retinue of Magdalen, Queen of 
 James V., anno 1537, his younger brother Harry 
 being the ancestor of the Hopes of Amsterdam. 
 Adopting as my own the words of the Bannatyne 
 Club in their Preface to the Diary before referred 
 to, I may say that Sir Thomas " was a person of 
 too great celebrity and distinction in his own age, 
 to make it necessary in this place to give any 
 account of his life or character either as a lawyer 
 or a statesman." 
 
 By his marriage with Elizabeth, daughter of 
 John Binning, Esq. of Wallyford, in Midlothian, 
 Sir Thomas had fourteen children, three of whom 
 he lived to see Judges of Session, and having occa- 
 sionally in the course of his duties as Lord- 
 Advocate to plead before them, he was permitted 
 by His Majesty to do so covered. Hence the 
 privilege the Lords Advocate are said still to
 
 1 6 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 possess although fallen into desuetude of plead- 
 ing before the Court of Session covered. Hence also 
 it is that in the two portraits referred to above, as 
 in others also, Sir Thomas, although in his Robes, 
 appears wearing a black velvet scull-cap, sur- 
 mounted with a band of white lace. 
 
 Sir Thomas died in 1 646, and was succeeded by 
 his eldest son, Sir John, more generally known as 
 Lord Craighall, from his title as a Lord of Session. 
 The Hopetoun branch of the family is descended 
 from his sixth son, whose grandson Charles was 
 created a Peer in 1703. 
 
 Having thus disposed of the Baronetcies of 
 Kinross and Craighall, and traced the Estate of 
 Craighall down to the present time, we now pro- 
 ceed with the somewhat eventful story of the 
 Estate of Kinross and the more prosaic narrative 
 connected with Arnot. 
 
 These two Estates, entailed separately and at 
 different times by Sir William Bruce, had de- 
 scended together until the death of Sir John Bruce 
 Hope, whose daughter Anna was considered and 
 believed herself to be the heiress of both. The 
 family appear to have lived in considerable state, 
 the heiress travelling between Kinross and Edin- 
 burgh in her father's " Coach and six " ; and she 
 had many suitors, the Duke of Richmond being 
 one of those whose hand she is said to have
 
 NOTES RELATIVE TO MY FAMILY 17 
 
 rejected. But before her father's death it was dis- 
 covered that the destination of the two Estates 
 was no longer to be the same ; that Anna suc- 
 ceeded to Arnot alone, the succession to which 
 was limited to the issue of the marriage of Sir 
 William's daughter Anna with Sir Thomas Hope, 
 and their heirs of line ; but that Kinross went to 
 that Anna's heirs male, and that she, after her 
 husband Sir Thomas's death, having contracted a 
 second marriage with Sir John Carstairs of Kil- 
 conquhar, by whom she had an only son, that son, 
 James Carstairs Bruce, and not my grandmother, 
 was the heir of Entail of Kinross, which accord- 
 ingly reverted to him but not the personal pro- 
 perty. And hence it is that, although " heir of 
 line" both of the Hopes and Bruces, I succeeded 
 (after my father) only to the Estate of Arnot, and 
 yet possess so many of the ancestral and other 
 portraits of both families, and of the other objects 
 of historical and family interest mentioned in this 
 narrative. 
 
 But we have not yet done with Kinross for 
 my father's sake and my own, would that it had 
 been otherwise! It was sold in 1777 by Mr. 
 Carstairs Bruce, after obtaining an Act of Parlia- 
 ment to enable him to do so, on the ground that 
 the Estate was overburdened with debt. It was 
 provided by the Act, however, that after payment
 
 i 8 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 of the debt, the balance of the proceeds of sale 
 should be laid out in the purchase of another 
 Estate to be entailed in the same manner as that 
 of Kinross, and with the balance of the sale pro- 
 ceeds the Estate of Tillicoultry was purchased and 
 duly entailed. In 1796 Mr. Carstairs Bruce, who, 
 it appears, was then in embarrassed circumstances, 
 having " discovered that the Entail of Tillicoultry, 
 which of course was strictly in terms of the former 
 Deed, was not legally guarded by a proper resolu- 
 tive clause in so far as respected the prohibition 
 to sell," 1 sold a small portion of that Estate to a 
 friend, in order to try the point whether the 
 original Entail of Kinross might not be set aside. 
 In 1799 the Court of Session decided that 
 although the heir of Entail in possession was pro- 
 hibited in the Deed of Entail from selling, yet 
 owing to a defect in the resolutive clause, the sale 
 which had taken place was valid. And this 
 decision being affirmed by the House of Lords, 
 Mr. Carstairs Bruce proceeded to sell the entire 
 Estate, disposing of portions of it from time to 
 time until the whole was sold, but this did not 
 take place until the year 1805, wnen that portion 
 which then remained was sold for ^35,000. After 
 paying his debts largely increased no doubt by 
 
 1 " Information " for J. C. Bruce in suit before Court of 
 Session.
 
 NOTES RELATIVE TO MY FAMILY 19 
 
 law expenses he purchased, with the balance of 
 the sale proceeds or a portion of it, the smaller 
 Estate of Balchrystie, in Fife. In 1825 my father, 
 who by this time had again become next heir of 
 Entail, brought an action in the Court of Session 
 against the then Mr. Carstairs Bruce, grandson of 
 Sir John, to compel him to invest the money 
 received for Tillicoultry or the balance of it 
 in an Estate to be entailed as that had been, and 
 in 1827 my father obtained a Judgment in his 
 favour. But by the House of Lords this Judg- 
 ment was reversed, on the ground that although 
 the original Entail did contain a prohibition against 
 selling, yet inasmuch as the irritant and resolutive 
 clauses did not refer to it, the heir in possession 
 might sell, and was not bound to re-invest the 
 price in another Estate. Thus ended our hopes 
 of any advantage from the Kinross Entail the 
 result of a decision by the House of Lords 
 diametrically opposed to the previous Act of Par- 
 liament. By this decision my father became 
 involved in pecuniary difficulties from which he 
 never recovered, and these, rendering it impossible 
 that he should do that justice to the Estate of 
 Arnot which he otherwise would have done, en- 
 tailed upon me much of the serious outlay which 
 I have had to incur during the last nineteen years. 
 But my father, the very soul of honour, by a
 
 20 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 quarter of a century of rigid economy and self- 
 denial, was enabled to secure every one of his 
 creditors from loss. 
 
 From allusions in various letters to some ap- 
 parently important legal proceedings in which she 
 was for a considerable time engaged, it seems 
 probable that my grandmother did not allow the 
 Estate of Kinross to leave that branch of the 
 family without taking some steps of a legal nature 
 in the matter not improbably with the view of 
 establishing her right as possible heir of Entail. 
 Be this as it may, she is always described as Miss 
 Bruce of Arnot, from the period of her father's 
 death until her marriage in 1774 with Mr. 
 Williamson, who by the terms of the Entail 
 assumed the surname of Bruce and the Arms of 
 Kinross. 
 
 Having already referred incidentally to the 
 Armorial Bearings of the families of Kinross and 
 Arnot, I may not inappropriately here describe 
 them, together with the circumstances under which 
 they were adopted, so far as it is in my power to 
 do so. 
 
 The first change from the ancient Arms of the 
 Bruces appears to have taken place on the creation 
 of the Baronetcy in 1668, although the Extract
 
 NOTES RELATIVE TO MY FAMILY 21 
 
 from the Register of King of Arms before referred 
 to bears date 1675. ^ n f ^ at "Extract of the 
 Emblazoning," as it is called, the Arms are de- 
 scribed as " Or, a Saltire, Gules and Chiefe of 
 the second . . . and for his crest a sun going 
 down, the one halfe appearing proper, supported 
 by two Crans regourdant proper, with this symboll 
 in an Escroll, Irrevocable." Under the Arnot 
 Entail the surname of Bruce and the Arms of 
 Kinross must be borne by that family a require- 
 ment which has of course always been fulfilled, 
 although the crest and motto have again been 
 changed, the former to "a sun rising," the latter 
 to " Nee me qui caetera vincit." 
 
 It was a pity perhaps to give up the broken 
 sceptre and the " Fuimus" the ancient crest and 
 motto of the Bruces. But Sir William Bruce's 
 object was doubtless to distinguish his family from 
 others of the same name and lineage ; and it will 
 be observed that the first change is only in what 
 meets the eye, the mottoes and both the crests 
 conveying the same meaning and sentiment, and 
 having reference to memories of the same past. 
 
 With regard to the subsequent change of crest 
 and motto for the Bruces of Arnot the substitu- 
 tion of a rising for a setting sun for a crest, and 
 for a motto "Nee me qui caetera vincit" instead 
 of " Fuimus " or " Irrevocable" family tradition
 
 22 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 affirms that it was made at the suggestion of, or in 
 consequence of a remark by King Charles the 
 Second, from whom, as shewn in the earlier part 
 of this narrative, Sir William had received many 
 substantial marks of Royal favour, His Majesty 
 having graciously expressed a hope in opposition 
 to the sentiment conveyed by the then existing 
 crest and motto, that the family might rise again. 
 
 As to the sentiment conveyed by this second 
 change of crest and motto, it is to be observed 
 that although from one point of view it may be 
 said to be almost at direct variance with that 
 expressed by the former ones, it yet but embodies 
 what may be described as a natural consequence or 
 incident of the latter or what ought to be so 
 although directly suggestive of far higher and 
 nobler aspirations, and to a certain extent of what 
 may be described as new. For whereas the broken 
 sceptre with its "Fuimusj" and much more the 
 setting sun with its " Irrevocabile," although 
 reaching to the far distant past, were more than 
 silent in respect of the future, the rising sun with 
 its "Nee me qui caetera vincit," although no less 
 mindful of the past, is pregnant with hope and 
 high resolve for the future! May my children 
 and their children's children to the farthest genera- 
 tion be actuated by this sentiment, not only in
 
 NOTES RELATIVE TO MY FAMILY 23 
 
 regard to the things of this life but of that which 
 is to come. 
 
 I well remember, on the occasion of my giving 
 him his first sword when he entered the Army, my 
 lost son's chivalrous attention to the family motto 
 on its scabbard. There was no fear of his bringing 
 discredit on it! 
 
 II 
 
 HAVING no regular genealogical records of the 
 Williamson family to refer to, I have had to glean 
 what I have to say on the subject from detached 
 papers in the Charter Chest, from friends to whom 
 I applied for information, and from genealogical 
 and other published works in addition to what I 
 have to relate of my own personal knowledge. 
 
 From a Memorandum in the Charter Chest 
 founded partly on local and family tradition, and 
 partly on the transactions of history, it would 
 appear that as the result of a feud between Harold, 
 son of MacWilliam, Earl of Caithness, and a 
 powerful Bishop of Moray towards the end of the 
 twelfth century, the Earl's Estate and Honours 
 were forfeited to the Crown, and the whole clan 
 outlawed and compelled to leave that part of the 
 country, some of them retiring to the Continent
 
 24 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 and others to the south of Scotland. Among the 
 latter were four brothers of the name, who settled 
 at Netherhaugh, " now Glengeith," in Lanarkshire, 
 the eldest being the ancestor of this family ; and 
 in the course of time, the family separating, the 
 Estate was divided into four portions, a fourth part 
 under the designation of Mirklaw falling to the 
 share of the then second brother, the more immedi- 
 ate ancestor of this family, by whose descendants 
 it was held until about the middle of the seven- 
 teenth century, when it was sold, after being in 
 their possession for more than three hundred 
 years. 
 
 There is in the Charter Chest a Genealogical 
 Tree headed " The Genealogy of Thomas Wil- 
 liamson Esquire of the Kingdom of France, whose 
 name is sometimes spelt in France Williamson, 
 Deoillenson, Douillanson, Deillanson, Guillaum- 
 son, D'Oilliamson, &c., descended from an ancient 
 Military and Knightly Family in the County of 
 Cromarty in the Kingdom of Scotland." It 
 begins with a Duncan Williamson, who married in 
 1381 Alice, daughter of a Mackenzie of Kintail, 
 and ends with a Thomas Williamson, " Archer of 
 the Scots Company of the King of France's Life 
 Guards (who) passed into France in 1495, and 
 married in 1506 Margaret Rault." It may be
 
 NOTES RELATIVE TO MY FAMILY 25 
 
 assumed that the Williamsons of the Tree were 
 of the same stock as those of the Memorandum re- 
 ferred to, the two documents being found together 
 in the Charter Chest among other family records. 
 
 My grandfather died before I was born. His 
 father was a younger brother of Alexander Wil- 
 liamson of Balgray. He had no profession, and 
 the family resided sometimes in their house in 
 Edinburgh and sometimes at different places in 
 the country. His father's elder brother, the 
 Alexander of Balgray before referred to, died in 
 1762, leaving by his wife Christian, daughter of 
 David Robertson, Esq. of Gledney, three sons : 
 
 1. Charles, in the 26th Regiment (Cameronians), 
 whose grandson, David Robertson Williamson of 
 Lawers, married to the Hon. Selina Maria, a 
 daughter of Lord Tredegar, is the present head of 
 the family. 
 
 2. John, also in the 26th Regiment, married to 
 a beautiful Spanish lady, whom he is said to have 
 carried off from a convent, but he left no issue. 
 
 3. David, afterwards Lord Balgray, who mar- 
 ried his cousin, daughter and heiress of William 
 Robertson of Lawers, but by her had no family. 
 He died in 1837, and his widow in 1852, when his 
 grand-nephew, David Robertson Williamson (re- 
 ferred to above), who was also his wife's next of 
 kin, succeeded to the Estate of Lawers.
 
 26 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 Lord Balgray was my father's relative of that 
 generation of whom I knew most. He was one 
 of the Lords of Session of the Old School, a race 
 which no longer exists, talented and accomplished 
 and an able judge, tall and handsome and pic- 
 turesque looking, with his powdered hair in a 
 queue and his nether man ensconced in knee 
 breeches and silk stockings, with large silver shoe 
 buckles. He prided himself, as did his wife, on 
 his courtly Scottish pronunciation, but was too 
 much given to oaths, not in anger or in the way 
 of common swearing, but with the utmost delibera- 
 tion in studied language and with the most bene- 
 volent smile on his expressive countenance. In 
 politics he was a high Tory, loyal and true ; a 
 model landlord and country gentleman ; hospitable 
 to a fault ; a good shot and a lover of sport. Many 
 of the happiest days of my boyhood were spent at 
 Lawers, one of the most beautiful places in one of 
 the most beautiful districts of Scotland Strath- 
 earn, in Perthshire. 
 
 Another cousin of my father's, whose memory, 
 from his kindness to me when at school at Dr. 
 Burney's at Greenwich, I must ever revere, was a 
 Colonel in the Royal Artillery. His name is one 
 of those inscribed on the central pillar of the 
 Rotunda at Woolwich, by order o.'* His Royal 
 Highness the Duke of Cumberland, Commander-
 
 NOTES RELATIVE TO MY FAMILY 27 
 
 in-Chief, as names memorable in the service of 
 the Royal Artillery. In his introduction to the 
 Official Catalogue of the Museum of Artillery in 
 the Rotunda established in 1864, my friend, 
 General Lefroy, says of him : " Colonel John S 
 Williamson entered the Royal Artillery in 1794, 
 and in the course of a long and varied service 
 acquired the reputation of being one of the best 
 officers of his day. He commenced his active 
 career in the Kaffir War of 1 800. As Captain he 
 was present at the attack on Ischia in 1809 and at 
 the capture of Santa Maura in 1810. He subse- 
 quently joined the army in Spain, and as Major 
 was present at the battle of Castaka under Sir 
 J. Murray in April 1813 ; later in the year at the 
 siege of Tarragona and the combat of Ordal. 
 Having received the brevet promotion of Lieut. 
 Colonel he shared in the glory of the crowning 
 victory of Waterloo. Colonel Williamson suc- 
 ceeded the second Sir William Congreve at the 
 Royal Military Repository in 1828 and held the 
 post of Superintendent until his death. This 
 period was devoted to the preparation of a new 
 and extensive course of instruction for the Artil- 
 lery, which forms the basis of the exercise of heavy 
 ordnance, and of all the miscellaneous instruction 
 of the artillery man at the present day. The large 
 experience, the sound judgment and eminently
 
 28 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 practical spirit in which this course is drawn up, 
 give it a value which no mere change of material 
 can affect. It will always remain a model for pro- 
 fessional works of the kind. He died at Wool- 
 wich in 1836." 
 
 My grandfather died in 1806 and my grand- 
 mother in 1810, and were both laid in the family 
 vault at Kinross, where I saw their coffins in per- 
 fect preservation in 1860. 
 
 My father was one of the finest looking men I 
 ever saw, of a right noble presence, a father to be 
 proud of, kind and affectionate, and beloved by 
 his family, upright and honourable, and respected 
 in every relation of life, overflowing with wit the 
 most delicate and refined ; one of nature's gentle- 
 men. The only portrait of him, with the excep- 
 tion of the miniature taken when he was a child, is 
 the water colour by George Richmond, painted for 
 me in 1842. 
 
 His own wish was to enter the Army, but his 
 mother was opposed to it, and he never adopted 
 any regular profession ; although his military 
 tendencies led him afterwards to join the " Wind- 
 sor Foresters " and the Forfarshire Militia a 
 branch of the Army to which in those days, when 
 so many of the regular troops were fighting their 
 country's battles on the Continent, were entrusted,
 
 NOTES RELATIVE TO MY FAMILY 29 
 
 to a great extent, the military duties of the United 
 Kingdom. These two regiments, as were many 
 others, were officered by gentlemen belonging to 
 the first families in the country, many of whom 
 were among my father's most intimate friends 
 ever afterwards. In " The Forfarshire " were two 
 of the Douglas family, who afterwards became suc- 
 cessively Lords Douglas brothers of my most 
 intimate and most true friend the Hon. Mrs. 
 Douglas of Strathendry, one among ten thousand. 
 
 In later life my father was a member of the 
 Board of Customs in Scotland, an appointment 
 which he held until 1828, when the Board was 
 abolished and its duties transferred to the London 
 Board, the Scotch members receiving a retiring 
 allowance. From this period he lived a good deal 
 on the Continent, partly from motives of economy 
 and partly for the sake of his younger children's 
 health. He was born in Edinburgh in 1777, and 
 died at Clifton on the ist September 1852. He 
 was twice married, his first wife being Katherine, 
 daughter of Robert Renny Tailyour, Esq. of 
 Borrowfield in Forfarshire, and sister of Juliet, 
 Countess of Kintore, wife of the seventh Earl 
 father of the present Earl by a subsequent 
 marriage. 
 
 By his first marriage my father had a daughter 
 Elizabeth, married to Robert Rickart Hepburn of
 
 30 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 Rickarton, in Kincardineshire. She died in 1843, 
 several years after her husband, leaving one son 
 and several daughters. Of the latter, two only 
 are now alive, viz., Eleanor and Elizabeth, the 
 former married to Major-General Renny, Com- 
 manding at Ceylon, formerly in the 8ist Regiment, 
 brother of Colonel Renny Tailyour of Borrow- 
 field ; the latter to Colonel Gildea, Commanding 
 the 8ist Regiment, of an old Irish family, the 
 Gildeas of Clooncorenack House, County Mayo. 
 Both sisters have families. 
 
 Their brother Robert was twice married ; first, 
 to Margaret, only daughter of the late Robert 
 Taylor of Kirkton Hill, Forfarshire ; secondly, to 
 Helen Maria, second daughter of the late Colonel 
 Forbes Leith of Whitehaugh, Aberdeenshire. He 
 died in 1857, leaving a daughter Helen, when the 
 Estate of Rickarton reverted to his father's 
 brother, William, next heir male, his widow having 
 attempted unsuccessfully to break the Entail in 
 favour of her daughter. The elder Robert was 
 in "The Bays," the 2nd Dragoon Guards. I 
 remember my father saying that he was one of 
 the three officers mentioned, or, if I mistake not, 
 presented to the Crowned Heads assembled in 
 Paris after the Battle of Waterloo, as the three 
 finest looking officers then present with the 
 British Army. Another was the late Sir Henry
 
 NOTES RELATIVE TO MY FAMILY 31 
 
 Bethune. But who the third was has escaped my 
 memory. 
 
 As was my father one of the handsomest men, 
 so was my mother one of the most graceful and 
 elegant women I ever saw. She was the eldest- 
 born of very handsome parents Major-General 
 and the Lady Elizabeth Eleanora Dundas, of 
 Carron Hall, in Stirlingshire, of which their grand- 
 son, Joseph, is the present proprietor. 
 
 My father and mother were married at Carron 
 Hall in October 1807, an ^ nac ^ s ^ x children, of 
 whom I, Thomas, was the eldest, born at Edin- 
 burgh, 29th August 1808. 
 
 2. Eleanor Dundas, born at Montrose, 29th 
 September 1809 ; died in Edinburgh, 29th June 
 1829, and was buried in a vault in the burial 
 ground of the Episcopal Church of St. John the 
 Evangelist. 
 
 3. David, born at Newcastle-on-Tyne, lyth 
 February 1811, Vicar of Merrington, in the 
 Diocese of Durham, and Hon. Canon of that 
 Cathedral, married Margaret, eldest daughter of 
 the late Adam Atkinson of Lorbottle, in Northum- 
 berland, and has four sons and two daughters. 
 One of his wife's sisters is married to Colonel 
 Renny Tailyour of Borrowfield, and the other to 
 the Revd. Henry Howes, Vicar of Spixworth, 
 Norwich. She has two brothers, Adam, the pre-
 
 32 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 sent proprietor of Lorbottle ; and Nathaniel, Vicar 
 of Great and Little Hampton, Worcestershire. A 
 third brother, John, Major in the 89th Regiment, 
 died in India. 
 
 4. John, born at Carron Hall, March 1812 ; 
 died April following. 
 
 5. Janet Anne, born in Edinburgh, i5th May 
 1814 ; died at Pau in 1830. 
 
 6. Charles, born in Edinburgh, iyth December 
 1817 ; died at Groisons, near Tours, in 1833, and 
 was buried at Tours. 
 
 Very beautiful were these young sisters and that 
 young brother, who so soon left us, beautiful too 
 in mind and in spirit, as in body, full of the grace 
 that cometh from above. And my brother David 
 if there are two guileless and true men upon 
 earth, he is one of them. 
 
 My mother was a cousin of the present 
 (eleventh) Earl of Home, her mother having been 
 a daughter of Alexander, ninth Earl, by Primrose, 
 daughter of Charles, ninth Lord Elphinstone, and 
 both the Homes and the Dundases (her father's 
 family) are undoubtedly descended from the Earls 
 of Dunbar and March, whose origin may be 
 traced up to the Kings of the Saxon Heptarchy. 
 The Dundases of Carron Hall are in fact the 
 Dundases of Fingask, and still describe themselves
 
 NOTES RELATIVE TO MY FAMILY 33 
 
 as such, although that property no longer belongs 
 to them. They are an elder branch of the family 
 of the Earls of Zetland, whose ancestor, Sir 
 Lawrence, created a Baronet in 1762, was the 
 second son of the then Dundas of Fingask. 
 
 My mother's father, Major-General Dundas, 
 died in the West Indies in 1794, after the taking 
 of Guadeloupe. A monument to his memory was 
 erected in St. Paul's Cathedral at the public 
 expense. Under some of the engravings from his 
 portrait by Romney, there is a short extract from 
 a speech in Parliament by the Right Hon. Henry 
 Dundas, afterwards the first Lord Melville, eulo- 
 gistic of the General, which I record here as worthy 
 to be held in remembrance by his descendants. 
 " To sum up his character," said Mr. Dundas, 
 " he was wise yet unassuming, brave, mild and 
 generous." He was the elder son of Thomas 
 Dundas of Fingask by his wife, Lady Janet, 
 youngest daughter of Charles, sixth Earl of 
 Lauderdale. 
 
 The General's brother, Charles, was created 
 Baron Amesbury in 1832. On his dying without 
 male issue, the title became extinct. His daughter 
 and heiress, Janet, married her cousin, Captain 
 Deans, who on his marriage assumed the name of 
 Deans Dundas, was afterwards a Lord of the 
 Admiralty, and subsequently Naval Commander-
 
 34 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 in-Chief in the Crimean War. He married, 
 secondly, Lady Emily Moreton, a daughter of the 
 fourth Earl Ducie, and died in 1862. Among 
 the family portraits are those of the General and 
 my grandmother, copied for me by my aunt, Mrs. 
 Dundas, from the portraits at Carron Hall by 
 Romney. 
 
 My mother had one brother, Colonel Dundas 
 of Carron Hall, and five sisters, two of whom, 
 Eleanor and Anne, died unmarried. Her remain- 
 ing sisters were : 
 
 Janet Maitland, married to her cousin, Sir 
 Thomas Gibson Carmichael, Baronet of Castle 
 Craig and Skirling. 
 
 Charlotte, married to Hart, elder son of the late 
 Richard Hart Davis, Esq., many years Member 
 of Parliament for Bristol, and an intimate friend 
 of His Majesty George IV. 
 
 Elizabeth, married to A. G. Harford Battersby, 
 Esq., next brother of the late John Harford, Esq. 
 of Blaise Castle, Gloucestershire. 
 
 My aunt, Lady Carmichael, had seven children, 
 of whom three only survived their infancy. 
 Eleanor Hyndford, married to Sir David Kinloch, 
 Bart, of Gilmerton, who died in 1849 Margaret, 
 who died unmarried ; and Alexander, fifth child, 
 who succeeded his father as eleventh Baronet in 
 December 1849, but died in May of the following
 
 NOTES RELATIVE TO MY FAMILY 35 
 
 year. Lady Carmichael having died in 1813, Sir 
 Thomas married, secondly, in 1816, Anne, third 
 daughter of Francis, seventh Lord Napier, by 
 whom he had several children, the eldest of whom, 
 Thomas, succeeded his half-brother, Sir Alex- 
 ander ; and, dying in 1855, was succeeded by his 
 brother, the Revd. William Henry, thirteenth and 
 present Baronet. Sir William married in 1858 
 Eleanor Anne, daughter of David Anderson, Esq. 
 of St. Germans, who died in 1861, leaving three 
 sons. Of Sir William's brothers and sisters only 
 one is now alive, Sophia Caroline, married to 
 Francis Neville Reid, Esq. 
 
 Lady Kinloch died in 1849, l eavm g a son > 
 Alexander, and three daughters. Alexander mar- 
 ried Lucy, elder daughter of the late Sir Ralph 
 Anstruther, Bart, of Balcaskie, sister of Sir Robert, 
 the present Baronet, and by her has sons and 
 daughters. Of his sisters, the eldest, Isabel, is 
 married to Harrington Balfour, Esq., late of the 
 Bengal Civil Service. 
 
 Mrs. Hart Davis died in 1861, having lost her 
 husband in 1854. They had no family. 
 
 Mrs. Harford Battersby died in 1823, leaving 
 two sons and two daughters. Her husband died 
 in 1851. Their eldest son, John, has assumed the 
 name of Harford, as heir of his uncle, the late Mr. 
 Harford of Blaise Castle, in Gloucestershire, and
 
 36 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 Falcondale, in Caermarthenshire. He married 
 Mary, daughter of the late Baron de Bunsen, by 
 whom he has two sons and six daughters ; his 
 younger sister, Mary, having previously married 
 the Baron's eldest son, Henry, now Vicar of Don- 
 nington, in Shropshire, the issue of this marriage 
 being two daughters. Mr. Harford Battersby's 
 second son, Thomas Dundas, is Vicar of Keswick. 
 He married Mary, daughter of the late George 
 Forbes, Esq., by whom he has several children. 
 The remaining sister, Eleanor Dundas, is un- 
 married. 
 
 These three married sisters of my mother were 
 all as good as beautiful and as beautiful as 
 good. 
 
 But now to revert to myself. Not long after 
 leaving Dr. Burney's at Greenwich, I received an 
 appointment in the Bengal Civil Service, and went 
 to Haileybury College, the course of study at 
 which at that time involved a residence of not less 
 than four terms, or two years. But taking advan- 
 tage of an Act of Parliament passed after I had 
 been there a year, in order to meet the demand for 
 civil servants caused by the growth of the British 
 Empire in India, and being of the required age, I 
 qualified for India at the end of my third term, 
 and left England in February 1827.
 
 NOTES RELATIVE TO MY FAMILY 37 
 
 I was married at Calcutta on the 2nd December 
 1828, came to England with my family on fur- 
 lough for three years in 1839, an< ^ fixity left India 
 in 1854, at which time I was a member of the 
 Board of Revenue. 
 
 My beloved wife Henrietta was the third 
 daughter of Alexander Dorm, Esq., a London and 
 East India merchant. Her mother was Charlotte, 
 second daughter of John Taylor, Esq. of Abbot 
 Hall, Kendal, and Townhead, Windermere, by his 
 wife Dorothy, daughter of Captain William Rum- 
 bold, father of the first Baronet of that name, and 
 A.D.C. to Lord Clive. Dorothy had previously 
 been married to Captain Northall of the Royal 
 Artillery, by whom she had two daughters, the 
 elder of whom married, first, Mr. Richardson, of 
 Coleraine, in Ireland, and secondly, Sir Thomas 
 Trowbridge, grandfather of the present Baronet. 
 Of Mrs. Dorin's sisters, one, Elizabeth, married 
 Alexander Montgomerie, Esq. of Annick Lodge, 
 Ayrshire, next brother of Hugh, twelfth Earl of 
 Eglinton, by which marriage there were eight 
 children. 
 
 1. William Eglinton, who succeeded his father 
 and left a large family, the eldest of whom, Alex- 
 ander, is in the Army. 
 
 2. Alexander, Admiral in the British Navy, died 
 1863.
 
 38 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 3. Hugh, in the Madras Civil Service, died 
 1864. 
 
 4. Thomas, in the Madras Civil Service, died 
 in India. 
 
 5. Elizabeth, married to the Right Hon. David 
 Boyle, Lord Justice-General and President of the 
 Court of Session, grandson of John, second Earl 
 of Glasgow. The head of this branch of the 
 family is David Boyle, Esq of Shewalton, heir- 
 presumptive to George Frederick, sixth Earl of 
 Glasgow. One of Mr. Boyle's sisters is married 
 to James Hope, Esq., youngest son of the late 
 Right Hon. Lord President Hope. Another died 
 within the last few months, Helen, widow of Sir 
 Charles Fergusson, Bart, of Kilkerran. 
 
 6. Hamilla, married to Alexander West Hamil- 
 ton of Pinmore, Ayrshire, second son of John 
 Hamilton, Esq. of Sundrum, of whom more here- 
 after. 
 
 7. Charlotte, married to Revd. T. Proctor. 
 
 8. Frances, died 1858. 
 
 Another sister of Mrs. Dorin's, Dorothy, mar- 
 ried, first, J. Anderton, Esq., and secondly, Major 
 J. Clerk of Westholme, Somersetshire, whose 
 second son, Robert, formerly in the Indian Civil 
 Service, is the present head of the family a branch 
 of that of the Clerks of Penicuik.
 
 NOTES RELATIVE TO MY FAMILY 39 
 
 My wife had two brothers and three sisters : 
 
 1. William, in the Bengal Civil Service, a man 
 of great ability and high in office, but cut off in 
 the prime of life, after a short illness, soon after 
 my arrival in India, unmarried. 
 
 2. Joseph Alexander, in the same service, who 
 retired after attaining the position of Member of 
 the Supreme Council of India. He married Anna 
 Patton, a niece of the late Lady Torrens, mother 
 of the Dowager Lady Anstruther, widow of Sir 
 Ralph Anstruther of Balcaskie. By this marriage 
 there were two sons, Henry and James, both in the 
 Army. But the latter was killed in the Indian 
 Mutiny in 1858, and his brother died not long 
 afterwards, leaving a widow and an only son. 
 
 3. Fanny, died young. 
 
 4. Charlotte, died unmarried. 
 
 5. Elizabeth, married to John Dick, Esq., of 
 the Bengal Civil Service, and secondly, to George 
 Charteris, Commander, R.N., son of the late 
 George Charteris, Esq. of Amisfield, Dumfries- 
 shire, of the Wemyss family. She died in 1864, 
 leaving no family. 
 
 My beloved wife Henrietta was compelled by 
 ill health to leave India a year before me, our first 
 and only separation during a wedded life of up- 
 wards of thirty years. But when I rejoined her 
 in 1854 her health had not improved. On the
 
 40 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 28th October 1859, after much suffering, borne 
 with a patience and resignation very wonderful, 
 she was suddenly taken from me, her spirit ascend- 
 ing to the abode of the blessed, leaving the frail 
 body which I had so long and so tenderly cherished, 
 where it had so often rested in my arms. What 
 I owe to her none on earth besides myself can 
 ever know. If ever two were one, we were. 
 Under God, she was my pattern, my guide, my 
 counsellor, and her memory must ever be blessed 
 to me. She died in Edinburgh, whither I had 
 taken her for medical advice. 
 Five children were born to us. 
 
 1. Charlotte Clementina, born at Calcutta, 6th 
 October 1829 ; married I9th January 1860, to 
 Major (then Captain) E. C. S. Williams, Royal 
 Engineers, Deputy Secretary to the Government 
 of India in the Public Works Department. 
 
 She has a son, Hugh Bruce, born July 24, 1865, 
 and two daughters Clementina Elizabeth Hope, 
 born October 15, 1866 ; and Janet Maitland, born 
 December 2, 1867. 
 
 2. Henrietta Eleanor, born at Calcutta, I5th 
 August 1832 ; married 2yth April 1865, to John 
 Wilkie, Esq. of Foulden, in Berwickshire, whose 
 mother was a sister of the late Sir William Caven- 
 dish Cunningham Dalyell, Bart, of Binns ; and 
 whose great-grandmother was a sister of Sir David
 
 NOTES RELATIVE TO MY FAMILY 41 
 
 Kinloch of Gilmerton, fifth Baronet. They have 
 two sons and two daughters. 
 
 James Bruce, born ist May 1867 ; Henrietta 
 Eleanor Maria, born loth May 1868 ; Harriet 
 Charlotte, born i6th April 1869 ; John Dalyell, 
 born 2oth September 1870. 
 
 3. Thomas, born at Tipperah, in Bengal, 22nd 
 August 1835. He died at sea 28th July 1863, on 
 his way from Barbados, and was buried at St. 
 Thomas's. "Even so, Father, for so it seemed 
 good in Thy sight." At the time of his death he 
 was a Captain in the 2ist Royal North British 
 Fusiliers, which regiment he had joined in 1854, 
 at the outbreak of the Crimean War, for his ser- 
 vices in which he received two medals and a clasp. 
 He was a noble fellow, a true and gallant soldier, 
 beloved by all who knew him. His brother- 
 officers placed a marble monument over his grave, 
 with the following words below the inscription : 
 "Erected by his Brother Officers, as a token of 
 their love and esteem." 
 
 He was very handsome, but, with the exception 
 of some photographs, the only portrait of him is 
 the unfinished sketch in oils by my cousin, Joseph 
 Dundas. He was cut down by sun apoplexy, in 
 the fulness of health and life. But his mother 
 was spared the blow. "Her Boy" was the joy 
 of her heart.
 
 42 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 4. Charles, born at Roncally, in Bengal, I3th 
 October 1836. Possessed of great talents, and 
 well fitted to shine in the world, with a power for 
 acquiring languages quite marvellous ; as a Sans- 
 krit scholar highly thought of, especially on the 
 Continent, where he is best known. He has at 
 last begun to turn his talents to some account as 
 Rector of the Royal College, Mauritius, an office 
 bestowed on him in 1868 by the Duke of Bucking- 
 ham, Secretary of State for the Colonies, and in 
 which he has already distinguished himself. But 
 I look forward to yet seeing him in a position more 
 worthy of his great talents and acquirements. His 
 practical powers are shown in the beautiful Story 
 of Nala and Damayanti, translated from the Sans- 
 krit. Shortly before leaving England for Mauri- 
 tius, he married Clara, daughter of Joseph Lucas, 
 Esq., a Solicitor in large practice in London, and 
 a most estimable man. She has borne him a son, 
 Charles Maurice Dundas, born 4th June 1869. 
 
 5. Josephine Dundas, born at Darjeeling, in 
 the Himalayas, i9th May 1844. 
 
 On the 5th December 1867, after eight years 
 of heart-yearning for the companionship of a wife, 
 which those only who have experienced a loss such 
 as mine could realise, I married Margaret Jane, 
 sixth daughter of the late Alexander West Hamil- 
 ton, Esq. of Pinmore a marriage which has been
 
 NOTES RELATIVE TO MY FAMILY 43 
 
 the means, under God, of my enjoying a degree 
 of happiness and elasticity of mind which for those 
 eight years of sorrow and sadness I thought had 
 left me for ever. 
 
 I have previously made mention of the late Mr. 
 Hamilton, my wife's father, as having married 
 Hamilla, daughter of the late Mr. Montgomerie, 
 of Annick Lodge, brother of the twelfth Earl of 
 Eglinton, and a cousin of my wife Henrietta, and 
 from the family details into which I then entered, 
 those for whose benefit I write will have learnt 
 nearly as much as I need tell them to enable them 
 to follow out the ramifications of their numerous 
 and double cousinhood.
 
 PART I
 
 CHAPTER I 
 SERVICE IN THE EAST 
 
 MAURITIUS AND CEYLON, 1868 TO 1885 
 
 I NOW resume the thread of my father's narrative 
 from the point of his brief notes on myself, and 
 his expression of a hope that I might rise to a 
 position worthy, as he was generously pleased to 
 say, of my talents and acquirements worthy, I 
 would rather myself say of the traditions of my 
 family. 
 
 I was educated at Harrow under Dr. Vaughan. 
 Between 1856 and 1861 I was in America, my 
 time being nearly equally divided between resi- 
 dence in the Southern States ; travels in the 
 Northern States and Canada, including a visit to 
 Fort Garry, the site of the present city of Winni- 
 peg ; and residence in New England, mainly at 
 the University of Yale, where I studied Oriental 
 languages and literature, chiefly Sanskrit and Per- 
 sian, under Professor Whitney. It was my good 
 fortune during these years to be brought into
 
 48 MILESTONES 
 
 intimate association with leaders of both political 
 parties, North and South, with naval and military 
 commanders of distinction, and with representa- 
 tive exponents of contemporary thought in the 
 departments of theology, law, medicine and 
 scientific research. 
 
 In 1 86 1 I proceeded to the University of 
 Tubingen, my principal object being to pursue my 
 Oriental studies and to attend Professor Roth's 
 lectures on the history of non-Christian religions 
 from the earliest annals of recorded time. Con- 
 currently I availed myself of the opportunity to 
 study the history of the Christian religion under 
 the guidance of the leaders both of the Tubingen 
 School of Protestants and of the Roman Catholic 
 School of Divinity of the University. My 
 Oriental studies were mainly devoted to the Indian 
 Vedas and the Zend Avesta, and I at once became 
 a contributor to the epoch-making Sanskrit- 
 Worterbuch, published by Bohtlingk and Roth 
 under the auspices of the Imperial Academy of 
 St. Petersburg. In 1862 I reaped a rich harvest 
 in the publication by the Academy of my work 
 Die Geschichte von Nala, a critical revision of the 
 text of what an earlier editor had described as 
 pulchenimum, maximum el apud Indos celeber- 
 rimum Maha-Bharati episodium. The work was 
 favourably reviewed by the most distinguished
 
 SERVICE IN THE EAST 49 
 
 Oriental scholars of the day, and took its place as 
 a text-book at the principal Universities of Europe 
 and America. It was followed by the translation 
 referred to by my father as The Story of Nala and 
 Damayanti, and soon after by a translation of an 
 unpublished hymn from the Atharva Veda, accom- 
 panied by an essay on the comparative mythology 
 of the Vedic and Homeric conceptions of the 
 Earth. 
 
 In 1863 I was advised to apply for an appoint- 
 ment as Assistant in the Library of the British 
 Museum. There was no vacancy and no prospect 
 of a vacancy, but my qualifications appealed to 
 Mr. Panizzi, then Principal Librarian, and the 
 support of powerful influences succeeded in secur- 
 ing me an appointment conditionally on my 
 passing the usual Civil Service examination. The 
 subjects in which I offered myself for examination 
 and passed were Greek, Latin, French, German, 
 Italian, Spanish and Sanskrit. My examination 
 in German had a curious consequence. My testi- 
 monials included a certificate that by long residence 
 in the country I had acquired the power of con- 
 versing in the German language with perfect ease 
 and correctness, and that I was exceedingly well 
 acquainted with the national literature. When I 
 presented myself to the examiner, an Englishman, 
 and addressed him in German, he told me, with an
 
 50 MILESTONES 
 
 emotion that I can only describe as agony, that he 
 could not converse with me in the language. I 
 continued to speak German while he spoke Eng- 
 lish. My indignant protest was subsequently 
 taken up by Panizzi, and formed the subject of a 
 Blue Book, with the result that measures were 
 taken to prevent the recurrence of such an absurd 
 position. 
 
 Towards the close of 1864 I obtained leave of 
 absence to enable me to visit Russia, primarily 
 with a view to adding a knowledge of Russian to 
 my linguistic qualifications. After travelling 
 slowly by way of Denmark, Norway, Sweden and 
 Finland, I received from the Academy of St. 
 Petersburg a welcome which I can never forget. 
 I subsequently visited Tver, Moscow, Nijni- 
 Novgorod and Kazan, returning through Poland, 
 then in a state of suppressed revolution, and 
 spending some days in Warsaw and Cracow, on 
 my way to Vienna. 
 
 In 1865 I accepted the appointment of Pro- 
 fessor of Sanskrit at King's College, London, and 
 this, to my great regret, necessitated my resigna- 
 tion of my office at the British Museum. The 
 rule which prevented me from holding the two 
 appointments was not long afterwards wisely abro- 
 gated in the case of my colleague Sir R. K. 
 Douglas, Keeper of Oriental Books and MSS. and
 
 SERVICE IN THE EAST 51 
 
 Professor of Chinese at the University of London. 
 In the course of the next three years my knowledge 
 of the people and languages of Europe was 
 extended by travels in Austria, the Danubian 
 Principalities, Hungary and Transylvania. 
 
 While at Bucharest in 1866, I was invited by 
 Ion Ghica, President of the Council of Ministers, 
 to occupy a seat in the Tribuna Diplomatica at the 
 opening of the Session summoned to ratify the 
 election by plebiscite of Prince Carl of Hohen- 
 zollern to be reigning Prince of Roumania. It 
 may well be that I am the only survivor of the 
 occupants of the Tribuna on the occasion. 
 
 In 1868 I accepted the appointment of Rector 
 of the Royal College. Mauritius, and on Septem- 
 ber 1 2th was married to Clara, daughter of Mr. 
 Joseph Lucas, of a family allied by descent to my 
 cousins, the Harfords of Blaise Castle and Falcon- 
 dale. The Duke of Buckingham, on offering me 
 the appointment, assured me that, for reasons 
 arising out of questions of race, language and 
 creed, there was no office in the Colony so difficult 
 to fill to the satisfaction of the Government and 
 the community. The day after my arrival in 
 Mauritius, the Governor, Sir Henry Barkly, 
 repeated the assurance in nearly identical terms. 
 
 In 1870 I published the result of my labours 
 in a pamphlet entitled The Organisation of
 
 52 MILESTONES 
 
 Secondary and Superior Instruction, which gave 
 equal satisfaction to the Colonial Office, the local 
 Government and the community. I pointed out 
 that it was an endeavour to give practical effect to 
 the principles laid down by Mr. Matthew Arnold 
 in the following passage : 
 
 "As our public instruction gets a clearer view 
 of its own functions, of the relations of the human 
 spirit to knowledge, and of the entire circle of 
 knowledge, it will certainly more learn to awaken 
 in its pupils an interest in that entire circle, and 
 less allow them to remain strangers to any part of 
 it. Still the circle is so vast and human faculties 
 are so limited, that it is for the most part through 
 a single aptitude, or group of aptitudes, that each 
 individual will really get his access to intellectual 
 life and vital knowledge ; and it is by effectually 
 directing these aptitudes on definite points of the 
 circle, that he will really obtain his comprehension 
 of the whole. . . . Every man is born with apti- 
 tudes which give him access to vital and formative 
 knowledge by one of these roads ; either by the 
 road of studying man and his works, or by the 
 road of studying nature and her works. The 
 business of instruction is to seize and develop 
 these aptitudes. The great and complete spirits 
 which have all the aptitudes for both roads of 
 knowledge are rare."
 
 SERVICE IN THE EAST 53 
 
 On my sending a copy to Mr. Matthew Arnold, 
 he wrote me a warm letter of acknowledgment 
 from the Athenaeum, declaring that it was the only 
 serious attempt ever made in our Colonial Empire 
 to carry out the principles he had advocated. 
 But he made a reservation, regretting that no 
 provision was made for the teaching of the 
 Bible as an integral part of the curriculum. He 
 believed that the language of our sacred writings 
 was inseparable from our national life. I need 
 hardly say that any such provision as he desiderated 
 would have wrecked my scheme. I should have 
 failed to convert education from a disintegrating 
 into a consolidating force. In my work The 
 Broad Stone of Empire, I have devoted a chapter 
 to the operation of the system in detail. I am 
 not here concerned with details, but with results. 
 I will add, however, that I did all in my power to 
 encourage athletic sports and exercises. I was 
 President of the Mauritius Cricket Club and of 
 the Rifle Association. Nor must I omit to recall 
 the social service done by my wife, an accomplished 
 musician. In 1875 s ^ e was presented with an 
 Address by the Bishop of Mauritius and others, in 
 which they made generous acknowledgment of her 
 help in these terms : 
 
 " We cannot let you leave for England without 
 tendering in our name and in that of the congre-
 
 54 MILESTONES 
 
 gation our united and best thanks for the valuable 
 services which you have so kindly rendered in 
 St. Thomas' Choir. We feel that it is very especi- 
 ally owing to your presence at the Harmonium 
 that the marked improvement in our service of 
 praise is due an improvement happily followed 
 by larger congregations and heartier worship." 
 
 In 1878 I was appointed Director of Public 
 Instruction in Ceylon, and reorganised the educa- 
 tional system of the Colony on the same principles 
 adapted to a community including over seventy 
 races and nationalities. Ceylon is generally recog- 
 nised as the premier Crown Colony, and one of 
 the most attractive as well as important of British 
 Dependencies. It is full of interest not only to 
 the visitor or globe-trotter, but to the Europeans 
 resident as administrators, capitalists, agricul- 
 turalists and merchants. To the civil engineer 
 its ancient and modern systems of irrigation, its 
 harbour works, roads and railways, its sanitary 
 problems supply a school of study which it is 
 hoped to develop into a department of an Imperial 
 University. The claims of Ceylon as the site of 
 such a University have been strongly supported by 
 Professor Dunstan, Director of the Imperial Insti- 
 tute. They are based not only on the variety and 
 importance of its local agricultural and mineral
 
 SERVICE IN THE EAST 55 
 
 resources, but on the proximity of Ceylon to the 
 vast agricultural and mineral areas of Asia, of 
 tropical Australia, of the Islands of the Indian 
 Ocean and of Eastern Africa. To the historian 
 and archaeologist it may be doubted whether any 
 territory of equal extent in the world is of superior 
 interest. It possesses one of the most ancient and 
 authentic of histories, verified by stupendous 
 monuments and ruins, rock inscriptions and coins, 
 but above all by the continuity of existence of the 
 Sinhalese community, who, highly civilised and 
 cultivated at a time when Britain was in a very 
 primitive condition, have for over 2000 years 
 maintained their language, social customs and 
 dress. My official work in Ceylon impressed 
 upon me the lesson I had already learnt in Mauri- 
 tius, that in Colonies where difficulties necessarily 
 arise out of the rivalries of race, colour, creed, and 
 the warring interests of capital and labour, the first 
 duty of the administration is to be constantly mind- 
 ful that prophylaxis is better than cure, and to keep 
 a watchful eye on even the slightest symptoms 
 of danger, in order to prevent opposing interests 
 from breaking into open conflict. Another lesson 
 which was learnt in Ceylon, and which my dear 
 wife took to heart, was to appreciate the place 
 allotted to women in civil and domestic life by 
 their respective creeds and customs. I believe that
 
 56 MILESTONES 
 
 her sympathies in this direction contributed largely 
 to keep alive in the hearts of the people the 
 memories of my period of service, and prompted 
 them after the lapse of more than a quarter of a 
 century to make a touching appeal for my good 
 offices, at a time when the neglect of the admini- 
 strative duty I have indicated had allowed differ- 
 ences which might have been conciliated to break 
 into open conflict. 
 
 In 1 88 1 my services were rewarded by my 
 inclusion in the Birthday Honour List as C.M.G. 
 Among many letters and addresses of congratula- 
 tion, I received one of exceptional warmth from 
 Mauritius, and at the close of the year 1882 my 
 promotion to the post of Colonial Secretary for 
 that Colony terminated my tenure of office in 
 Ceylon and my direct connection with the educa- 
 tional system of the Colonial service. 
 
 A few days before I left Ceylon, the Governor, 
 Sir James Longden, at a College ceremony, 
 summed up the results of my work in these 
 generous terms : 
 
 " I remember that three years ago, ... a native 
 gentleman, himself of very great attainments, 
 almost deplored that the education given in Ceylon 
 schools was not wide enough, that so much of the 
 time of the pupils was given to classics and so little 
 to what is called the modern side, or natural science.
 
 SERVICE IN THE EAST 57 
 
 I think if Sir Coomara Swamy could have listened 
 to the report which was read just now by the 
 Principal, and could have seen the distinctions that 
 have been won by the students of this College in 
 other subjects besides classics, he would have 
 been satisfied. If he could have witnessed the 
 thoroughness of instruction given in chemistry, 
 natural science, and the other sciences, side by side 
 with classical training, he would have been 
 satisfied. . . . 
 
 " In the administration of his department a 
 department which is second to none in real impor- 
 tance to the Colony Mr. Bruce has ever shown 
 that his single desire was to bring the best kind of 
 education home to the mass of the people to all 
 the children of Ceylon. He took equal interest 
 in the humblest vernacular school and in this Col- 
 lege, and throughout all his able and impartial 
 management of the department entrusted to him, 
 his single aim was to bring the blessings of educa- 
 tion to every child in the place, and to those 
 who could afford it a higher education to enable 
 them to make their way in the world, each 
 according to his own mode of life, and 
 according to his creed, with the advantage which 
 education gives to every man and boy. That 
 work has been carried on by Mr. Bruce for nearly 
 four years now, and I venture to say that the work
 
 58 MILESTONES 
 
 will not be forgotten like all good work that will 
 endure and, though he goes away himself, the 
 Colony will still benefit by the results of that work." 
 
 On the eve of my departure I received a depu- 
 tation of Buddhist priests from all the temples of 
 Ceylon, who presented me with an Address in Sans- 
 krit, of which the following is a translation : 
 
 " We who are here assembled, desirous of seeing 
 you before your departure to a distant land to fill 
 a higher post conferred on you by our Gracious 
 Sovereign, beg to express our gratitude to you for 
 the good rules and regulations framed by your 
 skill, which have during the last four years been 
 very useful in promoting the cause of vernacular 
 education, and it is our sincere wish that Your 
 Honor may be blessed with long life for the good 
 you have done to the people of Ceylon, the bene- 
 fits you have conferred on the community in 
 general, and the encouragement you have extended 
 to the study of Oriental literature. We beg your 
 acceptance of the accompanying book, which we 
 hope will serve to keep in remembrance those who 
 have always entertained for you the greatest 
 respect and regard." 
 
 The book referred to was a Pali manuscript, 
 written on sheets of ivory in enamel letters on a 
 gold ground. It had recently been presented by
 
 SERVICE IN THE EAST 59 
 
 the Buddhist priests of Burmah as the most valu- 
 able gift they could make to the Buddhist priests of 
 Ceylon, who now presented it to me as the most 
 valuable gift they had it in their power to offer. 
 
 Among other Addresses presented to me was one 
 from the teachers of the first Kindergarten School 
 established in Ceylon, I believe the first established 
 in any of our Crown Colonies. My dear wife 
 took much interest in this as an integral factor in 
 my whole system of primary education. I have 
 always held it to be a cardinal requirement of our 
 Crown Colonies that in primary education superior 
 importance must be attached to the instruction of 
 the masses in subjects which will fit them for 
 advancement in their hereditary occupations, and 
 not necessarily as a stage of instruction leading 
 up to the University and the learned professions. 
 Accordingly my scheme included provision for 
 instruction in carpentry and smith's work and 
 other manual trades in boys' schools, and for 
 instruction in dressmaking, lacemaking, em- 
 broidery and cooking in girls' schools. 
 
 I may add that while in Ceylon I took an active 
 interest in the Volunteer movement, and obtained 
 the approval of Headquarters for the formation 
 of a Cadet Corps, to be attached to the Ceylon 
 Volunteers. Although limited at first to the Royal 
 College, it steadily grew in favour, until in 1907
 
 60 MILESTONES 
 
 I learnt with satisfaction that the Cadet battalion 
 contained eight companies attached to Government 
 and Aided Colleges, with a total strength of over 
 450 Cadets. 
 
 I arrived in Mauritius from Ceylon in March 
 1883, and was warmly welcomed. I greatly value 
 an Address presented to me by my former pupils 
 on March 7, in which they assured me that they 
 accepted the interest I had taken in the youth of 
 Mauritius as a standard by which they might fairly 
 measure the interest I would henceforth take in 
 the welfare of the Island. On May 5 I assumed 
 the administration of the Government, pending 
 the arrival of Sir John Pope Hennessy as Governor 
 on June i, and early in July my health made it 
 necessary for me to solicit leave of absence. The 
 short period of two months preceding my depar- 
 ture was the most crowded of my life. During 
 my tenure of the office of Administrator I drew 
 up a Memorandum on the educational system of 
 the Colony, based on the principles I had carried 
 out in Ceylon, and I availed myself of opportuni- 
 ties to recognise an equality of right to promotion 
 between Mauritian and British-born members of 
 the Civil Service. My action in both cases was 
 approved by the Colonial Office. I also took the 
 responsibility of sending a Commissioner to report 
 on the organisation of our Immigration Agencies
 
 SERVICE IN THE EAST 61 
 
 in India. Sir John Pope Hennessy's arrival was 
 immediately followed by a crisis brought on by 
 the outbreak of war between France and Mada- 
 gascar. The occupation of Tamatave, and the 
 refusal of the French Admiral to allow a British 
 steamer to call at that port for passengers and 
 mails were the cause of prompt action by Admiral 
 Sir William Hewitt, Commander-in-Chief of the 
 East Indian squadron stationed in Mauritius with 
 a view to contingencies that might arise out of 
 the war. Affairs were complicated by the im- 
 prisonment of a Protestant Missionary in Mada- 
 gascar, and the situation required careful handling. 
 Fortunately the negotiations that followed, in 
 which the Governor, as he reported to the Colonial 
 Office, was guided by my advice, resulted in 
 maintaining friendly relations with the French 
 Admiral and allaying the irritation of the Mission- 
 aries. Brief as had been my stay in the Colony, 
 my activity secured me, in addition to the approval 
 of the Colonial Office and the Governor, the thanks 
 of the Civil Service and the Churches, and in 
 particular an Address from the Chamber of Agri- 
 culture, signed by the President, which I recall 
 with pride and pleasure : 
 " Monsieur, 
 
 "Vous vous disposez a quitter pour 
 quelque temps cette Cblonie, et la Chambre
 
 62 MILESTONES 
 
 d' Agriculture, repre"sentant le Corps Agricole de 
 cette ile, croiraft manquer aux devoirs qui lui 
 incombent si elle ne saisissait pas cette occasion 
 de vous remercier, au nom des planteurs de 
 Maurice, de la sollicitude eclairee que vous avez 
 temoignee pour les interets agricoles de ce pays, 
 aussi bien que de la gracieuse courtoisie dont vous 
 avez toujours fait preuve envers les planteurs et 
 particulierement envers la Chambre d' Agriculture. 
 
 " Mais ce n'est point la votre seul titre aux 
 sympathies de la communaute mauricienne. Pen- 
 dant dix annees ou vous avez rempli, avec autant 
 d'honneur pour vous que de profit pour la Colonie, 
 les importantes et dedicates fonctions de Recteur 
 du College Royal, vous avez ete appele a exercer 
 une grande influence sur Pavancement intellectuel 
 et moral de toute une generation, et cette influence 
 a ete utile au pays, ainsi que Pexperience nous 1'a 
 demontree. 
 
 " Plus tard, lorsque vous avez ete eleve au poste 
 que vous occupez aujourd'hui, et que les circon- 
 stances vous ont appele a administrer temporaire- 
 ment le Gouvernement de cette ile, vous vous etes 
 montre egalement soucieux des interets qui vous 
 6taient confi^s. 
 
 " Depuis quelque temps deja le Corps Agricole, 
 en presence de 1'insuffisance croissante des bras 
 dont dispose PAgriculture, s'inquietait a juste
 
 SERVICE IN THE EAST 63 
 
 titre des retards qui e"taient portes a Pexecution 
 des requisitions faites par les planteurs pour de- 
 mander des laboureurs dans Plnde, sans qu'aucun 
 eclaircissement fut donne a cet egard. Aussitot 
 que vous avez pris la direction du gouvernement 
 vous vous etes empresse de rendre public des docu- 
 ments qui expliquaient que Parret subi par notre 
 Immigration etait du a la complete disorganisation 
 de nos Agences dans Plnde. 
 
 " Eclairee sur le veritable etat des choses, la 
 Chambre d' Agriculture vous a demande d'envoyer 
 sans retard dans Plnde une personne competente 
 pour reorganiser nos Agences et pour activer 
 Penvoi de laboureurs, vous dsignant en meme 
 temps Phonorable Trotter comme etant le fonction- 
 naire le plus propre a remplir cette mission im- 
 portante. Apres avoir pris Pavis du Conseil du 
 Gouvernement vous n'avez pas hesite a engager 
 votre responsabilite personnelle en accedant au 
 vceu exprime par la Chambre. 
 
 " Vous avez acquis dans cette circonstance des 
 droits reels a la reconnaissance du Corps Agricole, 
 et les planteurs ont etc heureux d'apprendre que 
 le Tres Honorable Secretaire d'Etat, ainsi que Son 
 Excellence le Gouverneur, a son arrivee, avaient 
 approuve et ratifie la determination que vous aviez 
 prise. 
 
 "Vous ne vous eloignez que momentanement
 
 64 MILESTONES 
 
 de cette Colonie, et nous esperons vous revoir 
 bientot au milieu de nous. 
 
 " En attendant ce moment, nous vous prions de 
 vouloir bien agreer les voeux que nous formons 
 pour votre sante et votre prosperite ainsi que pour 
 celle de votre famille." 
 
 My action in this matter marked the first stage 
 of my activity in what was henceforth to be a 
 principal work of my life the vindication of the 
 rights of British Indian Emigrants. 
 
 It was during this period of my official connec- 
 tion with Mauritius that I first met Sir John 
 Henniker Heaton. In his recently published 
 biography, by his daughter, Mrs. Adrian Porter, 
 my co-operation with him in the work of his life 
 is generously recognised. Prior to Pope Hen- 
 nessy's appointment to the Government of Mauri- 
 tius, he had been offered and had accepted the 
 Government of New South Wales, but the 
 announcement had been met by a protest on the 
 part of the New South Wales Ministers so deter- 
 mined that the Secretary of State had been 
 compelled to inform him that the appointment 
 could not be proceeded with. He was smarting 
 under this blow and his failure to have the matter 
 made the subject of discussion in Parliament when 
 he met Henniker Heaton on board the steamer
 
 SERVICE IN THE EAST 65 
 
 calling at Mauritius on its way to Australia. The 
 casual acquaintanceship of the sea voyage inspired 
 him with the hope that he had found in Henniker 
 Heaton a man of sufficient influence over the press 
 and public opinion in New South Wales to convert 
 Ministers from their determination not to accept 
 him as Governor. Moreover Henniker Heaton 
 already contemplated a seat in the House of Com- 
 mons, and this held out to Pope Hennessy the 
 attractive prospect of powerful support not only 
 in Australia but in the Imperial Parliament. It 
 was natural that every opportunity should be 
 given Henniker Heaton to witness at social 
 and official functions the welcome extended 
 by Mauritius to the rejected of New South 
 Wales. 
 
 But Henniker Heaton had not long left the 
 Colony when Pope Hennessy's policy, concen- 
 trated publicly in the formula "Mauritius for the 
 Mauritians," and privately in the formula " Home 
 Rule," had alienated the Admiral. The Admiral 
 was almost immediately joined by the Officer Com- 
 manding the Troops, and there followed a breach 
 of all social relations between the Governor and 
 the naval and military authorities. 
 
 On my arrival in England I frankly informed 
 the Colonial Office of the state of affairs, and was 
 in turn frankly informed of communications
 
 66 MILESTONES 
 
 received by every mail, which made it clear 
 that Pope Hennessy was prosecuting a policy of 
 Home Rule, with a view to eventual separation. 
 While the differences between the head of the civil 
 government and the naval and military authorities 
 had become a public scandal, the general com- 
 munity was divided and subdivided into hostile 
 groups, the racial cleavage of English and French, 
 white and coloured, being in each case cut across 
 by religious cleavage. 
 
 When my leave had expired I returned to the 
 Colony, instructed to use every endeavour to hold 
 my office of Colonial Secretary and give ths 
 Governor the support it demanded, but, if I found 
 it impossible to hold my office with honour, to 
 return home. I have fully set out in The Broad 
 Stone of Empire the reasons which compelled me, 
 after a few months of loyal endeavour, to inform 
 Pope Hennessy that I could no longer give his 
 policy my support, and to apply for leave to place 
 myself in the hands of the Secretary of State. He 
 said to me, not without emotion, that he quite 
 understood my position and my inability to under- 
 stand his, because I could not know what it was 
 to live and, if necessary, to die for Ireland. The 
 reason which finally decided my action arose out 
 of a controversy on the scheme of defence, and on 
 my leaving the Colony the naval and military
 
 SERVICE IN THE EAST 67 
 
 authorities supplied me with a copy of their report 
 to the War Office on the subject. 
 
 My return to England was followed by my 
 transfer to the office of Lieutenant-Governor and 
 Government Secretary of British Guiana. Ten 
 years later I was offered the appointment of 
 Governor of Mauritius, and accepted it as a 
 complete vindication of my action as Colonial 
 Secretary on the part of H.M. Government. It 
 was made doubly precious by the enthusiasm of 
 the welcome I received on my arrival in the 
 Colony.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 SERVICE IN THE WEST 
 
 BRITISH GUIANA AND WINDWARD ISLANDS, 
 
 1885 TO 1897 
 
 IN passing from Ceylon and Mauritius to British 
 Guiana, I carried my experience, acquired in the 
 most populous, cultured and scientifically deve- 
 loped of our Island Colonies in the East, to a 
 Colony in a very different stage of development 
 in the West. At the time of my arrival the 
 developed area covered Jess than 100,000 acres. 
 After eight years I was to leave it extended to 
 an area of over 100,000 square miles. The work 
 of expansion of course necessitated an adequate 
 population, an appropriate form of government, 
 appropriate methods for the development of agri- 
 culture, forestry, mineral and water resources, an 
 appropriate scheme of defence, and from first to 
 last a sound system of finance. An influential 
 organ of the press declared that at the time of my 
 arrival the financial condition was little better than
 
 SERVICE IN THE WEST 69 
 
 that of Egypt before the British occupation of 
 that country, a condition arising out of the decline 
 and threatened extinction of the staple industry of 
 sugar, upon which nine-tenths of the population 
 depended for their existence. Within a very short 
 time I had imperilled my career by my determined 
 resistance to the financial methods of the Govern- 
 ment. In this conflict I was fortunate enough to 
 secure the support of the Colonial Office and the 
 Colonists, and from that time these potent in- 
 fluences never failed me through five years of 
 arduous but successful labour. In the circum- 
 stances, I found legitimate satisfaction in the 
 congratulations of every section and class of the 
 community on my receiving, two years later, the 
 honour of knighthood as K.C.M.G. 
 
 While holding the appointment of Lieutenant- 
 Governor it fell to me to administer the Govern- 
 ment, during the absence of the titular Governor, 
 on several occasions and for extended periods, and 
 this gave me an opportunity to visit outlying dis- 
 tricts of the Colony which had never been visited 
 by any recent administrator. On these expeditions 
 I invited representatives of administrative, indus- 
 trial and commercial interests to accompany me, 
 with the result that the legislative Chamber, the 
 Court of Policy, was kept fully informed of the 
 territorial conditions and the needs and wishes of
 
 70 MILESTONES 
 
 the people for whose welfare they were invited to 
 legislate. Out of these visits there arose impor- 
 tant boundary questions, in the final settlement of 
 which by arbitration the knowledge acquired sup- 
 plied important evidence. Locally they were 
 followed by a Reform of the Constitution, the 
 reorganisation of every Department of the Civil 
 Service, including particularly the Immigration, 
 Medical and Education Departments, the Depart- 
 ments of Public Works, Lands and Mines, Agri- 
 culture, Forestry, the Botanic Gardens and the 
 Government Laboratory. Not the least important 
 result of my expeditions into the north-western 
 territory of the Colony was that they enabled me 
 to organise an administrative system for the dis- 
 trict after the model of the Government Agencies 
 in Ceylon. The area included in the Agency was 
 about 9000 square miles. 
 
 But the experience of history from the earliest 
 periods of recorded time proves that the most 
 difficult of all the problems in the development of 
 natural resources is to reconcile the warring 
 interests of capital and labour. It has been 
 observed that, outside the domain of theology, 
 there is no subject which has given rise to such 
 an amount of controversial literature as the ques- 
 tion of the rights and wrongs of tropical labour. 
 It has been the subject of constant inquiry by
 
 SERVICE IN THE WEST 71 
 
 Royal and other Commissions. In 1891 the 
 Government of India appointed Surgeon-Major 
 Comins to be a Commissioner to inquire into the 
 condition of British Indian Immigrants in British 
 Guiana. I was administering the Government at 
 the time, and availed myself of the opportunity to 
 enact a Law to Consolidate and Amend the Law 
 relating to Asiatic Immigrants. 
 
 The Ordinance was warmly approved by Dr. 
 Comins, who declared that the Government and 
 the planters had equal reason to be proud of a 
 measure so enlightened in principle and so much 
 in accordance with the wishes of the Government 
 of India. He advised that it should be adopted, 
 with necessary modification, as the basis of legis- 
 lation not only in other British Crown Colonies 
 but for the protection of Indian Immigrants 
 in foreign Colonies. To my regret the Ordi- 
 nance provoked violent opposition at home. 
 Its operation was suspended, and it was under 
 the consideration of Ministers of both poli- 
 tical parties in England, as well as of the 
 Government of India, before it was finally 
 approved, with some amendments, in 1894. But 
 it remained the subject of controversy and opposi- 
 tion for many years, until in 1911 Dr. Comins' 
 opinion of the value of the Ordinance was con- 
 firmed by the judgment of a Royal Committee on
 
 72 MILESTONES 
 
 Indian Immigration to the Crown Colonies, of 
 which Lord Sanderson was Chairman. 
 
 The work of consolidating the laws relating to 
 Asiatic immigration revealed the fact that the laws 
 of the Colony generally showed a condition 
 described by the Attorney-General as one of 
 "confusion, contradiction, repetition and disorder," 
 and with the warm approval of the legislature I 
 obtained the consent of the Secretary of State to 
 the appointment of Sir John Carrington as Com- 
 missioner for the revision and consolidation of the 
 Statute Laws of the Colony, a work which he 
 completed in 1895. 
 
 If the Legislature of British Guiana had reason 
 to be proud of the support given to the Immigra- 
 tion Ordinance of 1891, it had no less reason 
 to be proud of its patriotism in supporting an 
 Ordinance passed in the same year for the defence 
 of the Colony. Early in the year the Government 
 had been informed that the Colony would cease to 
 be garrisoned by Imperial troops, and it became 
 necessary to provide a scheme of defence. The 
 scheme adopted included the reorganisation of the 
 Police and Rural Constabulary as semi-military 
 forces, and the creation of a territorial force in 
 substitution of the existing Militia and Volun- 
 teers. I assumed the administration of the 
 Government on the 29th of March, and on the
 
 SERVICE IN THE WEST 73 
 
 1 4th of April the necessary Bills were introduced 
 and read a first time. The Police and Rural 
 Constabulary Bills were read a third time and 
 passed on the i6th of' June. The Territorial 
 Force Bill was passed on the ist of August, by 
 which time all the Imperial troops had been 
 removed. 
 
 I explained the essential principles of the Ordi- 
 nance in a despatch in the following terms : 
 
 (1) To take over an existing Volunteer Force 
 and reorganise it as the nucleus of a new 
 system : 
 
 (2) To maintain the Volunteer system so far 
 as it can be depended on to supply such a force 
 as may be considered necessary for the defence 
 of the Colony and the protection of life and 
 property : 
 
 (3) To provide for the compulsory mainten- 
 ance of a local force, at such strength as may 
 be determined, by ballot should the Volunteer 
 system prove insufficient : 
 
 (4) To give the Governor almost absolute 
 power to fix the necessary strength of the force 
 and to control its discipline, government and 
 administration. 
 
 The Bill was referred to the Colonial Defence 
 Committee, of which Sir George Clarke, now Lord
 
 74 MILESTONES 
 
 Sydenham, was Secretary, and there was some delay 
 in dealing with it, caused, as I understood, by the 
 admission of the principle of compulsory service. 
 It was not till the 5th of January 1902 that the 
 Secretary of State in a despatch allowing the Ordi- 
 nance, and urging certain amendments proposed 
 by the Committee, declared his concurrence " in 
 the appreciation which the Committee expressed 
 of the ability of the scheme and the patriotism of 
 the Colonial Legislature." 
 
 My expeditions into the interior brought me 
 into constant association with the work of the 
 Christian missionaries, and in particular my per- 
 sonal relations with the Bishops of the Anglican 
 and Roman Churches were of the happiest. They 
 were both men of outstanding distinction. The 
 latter, Bishop Butler, had joined the Church after 
 service as an Officer of the Army in India. It is 
 probable that one result of the present war may be 
 to recognise the value of such an interchange of 
 service. In a letter contributed to The Times 
 in August 1892 I gave a brief summary of Bishop 
 Austin's episcopal service, and I cannot do better 
 than reproduce it : 
 
 " On the 2 1 st day of this month fifty full years 
 will have elapsed since the creation by letters 
 patent of the episcopal diocese of British Guiana 
 and the appointment of William Piercy Austin to
 
 SERVICE IN THE WEST 75 
 
 be consecrated the first Bishop of the diocese. 
 Bishop Austin is now by date of consecration the 
 senior prelate of the Anglican Communion 
 throughout the world, and it is asserted that the 
 history of Christendom records only six instances 
 in which a Bishop has completed the jubilee year 
 of his tenure of office. The event which the 
 Colony of British Guiana is preparing to celebrate 
 ' with decent solemnity and sober pomp ' may, 
 therefore, be considered of more than local colonial 
 interest. 
 
 " The Most Reverend William Piercy Austin, 
 Bishop of Guiana and Metropolitan of the West 
 Indies, a kinsman of the house of Lord Aberdare, 
 was born in 1807 f a f am ity l n g an d honourably 
 connected with the West Indies. Educated at 
 Oxford, he rowed in the Exeter eight and took an 
 active interest in promoting the first inter- 
 University boat race. He was himself to have 
 rowed in a race appointed to take place in 1828, 
 but the arrangements fell through, and the first 
 race was rowed in 1829, the eights including two 
 future Bishops Selwyn and Wordsworth. It is 
 interesting to note, in passing, that in 1831 two 
 other future Bishops found places in the University 
 boats Pelham, Bishop of Norwich, and Hamil- 
 ton, Bishop of Salisbury. In 1831 commenced 
 Mr. Austin's ecclesiastical connection with the
 
 76 MILESTONES 
 
 West Indies. He was ordained deacon in the 
 Cathedral of St. Michael, Barbados, and appointed 
 to the curacy of St. George, in Georgetown, British 
 Guiana. In 1836 he was appointed rural dean ; 
 in 1837 ecclesiastical commissary for Guiana ; and 
 in 1838 archdeacon. In 1842 he was nominated 
 to be the first Bishop of the diocese of Guiana. 
 Some years ago the late Professor Freeman wrote 
 an interesting article on the proper inter-relation 
 of episcopal sees and cities, and from this point of 
 view the following extract from the letters patent 
 nominating Bishop Austin is of interest : 
 
 " ' Whereas the parochial Church of St. 
 George, in Georgetown, within the Colony of 
 British Guiana, is apt and convenient to be 
 constituted and ordained, and it is our intention 
 to constitute and ordain the same to be a 
 Cathedral Church and Bishop's See, now know 
 ye that we do by these presents constitute and 
 erect the said Church of St. George to be a 
 Cathedral Church and Bishop's See, and we do 
 ordain that the whole town of Georgetown 
 aforesaid shall be henceforth a city and be called 
 the city of Georgetown ; and do make, ordain, 
 establish and constitute the said city and all our 
 Colony of British Guiana to be a separate and 
 distinct diocese, to be called henceforth the 
 diocese of Guiana. . . . And to the end that
 
 SERVICE IN THE WEST 7? 
 
 this our intention may be carried into good 
 effect, we, having great confidence in the learn- 
 ing, morals, probity and prudence of our well- 
 beloved the Venerable William Piercy Austin, 
 do nominate and appoint him to be consecrated 
 a Bishop of the said See. . . . 
 
 "'In witness whereof we have caused these 
 our letters to be made patent. Witness our- 
 selves at Westminster, this 2ist day of August, 
 in the sixth year of our reign. 
 " * By the Queen herself.' " 
 " It is not without interest that fifty years after 
 the date of these letters patent the Sovereign who 
 issued them and the prelate nominated should both 
 be alive. 
 
 " The athletic training of Bishop Austin as an 
 oarsman was admirably appropriate to the circum- 
 stances of his diocese. In Guiana, except on a 
 fringe of coast, great rivers form the main high- 
 ways, and creeks and streams the byways, nearly 
 all communication in the interior being by boat. 
 At the ripe age of 82 years the Bishop started on 
 a visitation tour of 8 1 days to the mission stations 
 of the interior, which can only be reached by the 
 perilous path of streams impeded at frequent 
 intervals in their course through the dense forests 
 by falls and rapids, the cause of many fatal 
 disasters. In his 84th year I had the privilege of
 
 78 MILESTONES 
 
 accompanying him on a visitation tour to the 
 aboriginal Indians and other settlers in a part of 
 the Colony, near the mouth of the Orinoco, of 
 particular historical interest from its connection 
 with the enterprises of Sir Walter Raleigh. 
 
 "In 1891, during the jubilee year of his epis- 
 copacy, Bishop Austin received from the Queen 
 the appointment of Prelate of the Order of St. 
 Michael and St. George. His tenure of this office 
 will, doubtless, in some parts of our Colonial 
 Empire, give additional interest to the approaching 
 5Oth anniversary of his consecration as Bishop." 
 
 Among many expressions of goodwill conveyed 
 to me by other Christian Churches when I left the 
 Colony, I received a copy of Hymns for the Use 
 of the People called Methodists, the gift of the 
 Wesleyan Churches, inscribed with an assurance 
 of their grateful remembrance of my sympathy 
 with them in their work. And some episodes of 
 the present war remind me vividly of my co- 
 operation with the Young Men's Christian 
 Association in the Colony, of which I was Vice- 
 President. 
 
 As I am availing myself rather largely of what 
 Cicero claimed as a privilege of old age a little 
 self-praise I quote from the press a passage on 
 my social relations with the community :
 
 SERVICE IN THE WEST 79 
 
 " Mr. Bruce, Lieutenant-Governor and Govern- 
 ment Secretary, whose administration of the 
 Government ceases with the arrival of the Gover- 
 nor, has been complimented in the Court of Policy 
 on the manner in which he has executed his impor- 
 tant duties. That the compliment was merited is 
 the opinion of all classes of the people. Mr. 
 Bruce has taken the opportunity to make himself 
 personally acquainted with Berbice, Essequebo and 
 Pomeroon, to see for himself the social condition 
 of the people, and inspect the Government offices 
 in these outlying districts, and the public works, 
 certain of which crop up frequently in more or less 
 acrimonious debate at the legislative meetings. 
 With the knowledge he has thus gained he has 
 qualified himself in a special degree for his office 
 of Government Secretary and furnished himself 
 with information that will be of great use in the 
 future. Socially, the regime of the Lieutenant- 
 Governor and Mrs. Bruce at Government House 
 has been a success. Their sole desire seemed to 
 be to make the House a centre of attraction for 
 the people of the land, where not only would the 
 Head of the Government and the people become 
 acquainted, but the people would get to know each 
 other. Their patronage too has been most liber- 
 ally extended to every effort on the part of pro- 
 fessionals or amateurs to provide entertainment or
 
 So MILESTONES 
 
 amusement for the inhabitants. It is only natural 
 that the inhabitants should feel very grateful to 
 Mr. and Mrs. Bruce for their many kindnesses." 
 
 This was published in August 1887, after the 
 first period of my administration of the Govern- 
 ment. During every subsequent period I was 
 equally fortunate. On the eve of my final depar- 
 ture the ladies of the Colony expressed their wish 
 to present my wife with a valuable souvenir, in 
 the form of jewelry. Such presentations were, 
 however, not looked on with favour at the time, 
 and at Lady Bruce's wish the Colony's recognition 
 of our services took the form of an Address, pre- 
 sented at a Banquet on the nth of July 1893. It 
 was in the following terms : 
 
 " It has been felt by a large number of the lead- 
 ing inhabitants of the Colony that you should not 
 be allowed to relinquish the administration of the 
 Government on this occasion without some public 
 expression being made of the sentiments enter- 
 tained towards you by them, and they believe, by 
 the people of the Colony generally, with reference 
 to your conduct of affairs on this and on the three 
 previous occasions on which you have administered 
 the Government. These sentiments have been 
 given expression to by means of the Banquet 
 which has been tendered to you and which you are
 
 SERVICE IN THE WEST 81 
 
 now attending and by means of this Address. 
 Since your arrival in the Colony, towards the close 
 of the year 1885, you have industriously and 
 unceasingly devoted your great abilities to the 
 performance of the responsible duties of Govern- 
 ment Secretary, and there can be no doubt that the 
 public service has greatly benefited by the exercise 
 of those abilities. But it is desired now to lay 
 especial stress upon your course of conduct during 
 the several periods of time, amounting altogether 
 to about fifteen months, in which you have 
 been at the head of the Colonial Govern- 
 ment. During that time you have spared no 
 pains, by visiting all the empoldered and culti- 
 vated parts of the Colony and by making expedi- 
 tions into the interior, to make yourself fully 
 acquainted with the position and circumstances of 
 the various classes of the mixed population and 
 with the material conditions of the Colony. Your 
 efforts have been honestly and successfully directed 
 to advance, in just and equal degree, the interests 
 of those various classes, and to promote the pros- 
 perity and development of the Colony generally ; 
 and it will be conceded that your action has been 
 guided by the principles of a vigorous and enlight- 
 ened policy. In particular, all who are interested 
 in this prosperity and development are under great 
 obligations to you for the measures which you
 
 82 MILESTONES 
 
 have taken to further the extension of the impor- 
 tant and rapidly growing gold industry. 
 
 " It is fitting that special acknowledgment should 
 be made of the kind courtesy and hospitality in- 
 variably exercised by Lady Bruce and yourself 
 during your sojourn at Government House. 
 
 " On your departure from these shores which, 
 it is understood, is about to take place immediately 
 the people of this Colony will feel regret at the 
 loss of an able and zealous public servant, but they 
 will at the same time derive satisfaction from the 
 thought that your signal services are probably 
 about to receive from Her Majesty that recogni- 
 tion which they have so well deserved. This at 
 any rate is their earnest hope. 
 
 " Speaking on behalf of the subscribers to the 
 Banquet, and though less directly we believe not 
 less truly on behalf of the general public, we beg 
 to offer Lady Bruce and yourself our best wishes 
 for your continued good health, happiness and 
 prosperity." 
 
 On my arrival in Grenada, the seat of govern- 
 ment of the Windward Islands, I found, as I had 
 found in British Guiana, that the financial position 
 demanded my first consideration. In all the 
 Windward Islands transport had been almost 
 entirely by manual or animal portage prior to
 
 SERVICE IN THE WEST 83 
 
 1885, when one of my predecessors, Sir Walter 
 Sendall, advocated and carried out in Grenada a 
 vigorous policy of road construction, in combina- 
 tion with a no less vigorous policy of developing 
 the natural resources of the Island by the estab- 
 lishment of a botanical garden for the promotion 
 of improved methods of agriculture and the intro- 
 duction of new plants and products. At the same 
 time the policy of road construction was logically 
 extended to the improvement of the coasting trade 
 by the maintenance of an efficient service of 
 steamers. This policy was further extended by 
 his successor, Sir Walter Hely Hutchinson, to the 
 improvement of harbours and the establishment of 
 direct steam communication with New York. But 
 the necessary expenditure had been met mainly by 
 loans, and at the time of my arrival provision had 
 to be made for a large annual charge for interest, 
 and for the redemption of the debt. My pre- 
 decessors had advised that these charges should be 
 partly met by an export duty, but this advice had 
 been overruled by the Colonial Office on the 
 ground " of the well-known objection of Her 
 Majesty's Government to export duties." In spite 
 of my earnest representations and the continual 
 shrinkage of revenue from taxation already raised 
 to the straining point, the objection was main- 
 tained until in August 1896 Mr. Chamberlain, in
 
 84 MILESTONES 
 
 reply to a despairing appeal, telegraphed to me the 
 brief but sufficient message " Consent to export 
 duties." I was now free to prosecute the policy of 
 my predecessors and to extend its benefits to the 
 other administrative units of the Windward 
 Islands, St. Vincent and St. Lucia. The Colonial 
 Defence Committee at this time contemplated the 
 concentration of troops in St. Lucia and Jamaica, 
 and it was decided to make St. Lucia a naval base 
 and fortified coaling station of the first importance. 
 The commerce of the Windward Islands was thus 
 brought into direct ocean communication with the 
 markets of the whole world, while the advantages 
 of cheap postal and telegraph services were supple- 
 mented by an admirable telephone service, first 
 organised in Grenada in 1891, long before the 
 telephone came into general use in the United 
 Kingdom. In 1894 I obtained a loan for the 
 establishment of a telephone system in St. Lucia, 
 and before I left the Windward Islands a man-of- 
 war or merchant vessel could within a few minutes 
 of arrival have an apparatus placed on board, and 
 be put in communication with every military or 
 police station, every public and private office, and 
 practically with every residence of the upper classes 
 in the Colony. 
 
 In British Guiana it had been necessary to pro- 
 vide an appropriate population by immigration.
 
 SERVICE IN THE WEST 85 
 
 In the Windward Islands this was not necessary. 
 There was a sufficient native population, but it was 
 largely dependent on the precarious and fluctu- 
 ating demand for labour on a few large estates. 
 What was necessary was to promote the cultivation 
 of the soil by a peasant proprietary having indi- 
 vidually the strongest possible motives to work 
 their holdings so as to secure a maximum of profit. 
 The policy did not commend itself to some 
 absentee proprietors supported by "influences" at 
 home, but was warmly approved by Mr. Chamber- 
 lain. It required an appropriate system of educa- 
 tion, and this was founcl by adapting to the local 
 environment the principles on which I had organ- 
 ised the education of the people in Ceylon, while 
 the botanic gardens established by my predecessors 
 supplied valuable auxiliaries. Although the study 
 of tropical medicine was still in its infancy, the 
 question of health was not neglected. Grenada is 
 a healthy island, but in St. Vincent my previous 
 experience of tropical diseases was enlarged by the 
 prevalence of the loathsome disease known as 
 Yaws ; and an outbreak of yellow fever among the 
 sailors and garrison at St. Lucia directed especial 
 attention to the subject of quarantine. In British 
 Guiana the question of a uniform system of quar- 
 antine had been studied in 1888 by a Conference of 
 delegates from all the British West India Colonies,
 
 86 MILESTONES 
 
 but their Report, accompanied by a draft law, was 
 still under the consideration of the Colonial Office. 
 As further delay was impossible, I proceeded at 
 once with the legislation necessary to establish a 
 uniform system of quarantine for the Windward 
 Islands, based on the draft submitted by the 
 Conference. 
 
 As in British Guiana, I interested myself in the 
 consolidation and revision of the criminal and civil 
 laws of the Windward Islands. Complete uni- 
 formity was impossible, but under the direction of 
 Sir Joseph Hutchinson, Chief Justice of Grenada, 
 assisted by the Attorney-General of St. Vincent, a 
 great advance was made in the preliminary process 
 of assimilation exercised through the various stages 
 of revision, consolidation and codification. 
 
 Throughout my administration of the Wind- 
 ward Islands my efforts to secure the co-operation 
 of all the Churches as links of a chain of forces 
 uniting the Empire were rewarded by the testi- 
 mony of all the Protestant Churches, as well as by 
 a letter addressed to me by the Roman Catholic 
 Archbishop of the diocese : 
 
 "6th January, 1897. 
 "Your Excellency, 
 
 " I see from the telegrams of this morning 
 that you have been gazetted to the Governorship 
 of Mauritius. W T hile expressing my deep regret for
 
 SERVICE IN THE WEST 87 
 
 your departure from among us, I beg to congratu- 
 late you on your well-deserved promotion, and to 
 wish you every happiness and success in your new 
 appointment. 
 
 " I take this opportunity of thanking you for 
 the extreme courtesy with which you have always 
 treated me and my letters, and for the fair and 
 impartial manner with which you have dealt with 
 questions touching Catholic interests during your 
 administration of the Windward Islands. I have 
 to thank you especially for having recently nomi- 
 nated another Catholic to the Legislative Council 
 of Grenada." 
 
 Social life in the Windward Islands had a special 
 charm, arising not only out of the variety of local 
 interests in Grenada, St. Vincent and St. Lucia, 
 but from their attractions to visitors from all parts 
 of the world intent on business or in search of 
 knowledge or pleasure or health. The annual 
 visits of the North American Fleet supply an 
 eagerly seized occasion for the interchange of social 
 courtesies. In my own case, there have grown out 
 of them many life-long friendships. At the time 
 I am writing of, the centre of social intercourse 
 between the Navy and Army and the civil resi- 
 dents was St. Lucia, where I for some time 
 occupied Government House, for facility in deal-
 
 88 MILESTONES 
 
 ing on the spot with questions connected with the 
 establishment of a great naval and military base 
 and a fortified coaling station. 
 
 In the many duties that fell to the share of Lady 
 Bruce during the whole period of my tenure of 
 office in the Windward Islands, she was untiring 
 in her devotion, and I recall with pleasure the 
 assistance and aid she received from her sister, 
 now Lady Hutchinson, the wife of my colleague 
 as Chief Justice of Grenada. 
 
 Before my departure from the Windward 
 Islands, an Address, signed by the senior official 
 and unofficial members, was presented to me by 
 the Legislative Council of Grenada : 
 
 "We, the members of the Legislative Council 
 of Grenada, desire to offer our sincere congratula- 
 tions to Your Excellency upon your promotion to 
 be the Governor of Mauritius, and to express our 
 regret at the severance in consequence thereof of 
 the harmonious relations which have existed 
 between this Council and yourself. 
 
 " The three years of Your Excellency's admini- 
 stration have unfortunately been a period of severe 
 financial depression for this Colony, and the 
 resources of the Government have been further 
 tried during your term of office by annually recur- 
 rent floods, causing an abnormal expenditure not 
 experienced by other recent administrations. We
 
 SERVICE IN THE WEST 89 
 
 recognise with satisfaction the prudence and care 
 with which under these trying conditions Your 
 Excellency has conducted the affairs of the Colony, 
 which, notwithstanding these drawbacks, has not 
 lost ground under your Government, and in which 
 many useful and substantial public works remain 
 as a record of your administration. 
 
 " We assure Your Excellency of our cordial 
 goodwill, and we wish both Lady Bruce and your- 
 self every success in the new field of work to which 
 you have been called." 
 
 After I had left the Colony Mr. Chamberlain 
 sent me a copy of a despatch he had addressed to 
 the Officer Administering the Government in these 
 generous terms : 
 
 " Downing Street, 
 
 "23 March, 1897. 
 " Sir, 
 
 " With reference to Sir C. Bruce's 
 despatch No. 16 of the yth of January expressing 
 his acceptance of the appointment of Governor of 
 Mauritius, I desire to place on record my apprecia- 
 tion of the manner in which he has discharged the 
 duties of Governor of the Windward Islands 
 during a period latterly of some anxiety and 
 difficulty caused by the continued depression in 
 the Sugar Industry."
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 BACK TO THE EAST, 1897 TO 1903 
 
 I 
 
 LADY BRUCE and I arrived in Mauritius on nth 
 May 1897, and received a welcome which I 
 acknowledged a few days later in my speech from 
 the Throne on opening a Session of the Legisla- 
 ture : 
 
 " Honourable Gentlemen 
 
 of the Council of Government. 
 
 " On my return to Mauritius, after an 
 absence of nearly twelve years, to undertake the 
 duties of the high office to which Her Majesty has 
 been pleased to call me, I have received a generous 
 welcome. I make no endeavour to express in 
 eloquent phrases my gratitude for the reception I 
 have been accorded. The only adequate response 
 I can make is the unostentatious devotion of my 
 life to the duties of my office in a spirit of equal 
 sympathy with all classes of the community. A 
 long colonial experience has taught me that a
 
 BACK TO THE EAST 91 
 
 Governor, however ingenious a master of rhetoric 
 he may be, must eventually be judged by perform- 
 ance rather than words, by what he does rather 
 than by what he says. Appreciating to the full 
 how largely the success of my own endeavours 
 must depend on your co-operation and support in 
 the discharge of the important duties jointly com- 
 mitted to us, I have gladly availed myself of the 
 earliest opportunity to open the Session and to ask 
 for a generous measure of your confidence and 
 assistance in the labours in which we are from this 
 day associated." 
 
 It was impossible for me to realise at the time 
 the magnitude of the task in which I was inviting 
 the co-operation of the Council, but it was quite in 
 accordance with my previous administrative experi- 
 ence to find that our first and immediate concern 
 was to deal with financial difficulties arising out of 
 a recent series of misfortunes. 
 
 Early in 1892 Mauritius was visited by a 
 hurricane, which in a few hours killed 1260 
 people, wounded 4000, rendered 50,000 homeless, 
 knocked down twenty-four churches and chapels, 
 and many public buildings. On the sugar 
 estates it destroyed many mills, with their costly 
 machinery, and reduced a promising crop by one- 
 half. In order to appreciate the effects of this
 
 92 MILESTONES 
 
 hurricane, it must be borne in mind that there are 
 in Mauritius few accumulated fortunes ; capital is 
 almost exclusively domiciled in Europe, and, as 
 regards the Indian traders, in India. The bulk of 
 the community lives on the annual proceeds of 
 the sugar crop. From this source are derived 
 public and private salaries, professional emolu- 
 ments, and the wages of the working community. 
 
 In 1893 a great fire lapped up what the hurri- 
 cane had left in the principal business area of Port 
 Louis. 
 
 Against these disasters the general community 
 struggled with a courage worthy of the great tradi- 
 tions of Mauritian history. In the Indian com- 
 munity the merchants exercised a generosity which 
 earned the grateful acknowledgment of the Colony 
 and the thanks of the Imperial and Indian Govern- 
 ments. At the other end of the social scale, the 
 indentured labourers on the estates volunteered to 
 accept a reduction of their statutory wages. 
 
 There followed a short crop, an enhanced cost 
 of supplies from India due to famine and plague, 
 and allied complications leading to a financial crisis. 
 It had to be met by government assistance to the 
 Banks, a loan to planters (punctually repaid with a 
 margin of profit), and the suspension of specie 
 payments measures of grave anxiety only justi- 
 fied by the peril they successfully averted.
 
 
 BACK TO THE EAST 93 
 
 It was hardly averted when an epidemic of 
 plague broke out. Apart from the fatality of the 
 disease, which, so far at least as the Asiatic com- 
 munity is concerned, is perhaps the smallest of its 
 terrors, it is attended by subsidiary difficulties and 
 dangers arising largely out of the measures adopted 
 to arrest its progress. These have now got to 
 be understood in this country by the records of 
 experience in India. They affect smaller com- 
 munities with even more acute severity, and they 
 strained the courage and the resources of the 
 Colony in a way that can hardly be realised by 
 those who have had no similar experience. 
 
 During this season of local adversity the Colony 
 was not unmindful of its partnership in the for- 
 tunes of the Empire during a critical period of the 
 war in South Africa. In 1899 every available 
 man of the British troops in the garrison was 
 placed at the service of the War Office, and a 
 liberal sum was voted by the Council, to be offered 
 to the Government of Natal for the benefit of the 
 wounded and sick of the Imperial and Colonial 
 forces engaged in the war. For my services in 
 connection with the war I three times received the 
 thanks of H.M. Government, as well as the thanks 
 of the Government of Natal. To the people of 
 Mauritius the thanks of Queen Victoria were con- 
 veyed through the Secretary of State, the thanks
 
 94 MILESTONES 
 
 of "King Edward through the Duke of Corn- 
 wall and York in person on his visit to the 
 Colony. 
 
 It was remarkable with what faith the Colony 
 clung throughout this long season of adversity to 
 the chain which links the Empire to the Crown as 
 a sure and steadfast anchor of hope. The Diamond 
 Jubilee of Queen Victoria, Her Majesty's demise, 
 the accession and coronation of King Edward, 
 revealed a sentiment of attachment to the Crown 
 superior to all considerations of race or creed. 
 Especially opportune was the visit of their present 
 Majesties, then Duke and Duchess of Cornwall 
 and York, in uniting the population in a common 
 patriotism and confirming the constancy and 
 courage of which their Royal Highnesses showed 
 a generous appreciation. Within an hour of their 
 arrival they had transubstantiated into an Imperial 
 ideal the material elements of Colonial existence. 
 The reply of His Royal Highness to the Addresses 
 presented by representatives of every section of 
 the community animated all with an inspiring sense 
 of Imperial services rendered and generously 
 acknowledged. He said : 
 
 " It will be a great satisfaction to me to convey 
 to my dear Father the King, your assurances of 
 loyalty to his Throne and Person, and to make 
 known to him that spirit of affectionate devotion
 
 BACK TO THE EAST 95 
 
 to the memory of our late beloved Queen so 
 strongly evinced in these communications. 
 
 " I note with especial satisfaction from the 
 Addresses of those non-European Communities 
 who have made their home among you that they 
 are living in contentment under the rule of their 
 King Emperor in Mauritius. 
 
 " We have looked forward with keen interest to 
 visiting your beautiful Island, rich in its honour- 
 able traditions, in the history of literature and 
 statesmanship : proud of its association with naval 
 achievements that shed equal glory on England 
 and France. 
 
 " We deeply sympathise with you in that com- 
 bination of adversities, altogether beyond your 
 control, under which you have suffered during the 
 past ten years. 
 
 " Meanwhile the whole Empire has watched 
 with sympathetic admiration the constancy and 
 courage by which you overcame your difficulties 
 and the spirit that prompted you to contribute 
 generously in spite of your own imperilled for- 
 tunes to the relief of your suffering fellow-sub- 
 jects in India, the West Indies, and in South Africa. 
 
 " I rejoice to know that a day of brighter pro- 
 mise has dawned upon you that the great staple 
 of the Island continues to enjoy its long-estab- 
 lished reputation, and that it is your earnest
 
 96 MILESTONES 
 
 endeavour to keep pace with the rest of the Empire 
 in maintaining its commercial and mercantile pre- 
 eminence. 
 
 " I fervently trust that under Divine Provi- 
 dence the people of Mauritius may ever remain a 
 united, loyal and prosperous community." 
 
 The Duke's words of sympathy found an 
 answering echo when the following day brought 
 news of the death of the Empress Frederick of 
 Germany. If this sad event limited the oppor- 
 tunity for popular manifestations of enthusiasm, 
 every moment of their Royal Highnesses' stay 
 strengthened a link in the chain of devotion that 
 grapples this little island to the Empire, every day 
 revealed an alert grasp of the bearing of a variety 
 of interests on the general welfare of a complex 
 community and an impartial sympathy with what 
 is best in each. Very characteristic was the 
 monster procession which filed past their Royal 
 Highnesses on the day of their landing, and most 
 touching was the homage paid to the Duchess 
 by the thousands of school children who threw 
 flowers at her feet as they passed by. 
 
 As long ago as 1870 the Duke of Edinburgh 
 had laid the foundation stone of a meteorological 
 observatory in Mauritius, from which have issued 
 seismographic charts, a storm atlas, and a theory
 
 BACK TO THE EAST 97 
 
 of the law of storms, on which are based the sail- 
 ing directions published for the guidance of 
 mariners in the navigation of tropical seas. The 
 Duchess devoted a whole day to visiting the station 
 and informing herself of the methods by which 
 these observations are made. She also gave her 
 name to the first turbine steam life-boat acquired 
 by the Government. And it will always be remem- 
 bered with gratitude that the last hours of her visit 
 were devoted to an inspection of the hospital of 
 the convent of Notre Dame de Bon Secours. It 
 was a gracious recognition of the services rendered 
 by the Sisters in every post of danger, and par- 
 ticularly in the Plague Hospital, during a season 
 of trial hardly paralleled in the history of our 
 Crown Colonies. 
 
 So far as was possible the ceremonies at Le 
 Reduit, the Governor's residence, were arranged 
 and designed to present to the Duke and Duchess 
 characteristic aspects of the society endeared to 
 Lady Bruce and myself by many years of intimate 
 friendship and co-operation. So far as the society 
 of European origin is concerned, the English ele- 
 ment is small, and stands in much the same relation 
 to the French element as the corresponding 
 elements of Canadian society. The predominant 
 influence is that of the French families, who enjoy 
 the respect still entertained in England and even
 
 98 MILESTONES 
 
 in republican France for a small circle of society 
 where the traditions of birth are associated with 
 personal virtues finding expression in the senti- 
 ment noblesse oblige. They cling to each other 
 " in either fortune " with a brave tenacity of 
 attachment. In the Duke's happy phrase at the 
 Guildhall after the completion of his Colonial tour, 
 they are "gifted with all the charming char- 
 acteristics of old France." 
 
 During the stay of their Royal Highnesses the 
 Chief Justice, Mr. Victor Delafaye, received the 
 honour of knighthood, and at an Investiture held 
 at Le Reduit, I received the Grand Cordon of the 
 Order of St. Michael and St. George, while the 
 Companionship of the Order was conferred on 
 Mr. W. T. A. Edwards, Senior Unofficial Member 
 of the Executive Council, and on Mr. Pierre 
 Edmond de Chazal, a representative of the com- 
 munity of French descent. 
 
 On August 8th, the day of their departure, 
 Lady Bruce and I were presented by the Duke and 
 Duchess with precious souvenirs. To Lady Bruce 
 the Duchess gave a gold and enamel bracelet ; to 
 myself the Duke gave a silver vessel with a com- 
 memorative inscription. We took leave of their 
 Royal Highnesses on board the " Ophir." 
 
 Before their departure, I received from Sir 
 Arthur Bigge the following communication :
 
 BACK TO THE EAST 99 
 
 " H.M.S. ' Ophir,' 
 
 "August 8, 19.01. 
 
 " Your Excellency, 
 
 " I am directed by the Duke of Cornwall 
 and York to ask you to be so good as to convey 
 to the Reception Committee, to the Heads of 
 Government Departments and other Officials, as 
 well as to the Mayor and Town Councillors of 
 Port Louis, the thanks of His Royal Highness for 
 the care and trouble bestowed by them on all the 
 arrangements in connection with his visit to 
 Mauritius. 
 
 "The Duchess and he were much gratified by 
 the hearty reception accorded to them by all 
 sections of the population, and they greatly 
 admired the tasteful and effective manner in which 
 the streets were decorated. 
 
 " His Royal Highness particularly asks that his 
 appreciation of the Police arrangements may be 
 communicated to the Inspector-General. 
 
 " His Royal Highness is also desirous that the 
 Officer Commanding the Troops may be informed 
 of his entire approval of the general appearance 
 and steadiness under arms of the troops which 
 lined the streets and furnished the various Guards 
 of Honour. 
 
 "To Your Excellency and Lady Bruce Their 
 Royal Highnesses wish me to express their grati-
 
 ioo MILESTONES 
 
 tude for the kindness they received during their 
 stay at Reduit, while I am also to thank the Resi- 
 dents who hospitably received and entertained the 
 various members of the Staff. 
 " I have, etc., 
 
 "ARTHUR BIGGE." 
 
 From the " Ophir," on her voyage, gracious 
 and welcome letters were sent to Lady Bruce and 
 myself by their Royal Highnesses and members 
 of their suite : 
 
 " At Sea between Mauritius and Durban, 
 " H.M.S. < Ophir,' 
 
 " nth August, 1901. 
 " Dear Lady Bruce, 
 
 " I take the opportunity of a fairly smooth 
 day to write you a few lines to thank you and Sir 
 Charles for your kindness to us during our very 
 pleasant stay at Mauritius, which we greatly 
 enjoyed. Our only regret was that we had to 
 leave a day earlier than we expected, for it was so 
 nice and restful at Le Reduit, and we were most 
 comfortable there. It certainly is a lovely place 
 and the garden and grounds are beautiful. We 
 trust you are not feeling very tired after all the 
 exertions you have had lately, and that the heat at 
 Port Louis on Thursday did not upset you. With
 
 BACK TO THE EAST 101 
 
 many kind remembrances to Sir Charles and your- 
 self, 
 
 "Believe me, 
 
 " Yours very sincerely, 
 
 " VICTORIA MARY." 
 
 "H.M.S. 'Ophir,' 
 
 "At Sea, 
 
 My dear Sir Charles, " Au * I2th > J 9 O1 ' 
 
 " We hope to reach Durban to-morrow 
 morning, and before we arrive I wish to send you 
 one line, to thank you and Lady Bruce for all your 
 kindness during our stay at Le Reduit. We 
 enjoyed our visit to Mauritius very much, and I 
 assure you that I shall always take great interest 
 in everything connected with the island and its 
 people. Both the Duchess and I were much 
 pleased with the very warm welcome we received, 
 and we shall always retain the pleasantest recollec- 
 tions of our too short visit. 
 
 " On the whole we have had a fine passage, but 
 we got into a heavy sea off the coast of Mada- 
 gascar, which was far from pleasant. 
 
 " With many kind messages to Lady Bruce, and 
 with my renewed thanks, 
 
 Believe me, 
 
 " Dear Sir Charles, 
 
 " Very sincerely yours,
 
 102 MILESTONES 
 
 H.M.S. < Ophir, 5 
 
 "Aug. 12, 1901. 
 " My dear Sir Charles, 
 
 " I venture to ask you to be so kind as to 
 give me a photograph of Reduit, which I should 
 much like to put in my book as a souvenir of your 
 beautiful home. I asked one of our Staff to get 
 me one at Port Louis, but he was unable to 
 do so. 
 
 " I hope that Lady Bruce and you are recovering 
 from the effects of our invasion! 7 wish it had 
 been possible to prolong it! 
 
 "We land at Durban in the morning, weather 
 permitting. 
 
 "With kind regards to Lady Bruce and my re- 
 newed thanks for all your kindness to me, 
 " Yours very truly, 
 
 "ARTHUR BIGGE." 
 
 Lady Mary Lygon wrote : 
 
 "August 19, 1901, 
 
 "H.M.S. 'Ophir,' 
 
 " Capetown. 
 " Dear Lady Bruce, 
 
 " I have wished for several days to write 
 
 -nd thank both you and Sir Charles for all your 
 
 ndness to us during our visit to Mauritius, but
 
 BACK TO THE EAST 103 
 
 I wanted at the same time to wait until I had 
 delivered your message to Sir Walter and Lady 
 Hely Hutchinson. I hope that you were not too 
 much overtired with all you did that week. . . . 
 "With again many thanks, 
 " Believe me, 
 
 " Yrs. sincerely, 
 
 " MARY LYGON." 
 
 To the Duchess' letter Lady Bruce replied : 
 
 "Government House, 
 " Mauritius, 
 
 "Sept. 6th, 1901. 
 
 " Dear Duchess of Cornwall, 
 
 " On behalf of Sir Charles Bruce and 
 myself I beg leave to thank you for your letter 
 of the nth August. It will be to us an additional 
 souvenir of the visit of Your Royal Highnesses 
 to Reduit and of the constant kindness and con- 
 sideration shown to us, of which we shall ever 
 retain a grateful sense. 
 
 " Your Royal Highness' obedient Servant, 
 
 " CLARA BRUCE." 
 
 After the completion of the Colonial tour, we 
 continued to receive welcome letters referring to 
 the visit. Sir Donald Wallace wrote :
 
 104 MILESTONES 
 
 " Sandringham, 
 " Norfolk, 
 " 9 Nov. 1901. 
 
 "Dear Sir Charles, 
 
 " Many thanks for your kind note and 
 congratulations on our safe arrival home. I have 
 to thank you also for the pamphlets about Mauri- 
 tius, which have reached me safely. 
 
 " The tour remained a great success to the very 
 end. Not a hitch anywhere! Of course we all 
 retain most agreeable recollections of your earthly 
 Paradise and of the kind hospitality which we 
 there received. 
 
 " We are to-day celebrating the King's birthday, 
 and I am happy to say he is in excellent health. 
 The alarmist rumours in the press are happily 
 entirely without foundation. I have been here for 
 about a week, and I have never seen him in better 
 spirits. 
 
 " Please give my kind remembrances to Lady 
 Bruce, and believe me, 
 
 " Yours sincerely, 
 
 " DONALD M. WALLACE." 
 
 A letter from Sir Arthur Bigge showed that His 
 Royal Highness, then Prince of Wales, continued 
 to take an active interest in Mauritius :
 
 BACK TO THE EAST 105 
 
 "York House, 
 " St. James's Palace, S.W., 
 
 "Deer. 1 9th, 1901. 
 " My dear Sir Charles, 
 
 " Thank you sincerely for so kindly re- 
 membering my petition for photographs of your 
 beautiful home, which I am very glad to possess. 
 
 "The Princess has received the photographs 
 taken by Mr. Bagot, and you will hear shortly 
 from Sir Charles Cast about them. When we 
 were in Mauritius, the Presdt. of the Chamber of 
 Commerce spoke to me about the urgent want of 
 improved harbour facilities at Port Louis, and 
 asked if H.R.H. could do anything with the 
 Colonial Office to help matters. Consequently I 
 wrote to the C.O. in H.R.H.'s name, and in reply 
 it was stated that the question of * additional 
 covered quay space ' asked for by the Brit. India 
 Steam Navn. Co. had been referred to you and 
 that a Despatch was to be addressed to you as to 
 laying down additional moorings, etc. Of course 
 if any good results can accrue from the Royal visit 
 and from the interest shown by the Prince in this 
 particular matter he will be much pleased. 
 
 " Please accept my hearty good wishes for the 
 New Year, and believe me, 
 
 " Yours very truly, 
 
 "ARTHUR BIGGE."
 
 106 MILESTONES 
 
 A few days later Prince Alexander of Teck 
 wrote to Lady Bruce : 
 
 "Jany. nth, 1902, 
 " South Cavalry Barracks, 
 
 " Aldershot. 
 " Dear Lady Bruce, 
 
 " I write to thank you for so kindly send- 
 ing me the post card with good wishes, and beg 
 you will convey the same to Sir Charles. 
 
 "We had a big lunch at the Mansion House on 
 our return, which was a great success in every way. 
 My Brother-in-law spoke especially well. Every- 
 one at home seems to have followed the tour with 
 interest and enthusiasm, and I think that really 
 now people are beginning to know something of 
 the places over which the various Governors keep 
 a watchful eye. . . . 
 
 " With all good wishes to you and Sir Charles 
 for 1902, 
 
 " I remain, 
 
 " Yours sincerely, 
 "ALEXANDER GEORGE OF TECK."
 
 BACK TO THE EAST 107 
 
 II 
 
 UNFORTUNATELY the good wishes of the Royal 
 visitors and their suite for the prosperity of Mauri- 
 tius were not to be realised in 1902. In that year 
 the epidemic of plague was followed by an epi- 
 zooty of the disease known as surra, which attacked 
 horses, mules and cattle with cruel severity, and 
 from an economic point of view was more disas- 
 trous than the plague. Such was the fatality of 
 the disease that within a year it dislocated the 
 whole system of transport by animal draught 
 throughout the Colony, and it became necessary to 
 substitute, at enormous cost, a mechanical system 
 of transport by means of light railways, surface 
 and overhead tramways and automobiles. The 
 consequences of the loss of animals affected not 
 only the sugar industry, but every department of 
 public and private activity, including the work 
 of sanitation in both urban and rural districts. 
 
 An independent witness wrote of the courage 
 with which this calamity was met in terms which I 
 may well recite : 
 
 " When one knows the extraordinary courage 
 with which planters, overseers and labourers alike 
 here have faced the plague, cattle disease and tor- 
 rential rains to which they have been exposed 
 during the course of the last two years, and that
 
 io8 MILESTONES 
 
 planters have not shrunk from any sacrifice to 
 maintain, and generally to maintain with intelli- 
 gence, their estates ; and when one knows and has 
 seen the Indian labourers, owing to the dearth of 
 draught animals, harnessing themselves to heavy 
 carts and dragging them along the estate roads in 
 the middle of the rains, willingly and cheerfully 
 bearing all hardships to finish the crop, I cannot 
 think that classes which show such spirit to main- 
 tain an industry, which is capable of doing well in 
 fair competition with the world, should be allowed 
 to sink, and that no hand will be held out to them 
 in their time of trial." 
 
 During this period of adversity the popular 
 conscience was guided and controlled by the in- 
 fluence of the unofficial members of Council, aided 
 by the leaders of the Indian community within 
 their sphere of influence. And fortunately the 
 Colony had in its civil service a body of men 
 steeped in the sympathy of common interests with 
 the sentiments of the people. In the strain put 
 on the departments every demand was met with 
 patience and industry, many pressing emergencies 
 with conspicuous ability and fertility of resource. 
 
 It will easily be understood how gravely this 
 series of untoward events affected the Colony's 
 finances. Exceptional measures had to be taken
 
 BACK TO THE EAST 109 
 
 to meet the strain of a series of exceptional emer- 
 gencies. The period of the financial year was 
 changed to adapt it to the seasons of the sugar 
 crop. The whole system of keeping, auditing and 
 rendering the Colony accounts was recast, and a 
 new procedure was adopted in submitting the 
 estimates to the Council of Government, so that 
 the unofficial members, a body including repre- 
 sentatives of the principal mercantile firms well 
 versed in accounts, might have more ample facili- 
 ties for examining them. Coincidently, the 
 principal departments of government, including 
 the customs and the post office, were the subject 
 of inquiry by commission. On these committees 
 the elected members of Council and other gentle- 
 men outside of the official sphere gave their time 
 and experience, so that the departments might at 
 the same time be adapted to public exigencies and 
 placed on a business footing. But above all, in 
 view of the principal causes of the Colony's mis- 
 fortunes, the department of health and sanitation 
 was made the subject of an exhaustive inquiry, 
 having for its aim to adapt the department to the 
 requirements of the new science of tropical medi- 
 cine, and the demands made on it by the exigencies 
 of malaria, plague and surra. A scheme was also 
 prepared by a special Committee for the establish- 
 ment of an Analytical and Bacteriological Labora-
 
 no MILESTONES 
 
 tory. In the Education Department Training 
 Schools were opened, a system of Engineering and 
 Horticultural Apprenticeships organised, and a 
 Professor of Agricultural Chemistry appointed. 
 In the Judicial Department substantial progress 
 was made in the revision and codification of the 
 civil and criminal law. 
 
 The visit of the Prince and Princess of Wales 
 was followed during this renewed period of 
 adversity by the Coronation of King Edward, in 
 circumstances that touched the heart of the Empire. 
 History can furnish few examples of an Empire 
 governed by emotion as the British Empire was 
 governed during the period of the King's illness 
 which postponed the date of the Coronation. 
 During the Royal visit of 1901 the Princess had 
 laid the foundation of a statue of Queen Victoria 
 as a memorial of the visit, and on the day of the 
 Coronation, August 8, I unveiled the completed 
 statue. I said : 
 
 " The erection of this statue of her late Majesty 
 Queen Victoria has been associated with two events 
 which will certainly be marked with white in the 
 annals of the Colony. Just a year ago the first 
 stone of the pedestal on which the statue is placed 
 was laid by Her Royal Highness the Princess of 
 Wales, in the presence of Her Majesty's grandson, 
 and I have now the honour of unveiling it at the
 
 BACK TO THE EAST in 
 
 very moment when the imperial succession is, by 
 the solemn act and ceremony of the Coronation, 
 passing formally to Her Majesty's son. But not 
 only has the erection of the statue been happy in 
 point of time ; we shall all, I think, agree that the 
 site has been happily chosen. Here at the gate of 
 Government House, the seat of administration 
 and place of assembly of the legislative body of 
 the Colony, it will be given to future generations 
 to recognise an outward and visible sign and 
 symbol of the principles that underlie the un- 
 written constitution of the Empire. For how- 
 ever diverse may be the forms of local government 
 throughout the Empire, the principles on which 
 they rest are the same ; in public life the principle 
 of freedom of person, freedom of speech, freedom 
 of religious belief and faith ; in the administration 
 of justice the principle of absolute equality before 
 the law for all sorts and conditions of men ; in 
 commerce, in the largest sense of this term, the 
 policy of the open door ; and in private and social 
 life the policy of the open heart and open hand 
 the heart open to sympathy alike in joy and 
 sorrow ; the hand open to welcome, embrace, 
 support and aid." 
 
 Throughout the Colony of Mauritius and its 
 Dependencies the Coronation was celebrated, if
 
 ii2 MILESTONES 
 
 with less of pomp and ceremony than among 
 wealthier communities, certainly not with less of 
 loyalty and sincerity. In reporting that he had 
 laid before His Majesty the King the Address of 
 the Council of Government and copies of tele- 
 grams sent on the occasion, Mr. Chamberlain 
 added that His Majesty had desired him to express 
 the cordial satisfaction with which he had received 
 these tokens of loyalty and sympathy, and his wish 
 that I should convey to his people in Mauritius 
 an assurance of his high appreciation of their 
 attachment to his throne and person. 
 
 My term of office was now approaching its end, 
 and it was to close as every Colonial Governor 
 might well desire his tenure of office to close. On 
 the 27th of December I telegraphed to the 
 Secretary of State : 
 
 " On December 24th, on the motion of the 
 Senior Unofficial Member, it was unanimously 
 resolved as follows : Council of Government in 
 view of the financial difficulties with which Colony 
 is contending and of the wisdom and long experi- 
 ence of His Excellency the Governor of Mauritius, 
 resolved that it is very desirable that Sir Charles 
 Bruce should remain at the head of the Govern- 
 ment hereof for some months longer after the 
 completion of his term of office, and beg that His 
 Excellency be pleased, if agreeable to him, to
 
 BACK TO THE EAST 113 
 
 transmit this resolution for the favourable con- 
 sideration of the Secretary of State for the 
 Colonies. 
 
 " Relying on your confidence and sympathy in 
 whatever difficulties may arise, I place my services 
 unreservedly at your disposal." 
 
 On the 8th of January Mr. Chamberlain 
 replied : 
 
 " It gives me much pleasure to inform you that 
 His Majesty has been graciously pleased to 
 approve of the extension of your term of office 
 until the 3ist December next." 
 
 I recall with pleasure the congratulations I 
 received on this occasion from Admiral Sir 
 Archibald Douglas, Admiral Sir Charles Drury, 
 both now deceased, and Admiral (now Sir) Day 
 Hort Bosanquet. Throughout my tenure of office 
 my relations with the Naval Authorities in every- 
 thing connected with the Colonial Scheme of 
 Defence, as well as in our social and personal 
 intercourse, had been of the happiest. With re- 
 gard to the Scheme of Defence I will only say that 
 the result of my co-operation with the Naval and 
 Military Authorities was that, before I left Mauri- 
 tius, we were prepared to bring the whole Scheme 
 into operation within twenty-four hours of a notice 
 of declaration of war.
 
 t 
 
 114 MILESTONES 
 
 But to the public anxieties of my office, now 
 held in circumstances which afforded me a legiti- 
 mate cause of pride and pleasure, was to be added 
 a period of personal anxiety and sorrow, which I 
 must interrupt my narrative to record. 
 
 My son, Charles Maurice Dundas, was born in 
 Mauritius on June 4, 1869, and almost from his 
 infancy was a special favourite with many of the 
 naval officers who visited the Colony, to whom he 
 was known as Baba. His early photographs 
 generally represent him in sailor dress, wearing 
 the ribbon of one of H.M. ships. I have also a 
 photograph of an Austrian frigate which called at 
 Mauritius on a voyage of circumnavigation and 
 research, on the back of which is inscribed : 
 
 Meinem kleinen freunde Baba 
 zur Erinnerung, 
 
 den 1 6 Juli, 1874. 
 
 Schaffer, Capt. 
 
 By this name he continued to be known to the 
 time of his death by the Governor, Sir Arthur 
 Gordon, and Captain Arthur Havelock, then 
 Secretary to the Governor. After two visits to 
 England he accompanied his mother and younger 
 brothers to Ceylon in 1879, wnere ne resided for 
 a short time, endearing himself to many friends 
 in Colombo, Kandy and Nuwara-Eliya. In 1882
 
 BACK TO THE EAST 115 
 
 he left Mr. Hawtrey's school at Windsor and 
 entered Harrow in the house of Mr. Hutton, who 
 on his leaving the school paid a fine testimony to 
 his character, expressing his regret at the loss his 
 house and the school would sustain in being 
 deprived of his manly and straightforward example. 
 After leaving Harrow, he studied for some time 
 with Mr. Wren, an eminent Civil Service " coach " 
 of that day, and subsequently in France at Tours 
 and Parame. In 1886 he decided to adopt the 
 profession of arms and studied under Mr. James, 
 another eminent " coach." During this year he 
 was staying with me at St. Andrews, and was 
 recruited on the golf course by Miss Anstruther, 
 of the house of Balcaskie, for the Fife Artillery 
 Militia. Later in the year he paid a visit to 
 British Guiana, where I was administering the 
 Government, and acted as my Private Secretary, 
 accompanying me on several expeditions into the 
 interior. In 1891 he obtained a Commission in 
 the Royal Artillery, passing first among the Militia 
 Artillery competitors. He was attached to a Field 
 Battery and proceeded at once to India. During 
 the leisure of peace, he devoted himself energeti- 
 cally to the soldierly sports of polo and pigsticking. 
 In 1897, during the operations on the North- West 
 Frontier of India, he first saw service with the 
 Mohmand Field Force, being attached to the 3rd
 
 n6 MILESTONES 
 
 Mountain Battery, British Artillery. Towards 
 the close of these operations he was invalided, but 
 recovered his health in time to rejoin the Battery 
 and take part in the Tirah Expedition. For his 
 services on the North- West Frontier he received 
 the medal and two clasps. At the close of the 
 campaign he was again invalided, but allowed to 
 proceed to Mauritius, where he acted as my 
 A.D.C. from April to September 1898. While 
 he received a hearty welcome in every family in 
 which he had been known in childhood as Baba, 
 he added appreciably to the charm of the relations 
 between Government House and the Naval and 
 Military Officers of all ranks. 
 
 On his return to India in September, Admiral 
 Sir Archibald Douglas took him as his guest on 
 board his Flagship to Ceylon, where he had time 
 to renew acquaintance with many old friends. 
 After his return to India he passed his examination 
 for the rank of Captain, the result being first com- 
 municated to him in an unofficial letter from a 
 
 friend : 
 
 " Royal Artillery Office, 
 
 " Madras Command, 
 " Ootacamund, 
 My dear Bruce, "26.6.1900. 
 
 " You have passed * E ' brilliantly, getting 
 ' Distinguished,' on which I congratulate you
 
 BACK TO THE EAST 117 
 
 heartily. I think I may also let you know that 
 in forwarding inspection reports to War Office the 
 C. in C. in India made some flattering remarks 
 about you. I hope you will get whatever it is you 
 want. China, I suppose, is out of the question 
 for English Army ; except one Battery and 
 Sappers, only Indian troops and Staff Corps 
 Officers are being sent. 
 
 " I trust you found your Father better. 
 
 "Wishing you luck, 
 
 " Ever yours, etc." 
 
 In the meantime, I had been making every 
 endeavour to support his desire for service in 
 Africa. 
 
 On 1 6th November Major-General Talbot 
 Coke, the Officer Commanding the Troops in 
 Mauritius, received orders to proceed to South 
 Africa, and wrote to me : 
 
 " Quatre Bornes, 
 " Mauritius, 
 
 " 1 6th Novr. 1899. 
 " My dear Sir Charles, 
 
 " I know of no Officer that I would rather 
 have as A.D.C. than your Son, and had he been in 
 Mauritius it would have been a great pleasure to 
 me to take him to South Africa. But I am sorry 
 to say that the conditions under which I am going
 
 n8 MILESTONES 
 
 make it necessary to take an Officer quartered in 
 this Island, and I have had to submit the name of 
 an Artillery Officer whom I know little of. 
 
 " I only hope that I may be successful in trying 
 to get Maurice to the Transvaal later. I need not 
 say how happy it will make me at any time if I can 
 be of use to him. 
 
 " Believe me, 
 
 " Yours sincerely, 
 
 " J. TALBOT COKE." 
 
 A few weeks later Maurice received orders to 
 hold himself in readiness to proceed to South 
 Africa, and we were hoping he might call at 
 Mauritius on his way when we received a letter 
 from him : 
 
 " Saint Thomas' Mount, 
 
 " Madras, 
 "Jan. 27, 1900. 
 " My dear old Father, 
 
 " I am writing in rather bad spirits as I 
 heard yesterday privately from Simla that the C.I.C. 
 has refused to allow any more Artillery Officers to 
 leave this country, which practically closes our 
 chance of going, as was originally intended. It 
 appears that orders were received from home to the 
 effect that one Subaltern Officer from each Battery 
 was to be held in readiness to proceed to S.A. to
 
 BACK TO THE EAST 119 
 
 replace casualties. The C.I.C. has, however, urged 
 strongly that no more Artillery Officers should 
 leave this country. On receipt of the above news, 
 I despatched a telegram to Genl. Coke, asking him 
 to try and get me attached to one of the irregular 
 cavalry regiments that are being raised at the Cape. 
 I do not, however, expect to get any satisfaction 
 from it beyond the satisfaction of having done the 
 best in my power to get out. Had I known more 
 definitely about the chance of our going being so 
 small I should have wired to the General a fort- 
 night ago. You may imagine that I am bitterly 
 disappointed about the whole affair, as to have 
 missed this war is practically to be out of the 
 running with the men who have been through 
 it. ... 
 
 " I am afraid this is not a very cheerful letter, 
 as I am so frightfully cut up about not being able 
 to get out to the war." 
 
 Continuing my endeavours to have him selected 
 for service in South Africa, I received from the 
 Colonial Office the following communication : 
 
 " Downing Street, 
 
 "25 June 1900. 
 " Sir, 
 
 " With reference to Mr. Secretary Cham- 
 berlain's telegram of the 1 9th instant, I am directed
 
 120 MILESTONES 
 
 to inform you that, on receipt of your telegram of 
 the 1 2th instant, he caused a further communica- 
 tion to be addressed to the War Office regarding 
 Captain Bruce's application to be selected for 
 special service in South Africa, stating that he 
 would be grateful to Lord Lansdowne if he would 
 have the matter further considered. 
 
 "2. It appears, however, from the reply which 
 has now been received that Captain Bruce's services 
 are so urgently needed with the Battery which 
 he is to join at Exeter that it is impossible to allow 
 him to proceed to South Africa. 
 
 "3. Under these circumstances, Mr. Chamber- 
 lain fears that it is impossible for him to take any 
 further action in the matter, but he much regrets 
 that Captain Bruce's wishes could not under the 
 circumstances be acceded to. 
 
 " I am, Sir, 
 "Your obedient Servant, 
 
 " H. BERTRAM Cox." 
 
 In July I left Mauritius for England on leave of 
 absence, and renewed my intimacy with Admiral 
 Sir Archibald Douglas, then a Lord of the Admir- 
 alty. Maurice was now serving in a Battery 
 stationed at Newcastle, and an introduction given 
 him by Sir Archibald led to a friendship which 
 was to be one of the happiest recollections of our
 
 BACK TO THE EAST 121 
 
 life. On the demise of Queen Victoria in January 
 1901, I was honoured by a command to attend the 
 funeral ceremonies as representative of Mauritius. 
 Through Admiral Douglas' friendship, I was the 
 guest of the Commander-in-Chief on board his 
 Flagship, the " Victory," during the passing of 
 the Queen's body from the Isle of Wight to Ports- 
 mouth, and on the next day I was present in St. 
 George's Chapel, Windsor, during the funeral 
 service. 
 
 Throughout this period, Admiral Douglas had 
 been untiring in his support of Maurice's desire 
 for active service, and a few days before the 
 Queen's demise he received the following letter 
 from the Foreign Office : 
 
 "January 5th, 1901. 
 
 " Sir, 
 
 " I am directed by the Marquess of Lans- 
 downe to inform you that you are appointed a 
 Captain under the administration of the Somali 
 Coast Protectorate at a salary of Five hundred 
 pounds (,500) per annum, inclusive of all allow- 
 ances, for service with the local levy now being 
 raised there. 
 
 " This salary will be payable monthlv by the 
 Crown Agents for the Colonies, Downing Street, 
 S.W., on receipt of a duly authorised form of life
 
 122 MILESTONES 
 
 certificate which will be supplied to you. Half 
 pay at the above rate will be issued from the date 
 of your embarkation, and full salary from the date 
 of your arrival at Berbera. 
 
 " You should leave for that port as soon as 
 possible, and should for that purpose place your- 
 self in communication with the Crown Agents, 
 who have been authorised to arrange for your 
 passage to Aden ; your travelling expenses beyond 
 that place will be reimbursed to you. 
 
 "As soon as you have settled the date of your 
 departure, you should notify it to this Department. 
 
 " I am. Sir, 
 " Your most obedient, humble Servant, 
 
 "FRANCIS BERTIE." 
 
 His mother and I accompanied him to Folke- 
 stone to see him off, and the last words he said to 
 me were : " Father, if I die. I shall die like a 
 gentleman." 
 
 In April I left England on my return to Mauri- 
 tius, and we received letters addressed to us from 
 Berbera, Burao and Upper Sheik. On July I5th 
 he wrote from Burao : 
 
 "... I am all right. ... I hope to be out 
 of this country in two or three weeks." 
 
 On July 3Oth he wrote from Upper Sheik that the 
 show was now finished so far, but expressed a belief
 
 BACK TO THE EAST 123 
 
 that the Mullah would be back in the course of a 
 year or so. 
 
 He arrived in England on 26th August, and in 
 a Despatch addressed by Lt.-Colonel Swayne to 
 Consul-General Sadler, dated London, November 
 loth, his services were commended in these terms : 
 
 " Captain C. M. Bruce, R.F.A., commanded and 
 raised the Camel Corps. His knowledge of 
 mounted work proved most useful. He is active 
 and tireless. He had trying work in escorting the 
 undisciplined hired caravans from Berbera to 
 Burao, but managed very well through hard work 
 and patience. I hope he will be rewarded." 
 
 His belief that the Mullah would be " back here 
 in the course of a year or so " was realised. 
 
 On February 27th, 1902, he wrote to us from 
 Preston Barracks, Brighton, that there was likely 
 to be another Expedition, and that he had volun- 
 teered for service. It was not, however, before 
 October that he was selected as a Special Service 
 Officer, and served in various capacities until April 
 1903, when he was appointed Staff Officer to 
 Major Cough's Flying Column. He arrived at 
 Aden on the loth of November, and we continued 
 to receive letters from him detailing the varying 
 fortunes of the Expedition from Berbera, Bohotle, 
 Garrero, Burao and Danop. From Danop he
 
 i2 4 MILESTONES 
 
 wrote in pencil on a slip of paper on the 2oth of 
 April : 
 
 " Just a line to say we arrived here all right, 
 marching 113 miles in 2^ days. If this gets 
 through it may reach you all right, but we think 
 the last four messengers we sent were killed on the 
 road. We are expecting to be heavily attacked at 
 any moment." 
 
 On 2yth April I wrote to him from Le Reduit, 
 Mauritius : 
 
 " Dear Maurice, 
 
 " On the 24th we heard by telegram of 
 the unfortunate affair which resulted in the loss of 
 Plunkett's column. I telegraphed at once to the 
 Resident at Aden to ask if he had any news of 
 you. I received in the evening his reply : 
 
 4 No news of Bruce ; he was not in the affair 
 
 of the xyth apparently.' 
 
 " This was a great comfort to us. 
 
 " Yesterday one telegram stated that Manning 
 had relieved Cobbe and inflicted a heavy loss on 
 the Mullah. These telegrams took us very much 
 by surprise, as all our previous information led us 
 to suppose that the Mullah was in flight and not 
 likely to act on the offensive. 
 
 " God bless you, dear boy." 
 
 The letter was returned to me unopened.
 
 BACK TO THE EAST 125 
 
 On the afternoon of the same day I received a 
 telegram from the War Office : 
 
 " Deeply regret to inform you telegram received 
 from Bohotle 26th April states your Son, Captain 
 C. M. D. Bruce, Royal Artillery, killed in action 
 22nd April near Danop, Somaliland." 
 
 The telegram from the War Office was immedi- 
 ately followed by many hundreds of telegrams, 
 letters and cards. On the 28th the Prince and 
 Princess of Wales telegraphed their deepest sym- 
 pathy, and Mr. Chamberlain followed. Every 
 class of the community in Mauritius was repre- 
 sented in the assurances of sympathy addressed to 
 us. I enumerated them in a Despatch to Mr. 
 Chamberlain : 
 
 " Government House, 
 "Mauritius, 6th May 1903. 
 " Sir, 
 
 " In confirmation of my telegraphic 
 Despatch of the 28th April, I beg you to accept 
 my heartfelt thanks for the message of sympathy 
 you were good enough to convey to me on the 
 death of my Son, Captain C. M. D. Bruce, R.A. 
 I shall ever remember with gratitude that in the 
 year 1900 you supported my Son's desire for em- 
 ployment as Special Service Officer in South Africa,
 
 126 MILESTONES 
 
 as you were good enough to inform me by your 
 Despatch No. 84 of the 23rd March 1900. 
 
 "2. At the same time that I received your 
 message I received, as you are perhaps aware, a 
 gracious message assuring me of the deep sym- 
 pathy of the Prince and Princess of Wales. 
 
 "3. The sad bereavement I have sustained has 
 called forth demonstrations of sympathy in Mauri- 
 tius such as might almost be described as public 
 mourning. From the Prelates and Clergy of the 
 Christian Denominations, from Judges and Law- 
 yers, from Members of the Council of Govern- 
 ment, from the Military and Civil Departments, 
 from the Municipality of Port Louis, from Boards 
 of Commissioners, from Public and Private Associ- 
 ations, from the Press, from members of every 
 class of the general community, from the repre- 
 sentatives of the Asiatic population, I have 
 received very touching expressions of sympathy 
 with Lady Bruce and myself. I annex a copy of a 
 public letter I addressed to the people of Mauritius 
 in acknowledgment of their generous kindness. 
 
 " 4. If anything can temper our sorrow it must 
 be the consolation afforded us by the sympathy 
 shown us when a soldier's death closed a soldier's 
 life and discharged my gallant Son with honour 
 from the service of his Sovereign. 
 " I have, etc."
 
 BACK TO THE EAST 127 
 
 My letter of acknowledgment addressed to the 
 people of Mauritius was published in the Govern- 
 ment Gazette of 3Oth April : 
 
 " Le Reduit, 
 " 29th April 1903. 
 
 " My Dear Friends, 
 
 "A few months ago, at a moment when 
 my tenure of office was nearly over, and when the 
 fortunes of the Colony were in imminent peril, you 
 invited me, through your representatives in the 
 Council of Government, to stay among you yet a 
 little longer, and work with you for the common 
 good. I gladly accepted your invitation, and I 
 believe that our work has been so far successful as 
 to avert the most serious of the difficulties that 
 threatened immediate disaster, by reason of want 
 of funds to cultivate the coming crop, and give 
 us reasonable hope that, by God's providence, we 
 may reap an abundant harvest. The resources of 
 the Colony have never been more severely tried ; 
 but the energy of every class has been equal to the 
 occasion. The proprietors of the great estates are 
 rapidly providing mechanical means of transport 
 to take the place of the animal draught rendered 
 impossible by the disease of surra ; while the 
 labouring community have, in circumstances often 
 of great difficulty, substituted their own manual 
 labour for that of the animals they have lost.
 
 128 MILESTONES 
 
 " In the labours and anxieties of the last four 
 months I have, I confidently hope, associated my- 
 self with you to your satisfaction. Be that as it 
 may, I have now received from you new and most 
 touching marks of your friendship and goodwill in 
 the many assurances of sympathy, both public and 
 private, that have reached Lady Bruce and myself 
 on the occasion of the death in action of our dear 
 Son, Captain C. M. D. Bruce, R.F.A., while em- 
 ployed as Special Service Officer in Somaliland. 
 You have bound us to Mauritius by the attach- 
 ment of a new bond. 
 
 "By the kindness of the Resident at Aden, I 
 have to-day been informed by telegram that my 
 Son was wounded in the retirement of Major 
 Cough's column on Danop and nearly captured. 
 He was, however, gallantly rescued, but died of 
 his injuries and was buried at Danop. 
 
 " In his last letters, Captain Bruce frequently 
 expressed the hope that as soon as the Expedition 
 was over, he might come to Mauritius and stay 
 with us until the period of my administration is 
 fulfilled. His wish and ours can no longer be 
 realised, but I shall best honour his memory, and 
 in some measure, it may be, return your kindness 
 by making it, more strictly than ever, a rule for 
 the conduct of my life that, during the remaining 
 term of my administration, no day shall pass with-
 
 BACK TO THE EAST 129 
 
 out some kindly deed done or some work of useful 
 labour accomplished for the benefit of Mauritius ; 
 so that at the fall of each succeeding night, I may 
 be able to say : * I have been not unworthy this day 
 of the love of those who loved and honoured my 
 Son. 5 
 
 "In his birth, in his name Maurice, and in 
 the circumstances of his death, Captain Bruce's 
 memory will ever be associated by Lady Bruce and 
 myself with our most affectionate recollections of 
 Mauritius. 
 
 " Believe me, dear Friends, 
 
 "Very sincerely yours, 
 
 "CHAS. BRUCE." 
 
 Lord Knutsford wrote to me : 
 
 " Pinewood, Witley, 
 
 " Surrey, May i, 1903. 
 " My dear Sir Charles, 
 
 " I only learnt yesterday that the Capt. 
 Bruce who had died so gallantly for his country 
 was your Son. I must send off a few lines of 
 deepest sympathy from Lady Knutsford and my- 
 self to you and Lady Bruce. Your comfort must 
 be in the knowledge that he died doing his duty, 
 and in the very sincere sympathy of all your many 
 friends. 
 
 " We are able all the more truly to feel for you,
 
 130 MILESTONES 
 
 as we lost our eldest Son as long ago as 1878, and 
 our sorrow is still very fresh. 
 
 "Yours sincerely, 
 
 " KNUTSFORD." 
 
 On yth May a memorial service, arranged for by 
 my wife's sister, Mrs. George Macmillan, was held 
 in St. Mary Abbots, Kensington, and on the same 
 day a memorial service in St. John's Church, 
 Moka, Mauritius. In perpetual remembrance, I 
 presented a Lectern to St. John's Church, and 
 erected a mural tablet with this inscription : 
 
 Ubique 
 Quo Fas et Gloria Ducunt. 
 
 To the Dear Memory 
 
 of 
 
 CHARLES MAURICE DUNDAS BRUCE, 
 Captain, Royal Field Artillery, 
 
 Eldest Son of 
 
 Sir Charles Bruce of Arnot, 
 
 G.C.M.G., Governor of Mauritius, 
 
 and Clara his Wife. 
 
 Born in Mauritius, 4th June 1869. 
 
 Killed in Action in Somaliland 
 
 22nd April 1903.
 
 BACK TO THE EAST 131 
 
 The circumstances in which he fell were subse- 
 quently described by Mr. Angus Hamilton, in his 
 work on Somaliland, in these terms : 
 
 " Bruce dropped fatally wounded through the 
 lungs. Major Gough, Captain Walker, and 
 Captain Holland, Lieutenant Horton, I.M.J., two 
 men of the 2nd King's African Rifles, one Sikh 
 (I.C., B.C.A.), one Somali Camel Corps Sowar, 
 stopped, forming round him. Bruce, knocked 
 over at the eleventh hour, after setting everyone 
 the magnificent example of his bravery throughout 
 the fight, scrambled to his feet, collapsing at once 
 to a sitting position. In his condition, helpless 
 and badly hit, he would have fallen at once into 
 the hands of the enemy, and an attempt was made 
 to carry him in a blanket. Unfortunately he 
 proved too heavy. Major Gough called to the 
 column, and a Bikanir Sowar brought back a 
 camel, but foolishly let the animal loose before 
 reaching the spot. At this moment Bruce was hit 
 again, but Captain Rolland, running after the 
 column, brought back another camel. The posi- 
 tion of the little party was now extremely perilous, 
 the enemy, leaving alone the column for a moment, 
 endeavouring to cut off their retirement. How- 
 ever, while preparations were being made to place 
 Bruce upon the camel, the wounded man gradually 
 lapsed into unconsciousness and died, without ap-
 
 132 MILESTONES 
 
 parent pain, before he could be lifted to the beast. 
 The party had now to regain their column, and 
 though hotly opposed, succeeded in bringing back 
 the body and themselves rejoining without further 
 casualties." 
 
 I must add that His Majesty was pleased to 
 confer upon Captains Walker and Holland the 
 Victoria Cross, while the Sikh was awarded the 
 Order of Merit, and the men of the King's 
 African Rifles the Medal for Distinguished Con- 
 duct in the field. At a later period Major Cough's 
 own share in this incident was brought to notice by 
 Brigadier-General Manning, and he also received 
 the Victoria Cross. 
 
 On 23rd April Major Gough had written to 
 me : 
 
 " Danop, 
 
 " 90 miles S.W. of Bohotle, 
 " Somaliland. 
 
 " Dear Sir Charles Bruce, 
 
 " I am afraid I have but the saddest of 
 news to tell you, which you will have heard by 
 telegraph already. Your Son, Captain Bruce, was 
 killed yesterday in a sharp fight we had with the 
 enemy at Daratoleh. 
 
 "We have all lost a great friend and a fine
 
 BACK TO THE EAST 133 
 
 soldier ; personally I feel his loss most deeply. 
 He was Staff Officer to my column, and we came 
 out together to this country last November. 
 
 " You have the consolation of knowing that he 
 died a most gallant death, as he was shot while 
 with the rearguard, which was being heavily 
 pressed at the time. He suffered in no way, as 
 his death was practically instantaneous. His con- 
 duct during the whole day's fighting was most cool 
 and quiet. 
 
 " I hope you will excuse my not writing more 
 at present, but I have to write my official account 
 of the fighting. 
 
 " Anything that I can tell you further I shall be 
 only too pleased to tell you. 
 
 " Your Son was buried this morning close to our 
 present zariba ; I read the burial service. 
 
 "Please accept my most sincere sympathy in 
 your loss ; words cannot tell you how sorry and 
 grieved I am. 
 
 " Yours sincerely, 
 
 " J. E. GOUGH, Major, 
 " Commanding Flying Column." 
 
 Letters from many other Officers present bore 
 testimony to my son's cheery courage throughout 
 the day to the moment of his death.
 
 i 3 4 MILESTONES 
 
 Maurice's career was in many ways typical of 
 the lives of a large class of British Officers, the 
 sons of fathers holding civil or military appoint- 
 ments in the service of the State abroad. Such 
 Officers acquire in very early youth a knowledge 
 and experience that seem to fit them peculiarly for 
 their future service. But in their case the lives of 
 fathers and sons are saddened by long years of 
 separation only consoled and encouraged by the 
 hope of rare meetings that bring with them indeed 
 the fullest intensity of human happiness, while 
 father and son alike are animated by the noblest 
 incentive to duty in the ambition to be worthy 
 each of the other in their devotion to the service of 
 their Sovereign and their country. 
 
 I will only add that during the period which 
 elapsed between the death of my son and my final 
 departure from the Colony, a period of many 
 difficulties, I remained faithful to the promises of 
 my letter to the people of Mauritius, while the 
 sympathy and co-operation of the community 
 never failed me. 
 
 At the hour of my departure the people among 
 whom I had long lived and laboured presented me 
 with the following Address, signed by representa- 
 tives of every section of the community, without 
 distinction of rank, origin, creed or colour :
 
 BACK TO THE EAST 135 
 
 " Port Louis, 
 "Mauritius, 3oth October 1903. 
 
 " May It Please Your Excellency, 
 
 " We, the undersigned, inhabitants of this 
 Colony, and members of the different sections of 
 its population, beg to assure you that we deeply 
 regret to have to part from you. We have been 
 so accustomed to see you moving among us, and 
 you have been so long associated with our exist- 
 ence, that we are grieved to think that you are on 
 the point of taking leave of us for ever. 
 
 " It seems indeed as if your life was intended to 
 be linked to our destinies ; for your career in the 
 Colonial Service, which is now a pretty long one, 
 was begun in Mauritius, and by far the greater 
 part of it has been spent here. In the various 
 posts you have occupied in this Island, you have 
 rendered the most valuable services to us, but in 
 none have these been more signal than in the high 
 office from which you are about to retire. 
 
 " The period over which your administration 
 extends has been one of constant care and anxiety. 
 Within the last six years we have had to contend 
 with numerous and serious difficulties ; and if we 
 have succeeded in weathering the storms we have 
 encountered, if brighter days are now dawning 
 upon us, it is, we gratefully acknowledge, thanks,
 
 136 MILESTONES 
 
 chiefly, to the able and fearless pilot we have had 
 at our head. 
 
 " Of course, you have sometimes met with 
 opposition, and, in that respect, you have not been 
 more fortunate than any of your predecessors. 
 This was unavoidable. Under our Constitution, 
 such as it is, the Governor is vested with large and 
 extensive powers, and, unless he makes up his 
 mind to remain unconcerned with the affairs of the 
 Colony, and casts off all sense of responsibility, 
 there are circumstances in which he must exercise 
 these powers. The manner in which you have 
 yourself, in some cases, used them, has, naturally 
 enough, given rise to dissatisfaction in certain 
 quarters, but we are convinced that the discontent 
 thus created has only been transient, and that, 
 whatever criticisms some of your acts may have 
 called forth, the purity and sincerity of your inten- 
 tions, your unfailing desire to do what in your 
 judgment appeared best for the public good, your 
 single-minded devotion to duty, have never been 
 questioned. 
 
 " On assuming the Government of the Colony, 
 one of your first public utterances was that you 
 would devote yourself without partiality or pre- 
 judice to the interests of the people entrusted to 
 your care, and, with no difference, to all classes of 
 the population alike. The pledge you then gave,
 
 BACK TO THE EAST 137 
 
 you have redeemed, and, of this, there could be no 
 better proof than the tokens of sympathy, of 
 regard, and of gratitude which you are receiving 
 from all sides on the eve of your departure. 
 
 "Pray accept our best wishes for yourself and 
 Lady Bruce. Though far away from us, you will 
 both, we feel sure, continue to take an interest in 
 the Colony where you have spent so many years. 
 The ties which unite us to you, and which the 
 sorrows we have shared with you have but more 
 closely knitted, are too strong to be broken by 
 our separation. As for us, you may be certain that 
 we shall retain a fond and undying recollection of 
 you." 
 
 Separate Addresses were presented to me by the 
 Chambers of Agriculture and Commerce, the 
 Municipality of Port Louis, the Mohammedan 
 and Chinese Communities, and others. 
 
 On my return to England, I received the follow- 
 ing letter from Mr. Chamberlain : 
 
 " Highbury, 
 
 " Moor Green, 
 
 " Birmingham, 
 
 "Dear Sir Charles Bruce, " 3 Decr ' r 93- 
 
 " I am much obliged for your letter, and 
 am glad to have a copy of your Address on leaving 
 Mauritius.
 
 138 MILESTONES 
 
 " I am most grateful to you for all you did while 
 you were Governor of the Island, and I appreciate 
 very highly the public service you were able to 
 render. I placed the greatest confidence in your 
 judgment and discretion, and it was amply justified 
 by the success of your administration. 
 " Believe me, 
 
 " Yours very truly, 
 
 " J. CHAMBERLAIN." 
 
 Lord Ripon wrote to me : 
 
 " Studley Royal, 
 " Ripon, 
 
 "Deer. 6, 1903. 
 " My dear Sir Charles, 
 
 " I have to thank you for your letter and 
 the copy of your farewell Address which you have 
 sent me. I am very glad to hear that you and 
 Bishop O'Neill worked so cordially together. I 
 wish you every happiness in your retirement, which 
 has been earned by such long and good public 
 service. 
 
 " Yours faithfully, 
 
 " RIPON." 
 
 Mr. Lyttelton sent me a copy of a Despatch he 
 had addressed to the Officer Administering the 
 Government of Mauritius :
 
 BACK TO THE EAST 139 
 
 " Downing Street, 
 " 8 December 1903. 
 
 " Sir, 
 
 " I have the honour to acknowledge the 
 receipt of Sir Charles Bruce' s Despatches noted in 
 the margin relating to his departure from Mauri- 
 tius preliminary to retirement from the Service of 
 the State. 
 
 " 2. The long connection of Sir Charles Bruce 
 with the Colony and the valuable services he has 
 rendered to it fully justify the warm and universal 
 expressions of esteem which I am glad to observe 
 all classes of the people of Mauritius have so 
 gracefully tendered to their departing Governor. 
 
 "3. I desire to take this opportunity of placing 
 on record the high appreciation, entertained 
 equally, as I am aware, by my predecessor as by 
 myself, of the great services which Sir Charles 
 Bruce has rendered to the Colonies during his long 
 and distinguished career. 
 
 " 4. A copy of this Despatch will be communi- 
 cated to Sir Charles Bruce. 
 
 " I have the honour to be, Sir, 
 
 "Your most obedient, humble Servant, 
 
 "ALFRED LYTTELTON."
 
 PART II 
 IN RETIREMENT
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 1904 TO 1908 
 
 SOME years ago a distinguished member of the 
 medical profession is reported to have said that 
 when a man has reached the age of forty he is no 
 longer capable of doing original work, and that at 
 sixty he ought to be painlessly put out of the way. 
 About the same time the same conception was 
 expressed to me in appropriate terms by an 
 Admiral, on whose Flagship I was making an 
 official tour. He said that when his Commission 
 was exhausted he hoped to be shot, the life of a 
 retired Admiral being no less a nuisance to himself 
 than to others. I expressed a fear that probably 
 the same might be said of Colonial Governors. 
 The Admiral, who recently died at the age of 82, 
 was a living refutation of the theory, and it has 
 been my endeavour to show that at least the theory 
 is not of universal application. I now propose to 
 illustrate the methods and results of my endeavour. 
 I was naturally animated by a trinity of forces
 
 144 MILESTONES 
 
 the memory of my colonial life, the memory of 
 my soldier son, and the memory of my official and 
 personal relations with the Crown. 
 
 My colonial life placed me of course at the 
 disposal of the Colonial Office, and I eagerly 
 sought the alliance of the principal agencies of 
 Imperial interests in England, such as the Royal 
 Colonial Institute, the Imperial Institute, the 
 Schools of Tropical Medicine, the Colonial Nurs- 
 ing Association, the Empire League, the League 
 of the Empire, the Victoria League, and the West 
 India Committee. In February 1904, I began to 
 take an active part in the meetings of the Colonial 
 Institute. At a meeting on 9th February, I had 
 an opportunity to recall some principal points of 
 interest connected with my work in Ceylon, and at 
 the annual meeting held a week later, I was invited 
 to support a motion on the adoption of the Report, 
 " congratulating the Fellows on the growth of the 
 Imperial sentiment and the widespread desire that 
 now prevails for the maintenance and consolidation 
 of the Empire." 
 
 The London season was a period of daily 
 activity in connection with the agencies I have 
 indicated. In every case I was laying the founda- 
 tion of new alliances in the work I had at heart 
 the consolidation of the political and economic 
 interests of the Empire.
 
 1904 TO 1908 145 
 
 I had already begun to realise the almost incred- 
 ible ignorance of the Empire which prevailed at 
 the time. At a meeting of the Institute on loth 
 May, Lady Lugard, in the course of a paper on 
 Africa, related that an ex-Cabinet Minister told 
 her that all he knew of African geography was 
 that Africa has a hump which sticks out somewhere 
 into the sea, and that he believed our West African 
 Colonies were there. About the same time a 
 Cabinet Minister admitted his "colossal ignorance 
 of India." 
 
 In Mauritius, Lady Bruce and I had taken a 
 very active part in supporting the Nurses of the 
 Colonial Nursing Association. We were now 
 appointed members of its Council, and on 8th 
 June I was invited to speak at the annual meeting, 
 a privilege I was allowed to exercise for many 
 years. 
 
 On 9th June I dined for the first time at the 
 Corona Club, an association founded by the 
 Colonial Office to promote facilities of social inter- 
 course between Colonial Civil Servants from 
 different parts of the Empire. At this dinner Mr. 
 Lyttelton took the opportunity to thank me for the 
 assistance I had given him on two occasions on the 
 subject of measures proposed by the Officer 
 Administering the Government of Mauritius and 
 referred to me for my advice. The first dealt
 
 146 MILESTONES 
 
 with the organisation of the Medical and Health 
 Department, a matter of supreme importance ; 
 the second with the financial position of the Colony. 
 On both occasions he was guided by my advice, 
 and I record with satisfaction a letter addressed to 
 me on the subject by an Assistant Under-Secretary : 
 
 "Colonial Office, 
 
 " 10 May. 
 " Dear Sir Charles Bruce, 
 
 " Many thanks for your letter of the yth 
 and its enclosure, which I now return. 
 
 " We have telegraphed to Mauritius, and are 
 writing by this mail and to you also officially to 
 inform you and them that Mauritius must adopt 
 the course you propose. 
 
 "The papers have not yet passed the Secretary 
 of State, but I have no doubt that he will approve 
 what is proposed. 
 
 " We are much indebted to you now as always 
 for your prompt and generous help. 
 " Sincerely yrs., 
 
 " H. BERTRAM Cox." 
 
 A few days earlier, on the 5th May, Mauritius 
 had been vividly recalled to my memory by a letter 
 I received from the Colonial Office, authorising me 
 to accept a silver dinner service which the Colony
 
 1904 TO 1908 147 
 
 proposed to present to me in commemoration of 
 my services. 
 
 My connection with the Colonial Nursing 
 Association prompted me to contribute to the 
 Empire Review an article under the title of " Mr. 
 Chamberlain and the Health of the Empire," in 
 which I traced the history of the development of 
 the agencies contributing to the prophylaxis and 
 treatment of disease in the tropics, including the 
 Colonial Nursing Association. It brought me a 
 letter of acknowledgment from Mr. Chamberlain : 
 
 " Highbury, 
 
 " Moor Green, 
 
 " Birmingham, 
 
 " Sep. i, 1904. 
 
 "Dear Sir Charles Bruce, 
 
 "I read your article in the Empire 
 Review with very great interest, and am grateful 
 for the complimentary way in which you speak of 
 my small services. It is true that the whole ques- 
 tion occupied me a great deal during the course of 
 my administration, but the progress made is chiefly 
 due to the scientists like Major Ross and Sir 
 Patrick Manson, and in the second place to the 
 Governors who in many Colonies gave me so much 
 practical assistance. 
 
 " I hope the movement will go on, as I believe
 
 i 4 8 MILESTONES 
 
 that one of the greatest factors in the future of our 
 Colonial Empire is the health of those who have 
 to administer it. 
 "Believe me, 
 
 " Yours very truly, 
 
 "J. CHAMBERLAIN." 
 
 An immediate consequence of this article was 
 an invitation to give the inaugural Address at the 
 opening of the Winter Session of the London 
 School of Tropical Medicine, founded in 1899, on 
 Mr. Chamberlain's initiative, by the Committee of 
 Management of the Seamen's Hospital Society. 
 My Address, delivered on yth October, was pub- 
 lished in full in the British Medical Journal, and 
 brought me many congratulations from Mr. 
 Chamberlain and others. 
 
 I subsequently paid two visits to the Liverpool 
 School of Tropical Medicine in connection with 
 the establishment by the University of a depart- 
 ment of tropical veterinary medicine in associa- 
 tion with the Institute of Comparative Pathology. 
 This was the practical outcome of a speech by the 
 late Professor Nocard, of Paris, delivered on May 
 n, 1903, at the Conference of Tropical Medicine 
 held in Liverpool. It was mainly based on the 
 causes and consequences of the outbreak of surra 
 in Mauritius to which I have referred. My
 
 1904 TO 1908 149 
 
 second visit was on the occasion of the opening of 
 the Veterinary School. I was the guest of the 
 late Sir Hubert Boyce, Dean of the School of 
 Tropical Medicine, and every hour of my stay with 
 him was fruitful of instruction. 
 
 I pass on to the memory of my soldier son. 
 Soon after his death, with the consent of the 
 Governors, I had erected in the Chapel of Harrow 
 School a tablet bearing this inscription : 
 
 To the Dear Memory of an Old Harrovian 
 CHARLES MAURICE DUNDAS BRUCE, 
 
 Captain, Royal Field Artillery, 
 Born June 4, 1869, Killed in Action 
 
 in Somaliland April 22, 1903. 
 
 This Tablet is erected by his Father, 
 
 an Old Harrovian, 
 
 Sir Charles Bruce, G.C.M.G., 
 
 Governor and Commander-in-Chief 
 
 of Mauritius and its Dependencies. 
 
 "Soldier, Rest! Thy Warfare O'er." 
 
 A very dear cousin of his had also presented 
 to the Library of the School a picture representing 
 an episode of the action in which he fell, inscribed 
 with an appropriate legend. 
 
 One Sunday, soon after my return, I visited the
 
 150 MILESTONES 
 
 School to see the tablet and the picture, and a 
 commemorative sermon was preached by the Head 
 Master. The occasion revived many old memories 
 of my school days, my house and form masters, 
 and the environment and atmosphere of the public 
 school life of the time. These I recounted in an 
 article published in Macmillan's Magazine in April 
 1904. It served to renew many intimacies with 
 the survivors of my old masters and school- 
 fellows, from whom I had been separated for fifty 
 years. 
 
 Almost immediately after my return to England 
 I became a Member of Institution of the Gordon 
 Boys' Home. Lady Bruce's sister, Mrs. George 
 Macmillan, had given a memorial window, painted 
 by Mr. Henry Holiday, to be placed in the Chapel 
 of the Home, and on 24th February 1904 a 
 service of dedication was held. The window was 
 described on the occasion in these terms : 
 
 " The central idea expressed in the window is 
 that of man equipping himself for the struggles 
 and temptations of life by c putting on the whole 
 armour of God,' and it was suggested by the 
 characteristics of strength, gentleness, and truth, 
 of purity and courage, which marked Charles 
 Maurice Dundas Bruce throughout his career. 
 
 " On the left three angels carry all the parts of 
 ' the whole armour of God ' the breast-plate or
 
 1904 TO 1908 151 
 
 cuirass (which in the East and in early mediaeval 
 times was in mail or chain armour), the girdle, the 
 sandals and shield, the helmet and sword. The 
 youth, standing firm, but looking upward for 
 strength, is ready to don his spiritual armour. 
 Behind him is a scroll with the words, 'Put on the 
 whole armour of God.' Beneath his feet is the 
 admonition, * Withstand in the evil day, and 
 having done all, stand.' On the right two angels 
 bear the crown and palm which await the warrior 
 who < endureth to the end.' In the upper part of 
 the window seraphs appear between the opened 
 wings of the angels. According to an ancient 
 tradition seraphs always represented in red are 
 the symbol of Divine love, and immediately sur- 
 round the Creator. 
 
 " Although material arms may fail, and the sure 
 promise of victory is to the spiritual weapons only, 
 yet the man who leads a pure life and maintains the 
 true Christian spirit in his intercourse with those 
 around him, and who ultimately gives his life in 
 the fulfilment of the duties laid upon him, is a 
 worthy illustration of the spiritual truth expressed 
 in the artist's design. Such a man, as all who 
 knew him can testify, was Captain Bruce, in whose 
 memory this window has been dedicated. 
 
 " Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give 
 thee a crown of life."
 
 152 MILESTONES 
 
 A brass placed beneath the window bears this 
 inscription : 
 
 "To the Glory of God, and to the Dear 
 Memory of Charles Maurice Dundas Bruce, 
 Captain, Royal Artillery. Born June 4, 1869. 
 Killed in action Somaliland, April 22, 1903. 'I 
 have kept the Faith.' " 
 
 From this time to the day of her death Lady 
 Bruce contributed an annual prize for award on 
 Inspection Day at the Home. 
 
 In what I have ventured to call my personal 
 relations with the Crown, the year was marked by 
 very gracious consideration shown me. 
 
 Prior to a Levee, Major Gough was decorated 
 with the Victoria Cross by King Edward in person, 
 and I received His Majesty's permission to be in 
 close attendance. When I had passed the pre- 
 sence, my hand was warmly shaken by the Prime 
 Minister, Lord Salisbury, by Lord Knutsford, 
 and other Ministers. 
 
 On June yth I had the honour of being a guest 
 of the Prince of Wales, then Treasurer of Lin- 
 coln's Inn, at the Trinity Term Grand Night 
 dinner. After dinner I was presented by His 
 Royal Highness to some of the distinguished 
 guests, and on the 9th I wrote to Lady Bruce : 
 
 " The Prince of Wales was very gracious, and
 
 1904 TO 1908 153 
 
 spoke most kindly about Maurice's death. He 
 asked after you also, and was most thoughtful and 
 considerate." 
 
 A month later, on 8th July, I was present at a 
 State Ball at Buckingham Palace, and on the next 
 day I wrote to Lady Bruce : 
 
 " The Princess of Wales was most gracious, 
 and came down off the dais to shake hands with 
 me. She asked most kindly after you, and spoke 
 most feelingly of dear Maurice." 
 
 It is not my intention to record in detail my 
 work in the following years under the impulse of 
 the trinity of forces I have indicated. I shall 
 limit myself to a record of milestones on my 
 journey from the close of my official career to the 
 eightieth year of a strenuous life. 
 
 At a meeting of the Colonial Institute on I4th 
 March 1905, the Duke of Marlborough in the 
 Chair, I read a paper on "The Crown Colonies 
 and Places," setting out the principles and policies 
 which had resulted in converting them from areas 
 politically mischievous and commercially useless to 
 areas of the first political and commercial neces- 
 sity. I traced the application of these principles 
 and policies to problems of government, health, 
 labour, the organisation of industry, transport,
 
 154 MILESTONES 
 
 Imperial communications by post and telegraph, 
 finance and defence. Referring to a phrase used 
 by Mr. Chamberlain, I concluded by saying : 
 
 " I have sought to illustrate the methods and 
 agencies by which the Colonial Minister, associ- 
 ating himself with the representatives of science, 
 industry, and commerce, has undertaken to realise 
 the full value of our undeveloped estates, not only 
 to the material advantage of the United Kingdom, 
 but in trust for the civilisation of the tropical 
 regions of the earth." 
 
 An immediate result of my Address was to bring 
 me into closer association with these representa- 
 tives, many of whom were present, while some 
 took part in the subsequent discussion among 
 them Sir Patrick Manson, Sir W. Thiselton Dyer, 
 Director of Kew, and Professor Wyndham Dun- 
 stan, Director of the Imperial Institute. Another 
 result was to bring me into closer communication 
 with the American, French and German Govern- 
 ments, not less interested than our own in realising 
 the value of their undeveloped tropical estates. 
 To this I shall refer later. 
 
 On 24th May of this year the annual meeting 
 of the Gordon Boys' Home was held at the 
 Mansion House. I was invited to be present and 
 to speak to a Resolution, an invitation which I
 
 1904 TO 1908 155 
 
 willingly accepted. I was at the same time elected 
 a member of the Executive Committee, and thus 
 privileged to take an active share in the 
 management. 
 
 On my return to Scotland after my retirement 
 from Colonial Service, memorials of my son were 
 placed in the Episcopal Church of Kinross and 
 affixed to the wall of the family Mausoleum on 
 the shore of Loch Leven. At the commencement 
 of 1905 a monument, consisting of an upright 
 bronze relief set in stone, was erected in the 
 Churchyard of the Parish Church of Portmoak, 
 the Parish in which the family estate of Arnot is 
 situated. On the 3<Dth of June these memorials, 
 which all bore similar inscriptions, and the Gordon 
 Boys' Home memorial, were linked to the Harrow 
 memorial by a visit of His Majesty King Edward 
 to that School. In the course of the proceedings 
 in Speech Room the boys had sung an old Har- 
 rovian song, with the refrain : 
 
 " Here sir ! Here sir ! Here sir ! Here sir ! 
 
 On the top of Harrow Hill, 
 Here sir! Here sir! Here sir! Here sir! 
 In the windy yard at Bill." 
 
 From Speech Room the King and Queen passed 
 into the Chapel, and on the mural tablets erected to 
 the memory of my son and other old Harrovians
 
 156 MILESTONES 
 
 who had died for their King and Country read the 
 mute response, " Here sir ! Here sir ! " 
 
 I dealt with the Imperial bearing of Their 
 Majesties' visit in an article contributed to the 
 November number of Macmillan's Magazine, 
 under the title of " Our Public Schools and the 
 Empire." 
 
 During the whole of the year 1905 I was 
 occupied with the problem of the organisation of 
 the Colonial Office in its relation to the Crown 
 Colonies, and on the 8th of December I addressed 
 a long letter to Lord Elgin on the subject of re- 
 organisation. The principal reform suggested was 
 the reorganisation of the Colonial Office into two 
 departments, one dealing with questions of politics 
 and administration, the other with the development 
 of the material resources of the Colonies. I 
 pointed out that, while the training and experience 
 of the permanent officials qualified them very well 
 to deal with the business of the political depart- 
 ment, it was necessary that in the latter department, 
 if we were to compete successfully with foreign 
 colonial enterprise, every question should be dealt 
 with on the principle of applying to its solution 
 the latest results of scientific research. All that 
 was required to carry out this reform was the 
 appointment of the Medical Adviser to the Office,
 
 1904 TO 1908 157 
 
 and the Directors of Kew Gardens and the Imperial 
 Institute to be Assistant Under-Secretaries of 
 State. In order to secure continuity of policy in 
 both the political and economic departments, I 
 proposed the creation of an Advisory Council on 
 the lines of the Council of the Secretary of State 
 for India. 
 
 My letter was well received by Lord Elgin, and 
 he sent me a sympathetic reply to it : 
 
 "Downing Street, 
 
 " iyth April 1906. 
 " Sir, 
 
 " I am directed by the Earl of Elgin to 
 convey to you his Lordship's thanks for your 
 letter of the 8th of December last, on the subject 
 of the administration of the Crown Colonies, and 
 to inform you that in dealing with this question 
 he has derived valuable assistance from your 
 observations, which embody the result of a long 
 and varied experience of Colonial administration. 
 " I am, etc., 
 
 "R. L. ANTROBUS." 
 
 In May 1906 I published an article on the 
 subject in the Empire Revieiv. It brought me a 
 letter of importance from the Duke of Marl- 
 borough :
 
 158 MILESTONES 
 
 " Sunderland House, 
 " Mayfair, 
 
 My Dear Sir Charles, " Ma ? Ist > 
 
 " I am most grateful to you for sending to 
 me your article entitled " The Colonial Office and 
 Crown Colonies." I shall read it like all those 
 other articles which you have written from time to 
 time on Colonial questions with the greatest 
 interest. The point you raise as to whether the 
 Imperial Institute should not be placed under the 
 jurisdiction of the Colonial Office instead of under 
 the Board of Trade is a matter which has long been 
 a source of interest to me. It was a great error of 
 the Trustees of the funds of the '51 Exhibition, 
 into whose hands I fancy the management of the 
 Imperial Institute was placed, to have allowed 
 the Institute to be under the supervision of the 
 B. of T. sooner than under the Colonial Office. 
 Personal feeling played a part in the decision. . . . 
 So the B. of Trade got the control in place of the 
 Colonial Office. I hope that one day this may be 
 changed. 
 
 "Again with many thanks for your kindness in 
 remembering that I am always interested in these 
 matters affecting the welfare of our Colonial 
 possessions. 
 
 "Believe me, ttv i 
 * Y rs. sincerely, 
 
 " MARYBOROUGH."
 
 1904 TO 1908 159 
 
 Towards the close of the year, after further 
 study of the position in consultation with the 
 Director, I published in the British Empire Review 
 an article on " The Imperial Institute and the 
 Colonial Office," pressing the cogency of the 
 reasons for making the Institute a department of 
 that Office. 
 
 I sent a reprint of this article to His Majesty 
 the King, then Prince of Wales, who personally 
 thanked me. Accompanied by the Princess, he 
 visited the Institute, and made an exhaustive 
 examination of its processes. I believe I am justi- 
 fied in saying that his interest exercised a material 
 influence on the future of the Institute. 
 
 Throughout the year I continued my correspon- 
 dence with the American, French and German 
 Embassies on the subject of their systems of 
 Colonial Government. Early in the previous 
 year I had received the following from the 
 American Embassy : 
 
 "London, January 2oth, 1905. 
 
 " Dear Sir, 
 
 " With reference to your letter of 
 November 22nd and to mine in reply, I now have 
 pleasure in transmitting to you herewith the copy 
 of a letter from the Acting Secretary of War of the 
 United States to the Secretary of State relative to
 
 i6o MILESTONES 
 
 your request for information as to Sanitation, 
 Hygiene and other matters pertaining to the 
 Philippines, Porto Rico and Cuba, and I beg to 
 inform you that the Despatch Agent of our 
 Government in London will forward to you the 
 Reports therein referred to. 
 
 " You will observe that with respect to Porto 
 Rico we are informed by the Department of State 
 that the Governor of that Island has been asked 
 whether he can supply copies of the latest Reports 
 relating thereto. 
 
 " I am, Dear Sir, 
 
 " Your obedient servant, 
 
 "HENRY WHITE." 
 
 This letter was followed by the transmission to 
 me of a series of Reports extending over more 
 than a year. 
 
 On February 10 I received from Count Bern- 
 storff a letter enclosing an elaborate Memorandum 
 on the scientific investigations of the German 
 tropical Colonies : 
 
 " German Embassy, 
 
 " 9 Carlton House Terrace, S.W., 
 
 "February loth, 1906. 
 
 " Dear Sir Charles, 
 
 " I have much pleasure in sending you 
 the enclosed * Memorandum,' which our Colonial
 
 1904 TO 1908 161 
 
 Attache drew up for me. If you wish for any 
 more information I shall be delighted to try and 
 get it. 
 
 " Yours very sincerely, 
 
 "J. BERNSTORFF." 
 
 A few days later I received the following from 
 the French Embassy, enclosing two equally elabo- 
 rate papers on the same subject : 
 
 "Ambassade de France a Londres, 
 "February 28th, 1906. 
 
 " Dear Sir, 
 
 " We have taken some time in answering 
 your letter. The cause has been that the informa- 
 tion you required was not available in our Embassy 
 here. Thanks to the help of Mr. Weber, private 
 secretary to our Colonial Minister, who has been 
 staying in London for the sittings of the Commis- 
 sion about the New Hebrides, I have just received 
 the enclosed papers from our Colonial Office. I 
 think you will find in them the answers to your 
 questions. 
 
 " I should feel much obliged if you would 
 kindly return these papers to me when you have 
 done with them. Other questions on the same 
 subject may be placed before the Embassy, and 
 unfortunately our ' Attaches ' are now too busy 
 for me to ask them to make a copy of the papers.
 
 1 62 MILESTONES 
 
 " In case you should require further informa- 
 tion, I should do my best to get it and send it 
 to you. 
 
 " Believe me, Dear Sir, 
 
 " Yours most truly, 
 
 " H. DE MANNEVILLE, 
 " Secy., French Embassy." 
 
 My election to the Executive Committee of the 
 Gordon Boys' Home naturally led me to study 
 the origin and development of the Institution, 
 and I availed myself of the twenty-first anniversary 
 of Gordon's death, the 26th of January 1906, to 
 take a retrospective view of things accomplished 
 by his agony and death in Khartoum which his life 
 could never have accomplished. It was intimately 
 connected in my mind with the death of my 
 soldier son. And the retrospect is not without 
 interest in the present peril of civilisation and 
 agony of the Christian faith. It was published 
 in the Empire Review in March 1906, and repro- 
 duced in pamphlet form. 
 
 At the outset I indicated the scope of my pur- 
 pose in these words : 
 
 " Much has been written of late in admiration 
 of the soul of nations which have adopted 
 Buddhism or Confucianism as their religion or 
 ethical code. It seems to be overlooked, or little
 
 1904 TO 1908 163 
 
 regarded, that the history of the British Empire 
 forms a continuous narrative of the triumphs of 
 the soul of a Christian nation over the body- 
 politic which has claimed to control its destinies. 
 While the body-politic has been constantly folded 
 up and changed as a vesture, the soul of the nation 
 has never failed to manifest itself at the appointed 
 time in the embodiment of the heroes who have 
 accomplished its destinies. ' If Christ had not 
 died on the Cross, where would have been the 
 atonement? ' has been the inspiration of ages. If 
 our martyrs had not laid their heads on the block, 
 suffered at the stake, perished on the field or in 
 exile, where would have been the British Empire? 
 Gordon's journal in Khartoum shows that he stead- 
 fastly looked upon his life as a sacrifice to be 
 offered in atonement for the sins of his country- 
 men in Egypt. ' May our Lord not visit us,' he 
 wrote, ' as a nation for our sins, but may His 
 wrath fall on me, hid in Christ. This is my 
 frequent prayer, and may He spare these people 
 and bring them to peace.' " 
 
 After an exposition of what the sacrifice and 
 death of Gordon had accomplished for the union 
 and consolidation of the Empire, I added : 
 
 " History affords no example of a mourning so 
 world-wide and so intensely personal as followed
 
 1 64 MILESTONES 
 
 the death of Gordon, and what has been said may 
 suffice to remind us how it entered into the soul 
 of the nation, and has affected the destiny of 
 Africa and of the Empire. 
 
 " In England the proposal to establish a national 
 memorial of his life and death was received with 
 enthusiasm, but encountered difficulties. There 
 was a perplexing amplitude of choice in the schemes 
 suggested and adhered to with persistence, while a 
 more serious obstacle was met in political feelings 
 of the moment. It was then that Royalty ex- 
 hibited one of its noblest uses. Before the 
 influence of Queen Victoria and the energy of 
 our present King, then Prince of Wales, all minor 
 thoughts gave way to the recollection that the 
 noblest of our countrymen had died in the noblest 
 of causes the defence of the national honour, and 
 it was decided that the best way to perpetuate his 
 memory in England was to perpetuate his work 
 in England. 
 
 " And in all the wide range of his labours 
 nothing was more typical of the man than his work 
 in England among a population struggling under a 
 burden of economic pressure hardly less intolerable 
 than slavery itself a population that, with its 
 vicious, its incapable and its unemployed, lives in 
 a world of disorders which legislation has been 
 constantly engaged in fruitless endeavours to
 
 1904 TO 1908 165 
 
 regulate. To the children born into this unhappy 
 class, confounded from their birth with the basest 
 elements, familiar with suffering and intimate with 
 vice, had been devoted the faith, the energy, the 
 simple honesty of the man whom the nation now 
 desired to honour." 
 
 The publication brought me a letter from 
 General Sir George Higginson, which I greatly 
 value : 
 
 "28 Lancaster Gate, W., 
 " 2 ist March 1906. 
 
 " My Dear Sir Charles, 
 
 "Though our Secretary, Col. Pownall, 
 has conveyed to you semi-officially the thanks of 
 the Committee of the G. B. Home voted at their 
 last meeting to you, I venture as Chairman to 
 write a wow-official word or two in acknowledgment 
 of your pamphlet, a proof copy of which you 
 kindly ordered to be sent to us. I feel sure that 
 the importance of keeping Gordon's memory pro- 
 minent among the subjects which the English race 
 should not forget cannot be too much impressed 
 on the rising generation. You will have contri- 
 buted largely to this good object, and, indirectly, 
 I have no doubt that the national memorial will 
 reap advantage. 
 
 " Pray therefore accept my cordial thanks, and
 
 1 66 MILESTONES 
 
 let me hope that on your return South you will be 
 able to help us frequently at our Committee 
 meetings. 
 " Believe me, 
 
 " Very sincerely yours, 
 
 "GEORGE W. HIGGINSON." 
 
 It was followed by a welcome letter from the 
 Master of Trinity : 
 
 "Grasmere, April 25, 1906. 
 
 " Dear Sir Charles Bruce, 
 
 "We are just, 9 p.m., leaving this place 
 for a night journey to Euston and Cambridge, but 
 I must send you these few and too tardy lines of 
 true thanks for your very kind thought in sending 
 me your Address on Gordon. I read it with keen 
 interest and delight. It looks as if his fame as 
 one of the greatest of Christian heroes was firmly 
 established, too firmly to be ever lost sight of. In 
 our lodgings here it was pleasant, as we entered, 
 to see his portrait occupying the principal place on 
 the wall. Our good Landlady has a Son con- 
 nected with the Engineers, and this has helped to 
 bring the Great Man near to her heart and her 
 imagination. . . . 
 
 " Believe me to be, 
 
 " Very truly yours, 
 
 " H. MONTAGU BUTLER."
 
 1904 TO 1908 167 
 
 A few months later another link was added to 
 the chain of sympathy which bound us to Admiral 
 Sir Archibald Douglas. Lady Douglas died, and 
 he wrote to us : 
 
 " Newnham, Winchfield, Hants., 
 May /o6. 
 
 " My Dear Old Friend, 
 
 " From the bottom of my heart I thank 
 you and Lady Bruce for your kind sympathy in my 
 sad loss, and well I know how real your sympathy 
 is, coming as it does from you and Lady Bruce, 
 who have had such sad sorrow yourselves. We 
 had been married 37 years, all of that time passed 
 in active service, with some long separations and 
 always the strain and stress of official life. It is 
 hard to be parted when rest and retirement had 
 come, but these things are not arranged for us, but 
 for the best. Again thanking you and Lady 
 Bruce, 
 
 " I am ever 
 
 " Yours most truly, 
 
 "ARCHIBALD DOUGLAS." 
 
 From the time of my retirement from the 
 Colonial service I had never ceased to interest 
 myself in the question of Asiatic immigration into
 
 1 68 MILESTONES 
 
 the Crown Colonies and Protectorates. In April 
 1904, I wrote an article in the Empire Review on 
 the employment of Chinese in Natal, which secured 
 the approval of Mr. Alfred Lyttelton, then 
 Secretary of State for the Colonies, with whom 
 I had frequent opportunities of consultation on the 
 subject of the position of British Indians in the 
 Transvaal. On March 31, 1905, Letters Patent 
 were passed creating a Constitution for the 
 Transvaal, generally known as the Lyttelton Con- 
 stitution. While these Letters Patent conferred 
 representative institutions, they expressly reserved 
 to the Imperial Government all the powers it 
 enjoys under the Crown Colony system for the 
 protection of subjects or residents of non- 
 European birth. But the exercise of these powers 
 led to serious difficulties, and to the abrogation of 
 the Lyttelton Constitution. On December 6, 
 1906, Letters Patent were issued conferring full 
 responsible government on the Transvaal. On 
 nth December The Times published a letter I 
 wrote on the subject. The result was in accor- 
 dance with the singular power possessed by The 
 Times of promoting the union of persons and 
 societies interested in matters which form the 
 subject of correspondence admitted to its columns. 
 It brought me a letter from the South Africa 
 British Indian Committee :
 
 1904 TO 1908 169 
 
 "28 Queen Anne's Chambers, 
 
 " Broadway, Westminster, S.W., 
 
 " nth December 1906. 
 "Dear Sir, 
 
 " I am instructed by my Executive to 
 write to you an expression of their deep apprecia- 
 tion of your lucid communication to the Times of 
 this morning. 
 
 " As you are perhaps aware, my Committee has 
 been established for the purpose of safeguarding 
 the interests of British Indians in South Africa. . . . 
 " I am furthermore instructed to invite you to 
 join our body, and hope that you will find nothing 
 in our objects inconsistent with your own views on 
 the subject. 
 
 " In view of the warm interest indicated by your 
 letter, I think I may venture to communicate that 
 I have good reasons for believing that the interests 
 of our British Indian fellow-subjects in the Trans- 
 vaal will not be unreservedly placed at the tender 
 mercy of the new Colonial Government. 
 
 "I am, 
 " Yours faithfully, 
 
 L. W. RITCH, 
 
 " Secretary." 
 
 From this time I never ceased to take an active 
 part in the work of the Committee, and in January
 
 170 MILESTONES 
 
 and April 1907, I contributed two articles to the 
 Empire Review in support of its work, under the 
 title of "The Transvaal Constitution and the 
 Colour Question." 
 
 In the propaganda of my faith in the consolida- 
 tion of the component parts of the Empire, North 
 and South, East and West, by the recognition of 
 common interests, I made it my endeavour to 
 bring home to my countrymen, and especially to 
 the working classes, the importance of their interest 
 in our tropical Colonies. My contributions to the 
 press were supplemented by lectures and addresses 
 not only to political and learned associations, but 
 to working men's societies and settlements. 
 
 In September 1 907, I very willingly accepted an 
 invitation to give a lecture at the Working Men's 
 College in London on "Life and Labour in the 
 Tropics." My main object was to show the 
 interests of the workman of the United Kingdom 
 in the development of tropical Colonies both as 
 markets of supply and demand. The lecture was 
 illustrated by many lantern slides, and I had never 
 addressed a more appreciative audience. Two 
 days later I received a letter of thanks from Sir 
 Charles Lucas, who very appropriately associated 
 his interest in the College with his duties as Under- 
 secretary of State at the Colonial Office :
 
 1904 TO 1908 171 
 
 " 77 St. George's Road, S.W., 
 
 "30 Sept. 07. 
 " My dear Bruce, 
 
 " I must thank you most gratefully for 
 your lecture. It was a very high-class one, and 
 the thought and trouble embodied in it make me 
 all the more grateful. I thought too that the way 
 you emphasised the direct value of the tropical 
 dependencies to the working classes of this country 
 was beyond all praise. 
 
 " Please accept my warm thanks. 
 " I have your letter, and note what you say as to 
 referring to you on the Mauritius incident. 
 u Yrs. sincerely, 
 
 "C. P. LUCAS." 
 
 His reference to the " Mauritius incident " 
 illustrated our mutual interest in both areas of 
 activity. I must explain it. In 1 904 the Secretary 
 of State, as I have shown, had invited my assist- 
 ance in a Mauritius incident. In the present 
 incident it was the people of Mauritius who had 
 invited my assistance. On August loth, 1907, I 
 received a telegram signed by the senior member 
 of the Council of Government in the following 
 terms : 
 
 "Elected Members of Council and people of 
 Mauritius, knowing your deep and sincere sym-
 
 172 MILESTONES 
 
 pathy for the Colony, beg you may be good 
 enough to represent and defend them (at the) 
 Colonial Office." 
 
 The circumstances which prompted this telegram 
 need not be discussed. I at once placed myself at 
 the disposal of the Secretary of State, who was 
 good enough to refer to me the official papers on 
 the subject. 
 
 Arising out of this incident, statements were 
 made in the London press, with reference to which 
 I thought it my duty to address a communication 
 to The Times : 
 
 "Arnot Tower, 
 "Leslie, Fife, 
 
 Sir "Sept- 2 4> I907- 
 
 " In The Times of September 3 and 4 
 you published communications from a correspon- 
 dent in Mauritius which constituted a charge a 
 fond against the Civil Service and the elected 
 members of the Council of Government of the 
 Colony. Another correspondent has in The Times 
 of yesterday supplemented these communications 
 by a letter which is nothing less than an indictment 
 of the whole population. The appearance of these 
 communications in The Times can only, I fear, 
 have the effect of increasing the local irritation and 
 the difficulty of the Governor's position.
 
 1904 TO 1908 173 
 
 " You will, I hope, allow me to enter my pro- 
 test against this general indictment of a community 
 with which I have been long associated, alike in 
 periods of superior fortune and in seasons of quite 
 exceptional adversity. In the circumstances, it did 
 not altogether surprise me to receive from the 
 elected representatives of the Colony a touching 
 appeal for my good offices. I at once communi- 
 cated it to the Secretary of State, and placed myself 
 unreservedly in his hands." 
 
 This letter was telegraphed to Mauritius, and 
 on the ist of October I received a message of 
 acknowledgment : 
 
 " Elective Members on behalf people Mauritius 
 convey heartfelt thanks to you for having defended 
 Mauritian Civil Service themselves population 
 against indictment preferred in London press." 
 
 I have a pleasant reminder of this incident in a 
 postcard issued in the Colony with a portrait of 
 myself, over the legend : 
 
 " Sir Charles Bruce, G.C.M.G., 
 
 Ancien Gouverneur de 1'Ile Maurice 
 
 Defenseur des Mauriciens." 
 
 On one of these postcards, sent to me through 
 the Colonial Office, a distinguished member of the 
 community had written :
 
 174 MILESTONES 
 
 "Avec les voeux de bonheur de tous les 
 Mauriciens, dont vous avez si bien defendu 
 Phonneur." 
 
 In January 1908, on the invitation of the Royal 
 Scottish Geographical Society, I gave an Address, 
 illustrated by lantern slides, on " The Evolution of 
 the Crown Colony of Mauritius" in Edinburgh, 
 Glasgow, Dundee and Aberdeen. I sent a copy 
 of my Address to the Prince of Wales, through Sir 
 Arthur Bigge, who had been on His Royal High- 
 ness' Staff during the visit to Mauritius, and 
 received a gracious reply : 
 
 " Marlborough House, 
 " Pall Mall, S.W., 
 
 "29th February 1908. 
 " My Dear Sir Charles, 
 
 " I have submitted to the Prince of Wales 
 the copy of your Address delivered before the 
 Royal Scottish Geographical Society on the Evolu- 
 tion of the Crown Colony of Mauritius, which 
 you have so kindly sent for His Royal Highness, 
 who looks forward to reading it with much interest. 
 He desires me to also thank you for the kind 
 allusions which you have made to the visit of the 
 Princess and himself to Mauritius. 
 " Yours very truly, 
 
 "ARTHUR BIGGE."
 
 1904 TO 1908 175 
 
 My lecture on Mauritius was followed in 
 February by a lecture on Ceylon on the same lines, 
 delivered at the request of the Victoria League 
 before the Nairnshire Branch of the League. The 
 North of Scotland has very large interests in 
 Ceylon, and there was a representative attendance. 
 
 On 29th March I delivered a lecture at the Pass- 
 more Edwards Settlement on " The British Work- 
 man's Interest in Tropical Colonies." It followed 
 the lines of my lecture at the Working Men's 
 College in the previous year, but I was able to 
 supplement my lantern slides by an exhibition of 
 materials and machinery, kindly supplied by Pro- 
 fessor Dunstan of the Imperial Institute. In 
 conclusion I said : 
 
 " I have endeavoured, however imperfectly, to 
 illustrate the interests of the British workman in 
 our tropical Colonies. The importance of these 
 interests has, since the expansion of Colonial enter- 
 prises undertaken by Continental Europe and the 
 United States of America, led to a formidable 
 struggle for the control of the tropics and a 
 scramble for Africa. In conclusion, I submit to 
 you for your guidance in the conflict a policy which 
 was, some years ago, formulated by or on behalf 
 of a group of British workmen in the following 
 terms : 
 
 " * We wish for no artificial advantage for British
 
 176 MILESTONES 
 
 industries, neither will we tolerate the operation of 
 artificial subsidies to foreign industries ; and, 
 further, we insist that competition upon British 
 markets shall be upon natural conditions for all.'" 
 
 In the course of my lecture several working men 
 present expressed their interest in emphatic phrases, 
 and the whole audience enthusiastically applauded 
 the final paragraph, which was exhibited on a 
 lantern slide. 
 
 Meanwhile I had contributed to the February 
 number of the Empire Review an article on 
 " British Indians in the Transvaal," and continued 
 to take an active interest in the work of the South 
 Africa British Indian Committee. On July 31 I 
 was requested by the Committee to introduce to 
 Lord Crewe, then Secretary of State, a deputation 
 he had consented to receive on the subject of the 
 position of the Indians in South Africa. It was a 
 large and representative deputation, including 
 Lord Reay, the Bishop of Southampton, Mr. 
 Harold Cox, Mr. J. M. Robertson, M.P., Sir 
 Mancherjee Bhownagree, Mr. Gokhale a member 
 of the Viceroy's Council, and many others. Lord 
 Crewe's reply to our arguments was sympathetic, 
 and later in the day Colonel Seely, then Under- 
 secretary, made an equally sympathetic speech in 
 the House of Commons on the subject. A few
 
 1904 TO 1908 177 
 
 days after, the Secretary of the Committee wrote 
 to me : 
 
 "28 Queen Anne's Chambers, 
 " Broadway, 
 
 "Westminster, S.W., 
 "August 4th, 1908. 
 
 " Dear Sir Charles Bruce, 
 
 " I am desired by the Executive Council 
 to convey to you their warmest thanks for having, 
 at perhaps no inconsiderable inconvenience, contri- 
 buted so largely to the success of the deputation 
 that waited upon Lord Crewe on Friday last. 
 
 " Would you be so kind as to let me have a 
 copy of your speech for purposes of record and 
 publication ? 
 
 " I am, 
 " Yours faithfully, 
 
 "L. W. RITCH." 
 
 In October I contributed a further article on this 
 question to the Empire Review, and the two 
 articles were revised and published in pamphlet 
 form and circulated by the Committee. The 
 acknowledgments addressed to me through the 
 Society included letters from the Prime Minister 
 and several other Ministers, the Archbishop of 
 Canterbury, the Bishop of London and other
 
 178 MILESTONES 
 
 Bishops, Mr. Chamberlain, and leaders of both 
 political parties in both Houses of Parliament. 
 The question was admittedly one of such impor- 
 tance that the existence of the Empire depended 
 on a settlement. 
 
 In the meantime I had been invited by the 
 Governors of St. Thomas's Hospital to distribute 
 the prizes at the Medical School on the 25th of 
 June. After the distribution I gave an Address on 
 " Some Imperial Aspects of the Study of Tropical 
 Medicine." It was published in the Journal of 
 the Royal Army Medical Corps. The Order of 
 Proceedings for the day included the following : 
 
 "The Treasurer, accompanied by Members of 
 the Grand Committee and by the Staff, will then 
 escort Sir Charles Bruce, G.C.M.G., through the 
 Hospital, and guests are requested not to leave 
 their seats until the procession has quitted the 
 Hall, when it is hoped that all guests will follow 
 and view the Hospital. 
 
 "The whole Hospital will be open for 
 inspection. 
 
 " Suggested order for viewing the Hospital : 
 Casualty Department, Seymour Ward, Operating 
 Theatres, Clinical Lecture Theatre, Chapel, 
 Clinical Laboratory, Albert Ward, Medical Com- 
 mittee Room, City Ward, X Ray Department, 
 Medical School."
 
 1904 TO 1908 179 
 
 The suggested order was observed, and I have 
 certainly never taken part in a more interesting 
 ceremony. I highly appreciate a letter I received 
 a few days later from the Dean of the School : 
 
 " St. Thomas's Hospital, 
 " Medical School, 
 
 "Albert Embankment, S.E., 
 "July 29th, 1908. 
 
 " Dear Sir Charles Bruce, 
 
 " I have just had the opportunity of 
 reporting to the formal meeting of Medical and 
 Surgical Officers and Lecturers of this Hospital 
 the success of our Prize Distribution this year. 
 This success was mainly due to your kindness in 
 distributing the prizes and in giving us so able an 
 Address. 
 
 " On behalf of my colleagues I am writing to 
 express to you our unanimous thanks for your 
 valuable services. 
 
 "Yours faithfully, 
 
 "CuTHBERT S. WALLACE, 
 " Dean of the Medical School." 
 
 On the 8th of July all the endearing associations 
 of my life with Harrow School were revived at 
 the triennial dinner presided over by Mr. Walter 
 Long. I was asked to reply to the toast of " Sue-
 
 i8o MILESTONES 
 
 cess to Old Harrovians in Church and State " on 
 behalf of "Harrow Beyond the Seas." I gave a 
 brief summary of the work being done by old 
 Harrovians in India and the Crown Colonies. It 
 brought me many congratulations. 
 
 On 4th May I had been present at the annual 
 dinner of the Royal Colonial Institute, the Prince 
 of Wales, President of the Institute, being in the 
 Chair. It was an occasion of exceptional interest. 
 The Prince was surrounded by citizens of our 
 oversea dominions, by men who had directed the 
 government of Colonies and Dependencies or were 
 occupying the highest positions in the Colonial ser- 
 vice ; and yet there was no one present who had 
 landed on so many different points of British soil, 
 or had equal opportunities to appreciate the value 
 of each as a factor in the Imperial system. His 
 opportunities had been twofold ; first, in earlier 
 years in the frank communion of a sailor's life ; 
 later in the grave confidences of intercourse with 
 responsible statesmen as heir to the Throne and 
 representative of the Sovereign. 
 
 After dinner I was presented to His Royal 
 Highness, who referred to his visit to Mauritius, 
 and sent a gracious message to Lady Bruce. 
 
 My memories of Mauritius in association with 
 the death of my son had been revived at the com- 
 mencement of this year by a touching letter from
 
 1904 TO 1908 181 
 
 Sir Arthur Havelock on the occasion of the death 
 of Lady Havelock : 
 
 " Bishopstowe, 
 " Torquay, 
 
 " 1 2th January 1908. 
 " My dear Bruce, 
 
 " I feel touched by your and Lady Bruce's 
 sympathy with me. To think of you recalls days 
 of happiness, when we were all four young and full 
 of hope. Then came our second acquaintance 
 with your Baba. It is pleasant to remember him, 
 and it rejoices me to think that we were allowed an 
 opportunity of trying to be a little kind to the Son 
 of our old friends. 
 
 " Yours sincerely, 
 
 "A. G. HAVELOCK." 
 
 A few weeks later they were again revived. On 
 iyth March I received a telegram from the Presi- 
 dent of the Chamber of Agriculture, requesting 
 me to render a new service to the Colony in sup- 
 porting a measure recommended by the Governor. 
 I again placed myself at the disposal of Lord 
 Elgin, who granted me a personal interview after 
 the circumstances in which the appeal was made 
 had been explained to me in the Office.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 1909 TO 1914 
 
 THE year 1909 was a year of peaceful progress in 
 my pilgrimage. It brought me into closer inti- 
 macy with Sir John Henniker Heaton in the work 
 of his life. This was the result of a meeting of 
 the Royal Colonial Institute at the close of 1908. 
 In November he read a paper on " Penny-a-word 
 Telegrams throughout the Empire." The Earl 
 of Jersey presided, and the speakers in the discus- 
 sion which followed included Mr. Lemieux, Post- 
 master-General of Canada, Mr. Marconi, Lord 
 Strathcona, Dr. Parkin, and representatives of the 
 Legislatures of Queensland and New South Wales. 
 I had been requested by the West India Committee 
 to speak on the subject of cheaper telegraphic com- 
 munication with the West Indies, the cost of a 
 message to British Guiana at the time being seven 
 shillings a word. I pointed out that while it 
 might be true that the constituent parts of the 
 Empire were mainly held together by material
 
 1909 TO 1914 183 
 
 interests, the cash-nexus is not the only relation 
 that links the oversea dominions to each other and 
 to the United Kingdom. Mr. Lemieux, speaking 
 in French, had talked of the appeal of Henniker 
 Heaton's proposal to his cceur de Franfais. I 
 illustrated the use of telegraphy as an instrument 
 of sympathy by cases within my knowledge, and 
 concluded by referring to my personal experience : 
 
 " A few years ago, when I was in Mauritius, my 
 Son was engaged in two campaigns in India and 
 two campaigns in Africa. In each campaign we 
 were able, with the assistance of friends, to keep 
 in fairly frequent communication with him by tele- 
 grams. And when his last campaign was ended 
 by a soldier's death the telegraph placed us in an 
 environment of sympathy of which only those who 
 have had a similar experience can estimate the 
 value. And this only I will say, that the first 
 message received was a gracious message of sym- 
 pathy from their Royal Highnesses the Prince and 
 Princess of Wales." 
 
 The year was largely devoted to the preparation 
 of my work The Broad Stone of Empire, and 
 Henniker Heaton gave me valuable assistance in 
 that part of it dealing with Imperial communica- 
 tions. 
 
 Early in 1909 Lord Crewe appointed a Depart- 
 mental Committee to inquire into the general
 
 1 84 MILESTONES 
 
 question of emigration from British India. I was 
 called as a witness, and at the request of Lord 
 Sanderson, the Chairman, supplemented my evi- 
 dence by a Memorandum on some points of 
 importance. In a discussion in the House of 
 Lords on the subject of the Inquiry, Lord Sander- 
 son was good enough to say that it had been the 
 work of my life, and the Report did ample justice 
 to my labours in British Guiana and in Mauritius. 
 More particularly in respect of British Guiana the 
 Report confirmed Surgeon-Major Comins' opinion 
 of the value of the Law to Consolidate and Amend 
 the Law relating to Asiatic Immigrants which I 
 had passed in 1891. At the outset of their Report 
 the Committee^ in acknowledging the assistance 
 they had received, referred to Lord Stanmore and 
 myself as Governors who " in Mauritius, Trinidad, 
 British Guiana, Ceylon and Fiji, had devoted much 
 attention to the improvement of the system for 
 introducing coolie labour, and who since their 
 retirement from office had continued to take an 
 active interest in the matter." When some years 
 later the question was discussed in the Viceroy's 
 Council in India, it was very gratifying to me to 
 find the importance attached to my evidence. 
 
 Throughout the year I was active in my 
 advocacy of the cause of the British Indians in 
 South Africa. In February 1909, Lord Ampthill
 
 1909 TO 1914 l %5 
 
 addressed a letter to the members of both Houses 
 of Parliament on the subject of the British Indians 
 in the Transvaal as a vital question of Empire. 
 On the iyth of the same month "The Native 
 Question of South Africa " formed the subject of 
 an Address delivered by Lord Selborne, High Com- 
 missioner for South Africa, before the Congrega- 
 tion of the University of the Cape of Good Hope. 
 In August my assistance was requested by a 
 Delegation from Natal appointed to lay before the 
 Imperial Government the grievances of the British 
 Indians in that Colony. Their letter to me was 
 accompanied by a short statement of the facts of 
 the case. The delegates included the Chairman 
 and Secretary of the Natal Indian Congress. At 
 the close of the year I received a letter from them 
 thanking me for my co-operation : 
 
 "38 Longridge Road, 
 
 "Earl's Court, S.W., 
 
 "9th December 1909. 
 
 " Dear Sir Charles, 
 
 " On the eve of my departure from 
 London I wish to be allowed to express to you 
 the grateful and sincere thanks of the Natal Dele- 
 gation to England for the ready and ungrudging 
 assistance and support that you have given us in 
 connection with our mission to this country. We
 
 1 86 MILESTONES 
 
 are pleased to inform you that, as a result of our 
 persevering efforts since our arrival in London, an 
 intimation has been received by us to the effect 
 that the Natal Parliament has passed an amend- 
 ment to the Dealers' Licences Act, granting the 
 right of appeal to the Supreme Court to licence 
 holders, a right which was hitherto denied. 
 
 "Although this amendment has reference to 
 renewal of licences only, still we view it as a 
 concession which will be received with great satis- 
 faction by our community. With respect to trans- 
 fer of licences and the grant of new licences there 
 are now great restrictions ; but it is hoped that 
 the concession just granted will prove the pre- 
 cursor of a better state of things as regards the 
 other points we refer to. You, Sir, and our other 
 friends in England have helped us greatly in our 
 negotiations with the authorities here, and we fer- 
 vently hope that your continued assistance to us 
 will in time lead to the removal of all unnecessary 
 restrictions in trade and to amelioration in the 
 condition of our people in Natal. Such assistance 
 and support from you we shall always highly 
 value. 
 
 " I have now definitely arranged to leave for 
 South Africa on Saturday, the 1 1 th instant. 
 
 "Again conveying to you an expression of the 
 Delegation's heartfelt gratitude for all you have
 
 1909 TO 1914 187 
 
 done for us, and with the greetings of the 
 season, 
 
 " I remain, Dear Sir, 
 
 " Most sincerely yours, 
 
 " M. C. ANGLIA, 
 
 "On behalf of the Natal Delegation 
 to England." 
 
 I had now spent five years in Scotland, and had 
 interested myself in the mysteries of public and 
 social life, from which my long period of foreign 
 residence and Imperial service had excluded me. 
 I owed to my Imperial services my election as a 
 Director of the Scottish Provident Institution. 
 As Deputy-Lieutenant and Justice of the Peace 
 for Kinross-shire, my ancestral home, I found a 
 new area of activity. I had become a Vice-Presi- 
 dent of the Tariff Reform League, advocating the 
 importance of reforms from the point of view of 
 the consolidation of the economic interests of 
 the Empire. Another cause which I advocated 
 in season and out of season was the cause of 
 temperance. My colonial experience had con- 
 vinced me that the artificial disease of intemperance 
 was scarcely less prejudicial to our Imperial 
 interests than the natural diseases that had been the 
 subject of Mr. Chamberlain's solicitudes during 
 his tenure of office as Colonial Secretary. Immedi-
 
 1 88 MILESTONES 
 
 ately after my retirement, on the invitation of Earl 
 Grey, I became a member of the Central Public 
 House Trust Association, and the Association dis- 
 tributed for me throughout the Empire a pamphlet 
 I wrote under the aggressive title of " The Public 
 House as a Centre of Temperance." In no part 
 of the United Kingdom perhaps is temperance 
 reform more necessary than in the mining districts 
 of Fife, to which my home is adjacent, and I have 
 gladly done what it has been in my power to do to 
 help the cause as a licensing justice. I have also 
 warmly interested myself in the Young Men's 
 Christian Association, which it has been my good 
 fortune to support in the island adjuncts of the 
 four Continents. Concurrently, the interest which 
 had attached Lady Bruce and myself to the 
 Colonial Nursing Association, found a new area 
 of activity in the Scottish Branch of the Red Cross 
 Society. As early as 1883 Lady Bruce had gained 
 a certificate of qualification to render " First Aid 
 to the Injured " from the St. John Ambulance 
 Association, and in 1906 she accepted the invita- 
 tion of the Duchess of Montrose to become 
 President of the Kinross- shire Branch of the 
 Society. At the outset, Red Cross work was 
 practically new to the public, and the necessity 
 was experienced of educating people as to its aims, 
 and bringing home the need for its use. The idea
 
 1909 TO 1914 189 
 
 of war was at that time so remote that the move- 
 ment found support rather as an agency for the 
 treatment of casualties from accidents in the ordi- 
 nary routine of agricultural and factory work and 
 mining than of war casualties. Nevertheless, I 
 believe that during the next three years Kinross- 
 shire, partly from the fact that it borders on 
 important mining areas, made much more rapid 
 progress than most of the other counties of Scot- 
 land. In 1909 the Scottish Branch of the Society 
 was reorganised. The counties of Clackmannan 
 and Kinross were amalgamated under the Presi- 
 dency of the Countess of Mar and Kellie, Lady 
 Bruce continuing to hold the office of President of 
 Kinross. The reorganisation had become neces- 
 sary in consequence of the rapid development of 
 the work of the Society in connection with the 
 Territorial Force. During the year, in order to 
 complete the organisation, a Scottish Council was 
 appointed to manage the affairs of the Branch. 
 
 The demise of King Edward in 1910 dominated 
 and subordinated all other interests. I was privi- 
 leged to pay a tribute to his memory in an article 
 in the Empire Review. I devoted myself especi- 
 ally to the work of the King as Peacemaker. After 
 illustrating his activity in our foreign relations, 
 especially in establishing the Entente with France, 
 I pointed out that while the King was moulding,
 
 1 90 MILESTONES 
 
 out of traditions and interests that had been abid- 
 ing forces of separation, links of union in the 
 foreign and internal relations of the Empire, the 
 spirit of discord, cast out from its accustomed 
 areas of activity, had taken refuge in the bosom 
 of political parties in the United Kingdom. The 
 nation was divided against itself. The exasperated 
 passions of class, creed and race even of sex 
 threatened to destroy the legacy the King had 
 designed to bequeath to the Empire. Then he 
 died ; and in a moment the mute appeal of the 
 great Peacemaker touched the conscience of the 
 nation and silenced the clamours of faction. 
 
 In October the death of Prince Francis of Teck 
 evoked from the Empire fresh tokens of sympathy 
 with the Royal mourners. It revived our memory 
 of Their Majesties' sympathy with us on the death 
 of our soldier son, and Lady Bruce and I wrote to 
 Sir Arthur Bigge : 
 
 "Arnot Tower, 
 "Leslie, Fife, 
 
 " October 24, 1910. 
 
 "Dear Sir Arthur Bigge, 
 
 "In a great sorrow of our lives, on the 
 death of our Son, we received from Their 
 Majesties the King and Queen a gracious message 
 of sympathy. In ever grateful memory we ask to
 
 1909 TO 1914 
 
 be allowed to offer to Their Majesties an expres- 
 sion of our sympathy in the sad loss they have 
 suffered by the death of His Serene Highness 
 Prince Francis of Teck. 
 " We are, 
 
 " Yours very truly, 
 
 " CHAS. BRUCE." 
 "CLARA BRUCE." 
 
 We received a gracious reply : 
 
 " Marlborough House, 
 "Pall Mall, S.W., 
 
 "25th October 1910. 
 
 " Dear Sir Charles, 
 
 "The King and Queen are greatly 
 touched by your kind words of sympathy in their 
 fresh sorrow, and command me to thank you and 
 Lady Bruce sincerely. 
 
 " Yours very truly, 
 
 " ARTHUR BIGGE." 
 
 In November the work to which I had devoted 
 five years of strenuous labour, The Broad Stone of 
 Empire, was published. It contains chapters or 
 groups of chapters on the Colonial Office and the 
 Colonial Governor, on Local Government, on Law,
 
 1 92 MILESTONES 
 
 Labour, Race, Health, Education, Religion, Agri- 
 culture, Forestry, Commerce, Transport, Imperial 
 Communications, Finance, Expansion, Defence, 
 and, finally, the Crown as a link of Empire. In 
 the compilation of this work I had been assisted 
 by the most eminent authorities I could consult, 
 and I attach particular value to an Appendix, in 
 which the systems of law obtaining in every one 
 of the Crown Colonies are exhibited, by .Mr. 
 Edward Manson, one of the Editors of the 
 Journal of the Society of Comparative Legislation. 
 As far as I am aware, the information contained in 
 this Appendix had never before been summarised. 
 Nor do I know any other volume from which it 
 can be obtained. The King was pleased to accept 
 a copy of my work. It brought me many con- 
 gratulations from men of eminence at home and 
 abroad, and was favourably reviewed in the leading 
 organs of public opinion throughout the Empire. 
 It brought me two communications which revived 
 pleasant memories of my connection half a century 
 before with America and Russia. From the Uni- 
 versity of Yale I received letters of congratulation 
 from survivors of my fellow-collegians. From St. 
 Petersburg I received a letter from the Imperial 
 Academy which I need hardly say I value highly :
 
 1909 TO 1914 193 
 
 "le 28 Janvier 1911. 
 
 " Monsieur, 
 
 " L' Academic Imperiale des Sciences de 
 St. Petersbourg m'a charge de vous presenter ses 
 sinceres remerciements pour 1'aimable envoi de 
 votre ouvrage interessant : The Broad Stone of 
 Empire. 
 
 " Votre aimable lettre nous rappelle au temps 
 quand le regrette O. Bohtlingk presentait votre 
 travail a 1' Academic. 
 
 " Comme sanscritiste je tiens a noter que ce 
 travail rut accepte tres favorablement par les 
 specialistes et il n'est qu'a regretter pour 1'ptude 
 du Sanscrit, que vous n'ayez point continue des 
 travaux si brillamment commences. 
 
 " Agreez, Monsieur, Passurance de mon pro- 
 fond estime et de ma consideration distinguee. 
 
 " SERGE D'OLDENBURG." 
 
 While my book was in the press an incident I 
 had not contemplated supplied a fresh link in the 
 chain of sympathy which bound me to Mauritius. 
 In 1909 a Royal Commission was sent to the 
 Colony with wide powers, the immediate issue 
 being its financial position. When the Report of 
 the Commission came into my hands, Lord Elgin, 
 who had consulted me on the financial question, 
 had been succeeded by Lord Crewe. I requested
 
 1 94 MILESTONES 
 
 him to give me an opportunity to reply to some 
 parts of the evidence which directly concerned 
 myself. His reply was that he could not find in 
 the Report anything in the nature of a personal 
 attack on myself, and that he did not " think it 
 necessary to trouble me " (a grand official formula) 
 by calling on me for a defence of my policy. I 
 was to learn later that when the Report was 
 received in Mauritius, the unofficial members of 
 the legislature had adopted a similar course, and 
 had moved a resolution " that the Council request 
 that before carrying out any of the recommenda- 
 tions of the Commission the Secretary of State 
 may be pleased to give the Council an opportunity 
 to make known their views." A Memorial to the 
 Secretary of State from the Chamber of Agricul- 
 ture followed. But the action of the Colony met 
 with no more success than my own. I adopted 
 what seemed the only possible course. The Broad 
 Stone of Empire, though printed, had not yet been 
 published, so I drew up my reply to the Report 
 of the Commission and had it printed as an Appen- 
 dix to my work. At the same time I transmitted 
 a revised proof to the Colony, where it was pub- 
 lished in full. In this document I summed up the 
 recommendations of the Commission in these 
 terms : 
 
 " The Commission now advise that, as an
 
 1909 TO 1914 195 
 
 appropriate method of commemorating the cen- 
 tenary of British rule, the policy of a hundred 
 years should be abandoned in favour of a policy 
 which is its direct negation. The Mauritian com- 
 munity are to be excluded from the highest 
 appointments of trust and responsibility ; the 
 educational system constructed to train them to a 
 capacity to hold such appointments is to be 
 destroyed. The declared opinion of the Chair- 
 man is in favour of withdrawing support from the 
 religious agencies which have been the auxiliaries 
 of education. The Boards, constructed in the 
 spirit of the municipal institutions of the United 
 Kingdom, and which served as schools of training 
 in the arts of administration, are to be abolished. 
 The policy of later years, which has recognised the 
 health of the people as the foundation of a capable 
 community, and has made it a matter of the first 
 concern to reduce the death-rate and to engage the 
 public opinion of the community as an ally and 
 auxiliary of government in the exercise of the 
 policy, is to be succeeded by a policy the avowed 
 purpose of which is to override the public 
 sentiment. 
 
 "A study of the Report and evidence make it 
 clear that the principal recommendations of the 
 Commission are in favour of restoring methods of 
 administration which have been tried and deliber-
 
 196 MILESTONES 
 
 ately abandoned because they have failed. Cer- 
 tainly not the least extraordinary among these is 
 the recommendation that in a community from 
 whose memory the methods of slavery have not 
 yet faded away in a community penetrated with 
 a sense of gratitude for redemption from those 
 methods the use of corporal punishment is to be 
 restored as a cheap and drastic agent and instru- 
 ment of the new policy." 
 
 The publication of my review of the Report 
 brought me letters of congratulation and thanks 
 from representatives of every section of the 
 community. 
 
 In 1910 the demise of King Edward had con- 
 centrated all Imperial and national interests. In 
 1911 they moved in a circle round the Coronation 
 of King George. Among the documents which 
 will, I hope, be preserved as an heirloom in our 
 family is the card of invitation " To be present at 
 the Abbey Church of Westminster on the 22nd 
 day of June," sent to Lady Bruce and myself by 
 the Earl Marshal By Command of the King. At 
 the Coronation of King Edward we had been 
 unable to accept a similar invitation because the 
 Secretary of State for the Colonies had thought 
 that a critical state of affairs demanded my pre- 
 sence as His Majesty's representative in Mauri-
 
 1909 TO 1914 197 
 
 tius. On this occasion we had the honour of being 
 present, an honour which, as it did not flow out 
 of hereditary qualification, I felt entitled to con- 
 sider as the reward of a long life of service to the 
 Crown. 
 
 Within a few days I had a welcome opportunity 
 to make public profession of the principles and 
 policies by which my services had been guided and 
 guarded. 
 
 In response to the invitation of the Victoria 
 Institute, I delivered an Address at the Annual 
 Summer Meeting of the Institute on 26th June on 
 " The True Temper of Empire." Taking my 
 text from Bacon's Essay of Empire , I defined the 
 true temper of Empire as a temper which " mingles 
 wisely and in fit proportions" the sovereignty of 
 the central authority with the liberties of the con- 
 stituent areas. Submitting as a self-evident pro- 
 position that the existence of the British Empire 
 depends on a recognition of the United Kingdom 
 as the seat of a sovereign authority, and on the 
 methods of exercise of this authority in relation 
 to the Dominions, India, and the Crown Colonies, 
 I proceeded to discuss the true temper of Empire 
 in the exercise of this authority in politics, 
 economics and defence. In the term { politics } I 
 included all that relates to executive, legislative 
 and social functions ; in the term * economics ' all
 
 198 MILESTONES 
 
 that relates to the development and distribution of 
 natural resources ; in the term c defence ' all that 
 relates to maintenance of internal order and pro- 
 tection against foreign aggression. I concluded 
 in these words : 
 
 " It is always perilous to mark off history into 
 epochs fixed by accession of sovereigns, but I 
 venture to fix the date from which the true temper 
 of Empire has been kept without solution of con- 
 tinuity by the Sovereign of the British Empire as 
 the date of the Coronation of Queen Victoria. 
 The Coronation of King George and Queen Mary 
 may be accepted as a ceremonial trial and assay of 
 the perpetuity of the temper." 
 
 My Address was corollary to a Loyal Address 
 to Their Majesties the King and Queen adopted 
 at the meeting, signed on behalf of the Council 
 and Members of the Institute by the President, 
 Lord Halsbury : 
 
 " The Members and Associates of the Victoria 
 Institute or Philosophical Society of Great Britain, 
 assembled on the occasion of their Annual Summer 
 Meeting, and within a few days of the Coronation 
 of His Majesty King George V. and of Her 
 Majesty Queen Mary, desire humbly to assure 
 Their Majesties of their deep and loyal devotion, 
 and to express the hope that Their Majesties' reign, 
 now so auspiciously begun, may be marked by
 
 1909 TO 1914 199 
 
 the progress of philosophical and scientific thought 
 hand in hand, with a deep reverence for the Great 
 Truths of Holy Scripture, and that Their Majesties 
 may ever reign in the hearts of a thoughtful and 
 Christian people." 
 
 In July Lady Bruce and I were honoured by 
 invitations to be present at the Coronation cere- 
 monials in Scotland. They included the Dedica- 
 tion of the Chapel of the Order of the Thistle, a 
 Levee, a Court, a Garden Party and a Dinner. 
 On the occasion of the Dinner, the many gracious 
 proofs of Their Majesties' remembrance and sym- 
 pathy we had received since their visit to Mauri- 
 tius were renewed. Her Majesty spoke to Lady 
 Bruce of her recollections of a visit to Loch Leven, 
 intimately connected with my ancestral home and 
 memories of my soldier son. 
 
 Within a few days of the Scottish ceremonials 
 I had an opportunity of developing a principal 
 point of my Address at the Victoria Institute, in 
 an essay on "The Modern Conscience in Relation 
 to the Treatment of Dependent Peoples and Com- 
 munities," communicated to the First Universal 
 Congress of Races opened in the great hall of the 
 University of London on 26th July. The object 
 of the Congress was to discuss, in the light of 
 science and the modern conscience, the general 
 relations subsisting between the peoples of the
 
 200 MILESTONES 
 
 West and those of the East, "with a view to 
 encouraging between them a fuller understanding, 
 the most friendly feelings and a heartier co-opera- 
 tion." The method adopted was to invite repre- 
 sentatives of East and West to submit their views 
 in a series of papers on the problems of social 
 political life common to all civilisations, but which 
 East and West, Orient and Occident, have 
 attempted to solve by diversity of process having 
 its origin in diversity of environment. The papers 
 and the opinions set out in them were submitted as 
 the basis of discussion at the sessions of the Con- 
 gress, and exhibited an altogether unexpected unity 
 of motive and purpose among the contributors. 
 This unity was maintained throughout the ses- 
 sional discussions. Every speech and every phrase 
 acclaimed was a profession of faith on the part of 
 representatives of the West in the Christian 
 formula, " Do unto others as ye would they should 
 do unto you," and on the part of representatives 
 of the East in the corollary formula accepted at a 
 period long anterior to Christianity, " Do nothing 
 to others which you do not wish they should do 
 to you." Either formula is an expression of the 
 fundamental principle underlying the policy of 
 British rule in Asia. In conclusion, I submitted 
 that in the treatment of dependent peoples and 
 communities the modern conscience rejects as a
 
 1909 TO 1914 2OI 
 
 fallacy the claim of Western civilisation to a mono- 
 poly of the capacity of self-government based on 
 an indivisible interrelation between European 
 descent, Christianity, and the so-called white 
 colour. It recognises that while this interrelation 
 has evolved a capacity for self-government in an 
 appropriate environment, a similar capacity has 
 been evolved by an interrelation of other races, 
 creeds and colours appropriate to other environ- 
 ments. It maintains, therefore, that the conflict 
 between West and East must be adjusted on the 
 same principle that has adjusted the conflicts of 
 race and creed in the West, the principle of free- 
 dom interpreted as liberty of person and conscience 
 and equality of opportunity for all, without dis- 
 tinction of race, creed, or colour, under a settled 
 government. 
 
 History, reason, and recent experience in Japan 
 warn us that the adjustment must be made not in 
 the spirit of the popular refrain, " East is East and 
 West is West," but in the spirit of a nobler poetic 
 formula 
 
 " God's is the Occident, 
 
 God's is the Orient." 
 
 XFOf 
 
 The date of the Congress was happily 
 tune, falling within the interval between the 
 central ceremonies of the Coronation in West-
 
 202 MILESTONES 
 
 minster, with its subsidiary ceremonials in Ireland, 
 Wales and Scotland, and the contemplated Corona- 
 tion Durbar in India. 
 
 In anticipation of the Coronation Durbar, I had 
 been invited by the Northern Newspaper Syndicate 
 to write an essay on "What the Coronation 
 Durbar means to India." Through the agency of 
 the Syndicate it was widely circulated, and I have 
 reason to hope that it contributed something to a 
 more general appreciation of the political and 
 economic interdependence of the component parts 
 of the Empire. One result of the Coronation 
 ceremonies in the United Kingdom had been to 
 concentrate men's thoughts on the local traditions 
 of Ireland, Wales and Scotland, and the anticipa- 
 tion of the Durbar had already led to concentration 
 on the traditions of India. The aim of my essay 
 was to recall that the traditions of the sixteenth 
 century in England in their association with self- 
 government, presented a singular analogy to the 
 traditions of the sixteenth century in India. I 
 illustrated this analogy by a comparison of the 
 principles and policies of the reign of Akbar, the 
 most illustrious of the Moghul Emperors, from 
 1556 to 1605, with the principles and policies of 
 the nearly coincident Elizabethan Era, and I pro- 
 ceeded to illustrate their consistency with the 
 principles and policies of the Victorian Era.
 
 1909 TO 1914 2O3 
 
 Referring to the function of the Crown to be 
 exercised by the Queen in reconciling the concep- 
 tions of East and West in respect of the place of 
 women in civil and domestic life, I concluded as 
 follows : 
 
 "An Indian writer has drawn attention to the 
 significance of the presence in England of Indian 
 ladies, as the Maharani of Baroda and the Begum 
 of Bhopal, in connection with the Coronation 
 ceremonies in London. While giving a charming 
 picture of the home life and activities of Indian 
 purdah ladies, he rightly emphasises the interest 
 they have taken in all their observant eyes have 
 seen through their veils as an indication that 
 women are taking their place side by side with 
 men in the great work that has to be done to their 
 mutual aid and strengthening. In the same spirit 
 the present position of woman in the West and in 
 the East was discussed at the Universal Races 
 Congress held in England shortly after the Corona- 
 tion. It was urged that the woman of the East 
 is already engaged in a process of self-transforma- 
 tion which can only end by endowing her with a 
 full measure of civic and intellectual personality. 
 
 "At the Coronation Durbar Queen-Empress 
 Mary's gracious presence will be a symbol of 
 conciliation between the purdah ladies, and the 
 religion underlying their system, and the mem-
 
 204 MILESTONES 
 
 sahib, and the religion underlying her life of social 
 service the purdah ladies satisfied with their 
 home for the centre of their activities and the 
 material of their mental and emotional develop- 
 ment, the mem-sahib illustrating by her daily life 
 and example the conception of social service as the 
 basis of ascendancy." 
 
 Semper amari aliquid. In the harmony of the 
 Empire during the Coronation ceremonials there 
 was one discordant note. The Nationalist Party 
 in Ireland issued a manifesto in which they 
 declared that, ever since the foundation of the 
 United Irish Party in 1880, it had been their 
 settled practice and rule to isolate themselves from 
 all demonstrations of loyalty, participation in which 
 might be taken as a proof that Ireland is satisfied 
 with or acquiesces willingly in the system of 
 government under which she has lived since the 
 Union. Adhering to this rule, they refused to 
 associate themselves with the other representatives 
 of the component parts of the Empire on the 
 occasion of the Coronation of King George V. 
 The manifesto closed with a declaration that when 
 the day shall come that the King will enter the 
 Irish capital to reopen the ancient Parliament of 
 Ireland he will obtain from the Irish people a 
 reception as enthusiastic as ever welcomed a British 
 monarch in any part of his dominions.
 
 1909 TO 1914 205 
 
 Confident in my belief in the possibility of such 
 a day, I wrote in the April number of the British 
 Empire Review an article on " Ireland's Place in 
 the British Empire." After a summary of the 
 history of the English in Ireland for seven hundred 
 years, I advocated the solution of the Irish Problem 
 on the federal principle. By Federalism I mean 
 a large devolution of local powers to local legisla- 
 tures under a strengthened central authority not 
 only claiming nominal authority but equipped with 
 effective control. I still believe that by Federalism 
 Ireland may be converted from a centre for the 
 propaganda of disloyalty and disintegration to a 
 centre for the propaganda of union and loyalty, and 
 that the day will come when the King will be 
 welcomed in the capital of Ireland with a reception 
 as enthusiastic as ever welcomed a British monarch 
 in any part of his dominions. 
 
 Among many assurances of sympathy with the 
 principles I advocated, I received a letter of 
 encouragement from Mr. John Redmond : 
 
 " House of Commons, 
 " 1 1 th April 1911. 
 
 "Dear Sir Charles, 
 
 "I am much obliged to you for your 
 courtesy in sending me a copy of the British 
 Empire Review, containing your article on Ire-
 
 206 MILESTONES 
 
 land's place in the British Empire. I have read 
 the article with much interest, and in view of the 
 interest which you appear to take in this matter, I 
 have taken the liberty of asking my colleague, 
 Mr. Stephen Gwynn, M.P., to communicate with 
 you, as he may be in a position to place at your 
 disposal some literature which may be of some use 
 to you. 
 
 " With kind regards and many thanks, 
 
 " Believe me, 
 
 " Very truly yours, 
 
 "J. E. REDMOND." 
 
 Mr. Stephen Gwynn was good enough to realise 
 Mr. Redmond's hopes, and himself published an 
 article drawing particular attention to my summary 
 of the history of the English in Ireland. 
 
 The year 1912 was a year of comparative rest 
 after the activities of 1911. In February I pub- 
 lished in a volume entitled The True Temper 
 of Empire the more important of my addresses 
 and essays of the previous year, revised and 
 adapted to the new form of publication. It was 
 reviewed as widely and as flatteringly as my Broad 
 Stone of Empire. The King was pleased to accept 
 a copy, and a gracious acknowledgment was made 
 to me through Lord Stamfordham :
 
 1909 TO 1914 2O7 
 
 " Buckingham Palace, 
 
 " 2 1 st February 1912. 
 
 " My dear Sir Charles, 
 
 " I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your 
 letter of the i8th February and the accompanying 
 copy of your Book The True Temper of Empire, 
 which I have laid before the King. In reply I am 
 commanded to convey to you the expression of 
 His Majesty's best thanks for the same. 
 " Yours very truly, 
 
 " STAMFORDHAM." 
 
 The publication led to a request for a contribu- 
 tion to the African Times and Orient Review, and 
 on 4th May the Editor wrote to me : 
 
 " 2 and 3 Eldon Street, 
 "London, E.G., 
 
 " iv.v.i9i2. 
 
 " Dear Sir Charles Bruce, 
 
 "I cannot thank you sufficiently for 
 your encouraging contribution, which I shall be 
 delighted to publish in our symposium, notwith- 
 standing its length. 
 
 " I shall ever keep your kind and able sugges- 
 tions before me. 
 
 " Would to Heaven there were more Britons
 
 208 MILESTONES 
 
 of your way of thinking ; there would then be 
 no cause for friction or racial enmity. 
 
 "Assuring you that I shall ever do my utmost 
 to merit your rich opinion, 
 
 " I am, Sir, 
 "Your obt. servant, 
 
 "DUSE MOHAMED, Ed." 
 
 Early in the year, on the invitation of the Duke 
 of Devonshire, President of the British Empire 
 League, I had joined a Committee to make 
 arrangements for giving Sir John Henniker 
 Heaton a Public Welcome on his return from a 
 visit to Australia, and present him with an Album 
 in which were inscribed over a thousand signa- 
 tures. The preface to the Album concluded in 
 these terms : 
 
 " In the annals of our time that which you have 
 striven to obtain for those who are far sundered by 
 sea and land will stand out as one of the most 
 precious blessings of civilisation. Governments 
 and Commerce reap from it an abundant harvest 
 of profit and convenience, but that which will 
 commend it not least both to yourself and to the 
 historian of the future is the fact that the poorest 
 and humblest in every clime are the chief gainers 
 by cheap and speedy communications." 
 
 Attached to the Album were expressions of
 
 1909 TO 1914 2O9 
 
 appreciation by many of the signatories, and I 
 wrote the following : 
 
 " For a quarter of a century Sir Henniker 
 Heaton has devoted himself to the task of linking 
 by the ties of mutual interests and interdependence 
 the trinity of forces that underlie the unity of 
 British Imperialism. Briefly, they are the affec- 
 tion for the old country expressed in the song 
 { Auld Lang Syne ' ; the economic interests that 
 demand possession and power and find pride of 
 expression in 'Rule Britannia' ; and the senti- 
 ment of loyalty to the Crown expressed in the 
 National Anthem. The Imperial penny postage 
 system represented the triumph of these forces 
 over the exigencies of party politics and the vis 
 inertia of bureaucracy. It was logically followed 
 by Sir Henniker Heaton's determination to bring 
 the Oversea Dominions of the Crown into simul- 
 taneous action with the heart of the Empire, by 
 the mechanism of a nervous system of land, marine 
 and air telegraphy, and so to supplement the 
 Imperial penny postage rate by an Imperial penny- 
 a-word telegram rate. May the success of the 
 earlier enterprise be an earnest of triumph in the 
 new endeavour." 
 
 The presentation took place at the Guildhall on 
 1 1 th June, Earl Curzon of Kedleston presiding. 
 
 In June Their Majesties honoured Harrow
 
 210 MILESTONES 
 
 School with their presence on Speech Day. Lady 
 Bruce and I were guests of the Head Master on 
 this occasion. The proceedings were similar to 
 those on the occasion of King Edward's visit in 
 1905. At the door of the Chapel the King spoke 
 to me with his usual consideration, and a few days 
 later the Head Master wrote : 
 
 " The Head Master's, 
 " Harrow, 
 
 "June 19, '12. 
 " Dear Sir Charles Bruce, 
 
 "Thank you so much for writing. It is 
 so pleasant to know that it was thought to be such 
 a success, and so kind of you to take the trouble to 
 write and say so. 
 
 " I showed their Majesties the drawing of your 
 Son's sad but glorious death in the Vaughan 
 Library ; and I think you will like to know they 
 had not at all forgotten, and were much interested 
 with the memento of it. 
 
 "Yours v. truly, 
 
 "LIONEL FORD." 
 
 Later in the year, Maurice and Rolland, associ- 
 ated in the drawing in the Vaughan Library, were 
 again associated in a memorial erected in the Church 
 of Monte Carlo by Holland's mother, and bearing 
 this inscription :
 
 1909 TO 1914 211 
 
 To the dear memory of 
 MAJOR GEORGE MURRAY HOLLAND, V.C., 
 
 only son of 
 
 Major Patrick Murray Rolland, R.A., 
 and of his wife Albinia (nata Crofton). 
 He won the Victoria Cross in Somaliland 
 
 for the rescue 
 
 of his mortally wounded comrade, 
 
 Captain Bruce, R.A., eldest son of 
 
 Sir Charles and Lady Bruce. 
 
 Both Harrovians, lovely and pleasant 
 in their lives in death re-united. 
 
 On 22nd November, in St. Paul's Cathedral, the 
 fixing of my Banner over my Stall in the Chapel of 
 St. Michael and St. George took place with the 
 customary ceremonies. The ceremonial had a 
 singular interest in family memories it recalled. 
 On the 5th of June 1795 it was resolved in the 
 House of Commons 
 
 " That a humble address be presented to His 
 Majesty, that he will be graciously pleased that a 
 monument be erected in the Cathedral of St. 
 Paul's, London, to the memory of Major-General 
 Thomas Dundas, as a testimony of the grateful 
 sense entertained by this House of the eminent 
 services which he rendered to his country, particu-
 
 212 MILESTONES 
 
 larly in the reduction of the French West Indian 
 Islands, and which occasioned a gross insult to his 
 remains in the Island of Guadeloupe." 
 
 Major-General Thomas Dundas was my great- 
 grandfather, and after the ceremonial, a visit was 
 paid to the monument. 
 
 In 1913 I was for some time prostrated by 
 illness, and unable to fulfil many engagements in 
 connection with the work of the societies and 
 agencies with which I had been in co-operation 
 since my retirement from official service. Our 
 relations with Germany were now strained, and I 
 may here interrupt my narrative to give a brief 
 summary of my endeavours from the date of my 
 retirement in the cause of peace. 
 
 In June 1904 I contributed to the Empire 
 Review an article on " The Political Relations of 
 Great Britain with France and Germany." Anglo- 
 French relations had during the previous twelve 
 months passed through three stages a period of 
 rapprochement, marked by the visits of King 
 Edward to France, and of President Loubet to 
 England ; a period of increasing purpose marked 
 by the Agreement, providing for the settlement 
 by arbitration of certain classes of questions which 
 might arise between the two countries, signed in 
 London on I4th October 1903 ; and a period of 
 entente marked by the Agreements and Declara-
 
 1909 TO 1914 213 
 
 tions of 8th April 1904. I concluded with an 
 expression of hope, which I reproduce in full : 
 
 "The isolation of Germany cannot long con- 
 tinue without inconvenience to the peace of 
 Europe ; a rapprochement with England, in the 
 way of which there can be no insuperable obstacle, 
 might well smooth the road for a rapprochement 
 with France, and the peace of Europe would be 
 secured. Then but certainly not till then the 
 question of reduction of armaments may come 
 within the horizon of practical politics. Lord 
 Lansdowne, in his Despatch of April 8th, points 
 out that the movement in favour of a settlement 
 of all differences between Great Britain and France 
 received a powerful impetus from the visit paid to 
 France by His Majesty King Edward VII, and by 
 the return visit of President Loubet. It is not 
 too much to hope that before long a similar and 
 not less powerful impetus may be given to the 
 realisation of Lord Lansdowne's wish that the 
 Anglo-French Agreement may afford a precedent 
 which other nations may follow, and so contribute 
 to the maintenance of international good-will and 
 the preservation of the general peace. Within the 
 last few days we have learnt that the King has 
 accepted an invitation to visit the German Emperor 
 at Kiel, and we may presume that the visit will be 
 returned. Granting that these visits may have no
 
 2i 4 MILESTONES 
 
 political object, a grateful country cannot be un- 
 mindful of all that followed His Majesty's visits 
 to nations of the Latin race, and is permitted to 
 look forward with confidence to an early establish- 
 ment of friendly relations with Germany, not only 
 without prejudice to our entente with France, but 
 with the sympathy and goodwill of all the great 
 powers of the Latin race." 
 
 The article was favourably noticed in Germany, 
 and later in the year I received a message from 
 Count Bernstorff asking me to call at the Embassy 
 on my next visit to London. On my visit he 
 gave me a message from Prince von Bulow thank- 
 ing me for my article, and expressing a hope that 
 I would continue to advocate the cause of peaceful 
 relations. In October I received an invitation to 
 dine with Count Bernstorff. I met some members 
 of the Austrian Embassy, and had a very pleasant 
 opportunity to revive recollections of my years of 
 residence in Germany and Austria. Soon after I 
 received an invitation from the Editor of the 
 Deutsche Revue to contribute an article. In 
 December my first contribution appeared, entitled 
 Was wird England fur den Frieden tun? The 
 question immediately at issue was whether the 
 good offices of England and Germany might be 
 exercised to restore peace between Russia and 
 Japan. In July 1905 I contributed an article
 
 1909 TO 1914 215 
 
 under the heading 1st ein Krieg zwischen England 
 und Deutschland moglich? and in December an 
 article entitled Grossbritannien und Deutschland ; 
 der Sieg des gesunden Menschenverstandes. On 
 December 4 Count Bernstorff wrote to me : 
 
 " German Embassy, 
 " 9 Carlton House Terrace, S.W., 
 
 " December 4th, 1905. 
 " Dear Sir Charles, 
 
 " Many thanks for sending me the excel- 
 lent article you contributed to the Deutsche Revue. 
 You will have read the Ambassador's speech. I 
 think matters are really looking better." 
 " Believe me, 
 
 "Yours sincerely, 
 
 "J. BERNSTORFF." 
 
 In 1906 Count Bernstorff was appointed 
 Consul-General for Germany in Egypt, and in a 
 letter of congratulation I expressed a hope that 
 he might be able in his new office to render power- 
 ful support to the cause of peace. He replied : 
 
 " 20 Grosvenor Gardens, 
 "London, S.W., 
 
 Dear Sir Charles, " March 9 th . 1906. 
 
 "Many thanks for your kind letter and 
 congratulations. It was so very good of you to
 
 216 MILESTONES 
 
 think of writing. My appointment is not yet 
 officially published, so I shall in every case still 
 remain here for weeks, perhaps even for months. 
 We therefore hope to see you before we leave 
 London. 
 
 " Countess Bernstorff joins me in kindest 
 regards. 
 
 " Yours very sincerely, 
 
 "J. BERNSTORFF." 
 
 It was some time before I made any further 
 contribution to the Deutsche Revue, but I joined 
 the British-German Friendship Society, and became 
 an active associate in the propaganda of the 
 National Peace Council and its allied Associations. 
 But the more actively I exerted myself in the cause 
 of peace, the more convinced I became that peace 
 depended mainly on the supremacy of British Sea 
 Power, and in this sense I contributed an article to 
 the Deutsche Revue in October 1912 on Die 
 Englische Flotte als Werkzeug des W ell fne dens. 
 An English translation of this article was pub- 
 lished by the British-German Friendship Society. 
 At the same time I called attention in the English 
 press to the danger of relying on what I called 
 " an Army of Recruits which could only be con- 
 sidered a quantite negligeable as enemies or allies." 
 
 In April 1913 I contributed a further article on
 
 1909 TO 1914 2I 7 
 
 Eine Brticke zwischen der Tripelentente und dem 
 Dreibund. I argued that the only means of 
 saving Europe from the danger of years of unrest 
 and the burden of constantly increasing armaments 
 was a bridge between the Triple Alliance and the 
 Triple Entente, and that such a bridge could only 
 be constructed by an understanding between the 
 two most powerful partners on each side. 
 
 In March 1914 I made my last contribution to 
 the cause of peace in an article in the Deutsche 
 Revue, Die Englisch-Deutschen Beziehungen und 
 der Weltfriede. In this I invited particular atten- 
 tion to a speech made at Newcastle by the German 
 Ambassador, Prince Lichnowsky, a few days 
 before my article was published, in which he said : 
 
 " It has ever been my wish to tread in the foot- 
 steps of my predecessors and to cherish the spirit 
 of friendship which has enabled our two powerful 
 nations to look back on centuries of undisturbed 
 peace and friendly activity, for I am firmly con- 
 vinced that by means of a complete and mutual 
 understanding, and a still better realisation of the 
 possibilities of a peaceful development, our peace- 
 ful relations will be maintained for ever." 
 
 I believe that the verdict of history will be that 
 on the outbreak of war only those were entitled 
 to consider that they had done their whole duty to 
 the Empire who had been equally active in their
 
 218 MILESTONES 
 
 endeavours to secure the maintenance of peace and 
 adequate preparation for war. I count myself 
 among the number of those who, through half a 
 century of public and private life, have in this 
 respect acquitted themselves of the whole duty of 
 man. 
 
 On the outbreak of war it was a matter of 
 supreme satisfaction to myself and to the sur- 
 vivors among my contemporaries in the service 
 of the Crown in these territories to watch the 
 unanimity and vigour of their rally to the defence 
 of the Empire, and the generosity of their contri- 
 butions to the requirements of the war in men, 
 money and materials. I made this the theme of 
 an article in the Edinburgh Review in October 
 1915, and availed myself of the occasion to set out 
 once more the principles and policies which had 
 brought about this result.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 NEARING JORDAN 
 
 MY main object in writing these pages has been 
 to illustrate the interrelations between a Father 
 and Mother to whom it was given to live a long 
 life in the service of the Empire, the Peoples 
 among whom they laboured, a Son who died, and 
 a King for whom they lived and he died. To what 
 has been said of the sympathy arising out of these 
 relations I will only add a brief record of the 
 sympathy accorded to me on the occasion of Lady 
 Bruce's death. 
 
 Lady Bruce, who had been in failing health for 
 some time, lived to have the memories of our 
 son's death recalled by the death in action in the 
 Great War of Major-General Gough, V.C. She 
 died in Edinburgh on I5th April 1916, and was 
 buried in the family mausoleum on the shore of 
 Loch Leven. The gracious sympathy of Their 
 Majesties was conveyed to me in a letter from 
 Lord Stamfordham :
 
 220 MILESTONES 
 
 " Buckingham Palace, 
 
 " iyth April 1916. 
 " Dear Sir Charles Bruce, 
 
 "The King and Queen are grieved to 
 hear of the sad loss which has befallen you, and 
 offer you the expression of their true sympathy. 
 
 "Their Majesties will never forget the kind 
 hospitality which they received from Lady Bruce 
 and yourself on the occasion of their visit to 
 Mauritius nearly fifteen years ago. 
 " Yours very truly, 
 
 " STAMFORDHAM." 
 
 The funeral was the occasion of many demon- 
 strations of affection on the part of representatives 
 of our hereditary association with the counties 
 of Kinross, Clackmannan and Fife. From the 
 Minutes of a Meeting of the Clackmannan and 
 Kinross Branch of the Red Cross Society the 
 following extract was communicated to me : 
 
 "Lady Mar made a kindly and touching refer- 
 ence to the loss the Branch had sustained in the 
 death of Lady Bruce, who became President of 
 Kinross-shire in 1906, when the Red Cross Society 
 was started, and who took a very keen and helpful 
 interest in all matters connected with Red Cross 
 work. At the funeral the Red Cross was repre- 
 sented by your Secretary, and the Voluntary Aid
 
 NEARING JORDAN 221 
 
 Detachments by the Senior Commandant Men's 
 V.A.D., the Senior Commandant Women's 
 V.A.D., one member from each Women's V.A.D. 
 in Kinross-shire, two men from K/i V.A.D. , and 
 two patients from Tillyrie Hospital, under com- 
 mand of the Director. Wreaths were sent by the 
 Clackmannan and Kinross-shire Branch and by the 
 Kinross-shire V.A.D. Headquarters in Glasgow 
 wrote : * We regret very much to hear of the death 
 of Lady Bruce. We are sure it will be a great 
 loss to the County.' 
 
 " The Secretary was instructed to convey the 
 sincere sympathy of Lady Mar and the Committee 
 to Sir Charles Bruce.' 3 
 
 From the Parish Minister of Leslie, Fife, then 
 on active service, I received the following letter: 
 
 " British Expeditionary Force, 
 "France, 2yth April 1916. 
 
 " My Dear Sir Charles, 
 
 " I had a letter yesterday from home, in 
 which my Wife conveyed the sad news of the 
 demise of Lady Bruce. I cannot tell you how 
 sorry I am. She will be greatly missed not only 
 by yourself and family, but by the whole com- 
 munity. I shall ever remember her kindness to 
 myself and Cadet Corps that day we visited Arnot
 
 222 MILESTONES 
 
 Tower. It was a great day in the lives of my 
 boys, and they have often spoken to me of it. 
 
 " I desire to offer you my sincerest sympathy, 
 and my earnest prayer is that our Heavenly Father 
 will give you abundantly of His grace and con- 
 solation in your sore bereavement. 
 
 " I have been doing work with the Y.M.C.A. 
 among the troops out here in France since the 
 beginning of the month, and will return home the 
 first week in July. 
 
 " Again expressing my deep sympathy, and with 
 warmest regards, 
 
 " Yours very sincerely, 
 
 " J. ROBERTSON MACGREGOR." 
 
 This was one of many letters received from 
 relatives and friends on service in the Western 
 and Eastern war zones, from Persia and Egypt. 
 
 From the Colonies I received, and continued to 
 receive for many weeks, letters of condolence and 
 sympathy. In June I received the following com- 
 munication from the Colonial Office : 
 
 " Downing Street, 
 
 " 1 9th June 1916. 
 " Sir, 
 
 "I am directed by Mr. Secretary Bonar 
 Law to convey to you, at the request of the 
 Governor of Mauritius, an expression of regret
 
 NEARING JORDAN 223 
 
 and sympathy on behalf of the Council of Govern- 
 ment and people of Mauritius on the melancholy 
 occasion of the death of Lady Bruce. 
 
 " I am, Sir, 
 "Your obedient servant, 
 
 "G. GRINDLE." 
 
 As regards my own activities in war time, I 
 had already, a year earlier, expressed their limita- 
 tions in a letter to The Times : 
 
 "Arnot Tower, 
 "Leslie, Fife, 
 
 "June 21, 1915. 
 Sir, 
 
 " I have this day remitted to The Times 
 my subscription for the coming year. I have now 
 been a subscriber to The Times for 64 years, and 
 my present subscription will, if I live, cover the 
 Both year of my life. My long official career in 
 different parts of the world has taught me to look 
 on The Times as a great national and Imperial 
 asset. In the present war the Hesiodic division of 
 labour, epya. vewv /3ov\ai re /mecrwv evyai re yepovrwv, 
 limits me to my prayers. And in none of my 
 prayers am I more earnest than in praying that 
 acting in the spirit of its great traditions the 
 influence of The Times may never cease to be 
 exercised in favour of ' peace with honour.' "
 
 224 MILESTONES 
 
 No letter that I have written to The Times has 
 ever brought me so many acknowledgments and 
 assurances of assent. They ranged from a post- 
 card written on the top of a London omnibus to 
 letters from the remotest parts of the Empire. 
 
 It was followed by a corollary letter in these 
 terms : 
 
 "Arnot Tower, 
 "Leslie, Fife, 
 
 "Oct. 19, 1915. 
 " Sir, 
 
 " May I be allowed a word of concurrence 
 with the opinions of Lord Bryce and Sir Edward 
 Clarke on the policy of air raid reprisals? A few 
 weeks ago you allowed me to give expression to 
 my prayer that the influence of The Times may 
 never cease to be exercised in favour of ' peace 
 with honour.' May I not add the corollary prayer 
 that the influence of The Times may never cease 
 to be exercised in favour of 'war with honour'? 
 In this war we claim, I believe justly, that the 
 Lord is on our side ; are we to fear a rupture of 
 the alliance if we carry it on with honour ? " 
 
 The limitations of age have not, however, 
 debarred me from the privilege of response to 
 appeals for my sympathy and counsel. Towards 
 the close of the year 1915 the Anti-Slavery and
 
 NEARING JORDAN 225 
 
 Aborigines Protection Society invited my counsel 
 and co-operation in some matters in which the 
 native communities of Africa and Asia are pre- 
 judiced by the operation of causes having their 
 origin in the war. A corollary question arising 
 out of the war was the place to be given to native 
 races in the discussion of peace terms. I was also 
 invited to join a Committee formed to watch the 
 proceedings before the Judicial Committee of the 
 Privy Council in an action brought to determine 
 the rights of the native occupants of unalienated 
 lands in Rhodesia. 
 
 My co-operation with the Society in another 
 matter of importance arose out of the riots which 
 broke out in Ceylon on the 28th of May 1915. 
 In October I received the following letter from 
 Mr. Perera, a Sinhalese, an Advocate of the 
 Supreme Court of Ceylon, and a Barrister-at-Law 
 of the Middle Temple : 
 
 " 5 Pump Court, 
 
 "Temple, E.C., 
 "Dear Sir, 6th October 1915. 
 
 " I feel it my duty to acquaint you with 
 what is happening in Ceylon, as an Official who 
 always sympathised with the Sinhalese people. 
 
 " I am sending you a copy of the letter and the 
 Memorandum of facts which I forwarded to the
 
 226 MILESTONES 
 
 Secretary of State for the Colonies a short time 
 ago, with the reply I received from him, together 
 with a letter I addressed to a public man who is 
 interested in the question, and to an ex-Ceylon 
 Governor. They will shew you how matters 
 stand. 
 
 " Will you be pleased to grant me an interview 
 at any hour and place convenient to you, in order 
 that I may take your advice on this matter, which 
 vitally affects my fellow-countrymen. 
 
 " I remain, 
 
 " Yours faithfully, 
 
 "EDWARD W. PERERA." 
 
 I was unable to go to London, but sent a 
 sympathetic reply, expressing my confident hope 
 that justice would be done. This letter was fol- 
 lowed by several further communications, including 
 a letter addressed to me by Mr. Perera and Mr. 
 D. B. Jayatilaka : 
 
 " 5 Pump Court, 
 
 "Temple, London, E.C., 
 
 " 1 8th January 1916. 
 " Sir, 
 
 " We have the honour to enclose for your 
 sympathetic consideration a Note on the recent 
 riots in Ceylon and the repressive measures taken 
 by the Colonial Government under Martial Law.
 
 NEARING JORDAN 227 
 
 It is a brief summary of a Memorial presented by 
 the Sinhalese people to the Secretary of State for 
 the Colonies. As the representatives of a small 
 but ancient race, with an historic past, consistently 
 loyal to the British Crown, we appeal to you for 
 your kind intervention to secure for us right and 
 redress. The Sinhalese are most anxious to obtain 
 an impartial Enquiry by Commissioners from 
 England ; it is the only remedy now left, as an 
 Order of Council of i2th August 1915 has in- 
 demnified the acts of the Ceylon Authorities. 
 " We remain, Sir, 
 
 "Yours faithfully, 
 
 "EDWARD W. PERERA, 
 "D. B. JAYATILAKA, 
 " Sinhalese Delegates from Ceylon." 
 
 The activity of the Society was not without a 
 measure of success. In July I received a letter 
 from the Secretary enclosing a communication 
 received from the Colonial Office : 
 
 "Downing Street, 
 
 " 2 ist July 1916. 
 " Sir, 
 
 " I am directed by Mr. Secretary Bonar 
 Law to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of 
 the 1 3th of July, relative to the enquiries to be
 
 228 MILESTONES 
 
 made into Court Martial cases in Ceylon, and to 
 inform you that the Governor of Ceylon has 
 announced that he will personally investigate any 
 cases brought to his notice, by petition or other- 
 wise, in which it is alleged that innocent persons 
 have been convicted of offences connected with the 
 late disturbances. 
 
 " I am, Sir, 
 "Your obedient servant, 
 
 "H. J. READ." 
 
 There will still remain the question whether 
 the Government of Ceylon adequately discharged 
 the duty which is the paramount function of Crown 
 Colony administration, the duty of prompt action 
 on the first signs of unrest arising from racial or 
 religious difference, in order to prevent the unrest 
 from breaking into open conflict. In this respect 
 the Ceylon riots present a striking analogy to the 
 recent rebellion in Ireland. 
 
 At the outbreak of war my son, Thomas Francis 
 Hope Bruce, born in Mauritius on fth January 
 1873, had served over eighteen years in the Office 
 of the Crown Agents for the Colonies, and has 
 continued to devote himself to his duties with the 
 increasing assiduity that the war has imposed on 
 every branch of the public service. 
 
 My youngest son, Eldred Henry Home Bruce,
 
 NEARING JORDAN 229 
 
 was born in Mauritius on 28th April 1874. Im- 
 mediately on the outbreak of the war, he anticipated 
 that the motor cycle would be likely to play a not 
 unimportant part in the work of military com- 
 munication. On the 5th of August, the day 
 following the declaration of war, he submitted his 
 views on the methods of motor cycle use and 
 service, and placed himself at the disposal of the 
 authorities for territorial service in the United 
 Kingdom. On the next day the services of cyclists 
 were invited by public notification, and my son 
 was accepted as Lance-Corporal in the Highland 
 Cyclists' Battalion, commanded by the Earl of 
 Rothes. On the 6th of September he was pro- 
 moted Corporal, having in the meantime been 
 selected for special duty. It would be difficult to 
 over-estimate the responsibility of the command 
 assigned to the Earl of Rothes, demanding inde- 
 fatigable energy and vigilance, and the exercise of 
 constant discretion and tact. My son's services 
 were on the I4th November rewarded by pro- 
 motion to the rank of Captain. 
 
 I will not close this narrative of my memories 
 without an appreciation of Lady Bruce's character 
 as my helpmate on my progress from this world to 
 the next. From first to last she was guided by the 
 spirit of the true maternity in her relations to our
 
 2 3 o MILESTONES 
 
 children and grandchildren. In the long periods 
 of separation from our sons, enforced by the 
 duties of my public career, this spirit found a 
 natural and ever- widen ing area of expansion in 
 devotion to the children of others and practical 
 sympathy with every living thing that appealed 
 for protection from the accidents of nature or the 
 designs of man. A very gallant Admiral once said 
 to her, "Lady Bruce, if you have a vacancy for a 
 dog, please consider me a candidate." 
 
 At the time of her death one who knew her 
 intimately wrote : " The record of a life lived 
 in care and thought for others, of unswerving 
 devotion to those who depended on her, of faith 
 and loyalty, of trouble and suffering nobly faced 
 and nobly surmounted, the memory of her beauty 
 and charm and wit, her many deeds of unselfish 
 kindness, and all that went to make up the pure 
 gold of her character refined through suffering, 
 these things will live in our hearts, as green as 
 to-day, while we live. But I doubt if anything 
 will do justice to her noble qualities, hidden some- 
 times by the nervous strain of pain and weakness 
 and its outward manifestation, but always there to 
 answer any call on her help or her courage. In her 
 example and character she has left to her grand- 
 children a priceless inheritance which whatever 
 befall them should help them to rise to it and to
 
 NEARING JORDAN 231 
 
 find that in quietness and confidence shall be their 
 strength." 
 
 Towards the close of her life she found her ideal 
 in the person of Cecilia de Noel in the romance of 
 Lanoe Falconer. And I feel that I cannot do better 
 than apply to Lady Bruce the appreciation of 
 Cecilia portrayed by Mrs. Molyneux in these 
 terms : 
 
 " Ever since I have known Cecilia I have always 
 felt that if all the world failed this would be left. 
 Not that I really imagined the world would fail 
 me, but you know how one imagines things, how 
 one asks oneself questions. If I was like this, if 
 I was like that, what should I do? I used to say 
 to myself, if the very worst happened to me, if I 
 was ill of some loathsome disease from which 
 everybody shrank away, or if my mind was un- 
 hinged and I was tempted with horrible tempta- 
 tions like I have read about, I would go to Cecilia. 
 She would not turn from me ; she would run 
 to meet me as the father in the parable did, 
 not because I was her friend, but because 
 I was in trouble. All who are in trouble are 
 Cecilia's friends, and she feels to them just as other 
 people feel towards their own children. And I 
 could tell her everything, show her everything. 
 Others feel the same ; I have heard them say so 
 men as well as women. I know why Cecilia's
 
 232 MILESTONES 
 
 pity is so reverent, so pure. A great London 
 doctor said to me once, * Remember, nothing is 
 shocking or disgusting to a doctor.' That is like 
 Cecilia. No suffering could ever be disgusting or 
 shocking to Cecilia, nor ridiculous, nor grotesque. 
 The more humiliating it was, the more pitiful it 
 would be to her. Anything that suffers is sacred 
 to Cecilia. She would comfort, as if she went on 
 her knees to one ; and her touch on one's wounds, 
 one's ugliest wounds, would be like," she hesi- 
 tated and looked about her in quest of a compari- 
 son, then, pointing to a picture over the door, a 
 picture of the Magdalene, kissing the bleeding 
 feet upon the Cross, ended, " like that." 
 
 GLASGOW: PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS BY ROBERT MACLEHOSB AND co. LTD.

 
 MILESTONES *"* 
 
 ON MY LONG JOURNEY 
 
 MEMORIES OF A COLONIAL GOVERNOR 
 
 BY 
 
 SIR CHARLES BRUCE, G.C.M.G. 
 
 One 'volume. Crown 8vo. Cloth 
 Five Shillings net 
 
 GLASGOW 
 
 $rinteb for the author at the gtuitemtg $ss bg 
 
 ROBERT MACLEHOSE & CO. LTD. 
 
 1917 
 
 OIR CHARLES BRUCE'S MEMORIES illus- 
 trate the life and work of a Colonial Governor 
 typical in his person of the trinity of the Empire 
 Great Britain, India and the Colonies. A Scotsman
 
 
 A UUU UcJb UUU 6 

 
 by heredity, born in India of parents intimately 
 associated with the rule of the East India Company, 
 his work as a Colonial Governor was dominated by 
 an hereditary spirit of sympathy developed by years 
 of study, followed by years of practical exercise in 
 appropriate environments. 
 
 After tracing the evolution of his hereditary tem- 
 perament in an Introductory Chapter, Sir Charles, in 
 the first part of his work, records the procession of 
 his studies in languages, literatures and religions, 
 and summarises the results of his administrative and 
 executive activities in binding the Crown Colonies 
 to Britain and India by the triple chain of poli- 
 tical, economic and social interests. The personal 
 narrative includes memories of a wife who was 
 a constant helpmate in every loyal service and of 
 a son who died a soldier's death on the field 
 of honour. 
 
 In the second part of his work Sir Charles traces 
 the activities of a retired Colonial Governor and 
 his wife in their ancestral environment in Scotland, 
 animated by the memories of their son and the 
 Imperial cause for which they had lived and he 
 had died. 
 
 - * *
 
 
 Their ancestral environment and the soul of 
 their son combined to associate them with keen in- 
 terest in the work of the Scottish Branch of the Red 
 Cross Society. Their Colonial service prompted 
 them to alliance with the principal agencies of 
 Imperial interests in Britain, such as the Royal 
 Colonial Institute, the Imperial Institute, the Schools 
 of Tropical Medicine, the Colonial Nursing Asso- 
 ciation, the British Empire League, the League 
 of the Empire, the Victoria League, the Victoria 
 Institute, the West India Committee. Last, but 
 not least, the memories of Lady Bruce and her 
 soldier son are associated in perpetual remembrance 
 with the work of the Gordon Boys' Home. 
 
 
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