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THE 
 
 LIFE AKD CORRESPONDENCE 
 
 HEMY ST.GEOEGE TUCKER, 
 
 LATE ACCOUNTANT-GENERAL OF BENGAL, 
 
 CHAIRMAN OE THE EAST INDIA COMPANY. 
 
 JOHN WILLIAM KAYE, 
 
 AUTHOR OF THE "HISTORY OF THE WAR IN AFGHANISTAN. 
 
 LONDON: 
 RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET, 
 
 JJublisljcr in rMnart) to i]cr ^njestt). 
 
 MDCCCLIV. 
 
 [T/ie right of publishing a French Translation of this work is reserved.] 
 
fc; 
 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 A WORK of this kind tells its own story so plainly, 
 that little prefatory remark need be made in the 
 shape of explanation or apology. I was requested 
 to write the Life of HENRY ST. GEORGE TUCKER ; 
 and believing that a Memoir of one, who throughout 
 the space of half a century took no unimportant 
 part in many of the great transactions of Indian 
 history, and who, in his participation in those trans- 
 actions, " did all like a man," would contribute 
 much both in the way of historical information and 
 personal example to the general stock of "things 
 worth knowing," I undertook to write it ; and the 
 present volume is the result of my endeavors. 
 
 I wish, however, to add, that for the publication 
 of whatsoever the Memoir contains, I, and I alone, 
 am responsible. It is based entirely on materials 
 derived from private sources. I have not received 
 the smallest assistance from any public body or any 
 official person. If there be anything in this volume 
 which ought not to be there, the indiscretion is 
 mine. I believe, however, that the faults of the 
 work are rather those of omission than commission. 
 Certainly they are in my own eyes. If any one 
 should think that I have inserted too much, and 
 reproach me for the insertion, I would beg him to 
 believe, that in consideration for what is called 
 "public convenience" a great inconvenience, be it 
 
iv PREFACE. 
 
 said, to the Public and what really is private 
 feeling, I have forborne even more than I have 
 adventured. 
 
 What's done ye partly may compute- 
 But know not what's resisted. 
 
 It would have been egotistical and presumptuous 
 in me to have said even this much, upon the cir- 
 cumstances under which the present work has been 
 written, if it had not been that, on a recent occasion, 
 these personal circumstances were much mis-stated 
 both in Parliament and by the Press ; and a great 
 Public Body identified with what was in reality but 
 a private undertaking. And, however willing I 
 may be, in all cases where others have assisted me, 
 to share with them the praise that may be con- 
 sidered my due, I wish to keep the blame undi- 
 videdly to myself ; and to be held solely responsible 
 for all the revelations that are made, and all the 
 opinions that are ^expressed, in any book that bears 
 my name upon its title. 
 
 I have but one word more to say, personal to my- 
 self. On looking over the sheets of this work, it 
 appears to me that there is, in some parts, what 
 may seem to be a party bias in other words, a dis- 
 position to speak more slightingly of the acts of the 
 old Whig party than those of their opponents. As 
 the supposition that I have written at all under 
 political influence would, very properly, invalidate 
 my testimony, I think it right to say, that ever since 
 I was a boy my sympathies have been all with the 
 Whigs, and that if this has not appeared in the 
 writings which bear my name, it is because I have 
 ever held that " India is of no Party," and esteemed 
 the claims of Historical Truth paramount over all 
 considerations of Party or of Person. 
 
 London, January, 1854. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Birth and Parentage of Henry St.George Tucker The Bruere and 
 Tucker Families Early Life in Bermuda Departure for England 
 Schoolboy Days Embarkation for India Midshipman Life Arrival 
 at Calcutta 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Early Indian Life of Henry St.George Tucker Residence with Mr. 
 Bruere Departure for Gyah Residence with Mr. Law Mr. Law 
 and the Mocurrery System Appointment to the Secretary's Office 
 Loss of his first Earnings Appointed Assistant to the Commercial 
 Agent at Commercolly Residence at Hurriaul Early Writings- 
 Opinion on the Land Assessment On Excise and Gunge Duties 35 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Appointment of H. St.George Tucker to the Covenanted Civil Service 
 Employed in the Accountant- General's Department State of the 
 Civil Service The Administration of Sir John Shore Mr. Tucker 
 appointed Register in Rajshye His Intimacy with Henry Colebrooke 
 Appointed to the Secretariat Rise in the Department Arrival of 
 Lord Wellesley Mr. Tucker's Services Visit to Madras Anecdotes 
 of Lord Wellesley Return to Calcutta Appointed Accountant- 
 General 74 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 State of the Public Finances Public Credit Mr. Tucker's Measures- 
 Plan of a New Bank Reduction of Interest New Loans Improve- 
 ment of Public Credit Connexion with Palmer's House Mr. Tucker's 
 Double Duties Continued Financial Improvement 1 04 
 
yi CONTEXTS. 
 
 CHAPTER V. PAGE 
 
 Retirement from Official Life Government Testimonial Mr. Tucker's 
 Mercantile Life Opinions of his Friends Conduct of Lord Wellesley 
 Admiral Bergeret His Friendship with Mr. Tucker Departure of 
 Lord Wellesley Anecdotes of his Staff Thoughts of Home 142 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Arrival of Lord Cornwallis State of Public Affairs Condition of the 
 Finances Death of Cornwallis Succession of Sir G. Barlow Mr. 
 Tucker re-appointed Accountant- General Financial Measures 
 Their Unpopularity Correspondence with Sir G. Barlow and Others 
 Financial Results 161 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 The Settlement of the Ceded and Conquered Provinces The Special 
 Commission of 1807 Mr. Tucker's Appointment His Colleagues 
 Duties of the New Commission Their Reception in Upper India Mr. 
 Tucker's Report 212 
 
 CHAPTER VHL 
 
 Mr. Tucker's Resignation of the Commissionership His Return to Cal- 
 cutta Letters to his Family Projected Visit to England Appoint- 
 ment to the Secretaryship in the Public Department Death of his 
 Father; of his two Brothers Letters to his Sister and Mother 
 Embarkation for England Public Testimonials 234 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Mr. Tucker's Reception in England Meeting with his Mother Visit to^ 
 Mr. Carre Miss Boswell Mr. Tucker's Marriage His Wedding-Tour 
 Recognition of his Services His intended Return to India The 
 Voyage to Calcutta 251 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Return to India The Financial Secretaryship The Seat in Council 
 Want of Money at Home Bullion-supplies Correspondence with Sir 
 Hugh Inglis Mr. Tucker's Measures Scarcity of Money in India 
 Correspondence with Mr. Davis Death of Mr. Tucker's Mother The 
 Chief-Secretaryship Return to England 268 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 Residence in Edinburgh Journey to London Adventures on the Road 
 Residence in London Excursion in Wales Visit to Ireland 
 Thoughts of Public Life 298 
 
CONTENTS. VU 
 
 CHAPTER XII. PAGE 
 
 Mr. Tucker's Departure from Scotland" Starting for the Direction" 
 Constitution of the Court of Directors The Canvass Candidates and 
 Voters The "City Interest" The "West-India Interest" Mr. 
 Tucker's Defeat Renewal of the Canvass His Election Incidents 
 of Private Life 325 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Mr. Tucker in the Direction His peculiar Qualifications His Zeal and 
 Activity Early Efforts Questions of Land Revenue Resumption 
 Operations Salt and Opium Revenues The Company's Charter Ne- 
 gotiations with the Board of Control Mr. Tucker's Minutes 356 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 The Court of Directors and the Board of Control Powers of the Board- 
 Collisions between the Two Authorities The Case of William Palmer 
 and Co. Mr. Tucker's Dissent The Writ of Mandamus Conduct of 
 the Court The Case of the Lucknow Bankers Firmness of the Court 
 Conduct of Mr. Tucker The Mandamus Stayed 385 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 The "Chairs" Mr. Tucker elected Deputy- Chairman Succession to 
 the Chair The Bombay Government Appointment of Mr. Robert 
 Grant The Governor-General Nomination of Sir Charles Metcalfe 
 Appointment of Lord Heytesbury Its Revocation Appointment of 
 Lord Auckland Mr. Tucker's Remonstrances Speech at the King's 
 Table 433 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Mr. Tucker's Private Correspondence Letters to Mr. Blunt Mr. 
 Charles Grant Mountstuart Elphinstone Lord William Bentinck 
 Sir Charles Metcalfe and Others 470 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 The War in Afghanistan Our Relations with the Persian Court Re- 
 sistance of Russia an European Question The Tripartite Treaty 
 Mr. Tucker's Letters to the Duke of Wellington and Others His 
 Opinions on the Afghan War and the Conquest of Scinde Recall of 
 Lord Ellenborough 489 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 Mr. Tucker's Domestic Life His Second Chairmanship Appointment 
 of Lord Dalhousie Mr. Tucker's Farewell Address Public Enter- 
 tainmentsCorrespondence with Prince Waldemar of Prussia Din- 
 ners to Lord Dalhousie and Lord Hardinge Patronage Official 
 Duties ... .. 529 
 
V1U CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. PAGE 
 
 Mr. Tucker's Private Correspondence during his Second Chairman- 
 ship Letters to Lord Hardinge; to SirT. H. Haddock; to Mr. George 
 Clerk; to Mr. Thomason; and to Lord Dalhousie 561 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 Mr. Tucker and Lord George Bentinck The Sugar Duties Committee 
 The Navigation Laws His Private Life and Habits Illness and Re- 
 covery Letter to his Children Projected Retirement from Office 
 Address to his Constituency His last Illness His Death Character 
 of Henry St.George Tucker 588 
 
 APPENDIX 617 
 
MEMOIRS 
 
 OF 
 
 HENRY ST.GEORGE TUCKER. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Birth and Parentage of Henry St.George Tucker The Bruere and Tucker 
 Families Early Life in Bermuda Departure for England Schoolboy 
 Days Embarkation for India Midshipman Life Arrival at Calcutta. 
 
 HENRY ST.GEORGE TUCKER was born on the 15th 
 of February, 1771. On that one of the Bermudian 
 group of islands which is known as St. George's 
 he first saw the light. His father was a man of 
 distinguished reputation and high official position 
 in the Bermudas, who afterwards came to occupy, 
 on two occasions, the Presidential chair. 
 
 His mother was a Miss Bruere, daughter of 
 George James Bruere, who, for some years before 
 and after her marriage, was Governor of the Ber- 
 mudas. Of this Governor Bruere the colonial 
 annalists relate that he was a man of an irascible 
 temper and overbearing disposition, living and 
 ruling in a perpetual state of antagonism with the 
 Assembly and the People. He was a soldier, and a 
 
 B 
 
2 LIFE OSV^.sy.G. TUCKER. 
 
 good one ; but he was habituated to command, and 
 impatient of opposition. In spite, however, of the 
 intestine strife into which he plunged the islands, 
 he governed them for nearly twenty years, and 
 might have governed them still longer, but that, in 
 the very crisis of the warfare, he was suddenly re- 
 moved by death. He died on the 10th of September, 
 1780, like a soldier, at his post."* 
 
 The Brueres and the Tuckers, it would seem, were 
 at one time not knit very closely together. There 
 were differences of opinion on vital questions to dis- 
 sever and distract. There is no animosity so viru- 
 lent as that which grows up in small insular com- 
 munities, when party feeling breeds real personal 
 warfare as bitter as it is abiding. The Brueres were 
 staunch royalists of a soldierly stock, loyal to 
 the core; whilst the Tuckers were not without 
 strong republican sympathies sympathies which the 
 American war was even then bringing into vigorous 
 action. The two families were thus divided; but 
 Henry Tucker, when he married Frances Bruere, 
 had not to make his election between them. Of 
 moderate views and a conciliatory disposition, he re- 
 mained cherished and respected by both parties; 
 and his sons, as they grew up at his knees, found 
 neutral ground before them, and planted there the 
 royalist or the rebel standard, each according to 
 the promptings of his childish fancy. George, his 
 second son, grew up a royalist, and dwelt much at 
 Government House ; whilst the heart of Henry St.- 
 
 * Williams' Historical and Statistical Account of the Bermudas. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 3 
 
 George, the subject of this memoir, inclined towards 
 the republican cause. His home was at Port Royal, 
 where was the estate of the Tuckers; and there 
 "rebel councils prevailed." "Whether this residence 
 in either case, or in both, was the cause or the effect 
 of these early tendencies, I do not pretend to know. 
 
 But of these remote family incidents the bio- 
 grapher has little need to speak. In his seventieth 
 year, Henry St. George Tucker wrote, for the amuse- 
 ment of his children, the story of his boyish days. It 
 would ill become me to substitute anything of my 
 own for such an autobiography as this. Unhappily 
 it is but a fragment. It treats of the Tucker and 
 Bruere families of the childish experiences of young 
 Henry St. George in his island birthplace of his 
 schoolboy days in England and of his voyage to 
 India, as a neglected midshipman. But of the life 
 of the man Tucker there is no record from his pen, 
 beyond that which is to be gathered from scattered 
 passages in his correspondence. The autobiography 
 can illustrate only the opening chapter of the me- 
 moir. It is " a monument of a purpose unac- 
 complished."* 
 
 Of his family, both upon the father's and the 
 mother's side, he has given us this account : 
 
 "I was born, I am told, on the 15th February, 1771. I 
 
 was the first-born of ten sons and one daughter My 
 
 parents on both sides were of gentle blood. My paternal ances- 
 
 * Mr. Tucker seems to have projected not, however, for publication a 
 complete memoir of his life, with some account of his cotemporaries. Many 
 will sympathise with the strong feelings of regret entertained by the bio- 
 grapher, when they peruse the following passage taken from the brief intro- 
 
 B 2 
 
4 LIFE OF H. ST.GL TUCKER. 
 
 tors possessed landed property in Kent and Northamptonshire ; 
 and I still retain a few hereditary acres in the former county ;* 
 but why they emigrated to the little island of Bermuda (where 
 they also possessed landed property), I never happened to learn. 
 I know that I had two grandfathers; and beyond this fact, 
 curiosity never impelled me to penetrate into the mazes of 
 antiquity. 
 
 " My grandfather, Henry Tucker, was one of the finest 
 models of a man I have ever seen. Even at the age of seventy, 
 when I last saw him, his person was erect, combining the ele- 
 ments of strength and activity his step was firm and elastic 
 his eye brilliant and full of the fire of youth and his proud 
 carriage would seem to have pointed him out as a descendant 
 of the Great Mogul, or at least of the Plantagenets, or Tudors. 
 He had eight children. He loved the animated life of London, 
 where he resided as agent of the island; but, by preferring 
 the noise and bustle of Gerrard-street, Soho, to the verdant 
 lawns and cedar groves of Port Royal, his country residence in 
 Bermuda, f he did not, I fear, add to his paternal acres. 
 
 duction to the fragment extant, and remember that the autobiographer 
 has only carried down the narrative to the commencement of his sixteenth 
 year. "I may add," wrote Mr. Tucker in 1840, " that in sketching my past 
 life, I shall have an opportunity of paying a just tribute of respect to those 
 benefactors and friends whom I have loved, and whose friendship and regard 
 have been to me the source of infinite gratification. I have been much in the 
 way of observing men who have distinguished themselves in public life, and 
 whose names will appear in history ; and as I am habitually an attentive ob- 
 server of character, I may from time to time be able to give some sketches of 
 those eminent persons which will at least be interesting to my own family I 
 allude more particularly to my early patron, Sir William Jones, the good 
 Lord Cornwallis, Sir John Shore, Henry Colebrooke, Lords Minto, Hastings, 
 and others." It need scarcely be added that such a memoir would not only 
 have been perused with avidity by all Mr. Tucker's friends and cotemporaries, 
 but would have afforded a contribution to authentic history, the value and 
 the interest of which it would be difficult to over-estimate. 
 
 * At Crayford. There is a vault, at Milton, in Kent, which formerly be- 
 longed to the Tucker family. 
 
 f " ' The still vexed Bermoothes,' " writes Mr. Tucker, "is a beautiful little 
 island, or rather cluster of islands, extending about twenty miles from east to 
 west, and about three from north to south. The Governor's residence was, 
 in my time, at St. George's, near the eastern extremity of the cluster; but 
 
BERMUDA. 5 
 
 " My father, his eldest son, was an accomplished gentleman 
 in the best sense of the word, and in every sense of the word. 
 I remember to have been present at a very earnest disputation, 
 at the table of General C., on the proper signification of the 
 term * a perfect gentleman.' Some maintained that polished 
 manners, an elegant address, and that ease and grace which 
 
 the seat of government has been since removed to ' Hamilton,' centrically 
 situated in the principal island. Port Royal,' a sweet secluded country seat 
 of my grandfather Tucker, was in the western part of the island. The great 
 disadvantage of Bermuda arises from the circumstance of its being subject to 
 violent storms. I recollect a terrific hurricane, which produced the most 
 fearful devastation. I remember, too, to have seen a ball of fire, or electric 
 discharge, which shivered the mast of a ship, and cast one of the fragments 
 within a few yards of the portico of our house, where some of the family were 
 assembled. Bermuda has never, I believe, been captured ; an impunity which 
 it owes, perhaps, quite as much to its coral-reefs as to the valor of its de- 
 fenders. The French fleet made a demonstration off the island during the 
 administration of my grandfather; but it did not venture to make an attack. 
 Our poverty may, perhaps, have saved us. Although so young when I left 
 the island, I well remember its scenery and localities, and have surprised 
 some of my countrymen by my accurate delineation of its topography. I 
 owe this knowledge, no doubt, to my frequent excursions on horseback. 
 
 '"Bermuda, parent of my early days! 
 To thee belong my tributary lays; 
 In thy blest clime, secured from infant harms, 
 A tender mother pressed me in her arms 
 Lulled me to rest with many a ditty rare, 
 And looked, and smiled upon her infant care- 
 She taught my lisping accents how to flow, 
 And bade the virtues in my bosom glow. 
 Hail! Nature's darling spot, enchanted isle! 
 Where vernal blooms in sweet succession smile 
 Where, cherished by the fostering sea-born gale, 
 Appears the tall Palmetto of the vale 
 The rich banana, tenant of the shade, 
 With leaf broad- spreading, to the breeze displayed. 
 The fragrant lime the lemon at its side, 
 And golden orange, fair Hesperia's pride 
 The memorable* tree of aspect bold 
 Which graced thy plains, oh Lebanus! of old,' " &c. &c. 
 
 Bermudian. 
 
 * The cedar is the most valuable product of the island, and is used in 
 building our fast-sailing vessels. 
 
6 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 can only be found in the best society, constituted the main ele- 
 ments in the character. Others contended that a high spirit, a 
 cultivated, taste, superior accomplishments, and a finished edu- 
 cation, were indispensable requisites. Many names were brought 
 forward by way of example, but they were 'all rejected in con- 
 sequence of some attribute being wanting. At length a blunt 
 old soldier (General M.) settled the question by declaring that 
 c he was a gentleman who was incapable of a base or unworthy 
 action.' 
 
 " Two of my paternal uncles settled in America the one as 
 a physician the other as a lawyer; and both took an active 
 part in the revolution. Thomas Tudor, the senior, was a 
 member, I believe, of the first Congress; and during the last 
 thirty years of his life, he held the responsible station of Trea- 
 surer of the United States. He was a Roman in spirit, as I 
 have heard him described, without republican vulgarity, aus- 
 terity, or presumption. He bequeathed about 20,OOOZ. to his 
 relatives, without distinction of country. 
 
 " His younger brother, St.George, united very harmoniously 
 the character of soldier and judge, and was eminent in the 
 latter capacity at a more advanced period of life. He married 
 the widow Randolph, an American heiress, and mother of 
 John Randolph, the late ambassador to St Petersburgh; and 
 the fine estate of Ronoke, in Virginia, has now descended to 
 his son, my cousin and namesake. His father had a taste for 
 literature and poetry; and the following lines, written by him, 
 were recited at my table by Mr. Rush, the Minister from the 
 United States in this country : 
 
 " ' Days of my youth! ye have glided away; 
 Hairs of my youth! ye are frosted and grey; 
 Eyes of my youth ! your keen sight is no more ; 
 Cheeks of my youth! ye are furrowed all o'er; 
 Strength of my youth! all your vigor is gone; 
 Thoughts of my youth! all your visions are flown! 
 
 " ' Days of my youth ! I wish not your recall ; 
 Hairs of my youth! I'm content you should fall; 
 Eyes of my youth! ye much evil have seen; 
 Cheeks of my youth! bathed in tears have you been ; 
 Thoughts of my youth! ye have led me astray; 
 Strength of my youth! why lament your decay? 
 
THE TUCKERS AND B3UIERES. 7 
 
 " * Days of my age! ye will shortly be past; 
 Pains of my age! yet awhile can ye last; 
 Joys of my age! in true wisdom delight; 
 Eyes of my age ! be Eeligion your light ; 
 Thoughts of my age ! dread not the cold sod ; 
 Hopes of my age ! be ye fixed on your God !' 
 
 " Dr. Nathaniel Tucker, another brother, who settled as a 
 physician in Yorkshire, had still greater pretensions to poetry. 
 He wrote the ' Bermudian,' and other poems, which would 
 have passed very well in the days of Waller and Prior. . . . 
 He then took a very serious turn, and engaged in the study of 
 the more abstruse and mystical branches of theology, which did 
 not promote his fortune or fame, nor add, I fear, to his happi- 
 ness. I remember him well; and I have met with few persons 
 of more mild, amiable, or dignified manners. I attended the 
 funeral of his widow, who was followed to her grave by all the 
 decent poor of the neighbourhood, among whom I could not 
 discern many dry eyes. This circumstance struck me very 
 forcibly; for I knew that she had not the means of being 
 charitable; and why, then, should the poor weep? I have 
 attended the funerals of the opulent and great without seeing a 
 tear shed. I can only conclude that benevolence may supply 
 the place of wealth, and touch the chords of the heart when the 
 hand of munificence may fail to leave an impression. 
 
 " My maternal grandfather, George Bruere (quasi Bruyere), 
 was a gallant old soldier ; and from the name, and a remarkable 
 vivacity of temper prevalent in his family, I should conjecture 
 that he was of French extraction. He obtained the govern- 
 ment of Bermuda as a reward for his services in the field ; and 
 he administered it for about twenty years as an honorable man. 
 He had fourteen children ! ! 
 
 " I remember to have seen him, after rather copious libations, 
 go through the evolutions of the battle of Culloden, and other 
 great fights in which he was personally engaged. He marched 
 and countermarched charged the enemy with great vigor 
 handled his large stick with great skill and effect (albeit with 
 some peril to those around him), and generally concluded with 
 the shout of victory the ' British Grenadiers' or the popular 
 
8 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 anthem of * God save the King !' He was, heart and soul, a 
 Royalist; while my grandfather Tucker, from his American 
 connexions, took a favorable view of the American cause. The 
 uncompromising Governor called the Americans * rebels' a 
 term of reproach which, naturally enough, gave mortal offence 
 to one who, at the moment, had two sons to whom the oppro- 
 brious term applied. These proud spirits separated, never to 
 meet again in friendly hall; the different members of the two 
 families became estranged from each other ; my father alone 
 occupying a neutral ground, beloved and respected alike by 
 Montague and Capulet. 
 
 " Several of my maternal uncles followed the honorable pro- 
 fession of their father. One was killed at ' Bunker's Hill ;' 
 another was so repeatedly perforated by the American rifles, 
 that he died an invalid in Fort ' George,' or Fort ' Augustus,' 
 in the Highlands of Scotland; a third (a lieutenant in the 
 navy) was severely wounded while heading a boarding party 
 in a night attack. The other brothers passed through life in 
 the ordinary course. 
 
 " My excellent mother was the eldest daughter; she was an 
 affectionate and exemplary wife; she devoted herself to the 
 cares of her large family, and was estimable in all the relations 
 of life. She survived my father* several years, and, in the 
 absence of all her children, she died at Cheltenham in October, 
 1813; and the only act of filial piety which I could perform, on 
 my return from India, was to inscribe a tablet to her memory 
 in the church of that place." 
 
 Such were the two families surrounded by which 
 
 * My father had held the situation of Treasurer and Secretary, and 
 President of the Council at Bermuda; and more than once held charge of the 
 government for a considerable time; but had not interest to secure the suc- 
 cession permanently. When I returned to England in 1811, I was called 
 upon, as his executor, to satisfy a demand of several thousand pounds which 
 stood against the estate, in consequence of the miscarriage of some accounts ; 
 but he was so correct, and was so well known, that I experienced little dif- 
 ficulty in satisfying the Office of Colonial Audit ; and the demand was reduced 
 to 32?., on account of the expense of a State boat, entertained, not by him, but 
 by his predecessor in office. H. St.G. T. 
 
EARLY ASSOCIATIONS. 9 
 
 young Henry St.George passed the first ten years of 
 his life. It is always curious sometimes pro- 
 fitable to consider the extent to which the child 
 may have been father of the man. Not unmindful 
 of the effect that early influences may have had 
 in moulding and shaping his character, Mr. Tucker 
 himself paused, at the threshold of his boyish nar- 
 rative, to observe that " some of our deepest im- 
 pressions are received at a very early age, and tend 
 often to exercise an influence on our future lives." 
 " We grow up," he said, " with the character which 
 we have acquired as boys." Doubtless a vast deal 
 of biographical ingenuity is displayed to very little 
 purpose in tracing the connexion between the en- 
 vironments of the child and the actions of the man. 
 And where authentic materials are scanty, these 
 conjectural deductions often hover on the extreme 
 verge of the Absurd. But without wandering into 
 the regions of the great Par-fetched, something 
 may presently be said about the early associations 
 which Mr. Tucker has thus described, and their 
 effect upon the character of the Man : 
 
 " I suspect," he says, after writing of the family feuds hinted 
 at in the preceding extract, " that I was myself a bit of ajebel, 
 for my next brother, George (a noble fellow ! prematurely lost 
 to the service which he adorned), was domiciled at the Govern- 
 ment House,* and as I resided much at ' Port Royal,' where 
 
 * I only envied George his residence at the Government House from his 
 being in the way of hearing often ray favorite song of the " Four-and-twenty 
 Fiddlers," sung with great humour to please us children by the late Colonel 
 Donkin (father of Sir Rufane), who commanded the garrison, and lived much 
 at the Government House, where he was always a welcome guest. After an 
 interval of thirty years, I found this stately octogenarian standing sentinel at 
 
10 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 rebel councils prevailed, what could be more natural than that 
 I, at the mature age of eight or nine, should aspire to become 
 the leader of the popular faction? Men become patriots when 
 they cannot otherwise distinguish themselves. Then why not 
 boys 9 
 
 " But my republican zeal was very much cooled by the 
 French Revolution; and if a spark of it had remained, our own 
 most contemptible revolution of 1830 would have extinguished 
 it, and have fixed me, for life, a determined i Conservative. 1 
 Oh ! for a Muse of fire, that I might scorch and consume those 
 wretched, mischievous, unprincipled men, who urged on that 
 fraudulent measure, for their own base purposes, to the ruin of 
 their country ! 
 
 " The disunion of our families, originating in the civil war, 
 was productive of much inconvenience and discomfort, and 
 might have produced serious evil. 
 
 " Late in the evening, at Port Royal, when night was begin- 
 ning to cast her dark shades around, I perceived a strange man, 
 muffled up to the ears, suddenly rush from the garden into the 
 house, and I expected every moment to see him present a 
 blunderbuss, or some other deadly weapon. But, to my surprise, 
 the females of the family immediately threw themselves into 
 his arms ! Some sobbed and some laughed according to 
 their several tastes, and all was agitation and violent emotion. 
 This was quite inexplicable to me. The stranger was a rebel, 
 but he was also a son, who, prompted by natural affection, had 
 run some risk to pay a hasty clandestine visit to his family ! 
 My loyal grandsire would not have doomed him to the fate of 
 poor Major Andre; but, had he been discovered, he would not 
 easily have found his way back to the rebel ranks. 
 
 11 A great deal of clandestine intercourse took place, during 
 the war, between the Bermudians and the Americans; and we 
 had the honor of sending forth two very eminent pirates., who 
 hovered about the island, and sometimes landed, not for the 
 
 the door of the York Hotel, in Bath. He had heard of my arrival, and was 
 awaiting my return to the hotel. I recognised him instantly and he greeted 
 me as he had done when I was a child. H. St.G, T. 
 
EARLY HABITS. 11 
 
 purposes of plunder (for they were ' honorable men'), but to 
 greet their relatives and friends, and to dispose of their surplus 
 acquisitions. I once saw from the hills a beautiful chase the 
 brother pirates braved and defied his Majesty's ships. The 
 little Nautilus sallied out, perfectly covered with canvas; but 
 it was all in vain nothing, at that time, could touch a Ber- 
 mudian schooner. Her commander, Collins, succeeded after- 
 wards in making a French line-of-battle ship strike her colors; 
 but this was a more easy task than to capture the pirates. 
 Both subsequently perished in some desperate encounter, in 
 which their vessel was, I believe, blown up 
 
 "I was delicate as a child, and being the first-born, I was, of 
 course, indulged and spoilt. I became a little epicure ; but it 
 is remarkable that, in after-life, my tastes have been simple. I 
 have preferred a simple diet, and have rarely committed excess. 
 To the habit of temperance, early rising, and the love of 
 exercise, I attribute (under Providence, to whom I owe more 
 than I deserve !) that firm state of health which enables me to 
 enjoy life at an advanced age. 
 
 " I was always fond of riding, and I was allowed to ride 
 from one end of the island to the other, attended only by a 
 negro servant, who generally held by the tail of my little mare. 
 I sometimes went out with the negroes, to catch and bring in 
 the horses from the field ; and , on one occasion, I ventured to 
 mount my father's favorite horse, 'Brilliant.' The spirited 
 animal, with my light weight, and lighter hand, galloped off at 
 full speed. He soon encountered a gate, which he gallantly 
 cleared ; but I, who could not carry his momentum with me, 
 was left behind to clear it as I might, on foot. 
 
 " On another occasion, I owed a similar disaster to my ten- 
 derness for my mare. I would not allow her girths to be drawn 
 too tight, lest they should hurt her. I mounted, with a cousin 
 of my own age seated behind me. We dashed off; but the 
 saddle, abusing its liberty, suddenly swung round, and my 
 cousin and myself, in illustration of the theory of Sir Isaac 
 Newton, gravitated incontinently to the ground ! 
 
 " But I met with a more serious accident, in a boating ex- 
 
12 LIFE OP H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 cursion, which nearly proved fatal to me. We sailed about the 
 harbour, and landed in a neighbouring isle, where we were 
 kindly received, and regaled with * milk punch,' a beverage to 
 me before unknown. I became much exhilarated, and in the 
 overflow of my spirits, on the way back, I clambered up the 
 mast of the boat, and either jumped, or fell, overboard. I sank 
 of course, for I could not swim I sank again; but, rising to 
 the surface, a negro, who was in the stern of the boat, caught 
 me by the hair, and drew me back into the boat, almost in a 
 lifeless state. The servants carried me home in all haste. My 
 parents were fortunately absent. I was dried and warmed at 
 the kitchen fire, and none, I believe, but the parties present, 
 were aware of the occurrence. 
 
 " My grandsire, the Governor, was exposed to some danger 
 about this time. A detachment (on its way, I think, to the 
 siege of Charlestown) landed in the island ; and a young officer 
 belonging to it, taking it into his head to fall in love with the 
 person, or perhaps the reputed fortune, of a young lady of 
 St. George's, and the beauty (or perchance her father) not en- 
 couraging his addresses, he became desperate, cut off the small 
 joint of his little finger, enclosed it to her in a letter, and pro- 
 tested that he would go on to sever and transmit to her joint 
 after joint until she should accept his suit. 
 
 " For this prank he was placed under arrest, and my grand- 
 father, passing near the window of his barracks, the young 
 ruffian, or madman, discharged a pistol at him, which nearly 
 took effect. Why he was not shot for the outrage, I do not 
 know ; but he escaped, and many years afterwards he was met 
 by one of my brothers, on service, in the command of a batta- 
 lion of the Rajah of Travancore. 
 
 " I cannot vouch for the fact of his having made love in so 
 novel a fashion, because I did not see the propitiatory offering; 
 but it was currently reported and believed in the island, and I 
 have, even at this time, a perfect recollection of the individual. 
 I was struck by his appearance, in consequence of his wearing a 
 splendid masquerade dress, such as I had never seen before 
 he personated, I think, a Hessian officer; and although very 
 
DISCIPLINE OF THE SADDLE. 13 
 
 diminutive, and possessing feminine rather than manly beauty, 
 his countenance and costume were such as to attract and rivet 
 the attention of a boy. 
 
 " Before this period, I obtained a memorable victory over 
 my grandsire, which I must record. I was counting at his 
 table, after dinner, the seeds of a melon, and he, little dreaming 
 that I was one day to become the Accountant-General of India, 
 and distrusting my arithmetical powers, promised to give me a 
 pistreen for every seed, if my enumeration should prove to be 
 correct. The number was not small. They were counted and 
 recounted by the umpire, and it was decided that I had won 
 the prize. The next morning, my father's breakfast-table ex- 
 hibited the splendid trophy. I had never, perhaps, seen so 
 much money before, and my joy and exultation were great. Is 
 it not possible that this little circumstance may have had some 
 effect in directing my mind in after-life to the study of Finance? 
 I might never have had the control and appropriation of mil- 
 lions upon millions, if I had not succeeded in counting some 
 dozen, or hundred, seeds of a melon ! Hence it is deducible 
 that the financier sprung from a melon-seed ! ' This,' Horatio 
 might say, ' were to examine too curiously.' * Not a whit,' quoth 
 Hamlet." 
 
 It were not, at all events, to examine too curiously, 
 to surmise that all this riding and boating tended to 
 form the sturdy, robust, moral character of the man, 
 no less than to establish the vigorous physical con- 
 stitution, which lasted him fourscore years. There 
 were, fortunately for young Tucker, no pedagogues, 
 and, perhaps, few books in his island-home. His 
 schoolroom was amidst the eternal greenery or among 
 the sharp rocks of the " vexed Bermoothes." His 
 chief preceptor seems to have been the Saddle. 
 There is more than it is the fashion to acknowledge 
 in such teaching as this. Presh air and free exer- 
 
14 LIFE OF H. ST. a. TUCKER. 
 
 else were the aliments which strengthened the boy, 
 and developed the hardy qualities of the man. This 
 was the real training the ineffaceable discipline of 
 Nature which did more to form his after-character 
 to prepare him for the great life-work of doing 
 and suffering, than any of the accidents upon which 
 he more emphatically dwelt. It is no small thing, 
 having to trace the career of one whose manliness 
 of character was in all things conspicuous; who 
 was, indeed, pre-eminently a man among men ; to 
 know that in early boyhood he was much subjected 
 to the voluntary discipline of the Saddle. It little 
 matters what books a boy is taught to read during 
 the first ten years of his life. But it is of the first 
 moment that he should be suffered to enjoy free 
 libations of air and exercise and the freest of all 
 are to be enjoyed in the saddle. Nothing could be 
 more full of promise than the words, " I was always 
 fond of riding, and was allowed to ride from one end 
 of the island to the other." 
 
 As to the rest, it hardly seems that there is much 
 connexion between either the early influences or the 
 early indications of character, glanced at in the 
 Autobiography, and the adult developments of which 
 I shall presently come to speak. The Republican 
 boy grew into a robust Tory. The little " Epicure" 
 of Bermuda lived to content himself with fare both 
 coarse and scanty ; to face all privation with a 
 cheerful countenance, and all hardship without a 
 murmur of complaint. 
 
 The real training of the boy was, as has been said, 
 
DEPARTURE FOR ENGLAND. 15 
 
 in those hard gallops across the island, and those 
 boating excursions on the coast. It was time 
 enough to think seriously about book-learning when 
 young Henry St. George was ten years old, and good 
 opportunity offered for the safe conveyance of him- 
 self and his next brother, George, to England. How 
 it was may be told in the words of the Autobio- 
 graphy : 
 
 " Early in 1781,* my veteran grandsire terminated his 
 honorable career; and my father, who was anxious to give us 
 the benefit of a good education, determined to send my brother 
 George and myself to England for the purpose, under the care 
 of our kind-hearted grandmother, who had now become a 
 widow. There were no means of education at the time in 
 Bermuda, and mine had scarcely commenced. My father was 
 too much engaged with his official labors, and my mother 
 with the cares of a household and large nursery, to admit of 
 their giving me any instruction beyond a little reading, and 
 less writing. 
 
 ''The family feud abated, but was not entirely extinguished, 
 by the death of my grandfather Bruere; and at a later period, 
 in England, it showed itself in a very trifling incident. One 
 of my maternal uncles sent me with a letter to Charles James 
 Fox; but, unluckily, I called, on my way to Graffcon- street, on 
 my grandfather Tucker, and he learnt my errand. He looked 
 at the letter with an expression of indignation he was much 
 enraged, and I suspected that he would have torn it in pieces, 
 in which case I should have had a very difficult account to 
 settle with the choleric Captain, who, on another very trivial 
 occasion, had treated me with a pretty smart box on the ear.f 
 Better feelings, however, prevailed; and I delivered the letter. 
 My grandsire had no dislike to Mr. Fox, although the opponent 
 
 * Mr. Williams, in his " History of the Bermudas," says that Governor 
 Bruere died in September, 1 780. 
 
 f I suspect that my rebel predilections may have given pungency to my 
 poor uncle's displeasure ; for he had but too much reason to complain of the 
 American sharpshooters. H. St.G. T. 
 
16 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 in Westminster of his friend, Sir Cecil Wray. His indignation 
 was excited at the idea that one of his race should be converted 
 into a letter-carrier by one with whom he was not on speaking 
 terms. 
 
 " Preparatory to our departure, I paid farewell visits to all 
 my relatives and friends in the island, and was overloaded with 
 presents. Cousin Tudor gave me a large fat sheep, the pride 
 of his flock others sent jellies and preserves, and all some 
 token of regard and remembrance. But the most magnificent 
 present which I received was from a worthy auctioneer of the 
 name of Smith, who had collected a variety of English coins in 
 the course of his business, and these he generously presented to 
 me. He was not at all connected with our family, nor could 
 he have been influenced by the circumstance of my admiring 
 his pretty little daughter, ' Jenny Smith,' because I also admired 
 ' Jenny Kelly,' and another rustic beauty at the opposite end of 
 the island. The fact is, that my father was very popular from 
 his gracious manners, and from that something which denotes 
 innate benevolence. They say 'Poeta nascitur non fit;' and so 
 I say of a gentleman. He must be born and bred one. We 
 were taught to take off our hats to the lowest person whom we 
 met; and this was no small condescension in one of my birth 
 and dignity ! My anxious mother, with much good advice be- 
 fore parting, explained to me that it was not necessary to take 
 off my hat to every person in the streets of London ; but habit is 
 strong, and even now, when I repair to the stables for my horse, 
 I interchange bows* with the coachmen and ostlers, and all the 
 little idle urchins whom I encounter in the mews. 
 
 * A Bermudian Justice, who had, I suppose, acquired the same habit, had a 
 wicked trick played off upon him on his arrival in London. A wag, who had 
 probably read the " Fool of Quality," and who had observed the Justice's sim- 
 plicity, pinned a label upon the back of his coat, describing his name and 
 quality. He sallied out to explore. The passers-by read the paper, and some 
 loud enough for him to hear. He was delighted that his name and fame 
 should have gone before him. Some accosted him" How do ye do, Mr. Jus- 
 tice ?" " How does your wife do ?" " What's the last news from Ber- 
 muda ?" The Justice bowed, and smiled, and bowed again, and thought the 
 " Lunoners" the civilest and best informed people in the world. I do not 
 know how the adventure ended ; but it is upon such slender premises, I fear, 
 that we sometimes build our fame, and rest our conclusions. H. St.G. T. 
 
VOYAGE TO ENGLAND. 17 
 
 " The hour of departure at length arrived, and we embarked 
 in April, 1781, on the good ship Diligentia, a Spanish prize, 
 leaving many wet eyes behind us. Our little captain, who I 
 suspect was a Welshman, was determined, like another Van 
 Tromp, to sweep the seas. He bore a letter of marque ; and he 
 chased everything. The goodly Diligentia moved like a castle 
 upon the waters ; but still we pursued everything that ran away 
 from us. One heavy Dutchman we thought to have caught, 
 for she was as heavy as ourselves. I watched her with eager 
 eyes for many hours sometimes we seemed to near her, and 
 then again she increased her distance; but, at length, night 
 came on, and she escaped from us, or we from her. 
 
 " One fine morning, a long, low frigate, bearing French colors, 
 and of French build, came sweeping down upon us. She did 
 not give us time to chase her, as we should have done -just as 
 the heroic Sir William Meadowes was accustomed to chase 
 Tippoo Sultan; but we were resolved to show fight. The 
 boatswain's whistle called to quarters the men were at their 
 guns the little captain strutted the quarter-deck, an inch 
 higher and even the ' quakers' on the quarter-deck seemed 
 impatient * to give tongue;' when, lo! the frigate fired a shot 
 across our bows, hauled her wind, and hoisted English colors ! 
 I will not undertake to say who was most glad or sorry at this 
 sight ; but this I remember, that, instead of round and canister 
 shot, which must soon have riddled the good ship Diligentia, 
 we received round bottles of ' capillaire' and * orgeat,' and 
 canisters of sundry good things which had recently escaped 
 from the West Indies. The frigate was H.M.'s ship L'Oiseau ; 
 and the courteous commander, hearing that the hospitable 
 hostess who had so often entertained the officers of H.M.'s 
 navy in Bermuda was on board, gallantly sent us every little 
 delicacy which his ship afforded. Here, again, we see the 
 gentleman. 
 
 " On one occasion, our bellicose propensities were like to have 
 been put to a rough trial. A French privateer, under English 
 colors, ran under our stern. I stole up from the cabin below to 
 see the fun, and placed myself near the taffrail, from whence I 
 
 C 
 
18 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 could have thrown a biscuit into the vessel. She was crowded 
 with men, who thronged the forecastle and bowsprit, ready to 
 board; but our little captain was nothing daunted. He ran out 
 his stern-chaser made every preparation to receive the assault 
 put on so good a face, and gave his orders with such coolness 
 and determination (every word of which, I suspect, must have 
 been heard by the Frenchman), that the enemy became dis- 
 couraged, and soon sheered off. We then, as usual, gave chase ; 
 but to the amusement, I presume, if not to the mortification, of 
 the Frenchman. Had he shown more pluck, we must have 
 become his prize; for he greatly outnumbered us, to all appear- 
 ance, in men, while his vessel was more manageable. It is very 
 strange, but I do not recollect that I felt at all afraid at the 
 moment. I have often experienced the uneasy sensation of 
 fear; but on this occasion curiosity, or the novelty and excite- 
 ment of the scene, or perhaps ignorance of the danger, appear 
 to have suppressed all feeling of its presence. 
 
 "At length, after a passage of seven weeks, we safely landed 
 at Portsmouth." 
 
 The two brothers were put to school at Hampstead, 
 under the care of a Dr. Alexander, who seems to 
 have had small Latin and less Greek. But he had 
 provided competent teachers, and young Tucker, who 
 had learnt little in the Bermudas to place him in a 
 high form at Hampstead, fired by emulation, pushed 
 forward rapidly, but perhaps somewhat superficially, 
 and soon acquired tolerable proficiency in the learned 
 languages. His own account of his schoolboy days 
 has little that is remarkable in it. It is, indeed, a 
 sort of general transcript of the scholastic experi- 
 ences of the grandsires of the present generation of 
 schoolboys : 
 
 " We reached England early in June, 1781, and were kindly 
 
SCHOOLBOY DAYS. 19 
 
 welcomed by my grandfather Tucker, who carried me to the 
 theatre (I think) the night after our arrival, to see the ( Clan- 
 destine Marriage.' Everything was, of course, new and won- 
 derful to the island boy ; but the indulgence nearly proved fatal 
 to me. I was inoculated for the small-pox a few days after- 
 wards; but the enemy had already insinuated itself into the 
 citadel, and my life was in imminent peril for some weeks, the 
 least evil apprehended being the loss of my sight. I recovered, 
 however, under the rough treatment which prevailed at that 
 time, and I was indebted mainly to the kind care and attentions 
 of an aunt for the preservation of my sight, and perhaps (under 
 Divine Providence) for life itself. 
 
 " But I came forth most wofully disfigured. For some time 
 I was not permitted to look in a glass; and when I first saw 
 myself, after my recovery, I was horror-struck at the change. 
 A shaved head, inflamed eyes, deep scars and indentations, 
 produced a face on which the furies might have been supposed 
 to have carried on a sanguinary conflict. ' Well,' observed one 
 of my aunts, ' you have now, Henry, lost all your good looks, 
 and you have nothing for it but to make yourself agreeable by 
 your manners and accomplishments.' Here was cold comfort; 
 but the words made an impression upon my mind, and may 
 possibly have had some influence on my future life. 
 
 " In August, 1781, I was placed, with my brother George, 
 who was two years younger than myself, at Dr. Alexander's 
 school at Hampstead an establishment where much was done 
 to furnish the head, but very little to supply another important 
 functionary. Our fare was very indifferent, and of those ar- 
 ticles whose quality was unobjectionable the supply was scanty 
 and insufficient. 
 
 " The first evening after my installation I was presented with 
 a coarse slice of bread and butter. This I held up in my hand, 
 demanding, in a peremptory tone, if it were ' meant for my 
 supper?' The woman stared in silence, and I indignantly 
 threw back into her tray the offensive article. A little urchin 
 near me whispered, meanwhile, ' Give it to me give it to me;' 
 
 c2 
 
20 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 but the die was cast, and the good woman quietly proceeded on 
 with her tray. 
 
 "The keen air of Hampstead, however, produced a wonder- 
 ful change in my appetite; and the next evening I not only 
 accepted the proffered slice, but I should not have felt myself 
 insulted if the whole loaf had followed. 
 
 " To our hard puddings, which were always a prelude to the 
 meat, I never could reconcile myself; and, when no famished 
 boy was to be found, they were usually consigned to our 
 pockets, and many a volley have I seen fly over our next 
 neighbour's wall, after dinner. Happily no accident occurred, 
 but if man or animal had been in the way, these bullets, like 
 the famous gun of Tippoo Sultan, would have erased from his 
 forehead the decrees of Destiny itself. 
 
 "On entering the school, I was mortified to find that we 
 were placed at the bottom, and below boys younger than my- 
 self ; but pride gave a spur to my exertions, and I was soon 
 brought forward very rapidly, and, indeed, too rapidly, for I 
 passed over books which I ought to have read, and I was made 
 to read books (Juvenal, &c.) which I could not understand. 
 Horace and Homer were my favorite authors, and Greek my 
 favorite language; and if I had applied to it two or three 
 years longer, I should probably have made no inconsiderable 
 proficiency; but I acquired everything hastily, and consequently 
 superficially. 
 
 " Dr. A. piqued himself upon his French, but he was not a 
 classical scholar; and we, senior boys, would have thought it 
 quite ridiculous if he had interfered with our Latin or Greek. 
 He had, however, the good sense to engage a good Grecian 
 as senior usher (Hamilton), and our Latin master (Lorimer) 
 was full of zeal. George was a special favorite with him, and 
 he used to make us recite the odes of Horace, as a great treaty 
 during the hours which might otherwise have been given to 
 rest or recreation. 
 
 " I was not fond of Euclid, and I made small progress in 
 Mathematics, a circumstance which I have had occasion to regret 
 
EARLY STUDIES. 21 
 
 throughout life. Feeling the want so much, I was induced, at 
 the age of thirty-seven or thirty-eight, to commence the study of 
 Algebra ; but it was then too late to become a mathematician. 
 For drawing I had no turn, and all my lines were run by the 
 rule and compass. I was fond of fencing, but I never became a 
 powerful or skilful swordsman. Dancing seemed to have come 
 to me as from nature, for I was scarcely credited when I men- 
 tioned, on my debut, that I had not been previously taught. 
 
 " I soon became very fond of novels and romances, and par- 
 ticularly of Spanish and Eastern tales; and I suspect that the 
 4 Arabian Nights' and the ' Tales of the Genii' may have had 
 something to do in sending me to India, although it is scarcely 
 possible to imagine a greater contrast than that presented be- 
 tween the gorgeous palaces of the East and the midshipman's 
 berth on the orlop deck of an Indiaman. 
 
 " The first novel which fell into my hands was the s Fool of 
 Quality;' and although it was probably foolish enough, I recol- 
 lect that I strained my eyes to devour it, in the twilight of a 
 summer's evening. ' Pamela' followed, and nothing came amiss, 
 excepting Richardson's most tedious * Clarissa Harlowe,' which 
 I never had patience to read to a conclusion. 
 
 " There are few things in the life of a schoolboy worth re- 
 membering, and few which I remember; but trifles sometimes 
 keep possession of the memory from particular associations. 
 
 " I well recollect the first ascent of Lunardi's balloon, which 
 I saw to great advantage, and which struck me as something 
 very wonderful. Godwin had not written his * Political Jus- 
 tice' at the time, or he might have instanced this triumph of 
 mind over matter, in illustration of his theory, although it is 
 now become so familiar to us as scarcely to attract attention. 
 In fact, science of late years has produced so many greater 
 wonders, that travelling in the air is considered to be fit only to 
 attract the gaze of the vulgar. Even a Lord Mayor's show, 
 which appeared to be so fine and imposing a spectacle, with the 
 men in armour, would be regarded by a modern schoolboy as a 
 gaudy, idle pageant. Such has been the advance of knowledge ! 
 
 " I had several skirmishes while at Hampstead; but only two 
 
22 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 regular battles. The first scuffle was with the Honorable Thomas 
 Douglas, subsequently well known as Lord Selkirk ; and I can- 
 not guess how we should have had an altercation, for he was 
 very reserved, and seldom engaged in our play. Indeed, he 
 kept aloof from us, and seemed to be entirely absorbed in his 
 own meditations. He often swung himself from the branch of 
 an old tree at the bottom of our playground ; and I can almost 
 fancy that I see him in his usual contemplative mood, with 
 head in air, to all appearance counting the leaves above him. 
 
 " My first battle took place with a French boy soon after I 
 entered the school. He was much older and taller than myself, 
 but lame and very awkward, and not at all skilled in the art of 
 boxing, in which I was myself a novice. After being engaged 
 for some time in a very desultory warfare, the odds turned in 
 my favor; and my opponent, becoming much enraged, made a 
 furious onset, seized me by the head, and endeavoured by one 
 great effort to bring my face into close contact with his knee; 
 when, lo ! off came my wig and the astonished Frenchman, 
 holding up this vain trophy, seemed to expect that the head 
 would follow; but I was not idle in the mean time, and after a 
 short struggle, victory declared in my favor. 
 
 " The termination of my next contest was very different 
 indeed. My opponent was younger than myself, but much 
 more strong and weighty, and a most skilful pugilist. He beat 
 me to a dead stand-still; and I could at last scarcely support 
 myself against the wall, or return his blows. He was victorious, 
 of course; but I was exceedingly provoked at being scolded 
 and taunted afterwards by a pert little housemaid for having 
 struck her * pet boy.' A plague upon such pet boys ; for I was 
 feeling at the moment most sensibly the effects of his sturdy 
 blows. 
 
 "We generally spent our holidays with our kind grand- 
 mother; but in the summer of 1783 we accompanied a part of 
 the school to Margate, for the advantage of sea-bathing. About 
 fifty or sixty of us were crammed into a hoy ; and having had 
 a long passage, we passed a night on board in the most comfort- 
 less condition. We were huddled together in a small cabin, 
 
THE LAW AND THE SEA. 23 
 
 some lying longitudinally, others transversely and diagonally 
 over them, and nearly all suffering from sea-sickness. I was 
 one of the very few who escaped this annoyance ; but it being 
 known, on our landing, that I had not been sick, I was imme- 
 diately ordered a dose of physic. It seemed to me strange and 
 illogical that I should be required to take physic because I was 
 well; but Alexander the Great (not he of Macedon) troubled 
 himself very little with logic in such cases, and we knew he had 
 an instrument which would have silenced Aristotle himself. 
 Upon another occasion I was treated much in the same way. 
 Most of the boys had what is called the ' influenza,' for want of 
 a better title, /felt quite well; but our old apothecary, wisely 
 concluding that, if I were not sick, I ought to be, under any 
 theory, whether the thing were contagious or epidemic, or 
 neither the one nor the other, I was unceremoniously subjected 
 to the same course of discipline. Happily, however, I was not 
 often caught in his net. 
 
 " In 1785 we enacted the tragedy of ' Hamlet, the Dane;' 
 and really it was very well performed. The insignificant part 
 of Osrick was assigned to me ; but in the after-piece I was 
 rather better provided for in the character of the Frenchman in 
 Garrick's farce of ' Lethe.' We afterwards rehearsed the 
 tragedy of f Cato ;' and there I had allotted to me the important 
 part of Miss Marcia ; but whenever Jiiba began to recite the 
 lines : ' The lovely Marcia towers above her sex True, she is 
 fair, oh how divinely fair,' the boys were all in a titter, and I 
 was forcibly reminded of the small-pox. It was cruel to make 
 me personate a Roman belle, prude though she may have been ; 
 but luckily I left the school before I was called upon to perpe- 
 trate this part, or that of Termagant, in a farce, whose title even 
 I do not now recollect." 
 
 It was intended that young Tucker should be 
 trained for the legal profession. His father probably 
 conceived that his local interest would enable Henry 
 St.George to secure for himself a competence by 
 practising at the Bermudian Bar. But the boy had 
 
24 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 no taste for such drudgery as this; and when, in 
 the course of the Christmas holidays of 1785-86, one 
 of his aunts asked him whether he would like to 
 visit India, he appears to have grasped eagerly at 
 the offer of such an escape from the thraldom of the 
 schoolroom and the lawyer's desk. It seems that 
 she had no delegated authority to make any such 
 proposal. The impulse was, doubtless, a kindly one ; 
 the act belonged to the great family of the Well- 
 meant. A very mischievous family it is ; but in 
 this case, at least, the unwarrantable interference of 
 the good lady, shaping as it did the whole career of 
 Henry St. George Tucker, produced results which, 
 had she lived to see them, she might have regarded 
 with a smile of complacency and a thrill of delight. 
 
 And so it was thus hastily determined that the 
 boy should " go out to India." It does not ap- 
 pear that his aunt had formed any very clear con- 
 ception of what he was to do there, or had very 
 far-seeing projects for his future advancement in 
 life. There were merchant-ships always sailing for 
 the Indian ports, and there was little difficulty in 
 obtaining for a hardy, healthy boy of good family 
 a midshipman's berth on board an Indiaman. So 
 Henry St. George Tucker, at the age of fifteen, be- 
 came a midshipman on board a merchant- ship. The 
 history of his departure and of his voyage to India 
 shall be told in his own words : 
 
 "In December, 1785, I bade adieu to Hampstead for the 
 holidays, never to return; for my good aunt T, having inci- 
 dentally asked me if I should like to go out to India, I eagerly 
 
DEPARTURE FOR INDIA. 25 
 
 caught at the idea, and my destiny was soon decided. She had 
 the best motives, no doubt, for her object was to relieve my 
 father from the charge of my education ; but she assumed an 
 authority which did not belong to her, and she contravened all 
 his plans for my future establishment in life. My predominant 
 feeling was, perhaps, to get rid of the discipline of a school, 
 and to avoid the laborious process of preparing for the law, the 
 profession for which my father had destined me. I was also, 
 perhaps, influenced by the prospect of realising some of the 
 scenes in those Eastern fictions which had delighted my imagi- 
 nation. 
 
 " My father, however, was much displeased and grieved at 
 this hasty and most unjustifiable proceeding, which separated 
 us for ever, never to meet again ; and I received from him a 
 letter of reproof, which cut me to the very heart. It was one 
 of the most impressive productions of the kind which I ever 
 read, and I wish that I could insert it here, as a model of that 
 sort of composition which is produced by strong feeling, coming 
 directly from the heart of an affectionate parent ; but when it 
 reached me I was 15,000 miles off, hunting wild animals on 
 the plains of Behar. 
 
 " It having been thus hastily decided that I should proceed 
 to India, and in the situation of a midshipman on board an 
 Indiaman, I was forthwith sent to attend Mr. Wales, the cir- 
 cumnavigator and astronomer, at Christ's Hospital, for the pur- 
 pose of being instructed in navigation; but in six or eight 
 weeks I could not learn much. Indeed, I merely went over 
 the ground which I had previously traversed at school ; or if I 
 acquired anything, it was simply the application of trigonometry 
 to some practical purposes. No attempt was made to instruct 
 me in nautical astronomy. 
 
 " In March, 1786, I was to embark in the William Pitt, 
 Captain Charles Mitchell, and to bid adieu to England and my 
 family, perhaps for ever; but few of my relatives were in town, 
 and the parting was not, I believe, very painful. My kind 
 aunt T. presented me with a couple of guineas, enjoining me 
 not to mention the circumstance to Captain T., who would 
 
26 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 furnish my purse with the necessary supply; but he, knowing 
 the world and its ways, bluntly asked me what my aunt had 
 given me, and I was obliged to confess the fact. ' Very good 
 that will do,' was the only remark which escaped him ; and 
 I was left, somewhat disappointed, and not exactly satisfied 
 with his slender premises or questionable conclusions. 
 
 " But I started for Gravesend in grand style, in a carriage 
 and four, with the Purser and public despatches, and two other 
 youngsters, midshipmen like myself. 
 
 " The following morning we were called into the cuddy, 
 successively, to receive our impress money, or an advance of 
 two months' wages ; and the good man who held the money- 
 bags fortunately asked me if I had ever been at sea before. I, 
 not knowing the object of the question, promptly answered that 
 I had. * I am glad of it, young gentleman, for we have too 
 many land-lubbers among us.' This stamped me at once as an 
 ordinary, if not an able seaman, and my wages were regulated 
 accordingly. And here let it be observed that, as I had suf- 
 fered by my candor in one instance, it was but fair that I should 
 gain by the same adherence to truth in another. My wages 
 enabled me to contribute a small sum towards my mess, and to 
 purchase a keg of gin in the Downs, of which I was never a 
 large consumer. 
 
 " In these said Downs my troubles commenced, and I expe- 
 rienced discomfort enough. The ship was crammed with in- 
 vestment, and crowded with Irish recruits. The very first 
 night my great-coat and my cot, with all its appurtenances, were 
 carried off, and I never saw them more at least, in a way to 
 identify them. There were seventeen midshipmen on board, 
 and the berth allotted to us on the orlop deck was only suffi- 
 cient to enable four to hang their cots, or hammocks. I took 
 possession of the chest on which our meals were served ; but 
 even for this hard couch I was obliged to maintain a sharp 
 struggle; and as I was successful, I trust that fortune was not 
 blind. Our senior midshipman and coxswain, seeing my state 
 of destitution, and being in a different watch, allowed me to 
 turn in and out with him for a week or ten days; but I was so 
 
MIDSHIPMAN LIFE. 27 
 
 sleepy-headed that he found it difficult to rouse me, and this 
 indulgence was soon withdrawn ; and during the greater part 
 of the voyage I slept on a hen-coop on the poop ; and as our 
 poultry diminished, I sometimes, to avoid the rain, crept into 
 the hen-coop itself. 
 
 "I had another source of discomfort. A great lumbering 
 chest, which Captain T. had formerly used as a store-chest, 
 contained my clothes and necessaries. For a day or two it re- 
 mained on deck, the object of constant abuse, for it was in 
 everybody's way; but it being difficult to find room for it 
 below, it was consigned to the fore-hatchway, where it became 
 the dining-table of our Hibernian recruits. This would have 
 been all very well; but these Irish lads, by perpetually jumping 
 upon it, opened a large seam, or crack, in the lid, which in 
 consequence freely admitted their pea-soup. Unluckily, too, 
 the chest contained not only my clothes, but a supply of rusks 
 and gingerbread nuts; and the soup, entering into a combina- 
 tion with these precious articles, my chest was in a condition 
 which it would not be easy to depict. Besides, I could seldom 
 obtain access to it; and I have often remained wet and dirty, 
 without the possibility of obtaining a change of linen. . . . 
 I might have supplied myself with jackets and trousers from 
 the purser's stores; but then I was anxious to keep my wages 
 untouched, that I might have my pockets full on my return 
 home. 
 
 " Our first attempt to get out to sea was unsuccessful, and we 
 were compelled to return to the Downs; but it proved a pretty 
 sharp debut for us young gentlemen on the poop. 
 
 " Our chief mate (the son of a Deal pilot) was every inch of 
 him a thorough-bred seaman, and a brave officer ; but he was 
 a perfect tiger in a blue coat. He told us at starting that we 
 must manage all the after-sails, the mizen-mast and its appen- 
 dages being our peculiar charge. Well, there is no great dif- 
 ficulty in getting under weigh. Sails can be hoisted, and sheets 
 and braces hauled by inexperienced hands ; but the wind headed 
 us, and a gale came on, attended with sleet and extreme cold. 
 Every reef of the mizen-topsail was ordered to be taken in, and 
 
28 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 the sail to be furled. Here came the tug of war ' hoc opus, 
 hie labor.' We were to lie out on the yard-arm, where two- 
 thirds of us had never been before. No assistance was allowed 
 below, not even to trim the yards for the purpose of shaking the 
 sail. This hard, unbending sail, like ourselves, had never been 
 at sea before. It was made more unmanageable, if possible, by 
 the sleet and the wind, which forced it over the yard. We 
 were exposed to this persecuting sleet and intense cold for (I 
 think) about two hours, until we succeeded, at length, in secur- 
 ing the sail, after successively taking in every reef ; when we 
 were permitted to come down, benumbed and exhausted. We 
 soon after bore up, and returned to our anchorage in the Downs. 
 " The trial was a rough one ; but it had the effect of making 
 all difficulties appear light thenceforward. Of this I had prac- 
 tical proof in my own case. Some weeks after we had been at 
 sea, we were suddenly assailed by what is called a ' white 
 squall,' without the slightest indication of its approach. The 
 ship was laid on her beam-ends the ports were to be secured 
 halliards, sheets, and braces were let go and everything was in a 
 state of most admired confusion. Our after-sails were got in first, 
 and I was ordered up, with three after-guardsmen, to furl the 
 maintop-gallant-sail, for it was impossible all at once to man all 
 the yards, and attend to everything which the emergency re- 
 quired. But, unluckily, one of the lifts had given way, and the 
 yard, from its accustomed horizontal position, assumed the per- 
 pendicular. I was desired to lie out, or rather lie down, on the 
 yard, to get hold, if possible, of the lee-leach of the sail. Here 
 was a mighty pretty office for a young gentleman of fifteen; but 
 there was no time for reflection, and down I went, scarcely ex- 
 pecting to return, for the difficulty of maintaining my hold on 
 a dangling yard, with a blustering sail to deal with, was very 
 great. What would my poor parents have felt if they had seen, 
 or fancied me, suspended aloft in a position perpendicular to the 
 boiling sea below? I think I see the white foam at this moment, 
 although half an hour before the sea had been calm and unruffled. 
 But I happily got back in safety, from a situation where the 
 slightest misadventure or unsteadiness must have proved fatal. 
 
MIDSHIPMAN LIFE. 29 
 
 How often have I been mercifully preserved by that gracious 
 Power to whom I owe so many blessings ! 
 
 " While on this theme, I may as well recount a few accidents 
 which occurred to me on board, for the purpose of illustrating 
 the life of a midshipman in an Indiaman some fifty years ago. 
 
 " On being suddenly aroused one night from sleep on the poop, 
 I stepped, as I thought, from a hen-coop, upon the deck of the 
 said poop ; but to my great surprise, I alighted on the quarter- 
 deck, but without breaking my bones, or other injury, beyond 
 the shock at the instant. 
 
 " During a very rainy night, I had ensconced myself under the 
 mat-covering of a carriage, which had been placed (much out 
 of place) in the front part of the poop over the awning ; but 
 falling asleep, as was my wont, and the matting being decayed 
 or injured by these nocturnal visits, I slipped through, and was 
 precipitated with great violence on the quarter-deck. I was 
 grievously bruised and stunned, and I scarcely recovered my 
 consciousness until morning, having been huddled under the 
 awning out of the way, like any other useless lumber, by some 
 good-natured quartermaster ; but in a few days I was upon my 
 legs again, and indeed, I never absented myself from my watch, 
 or received medical treatment. 
 
 " One of the important duties of a midshipman is to hold the 
 candle when any work is going on below. On one of these 
 occasions, when we were moving or getting out some stores, a 
 brute of a quartermaster pitched a keg of pickled salmon in a 
 direction to strike me forcibly on the back. I thought that 
 my breath was gone, and my back broken; but things came 
 round in time, and no complaint was made of this brutality, for 
 that would only have produced a feud among those who were 
 near neighbours on the orlop, and not otherwise very well dis- 
 posed towards each other. 
 
 " Another inappreciable privilege of the midshipman was to 
 visit the coal-hole without a candle, and alone, for the spirit-room 
 was at hand, where a light would be dangerous; but unluckily 
 a grapnail had been placed across the entrance to this dark 
 cavern at the bottom of the ship, and we boys could only 
 
30 LIFE OF H: ST.GL TUCKER. 
 
 squeeze ourselves in upon all fours, and shovel out the coals 
 with our hands into a large basket in the gangway. I had, on 
 one occasion, successfully gone through this tedious process the 
 basket was full, and was hoisted up slowly until it had nearly 
 reached the deck, when through accident or ^design (but I 
 suspect the latter) it was toppled over, and a shower of coals 
 came rattling down, to my astonishment and dismay. I had just 
 a moment to withdraw my head hastily into the dark coal-hole, 
 or that head would in an instant have been in a condition to defy 
 the manipulation of Dr. Spurzheim himself. .... 
 
 " I was never * mast-headed' but once as a punishment, and 
 perhaps I deserved it. The boy with whom I had a struggle 
 for the mess-chest as a bed, called upon me to heave the log ; 
 but I, fancying myself as good a man as himself, desired that he 
 would hold the reel, and / would heave the log. He refused, 
 and I persisted, and between us the log was not hove ; but the 
 omission was discovered, and the hour of reckoning arrived; 
 and both parties having been found guilty, we were both 
 ordered up for two hours to the main-yard-arm, first up to take 
 the weather-yard. I obtained this honorable distinction; and 
 the main-yard, it must be admitted, offered a pretty fair seat, 
 and sufficient accommodation ; but as I always distrusted my 
 propensity to sleep (for it was during the night), I took care to 
 secure myself by a gasket, or some other lashing. I came well 
 off, with only four bells; as one of our boys was kept at the 
 mast-head, either from design or forgetfulness, for nearly a whole 
 day, and we were obliged to supply his wants clandestinely 
 from below. 
 
 " It may be asked if such sharp discipline did not sometimes 
 occasion accidents. One did occur with us. A boy was knocked 
 down, or pushed down, in the dark, and falling against a ring- 
 bolt, broke his thigh. But he was indulged in consequence 
 with a hammock full six weeks or more. Lucky rogue ! 
 
 " While I allude to occurrences somewhat tinctured with 
 severity, I ought not to omit a circumstance which was highly 
 creditable to the spirit and decision of our chief officer. Our 
 recruits, who had been reinforced by a party from Madras, and 
 
MIDSHIPMAN LIFE. 31 
 
 who were certainly in a state of great discomfort from want of 
 the necessary accommodation, broke out into a serious riot ; and 
 they became so violent and ungovernable that it was judged 
 necessary for the officers and others to come armed to the 
 quarter-deck. One of the ringleaders was seized and lashed to 
 the main-shrouds for punishment, when an accomplice, who had 
 perched himself in the long boat, called out most vociferously, 
 ' If one is to be punished, we'll all be punished.' The chief 
 officer darted through the crowd, was on the booms in an 
 instant, seized the man by the collar, placing a pistol at his 
 head, and coolly told him that he should be the first example. 
 The man uttered not a word the crowd silently made way 
 and the offender received two dozen, which would have satisfied 
 the most craving appetite. Only two punishments took place, 
 of two dozen each; but these two dozen, in intrinsic value, 
 were probably equivalent to 1000 lashes, which the parties 
 might have received for a similar offence on shore. Upon the 
 whole, although no connoisseur in these matters, I am disposed 
 to prefer our marine ' cat-o'-nine- tails,' for it does not unneces- 
 sarily prolong the torture. 
 
 11 1 do not dislike salt-junk; but it would be quite as agree- 
 able to have a little change in the course of four or five months. 
 I did, it is true, once during the voyage receive, for my portion, 
 about a cubic inch of roast mutton, which the captain's steward, 
 in an unaccountable fit of charity, or caprice, presented to the 
 mess. A young shark's tail, too, now and then offered some 
 variety, although it was not at all equal to the whale cutlets 
 which we have in Bermuda. But the luxury of all luxuries, the 
 
 dinner which would have given an appetite to Sir W. C 
 
 himself, with nothing more than his own hard biscuits, was an 
 enormous sea-pie, made of albatrosses and other sea-fowl, which 
 we had taken with the hook and line. Such a dinner I never 
 saw before, and never shall see again; and it was enjoyed by us 
 more than any ever set forth at the London Tavern. 
 
 ' ' I had another pleasant little treat on Sunday evenings, 
 when the weather was fair. Our good purser, Mr. Begbie, 
 used to assemble four or five of us in his cabin, where we read 
 
32 LIFE OF H. ST.a. TUCKER. 
 
 a chapter in the Bible, and were afterwards regaled with gin- 
 gerbread and a glass of wine or cherry -brandy. This made us 
 pass our Sunday evenings very comfortably, and I always looked 
 forward to them with pleasure, especially as on that day I gene- 
 rally contrived, in the absence of my tenants, the recruits, to 
 obtain access to my chest for a clean shirt, as well as the other 
 means of cleaning myself, and appearing like an officer and a 
 gentleman. 
 
 " We reached Madras on the 26th of July, just four months 
 after our departure from the Downs; and nothing can be more 
 curious, or strike a traveller more forcibly, than the sight of the 
 numerous catamarans, or, as it would seem, naked men, black 
 as coal, walking, as it were, upon the sea. The song of the 
 Mussoola boatmen is also new and pleasing to a stranger * Ali 
 Ali Emaum Ali Yar! Ali 1' Ali Ali 1'AliP 
 
 " I had lost a wager to one of my messmates of a dozen of 
 ducks; and, whether through his influence, or my own extra- 
 ordinary merit and trustworthiness, I was sent on shore in 
 charge of the first boat, conveying stores, or investment, to the 
 beach. This was too favorable an opportunity to be lost, and I 
 was commissioned to add a pig to my dozen of ducks, for the 
 purpose of having a proper cheveau on the very next day, which 
 I believe was Sunday. I succeeded admirably. The ducks 
 gave me no trouble, for they were dead; but a live pig is a 
 queer customer, and I not only had some trouble with him, but 
 when he was handed up the side of the ship with all due cere- 
 mony, he squeaked so lustily as to attract the quick ear, or keen 
 eye, of our chief officer. This was a contretemps which gave 
 me much vexation. 
 
 " The next morning I was placed on general duty, and was 
 employed incessantly under the immediate eye of the chief 
 officer himself, until it pleased him to retire from the quarter- 
 deck to take a hasty dinner. My ducks, in the mean time, had 
 been roasted, served up, and nearly consumed, with the little 
 rascal of a pig. No time was to be lost. Down I went to the 
 orlop, to feast upon the debris ; but I had a certain presenti- 
 ment, or misgiving, that I should not be allowed to pick my 
 
ARRIVAL AT MADRAS. 33 
 
 bones in peace, so I prepared for the worst, like a skilful general 
 who foresees a manosuvre on the part of his opponent. Anon a 
 gruff voice thundered down the hatchway, ' Below there! Mid- 
 shipman Tucker !' I lost not a moment. Off went my shirt, 
 and in an instant I sprang upon the medicine- chest, which 
 occupied the hatch, almost in a state of nature. I then made a 
 pathetic appeal to the immutable principles of justice urged 
 that I had been at work the whole morning had not had time 
 to clean myself, nor (I might have added) to pick the bones of 
 my delicious ducks. The tiger growled, and went on in search 
 of other prey. This was a triumph not unworthy of Alexander, 
 with the advantage of not shedding a drop of blood ; and I pro- 
 ceeded, with some exultation, to finish my dainty repast, too 
 long delayed. 
 
 " The next day I received a kind invitation from Colonel 
 Grattan, the brother of the great Irish orator, to pay him a 
 visit, and I went on shore without delay, dressed in all my best. 
 I was graciously received by the colonel and his lady, who, as 
 Miss Carey, before her marriage, had resided with my uncle in 
 Calcutta. The colonel was a grave, reserved man, but I liked 
 him, because I fancied he resembled my father, whom I was 
 not fated to see again. Mrs. Grattan was a bonnie lassie, very 
 good-humoured a great contrast to the colonel; and I liked 
 her, because she carried me to a grand ball at the Government 
 House, and did all in her power to contribute to my amusement 
 during the ten days we remained at Madras. 
 
 " We made the passage to the Sand-heads without accident; 
 but bringing up in Saugor roads, our anchor got foul, and we 
 had the utmost difficulty in weighing it. The utmost force of 
 the lever was applied by crowding the capstan-bars, but all in 
 vain. The ' messenger' at length gave way, with a desperate 
 bounce, scattering us midshipmen, who were holding on, in 
 different directions, but luckily without much injury to any of 
 us. A new * messenger' was to be bent, and when at last we 
 succeeded in raising the anchor, one of the flukes was found, to 
 our great surprise, to have been drawn almost into a straight 
 line, such was the force which had been applied to it. The 
 
 D 
 
34i LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 duty of holding on the * messenger' belonged especially to the 
 midshipmen, who were also indulged with a ride upon a tri- 
 angle, for the purpose of greasing the mast, tarring the standing 
 rigging, &c., &c. But, alas ! this useful class of boys is now, I 
 fear, nearly extinct, having followed the fate of those superb 
 ships which were heretofore the pride of our Indian commerce. 
 
 " On our arrival at Diamond Harbour I found a budgerow 
 waiting for me, with one of my uncle's clerks. I was speedily 
 on board, and being ushered into the cabin, I saw a sedate 
 gentleman, with what appeared to be the head of a long snake 
 in his mouth, while a rattling behind gave ground for conjec- 
 ture that this must be of the species rattle- snake. It was an 
 innocent Bengal hookah. 
 
 " We soon reached Calcutta,* where I was kindly welcomed 
 by my maternal uncle, Mr. Bruere, who was then one of the 
 secretaries to the Government; and having been duly installed 
 in a very commodious apartment, I was conducted up-stairs to 
 pay my devoirs to my aunt. I met an elegant little personage, 
 whom I took at first to be a young lady fresh from school, for 
 she had a pretty little figure, was dressed in a nice white frock, 
 with a profusion of beautiful hair, hanging below her waist. 
 This sylph-like vision was my very good aunt, the mother of 
 three children." 
 
 * This was about the middle of the month of August, 1786. 
 
COMMENCEMENT OF HIS CAREER. 35 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Early Indian Life of Henry StGeorge Tucker Eesidence with Mr. Bruere 
 Departure for Gyah Kesidence with Mr. Law Mr. Law and the Mocur- 
 rery System Appointment to the Secretary's Office Loss of his first 
 Earnings Appointed Assistant to the Commercial Agent at Commer- 
 colly Kesideuce at Hurriaul Early Writings Opinions on the Land 
 Assessment On Excise and Gunge Duties. 
 
 IT was in the month of August, 1786, that Henry 
 St. George Tucker found himself located in the house 
 of his maternal uncle, Mr. Bruere, at that period one 
 of the secretaries to Government. It does not seem 
 that he had at any time a fixed intention of follow- 
 ing the profession into which he had been so hastily 
 and unadvisedly launched. If he had, it soon be- 
 came apparent to him that there was very little in- 
 ducement to adhere to such a design. He left his 
 ship at Calcutta, and looked the world in the face. 
 
 " I entered the world," he wrote more than half 
 a century afterwards to one of his sons, " without 
 money or friends ; and I had to struggle for almost 
 fifteen years against poverty and debt. I lived for 
 a time on about sixty rupees per month, in Rannee- 
 Moodee-Gully, in a small hovel which I had to main- 
 tain against a colony of rats. My health occasionally 
 
 D 2 
 
36 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 failed, but a removal to this country or the comforts 
 of marriage never entered into my contemplation. 
 So far from it, I was obliged to assist others, in spite 
 of my pecuniary embarrassments. "Well, after all, 
 here I am at the age of sixty-nine, enjoying a fair 
 state of health and measure of strength, with every 
 blessing which I could desire. This, too, after 
 bringing up a large family with a moderate fortune, 
 not one sixpence of which was disreputably ac- 
 quired. . . . Consider these premises and the 
 result and take comfort."* 
 
 Such, in a few words, is the history of Henry St.- 
 George Tucker such the great moral to be drawn 
 from it. "Take comfort!" To the biographer, 
 whose duty it is to fill in the details, it is necessarily 
 a source of unspeakable regret that the records of 
 these fifteen struggle-years these years of difficulty 
 and debt should be so scanty and unsatisfying. 
 All that is known of Mr. Tucker's early Indian ex- 
 periences all that affection has garnered up and 
 that industry can gather from scattered sources 
 will be given in this and the following chapters. 
 Slender as is the information, it may yet suffice to 
 give full significance to the words, " Consider these 
 premises and the result, and take comfort /" 
 At the age of fifteen, young Tucker, fifteen thou- 
 
 * Written in 1840. Mr. Tucker, in this letter, addressing his son, says 
 also: " You complain of grey hairs. I had them as early as yourself ; and 
 what was worse, I was obliged to use spectacles at the age of twenty-two, and 
 had reason to apprehend that my sight would have failed long ago a failure 
 which must have been decisive of the fate of one who could only hope to 
 make his way in life by the most persevering industry." 
 
RESIDENCE IN BENGAL. 37 
 
 sand miles from home, without money, almost with- 
 out friends, looked the world in the face. He had 
 no recognised position of any kind ; he was not a 
 writer ; he was not a cadet ; he was not a clerk in a 
 merchant's office ; he was simply an adventurer. Of 
 India and the East he knew as much as he had 
 gathered from those great authorities, the " Arahian 
 Nights" and the " Tales of the Genii ;" and he soon 
 found that a hovel in Hannee-Moodee-Gully is ex- 
 tremely unlike the palace of Haroun-al-Raschid. He 
 did not find an enchanted " Basket" to draw him up 
 to Paradise, any more than Whittington found that 
 the streets of London were actually paved with gold. 
 He had to make the Basket for himself. The only 
 Genii who came to his aid were his own indomit- 
 ahle energy and perseverance. 
 
 With the Brueres he tarried for a few months 
 partly in Calcutta, partly at their country resi- 
 dence at Sook-Saugor a village higher up the 
 river. He had landed at a bad season of the year, 
 and his hot, young blood was soon at fever-heat. 
 Those " months after the rains," when the hot 
 damps rise from the sodden plains of Bengal as from 
 a wet cloth hung before the fire, sent the young ad- 
 venturer, as they have sent many another young 
 adventurer, to his bed. He was taken, convalescent, 
 to Sook-Saugor, where the cold weather soon re- 
 stored him to all the vigor and elasticity of robust 
 youth ; and he began to long to be " up and doing." 
 
 Prom Bengal he was soon transplanted to Behar. 
 In December, 1786, we find the young adventurer at 
 Gyah, resident in the house of Mr. Law, who seems 
 
38 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 to have received him and cherished him with all the 
 kindness of a father. How they first hecame ac- 
 quainted is not known. But their intercourse was 
 held in affectionate rememhrance by hoth to their 
 dying day. Thirty or forty years afterwards Mr. 
 Law wrote from America : " In India I passed my 
 youthful days. Ask Tucker if he remembers the 
 stout white pony that used to run away with him on 
 
 our shooting parties. M writes me how Tucker 
 
 and he are exerting themselves, I glory in such 
 friendship." He had reason to glory in it. It is 
 hard to say how much the friendship and hospitality, 
 which he extended to the homeless hoy at the outset 
 of his career, contributed to make the ripe Indian 
 statesman, who, sixty years after their first meeting 
 in Behar, was writing to the Governor- General from 
 the chair of the India House letters of instruction 
 and advice. 
 
 I need not tell any one even slenderly acquainted 
 with the administrative history of India during 
 the last quarter of the eighteenth century, that Mr. 
 Thomas Law was that collector of Behar, of whom, a 
 few years later, it was said that he was the " Pather 
 of the Permanent Settlement."* Lord Cornwallis 
 was Governor-General of India. The settlement of 
 the landed revenue of the provinces of Bengal, Behar, 
 and Orissa, was at this time the chief object of his 
 care. One experiment after another had been tried. 
 Each had been unsuccessful. Ever since the East 
 
 * Every one has heard the comprehensive description of Eobert Boyle 
 that he was " The Father of Chemistry and the brother of Lord Cork." I 
 have heard Thomas Law, with the same ludicrous infelicity, described as the 
 4< Father of the Permanent Settlement and the brother of Lord Ellenborough." 
 
THE PERMANENT SETTLEMENT. 39 
 
 India Company had " stood forth as Dewan," the 
 adjustment of the land-tax had heen the standing 
 difficulty of our administrators. The land was, 
 somehow or other, to he made to yield a certain 
 amount of revenue for the exigencies of the State ; 
 but how that revenue was to he yielded in a manner 
 advantageous alike to the Governed and the Govern- 
 ing, was a question which demanded all the know- 
 ledge and the experience of the ablest Indian states- 
 men to solve. It was pretty well agreed, both at 
 home and abroad, that the settlement should be made 
 with the Zemindars, but whether for a fixed period 
 of years, or in perpetuity, was a point much open to 
 debate. It was certain, at least, that the system of 
 short leases had nothing to recommend it. It had 
 been tried, and it had disastrously failed. The 
 choice lay between the granting of long leases at a 
 fixed rate, and the unalterable assessment of the 
 amount to be paid by the Zemindar. After years of 
 consideration and discussion, the latter alternative 
 was adopted ; and what is now known as the " Per- 
 manent Settlement " became the law of the land. 
 
 Now, among the foremost supporters and the 
 most strenuous advocates of this " Mocurrery," or 
 Permanent System, was Mr. Thomas Law, collector 
 of Behar. He was a revenue-officer of ripe experi- 
 ence, and a man of a humane and kindly disposition. 
 The welfare of the natives by whom he was sur- 
 rounded had a cherished place in his heart, and 
 whether he judged rightly or wrongly in contending 
 for the perpetuation of the settlement, it is not to be 
 doubted that he was rooted in the conviction that it 
 
40 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 would contribute to the happiness of the people. 
 What he believed so firmly himself he impressed 
 forcibly upon his young disciple ; and he had good 
 reason to be proud of his pupil. Whilst still in the 
 prime of life, Thomas Law carried the fortune which 
 he had acquired in India to the Western World ; and 
 nearly half a century afterwards it often gladdened 
 his aged heart in the far-off American city, in which 
 his Indian earnings were invested, to think that 
 among the ablest, the most earnest, and the most 
 influential supporters of the Permanent Settlement, 
 was the homeless boy who had eaten the curry, 
 ridden the pony, dwelt in the bungalow, and listened 
 to the precepts of the some-time collector of Behar. 
 
 It was here, under Mr. Law's roof, that young 
 Tucker first began seriously to study the peculiari- 
 ties of native character and native institutions, and 
 to ponder over the intricacies of our system of go- 
 vernment, and its effect upon the welfare of the 
 people. " The first year of my residence in India," 
 he wrote in 1847,* " I passed in Behar (chiefly at 
 Gyah), and there I received impressions very favor- 
 able to the old Mahomedan families, whose fate ex- 
 cited my commiseration. I met at different times 
 Gholaum Hussein Khan, the author of the c Seer 
 Mutakhereen, 5 and he appeared to me the finest spe- 
 cimen of a nobleman I had ever seen. I have never 
 lost the impressions which I received of the harsh 
 treatment which many of the old families had expe- 
 rienced at our hands ; and I have since fought the 
 battle of many of the chieftains whose territories we 
 
 * To Sir George Clerk. 
 
RESIDENCE AT GYAH. 41 
 
 have confiscated." These early impressions, indeed, 
 were never effaced.* As strong were they at eighty 
 as at eighteen. One of the last papers he ever wrote 
 it was written by an octogenarian hand that had 
 lost none of its pristine vigor was in defence of the 
 rights of the titular head of the great family of Ma- 
 honiedan chiefs. 
 
 To the study of the native languages he addressed 
 himself assiduously from the first.f It is related of 
 him that about this time he translated, whenever he 
 had leisure for the task, " Pergusson on Perspec- 
 tive," into Persian, to a native painter, who, like the 
 majority of his brethren, had little knowledge of the 
 principles of his art. Although we are told that 
 sometimes, lacking words to render his ideas, he 
 illustrated them with his pencil, it is not improbable 
 that we ought to refer this incident to a later period. 
 Even a friendly biographer may question the ability 
 of a boy of seventeen, who had been only a year in 
 the country, to translate a scientific work into one 
 of the Oriental languages. 
 
 * Some of the old Hindoo Zemindars, also, with whom he made acquaint- 
 ance at this time, long held, and were long held by, him in kindly remem- 
 brance. Even as long afterwards as the year 1835, Rajah Mitterjeet Sing, 
 " the oldest of the Company's Zemindars under the Mocurrery Settlement," 
 wrote to thank Mr. Tucker (then an East India Director) for continuing to 
 icmember him. "Our acquaintance," wrote Mr. Tucker, in reply, "com- 
 menced when I was a boy at Gyali; but although our personal intercourse has 
 ceased for a great number of years, I have always taken an interest in the 
 welfare of my friend and in the prosperity of his country." 
 
 f He often discoursed, in after-days, upon the eccentricities of the Moon- 
 slice with whom he studied at Gyah a man who believed himself to be a 
 sort of Admirable Crichton in a turband and cummerbund, and who was just 
 as ready to prove his poetical powers by reciting a drama of his own compo- 
 sition, as his agility by jumping out of window. 
 
42 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 What, however, is related in scattered memoranda 
 about young Tucker's sporting exploits at this time, 
 may all be received without stint or qualification. 
 He often spoke, in after-life, about his hog-hunt- 
 ing experiences in Behar. * Accustomed from early 
 childhood to equestrian exercise with a good seat 
 in the saddle, with strong nerves and an active 
 frame, he was just the sort of youth to delight in 
 manly sports of this kind ; and he was often, there- 
 fore, the companion of Mr. Law in his excursions 
 into the jungle. There is more in these excursions 
 than the routine-men of London and Liverpool can 
 rightly appreciate. When they hear of our Indian 
 officials living much in the saddle, and spending 
 many hours of the day, at certain seasons, gun in 
 hand, it seems to them that pleasure is followed 
 rather than business, and that the administration is 
 at a stand-still whilst judges and collectors are tiger- 
 hunting and pig-sticking in the jungles, or following 
 smaller game on the plains. But there is nothing 
 more certain in the philosophy of Anglo-Indian go- 
 vernment than that the gun and the hog-spear are 
 excellent administrators, and that without such ser- 
 viceable allies our civil functionaries would be much 
 less equal to their work. It is hard to say how 
 much is learnt often, indeed, how much is done 
 during these sporting excursions, which outwardly 
 
 * Hog-hunting was his favorite diversion. " I like hog-hunting better 
 (than tiger- shooting)," he wrote, in an unfinished work descriptive of the 
 country and the people, embraced in a series of imaginary epistles. " This is 
 a very manly sport, which requires much more personal exertion, and excites 
 more emulation." 
 
SPORTING ANECDOTES. 43 
 
 represent nothing more than the leisure and the 
 amusement of our Indian administrators. In Eng- 
 land, business and pleasure are antagonistic; in 
 India, they often go hand-in-hand. 
 
 We may he sure that neither Law nor Tucker, 
 when he took the gun into his hand, was altogether 
 wasting his time. Something, however, even worse 
 than this, had like to have come out of one of these 
 sporting adventures. One day, by some wretched 
 mischance, young Tucker had the misfortune to 
 shoot Mr. Law. The accident proved not to be a 
 serious one ; but the former never forgot the uncon- 
 trollable agony of mind in which, thinking that he 
 might have killed his benefactor, he flung himself 
 upon the ground and gave way to his transports of 
 grief.* 
 
 In the cold weather of 1787-88 Henry Tucker re- 
 turned to Calcutta. It would appear, that at this 
 time he held a small uncovenanted appointment in 
 the Secretariat Department, the salary of which was 
 200 rupees a month, or about 250. a year. It is 
 probable that this appointment had been procured 
 for him through the instrumentality of Mr. Law, 
 and that a certain time had been allowed him 
 
 * Mr. Tucker used to relate another story, in illustration of his sporting 
 experiences in Behar, of a much less serious kind. He was out one day with 
 Mr. Law and some other gentlemen, when a native suddenly rushed forward, 
 and in a passion of mingled rage and grief, exclaimed, " You have killed my 
 mother." Thinking that a misdirected shot had brought down some venerable 
 matron, the English gentlemen began to experience the liveliest emotions of 
 concern, which, however, were soon dissipated on discovering that the parent 
 whom the poor fellow so emphatically bewailed was no other than his cow. 
 
44 LIFE OF H. ST.GL TUCKER. 
 
 wherein to join his office and commence his duties.* 
 In the mean while his salary was drawn, or received 
 for him, by an agent in Calcutta, and as he was 
 living, at no charge te himself, under the hospitable 
 roof of his friend, he allowed it to accumulate in his 
 attorney's hands, only applying it to the purpose of 
 defraying such small expenses as it was necessary 
 to incur for clothes and other articles oT equipment. 
 He expected, therefore, to find on his arrival at the 
 Presidency a little fund at his disposal, and, at all 
 events, a score clear of liabilities. But to his dis- 
 may he discovered, on arriving at Calcutta, that the 
 house of business in which his pay had been lodged, 
 had failed a short time before, swallowing up his 
 little all, and leaving his debts unpaid. 
 
 This was a heavy blow to the young adventurer, 
 but it did not dishearten him. Indeed, there was 
 nothing very appalling in the prospect before him. 
 He had an appointment, with a saliffy attached to 
 it, equal at least to that drawn by the majority 
 of his cotemporaries in India, and far higher than 
 the emoluments enjoyed by striplings of eighteen at 
 home. But the -curse of Debt sate more heavily 
 upon him than upon the greater number of youths, 
 in the one country or the other. In India it sits far 
 loo lightly upon young men for their future happi- 
 ness and respectability. Fortunately, young Tucker 
 and it is hard to say how much of his success he 
 
 * The precise date at which Mr. Tucker received this his first appointment 
 in the public service, the biographer has not been able to ascertain. 
 
HIS FIRST APPOINTMENT. 45 
 
 owed to it had a habit of looking every difficulty 
 in the face. With such a habit as this^no man is 
 ever ruined. There is safety in it past counting. 
 No sooner did this young ad^fcnturer find himself 
 in debt than he resolutely set himself to the great 
 work of getting out again. And he succeeded before 
 two years had worn to a close. He paid all off by 
 monthly instalments.* Before the year 1789 dawned 
 upon him, he found himself clear of debt still a 
 clerk in the Secretary's office, with 200 rupees a 
 month. 
 
 In this appointment he continued throughout the 
 year 1788. It would seem that even at this early 
 period the abilities of the youthful clerk were not 
 lost upon his official superiors. Mr. Hay was at this 
 time at the head of the department. It is related 
 that such was his confidence in young Tucker, who 
 was then only in his eighteenth year, that when the 
 claims of Mr. Keir to a grant of the exclusive privi- 
 lege of working the iron mines in the district of 
 Hamghur came before Government, he entrusted the 
 duty of drawing up*a report on the subject to the 
 young uncovenanted assistant. This^as the first 
 official paper which he ever wrote. Based upon in- 
 formation which he collected from the records of his 
 office, it took" a comprehensive survey of the whole 
 question, and conveyed the views of Government 
 
 * During six or eight months of this time he managed to secure the privi- 
 lege of free quarters in Writings Buildings. It was at this time that he made 
 the acquaintance of Mr. James Stuart, then a writer in the Buildings, with 
 whom his intimacy lasted for life. 
 
46 LIFE OF H. ST.a. TUCKER. 
 
 with so much clearness and precision, that it was 
 immediately approved and adopted.* 
 
 At the close of the year 1788 he again quitted 
 Calcutta. He had been appointed assistant to the 
 Commercial B/esident at Commercolly and Hurriaul. 
 This appointment he held for the space of a year, 
 retaining the same salary as in the Secretary's office ; 
 hut he had reason to deplore his departure from 
 Calcutta. He soon won the esteem and confidence 
 of Mr. Taylor, the Resident, who placed him in 
 charge of the Hurriaul Eactory, and who offered him 
 an appointment, with a doubled salary, if he would 
 consent to remain there. But the occupation was 
 not congenial to him. The Resident was a well- 
 meaning, kind-hearted man, but thoughtless and in- 
 considerate. Unpunctual in his habits and irregular 
 in his office hours, he often kept his young assistant, 
 fasting and weary, at his desk, in a close, hot room, 
 two or three hours after sunset, until, utterly ex- 
 hausted with want of food and rest, his head sunk 
 on the table before him. The temptation of an in- 
 creased salary was not sufficient to induce him to 
 lengthen out such servitude as this ; so at the end of 
 the year 1789 he withdrew from his situation at 
 Hurriaul, and returned to Calcutta. 
 
 The year at Hurriaul may not have been plea- 
 santly, but that it was profitably spent is not to be 
 doubted. There are the best possible proofs extant 
 
 * Sixty years afterwards Mr. Tucker referred to this boyish report, in a 
 paper on the Porto Nuovo Ironworks. 
 
EAKLY EXPERIENCES. 47 
 
 that young Henry Tucker grew rapidly in knowledge 
 and experience, and that, at an unusually early 
 age, he was competent to give an opinion on those 
 vexed questions of Indian administration especially 
 those relating to the collection of the revenue 
 which have puzzled men of ripe judgment and well- 
 exercised ability. It was no small thing, indeed, 
 that a youth, still only in his eighteenth year, should 
 be encouraged to write letters on fiscal matters to 
 one of the most experienced revenue-officers in the 
 country no small thing that he should write such 
 letters as now, after a lapse of sixty years, are to be 
 read by grown men, with pleasure and profit, not as 
 curiosities with the infant-phenomenon stamp upon 
 them, but as papers of intrinsic value, admirably 
 written, and full of instruction. In the course of this 
 year 1789 he wrote some long letters to Mr. Law, a 
 few of which have fortunately been preserved. The 
 style differs but little from that of his more mature 
 productions. . Indeed, it must occur forcibly to all 
 who, like myself, have studied Mr. Tucker's writings, 
 from the earliest to the latest, extending as they do 
 over a period of more than sixty years, that his style, 
 formed in very early youth, underwent, during all 
 the mutations of life, no material change, and that 
 there was neither crudeness in boyhood, nor feeble- 
 ness in extreme old age. Alike at eighteen and at 
 eighty, it had all its meridian clearness and force. 
 
 Often in the Bungalow often in the Jungle 
 during that ever-gratefully remembered year in 
 Behar, had Thomas Law and Henry St. George 
 
48 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 Tucker discoursed, gravely and earnestly, about the 
 administration of the land-revenue, the rights of the 
 Zemindars, and the protection of the actual culti- 
 vators of the soil ; and often since had the latter, at 
 his desk in the Hurriaul Factory, revolved these 
 weighty matters in his mind, and reduced to some- 
 thing like order and method his scattered but not 
 superficial ideas. And now, towards the close of 
 the year, when leisure would permit, he gave bodily 
 expression to these ideas with what success it is 
 my object to show.* 
 
 " My dear Mr. Law," he wrote to his friend in 
 one of these letters, " permit me to submit to your 
 
 * It would seem that Mr. Tucker's first impressions of the state of the 
 country and the character of the Anglo-Indian residents at the Presidency 
 were extremely favorable. He endeavored to obtain information from every 
 possible source, but he soon found and the complaint which he made more 
 than half a century ago has been very generally echoed during the last in- 
 quiries which have been made into the condition of the country that it 
 seldom happened that two informants gave precisely the same account. If 
 it were only for the illustration that it affords of the difficulty of obtaining 
 correct information relating to the condition of India, the following passage, 
 from one of Mr. Tucker's earliest productions, is worth quoting: " I am well 
 satisfied with the people (I mean the British inhabitants)," he wrote, "for 
 they are hospitable and social, and many of them well-informed and communi- 
 cative. There is, I think, a liberality of sentiment which particularly cha- 
 racterises them, and which is probably the effect of local circumstances. 
 Placed in elevated situations, and enjoying the smiles of fortune, there is 
 nothing to nourish a grovelling spirit. I have had occasion, however, to 
 make an observation here, which I have often made elsewhere viz., that it 
 is scarcely ever possible to find any two individuals agree upon any one pro- 
 position, or even upon any particular fact. I have made much inquiry re- 
 specting the country, the people, their customs, laws, &c. ; but I have found 
 a strange discordance in the accounts which have been given me. Some 
 men appear scarcely to observe what passes before their very eyes, or at 
 least they pay so little attention to passing objects that they leave no impres- 
 sion behind. I think, however, that I can perceive the truth through a great 
 mass of contradiction; for both ignorance and prejudice usually betray them- 
 selves." 
 
HIS EARLY WRITINGS. 49 
 
 tribunal the following observations on the revenues 
 of the country, &c., and subjects connected with 
 them. I need not, I am convinced, implore your 
 indulgent judgment on this occasion, nor need I call 
 to your recollection the inexperience of the writer 
 his situation, which almost entirely prevents him 
 from dedicating any part of his time to study and 
 his views, which were to improve and form his own 
 mind, and to contribute as much as was in his power 
 to your pleasures. No ; I am well convinced that 
 every circumstance which may tend to excuse my 
 errors, or which may in any respect operate in my 
 favor, will spontaneously suggest itself to you." 
 And having thus modestly deprecated the criticism 
 of his friend, he proceeded to set forth the subjects 
 to the consideration of which his letter was to be 
 addressed. " I will first," he said, " endeavor to con- 
 sider the principle on which Zemindars and other 
 proprietors of land in this country hold their re- 
 spective tenures. On a knowledge of the nature of 
 this principle depends the propriety of the system or 
 regulations affecting them. I will next proceed to 
 inquire into the state of the lands, and the causes 
 which have operated in reducing their value from 
 its former standard ; and from the two will, with 
 deference, endeavor to draw a result establishing the 
 principle of right and expediency on which my sug- 
 gestions shall be founded." 
 
 He then proceeded to show, that as on the subjec- 
 tion of a country to a foreign power all property in 
 the lands devolve on the conquerors, " the rights of 
 
 E 
 
50 LIFE OF H. ST.GL TUCKER. 
 
 all Zemindars and other landholders ceased on the 
 subjection of this country to the British arms." 
 
 " On our conquest of this country," continued the youthful 
 writer, " our situation did not admit of our aspiring to the 
 sovereign authority consistently with policy and prudence. It 
 was an object of much greater importance to us to obtain the 
 territorial jurisdiction, divested of the other superfluous powers 
 exercised by the Nabobs superfluous from their being un- 
 profitable, and difficult in the exercise. To this end we sought 
 and obtained the Dewanny from the nominal supreme au- 
 thority, leaving to the dispossessed Nabobs the Nizamut func- 
 tions. The Dewanny confirmed us legally in what we had ac- 
 quired by our arms, and gave to our possession a principle of 
 right. It conferred, however, only those powers as exercised 
 by the former Dewan, and the act of receiving the Dewanny 
 imposed on us an obligation never to exceed those powers. To 
 ascertain, therefore, the present rights of the subject and of 
 Government, it is necessary to recur to the former system. 
 
 " I cannot, indeed, but be of opinion that the very nature of 
 the functions exercised by the Soubahs of Hindostan precludes 
 every idea of the Zemindars possessing a property in the lands. 
 Without adverting to the forms of Pottas to circumstances of 
 Zemindars having been displaced at the pleasure of the sove- 
 reign, which I have heard alleged in proof of their being agents 
 only, but with which I am not myself sufficiently acquainted, 
 let me ask whether there is any specific system by which our 
 demands from the Zemindars are regulated ? whether it is not 
 generally understood by both parties that, after deducting from 
 the estimated produce of the lands the expense of cultivation, 
 and the necessary profits of the Ryot, and subsequently the ex- 
 penses of collection, and Nankarry or fund for the subsistence of 
 the Zemindar and his family, the surplus is not the right of 
 Government legally claimable ? 
 
 " If this be allowed, in what respect does the Zemindar pos- 
 sess a property in the lands? in what respect is he considered 
 more than an agent of Government? Does he ever appeal 
 
REVENUE SYSTEMS. 51 
 
 against unjust demands? Does he ever set up any plea against 
 arbitrary and unequal increases, but that of total inability? and 
 yet I believe we have assumed no rights or powers but what 
 were exercised by the former Dewan, and which were legally 
 consigned to us with the Dewanny. It may be asked on what 
 principle we continue to allow dispossessed Zemindars a per- 
 centage on the collections, or the value of their lands when 
 Government has thought proper to dispose of them. I have 
 never heard of such customs having existed under the former 
 Government, and if it did not exist, it has not now taken place 
 from any principle of right, but of policy and humanity. I would 
 not, however, for a moment contend that such a Government 
 should exist. I think the consequences attending it must un- 
 avoidably defeat the object proposed. To illustrate this, we 
 need only recur to the present revenue system of this country, 
 where the object is to collect all that can be collected, but 
 where the means not only prevent its being attended with suc- 
 cess in collecting much, but cause most prejudicial effects, as I 
 will endeavor to prove." 
 
 He then proceeded to describe the system under 
 which the Revenue was at that time collected by 
 the executive officers of the British Government, 
 and the evils resulting from the insufficiency of 
 our European control : 
 
 " The ascertainment and administration of this right of Go- 
 vernment is entrusted to the British Revenue Collector a 
 duty inconceivably difficult a duty hardly ever to be executed 
 with justice to the parties. Although the collector should be a 
 man of abilities, integrity, and activity (qualities which do not, 
 as you have observed, unite in the generality of men), yet in- 
 numerable obstacles oppose his ascertaining with moderate 
 accuracy what Government with policy and propriety should 
 demand, and what the landholder could give. He is entrusted 
 with an extensive district, every part of which he cannot 
 personally superintend. He has many duties imposed on him 
 
 E 2 
 
52 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 totally distinct from this trust, being from time to time a judge, 
 a magistrate, an accountant, and a public correspondent on 
 subjects of every description. He is, therefore, not only neces- 
 sitated to procure all information on this complicated subject 
 through the medium of native agents, but is frequently obliged 
 to delegate to them a considerable part of his authority. The 
 generality of these (particularly in Bengal) are men venal, ar- 
 bitrary, prejudiced, vain of the display of power and patron- 
 age, and in short, totally ignorant or regardless of every funda- 
 mental principle of honor, rectitude, and justice. The rights of 
 Government, with such agents, are a very late consideration. 
 Government must indeed inevitably suffer by them, because the 
 advantages resulting from a faithful discharge of their duties to 
 Government are precarious, distant, and inconsiderable ; a collu- 
 sion with the Zemindars offers immediate wealth and conse- 
 quence, and is in general to be effected with little danger. Self- 
 interest suggests to both parties studied concealment; and no 
 prying rival could be expected to come forward and challenge 
 unauthorised emoluments which he may hope to enjoy here- 
 after himself; his discovery of them would only tend to multiply 
 the frauds by multiplying the participators of them. Many of 
 the Zemindars are, I believe, by this means enabled to alienate 
 the rights of Government to a considerable amount; in the 
 certainty of being protected by their official friends, they exercise 
 not only a revenue, but a judicial authority in their own districts. 
 This is most grievous to the people, and consequently highly 
 prejudicial to the country. They sit in judgment in cases where 
 they are themselves parties punish trivial or imaginary offences 
 with the greatest severity, and draw a large revenue from crimes 
 and forged accusations and collusion with robbers. Under some 
 of them no description of property is secure. I have heard of a 
 man's whole effects being confiscated to satisfy their avarice or 
 wanton resentments. From their influence they are enabled to 
 monopolise the most valuable articles of trade, where the Com- 
 pany are not their comptitors; and I have seen instances of 
 their claiming the birds of the air and the fish of the rivers as 
 their property untangible. 
 
SUGGESTED REMEDIES. 53 
 
 " Nor is it possible for the collectors, as many of them are 
 situated, to prevent these abuses. The injured mendicant must 
 travel eighty miles to the Adawlut; and can it be supposed that 
 the Zemindar, who has not scrupled to ruin him, will hesitate 
 to prevent him in this appeal that he will not or cannot seize 
 and imprison him in the attempt? Such are the oppressions, 
 such the powers assumed by many of the Zemindars; nor is it, 
 I think, surprising. The causes, I conceive, may be easily ex- 
 plained. The Zemindar has not only the demands of Govern- 
 ment to satisfy, but the demands of insatiate Dewans and Mut- 
 zuddies, and securities, with whom, though a collusion secures 
 him a more favorable settlement with Government, yet in the 
 end proves a most excessive burden to him. He is less disin- 
 clined to rack-rent his country, because he is never secure of 
 holding it for any time, and consequently considers that to 
 gain a little by whatever means, at the present moment, is 
 prudence ; to look forward for the effects of moderation and en- 
 couragement, wild speculation." 
 
 Having thus forcibly described the evils of the 
 existing system, he went on to suggest a remedy. 
 The remedy was that for the application of which 
 Mr. Law had long been contending a definite as- 
 sessment of the land to be fixed by Government in 
 perpetuity. " These evils/ 5 now wrote his young cor- 
 respondent, " are the necessary effects of the system ; 
 they are, I think, only to be obviated by an entire 
 change of it, by annihilating the principles of the 
 former and present Government (which I certainly 
 think are that the Zemindar is not proprietor of the 
 soil), by making the dues of Government fixed and 
 determinate ; and thus preventing the intrigues and 
 embezzlements of intermediate officers ; by making 
 it the Zemindar's interest to nurse his country and 
 protect his people, and, in short, by adopting your 
 
54 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 Mocurrery plan, to which (were I of sufficient con- 
 sequence to use such language, I would say) I give 
 my warmest approbation." 
 
 Thus hroadly stating his opinions in favor of the 
 Permanent System opinions from which he never 
 wavered to the day of his death he proceeded to dis- 
 course on the rate of assessment and the probability 
 of the land being capable, under more favorable cir- 
 cumstances, of yielding a larger amount of revenue 
 to the State than under the system then existing 
 a system, as it was, of temporary leases and fluctu- 
 ating assessments. He believed that, though certain 
 tracts of land might be so improved as to bear a 
 higher rate of assessment, the land generally could 
 not be so productive or, rather, that landed invest- 
 ments could not be so generally remunerative 
 under our rule as under the government of the 
 Moguls. The arguments which he adduced are in- 
 genious ; and they exhibit an extensive acquaintance 
 with the commercial status of Bengal, very remark- 
 able in one who had resided so short a period in the 
 country. They afford, as I have said, a pregnant 
 proof of the good uses to which young Henry Tucker 
 had turned his connexion with the Commercial 
 Agency of Hurriaul, although they are not, in all 
 cases, borne out by the results of the last half 
 century : 
 
 " It has been alleged," he wrote, " as an argument against it 
 (the Permanent System), that Government will be deprived of 
 a very considerable part of their right, since they will be cut off 
 from all participation in the improvement of the lands, which, 
 
VALUE OF THE LAND. 55 
 
 from the effects of bad management, are at present valued much 
 below their former standard, and from which a much larger 
 revenue might in time be expected. I certainly think that the 
 lands are at present in some places much under-rented ; and this 
 ought to be fully ascertained previous to fixing the settlement. 
 I do not, however, agree that they would ever improve gene- 
 ratty, under the present system ; and I am decidedly of opinion 
 that, except in particular small spots, they never can, for physi- 
 cal reasons, pay, while under the British Government, the re- 
 venue they afforded under the Moguls; for although by che- 
 mical analysis of the soil, it would, I do not doubt, be found 
 resolvable into the same distinct principles, having the same 
 inclination to feed vegetation as thirty years ago, yet that its 
 value has undergone a necessary change I am convinced in my 
 own mind, and will endeavor to prove. 
 
 " I will pass over two causes which might be assigned viz., 
 the depopulation, occasioned by the famines of 1770 and 1788, 
 and the mismanagement which has taken place in some of the 
 districts, as the effects of these are not permanent, and may be 
 removed by time, care, and better agency. There are causes 
 which are, I think, irremoveable ; and these I will proceed to 
 particularise : 
 
 " 1st. There is not so great a consumption of the valuable 
 articles of produce, as under the Mussulman Government. 
 
 " 2nd. The revenue collected from the lands is not again cir- 
 culated and retained in the country. 
 
 " 3rd. European individuals remit their private fortunes to 
 England and other parts ; and drain this country of its specie. 
 
 " 4th. The Company monopolise; and there is no perfect 
 equality of trade subsisting in any of its branches. 
 
 " In the Mogul Government the revenues collected by the 
 Prince were returned to the country with very little diminution ; 
 they were dispersed in various courses through every depart- 
 ment of the people, and kept in constant circulation. The 
 subject enjoyed affluence and ease, and was enabled to indulge 
 himself in all the luxuries the country produced. There was an 
 unceasing demand for paun, opium, salt, oil, sugar, tobacco, and 
 
56 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 other articles of luxury, all of which are most valuable to the 
 cultivator. These were produced in great abundance, and must 
 have afforded an immense revenue ; for I have heard, both from 
 the Ryots and others, that a beega of paun yields in the year an 
 income of at least thirty rupees. The cultivation of these articles 
 is now very confined the people are poor their demand for 
 them consequently small and some of them are introduced at 
 the markets through the medium of monopolies; the value of 
 the lands, therefore, must of course be diminished, because the 
 value and quantity of their produce is diminished. 
 
 " No free and extensive cultivation of any article can take 
 place where there does not exist a free sale for it. All mono- 
 polies, therefore, must be highly prejudicial. They check in- 
 dustry, enterprise, and effectually prevent every improvement. 
 The cultivator, who knows that he has no choice of purchasers, 
 that his property is subject to arbitrary and unjust valuation 
 from the impossibility of his disposing of it, should he not ac- 
 cept the terms of the only purchaser, will not labor but from 
 absolute necessity. No spirit of avarice, no desire to aggrandise 
 himself or his family, will excite those exertions so necessary to 
 the welfare of the State. He will live in apprehension, inse- 
 curity, and, most likely, poverty. The wealth of the State de- 
 pends on the wealth of individuals, and the quantum of labor it 
 can call forth." 
 
 Upon the subject of the evil of Monopolies the 
 young writer discourses with an enthusiasm which 
 was somewhat cooled down in after-years. Doubt- 
 less, some of the circumstances to which he refers in 
 the following passage have long ceased to exist but 
 I do not clearly see that these altered circumstances 
 go far to promote the argument in favor of Mono- 
 polies. Upon the merits of such a question as this 
 it would be out of place to discourse in the present 
 work ; but it would not be just to introduce the fol- 
 
CREDIT OF THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT. 57 
 
 lowing passages from this remarkable letter, without 
 a word of comment upon the increased confidence 
 with which in these days the natives of India regard 
 the financial transactions of the British Government. 
 " The natives of this country," wrote Mr. Tucker, in 
 1789, " are still diffident of us ; and although they 
 have no public Banks of their own, nor any secure 
 means of placing their money to interest, they are 
 still cautious of trusting it with us." But in recent 
 days, whenever the British Government have opened 
 a Loan, a very large amount has been contributed 
 to it by the natives of the country. The confidence, 
 indeed, of the natives of India in the financial in- 
 tegrity of the British Government is in these days 
 without a limit : 
 
 " There are other effects equally pernicious to be expected 
 from the practice of monopolies, effects which, in my opinion, 
 have lately been experienced in this country. I mean with 
 respect to the enormous batta which has for some time past ex- 
 isted on gold-mohurs, and the late scarcity of grain, which I have 
 reason to think was in a great degree artificially increased. 
 
 " The natives of this country, it is well known, are still diffi- 
 dent of us ; and although they have no public Banks of their 
 own, nor any secure means of placing their money to interest, 
 they are still cautious of trusting it with us. For this reason, 
 trade appears the only mode by which monied men can live, 
 without breaking in upon the principal of their fortunes ; but 
 the trade in opium, saltpetre, in the manufacture and whole-sale 
 of salt, and in cloths (to a great degree), is monopolised by the 
 Company. They consequently have very little choice, and 
 they are obliged to employ their money in the purchase of 
 grain and the other necessaries of life, and in changing the 
 different coins. It might be expected from their number that 
 
58 LIFE OP H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 all the good effects of competition, in lowering the price of the 
 articles in the market, would necessarily be felt ; but this is not 
 the case. They are too prudent to ruin each other by endea- 
 voring to undersell. They must all have their profits, and 
 from the drawbacks they suffer, these must be immense. The 
 trade, therefore, is burdened by the number is absolutely 
 weighed down. The necessaries of life come to the market at 
 a most unreasonable price; they control the specie undisbursed; 
 and have lately shown to the world a feat almost incredible 
 they reduced the standard value of the current gold coin ten 
 per cent., and were very near being the death of all trade and 
 credit. On the other hand, did a perfect freedom and equality 
 of trade subsist did all traders buy and sell on the same foot- 
 ing, I am convinced in my own mind that no monopoly of 
 silver could ever take place, and that there would be very little 
 probability of a monopoly of grain. The streams of commerce 
 being open and free, every man would employ his money, be- 
 cause he could employ it with a prospect of advantage; every 
 man would be enabled to choose the course best adapted to his 
 abilities, situation, and circumstances; and these being so far 
 consulted, he could afford to trade on a comparatively small 
 profit. The inhabitant of one district would not be obliged to 
 wander to other parts, because the only free trade of his own 
 country was, from circumstances of his situation, inaccessible to 
 him ; but fixed with his family, practiced and experienced, he 
 would be enabled to proceed in the course pointed out by 
 nature, with security and advantage. 
 
 " Mr. Bebb, in a late letter to the Board, gives it as his de- 
 cided opinion that European traders are a burden to these 
 provinces, for the following reasons : That their expenses being 
 much greater than the expenses of native merchants of equal or 
 superior property, the charges on the trade are consequently 
 greater, and the goods come dearer to the market than they 
 would through the channel of native merchants ; that if they 
 were altogether removed the articles would probably come 
 cheaper to the market, the manufacturer be better paid, and in- 
 dustry every way encouraged; that they purchase at exceeding 
 
EUROPEAN AND NATIVE MERCHANTS. 59 
 
 disproportioned prices ill-fabricated goods, and debase the 
 manufacture; that their fortunes, as soon as acquired, are re- 
 moved to England, and of course increase the drain so prejudi- 
 cial to this country. As I think this opinion ill-founded and 
 unjust, and that it would be most impolitic in Government to 
 adopt it, I shall take the liberty of commenting on it at large, 
 although it is not very nearly connected with the subject in 
 question. 
 
 " The three first reasons assigned appear to me contradictory. 
 If native merchants live at less expense than Europeans, and at 
 the same time purchase at the same rates, they can afford to sell 
 at a less profit; but it is a fact, and indeed a fact to be expected, 
 that native merchants purchase cheaper than Europeans, because 
 living among the manufacturers, connected with many of them, 
 and personally known to them all, they are enabled to take 
 every advantage of time and circumstances ; they are artful and 
 intriguing, acquire an influence over the ignorant manufac- 
 turers, and act upon their fears and prejudices, whenever this 
 may be convenient to accomplish their ends. How, then, does 
 it happen that Europeans bear any part against such formidable 
 competitors? Native merchants could at present afford to give 
 a better price, and to encourage industry equally well, as were 
 all Europeans removed from the Aurungs ; why, then, do they 
 not give a better price, and by that means engross the trade 
 entirely to themselves? or why, giving the same price, are they 
 not content to sell at more moderate rates than Europeans, and 
 thus exclude them from all participation in the commerce? 
 The third reason, however, conveys an idea that at present not 
 only industry, but indolence is encouraged ; ' ill-fabricated 
 goods are purchased at exceeding disproportioned prices.' With 
 these Europeans the fortunate manufacturer finds a ready and 
 advantageous sale for goods, which, from sickness, inexperience, 
 or circumstances of his situation, he has not been able to fabri- 
 cate with the usual degree of perfection. Could industry receive 
 a greater encouragement? If it be injudicious, why do not the 
 native merchants take advantage of it, since it is undoubtedly 
 in their power? 
 
60 LIFE OF H. ST.GL TUCKER. 
 
 " But in removing Europeans, a still further encouragement 
 to the manufacturers is proposed a still greater price is to be 
 given. Should this take place, is it not natural to suppose that 
 they would be so far dazzled with their prospects, that paying 
 no attention to the quality of the fabric, their sole exertions 
 would be directed to increase the quantity? Indeed, this is 
 the effect complained of from the present disproportioned 
 prices ; but an increase would hardly remove it. 
 
 " The causes which appear to me to operate in preventing 
 native traders from bearing a successful competition against 
 European merchants, are their want of credit, and the conse- 
 quent necessity of their paying exorbitant interest for their 
 money their want of activity, knowledge of foreign markets, 
 judgment in preferring splendid but distant hopes to small but 
 quick returns, and, in short, their want of those qualifications 
 which determine the j udicious and experienced merchant. For 
 the honor of our country, it will not, I trust, be alleged that 
 Europeans are more arbitrary, unjust, oppressive, or more in- 
 clined to use force in their purchases than natives; indeed, it is 
 not so, nor could it ever be so while there is a watchful Com- 
 mercial Resident ready to inspect, and authorised in taking cog- 
 nisance of their illegal acts. 
 
 " That European individuals trading in these provinces, and 
 who may acquire and subsequently remove fortunes to Europe, 
 are a burden to this country, I entirely agree; but that this 
 burden would be diminished, or rather, that it would not be 
 increased by their removal from the provinces, I totally dis- 
 allow. 
 
 " The act of removing them would not give more credit, ac- 
 tivity, judgment, or experience, to the natives; on whom, then, 
 would the trade devolve? Is it probable that they would hold 
 a more successful competition against the Company and the 
 Company's commercial agents than they have hitherto done 
 against European individuals? I think not. The consequence 
 then would be that a most destructive monopoly would take 
 place. . Should the Company not wish to increase their provi- 
 sion, their .agents, who possess nearly the same advantages with 
 
EARLY PROMISE. 61 
 
 them, and who might have credit to any amount from the 
 knowledge that they could advantageously employ money to 
 any amount, would engross the greater part of the trade. 
 Would they, too, be inclined to increase the price ? would 
 they, from patriotic motives, encourage industry by paying the 
 manufacturer more liberally, or would they settle their im- 
 mense fortunes in this country, and thus prevent the drain, so 
 prejudicial and so much complained of ? There is no law in 
 nature by which we may presume that Commercial Residents arc 
 better men than commercial individuals. I am, therefore, de- 
 cidedly of opinion that, until an entire change be made in the 
 present system until Commercial Agents be restrained from 
 trade these individuals will be of very great advantage to the 
 country; they prevent monopolies, and by the competition 
 they excite, oblige other purchasers to pay the manufacturer a 
 just and liberal price." 
 
 Some at least of the views here expressed were 
 considerably modified in the course of the after-life 
 of the writer. But they are cited here mainly to 
 show at how early an age Henry St. George Tucker 
 had directed all the energies of his mind to the 
 elucidation of those great financial and commercial 
 questions, upon his comprehensive acquaintance 
 with which the reputation of his manhood was 
 mainly founded. I am writing here of the early 
 promise of his youth; and I think it will be ac- 
 knowledged even by the most grudging reader that 
 the boy of eighteen, who could write such letters as 
 this,* gave good promise, under favorable circum- 
 
 * As the precise date of this letter is not given, it is right that some proof 
 should be afforded of the period at which it was written. The biographer 
 cannot be wrong in assigning it to the year 1789; firstly, because the writer 
 says at the close of it : "I have not yet considered your observations on the 
 subject of gunge duties," &c.; and there is a paper dated early in 1790 upon 
 
62 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 stances, of growing into one of the foremost Indian 
 statesmen of the age. 
 
 In another paper drawn up about this same time 
 and submitted also to Mr. Law, the young writer, 
 who plunged deeply into political economy pro- 
 bably without knowing it discoursed, at consider- 
 able length, on the advantage of raising the principal 
 revenue of the country from customs-duties upon 
 manufactured articles, rather than resorting, for the 
 supplies of the State, exclusively to an immoderate 
 land-tax. "I do not wish it to be understood, 3 ' he 
 said, " that I think an entire substitution of duties 
 for a land-tax advisable. No ; I conceive a perma- 
 nent, equalised, and well-regulated land-tax a very 
 proper source of revenue. My arguments were ad- 
 duced only with the wish to prove that Government 
 should not recur to it alone that moderation in it 
 would be fully compensated by the birth or increase 
 of other resources, from which they could draw a 
 revenue with equal expediency ; and, if my argu- 
 ments have a just foundation, with greater conveni- 
 ence to the subject." 
 
 And the arguments, indeed, had for the most part 
 good foundation at least, in theory. It is probable, 
 however, that in his more experienced years Mr. 
 Tucker himself might have questioned whether the 
 consuming powers of the great mass of the people, 
 
 this subject of gunge duties, which will be presently quoted; and secondly, 
 because he says : '* Mr. Taylor wrote to Commercolly, a long time ago, to 
 desire that silkworm eggs should be sent you immediately; but as we are not 
 certain of their having been despatched, he writes again to-day" a passage 
 which is sufficient proof that the writer was with Mr. Taylor at the time 
 and he was with him only during the year 1 789. 
 
CUSTOMS AND EXCISE. 63 
 
 in respect of manufactured articles, had not been 
 over-rated. 
 
 And as he contended in favor of the partial substi- 
 tution of Customs duties for an exclusive and immo- 
 derate Land-tax, so in another paper, written in the 
 following year, he advocated a resort to these Cus- 
 toms or Gunge duties, in preference to a system of 
 Excise which Mr. Law had recommended.* He 
 seems to have had a very clear conception of what 
 the plague of Excisemen would be in such a country 
 as Bengal : 
 
 " In respect," he wrote, " to the personal convenience of the 
 subject, the Excise is, I think, very objectionable, particularly 
 in this country. It necessarily authorises an unrestrained en- 
 trance into men's houses, which in its effects operates as a very 
 arbitrary power. An unprincipled Exciseman insists on being 
 admitted into the house of a man of character, on searching his 
 most private apartments, the recesses of his women, under the 
 
 * Primarily, with especial reference to an Excise on Looms Mr. Law's plan 
 will be found set forth at some length in his Minute of April 15, 1790. This 
 and other papers relating to the revenues of India were printed by him in 
 1792, after his return to England, in a volume, entitled " A Sketch of some late 
 Arrangements and a View of the rising Resources in Bengal; by Thomas Law, 
 Esq., late a Member of the Council of Revenue in Fort William." I have 
 never seen more than one copy of it, and that I picked up some years ago at 
 an old book-stall. In the Minute to which I have referred, Mr. Law shows 
 that the Gunge, or Inland Customs, duties had become very oppressive that 
 " the commodities of internal produce are burdened in the Bahar province 
 equal to twenty or thirty lakhs of rupees, and become too dear to be exported ; 
 besides, the merchants quit business disappointed and disgusted; and all this 
 for about three lakhs (30,OOOZ.) net Gunge collections. As Government can- 
 not afford to relinquish even that, I propose an Excise in preference which may 
 be taken on cloth; for the people all require more or less of it, and I think 
 that one anna upon every piece above one rupee to three rupees, and two 
 annas upon all above this, would not be heavy. With respect to the probable 
 gross collections, I can only guess (they would amount to about four or five 
 lakhs), for at present I am ignorant of the internal expenditure and export." 
 It is to this proposal that Mr. Tucker's remarks mainly refer. 
 
64 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 plea that he conceals goods which have not paid the established 
 tax. This admission he can legally insist on ; indeed, if you 
 tax the whole manufacture, you must allow your officers to 
 pervade every place indiscriminately, as the weavers very fre- 
 quently make and keep their cloths in their Zenanas. 
 
 " A man of character would, I conceive, submit to any loss 
 sooner than suffer these apartments to be denied by the intru- 
 sion of a rude, profligate stranger. The Exciseman, therefore, 
 could exact his own terms for his forbearance. It may be said, 
 he may complain to a superior officer; but exclusive of the 
 difficulty of redressing the complaints of individuals in this 
 country, he will, I think, have no ground to complain, but of a 
 power delegated by Government, for the non-exercise of which 
 he has been obliged to pay their officer. Supposing the Excise- 
 man be convicted and punished, the injured man will thereby 
 have deprived himself of the only means of subsequently saving 
 his family from insult and disgrace. 
 
 " Consider what an immense number of scoundrels Govern- 
 ment must let loose with almost unlimited powers into the 
 Mofussil. You must have officers to superintend the clothing 
 of every individual in the empire ; their number will be so 
 great that Government cannot afford to employ respectable 
 men ; they must have people of the lowest class, with the lowest 
 salaries, who will have little to lose, but may gain a great deal 
 by illegal exaction. The power with which they must of ne 
 cessity be invested will be a most extensive one, and they most 
 unfit for the exercise of any power. Besides, every vagabond, 
 who cannot better employ his time, and who has no other for- 
 tune but resolution, will assume the character of an Excise- 
 officer, and patrol the country, exacting from the ignorant and 
 helpless weavers ad libitum. He will not, indeed, have the 
 stamps of Government to dispose of; but this rather makes it 
 worse, as his exactions will in consequence be confined in a 
 great degree to those who may have previously paid. Has not 
 this been the case in the collection of all River duties? Every 
 petty fellow who could afford to keep a boat became a collector 
 of River Customs in the remote parts of the country; and I do 
 
CUSTOMS AND EXCISE. 65 
 
 not think the idea chimerical, when I say that I think there 
 would be a great number of forged Excise-officers, besides too 
 many authorised by Government; and this must be the case 
 with all duties that are not locally stationary." 
 
 The youthful writer then discourses on the rela- 
 tive advantages and disadvantages of Customs and 
 Excise in some clever antithetical passages, which 
 afford further illustration both of the early bent of 
 his mind to financial inquiry, and his premature ac- 
 quaintance with the art of composition : 
 
 " You very justly say that there is an inconvenience attend- 
 ing Gunge collections, in stopping and opening packages re- 
 peatedly. This certainly has hitherto occasioned great delays 
 and consequent loss under the arbitrary system established by 
 the Zemindars ; but we have reason to expect improvement in 
 this respect; and, at all events, oppression on the merchant 
 does not operate so prejudicially as oppression on the weaver; 
 and the merchant is likely to be able in a great degree to 
 oppose it successfully the weaver never can. 
 
 " All collections in Gunges will be public; and oppressions 
 will be notorious, and sooner or later reach the ears of the 
 Power whose duty it is to suppress them. Excise must be 
 collected privately from each individual. A weaver who has 
 to pay one anna will not complain at two being exacted; re- 
 dress would not compensate for the trouble and expense attend- 
 ing it. A merchant may find his account in complaining of a 
 considerable exaction : restitution to him may be of conse- 
 quence. 
 
 " For this reason I conceive that taxes which fall in gross 
 are much less liable to admit of extortion than those which fall 
 upon articles singly. 
 
 " I confess that I think with you that Government are 
 more likely to be defrauded in their Gunge duties than in 
 their Excise; but for the foregoing reasons I think the subject 
 
 F 
 
66 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 less likely; and you yourself allow that it is better Government 
 should be defrauded a little, than the subject 
 
 " Mr. Blackstone, I think, could not have had any idea of 
 this country, when he said that Excise was a less expensive tax 
 than Customs. Excise takes from each individual weaver 
 Customs from the merchant ; the one taxes every piece of 
 cloth separately the other, bales and cargoes; the one moves 
 about through every part of the country the other is sta- 
 tionary. There must consequently be an infinity of officers to 
 collect the Excise ; the accounts of it will be more diffuse and 
 complicated ; and the expenses of Government of course greater. 
 
 " I certainly think that duties should be levied on the manu- 
 factured article, and not on the raw material, as I have said in 
 the short paper I gave you on the subject; but this is no argu- 
 ment against Customs; why may not they be levied exclusively 
 on the manufactured article, as well as the Excise? 
 
 " After so much on the particular effects of the two taxes, I 
 will for a moment recur to their respective principles. The 
 Excise is a tax upon the whole manufacture Customs upon 
 that part alone which comes into circulation. The Excise, 
 therefore, holds forth the prospect of a greater produce than 
 Customs; but I do not think that in reality it has any superi- 
 ority in this respect. Why should you tax the grain which 
 the Ryot retains for his own subsistence ; or the piece of cloth 
 which the manufacturer makes for his own use; or, indeed, 
 the grain and cloth which these two mutually exchange? 
 There can be no great advantage in taxing them ; there may 
 be an advantage in omitting it for we are then sure that our 
 taxes do not prevent these useful subjects from being well 
 clothed and fed. They must be well clothed and fed if you 
 wish population to increase, and your country to flourish. 
 Their surplus labor they would carry to market; and from this 
 levy as much as you can without suppressing commerce: but, 
 in fact, you cannot suppress commerce unless you are very ex- 
 orbitant indeed in your demands, if you only tax the surplus 
 labor of the manufacturer and Ryot after they are clothed and 
 fed, because they have very few other wants, and could afford 
 
CUSTOMS AND EXCISE. 67 
 
 to give their cloths and grain for a very trifle above the taxes 
 of Government. Those articles, therefore, could not be dear: 
 cheapness is the very life of commerce." 
 
 " Prom all these crude, undigested arguments,'* 
 he wrote in conclusion, " I wish to prove that 
 Gunge duties are likely to he nearly as productive 
 on the same article as an Excise ; more convenient 
 to the subject, less expensive in collection; less 
 likely to admit of undue exaction, or to he evaded, 
 because, at the time of paying them, the subject 
 receives an equivalent advantage. The Excise de- 
 stroys one of the dearest rights we possess that of 
 being sole and undisturbed lords of our own house 
 and domain as long as we conform to the laws of 
 our country." And then he added, still addressing 
 Mr. Law, this postscript, modestly apologising for 
 the confidence with which he had expressed his 
 opinions in opposition to those of his older and 
 more experienced friend : " Both Gunge and Ex- 
 cise duties are good taxes, and when compared with 
 a high land-tax, greatly to be preferred. They both, 
 however, have advantages and disadvantages, as all 
 taxes must have. You have very clearly and excel- 
 lently pointed out the advantages of the one ; but 
 have not, I think, included all its disadvantages. I 
 have endeavored feebly to show some superiorities 
 in the other, to which my mind, I must confess, 
 inclined ; but some of them are very trifling, and I 
 have very probably overlooked many of its defects. 
 My mind, however, is open to conviction, and is ten 
 thousand times more inclined to doubt its own sug- 
 
68 LIFE OP H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 gestions than the accuracy of any one of your opi- 
 nions. If I have used any strong expressions, they 
 must not be attributed to obstinacy or positiveness 
 in my own opinion, but merely to my manner of 
 writing." 
 
 This was written in 1790. Towards the close of 
 the preceding year he had returned to Calcutta. 
 He had hoped to find employment again in the 
 Secretary's office; but the appointment' which he 
 had held now belonged to another, and there was 
 no vacancy in the office. Hoping that one might 
 soon occur, he for some time remained as an un- 
 salaried attache* no uncommon thing in India, 
 where such waiters upon Fortune are known as 
 Omedwars, and few wait wholly in vain. It was 
 a sorry time, however, for the young adventurer. 
 Sorrier still would it have been, but for the kind 
 offices of Mr. Law now become a member of the 
 Revenue Board at Calcutta who made such ad- 
 vances to his young friend as at least enabled him to 
 live during this time of painful expectancy. It was 
 then, I believe, that Tucker occupied the cellar in 
 Rannee-Moodee-Gully, where the rats contended with 
 him for the possession of the wretched tenement, and 
 ate the powder and pomatum in his hair, when their 
 enemy was asleep. The sixty or seventy monthly 
 rupees advanced by the quondam Collector of Behar 
 and the young Omedwar was not one to accept 
 
 * Not, however, before he had endeavored to establish himself in an inde- 
 pendent business at Dacca, to which place he proceeded in the early part of 
 1790; but the contemplated arrangement was fortunately not brought to an 
 issue. The speculation was an unsuccessful one. 
 
HIS CONNEXION WITH SIR W. JONES. 69 
 
 even as a loan more than bare subsistence-money 
 kept the wolf from his door, but could not keep 
 off these nauseous vermin. 
 
 He had other friends, too, after their kind, and 
 never lacked a place at the dinner-tables of those 
 who fared sumptuously every day. But it was the 
 steady support of Thomas Law that enabled him 
 to surmount all difficulties. The youth who whilst 
 yet in his teens could write such papers as those 
 from which I have quoted, was not one whom any 
 official in the country could have hesitated to re- 
 commend for Government employment. A place was 
 soon found for him. In the course of this year, 
 1790, he was appointed assistant to the Accountant 
 of the Board of Trade. And soon afterwards another 
 office, to which it is an especial pleasure to allude, 
 was conferred upon him. He had won the good 
 opinion of Sir "William Jones, who now extended to 
 him a hand of active assistance, and attached him to 
 his person as clerk. Prom these two appointments 
 he derived an ample income and something better 
 still than the six hundred rupees a month, which 
 was wealth indeed to the boy of nineteen ; for there 
 could hardly have been better training for him than 
 this. In the Accountant's office he laid broad and 
 deep the foundation of his fame as a [Financier ; 
 whilst sitting at the feet of Sir William Jones his 
 natural taste for elegant literature found due cultiva- 
 tion, and there was little chance of his ever subsiding 
 into a mere man of accounts and details. His love 
 
70 LIFE OF H. ST. a. TUCKER. 
 
 of literature abided with him to the closing years of 
 his life.* 
 
 The year 1791 dawned prosperously on Henry 
 Tucker. He was in the enjoyment of good health ; 
 he was in possession of a comfortable income; he 
 had paid all his debts ; and, what was more solacing 
 to him in his exile than all beside, he was enabled 
 to render some essential service to his family in the 
 West. Through his instrumentality a commission 
 in the E/oyal Army was obtained for his brother 
 George. It is related that he solicited Lord Corn- 
 wallis to use his good offices in behalf of the boy, 
 and that the benevolent nobleman, upon whom 
 Henry Tucker had made a favorable impression, 
 cheerfully granted the request, t The sailor-boy had 
 already become the architect of others' fortunes. 
 
 * It is to be lamented that there are no records to be found of Mr. Tucker's 
 connexion with Sir William Jones, beyond brief allusions to the fact scattered 
 throughout the writings of the former. " I had also the good fortune," -wrote 
 Mr. Tucker on one occasion, " to be patronised by the late Sir William Jones, 
 whose genius seemed to soar above this lower world, and whose love of con- 
 stitutional liberty, and whose devotion to literature, impressed me with a 
 feeling which I have carried through life." In another paper he speaks of 
 " Sir William Jones, late the ornament of his country;" adding, " In no indi- 
 vidual, perhaps, have we ever seen united such diversity of useful and agree- 
 able talents. His premature death is ever to be lamented. ' I knew him 
 well, Horatio.' " See, also, " Memorials of Indian Government," page 61, and 
 note, in which Mr. Tucker says : " I had the honor of being ' clerk' to Sir 
 William Jones an honor to which, at this date, I look back with pride." 
 The acquaintance between them commenced as far back as 1788, in which 
 year the young uncovenanted clerk was elected a member of the Asiatic 
 Society, under the auspices of the great Orientalist. 
 
 f Mr. Tucker, throughout all the succeeding years of his life, spoke of Lord 
 Coruwallis in language of the warmest veneration. In a memorandum extant 
 in his handwriting, he says: " I had the good fortune in the early days of my 
 boyhood to enjoy a pure atmosphere. I first served under the great and good 
 
MERCANTILE SPECULATIONS. 71 
 
 But the ladder of official promotion especially to 
 one in the " Uncovenanted Service" is of very slow 
 ascent ; and eager as he was to benefit his family at 
 home, Henry Tucker was readily persuaded to try a 
 shorter, though more perilous road to fortune. To- 
 wards the close of 1791 he joined a house of busi- 
 ness, of which Mr. John Palmer afterwards the 
 Prince of Indian Merchants was the chief member. 
 The house failed before the young adventurer had 
 been many months connected with it, and what was 
 to him a heavy amount of responsibility was thrown 
 upon him as a partner.* This was a mighty blow, 
 and one the weight of which he felt for many a year. 
 But with that brave habit of never shrinking of 
 never turning aside from the contemplation of an 
 obtrusive difficulty, he looked the evil steadfastly in 
 the face, and he determined, if God willed, to live it 
 down. It took him ten years to wrestle with the 
 calamity; but the work which he set himself he 
 fairly accomplished. He paid his share of the debt 
 principal and interest. But the anxiety which it 
 inflicted, and the privations it entailed upon him, 
 well-nigh cost him his life. 
 
 But the tide was again about to turn nay, it had 
 
 Lord Cornwallis, who was the perfect personification of disinterestedness and 
 patriotism. He steadily enforced the principles of justice; he saw no object 
 but the honor and the interests of his country." And this, indeed, is no more 
 than the language of unexaggerated truth. 
 
 * It is probable that I am not strictly correct in speaking of a " house of 
 business ;" and that it ought rather to have been said that, associated with 
 Mr. John Palmer, he entered into certain mercantile speculations, which were 
 not successful. In the year 1791, Mr. Tucker was in his minority, and could 
 hardly, therefore, have been a partner in a house of business. He was not 
 legally responsible for its debts. 
 
72 LIFE OT H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 already turned, although he knew it not in favor 
 of the young adventurer. Early in the following 
 year he had gone down partly for the restoration of 
 his health, partly for the transaction of some busi- 
 ness to the Coromandel Coast, when glad tidings 
 reached him from England. He had been appointed 
 a member of the Company's Covenanted Civil Ser- 
 vice. There would have been nothing now to mar 
 the completeness of his happiness if it had not been 
 for the Incubus of Debt. 
 
 It is believed that this appointment was procured 
 for him mainly through the influence of his excellent 
 friend Thomas Law. In the course of the year 1791, 
 this worthy man and valuable public servant was 
 driven to England by ill-health. He soon abandoned 
 the idea of returning to the East, and pitched his 
 tent in the Western "World. He had been the friend 
 of Cornwallis in the one, and in the other he allied 
 himself with the old antagonist of his former master.* 
 He married a niece of Washington, and in the city 
 which bears the name of that great man he passed 
 the remainder of his life. Once or twice, in his old 
 age, he visited England, and renewed his ever- 
 cherished intimacy with the friend of his early 
 days. Then it was his turn to use the language of 
 gratitude. " I shall often think," he wrote, " with 
 the essence of pleasure in my eyes of your and Mrs. 
 Tucker's kindness." 
 
 And up to the last, he thought affectionately of 
 
 * Antagonistic by circumstance but in character how alike! 
 
ME. LAW. 73 
 
 his old work, and was zealous for the extension of 
 the Mocurrery system, which he had advocated so 
 warmly in those never-forgotten olden times in Behar. 
 "On my arrival in England," he wrote to Mr. 
 
 Tucker, " G , M , and others told me of the 
 
 breach of faith to the natives in the Ceded and Con- 
 quered Provinces. My feelings dictated and my 
 hand obeyed, and I rejoice that at sixty- eight my 
 instinctive impulses were strong enough to make 
 me read, and copy, and think. Your exertions have 
 given the crown to my trifle, and you will, I hope, 
 live to see success, and to have your labors duly ap- 
 preciated. I rejoice that Gyah produced Barlow, 
 you, and me. Henceforth I shall relinquish politics 
 and finance c hic coestus artem que repono.' " Not 
 long after this he was translated to the land where 
 all Settlements are Permanent. He died on the 
 30th of July, 1834, and lies buried in the city which 
 owes so much to his enterprise and zeal. 
 
74 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TTJCKEE. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Appointment of H. St.G. Tucker to the Covenanted Civil Service Employed 
 in the Accountant-General's Department State of the Civil Service The 
 Administration of Sir John Shore Mr. Tucker appointed Register in 
 Rajshye His intimacy with Henry Colebrooke Appointed to the Secre- 
 tariatRise in the Department Arrival of Lord Wellesley Mr. Tucker's 
 Services Visit to Madras Anecdotes of Lord Wellesley Return to Cal- 
 cutta Appointed Accountant-General. 
 
 THE first appointment held by Mr. Tucker in the 
 privileged " Civil Service" of the East India Com- 
 pany was that of an assistant in the Accountant- 
 General's Department.* He had proved his aptitude 
 for business of that kind when in the uncovenanted 
 service ; and his mercantile speculations, if they had 
 done nothing else, may be presumed to have im- 
 proved his knowledge of book-keeping and his gene- 
 ral acquaintance with financial affairs. I am not, 
 therefore, surprised to learn that his official superiorf 
 soon remarked his extraordinary progress, and said 
 that in six weeks Mr. Tucker had done what it 
 would have taken any one else six months to accom- 
 plish. 
 
 * His appointment bears date October 26, 1792. 
 f Mr. Larkins. 
 
STATE OF THE CIVIL SERVICE. 75 
 
 The Company's Civil Service was, at this time, in 
 a transition- state fast merging out of it, it may be 
 said, and settling down into solid Respectability. 
 Many have been found to question the wisdom both 
 of the fiscal and Judicial Reforms of Lord Corn- 
 wallis ; but all acknowledge that under his adminis- 
 tration the morality and efficiency of the Company's 
 Services were raised to a height which they had 
 never attained before. The civil servants had been 
 a mixed race of public functionaries and private 
 traders ; and even when open trade had been offi- 
 cially prohibited, they had bought and sold through 
 the medium of native agents, and relied less upon 
 their official earnings than their commercial specu- 
 lations for the rapid construction of a fortune. But 
 to Lord Cornwallis, as to every other clear-sighted 
 man who had not grown up in the midst of this 
 deplorable state of things, it was obtrusively appa- 
 rent, that to establish a race of honest and efficient 
 public servants, it was necessary to give them plenty 
 to do, and to pay them handsomely for doing it. 
 The State, it was then declared, demanded all the 
 time and the activity of its servants, and for this 
 exclusive application of their time and their activity 
 it was decreed that they should be remunerated with 
 sufficient liberality to enable them to secure a com- 
 petence for their declining years, without the aid of 
 private speculation. It was of little use to prohibit 
 the trading of public servants without removing the 
 great incentive to it the difficulty, if not the impos- 
 sibility, of making a fortune without it. Cornwallis, 
 
76 LIFE OF H. ST.O. TUCKER. 
 
 the first great Indian statesman who had not grown 
 up in one or other of the services, saw this with a 
 fresh eye ; and under his administration there rose 
 into being a class of well-salaried public functionaries, 
 who, whilst they retained the old names of Merchant 
 and Factor, had little of the commercial atmosphere 
 about them. They became in reality judges, magis- 
 trates, and revenue-collectors, and the mask of au- 
 thority was now seldom or never used to cover the 
 greed of the private dealer. 
 
 But this system, when Mr. Tucker entered the 
 service, was not yet perfect in all its parts. To some 
 of the lesser appointments insufficient salaries were 
 attached.* It is related that in the Accountant- 
 General's office indeed, throughout the first year of 
 his covenanted service he received only a monthly 
 salary of two hundred rupees. During a portion of 
 this time he acted as a Commissioner of the Court 
 of Requests in Calcutta, f and subsequently, in the 
 spring of the following year (1793), as Register to 
 the Zillah Court of Rajshye. Henry Colebrooke 
 
 * Writing in 1792, Mr. Law said: " The Company's servants are of the best 
 families and educations, with dispositions to foster and abilities to improve 
 the present system. At present their salaries are inadequate to the import- 
 ance of their trusts, and the Governments in India must have lamented the 
 sad necessity for cramping and curtailing. When the Company's finances 
 shall become flourishing, I trust that their servants will participate by en- 
 larged allowances ; indeed, the liberality of States is in general proportionate 
 at least with their circumstances. Young men who resign domestic comforts 
 and submit to a temporary exile are entitled to ample compensation for such 
 sacrifices. All are now feeling the embarrassments of the times in India, but 
 I hope they will soon find labor and merit requited by an enriched sove- 
 reignty." 
 
 f From December, 1792, to the spring of the following year. 
 
HENRY COLEBROOKE. 77 
 
 was then collector of that place. Between him and 
 Mr. Tucker an intimacy soon sprung up, which was 
 terminated only by death. 
 
 Many grave discussions had they, at this time, on 
 the trade and agriculture of the country,* and many 
 a good day's hog-hunting together. In after-years, 
 they appeared as brother-authors ; but they never 
 forgot that they had been brother-sportsmen. Often 
 in the decline of life did Mr. Tucker speak de- 
 lightedly of his sporting excursions in Raj shy e with 
 Henry Colebrooke as his companion; and many a 
 story had he to tell to his children of the victories 
 they achieved with the spear. 
 
 Nor were these the only delights of his life at this 
 time. Letters came to him from his far-off home 
 in the Bermudas; and they were such letters as 
 gladden the heart of an affectionate son, and inspire 
 him with new constancy and courage to bear up 
 against all the depressing influences of protracted 
 exile. Prom one at least of these Bermuda letters 
 some extracts may be given. They show in what 
 light Henry St.George Tucker was regarded at this 
 time by the ever-venerated father, from whom he 
 was separated in early boyhood. It need only be 
 premised that in those days the communication, 
 even through England, between the East and West 
 Indies, was not only tedious, but precarious : 
 
 * It was at tliis time that Mr. Tucker first directed his attention to the 
 subject of cotton cultivation in India, in which he never ceased to take the 
 liveliest interest. 
 
78 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKEB. 
 
 " St. George's, May 21, 1793. 
 
 " It is a great while, my beloved son, since I have had the 
 pleasure of a letter from you ; your last was dated in February, 
 1792 a long and tedious interval indeed! Our friends, how- 
 ever, in England have informed me that you were well in 
 June, which I was rejoiced to hear. The several articles you 
 were so kind as to send, by way of Philadelphia, to the care of 
 Messrs. Elliston and John Perot, arrived safely. I thank you 
 for them ; and your mamma, to whom I have mentioned the 
 receipt of them, will, I doubt not, thank you too. Those 
 gentlemen (the Messrs. Perot, I mean) have been extremely 
 civil; and if you should have it in your power at any time to 
 serve them, or make them any little compliment, I should be 
 glad you would. 
 
 " I was afraid, my Hal, that your trusteeship would be pro- 
 ductive of much trouble to you; but I hope it will not create 
 you any enemies. I was sure it would prove an arduous busi- 
 ness; but, arduous as it may have been, I am convinced that 
 you will acquit yourself of it with honor and reputation. I 
 flatter myself your partnership goes on successfully ; but I must 
 own, my son, I never was fond of partnerships they seldom 
 end happily the generous and unsuspecting too often fall 
 sacrifices to the more selfish and designing. They cannot, 
 therefore, be entered into with too much circumspection. But 
 I have such confidence in your prudence, that I do not dread 
 any disagreeable consequences from the engagements you have 
 formed. Perhaps your appointment to the service will render 
 it necessary to dissolve them. It is a circumstance I should 
 not regret; though I by no means wish you to desert the inte- 
 rests of your friend. 
 
 " . . . I am afraid, my son, you apply yourself too 
 closely to business. You should be careful of your health. 
 Consider how much the welfare of the whole family depends 
 upon you! Your life is of inestimable value to every indi- 
 vidual of it. As for me, my sand is now running out very 
 fast; in a few years, according to the common course of things, 
 I must be as if I had never been. 
 
LETTER FROM HIS FATHER. 79 
 
 " I long to know what my poor Geordie is about; and 
 whether he stands any chance for promotion. Perhaps the war 
 with France may be a means of accelerating such an event. 
 Your more than brotherly attention to him he acknowledges 
 in all his letters. How much reason have I to bless that Pro- 
 vidence which has bestowed on me a son so dutiful, affec- 
 tionate, and disinterested as my Hal has on all occasions 
 evinced himself to be ! . . . . 
 
 " I write under great lowness of spirits, my Hal, as you, 
 perhaps, will perceive. I am full of apprehensions about your 
 dearest mamma I cannot tell how she will get home to me 
 again. The passage from England is long, and the times are 
 dangerous. May Heaven, in its goodness, restore her safe to 
 us once more ! . . . . 
 
 " . . . Adieu, my best of sons ! 
 
 ' * Your father prays fervently for you. 
 
 " HENRY TUCKER." 
 
 All comment upon such letters is mere imperti- 
 nence. I will only add that, in the passages which I 
 have given, full justice is not done to the recipient, 
 for there is much hesides which indicates the self- 
 denying generosity of Henry St.George Tucker, hut 
 to which, as delicate as he was generous, he would 
 never have desired an allusion to be made. 
 
 In the course of the year 1793, Sir John Shore, 
 of whose appointment to the Governor- Generalship 
 mention is made in another letter from the elder 
 Tucker, arrived in India and commenced his ad- 
 ministration.* Mr. Law, it is there stated, had 
 spoken to Shore in terms strongly recommendatory of 
 
 * There was an interval of some months between the two events. Sir John 
 Shore arrived in March; but Lord Cornwallis did not take his departure 
 before October. 
 
80 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 the young civilian ; and the recommendations of the 
 old Behar collector were confirmed by Mr. Barlow, 
 once his Assistant in Gyah,* but now Secretary to 
 Government in the Revenue Department, and one of 
 the most influential men in Bengal. Barlow knew 
 that the young man had in him the germs of a first- 
 rate Revenue-officer, and the Governor-General, him- 
 self, perhaps, one of the best Revenue-officers that 
 ever served in India, was never slow to secure for 
 that department all the available talent in the State. 
 The Permanent Settlement had by this time become 
 the Law of the land, and the disciple of the " Eather" 
 of that great measure was one likely to render good 
 service in the carrying out of its details. At the 
 commencement of the year 1794 Mr. Tucker was 
 appointed Assistant to the Register, and afterwards 
 Deputy-Register of the Sudder Dewanny and Sudder 
 Nizamut Adawluts,t and Assistant to the Secretary 
 to Government in the Revenue and Judicial Depart- 
 ments.:!: 
 
 In this appointment he continued to serve up to 
 the year 1796, when, on Mr. Barlow's nomination to 
 the Chief Secretaryship, he was selected to succeed 
 
 * Barlow was Assistant to Mr. Law in the year 1787, when Tucker was at 
 Gyah; and there the intimacy between them commenced. 
 
 f The chief Kevenue and Judicial Courts at the Presidency. 
 
 J What was then called " Assistant Sub-Secretary," under which designa- 
 tion Mr. Tucker's name is found attached to numerous official papers up to 
 the year 1795. 
 
 He had, however, some time previous to this been nominated Eegister of 
 the Provincial Court of Patna; but Mr. Cowper, one of the members of 
 Council, represented that Mr. Tucker's withdrawal would be a serious loss to 
 the Secretariat, so he was allowed to retain his old appointment with in- 
 creased allowances. 
 
OFFICIAL LIFE. 81 
 
 him as Secretary, or, as official nomenclature went 
 in those days, Sub- Secretary in the Hevenue and 
 Judicial Departments.* Of this period of Mr. 
 Tucker's life, spent as it was in Calcutta, amidst the 
 routine-work of his official duties, I have little to 
 record. Materials are wanting, and if they were 
 not wanting, there would probably be little to say 
 about a life, one day of which, in all its external 
 environments, differed little from another, t That 
 he was all this time laying up rich experiences is 
 proved by the writings of his later days, in which 
 the inner life of intellectual progress is fairly re- 
 flected. During this period he acquired that inti- 
 mate acquaintance with the details of the internal 
 administration of the country which is so conspicu- 
 ous in all that he wrote on the subject. 
 
 All through the years of Sir John Shore's govern- 
 ment years they were of almost entire repose 
 Henry St. George Tucker worked, as others were 
 working around him, diligently and hopefully at the 
 desk seeing there in the chief seat of the empire 
 one who had risen through all the gradations of the 
 service, and thinking that he might do likewise. But 
 there was something more going on all this time 
 than the intellectual progress of which I have 
 spoken ; there was financial progress, noticeable and 
 
 * The departmental Secretaries were then called Sub-Secretaries, all being 
 under one " Chief Secretary." 
 
 f I need not say that there is no lack of official letters among the records 
 of the India House bearing the signature of Henry St.George Tucker but as 
 he was, during the period to which I am now referring, in a subordinate 
 capacity, I have no right to identify him individually with the correspondence 
 of his department. 
 
82 LIFE OP H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 great. The results of the Palmer -and -Tucker 
 speculation were still hanging about him; but the 
 pile of debt was gradually diminishing ; for with an 
 increased income an income, indeed, which now 
 was not less than 1200Z. a year Tucker indulged in 
 no increased extravagance, but found the chiefest of 
 his pleasures in the contemplation of this diminution 
 of the pile of debt which had stood up so afflictingly 
 before him. 
 
 He was now, indeed health and strength being 
 granted to him to pursue the career of usefulness for 
 which he had been marked out on the high road to 
 fame and fortune. There were great events in the 
 womb of Time such as are needed to show the stuff 
 of which men of his stamp are made. Reputations 
 do not ripen rapidly in quiet times. On the 17th of 
 May, 1798, a little man with great aims ascended 
 the steps of one of the landing-places of Calcutta ; 
 and on the following day the guns of Port William 
 announced that there was a change of Government. 
 
 No two men could have less resembled each other 
 than Lord "Wellesley and Sir John Shore no two 
 administrations could have been more unlike than 
 that of the Irish aristocrat and the son of the super- 
 cargo. Lord Wellesley came out to India to conquer 
 Provinces and perplex the Revenue. It was a great 
 time for soldiers and financiers. Lord Wellesley 
 had need of them both, and his quick eye knew 
 where to find them. 
 
 It was a season of feverish excitement both in the 
 East and in the West. Threatened with internal 
 revolt and foreign invasion, England stood in an 
 
STATE OF THE TIMES. 83 
 
 attitude of defence. Prance, glutted with the blood 
 of her own subjects, was threatening to descend upon 
 our shores with an army of 100,000 men, and was 
 openly aiding Ireland in the work of rebellion. The 
 Alien Bill was revived. The Habeas Corpus Act 
 was suspended. There was an unprecedented de- 
 mand for money and men. Old taxes were doubled 
 and trebled, and new ones, unheard of before, were 
 being levied upon the people. It was the life-struggle 
 of a great country. 
 
 In the East there was the same danger and the 
 same excitement. France, already established in 
 Egypt, was pushing her intrigues to the banks of the 
 Jumna and into the heart of Mysore. The great 
 tide of Mahomedan conquest, which had been rolled 
 back by the encroachments of the Eeringhee trader, 
 threatened again to pour itself down from the fabu- 
 lous regions of the Hindoo- Koosh. The son of Hyder 
 Ali was grasping, with warm assurances of friend- 
 ship, the hand of the descendant of Ahmed Shah. 
 The deposed Usurper of Oude was feeding his re- 
 sentment by fostering the enmity and the ambition of 
 both ; and even the Hindoo Princes, who were ready 
 to betray him, were eager to aid with enormous sub- 
 sidies the invader whom he invited to Hindostan.* 
 
 The crisis, indeed, was a great one. Erom one end 
 of India to the other the excitement was universal. 
 The mighty heart of Anglo-Indian society was stirred 
 
 * It is remarkable that the Rajah of Jyneghur, who subsequently gave up 
 this Vizier Ali to the British authorities, offered to subsidise the army of 
 Zemaun Shah with whom Vizier Ali was in league. 
 
84 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 by one emotion of Patriotism. Men were ready to 
 sacrifice their fortunes and their lives in behalf of 
 the country which they had quitted in their boyhood. 
 In the summer of 1798, when Lord "Wellesley arrived 
 in India, he found that his countrymen were think- 
 ing even more of perils at home than of perils 
 abroad,* eager to assist the great movement that 
 was being made for the defence of the British Isles. 
 At all the Presidencies of India, and in all the great 
 provincial stations, meetings, known as " Patriotic 
 Meetings," were being held, for the purpose of testi- 
 fying the " fidelity and attachment" of the British 
 inhabitants of India to their " Sovereign and Con- 
 stitution," by sending home not only addresses of 
 loyalty and words of encouragement, but voluntary 
 contributions of money to aid in the prosecution of 
 the war. Prom the chief ruler in Government House 
 to the private soldier in his Barracks every man 
 responded to the call; every man contributed ac- 
 cording to his means ;t and gladly endured the priva- 
 tions which his patriotic exertions entailed. In this 
 frame of mind Lord Wellesley found the British in- 
 habitants of India when he looked out for the first 
 time upon its white houses and its scorched plains. 
 It was a juncture to tax all the energies of the most 
 energetic of men. 
 
 Of matters such as these, relating to the general 
 
 * At this time, indeed, all the perils which threatened our Indian posses- 
 sions had not yet openly manifested themselves. 
 
 f That excellent man, Jonathan Duncan, Governor of Bombay, contributed 
 25,000 rupees. Most of the European soldiers in the country sent home a 
 month's pay. 
 
SOLDIERS AND FINANCIERS. 85 
 
 history of the times, it is hardly the province of the 
 biographer to speak. I desire only to show that the 
 season was one in which the chief ruler of India 
 must have seen that he had need, not only of all the 
 best soldiers, but all the best financiers in the Land. 
 To the eye of the unreflecting multitude it appears 
 that great battles are fought only by means of 
 swords and muskets, guns, howitzers, and mortars ; 
 and that so long as we have men amongst us able to 
 direct the movements of these swords, muskets, guns, 
 howitzers, and mortars, great wars can be carried on 
 and great victories can be gained. But the states- 
 man knows that there is a mightier instrument still 
 than any one of these things an instrument with- 
 out which all these are as nothing the ever-poten- 
 tial money-bag. He knows that the Commander of 
 Armies is paralysed if the Commander of the Money- 
 bags does not come to his aid. He knows that to the 
 success of a campaign financial skill is not less neces- 
 sary than military skill, and that if the soldier is to 
 triumph, the financier must be found, at the right 
 time, equal to the occasion. Perhaps it is less dif- 
 ficult to find soldiers than to find financiers ; but the 
 first are sure of popular applause, whilst none take 
 heed of the poor wise man who saves the city. Our 
 Indian Empire has more than once tottered on the 
 brink of ruin not because swords or bayonets have 
 wanted temper, or guns and howitzers the true 
 metal, but because the money-bags have been 
 emptied by exhausting wars, and it has been far 
 more difficult to replenish them than to sweep great 
 armies from the field. 
 
86 LIFE OP H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 Lord Wellesley he was then known as Lord 
 Mornington had halted, on his way to the seat of 
 the Supreme Government, for a few days at Madras ; 
 and there he had learnt that the state of affairs in 
 Mysore called immediately for a hostile demonstra- 
 tion against Tippoo Sultan on the part of the British- 
 Indian Government. Imperfectly acquainted with 
 the condition of the Coast Army and the state of 
 the Puhlic Treasury, the young Governor-Gene- 
 ral had scarcely taken the oaths of office when he 
 sent down instructions to the Madras authorities 
 to prepare immediately a military force to march 
 into the heart of the Mysore dominions. Such 
 a mandate as this hurst like a loaded shell on 
 the floor of the Madras Council-Chamber. Mr. 
 Webbe, whom many years afterwards the Duke 
 of Wellington, who knew him well, described as 
 " one of the ablest and honestest of men," 
 was then Chief Secretary, and the main-spring 
 of the Coast Government. Lord Mornington' s 
 orders filled him with astonishment and dismay. 
 " I can anticipate," he exclaimed, " nothing but 
 a return of shocking disasters from a premature at- 
 tack upon Tippoo in our present disabled condition, 
 and the impeachment of Lord Mornington for his 
 temerity." He knew that the army was dispersed, 
 that the muniments of war were unprepared, and 
 that the Treasury was well-nigh empty.* And know- 
 ing this he was right. In less emphatic language, 
 General Harris, the Commander-in-Chief, urged the 
 
 * The Debt at this time (1798) was seven millions and a half sterling. 
 The deficit for the financial year 1797-98 was about thirty-three lakhs. 
 [ Tucker's Review of Indian Finance."} 
 
REVISION OF THE PUBLIC ESTABLISHMENTS. 87 
 
 same arguments, whilst, as a soldier, he declared 
 his willingness to obey orders. But the Governor- 
 General had not been many weeks in Calcutta before 
 he recognised the great truth, that soldiers cannot 
 make war without financiers to help them ; so the 
 first orders were countermanded, and it was deter- 
 mined to " take time." 
 
 Mr. Tucker at this period was young in the ser- 
 vice, but he soon fixed the attention of Lord Wel- 
 lesley, who had a quick eye for the discernment of 
 merit, in whatever direction it lay ; and seldom made 
 a mistake. One of the first subjects connected with 
 the internal administration of the country to which 
 the new Governor-General directed his energies, was 
 " a general revision of all the public establishments 
 of Port William," and the adoption of " a similar 
 measure at Madras and Bombay, as well as at all 
 the subordinate settlements and in all the recent ac- 
 quisitions from the enemy."* These establishments, 
 for want of proper organisation, had become more 
 costly than efficient, and it was believed that the 
 same administrative materials might, under an ade- 
 quate revision of the existing arrangements, be 
 rendered more efficient for the service of the State, 
 and less burdensome to the public revenues. A 
 special Committee was, therefore, appointed, under 
 the immediate superintendence of the Governor- Ge- 
 neral, to carry out the details of this revision in the 
 Bengal Presidency. It was to consist of the Presi- 
 dent of the Board of Revenue ; one of the members 
 
 * Minute of Lord Mornington, June 12, 1798. [3f& Records.] 
 
88 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 of the Board of Trade; the Accountant-General, 
 and the Sub- Secretary in the Revenue and Judicial 
 Departments Mr. Tucker. " These gentlemen," 
 wrote the Governor-General, " I propose to appoint 
 to be a Committee for the purpose already men- 
 tioned Mr. Tucker to act as Secretary to the Com- 
 mittee." 
 
 It was about this time that Mr. Tucker sub- 
 mitted to Lord Wellesley, among other papers re- 
 lating to the Public Finances, a plan for the esta- 
 blishment of a new Bank, to be partly under Govern- 
 ment control. Some years before* a proposition of 
 a somewhat similar character had found some favor 
 with the authorities in India, but had been reso- 
 lutely discountenanced by the Court of Directors. 
 " We have very great doubts upon our minds," they 
 wrote, " respecting the utility of such an establish- 
 ment in India. You are, therefore, to give no 
 countenance or encouragement whatsoever to any 
 plan or plans that may have been, or may here- 
 after be, laid before you by individuals for any such 
 establishment, and you are not to admit or receive 
 any notes or other engagements from the private 
 Banks as a payment in the collection of our Re- 
 venues, or in any other department of our public or 
 commercial concerns. "f But since this was written, 
 the advantages of such an establishment had be- 
 come more and more obvious to Indian Financiers. 
 Among others, Mr. Tucker had made it the subject 
 
 * In 1786. 
 
 f General letter of the Court of Directors to Bengal, Jan. 10, 1787. 
 Records."] 
 
FINANCIAL PROPOSITIONS. 89 
 
 of much grave contemplation ; and before the arrival 
 of Lord Mornington he had completed a scheme for 
 the establishment of a Bank, by order of the Go- 
 vernor-General in Council, who was to be competent 
 to pass such rules and regulations for its better ad- 
 ministration as might appear necessary to him. It 
 was to be established on a capital of fifty lakhs of 
 Sicca rupees, divided into five hundred shares, two- 
 fifths of which were to be subscribed by Government, 
 and the remainder by private proprietors, who were 
 to assume the character of a corporate body. The 
 affairs of the Bank were to be managed by nine di- 
 rectors, of whom six were to be appointed by Govern- 
 ment, and the remainder by the shareholders. The 
 notes of the Bank were to be received as legal tenders 
 by Government at their Treasury, and other offices 
 at the Presidency, but not at the provincial treasu- 
 ries. The business of the Bank was to be confined 
 as much as possible to the discounting of bills and 
 the granting of loans, for short periods, for the 
 accommodation of merchants and the general con- 
 venience of the public but no larger sum than five 
 lakhs of rupees was at any time to be advanced to 
 Government, or than one lakh to a private individual. 
 Such, in its leading outlines, was the scheme which, 
 early in the year 1798, Mr. Tucker had prepared, 
 and which, soon after the arrival of Lord Wel- 
 lesley, he submitted to that nobleman. The Go- 
 vernor-General recognised at once the importance 
 of the establishment, and entered with the liveliest 
 interest into Mr. Tucker's general financial "views 
 
90 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 but the great business of the war with Tippoo, and 
 the anticipated invasion of India by the French, were 
 at this time engrossing his thoughts and consuming 
 his energies ; and any statesman might have been 
 pardoned in such a juncture for postponing the con- 
 sideration of measures which did not press for im- 
 mediate adjustment. I shall have more to say on 
 this subject in another chapter. The new century 
 had not long dawned upon Bengal, when the Bank- 
 ing establishment, for the initiation of which Mr. 
 Tucker had so ably contended, became what it now 
 is a fact. 
 
 But Napoleon was at this time, on what is now 
 the great high road from England to India, issuing 
 proclamations from the burning sands, which stretch 
 beneath the Pyramids of Egypt. At such a time, 
 the physical defence of our Anglo-Indian Empire 
 was necessarily the first thought of its rulers. The 
 " defence of the entrance of the river (Ganges) 
 against a naval force, and the best means of pre- 
 venting the progress of a (hostile) armament, on the 
 supposition of its having gained the entrance of the 
 river,"* were among the primal objects of Lord 
 Wellesley's concern; and he thought too, at the 
 same time, how the Erench troops might be re- 
 ceived, on the great plain of Calcutta, if they were 
 to effect a landing at the ghauts of that palaced 
 city. The patriotism of the Anglo-Indian residents 
 might be turned, he thought, to profitable account. 
 
 * Lord Mornington to the Secret Committee, October 30, 1798.-[J/S. 
 Records.'} 
 
DEFENCE OF CALCUTTA. 91 
 
 " "We have resolved," he wrote, " to embody the 
 European militia of the town of Calcutta, and to 
 form such of your civil servants and others as shall 
 offer their services into a body of cavalry, which 
 may prepare to act on any emergency."* And very 
 earnestly these " civil servants and others" re- 
 sponded to the call.f There are few now living 
 who can recall the actualities of that time of threat- 
 ened invasion. But the reign of the Calcutta volun- 
 teers extended for some few years into the present 
 century, and there are many still amongst us by 
 whom its later days are vividly remembered. It 
 would be easy to multiply anecdotes illustrative 
 of the military eccentricities of the Anglo-Indian 
 volunteers ; but they differ little from those which 
 are told of the amateur soldiering on the banks of 
 the Thames. { In both cases, the service which they 
 would have rendered, in case of an actual invasion, 
 still remains an unsolved problem ; but the convi- 
 viality and good-fellowship, which the association 
 promoted, are recorded facts. 
 
 * Lord Mornington to the Secret Committee, October 30, 1798. [M. S. 
 Records."] 
 
 f In a letter to the Court of Directors, dated Nov. 21, 1798, the Governor- 
 General highly commended the promptitude and cordiality with which his 
 call had been responded to, declaring that his " orders had been obeyed with an 
 alacrity and zeal," which " strongly indicate the resolution of the Company's 
 civil servants, and of all the European and Armenian inhabitants of Calcutta, 
 to devote their personal services to the defence of the seat of the Supreme 
 Government, in any exigency which may arise." 
 
 J One exception, however, may be made; for it has often been related that 
 on wet mornings, when the volunteers turned out for parade on foot, every 
 gentleman had a servant in attendance, with a brick to place beneath his 
 master's feet, and they who know the state of the Calcutta maidaun, or great 
 plain, in the middle of the rains, will not much wonder at the precaution. 
 
92 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 It is enough for the purposes of this Memoir to 
 state that Mr. Tucker was an active memher of the 
 amateur Cavalry force ; and as he was an excellent 
 horseman, and full of spirit, he doubtless would have 
 distinguished himself as a soldier, if that had been 
 the mission which he was decreed to fulfil. As it 
 was, he rose rapidly from the rank of a private to 
 that of a captain in the regiment ; and he often 
 playfully adverted, in his declining years, to the 
 days when grave civilians forgot for a time the 
 affairs of the Dewannee and the Nizamut, sitting in 
 committee on patterns of volunteer uniform, or 
 dining together at Macdonald's tavern to take leave 
 of some distinguished comrade, and, perhaps, to pre- 
 sent him with a sword.* 
 
 "Whilst all these preparations were going on for 
 the defence of the Presidency against threatened in- 
 vasion, the Governor-General was bethinking him- 
 self of the mental qualifications of the civilians 
 whose physical powers he was turning to account. 
 It appeared to him that responsible offices were con- 
 ferred on young civilians, little qualified by a know- 
 ledge of the languages of the country and the regu- 
 lations of Government for the discharge of the im- 
 portant duties which devolved upon them. The 
 great idea of the establishment of the College of 
 
 * The Volunteer Cavalry of Calcutta or, as more correctly it should be 
 called, the European Militia Cavalry was organised by Colonel Welsh, who, 
 on his return to England, was presented, on full parade, with a handsome gold- 
 handled sword. As late as 1805, Mr. Tucker was addressed in some official 
 correspondence in the military department as " Captain Henry St. George 
 Tucker, commanding the Calcutta European Militia Cavalry." 
 
HIS PROFICIENCY IN THE LANGUAGES. 93 
 
 Eort William was then taking shape in his mind. 
 With the pressing business of the war in the South 
 before him, he could not then bring the design to 
 perfection ; but, in the mean while, he issued an 
 order decreeing that "from and after the 1st of 
 January, 1801, no servant will be deemed eligible to 
 any of the offices hereinafter mentioned, until he 
 shall have passed an examination in the laws and 
 regulations and in the languages, a knowledge of 
 which is hereby declared to be an indispensable 
 qualification for such respective offices." On the 
 subject of the necessary examination in the native 
 languages and the formation of a qualified Board of 
 Examiners, that eminent Orientalist, Dr. Gilchrist, 
 was consulted. The Board was " to be selected from 
 gentlemen who were known to be competent judges 
 of Indian languages." Among the list of those re- 
 commended by Dr. Gilchrist a list which includes 
 the honored names of Barlow and Edmonstone 
 was that of Mr. Tucker, who, in spite of all the dis- 
 advantages under which he had labored, had dili- 
 gently studied the Oriental languages, from almost 
 the first day of his residence in the East. 
 
 The order of which I have spoken was issued on 
 the 21st December, 1798. Eour days afterwards, 
 Lord Wellesley embarked from the water-gate of 
 Eort William upon the Government yacht, which 
 carried him down the river to join the frigate com- 
 missioned to convey him to Madras. The war which 
 was now to be prosecuted with unfailing vigor 
 against Tippoo Sultan demanded his personal super- 
 
94 LIFE OE H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 intendence, and he hastened, therefore, to the Coast, 
 that no time might he lost in references to the seat 
 of the Supreme Government. 
 
 In the spring of the following year, the health of 
 Mr. Tucker, severely tried as it had heen by his un- 
 ceasing application to his official duties, gave way 
 beneath the continued tension, and he was com- 
 pelled to lay aside the pen. He had now been for 
 more than twelve years, with slight intermission, 
 under the enervating influence of the hot, damp 
 climate of the low countries on the banks of the 
 Ganges, severely tried by those two worst enemies 
 of health in all countries, much intellectual toil and 
 mental anxiety. It was time that he should cease 
 awhile from his work. So, in the spring of 1799, 
 he obtained leave of absence from his appointment, 
 and sailed for Madras. 
 
 Much thought had he, too, even then, of turning 
 to profitable account this permitted season of leisure 
 and recreation. The war in Mysore was at its height ; 
 the Governor- General was at the southern Presi- 
 dency. To Mr. Tucker it seemed, therefore, that 
 whilst the sea-breezes were recruiting his strength, 
 he might still, at the elbow of the Governor- General, 
 be exercising his official experience in the service of 
 the State. He arrived at a propitious moment. The 
 Presidency was in a transport of joy. The guns of 
 Port St. George were announcing the receipt of glad 
 tidings from Mysore. The stronghold of the Sultan 
 had fallen, and Tippoo himself was History. 
 
 Rightly had Mr. Tucker anticipated that his ser- 
 
ENERGY OF LORD WELLESLEY. 95 
 
 vices would be required on the Coast. The Go- 
 vernor-General, in such a juncture, had especial 
 need of active and intelligent secretaries ; and the 
 circumstances of the War and the Victory had di- 
 minished the personnel of his staff. Colonel Kirk- 
 patrick, his Military Secretary, was at Seringapa- 
 tam ; and Henry Wellesley was now to be de- 
 spatched to England to communicate to the British 
 Government " all the detailed circumstances and 
 intricate considerations connected with the late My- 
 sore war," and the pacification which had ensued. 
 In the new arrangements for the completion of the 
 personal staff of the Governor-General which then 
 became necessary, Mr. Tucker was included. He 
 was appointed to act as Military Secretary, and he 
 took up the quarters, in the temporary residence of 
 the Governor- General, vacated by his Lordship's 
 brother. 
 
 The duties which he was called upon to perform 
 were various. Lord Wellesley knew the character 
 of the man knew that he could rely on his energy 
 and ability and he did not scruple to tax them to 
 the utmost. Often, in after-days, did Mr. Tucker 
 speak of all the circumstances of his residence at Ma- 
 dras in this momentous summer of 1799. Brought 
 constantly into close official and personal intercourse 
 with the Governor-General, he had abundant oppor- 
 tunity of observing the wonderful quickness of ap- 
 prehension and the unequalled intellectual activity 
 which distinguished the character of this remarkable 
 man. Little more than a year had elapsed since 
 
96 LIFE OF H. ST.a. TUCKER. 
 
 the Governor- General had for the first time looked 
 out, from the deck of the Virgmie 9 on the white 
 surf and the low coast of Madras ; yet even now 
 men who had been for long years storing up rich 
 local experiences found him a ripe Indian states- 
 man, and stood abashed before the superior know- 
 ledge of the titled novice. 
 
 Some striking illustrations of the quickness with 
 which Lord Wellesley grasped all the salient points 
 of a great question, and the boldness with which 
 he enunciated the views thus hastily formed, were 
 brought, at this time, under the immediate notice of 
 the subject of this Memoir. One example may be 
 cited. At a late hour one night the Governor-Ge- 
 neral summoned Mr. Tucker to his presence. Giving 
 him a bundle of papers of considerable bulk, he 
 requested the Secretary to make a precis of their 
 contents, and to bring it to him on the following 
 morning. The performance of such a duty de- 
 manded not only the closest application during the 
 night, but some previous knowledge of the subject. 
 Fortunately, Mr. Tucker was acquainted with the 
 general bearings of the case. The question related 
 to the future relations of the British Government 
 with the principality of Tanjore.* At the appointed 
 
 * It had been discovered that Ameer Singh, the de facto Rajah of Tanjore, 
 was not the legal heir to the throne, but that Serfojee, the adopted son of the 
 late Prince, had claims to the sovereignty which the British Government were 
 bound to recognise. It was proposed, therefore, to pension Ameer Singh, and 
 to enter into a treaty with the other Prince, by which he was to become a 
 mere puppet in our hands upon receipt of an annual payment of a lakh of 
 star-pagodas (about 40,000?.) and a fifth of the net revenues. The treaty 
 with Serfojee was dated October 25, 1799. 
 
ANECDOTES OP LORD WELLESLEY. 97 
 
 hour a compendium of all the facts bearing upon 
 the case was placed in the hands of the Governor- 
 General. He had little more than an hour in which 
 to make himself acquainted with all the circum- 
 stances set forth in Mr. Tucker's abstract; but 
 armed with this paper and with the writer of it him- 
 self, whom he had requested to sit beside him, at his 
 elbow, he entered the Council-Chamber without a 
 misgiving. The Governor of Madras and the mem- 
 bers of Council were invited to declare their opinions; 
 but the majority, more accustomed to elaborate mi- 
 nute-writing than to extemporary speaking, sate 
 disconcerted and confused, and little able to set 
 forth their views when suddenly called to enunciate 
 them. Believing that Lord "Wellesley was at all 
 events no better informed than themselves, their 
 astonishment was great when his Lordship addressed 
 the Council speaking fluently and well for more 
 than an hour entering into all the minutest cir- 
 cumstances relating to the history and condition of 
 Tanjore, and setting forth his views with regard to 
 our future relations with the State in a series of 
 luminous and convincing arguments. It seemed 
 strange, indeed, to the old Indian Councillors that 
 the Governor-General, with the experience of a 
 single year, should be better acquainted with all the 
 intricacies of such a subject than themselves. Per- 
 haps in reality he was not. Lord Wellesley was 
 always quick to learn and ready to speak, and his 
 self-reliance was unbounded. But there are men of 
 slower perceptions, wanting the faculty of ready 
 
 H 
 
98 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 utterance, who possess more knowledge than they 
 can educe at a moment's notice, and are useful, too, 
 after their kind. Mr. Tucker always narrated this 
 incident as a remarkable illustration of the powers 
 of Lord Wellesley's mind powers which enabled 
 him to master all the details of a difficult question 
 in an incredibly short space of time. But his mo- 
 desty prevented him from adding, that the Governor- 
 General spoke from the secretary's brief; that the 
 real labor of analysis and arrangement had been per- 
 formed by Mr. Tucker; and that much of the 
 speaker's fluency and clearness may have been due 
 to the luminous expositions of the scribe. 
 
 In his attention to business Lord Wellesley* was 
 indefatigable, and he expected others to be the same. 
 He took little heed of hours, and was not always 
 mindful of the comfort and convenience of the func- 
 tionaries by whom he was surrounded. A little 
 arbitrary and capricious perhaps, he taxed the pa- 
 tience and powers of endurance of his secretaries in 
 a manner only to be justified by the pressing neces- 
 sities of critical times. On one occasion, for ex- 
 ample, as Mr. Tucker used to relate, the Governor- 
 General, at a late hour of night, passing his room, 
 saw that he was just retiring to rest. A few minutes 
 afterwards a message came from his lordship, request- 
 ing Mr. Tucker's immediate attendance. Thinking 
 that only business of very pressing importance, acl- 
 
 * In this and other places I have spoken of his lordship by the name by 
 which he is known in history but he was at this time not Marquis Welles - 
 Iqy, but the Earl of Mornington. 
 
ANECDOTES OF LORD WELLESLEY. 99 
 
 mitting not even of a few minutes' delay, ought to 
 have summoned him from his bed, the Secretary 
 hastened at once into the presence of the Governor- 
 General in his dressing-gown and slippers, and asked 
 what were his instructions. The silent rebuke 
 seemed to be understood. Lord "Wellesley placed a 
 paper in the secretary's hands without uttering a 
 word, and he never again summoned him to his pre- 
 sence at so unreasonable an hour.* 
 
 That the official and personal intercourse between 
 the Governor-General and his secretary caused each 
 to regard the other, in spite of such incidents as this, 
 with extreme respect, is proved not more by what 
 Mr. Tucker was wont to say, in after-life of Lord 
 Wellesley, than by what Lord "Wellesley did towards 
 Mr. Tucker. As the time for the Governor-Gene- 
 ral's departure from Madras nearly approached, he 
 intimated to Mr. Tucker his desire that he should 
 remain at that Presidency, with the office of Register 
 of Sudder Dewanny and Mzamut Adawluts, " with a 
 view to his employment in the important duty of 
 framing a code of Regulations for Madras, upon the 
 model of that which had been established by the 
 Government of Bengal." The Cornwallis-and-Bar- 
 low Revenue and Judicial Regulations had found 
 especial favor in the eyes of Lord Wellesley, and he 
 
 * Another story which Mr. Tucker used to tell with reference to this period 
 deserves at least a place in a note. One morning, at breakfast, Lord Welles- 
 ley, on breaking his egg, found that its freshness was at least questionable, 
 and rebuked his attendant a Frenchman, half valet, half butler for the 
 offence. " Milor !" said the man, gravely, " dat not your Lordship's egg dat's 
 de aide-de-camp's egg!" 
 
 H2 
 
100 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER, 
 
 was eager to see them in full operation upon the 
 Coast. Tucker had for some time been holding office 
 under Barlow ; he had known him long, and was 
 thoroughly acquainted with his views. A fitter 
 agent for the accomplishment of this great object 
 could not hare been nominated. But the appoint- 
 ment was distasteful to Mr. Tucker. He did not 
 wish to be detached from the service of his own Pre- 
 sidency. He believed, and rightly, that the selection 
 of a Bengal officer for such an office as this would 
 be a reflection upon the whole civil service of Ma- 
 dras, and would necessarily place the incumbent 
 himself in a most invidious position. Still, it was 
 difficult to refuse an appointment, which the Gover- 
 nor-General urged upon him as one demanded by 
 the necessities of the State. So Mr. Tucker, mo- 
 destly stating that he felt himself not wholly ade- 
 quate, without some further preparation, to the per- 
 formance of such important duties, solicited permis- 
 sion to return to Calcutta, in order that he might 
 take counsel with Mr. Barlow, and profit by the 
 experience of that eminent administrator. To this 
 Lord "Wellesley consented, and in the month of Sep- 
 tember Mr. Tucker accompanied the vice-regal party 
 to Calcutta. 
 
 The new civil arrangements, consequent upon the 
 revision of the establishment, which had been ordered 
 upon the first arrival of the new Governor-General, 
 were now to be brought into operation. The Secre- 
 tariat had been re-organised. It was henceforth to 
 consist of a Chief Secretary and three departmental 
 
DEPARTMENTAL ARRANGEMENTS. 101 
 
 Secretaries. The old title of Sub-Secretary was abo- 
 lished, and Mr. Tucker was appointed " Secretary to 
 Government in the Revenue and Judicial Depart- 
 ments."* Prom this time he seems to have aban- 
 doned the idea of returning to Madras; but Lord 
 Wellesley still clung to the belief that it would be 
 expedient to depute Mr. Tucker to the Coast for the 
 furtherance of what he described as "the great 
 object of his anxiety." It was not until the very 
 close of the year that the reports which he received 
 from Madras convinced him that he might entrust 
 this difficult and important duty to the officers of 
 that Presidency. "The very able report of your 
 Board of Revenue," he wrote to Lord Olive, on the 
 31st of December, 1799, " and the intelligent and 
 satisfactory letters of Mr. Webbe to Mr. Barlow, 
 afford abundant proof that your service can supply 
 both knowledge and talents sufficient for the execu- 
 tion of the great plan in my contemplation, without 
 the aid of any person deputed from Bengal. I have 
 not sent Mr. Tucker to you, not only because I am 
 
 * The order is dated October 9, 1799, and is contained in the following 
 words: "The Right Hon. the Governor- General in Council having taken 
 into consideration the present establishment of the office of the Secretary to 
 Government and four sub-secretaries, the establishment shall in future consist 
 of a Chief Secretary to the Government and of four secretaries viz., one 
 secretary for the Secret, Political, and Foreign Departments ; one secretary 
 for the Public Department; one for the Judicial and Revenue Departments; 
 and one for the Military Department The Right Hon. the Go- 
 vernor-General in Council has been pleased to make the following appoint- 
 ments: Mr. G. H. Barlow, Chief Secretary to the Government; Lieut.-Col. 
 William Kirkpatrick, Secretary to the Government in the Secret, Political, 
 and Foreign Departments; Mr. H. St.George Tucker, Secretary to Govern- 
 ment in the Judicial and Revenue Departments; Lieut. L. Hook, Secretary to 
 Government in the Military Department." 
 
102 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 persuaded his presence at Eort St. George is un- 
 necessary, but because I wish, to leave to your ser- 
 vice the full and undivided credit of its own re- 
 form."* 
 
 Mr. Tucker had been scarcely eight years in the 
 Covenanted Civil Service of the Company when this 
 important office was conferred upon him. It was 
 an office so much beyond the ordinary scope of pro- 
 motion that he was compelled for some time to hold 
 it with a diminished salary the regulations of the 
 service not admitting an officer of his standing to 
 draw the full allowance attached to it. I do not 
 know anything that could more clearly indicate the 
 high estimation in which he was held by the Go- 
 vernor-General and the members of the Supreme 
 Council.t "I have found," said Lord Wellesley, 
 about this time, " the officers of the Secretariat to 
 possess the industry of clerks with the talents of 
 statesmen." 
 
 But other duties even more important than this 
 were about soon to engage the energies and abilities 
 of Mr. Tucker. There were great events then loom- 
 ing in no very remote distance, and the Governor- 
 General saw that he had need, at such a time, of the 
 
 * MS. Records. 
 
 f The circumstance is thus explained by Lord Wellesley, who wrote: "I 
 propose that Mr. Tucker be appointed Secretary to the Judicial Department, 
 for which he is peculiarly well qualified. His standing in the service does 
 not admit of his drawing a higher salary than that which he now receives. 
 His merits, however, and the fundamental principle of the present arrange- 
 ment, require that his salary should be augmented to whatever his standing 
 in the service may admit of his drawing, until he is competent to hold the full 
 salary of his office, which I propose to fix at 50,000 rupees per annum," 
 
APPOINTMENT TO THE ACCOUNTANT-GENERALSHIP. 103 
 
 best financial skill that the country could yield. 
 Mr. Cox was at this time Accountant-General. In 
 the course of the year 1800 he fell sick ; and Mr. 
 Tucker, still retaining the office and discharging the 
 business of his secretaryship, performed Mr. Cox's 
 duties until he was able again to resume his work. 
 But early in the following year an opportunity oc- 
 curred for the permanent translation of Mr. Tucker 
 to this important office -an opportunity of which 
 Lord "Wellesley was eager to avail himself. Mr. Cox 
 was appointed a member of the Board of Revenue ; 
 and then, the Governor-General, who during his re- 
 sidence at Madras had remarked the extraordinary 
 financial ability of Mr. Tucker, called upon him to 
 take charge of the general revenues of the empire. 
 
 To Mr. Tucker the proposed change was not per- 
 sonally acceptable. He delighted in the duties of 
 the Secretariat; and the emoluments of the new 
 office were not equal to those which he was called 
 upon to abandon. But he cheerfully obeyed the 
 call, and entered at once upon the arduous and re- 
 sponsible duties of the Accountant- Generalship with 
 characteristic energy and zeal. He had at this time 
 just completed his thirtieth year, and had not been 
 ten years in the Covenanted Service of the East India 
 Company. He had half a century of usefulness yet 
 before him ; but he had even now attained one of 
 the highest, and at such a time the most important, 
 offices that could be conferred upon him by the 
 State. 
 
104 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 State of the Public Finances Public Credit Mr. Tucker's Measures Plan 
 of a New Bank Reduction of Interest New Loans Improvement of 
 Public Credit Connexion with Palmer's House Mr. Tucker's Double 
 Duties Continued Financial Improvement. 
 
 IT was no small responsibility, it was no slight 
 labor that Mr. Tucker had undertaken. [Financial 
 embarrassment was at this time new to the Indian 
 Government. Lord Cornwallis, on laying down the 
 reins of office, had left an overflowing treasury ; and 
 it was not until the closing year of Sir John Shore's 
 administration that the surplus had disappeared. 
 But Lord "Wellesley found that terrible word deficit 
 ready written for him in the Indian accounts, and 
 costly military operations were forced upon him by 
 the hostility of Asiatic enemies and the intrigues of 
 their European allies. 
 
 In these times the making of wars, with an empty 
 treasury, is a matter sufficiently perplexing to the 
 Indian financier. But there were two causes which 
 at the commencement of the century were ever in 
 grievous operation to aggravate his perplexities. In 
 the first place, there was a two-fold demand for 
 money. Money was required for political purposes, 
 
FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES. 105 
 
 and money was required for commercial purposes. 
 There were armies to be paid ; and there was the In- 
 vestment to be provided. In the second place, there 
 was no such thing as Public Credit. When the re- 
 venue was exhausted, money was to be borrowed. 
 But money was then obtained by Government only at 
 ruinous rates of interest. The Company then paid 
 as dearly for the money they borrowed from the com- 
 munity, as a needy customer who has the misfortune 
 to overdraw his account pays to the most usurious 
 House of Agency that ever beggared its constituents 
 and made them exiles for life. 
 
 Nor was the general want of confidence in Govern- 
 ment expressed even by the necessity of paying twelve 
 per cent, on the money which they raised by loan. 
 In the spring of 1801 this twelve-per-cent. paper 
 Treasury-notes, payable in the ensuing autumn was 
 celling at a discount of three or four per cent. The 
 native bankers of Calcutta, Moorshedabad, Benares, 
 and other places, had no faith in Government se- 
 curities, and either held back their capital or em- 
 ployed it in their private speculations. Exorbitant 
 rates of interest were obtainable from the landholders, 
 who looked, under the operations of the Permanent 
 Settlement, to the realisation of a still larger inte- 
 rest from the improvement of their lands. And the 
 general disorderment of the Company's finances 
 abroad opened many sources of gain to the capitalist, 
 who was made the medium of exchange between 
 different districts, and trafficked largely in the me- 
 tallic currency. 
 
106 LIFE OF H. ST. G. TUCKER. 
 
 There was a scarcity of silver coin in those days. 
 It was much needed by Government for the pay- 
 ment of the troops, for advances to weavers, molun- 
 ghees, and others, and the native capitalists endea- 
 voured to sweep the largest possible supplies of it 
 into their own hands. The Revenue-payer was 
 for the most part largely indebted to the native 
 capitalist, through whom his payments were prin- 
 cipally made to Government. The capitalist paid 
 the amount into the Public Treasury in gold. But 
 for the practical purposes of Government the gold 
 coin was of little use. It was necessary, therefore, 
 to convert it into silver, and the silver was in the 
 hands of the native capitalist. It was only to be 
 bought. The consequence was, that the gold coin 
 was at a discount, sometimes of as much as six or 
 seven per cent., and large sums of money were lost 
 to the State by financial operations which it was not 
 in their power to control. 
 
 To the remedy of these evils Mr. Tucker now 
 brought the experience of a practical man of busi- 
 ness and the skill of an adroit financier. He looked 
 the mischief steadfastly in the face, and struck boldly 
 at a vital point. He knew that to be weak is to be 
 miserable. To confess weakness is to be miserable 
 in the extreme. Now what was all this borrowing 
 at twelve per cent. this subserviency to the native 
 capitalist but a confession of weakness of the worst 
 kind ? To pay exorbitant interest upon temporary 
 advances of money, whether the accommodation be 
 sought by an individual, or a Government, is equally 
 
"PUBLIC CREDIT." 107 
 
 ruinous to the credit of the private or the public 
 borrower. The capitalist looks askance at the loan- 
 seeker, who is, or appears to be, in such desperate 
 straits as to seek assistance on these ruinous terms. 
 "Whilst the Government were paying twelve per 
 cent, for the money they borrowed, their securities 
 were at a discount, because their credit was bad. It 
 was plain enough to the Accountant-General that if 
 the Public Credit could be established on a secure 
 basis, all the rest would soon follow. This, indeed, 
 was the one great end to be attained, and a reduc- 
 tion of the rate of interest on public securities was 
 to be both the cause and the effect of this establish- 
 ment of Public Credit. 
 
 To provide, however, for the immediate exigencies 
 of the State was necessarily his first care. Schemes 
 of future extrication must give place to the reality of 
 present embarrassment. It is permitted neither to 
 men nor to nations all at once to take large views of 
 financial reform. The Accountant-General, at the 
 seat of the Supreme Government, had not only to 
 provide for the wants of the Presidency to which he 
 was immediately attached, but to answer the demands 
 of Madras and Bombay, which could not meet their 
 own charges. No small portion of Mr. Tucker's 
 time, during the first few months of his tenure of 
 office as Finance Minister, was consumed by the 
 arrangements which it was necessary to make for 
 the supply of remittances and the regulation of ex- 
 change operations between the different Treasuries 
 in the Company's dominions. These operations had 
 
108 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 hitherto been carried on at a ruinous cost to Govern- 
 ment, and, as I have already briefly explained, to the 
 continual profit of the native capitalists through 
 whom they were principally effected. At this time 
 certain provinces of the great principality of Oude 
 known in History as the " Ceded Provinces" were 
 passing into our hands.* In such a conjuncture the 
 Lucknow Treasury was found to be a most service- 
 able auxiliary ; not merely on account of what the 
 new provinces actually promised to yield perhaps 
 in this respect their capabilities may have been over- 
 ratedf but because a skilful financier, by a judicious 
 regulation of the exchange between that place and 
 Calcutta, might obviate the necessity of that ruinous 
 intervention of the native capitalist, which, through 
 so many different channels, abstracted so much from 
 the Public Treasury into the hands of the bankers 
 and shroffs. " By regulating the exchange between 
 Calcutta and Lucknow," wrote Mr. Tucker to Colonel 
 Scott, who was then Resident at the latter place, " we 
 shall not only obtain the remittance of the surplus 
 tribute on the most advantageous terms, but we may 
 also prevent or check the exportation of silver from 
 the Company's provinces, the melting down of our 
 
 * It was not until November that the treaty under which these provinces 
 passed into our hands was signed. The financial operations of the year (1801) 
 to which reference is made, related principally to the Oude subsidy and to the 
 trade with Lucknow. The collection of the revenues did not devolve upon 
 us until the end of the year. 
 
 f A large number, too, of Lucknow rupees a depreciated currency were 
 sent to the Calcutta Mint for re-coinage; and, owing to the inefficiency of the 
 establishment, came out again so slowly that the financial operations of Go- 
 vernment were considerably obstructed by the delay. 
 
FINANCIAL ARRANGEMENTS. 109 
 
 rupees, and generally much of the traffic in the 
 precious metals, which at present is supposed to 
 exist. Heretofore I have had no certain data for my 
 guidance, and I have consequently proceeded much 
 at random, influenced more by our immediate ne- 
 cessities than by any other consideration. These 
 necessities, however, will, I hope, be less urgent 
 hereafter, and I shall, therefore, be able to take a 
 larger view of the subject." 
 
 Like a skilful physician, indeed, he addressed 
 himself in the first instance to the " palliation of 
 urgent symptoms ;" but the remedies which he ap- 
 plied were not without their effect upon the seat of 
 the disease. It was no small thing in itself to show 
 that Government were becoming more and more in- 
 dependent of the monied interests, and could manage 
 their remittances and exchanges without the inter- 
 vention of the bankers and shroffs. This in itself 
 did something towards the establishment of Public 
 Credit ; and in the month of September, Mr. Barlow 
 was able to write to the Governor- General, who had 
 taken his departure on a tour to the Upper Pro- 
 vinces : " I made it my first object to inquire into 
 the state of the public credit since your Lordship's 
 departure, and I am happy to have it in my power 
 to transmit to your Lordship very favorable accounts 
 on the subject, which I received from Mr. Tucker." 
 The state of affairs, under judicious management, 
 was beginning to improve even more rapidly than 
 the Finance Minister himself had predicted before, 
 indeed, he had time to take the "larger views " of 
 
110 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 which he at this time was referring only in brief an- 
 ticipatory outline. 
 
 Among the objects embraced in these larger views 
 was the institution of that Public Bank to which 
 allusion has been made in the preceding chapter. 
 The design, since it was first sketched by Mr. 
 Tucker, had been closely considered by him in all its 
 details, and he had taken counsel with men of judg- 
 ment and experience at the Presidency, and dis- 
 cussed it in all its bearings upon the financial inte- 
 rests both of the Government and the Public. It 
 was his conviction that by bringing the capital of 
 such an establishment into competition with that of 
 the shroffs and bankers, the value of money would 
 soon be brought down to its proper level, and the 
 rate of interest both upon public and private loans 
 greatly reduced. This, indeed, is something so ob- 
 vious, that the only wonder is that the project was 
 so long in course of accomplishment. Mr. Tucker 
 was eager that the sanction of Government should 
 be granted at once ; but the plan of the Bank was 
 thrown into the usual crucible of official delay. 
 Nothing was done before the Governor-General left 
 the Presidency ; and as nothing seemed likely to be 
 done, Mr. Tucker thought it expedient to press the 
 subject again on his lordship's attention ; so in Oc- 
 tober, he wrote : 
 
 " TO HIS EXCELLENCY MARQUIS WELLESLEY, K.P. 
 
 &c. &c. &c. 
 
 " 17th October, 1801. 
 
 " MY LORD, I have refrained from intruding on your 
 Lordship's time, as every circumstance connected with my im- 
 
PLAN OF A NEW BANK. 
 
 Ill 
 
 mediate duty, which it could be necessary for me to report, 
 has, I believe, been communicated by Mr. Barlow. I only 
 now, indeed, address your Lordship in consequence of hearing 
 from Mr. Barlow that previously to deciding on the plan which 
 I some time since submitted for the establishment of a Public 
 Bank, your Lordship expected to receive from me some further 
 explanations upon the subject. 
 
 " The plan has been much canvassed by different individuals, 
 and several alterations have been suggested to me. Sir John 
 Anstruther, in particular, has had the kindness to give it his 
 attention ; and as his observations appear to me to be entitled 
 to weight, and as they, in fact, comprise all the objections 
 which have been urged against the plan, I shall beg leave to 
 submit them for your Lordship's consideration, with sucli re- 
 marks as may occur to me : 
 
 Whether the Bank shall be a cor- 
 porate body ? 
 
 Sir John Anstruther thinks it un- 
 necessary, and that there is no power 
 in this country to constitute it such. 
 
 Whether the Governor-General in 
 Council shall retain a general legisla- 
 tive power of altering the constitu- 
 tion of the Bank that is, the original 
 compact between the parties ? 
 
 Sir J. A. thinks that it would be 
 sufficient to retain a negative; that 
 the original contract should not be 
 altered, except by the consent of the 
 parties, to be determined by a vote of 
 the majority of the Proprietors; that 
 
 The only object in constituting it a 
 corporate body would be to limit the 
 responsibility of the Proprietors to the 
 amount of capital subscribed by them ; 
 whereas, if this be not done, the whole 
 of their property will be answerable 
 for the debts of the Bank . 
 
 The limitation of responsibility 
 would certainly be more agreeable to 
 the subscribers; but it would pro- 
 bably be more satisfactory to the 
 public that the responsibility should 
 be general. The risk, however, to 
 either party appears to me so very 
 trifling, that I consider it almost a 
 matter of indifference whether the 
 Bank be rendered a corporate body or 
 not. If it should be hereafter found 
 necessary, a charter of incorporation 
 might, I conclude, be obtained from 
 England without difficulty. 
 
 I think that this negative will an- 
 swer every necessary purpose, and 
 that the limitation of Government's 
 interference will be satisfactory to 
 the Proprietors. I, myself, should 
 prefer that the Government retained 
 
112 
 
 LIFE OF H. ST. a. TUCKER. 
 
 Government, however, should have 
 in every instance the power of reject- 
 ing such proposed alterations; that 
 whenever Government themselves 
 may be desirous of introducing new 
 regulations, they should be brought 
 forward by their Directors for the 
 determination of the Proprietors. 
 
 Whether there should not be some 
 restriction on the transfer of shares 
 without the consent of the Directors ? 
 
 Sir J. A. thinks that the transfer 
 of shares should not be made without 
 previously obtaining the acquiescence 
 of the Directors, as such transfers 
 affect the security of the Bank as far 
 as it rests on individual responsi- 
 bility. 
 
 Whether the moiety proposed to be 
 subscribed in 8 per cent, paper should 
 not be taken in Treasury Bills or 12 
 per cent, notes? 
 
 Whether merchandise and jewels 
 should be received as security for 
 loans? 
 
 Whether the Bank should not be 
 allowed to receive payment of interest 
 of salary bills bills of exchange, 
 &c., &c., from parties who may have 
 open accounts with it ? 
 
 a general power of altering the con- 
 stitution of the establishment, because 
 I am confident that this power could 
 not be lodged elsewhere with equal 
 safety. The negative, however, will 
 enable them to prevent wrong mea- 
 sures, and this will be sufficient for 
 the purposes of security. It is scarcely 
 to be presumed that the Proprietors 
 will refuse to adopt measures which 
 may be proposed for their benefit. 
 
 This will be a very proper precau- 
 tion if the Bank be not constituted a 
 corporate body. 
 
 This I should prefer. I only pro- 
 posed 8 per cents, with a view to ac- 
 commodation ; but the other paper is 
 far preferable, as it would be soon 
 realised in cash, and consequently en- 
 able the Bank to extend its operations 
 at an earlier period. 
 
 This was proposed with the same 
 view, but I would readily acquiesce 
 in the negative, as the receipt of 
 goods will be always attended with 
 trouble, sometimes with risk, and it 
 might involve the Bank in litigation. 
 
 I see no objection to this, and it 
 will be a convenience to individuals. 
 The agency houses may perhaps think 
 it some little encroachment on their 
 province. 
 
 " The foregoing are the only points which it appeared to me 
 necessary to refer to your Lordship ; and if it should be deter- 
 mined to adopt the plan, I can readily modify it according to 
 the directions which I may receive. 
 
 " I am very solicitous to obtain your Lordship's final orders as 
 soon as possible, because if the plan be not determined on im- 
 mediately, it cannot be undertaken in the present year. From 
 the month of February to the month of August the collections 
 on account of the land-revenue are so inconsiderable in Bengal, 
 that I should not be able to command a sufficient sum in specie 
 during that interval. 
 
REDUCTION OF INTEREST. 113 
 
 "Of the practicability of the measure, if your Lordship de- 
 termined to undertake it, I have now very little doubt of 
 its expediency, I never had any doubt. I am, however, less 
 anxious about it at present than I was some months ago, as the 
 improved, and improving state of our credit has rendered it less 
 necessary. Still, I think it would greatly facilitate every other 
 financial arrangement; and although it may not be essentially 
 necessary, it would, I am persuaded, be beneficial. 
 
 " I have the honor to be, with great respect, my Lord, your 
 Lordship's faithful, humble servant, 
 
 " H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 " Calcutta, 17th October, 1801." 
 
 The Bank, however, was not suffered to help 
 Lord Wellesley through the financial difficulties 
 which then lay before him. Its establishment be- 
 longs not at all to this chapter of Indian history. 
 The project was flung, like many other beneficent 
 projects, into the great Hereafter ; and it is fortu- 
 nate that it ever came out again. It was not until 
 1806 that the Bank of Bengal became a fact. 
 
 Other measures, however, conducive to the same 
 end, were brought into immediate operation. The 
 Treasury-bills, which in March were at a discount, 
 were now in September at par, and Mr. Tucker pro- 
 posed to reduce the rate of interest which they bore 
 from 12 to about 10 per cent. It was his project to 
 issue bills bearing a daily instead of a yearly inte- 
 rest, and with this intention he addressed a circular 
 letter to the principal members of the commercial 
 community, asking whether they were " aware of 
 any objections to the measure." After detailing the 
 amount of daily interest to be borne by the several 
 bills issued from the Treasury, he wrote : 
 
LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 " My reasons for the proposed change are briefly as fol- 
 lows: 
 
 " 1st. To effect a gradual reduction of interest. I am, how- 
 ever, by no means desirous of forcing things precipitately, or to 
 make any attempt without a very fair prospect of success. 
 
 " 2ndly. To consult the convenience of individuals, as well 
 as of our own officers, by establishing a rate of interest which 
 may be easily calculated by every person who can add up 
 numbers. By so doing, too, the Treasury-bills will be much 
 better calculated for a medium of exchange. 
 
 " 3rdly. To enhance the value of the Treasury-bills at pre- 
 sent outstanding, as well as of other Government securities 
 generally. 
 
 " 4thly. By issuing the Treasury-bills in smaller sums, and 
 at a lower rate of interest, I wish to familiarise the public, by 
 degrees, to a paper or bank currency. 
 
 " In justification of the proposed measure, I think it neces- 
 sary to observe: 
 
 " 1st. That I understand the Treasury-bills are at present in 
 great demand, and that they are not to be procured always 
 even at par. 
 
 " That as long as these bills circulate at par they are obviously 
 of great use in this settlement, inasmuch as they increase the 
 circulating medium. 
 
 " That I have every reason to believe their value will increase 
 rather than diminish, the amount outstanding being much re- 
 duced of late, and the expected issues being inconsiderable. 
 
 " Indeed, I think it probable that, by the end of February, 
 none of the Treasury-bills at present outstanding will remain in 
 the market. 
 
 " Should any objections occur to you, I shall be much obliged 
 by your communicating them to me, as I do not propose to 
 recommend the measure hastily." 
 
 The measure, received as it was with entire satis- 
 faction hy the principal members of the mercantile 
 community, was supported by Mr. Barlow and sane- 
 
NEW LOANS. 115 
 
 tioned with approbation by the Governor-General, to 
 whom it was submitted.* 
 
 The interest on these bills, which before the close 
 of the year were "obtainable with difficulty by 
 persons desirous of purchasing them," was again re- 
 duced from 10 and a fraction per cent, to 9 and a 
 fraction per cent., and the twelve-per-cent. loan was 
 closed in the course of November, t 
 
 But it was obvious, that whilst the revenues of 
 India could not be made to pay the expenses of its 
 government, the further borrowing of money would, 
 under any circumstances, have been a necessity im- 
 posed upon us by the exigencies of our position. 
 But the necessity was in this case not so calamitous 
 as, considering that the great object of our pecuniary 
 operations at this time, after providing for present 
 
 * " I have the honor," wrote Mr. Barlow to Lord Wellesley, " to enclose 
 a copy of a letter written by Mr. Tucker to several of the principal mer- 
 cantile houses, under date the 16th inst. (Sept., 1801). The gentlemen to 
 whom the letter is addressed, and others who have been consulted on the 
 subject, entirely approve of the measure suggested by Mr. Tucker ; and he is 
 very desirous that your Lordship's sanction should be received for carrying it 
 into effect immediately. It appears to me to be in every respect advisable." 
 Upon this Lord Wellesley wrote: " I entirely approve the measure, and I re- 
 quest you to carry it into effect immediately. As it is an important measure 
 of finance, you should state on record that it is adopted with my concurrence." 
 IMS. Records.] 
 
 f See letter of Lord Wellesley to Secret Committee, October 16, 1801 : 
 " Public credit gradually improved, and at the end of September last the 
 Treasury-bills not only circulated at par, but were obtained with difficulty 
 by persons desirous of purchasing them. This favorable change in the 
 state of public credit induced the Accountant-General to suggest the closing 
 of the twelve-per-cent. loan on the 2nd of November next; and also to recom- 
 mend the reduction of the interests on the Treasury -bills from 12 per cent, to 
 9 rupees 2 annas per cent, per annum. The propositions of the Accountant- 
 General having been previously referred to the Governor- General, the Vice- 
 President in Council, with his Excellency's sanction, adopted the recommen- 
 dation of the Accountant-General." 
 
 i 2 
 
116 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 emergencies, was to establish the confidence of the 
 community in the financial stability of the Govern- 
 ment, it might reasonably appear to be. An im- 
 pression was gaining ground that the prosperity of 
 the Company was such that the public debt was 
 about to be gradually discharged. At such a time, 
 therefore, the opening of a new loan might have 
 seemed to be peculiarly inappropriate ; but the Ac- 
 countant-General looked at the matter in another 
 light, and thus explained the circumstances of the 
 case in a letter to Mr. Barlow, who was then Presi- 
 dent in Council : 
 
 11 TO THE HONORABLE G. H. BARLOW. 
 
 " 13th of February, 1802. 
 
 " DEAR MR. BARLOW, I have the pleasure of sending you 
 the draft of the advertisement. 
 
 "I should have mentioned one possible ill effect of the loan. 
 
 " The rapid fall of the discount is perhaps in a great degree 
 to be ascribed to an opinion which I believe now prevails, that 
 means will be found for the gradual discharge of the public 
 debt. Now the opening of a new loan may appear such an in- 
 consistency as to destroy this illusion (if it be an illusion) al- 
 together; for the public will very naturally ask, ' Why should 
 the Government negotiate new loans, if they really have any 
 prospect of being able to pay off the old ones ?' 
 
 " On the other hand, it may be expected to occur to them 
 (for it is pretty nearly the real state of the case), that we are 
 borrowing at a lower rate of interest to pay off heavier incum- 
 brances ; and as far as this idea obtains, it ought to have a good 
 effect, for this is one way of obtaining the means of paying off 
 our debt. 
 
 " At all events, the illusion (if it be such) must be destroyed 
 sooner or later, unless we can suppose that the Court of Directors 
 will send out to Bengal in the ensuing year 1802-3 about 
 
THE NEW LOAN. 117 
 
 80,00,000 rupees, and in 1803-4 about 1,50,00,000; and I 
 confess I am not quite sanguine enough, to entertain such an 
 expectation. These sums are the estimated deficiency of the 
 two years, including debt to be paid off'; and if the amount be 
 not supplied from England, it must be raised here by means of 
 new loans. 
 
 " Allowing for the receipt of a moderate supply of bullion 
 from England in 1802-3 (say thirty or forty lakhs, which I 
 think they are likely to send), it certainly might be practicable 
 to get through that year without a new loan by extending the 
 issue of Treasury-bills ; but I confess I do not feel much disposi- 
 tion myself to make this experiment, and we should, perhaps, 
 lose the opportunity of transferring the twelve-per-cent. loan, 
 which must be very embarrassing to us in 1803-4 if it be not 
 previously disposed of. 
 
 " To avoid any appearance of empressement, it occurs to me 
 on reflection that it will be better to postpone the publication 
 of the advertisement till Thursday next. This delay cannot 
 make much difference, and it will allow you time to give the 
 measure any further consideration which may be necessary. 
 
 " I am, &c., &c., 
 (Signed) " H. Sx.G. TUCKER." 
 
 Five days afterwards the advertisement for the 
 new eight -per -cent, loan was published in the 
 Gazette. It produced about seventy-five lakhs of 
 rupees. " The loan has succeeded indifferently 
 well," wrote Mr. Tucker to Mr. Lumsden, the Chief 
 Secretary, in the following July, " although not so 
 well as I had expected, and certainly not so well as it 
 would have succeeded, if various contingent circum- 
 stances had not reduced our Treasury to a very low 
 state.* The subscriptions of which we have an account 
 
 * In another letter to Mr. Lumsden these circumstances are glanced at, 
 
118 LIFE OF H. ST.a. TUCKER. 
 
 amount to seventy lakhs, and when the remaining 
 accounts come in, the total subscription will, I think, 
 be about seventy-five lakhs. Our credit continues 
 good, notwithstanding the poverty of our Treasury." 
 I must refrain from entering into these financial 
 details with a minuteness which might weary the 
 reader. It is enough that it should be shown how 
 in these years, 1801 and 1802, the efforts of Mr. 
 Tucker, sanctioned and supported as they were by 
 Mr. Barlow and Lord Wellesley, were attended with 
 results which needed only the continuance of peace 
 to render them permanently beneficial to the coun- 
 try. Public credit was then first established ; the 
 rate of interest on public securities was then first 
 reduced. The exchanges were so regulated as to 
 save to the State the ruinous brokerage of the 
 native shroffs and bankers, and the premium on 
 silver extorted by these capitalists was no longer 
 paid, for our own treasuries were well supplied. In- 
 deed, before the middle of 1802, the Accountant- 
 General was able to furnish it to the Calcutta mer- 
 
 and the difficulties with which Mr. Tucker had to contend briefly described. 
 " The loan has succeeded, but not to the full extent which I had expected, 
 owing to circumstances which I have already explained to you. The Amboyna 
 and the Madras bills were the principal cause of my embarrassment, and the 
 low state of the Treasury I have every reason to believe prevented the natives 
 from subscribing. In consequence of my being obliged to issue so many 
 Treasury-bills, the whole of the Salt Revenue has been paid in these bills. In 
 the present month I have not, I believe, received 10,000 rupees in cash out of 
 100 lakhs. I have also been most unexpectedly disappointed in some revenue 
 remittances, which will prevent me from making any immediate advances for 
 the investment at the factories in the neighbourhood of the Presidency, and 
 which may even prevent me from paying the military at the appointed time. 
 I have, however, taken every possible precaution to escape such a con- 
 tingency," 
 
IMPROVEMENT OF THE FINANCES. 119 
 
 chants. * And funds were provided for an Investment 
 to the extent of eighty or ninety lakhs of rupees, f 
 
 By Lord Wellesley this vast improvement in the 
 financial condition of the country was regarded with 
 the liveliest satisfaction. " I sincerely congratulate 
 you," he wrote, on the 7th of June, to the Chairman 
 of the Court of Directors, " on the improved state of 
 
 your finances It will be a satisfaction 
 
 to you to receive from me, in addition to the pledge 
 of my public character, this private assurance that 
 the finances of the Company in India are now in a 
 most flourishing state that they will further im- 
 prove not only with rapidity, but on such a durable 
 basis as to ensure the success of a comprehensive 
 plan for the reduction of the debt and that the 
 more minute and detailed any investigation of the 
 
 * See letter of Mr. Tucker (June 6, 1802) to Messrs. Fairlie and Co., 
 Colvin and Co., Cockerell and Co., &c., &c. " As I understand that within a 
 few days a high batta has been exacted on gold rnohurs, I propose that you 
 send any gold which you may have to-morrow to the general Treasury, where 
 it will be exchanged for silver to the extent at least of 25,000 rupees from 
 each house." 
 
 f On the 8th of July Mr. Tucker wrote to the Chief Secretary, Mr. Lurns- 
 den: "We had actually advanced on the 30th of June about forty lakhs for 
 the investment, and I hope we shall be able to advance forty lakhs more in 
 time for the ships of the present season. Next year his Lordship may, I 
 think, with safety promise a full investment both from Bengal and Madras," 
 And two days afterwards he again wrote, in reply to a letter from Mr. Lums- 
 den : '* I never gave any absolute assurance that it would be practicable to 
 provide an investment of ninety lakhs, nor do I now say that it is absolutely 
 impracticable. I am afraid, however, that it will not be possible to provide 
 the funds in proper time. The provision of an investment on this scale de- 
 pended upon several contingencies the early arrival of money from England 
 the practicability of drawing funds from Lucknow, and the success of the 
 loan," Mr. Tucker was of opinion that in calling for so large an investment 
 the resources of the Treasury were injudiciously strained. " If," he wrote, 
 "we begin to run before we are able to walk, it will not be difficult to antici- 
 pate the consequences." 
 
120 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 probable revenues and charges of the Company shall 
 be, the more manifestly will be demonstrated the 
 stability of your credit and the extent and solidity of 
 your resources." On the 5th of August, he wrote to 
 Lord Dartmouth, who then presided at the India 
 Board : " Your Lordship will rejoice with me in the 
 prosperous state of the finances of India exhibited 
 by the accompanying statements ; 1803-4 will cer- 
 tainly prove a year of unexampled prosperity. Every 
 branch of the Revenue promises improvement. The 
 civil charges will not be augmented, and the military 
 charges may possibly be diminished." And, again, 
 a week afterwards he addressed, in the same exulting 
 strain, the Chairman of the Company : " Lord Dart- 
 mouth, at my desire, will give you copies of state- 
 ments of accounts, which will prove to you that the 
 finances in India are already restored. This was the 
 great object of my pursuit ; and I trust it will prove 
 an honorable termination of my government." 
 
 An honorable termination of Lord Wellesley's 
 government it was not. The seed of great events, 
 which were to turn all this prosperity and order 
 into ruin and confusion, had already been sown 
 broad-cast along the North -Western frontier of 
 India. The good work which Mr. Tucker had done 
 was soon to be undone ; for the reign of Peace was 
 at an end. But it seemed to him that already had 
 his mission been so far fulfilled that he might, with- 
 out injury to the State, resign his office, and hand 
 over the charge of the Public Finances to his suc- 
 cessor. 
 
CHANGE OF PROSPECTS. 121 
 
 Eor with the new year had come other plans and 
 projects, and Mr. Tucker bethought himself of 
 taking an important step affecting his whole after- 
 career. " If you knew how much I am harassed at 
 present/' he wrote to his sister on the 2nd of Ee- 
 bruary, " by a variety of business, you would not ex- 
 pect to have a letter to acknowledge from me I 
 must, however, say a word or two, as so very ma- 
 terial a change has of late taken place in my situa- 
 tion and future plans of life. I am sure you expect 
 now to hear that I am going to be married ; but this 
 is not at all the case. I am much further removed 
 from any such contingency than I ever was, per- 
 haps, at any time of my life. I am, however, about 
 to resign my office, and to accept the situation 
 of senior member of a house of business here 
 Cockerell, Trail, Palmer, and Co. The change is not 
 altogether agreeable to me, but I determined upon it 
 principally with a view to enable my friend, Mr. 
 Palmer, to return to England a measure which the 
 state of his health rendered absolutely necessary, and 
 which he could not accomplish by any other means. 
 I gain nothing in point of income ; and the only ad- 
 vantage which the arrangement holds out to me is, 
 the prospect of being admitted a partner into the 
 House at home (Paxtons, Cockerell, and Co.). In this 
 case, I shall probably be enabled to retire to Eng- 
 land three or four years hence never more to return 
 to this detested country. In the mean time, I must 
 be content to give up the idea of paying you a visit 
 next year, and this to me is the most unpleasant 
 
122 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 consequence of the arrangement. I had so long flat- 
 tered myself with the idea of a thousand gratifications 
 from this visit, that I cannot abandon it without a 
 very painful sensation I must, however, submit to 
 fate." 
 
 In this passage there is a comprehensive narration 
 of all the circumstances under which Mr. Tucker 
 was induced to declare his intention of retiring from 
 official life and again trying his fortune as a private 
 merchant. But these circumstances are more fully 
 set forth in the correspondence which a short time 
 before had taken place between the Accountant- 
 General and the leading members of Palmer's House. 
 In the following Memorandum, drawn up at the 
 commencement of the year, we see the 
 
 " Conditions on which Mr. Tucker would engage to 'become a Metnber 
 of the House of Messrs. CocJcerell, Trail, Palmer, and Co. 
 
 " I would engage to become a member of the House on the 
 1st January next, on either of the following plans: 
 
 " 1st. If Palmer should choose to go home, I would engage to 
 remain in his place for three years, from the 1st January, 1804, 
 provided I were admitted at the same time a member of the 
 House at home. I would not on any consideration remain in 
 the country beyond the term of three years ; and on retiring to 
 the House at home, I should be very well disposed to become 
 au active partner. My only personal motive for forming the 
 connexion here would be, this option of retiring at an early 
 period; for if I were disposed to continue in the Company's 
 service for six or seven years, I must, in the common course of 
 events, acquire an independent fortune on easier terms. 
 
 " 2ndly. If Palmer should not wish to retire next year, I 
 would go home in January next, and would engage to return in 
 
ARRANGEMENTS WITH PALMER AND CO. 123 
 
 two years and a half (or even eighteen months if he wished it), 
 and would continue in the House for five years from the period 
 of my return, or of his retirement. I should expect, however, 
 as in the former case, to become a member of the House at 
 home on his retirement. 
 
 " If I should go home, I should expect no emolument from 
 the House during my absence ; or at least, a very trifling share 
 would satisfy me. 
 
 " I can form no idea of the probable income of a senior member 
 of the House ; but I conclude it cannot be much inferior to the 
 income which I should be likely to receive in the Service, and 
 if it were nearly equal to it, I should be perfectly well satisfied. 
 At all events, there would be no difficulty with me on this 
 head, for my great object is the situation at home. It is almost 
 impossible that I should obtain from the House here, what I 
 may reasonably expect in a few years from the Service. 
 
 " In either case, it would not be necessary to change the firm 
 of the House, nor should I wish it." 
 
 Mr. Palmer was at this time at the mouth of the 
 river seeking such benefit to his health as was to be 
 found in the temporary refreshment of the sea-air. 
 Eager was he to know the result of the negotiations, 
 which he hoped would enable him to re-establish his 
 health and recruit his exhausted energies by a return 
 to his native country. His letters to Mr. Tucker are 
 written under great depression of spirit. They ex- 
 hibit the magnitude of the service which the Ac- 
 countant-General was about to render to his friend : 
 
 " FROM JOHN PALMER, ESQ. 
 
 "Kedgeree, 15th January, 1803. 
 
 " MY DEAR TUCKER, ... I thank you for the trouble 
 you have bestowed on my concerns. I shall patiently await 
 this day's post to learn the result of your conversation with 
 Logan, and which I doubt not will be satisfactory to us both, 
 
LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 or at least to me; for, excepting the state of your health, I do 
 not see a single objection which can be reasonably urged to a 
 connexion with you, and to my retreat. The acquisition will 
 be wholly in favor of the House. . . . Had the idea of 
 retiring not been urged to me, probably I should not have 
 dreamt of it, until sinking under a condition of health and 
 spirits no longer susceptible of any relief from a change ; but 
 in the now state and frame of my mind, I look to it as a man 
 does to Death for Salvation, not desirable or even tolerable in 
 itself, but relatively. I shall never be without care until I am 
 in the bosom of all my children, and the longer this blessing is 
 postponed, the greater will be my infirmities, and the more 
 precarious my chance of recovering from them. I feel a sort 
 of secret horror in every reflection connected with Calcutta; 
 and could I now proceed direct to England, I surely never 
 would revisit it. Still, my dear H., do not imagine that if I 
 am compelled to pass a longer period in Bengal, that I shall 
 not use every rational effort to rouse myself from the species of 
 stupefaction into which I have recently fallen ; and although it 
 may occasionally return upon me, yet I feel that it can only be 
 temporarily and gradually with less force. I have recovered 
 my appetite, and sleep as well as usual, and I cannot be happier 
 than in the tranquillity of my family society. . . . 
 
 " Yours affectionately, 
 
 " J. PALMEK." 
 
 "FROM JOHN PALMER, ESQ. 
 
 "Kedgeree, 16th January, 1803. 
 
 " MY DEAR T., As I purpose moving to Saugor with to- 
 morrow's dawn, I leave a line in acknowledgment of your 
 letter of yesterday. My inference relative to Logan is con- 
 firmed, and I am relieved from considerable uneasiness, or at 
 least suspense, by the arrangement which has been formed. 
 Go I will; but if I cannot bear the thought of parting with 
 my father and family without a pang of the acutest kind, still 
 I hope it may not expose me to a return of any other affliction. 
 I alone know the positive necessity for my departure, and this 
 must support me through the trial I have to make of a 
 
THE CHANGE AND ITS MOTIVES. 125 
 
 premature and painful separation from the dearest interests 
 my heart ever knew. Say all that occurs to you for me to 
 Logan, Binny, and Caulfield. I cannot address either of them 
 immediately. It is superfluous to say much to you. I know 
 your heart sufficiently to be satisfied of the generosity of your 
 proceedings; and in leaving everything to you, I was in fact 
 taking a more effectual care of my own interests (which, how- 
 ever, have never occupied my thoughts) than I could myself. 
 
 " I am not so well to-day. I had, indeed, a very indifferent 
 night's rest or rather none at all, and my spirits have possibly 
 been exhausted by my letters to England. . . . 
 
 " Yours affectionately, 
 
 " J. PALMER." 
 
 What were the negotiations with his partners to 
 which reference is made in these passages, and what 
 was the result, may be gathered from the following 
 correspondence. It appears to me to he very honor- 
 able to all parties concerned. It indicates the libe- 
 rality with which, on both sides, the partnership was 
 entered into the desire of the old members of the 
 House to render the terms of the association advan- 
 tageous to Mr. Tucker, and his reluctance to avail 
 himself of the full advantages of the terms offered by 
 his friends. His first wish was to render a service 
 to Mr. Palmer, with whom he had been connected in 
 business some years before, and in closest friendship 
 ever since. Beyond this he looked only to the pros- 
 pect of a speedier return to England, and to the re- 
 newal of his intercourse with the members of his 
 family. His affection for them had been continually 
 testified by acts of substantial kindness, and his 
 heart had never ceased to yearn for the pleasure of 
 listening to their dear voices again. He sought for 
 
126 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 no immediate gain for no accession of income. The 
 rules of the Service were not in those days as strin- 
 gent as they have since been rendered by wise provi- 
 sions of the Government. In the opinion, perhaps, 
 of those who are acquainted only with the present 
 order of things, nothing stranger will be found in this 
 biography than the record of the fact, that Mr. 
 Tucker was at the same time Accountant- General and 
 a leading member of a House of Business. In this 
 two-fold capacity he remained for about a year. I 
 shall enter, presently, with more fulness of detail 
 into the circumstances of this combination. It is 
 expedient, however, to preface such remarks with 
 the correspondence to which allusion has been 
 made : 
 
 " FROM WM. LOGAN, ESQ. 
 
 " 14th January, 1803. 
 
 " DEAR TUCKER, I had every desire to write you yesterday 
 according to my promise, but could not accomplish it. 
 
 " You may be aware, that in concerns of such magnitude there 
 must be many points requiring further discussion; but I readily 
 agree in opinion with Palmer that you are eminently qualified, 
 beyond any person within my knowledge, to supply his place; 
 and with every consideration I have yet given the subject, 
 there is no hesitation on my part in offering an opinion that an 
 arrangement may be effected, by reductions from the shares of 
 some of the partners, by which you might be assured the sum 
 mentioned by you as requisite to induce the change, inde- 
 pendent of any other motives that may operate with you. In- 
 deed, I should hope a considerable addition may be made to it, 
 as far as I can judge of the advantages expected to result from 
 the late junction of our establishments, and which are more 
 likely to increase than diminish. You have many objects for 
 your own consideration, and will naturally do so. With re- 
 
CORRESPONDENCE WITH MR. LOGAN. 127 
 
 gard to any future introduction to the business of the London 
 House, I could only offer an opinion. 
 
 " I regret much that the period fixed by us for our intended 
 return to England should be the same; but many alterations 
 may take place during that time. For my part, I apprehend 
 that a residence here already of twenty years, and continued 
 application to business, with a constancy seldom equalled during 
 that time, will render my return, about the end of three years 
 more, so desirable as not to be avoided, but under the most 
 pressing and serious considerations. 
 
 " Binny and Caulfield have perused, and approve of this. 
 
 " Yours sincerely, 
 
 " WM. LOGAN." 
 
 " FROM H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 " DEAR LOGAN, Your note is very flattering to me, and as 
 far as my interests and situation are adverted to, it holds out a 
 prospect of more than I am disposed either to stipulate for or 
 to receive. I have stated to you and Palmer distinctly that I 
 shall be content to receive an income equal to the income of 
 my present office that I will remain here for three or four 
 years (barring accidents), or until Palmer can return, or until 
 you can form some better arrangement in concert with the 
 partners at home. The quantum of income is not my great 
 object. My immediate object is to enable Palmer to leave 
 the country; and my more remote view is to obtain an intro- 
 duction into the House at home. I do not, however, pretend 
 to require any engagement on the part of the House here on 
 this subject, because it is evident that they cannot make such 
 an engagement. I leave it to future contingencies, reserving 
 only the claim which my situation in the House may be sup- 
 posed to give me upon any subsequent arrangement. 
 
 " With respect to Palmer, he, I am persuaded, will be satisfied 
 with anything which you can propose; or if he object at all, it 
 would be to an arrangement in which every sacrifice might not 
 be made by himself exclusively. This disposition on his part 
 will, however, be resisted, I hope. 
 
128 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKEIl. 
 
 ' ' Under other circumstances, if I engaged at all in a concern 
 of such magnitude (which I should be little disposed to do), I 
 should undoubtedly deem it necessary to give the subject a 
 very serious consideration, and to make much previous inquiry ; 
 but in the present instance I rely on the characters of those 
 with whom I offer to connect myself; and I feel so august a 
 necessity for immediate decision, that a more deliberate pro- 
 ceeding is in some measure precluded. With respect to what 
 I relinquish, and other personal considerations, I have already 
 made up my mind on grounds which, with me, are conclusive. 
 
 " In regard to the period of our retiring to England, I should 
 hope that we shall be mutually disposed to consult, as far as 
 possible, the interests and inclinations of each other, as well as 
 the general interests of those connected with us. 
 
 " Although you have not pointed out any specific basis of an 
 arrangement, I should consider everything so far settled as to 
 communicate my intentions immediately to Lord Wellesley, if 
 I were satisfied that an arrangement was practicable, desirable, 
 and personally agreeable to you. If you can give me such an 
 assurance, do so. If we cannot meet on terms perfectly satis- 
 factory to all parties, it certainly cannot be the interest of any 
 that we should meet at all. I myself would not form such a 
 connexion if I thought we should not meet on the most cordial 
 terms ; and I am sure Palmer would not, under any circum- 
 stances, propose or consent to an arrangement which he 
 thought could be objectionable to any individual concerned. 
 
 " Yours sincerely, 
 
 " H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 "William Logan, Esq." 
 
 " FROM H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 "January 15, 1803. 
 
 "DEAR CAULFIELD, In order to remove all doubts from 
 Logan's mind, you may, if you think proper, declare" to him 
 on my part, that it was never my intention or wish to inter- 
 fere with the arrangement subsisting between Palmer and 
 himself. Until some more permanent arrangement can be 
 
CORRESPONDENCE WITH MR. LOGAN. 129 
 
 adopted, I shall consider Palmer in the situation of the head 
 resident partner; and as such, he is of course at liberty to 
 assign the emoluments of his situation to any person he pleases. 
 It is a matter of private accommodation in which I have no 
 concern ; and I repeat, that I have no wish whatever to disturb 
 the present order of things, as explained to me by Palmer. 
 
 " If, after this explanation from me, Logan should find any 
 difficulty in making an explicit declaration of his sentiments, I 
 shall consider everything at an end between us, and shall im- 
 mediately write to Palmer, recommending him to adopt one 
 or other of the following alternatives. 
 
 " To go home this season, leaving Logan at the head of the 
 House, and me, in concert with some other friends, to attend 
 to his private interests and concerns: or, 
 
 " To allow us to take a passage for him to Bombay, or other 
 distant port, adopting such measures as may appear to him 
 expedient (by communicating with the partners at home, or 
 otherwise), preparatory to his going home in the ensuing 
 season. 
 
 " I should have given Logan a more particular explanation in 
 my note of yesterday, had I conceived it possible that he could 
 suspect an intention on my part to interfere with his emolu- 
 ments, when I expressly declared that I was content to receive 
 the same limited income which I now enjoy in the Company's 
 service. 
 
 " Yours sincerely, 
 
 " H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 " To J. Caulfield, Esq." 
 
 " FROM WM. LOGAN, ESQ. 
 
 "15th January, 1803. 
 
 ' ; MY DEAR TUCKER, Binny was gone from the office before 
 I received your note of yesterday, but it has since been shown 
 to him and Caulfield, and we agree in thinking the proposed 
 arrangement is not only practicable, but very desirable; and, a? 
 for myself, it is most certainly perfectly agreeable. 
 
 " I pointed out no basis for the arrangement, but, as you wish 
 it, would propose that, on your admission taking place, an allow - 
 
 K 
 
130 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 ance, say of 4000 Sicca rupees per month, be made you to the 
 30th April next, when the accounts and other material objects 
 may be settled; and that afterwards, for the period you mention, 
 under the reservations, and which I wish could also be extended 
 to me, you either draw from the business a certain income, 
 fully equal or rather more than you at present hold, or by 
 partaking of a certain proportion of the profits of the House 
 (say 5-24ths), at your option; the latter proposition would, 
 I trust, be most beneficial to you, and certainly more consistent 
 with my wishes. 
 
 " Yours sincerely, 
 
 " WM. LOGAN. 
 
 " To Henry St.G. Tucker, Esq." 
 
 "FROM H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 " 15th January, 1803. 
 
 "DEAR LOGAN, Your proposal is extremely liberal, and I 
 have only to suggest a slight modification of the terms. 
 
 " I shall probably not be called upon to resign my present 
 situation before the 30th April; and, while I hold it, I neither 
 could nor would receive any income whatever from the House. 
 If I should find it necessary to resign it at an earlier period, 
 I shall be quite content with the income I now enjoy (3448 
 rupees per month, including house-rent and servants). 
 
 " After the 30th April, or my resignation, I shall be perfectly 
 well satisfied with 4-24ths, or the income you propose (4000 
 rupees per month), for the term of my residence in the country, 
 which I would not engage should exceed three, or at the 
 utmost four years, from the present time. I should myself 
 prefer the fixed income; but I consider the alternative a matter 
 of little moment, and I willingly leave it to be determined by 
 the House, 
 
 " I am content that the claims of either or both of us to an 
 introduction into the House in London, should be determined 
 (where alone they can be determined) by the parties interested 
 at home ; and I never had any intention or wish to disturb the 
 arrangement subsisting between Palmer and yourself. On 
 this subject I have made an explicit declaration to Caulfield. 
 
 " Should I find it impracticable to obtain hereafter an esta- 
 
ARRANGEMENT OF TERMS. 131 
 
 blishment in the House in London, I should wish, on returning 
 to England, to retain an interest in the House here for a given 
 term (say, 2-24ths or 3-24ths for three years), because I cannot 
 possibly acquire in so short a period as three or four years such 
 an independence as would enable me to retire altogether. 
 
 " If these terms be satisfactory to Binny, Caulfield, and your- 
 self, let us consider the business settled, as far as my interests 
 are concerned, without further discussion. If it be judged 
 preferable that I should receive a proportion of the profits rather 
 than a fixed income (to which, by-the-by, there may be objec- 
 tions), I will not accept a larger share than 4-24ths, and it will 
 be much more agreeable to me if you proceed at once upon 
 the ground of this determination on my part, for I have com- 
 municated it to Palmer, and I will not, on any account, recede 
 from it. 
 
 "Yours sincerely, 
 
 " H. ST.G. TUCKER." 
 
 "FROM j. CAULFIELD, ESQ. 
 
 " 15th January, 1803. 
 
 " DEAR TUCKER, I am glad Logan's note was satisfactory 
 to you, and have no doubt of an immediate arrangement being 
 the consequence equally so to all of us. With respect to the 
 provisions in the deed, your younger partners receiving an 
 increase on Palmer's departure, I can only observe that was not 
 to take place for three years ; therefore, until the expiration of 
 such period, any intermediate arrangement cannot affect them. 
 Logan's arrangement or proposition will be, as I suppose, 
 thus 
 
 H. Trail . . 3-24 
 
 J. Palmer . 3-24 
 
 H. Tucker . 5-24 
 
 Wm. Logan 5-24 
 
 A. Binny ^ 
 
 J. Caulfield C 8-24 
 
 G. Simpson ) 
 
 and this has my sincere approbation, as being equitable and just. 
 
 " Yours ever truly, 
 
 " J. CAULFIELD." 
 
 K2 
 
132 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 "FROM WM. LOGAN. 
 
 " 15th January, 1803. 
 
 " DEAR TUCKEK, I have received your note of this date 
 with the modification proposed by you, which I readily 
 acquiesce in; but Binny, Caulfield, and myself, still wish that 
 your interest might be 5-24ths of the general advantages of the 
 business, as more proportionate to the situation you will hold 
 in the establishment; and with the option of retaining a pare 
 of it, as stated by you, in the event of your returning to Great 
 Britain, with or without having a participation in the London 
 
 House. 
 
 " Yours sincerely, 
 
 " WM. LOGAN." 
 
 There were many circumstances which rendered 
 the step which Mr. Tucker was now about to take 
 extremely painful to him ; and the most distressing 
 of all was the manifest displeasure of Lord Welles - 
 ley. The Governor- General received his proposal to 
 retire from official life with strong expressions of 
 disapprobation. " Why, Mr. Tucker," he said, " if 
 you throw up your appointment and enter into a 
 commercial connexion, it rests with me to determine 
 whether or not you shall be permitted to remain in 
 the Service." To this Mr. Tucker replied, that he 
 was most unwilling in any way to embarrass the 
 Government, and that if his sudden resignation of 
 the Accountant -Generalship would occasion any 
 public inconvenience, he would cheerfully consent 
 to remain in charge of the Finances until satisfactory 
 arrangements could be made for their transfer to 
 other hands but that he could not recede from the 
 promise which he had made to Mr. Palmer, whose 
 health, perhaps his very life, was at stake. 
 
ARRANGEMENT WITH GOVERNMENT. 133 
 
 The offer was accepted. The compromise was made. 
 It was not easy, in that conjuncture, to find a 
 Finance Minister to fill Mr. Tucker's place. It was 
 arranged, therefore, that he should continue, for a 
 while, to officiate as Accountant-General, whilst 
 acting, at the same time, as senior member of the 
 mercantile house. During fifteen months he con- 
 tinued, with unwearying perseverance, and with a 
 close attention to business, which afforded him little 
 or no time for recreation or exercise, to perform the 
 duties both of his public and private situation, and 
 there was no complaint that the interests of either 
 suffered by the junction. But although Mr. Tucker 
 acted indefatigably in both capacities, he received 
 only the emoluments attached to one office. So 
 long as he was Accountant-General of Bengal he 
 rejected the profits of the commercial partnership. 
 He drew only his official salary. 
 
 These circumstances stand recorded in the public 
 correspondence of the Supreme Government. In a 
 letter to the Court of Directors, dated the 13th of 
 January, 1804, they are thus officially detailed : 
 
 "Dated, 13th January, 1804. 
 
 " The Accountant-General, Mr. Henry St.George Tucker, 
 having lately become a partner in a private house of business 
 in Calcutta, addressed a letter to the Governor-General in 
 Council, explanatory of the terms and circumstances under 
 which he had entered into the partnership, and submitting to 
 the consideration of his Excellency in Council how far, under 
 the particular circumstances attending his present situation, it 
 might be compatible with the rules of the Service for Mr. 
 Tucker to retain the station of Accountant-General. 
 
134 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 " With a view to his continuance in the office of Accountant- 
 General while his services in that station might be required, 
 and in order to obviate as far as possible every objection origi- 
 nating from the circumstance of his having a private interest, 
 which might be supposed to be likely to influence his public 
 conduct, Mr. Tucker had made it a condition of the engage- 
 ment into which he had entered with the House of Messrs. 
 Cockerell, Trail, Palmer, and Co., that he should not receive 
 any share in the profits of the House so long as he should con- 
 tinue to hold the office of Accountant-General. 
 
 " The knowledge and experience of Mr. Tucker in measures 
 of finance, and his strict integrity, had recommended him to 
 the choice of the Governor-General in Council for the office of 
 Accountant-General, and his services in that situation could 
 not immediately be dispensed with, without the most serious 
 public inconvenience, and without certain and immediate in- 
 jury to the public service, and to the highly important measures 
 of finance at that time in progress. Under these considera- 
 tions, and adverting to the conditions on which Mr. Tucker had 
 become a partner in the house of Cockerell and Co., the Go- 
 vernor-General in Council has permitted Mr. Tucker to retain 
 the office of Accountant-General, until the 30th of April next, 
 at which period of time Mr. Tucker is to make his election, 
 either to relinquish his concern in the house of Cockerell and 
 Co., or to resign the office of Accountant-General." 
 
 The year 1803, indeed, was a busy one ; and the 
 duties of the Accountant-Generalship, though the 
 state of the finances had been greatly improved by 
 the good husbandry of the preceding years, were still 
 both difficult and onerous. A war had been com- 
 menced on our North- Western frontier, the end of 
 which it was difficult to foresee. It is not at the 
 commencement of a war that its financial evils are 
 apparent ; and as there was money at this time in 
 the Treasury, and public credit had been established, 
 
FINANCIAL PROSPECTS. 135 
 
 the gigantic embarrassments which at a subsequent 
 period almost overwhelmed the Government were 
 then only in the germ. Still, as money for the 
 movement of our armies was to be found, and an 
 investment on an unusually large scale was to be 
 provided, there was much need for all the fore" 
 thought and sagacity of a skilful Finance Minister. 
 To Mr. Tucker, who had been anticipating, with 
 the deepest interest, the happy results of a season 
 of continued peace, this war-making was a great dis- 
 appointment. But he looked the matter cheerfully 
 in the face, and believed that we should weather the 
 storm. "It is impossible," he wrote to the Chief 
 Secretary, his friend Mr. Lumsden, " to say with 
 any kind of certainty what can be done during a 
 period of actual war ; but if the Government at 
 home perform their promises, and our operations 
 against the Mahrattas, &c., be not attended with 
 any very extraordinary expense, we shall, I hope, 
 hold our ground at the least. Had peace continued 
 only three years longer, with the assistance proposed 
 to be furnished from England, we should, I am 
 persuaded, have been able to put the Public Debt 
 into a very manageable state, and to have effected a 
 complete revolution in the rate of interest, &c., &c." 
 And again, a little later, writing to the same excel- 
 lent public servant, he said : " If in the face of a 
 war both in India and in Europe, it be practicable 
 to provide a full investment to pay off a large debt 
 and to meet a disbursement, such as that of the 
 present month (at least eighty lakhs at the General 
 
136 LIFE OF H. ST.GL TUCKER. 
 
 Treasury alone) if this can be done with so slight 
 a diminution of credit, more will have been done, I 
 think, than might have been expected." 
 
 In another letter, written in October, Mr. Tucker 
 comments forcibly on the difficulties which he had 
 to encounter. " His Lordship," he wrote to Mr. 
 Lumsden, " I believe, is fully aware of the difficulties 
 we have had to surmount, and it will not be a matter 
 of surprise that some little inconvenience should be 
 experienced in particular quarters, as it is not pos- 
 sible to provide equally well on all sides against 
 sudden demands. The demand upon our resources 
 at this moment is far greater than I have ever 
 known it at any former period; and we shall do 
 well if we get over it after a little stumbling. My 
 attention has been principally directed to the army 
 and the General Treasury, for I know that any 
 failure in these quarters might be fatal ; but I have 
 paid every attention in my power to the other parts 
 of service. The state of every treasury in the 
 country is constantly before my eyes, and if any 
 particular treasury be not supplied, it is because 
 the means are actually wanting." 
 
 In the following letter are briefly sketched Mr. 
 Tucker's arrangements for the financial supply of 
 the army in the field, which, as he said, was one of 
 the two main objects of his thoughts :* 
 
 * Of the other the paramount necessity of keeping the General Treasury 
 \vell supplied Mr. Tucker has descanted in a paper of Instructions, which he 
 drew up for his successor, and in which he says: " It is particularly neces- 
 sary to keep the General Treasury well supplied, for here our credit takes its 
 character. This should be done although the public service may suffer in 
 
SUPPLY OF THE ARMY. 137 
 
 " TO J. LUMSDEN, ESQ. 
 
 " 16th August, 1803. 
 
 " MY DEAR SIR, It would be advisable, I think, to col- 
 lect as large a sum as possible in the first instance at Head- 
 quarters, and after the army moves, the Commander-in-Chief 
 should be authorised to draw on the different treasuries, and to 
 order the collectors, if necessary, to remit in specie. The 
 bankers being all established at Lucknow, the Commander-in- 
 Chief will probably find it more easy to negotiate bills on that 
 treasury, and the Resident may, indeed, be enabled to make 
 an arrangement with the bankers for the supply of the army. 
 Colonel Scott is quite a man of business, and I do not know 
 any person to whom an arrangement of the kind could be so 
 safely entrusted. In the mean time, the collectors of Moradabad 
 and Bareilly should be directed to remit their unappropriated 
 balance immediately to Lucknow or Khanpore, either by bills 
 or in specie, as one or other of these remittances may be the 
 more advantageous. We have funds at these stations, and they 
 are, I presume, out of the way of the probable movement of 
 the army. I had intended to direct the collectors to remit, but 
 an order from Government may have more effect. I cannot 
 tell what the expenses of the army are likely to be, but I am 
 afraid we shall be much at a loss for funds during the ensuing 
 three months. 
 
 " The Commander-in-Chief may be authorised to draw on 
 the Presidency, provided he can obtain 102 or 101 Lucknow 
 rupees per Company's Calcutta Sicca rupees. 
 
 " Yours very sincerely, 
 
 " H. ST.G. TUCKER." 
 
 But whilst all these arrangements were being 
 carried out, under Mr. Tucker's presiding control, 
 
 consequence, in other quarters. It is a vital part, and any accident here is 
 fatal. A failure at the provincial treasuries has no consequences. It is not 
 regarded, and everything may be set right again without any derangement 
 being produced. The supply of the General Treasury, I repeat, is the very 
 first object to be attended to." 
 
138 LIFE OP H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 for the supply of the army on the banks of the 
 Jumna, on the banks of the Hooghly the Ac- 
 countant- General was providing funds for an in- 
 vestment on a large scale, and at the same time 
 paying off old debts, the interest of which had long 
 been a serious incumbrance. To sum up the finan- 
 cial history of the year, in the words of a cotem- 
 porary memorandum : 
 
 " A supply to an unprecedented extent was fur- 
 nished from Bengal to the Presidencies of Port St. 
 George and Bombay. An investment on the highest 
 standard was provided. A debt, bearing an interest 
 of 12 per cent, per annum, to the amount of 
 60,00,000 rupees, was punctually discharged; and 
 the funds required for these various services were 
 raised at a very reduced and moderate rate of 
 interest. 
 
 " Of the amount raised within the year, the sum. 
 of Sicca rupees 1,58,65,500 was borrowed at an 
 interest of less than 8 per cent, per annum; and 
 a supply, to the extent of Sicca rupees 45,31,700, 
 was obtained by the issue of Treasury-bills, bearing 
 an interest of less than 7 per cent, per annum, a 
 rate of interest almost unknown in India. Nor 
 should it be forgotten that this was accomplished 
 not only while the existence of war with a for- 
 midable European Power rendered it necessary to 
 maintain the military establishments throughout 
 British India on an enlarged and expensive scale, 
 but while the most extensive military operations 
 were carrying on in various quarters of Hindostan, 
 
FINANCIAL MEASURES. 139 
 
 against the principal chieftains of the Mahratta 
 Empire. Although the existence of war, and other 
 circumstances, have necessarily caused a large ad- 
 dition to he made to the Puhlic Deht in India, and 
 particularly at the Presidency of Port William, from 
 whence the deficiencies of the subordinate Govern- 
 ments are supplied the charge of the deht at this 
 Presidency has scarcely increased in any perceptible 
 degree during the last three years the loans made 
 by the Supreme Government during that period 
 having been raised, not only for the immediate 
 supply of the public service, but also with the 
 express view of discharging debts bearing a higher 
 rate of interest. Had not an essential change been 
 effected in the administration of Finance, the debt 
 of the Honorable Company in India would at this 
 moment have far exceeded its present amount, and 
 would have borne an annual interest greatly exceed- 
 ing the proportion which this charge at present 
 bears to the capital of the debt." 
 
 And that these good results were attributable not 
 to accidental causes, but to skilful management, is 
 plainly demonstrable. In an official paper written 
 in 1803, with immediate reference to the financial 
 affairs of Bombay, Mr. Tucker says : 
 
 " The reduction of the rate of interest here has certainly 
 not been accomplished, nor has it been in any manner facilitated 
 by stagnation of trade. I do not believe, indeed, that the com- 
 merce of Calcutta was ever more extensive or more active than 
 it is at present. Vast numbers of Portuguese and American 
 ships have imported here this year, and are now about to sail 
 with full cargoes ; and an unusual quantity of tonnage will also 
 
140 LIFE OF H. ST. a. TUCKER. 
 
 be required by individuals for consignments to London. Some 
 judgment may be formed of the extent of the trade, from the 
 business of the House of which I am a member. We shall ship 
 at least 1000 tons of goods for London this season, after having 
 effected very large sales here ; and we should have had occasion 
 to ship a still larger quantity, if the indigo crops had not been 
 so unfavorable in the Western Provinces, and the late accounts 
 from England had not discouraged the consignment of all the 
 coarser assortments of piece goods, and particularly those of 
 Oude, to the London market 
 
 " Witli respect to the comparative opulence, the immense 
 capital, and flourishing condition of Bengal (all which, I am 
 happy to say, may be fully admitted), I must observe, that if 
 our present financial prosperity is to be ascribed solely to our 
 capital and to our territorial resources, that capital and those 
 resources must have been generated in the course of the last 
 two or three years; because within that period we have ex- 
 perienced as great distress here as is at present experienced 
 at Bombay. Less than three years ago, our twelve-per-cent. 
 Treasury-bills were at a discount of from three to four per cent. ; 
 and the whole of our paper was much more depreciated in 
 value than the paper of the Bombay Government is at present. 
 At that time, we heard constantly of the poverty and distress 
 of the Government; the want of commercial credit, &c. &c. ; 
 and what was the sign of this distress ? The Government were 
 issuing immense sums in Treasury-bills, bearing an interest of 
 twelve per cent, per annum; and individuals were burdened 
 with these bills, which they could not dispose of, but at a very 
 great loss. 
 
 " Now we hear of the riches of the country, the prosperity 
 of the Government, and of the credit of individuals ; and what 
 are the tokens of this favorable state of things? The Govern- 
 ment are obliged to issue immense sums in Treasury-bills, 
 and every person has his hands full of them . Is it not some- 
 what extraordinary that the same thing should in one instance 
 be the sign of poverty and distress ; and in the other, the 
 symptom and the source of opulence and prosperity ? I do 
 
PROFITABLE RESULTS. 141 
 
 not believe that there is a larger amount of specie in Calcutta 
 at present than there was three years ago; and if the capital 
 of the country has increased (which it has, no doubt), the 
 public debt has increased also. The Company have a greater 
 surplus revenue in India; but they have not a greater dis- 
 posable surplus in Bengal; because there is so large a debt to 
 be paid off this year, and we have so large a supply to furnish 
 the other Presidencies, in consequence of their finding it im- 
 practicable to borrow; that the resources of Bengal are as 
 inadequate this year to the demands upon them as they perhaps 
 have ever been at any antecedent period. The great change 
 of circumstances is that the public have now confidence in the 
 Government; and that ive have obtained a convenient medium of 
 exchange ; and the very debt of the Government, which, if un- 
 accompanied by credit, would be the source and sign of general 
 distress, is now what constitutes the capital the wealth and 
 prosperity of the community." 
 
 This was the great work which Mr. Tucker ac- 
 complished during his first tenure of office as Fi- 
 nance Minister. He had created and established 
 Public Credit in India, and he had permanently re- 
 duced the rate of interest paid by the British-Indian 
 Government on the money which it was compelled 
 to borrow. At the commencement of the present 
 century our twelve-per-cent. paper was at a discount; 
 and now, at one-third of that interest, more money 
 is obtainable by Government than it has need of, 
 even in a season of war. And to the great dis- 
 appointment of a public clamorous for such invest- 
 ments, a four-per-cent. loan is unexpectedly closed, 
 because the Treasury is gorged. 
 
142 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Retirement from Official Life Government Testimonial Mr. Tucker's Mer- 
 cantile Life Opinions of his Friends Conduct of Lord Wellesley Ad- 
 miral Bergeret His Friendship with Mr. Tucker Departure of Lord 
 Wellesley Anecdotes of his Staff Thoughts of Home. 
 
 ON the 30th of April, 1804, Mr. Tucker's official 
 and responsible connexion with the public Finances 
 ceased for a time ; and on the following day the 
 Governor- General placed upon record a minute, ac- 
 knowledging, in befitting terms, the great services 
 which had been rendered to the State by the retiring 
 Accountant -General : 
 
 "Fort William, May the 1st, 1804. 
 
 " The Governor-General, in accepting Mr. Tucker's resigna- 
 tion of the office of Accountant-General, considers it to be his 
 duty to record the high sense which he entertains of the great 
 and important public services rendered by Mr. Tucker, in the 
 discharge of the functions of Accountant-General, during a crisis 
 of considerable difficulty, and under circumstances of peculiar 
 anxiety and embarrassment. 
 
 "The person holding the situation of Accountant -General at 
 Fort William, must be considered as the principal officer of finance 
 of the British Government in India, on the present extended 
 scale of this empire. The labor and attention required in the 
 preparation of the intricate and voluminous accounts of the 
 
GOVERNMENT TESTIMONIAL. 143 
 
 Presidency of Bengal, form only one branch of the public duty 
 of that officer. It is the province of the Accountant- General 
 of Bengal to observe with unremitting attention the state of 
 public credit, and of financial management, in every part of the 
 British Asiatic possessions, extending even to the state of affairs 
 at Canton in China ; to ascertain the circumstances by which 
 the general finances of the Company in Asia may at any time 
 be affected ; and to suggest for the consideration of the supreme 
 authority in India, such measures as shall appear to be calcu- 
 lated to improve or to confirm the credit of the public securities 
 of Government, and to correct the administration of the finances 
 at any of the British settlements in India. 
 
 " Mr. Tucker was appointed to the office of Accountant- 
 General in the month of March, 1801; and it is a tribute of 
 justice due to the merit of that valuable public officer, to de- 
 clare that the Governor- General has derived the most useful 
 and able assistance from Mr. Tucker's advice in the arrangement 
 and execution of every important measure of finance adopted 
 since that period of time. 
 
 "The success which has attended those measures has been 
 uniform and extraordinary. During the two last years, the 
 credit of the securities of this Government has been raised 
 to a higher standard than at any period of time since the exist- 
 ence of a public debt in India ; and although a considerable 
 addition has necessarily been made to the amount of the public 
 debt of the Presidency of Fort William, the annual interest of 
 the present debt does not materially exceed the interest payable 
 by Government on the public debt as it stood in the year 
 1801. 
 
 " The Governor- General is satisfied that the highest merit is 
 to be attributed to Mr. Tucker, in carrying into effect the mea- 
 sures adopted by Government for the improvement of the ad- 
 ministration of the finances of the Presidency of Fort William ; 
 and that the prudence, skill, diligence, and judgment manifested 
 by Mr. Tucker in his public capacity as Accountant-General, 
 have proved considerably useful in establishing the public 
 credit of the Company in India on a solid and permanent 
 
LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 basis; the great zeal, industry, and integrity manifested by 
 Mr. Tucker in the performance of his public duty, in every 
 situation, have been uniform and exemplary. The Governor- 
 General, therefore, records with great satisfaction his highest 
 approbation of the merit and services of Mr. Tucker; and he 
 entertains a confident persuasion that Mr. Tucker's services will 
 be duly appreciated by the Honorable the Court of Directors. 
 
 (Signed) " WELLESLEY." 
 
 But although Mr. Tucker then ceased to be offi- 
 cially connected with the Government of India, his 
 opinions were often invited, his advice was often, 
 sought, by public functionaries who knew the value 
 of his counsel ; and he was always ready to impart 
 the benefit of his experience to his successor, and to 
 record his views on great questions of Finance. It 
 was not his fault it was not his successor's fault- 
 that a crisis was fast approaching, when the boasted 
 financial prosperity of the empire was to be exploded 
 into ruin and confusion. 
 
 In the mean while, Mr. Tucker applied himself 
 diligently to the affairs of the great mercantile house 
 of which he had become a member ; and his asso- 
 ciates had good reason to congratulate themselves on 
 the alliance they had formed with so industrious a 
 man of business and so skilful a financier. Prom Mr. 
 Palmer he received many letters, full of the heartiest 
 expressions of gratitude and commendation ; and 
 the hopes which they held out to him of the speedy 
 completion of the arrangement which was to enable 
 him, at an early period, to return to England, were 
 not the least of the solaces of his life. Early in 
 February, 1804, Mr. Palmer, in a letter which he 
 
CORRESPONDENCE WITH JOHN PALMER. 145 
 
 forwarded through the Egyptian Consul, sent as- 
 surances to his friend that the partners of the house 
 at home Messrs. Paxton, Cockerell, and Trail 
 had signed an agreement to the effect that if, on 
 his (Mr. Palmer's) return to Bengal, circumstances 
 should induce Mr. Tucker to proceed to England 
 with the view of continuing his connexion with mer- 
 cantile business, he should be admitted into the 
 English house, in the same position, and with the 
 same share of the business as that which would 
 have been held by Mr. Palmer. And in the follow- 
 ing July, alluding to this arrangement, the latter 
 thus discourses in a long and most affectionate 
 letter to his friend : 
 
 " In regard to yourself, I can only say that, if I may venture 
 to hope for your approbation of my arrangement with P., C., 
 and Co., I shall esteem it the happy means of requiting the 
 sacrifices you are making to your friendship but that, indeed, 
 only partially, and in a very circumscribed degree. Your de- 
 cided conduct in regard to the Service and our establishment in 
 Calcutta, I calculate upon with more certainty than satisfaction, 
 in as far as you are concerned; for I cannot disguise to myself 
 the conviction of your loss by such a decision. And I can 
 only hope that in the career open to you here, your wish to 
 retire speedily will be profitably realised. I trust it will be 
 your own fault if you are not in England in June, 1806; for 
 though I am not so vain as to think I can maintain all the re- 
 lations of the house with that propriety and firm character you 
 do, yet I trust to support its respectability by walking in your 
 course, and adhering to your system. I am determined to re- 
 turn in April or May next, provided I am not ill; and should 
 such an accident prevent my moving, you shall be at liberty to 
 provide for your retreat by taking into the house the man of 
 your choice, even if you shall deem it necessary to place him 
 
146 LIFE OP H. ST.GL TUCKER. 
 
 above the absent partners. The Service would supply several 
 competent men desirous of engaging in sucli a line; but if it 
 did not, I think you could be at no loss among another class of 
 society." 
 
 One or two more passages from the same friendly 
 letter may be given in this place : 
 
 " I have been astonished, in common with everybody here, 
 to see you maintain the Company's credit so highly in a time of 
 war; but after a knowledge of the real condition of their 
 treasury, I ascribe the result to your skill in the black art 
 under the auspices always of the great sorcerer himself. Your 
 recompense, however, will be most surely sought in your own 
 cogitations on the subject; for a different species of illiberality 
 distinguishes and characterises the ruling powers abroad and at 
 home. There you will only forego the reputation of the thing. 
 Here you will suffer the ordinary reward to slip your fingers ; 
 or rather, it will elude your grasp malgre your efforts. To keep 
 up your spirits, however, by illustration against my opinion, I 
 must mention that Fleming's merits have procured him 50,000 
 rupees. 
 
 " I saw Mr. Law twice whilst he was in England, and found 
 him but little changed in appearance, though more in manner. 
 He is more steady. He was too well bred to condemn your 
 association with me ; but I think he disapproved of it. 
 
 . ..." As I went to town expressly to attend to your cor- 
 respondence, you will naturally expect me to say something to 
 it. I shall, however, confine myself to a general declaration 
 that the clearness and precision with which every subject was 
 treated the arrangement, method, and order into which you 
 have brought the various concerns of the house, &c., gave 
 great satisfaction, and thoroughly predisposed the house to ad- 
 mire the line of conduct you have chalked out for your side of 
 the world, in regard to your own interests and those of your 
 constituents. I left Trail, therefore, to communicate the con- 
 tents of your letters to me ; and I was highly gratified to find 
 a general sentiment of personal respect towards you, the result 
 
"LEAVING THE SERVICE." 
 
 of their knowledge of your plans and good management; I 
 trust you will not have imposed too severe a labor on yourself, 
 after you shall have relinquished your office ; and that you will 
 get through the remainder of your term of drudgery in it, with- 
 out prejudice to your health 
 
 " I am happy the business increases under your auspices, and 
 doubt not of its further augmentation; and as I am very sure 
 you will seek for the best connexions only, our security and 
 prosperity will necessarily go together. And as you will have 
 got rid of many others of a different complexion, or of a preca- 
 rious nature, before I can get back, I shall trust to maintain 
 the prudence and discretion of the principles you are establish- 
 ing, without pain or trouble to myself or others.' 1 
 
 That such a step as Mr. Tucker had taken should 
 have been diversely regarded by different friends was 
 natural indeed necessary. To view the matter with 
 plain mercantile eyes was one thing to view it with 
 official eyes was another. There were men, indeed, 
 who looked upon it as a blunder, and others who 
 saw it in the light of an offence ; some shaking their 
 heads in sorrow, others resenting it almost in anger. 
 Among the former, it seems, was Mr. Tucker's first 
 and best friend, Thomas Law. Among the latter 
 was Lord Wellesley. Of the worldly wisdom of the 
 act doubts may be fairly expressed. In this case, as 
 it will presently appear, the experiment was not 
 worked out to the result of ultimate success or 
 failure ; but seldom anything but failure has closed 
 upon such experiments. It would be easy to multi- 
 ply instances of men who have abandoned the fairest 
 prospects of official advancement for a life of ob- 
 scurity, poverty, and toil. They have made a fatal 
 mistake, and are to be commiserated ; but they are 
 
 L2 
 
148 LIFE OF H. ST.GL TUCKER. 
 
 not to be condemned. On Mr. Tucker, however. Lord 
 Wellesley was inclined to pass something like con- 
 demnation. The Accountant-General had delivered 
 over the public finances to his successor in a most 
 flourishing condition, and had been officially eulo- 
 gised by the Governor- General himself. But the 
 approbation which descended upon the retiring Fi- 
 nance Minister in his public capacity, did not follow 
 him into private life. The Governor-General marked 
 his sense of Mr. Tucker's withdrawal from official 
 life by ordering his name to be erased from the 
 dinner-list of Government House. 
 
 To Mr. Tucker who was as little of a lackey as 
 any man that ever lived this was probably no very 
 severe visitation. The official stamp was gone from 
 him, and with it his passport to the table of the 
 Governor-General. But to that larger outer circle, 
 who are summoned to the more heterogeneous even- 
 ing gatherings at Government House, he was still 
 admissible if he would go. But he had not a 
 thought of going. If he were not welcome at Court, 
 there was nothing easier than to stay away. And he 
 did stay away, until a circumstance occurred which 
 brought him again as a welcome guest to the table 
 of a man, who had really too much that was noble 
 in his nature to harbour such petty resentments 
 as these. 
 
 It happened that in 1804 there was a French 
 prisoner in Fort William named Bergeret. He was 
 a distinguished naval officer, with a brave heart that 
 never failed him in war, and many very fine quali- 
 
ADMIRAL BERGERET. 149 
 
 ties besides, which made him very loveahle in peace. 
 England's best sailors knew the man. They had 
 tried the temper of his courage in the Western and 
 the Eastern seas, and never found it wanting, though 
 Fortune had turned disastrously against him, and 
 victory was not within his grasp. In 1796, off the 
 Lizzard, he had fought Edward Pellew Lord Ex- 
 mouth. The action is a memorable one in naval 
 annals. Pellew commanded the Indefatigable, Ber- 
 geret the Virginie. The material advantage was on 
 the side of the former, and the French frigate, with 
 her mizen-mast and her main-top-mast shot away, 
 yielded at last to the superior power of her assail- 
 ant.* Respected by all men for his gallantry, but by 
 none more than his captor, of whom for a while he 
 was an honored guest, Bergeret lived for some time 
 amongst us. Sir Sydney Smith was a prisoner at 
 Havre, and the British Government sent the French 
 officer on his parole to endeavor to exchange himself 
 
 * When Bergeret, deeply moved by his misfortune, asked to whom he had 
 struck, and was told, " to Sir Edward Pellew," he exclaimed, " Oh, that is the 
 most fortunate man that ever lived. He takes everything, and now he has taken 
 the finest frigate in France." See " Life of Edward Pellew, Lord Exmouth." 
 The biographer says : " The Virginie was completely riddled. Some of the In- 
 defatigable 's shot had even gone through the sail-room and out at the opposite 
 side of the ship. She had four feet water in her hold, and more than forty of 
 her crew were killed and wounded. Yet she attempted to rake her opponent 
 as she was shooting ahead, and had nearly succeeded in doing so. While the 
 Indefatigable was reeving fresh braces, the other (British) frigates came up, 
 having been enabled to make a shorter distance by the altered course of the 
 combatants during the chase. On their approach, the Virginie fired a lee-gun, 
 and hauled down her light ; and being hailed by the Concorde, replied, * We 
 must surrender, there are too many of you. We strike to the frigate ahead.' 
 A more brave and skilful resistance is scarcely afforded by the annals of the 
 war ; and the officer who thus defends his ship against a very superior force, 
 may challenge more honor than would be claimed by the victor." Vide 
 " Life of Admiral Viscount Exmouth," pp. 127, 128. 
 
150 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 for the English admiral. The exchange was not 
 effected ; Bergeret returned to England ; but when 
 Smith escaped, the British Government, with a 
 liberality that cannot be too highly appreciated, 
 set the Frenchman at liberty without a condition or 
 a stipulation. He was soon, therefore, afloat again. 
 The peace saw him on the deck of a merchant-ship, 
 the Psyche, which had formerly been a national 
 frigate, and which, on the renewal of hostilities, was 
 again fitted out as a ship of war. Then it was that 
 fate brought him into the Eastern seas, again to be 
 made a prisoner, and again to taste the hospitality 
 of his old captors. For some time he cruised about 
 the Bay of Bengal with good success ; but one day 
 in February, 1805, the San Fiorenzo, which had 
 been sent in pursuit of him, came up with the 
 Psyche off Vizagapatam and brought her to action. 
 The conflict, which lasted for three hours and a 
 half, was a gallant one. But the French vessel was 
 no match for her opponent, and the San Fiorenzo, 
 having almost entirely disabled the enemy, hauled 
 off to repair her rigging. When she again presented 
 herself to renew the contest, Bergeret, who had lost 
 more than half his men, and whose vessel was so 
 crippled that it could hardly be worked, struck his 
 colors and surrendered. He was carried, a prisoner, 
 to Calcutta, and confined in the Fort. 
 
 Then was it that he became acquainted with Mr. 
 Tucker. What brought them first together I do 
 not know but I do know why, when they were 
 brought together, they became attached to each 
 
TUCKEE, AND BERaEKET. 151 
 
 other. It was peculiarly a characteristic of the sub- 
 ject of this memoir to commiserate fallen greatness 
 and gallantry in distress. He was above all na- 
 tional prejudice. He was not one in those days to 
 hate a Frenchman, any more than nearly forty years 
 afterwards he hated an Afghan. He knew that 
 Bergeret was a brave and an unfortunate man and 
 that was enough for him. There was sympathy on 
 one side ; there was gratitude on the other ; and 
 there were many points of resemblance between 
 them. So it happened that a close intimacy grew 
 up between the British merchant and the French 
 admiral, and a constant reciprocation of kindness 
 if that can be called reciprocity where all the active 
 benevolence is necessarily on one side. All that 
 Mr. Tucker could do to lighten the sorrows of this 
 brave man's captivity was done by him at this time. 
 His liberality, indeed, was restricted only by the 
 Government orders which compelled Bergeret to 
 reside in the Port. But for this his friend would 
 have made him, as he yearned to do, a cherished 
 inmate of his own house. 
 
 Of Bergeret Lord Wellesley knew nothing. Cir- 
 cumstances had not made him acquainted with the 
 antecedents of his distinguished prisoner. And Mr. 
 Tucker, still believing that he suffered under the 
 displeasure of the Governor-General, did not feel 
 that he was in a position personally to plead the 
 cause of his friend. But one day in the course of 
 conversation on the incidents of the French sailor's 
 eventful life, Bergeret produced a letter from Sir 
 
152 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 Edward Pellew, alluding to their former intercourse, 
 and speaking of the gallantry of his old opponent 
 the commander of the Tirginie. On reading it, Mr. 
 Tucker recommended his friend to show it to the 
 Town-Major. He believed that through this chan- 
 nel its contents would be sure to reach the Go- 
 vernor-General, and he was convinced that Lord 
 "Wellesley would delight in doing honor to a pri- 
 soner of such repute. Nor was he mistaken. The 
 intelligence soon reached Government House, and 
 from it there came an invitation to Bergeret to dine 
 with the Governor- General. A party was invited 
 to do him honor ; and an especial invitation, " to 
 meet his friend the Admiral/'* was sent to Mr. 
 Tucker, by the hands of the captain of the Body- 
 guard. Prom that time the intercourse between 
 Lord Wellesley and his old Finance Minister was 
 resumed but the reign of the former was now fast 
 drawing to a close. 
 
 It was, indeed, soon after the occurrence of the 
 incident I have just narrated, that it fell to Mr. 
 Tucker's lot to communicate to Lord Wellesley the 
 first tidings of the appointment of his successor, 
 It was no uncommon thing, in those days, in India, 
 
 * Admiral Bergeret is still living. He was created a Peer of France under 
 the Orleans Government, but, after the flight of Louis Philippe, sunk (or 
 ascended) again into " Monsieur FAmiral." He still cherishes a most grate- 
 ful recollection of the old kindness of Mr. Tucker, and nothing delights him 
 more than to discourse, in his Parisian home in the Rue de Provence, where 
 the fine old veteran spends the winter of his days, of the benefits which he re- 
 ceived, nearly half a century ago, when a stranger and a captive in a foreign 
 land, from one, the only claim to whose friendly assistance was his gallantry 
 and his misfortunes. 
 
RE-APPOINTMENT OF LOKD CORNWALLIS. 153 
 
 as well as in Europe, for the great mercantile houses 
 to anticipate the Government in the receipt of import- 
 ant intelligence ; and it happened that in the month 
 of May, 1805, two letters were received in Calcutta, 
 by the overland route, announcing the re-appoint- 
 ment of Lord Cornwallis to the Governor-General- 
 ship of India. One of these letters was received by 
 Mr. James Alexander, the other by Mr. Tucker. 
 Both gentlemen determined to keep their informa- 
 tion to themselves ; but a rumor was soon in cir- 
 culation to the effect that overland letters had been 
 received in Calcutta, and Lord Wellesley sent for 
 Mr. Tucker. After holding him in conversation for 
 half an hour, on different topics, especially on 
 finance, the Governor- General exclaimed, " I hear 
 you have received letters from England." Mr. 
 Tucker assented, and Lord "YVellesley asked, "Do 
 they contain any news of importance ?" "Of that," 
 replied Mr. Tucker, " which I suppose has been done 
 at the suggestion of your Lordship the appoint- 
 ment of Lord Cornwallis as your successor." The 
 Governor-General said nothing ; but his looks con- 
 veyed, in a most expressive manner, his full sense 
 of the significance of such an appointment. 
 
 Often, in after- days, was Mr. Tucker wont to 
 speak of his connexion with the Government of 
 Lord "Wellesley and the character of that distin- 
 guished nobleman, varying his discourse with per- 
 sonal anecdotes of his Lordship and his Staff. Some 
 of these he noted down for the amusement of his 
 family ; but there are doubtless beyond that circle 
 
154 LIFE OE H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 some to whom a specimen of these early reminis- 
 cences will be acceptable amidst the grave matters 
 of Finance to which these early chapters are neces- 
 sarily devoted. 
 
 I give the following in Mr. Tucker's own words, 
 under the title which he affixed to it : 
 
 " THE BEAUTIFUL BOOTS. 
 
 ' ' When Lord Wellesley was proceeding to the Western Pro- 
 vinces (I think in 1801), he was received in great state by the 
 Newaub of Moorshedabad. 
 
 " In his Lordship's brilliant suite were to be found the Persian 
 
 translator, Mr. E ; and among many others, an A.D.C., to 
 
 whom the following couplet was applied by a lady on another 
 occasion : 
 
 ' Thus much we may say of our good friend C , 
 
 That his name spells the same both forward and back.' 
 
 u He was of an elegant person: he danced delightfully (and 
 so he does still); and, above all, he was remarkable for the ex- 
 quisite finish of his boots. In truth, he could show a leg with 
 any man. 
 
 " Upon this little hint, our friend E composed an elo- 
 quent epistle from the Newaub to the A.D.C., expatiating in 
 terms of ecstasy on the beauty and elegance of his boots; de- 
 claring that they were fit to adorn the leg of the hero Roostum , 
 or of that other hero, the wonderful Zaal, who was nursed by a 
 Phoenix on the celebrated mountain Ulboorz; imploring the 
 A.D.C. to say in what part of the world such boots were to be 
 found, and whether the universe contained a second pair. 
 
 II The A.D.C. not knowing a word of Persian, flew to his 
 friend, the translator, with a silken khureeta in his hand, and 
 entreating to be made acquainted with its portentous contents. 
 
 "No person could execute the translation better than the 
 author of the original composition; and it was forthwith trans- 
 fused into English, to the infinite delight of the admiring 
 A.D.C. 
 
 " A most respectful and gracious reply was immediately die- 
 
ANECDOTES OF LORD WELLESLEY'S STAFF. 155 
 
 tated. Nothing could exceed the pleasure, the gratitude, and 
 pride of one to whom such a condescension had been shown ; 
 and it would be the business of his life to manifest his devo- 
 tion to his Highness, by laying at his feet, at the earliest pos- 
 sible period, a similar pair of boots ! ! 
 
 " But the course of love does not always run smoothly; and 
 even boots may sometimes encounter a stone. An officious 
 wag dispelled the bright hopes which were beginning to dazzle 
 the eye of the aspiring A.D.C. He was told that strange 
 rumors were abroad that it was surmised he was carrying on 
 a clandestine correspondence with a native Prince, contrary to 
 law that this offence would subject him to the penalty of a 
 praemunire and that the least he had to expect was dismissal 
 from the Service, with or without a court-martial. 
 
 " At this astounding intelligence, he hastened to take counsel 
 
 of his friend E . Many wry faces were made many doubts 
 
 and apprehensions were intimated; but finally, it was agreed 
 that he should throw himself upon the mercy of the Governor- 
 General candidly confess his error, and humbly solicit that it 
 should be overlooked, in consideration of his inexperience and 
 ignorance of the law. A letter was accordingly prepared, 
 couched in the terms proposed; and the contrite A.D.C., with 
 many misgivings, consigned it to his friend, to be presented to 
 Lord Wellesley when he should be found in the most perfect 
 good humor. 
 
 " The amende was gravely, but graciously accepted by his 
 Lordship, who was cognisant of the whole affair, and was, per- 
 haps, the prompter of the plot ; and after a suitable admonition 
 on the virtue of discretion, the happy A.D.C. was once more 
 restored to the favor and smiles of the Governor-General. 
 
 " The moral of all this is, that, when under the influence of 
 some dominant feeling, we become blind to the most transpa- 
 rent absurdities." 
 
 The earlier part of the year 1805 was, to Mr. 
 Tucker, a season of unwearying application to the 
 business of the mercantile house; but his health 
 was not affected by the incessant labor, and his 
 
156 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 spirits were sustained by the thought that his period 
 of exile was drawing to a close. Mr. Palmer had 
 written out to him at the beginning of the year : 
 " I certainly shall enable you to make your election 
 between the Service and the House in twenty months, 
 when I promise myself the felicity of taking you by 
 the hand." Mr. Tucker had made his election. He 
 had determined, on the return of his friend to India, 
 to retire from that country, and to take Mr. Palmer's 
 place in the House of Business at home. His at- 
 tachment to his native country, and the warmth of 
 his domestic affections, had never abated. It was, 
 indeed, the chief solace of his life to think of the 
 prospect before him of joining the family circle from 
 which he had been so suddenly and violently de- 
 tached as a boy, and contributing to the comforts of 
 those dear ones who were not rich in worldly pos- 
 sessions. This latter he had been doing for years. 
 It would be an injustice, not merely to the subject 
 of this memoir, but to the goodness that is in human 
 nature, to withhold all notice of these things. Much 
 has been said and written, in various times and 
 various places, about the selfish luxuriousness of 
 dwellers in the East the drying up of the pure home 
 feeling within them their isolation, their arrogance, 
 their uncharitableness. But hundreds upon hun- 
 dreds have been kept alive in India solely by this 
 good home feeling by the hope of some day rejoin- 
 ing the family circle, and renewing the associations 
 of their childhood. And it would be hard, indeed, to 
 say how many firesides in these British isles are 
 
THOUGHTS OF HOME. 157 
 
 brightened by the kindly generosity of absent sons 
 and brothers, who esteem it their highest privilege 
 to contribute to the comforts of the dear ones they 
 have left behind. There is little truth in the popular 
 belief that the environments of Indian life have a 
 tendency to indurate and ossify the heart. The 
 climate may parch and wither the body, but it does 
 not dry up the well-spring of the affections. If 
 that " history of firesides, " of which the old poet 
 declared the " want," were written, it would not be 
 found that the Indian exile, who leaves it as a boy, 
 perhaps cast out as a reprobate, is the one who has 
 contributed least to the joint-stock of happiness col- 
 lected round the Christmas hearth. 
 
 From Mr. Tucker's private letters, written at this 
 time, may be gathered how much he thought of his 
 friends at home, and how it was the practice of his 
 life to share his Indian earnings with them, though 
 little was the time that he could snatch from his 
 wearisome task-work to give expression to the 
 strength of his affections. " I have been so much 
 
 engaged of late by business, my dearest N ," he 
 
 wrote briefly to his sister in January, 1805, " that I 
 have not been able to pay the least attention to my 
 absent friends; or to any private duty of my own. 
 I never was so harassed in all my life ; but it is now, 
 I hope, pretty well over, and my health has received 
 no prejudice from my hard labor. I write now 
 merely to satisfy you that I am alive and well, for 
 the packets are off, and I have only a few tired 
 moments to dedicate to you. I sent off yester- 
 
158 LIFE OF H. ST.GL TUCKER. 
 
 day a few hasty lines for my father, for my con- 
 science smote me ; but do you make up for all 
 my deficiencies in your letters to him. I slightly 
 suggested the idea of his paying you a visit in 
 England, where we may all perhaps have the satis- 
 faction of meeting. It was done with a view to his 
 gratification, and not to save myself a trip to Ber- 
 muda. I shall see you, please Heaven ! about June 
 twelvemonth, and I shall revisit Bermuda, if I live, 
 at all events. I have been so often disappointed, 
 however, that I scarcely allow myself to contemplate 
 the happiness which I expect to enjoy in seeing once 
 more my friends and country." 
 
 In March he wrote again, full of the solacing idea 
 of his contemplated return to England : " Please 
 Heaven, this time twelvemonth I shall be approach- 
 ing towards old England, where the happiness of 
 seeing you is not one of the last things I look to. 
 Nothing, I hope, is likely to occur to disappoint 
 me now, for I should feel a disappointment most 
 sorely." 
 
 In June he wrote again, still dwelling tenderly 
 upon the same cheering thought, and in reply to 
 some remarks in his correspondent's letters about 
 his self-denying generosity, asking what he could 
 do better with his money than divide it with those 
 he loved: "You have not," he said, "kept me a 
 day in this country, nor will you influence at all my 
 return to it (for return I must). It is my fate to 
 lead an unsettled life, and perhaps I should not be 
 
CHANGE OF PROSPECTS. 159 
 
 more happy if I had the means of retirement. 
 This country, upon the whole, has many advantages ; 
 and as my health is good, it will be no severe 
 punishment to me to return to a respectable situa- 
 tion in it. However, we will talk over all this when 
 we meet a year hence ; and I wish you only to re- 
 collect that you will destroy all the pleasure which I 
 shall otherwise experience from affording you a little 
 assistance, by showing me that it is at all painful to 
 you to receive it. "Why should it be so ? and in 
 what way can I derive more gratification from the 
 use of money ? There are very few ways of spend- 
 ing it from which I ever derived much satisfac- 
 tion." 
 
 But the sustaining hope of the visit to England 
 was not destined to be soon an accomplished fact. 
 These dreams of the Puture, however, are not with- 
 out their uses. To the Indian exile they are life 
 and health; vigor and activity. The seat in the 
 London counting-house was, after all, never to be 
 taken. "When Mr. Tucker announced to Lord Wel- 
 lesley that the honored nobleman, under whose go- 
 vernment he had first served, had been re-appointed 
 to the Governor-Generalship, he little thought how 
 great an influence the appointment would exercise 
 over his whole future life. But so it was. Mr. 
 Tucker had chalked out for himself the unambitious 
 career of an English merchant. But the State had 
 need of his services. A crisis had arisen in the 
 affairs of India, which rendered it necessary that the 
 
160 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 man, who had shown himself to be of all others the 
 most competent to manage her Exchequer, should 
 again actively concern himself with the practicalities 
 of official life. India had need of a Finance Minis- 
 ter in such an hour ; and Henry St.George Tucker 
 was the man. 
 
ARRIVAL OE LORD CORNWALLIS. 161 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Arrival of Lord Cornwallis State of Public Affairs Condition of the Fi- 
 nances Death of Cornwallis Succession of Sir G. Barlow Mr. Tucket 
 re-appointed Accountant- General Financial Measures Their Unpopula- 
 rity Correspondence with Sir G. Barlow and others Financial Results. 
 
 ON the 30th of July, 1805, Lord Cornwallis a 
 second time took the oaths of office, and was pro- 
 claimed Governor- General of India. Long years of 
 hard service in the West and in the East had impaired 
 his robust constitution ; but his prudence, his ex- 
 perience, and his great name were considered alike 
 by the Court of Directors and the King's Ministers 
 more than sufficient to counterbalance the disadvan- 
 tages of age and infirmity. And so the venerable 
 nobleman was called from the retirement of his 
 country seat at Culford, again to take part in the 
 active concerns of public life. Reluctantly he con- 
 sented to take what he himself called the " rash step 
 of returning to India ;" and he went to his grave. 
 
 To the student of Indian history there is nothing 
 more interesting than this epoch nothing in all the 
 annals of British connexion with the East more 
 suggestive of reflection, and provocative of contro- 
 versy, than the incidents which this period embraced. 
 
 M 
 
162 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 Into the consideration of these events, even in the 
 page of deliberate history, something of the old 
 leaven of partisanship, which embittered cotenipo- 
 rary discussion, has been suffered to enter ; and the 
 "Wellesley and Cornwallis schools of politics are still 
 talked of as though it were a necessity that a public 
 writer should belong to the one or the other. I do not 
 myself perceive that the followers of the former 
 nobleman were moved by a " general frenzy for con- 
 quest and victory, 55 or that those of the latter were 
 weakly and pusillanimously regardless of the honor 
 of their country. But I do see that in the autumn 
 of 1805 the affairs of our British-Indian Empire were 
 in such a state, that the course of policy to be pur- 
 sued by its rulers had almost ceased to be matter of 
 choice. The wisdom of the statesman was reduced 
 to foolishness, and the might of the warrior to 
 feebleness, by the stern necessities of an exhausted 
 Treasury. There were great armies in the field, and 
 there were great men eager to lead them to victory ; 
 but the money-bags were in a state of collapse, and to 
 play " the grand game 55 any longer was, in the minds 
 of men not inflamed by the excitement of the con- 
 test, to precipitate ruin, and to steep the country in 
 disgrace. 
 
 It is certain that the crisis was a great one. It is 
 scarcely less certain that the magnitude of the 
 danger was not seen, in all its proportions, by those 
 who, on the actual theatre of war, were dazzled by 
 the brilliancy of the career which opened out before 
 them, and nould see nothing but the disaster and 
 
OPERATIONS IN THE NORTH-WEST. 163 
 
 disgrace of abandoning a policy which had already 
 been pursued so far, and with the consummation of 
 which the honor of the British Government appeared 
 to be so closely inwoven. But on the banks of the 
 Hooghly, Lord "Wellesley had begun to perceive the 
 necessity of exercising a little more caution and for- 
 bearance, and to recognise the truth that measures 
 wise and expedient in themselves, are only wise and 
 expedient so long as there are the means of carry- 
 ing them into execution without engendering evils 
 greater than any they are designed to prevent. And 
 that these were the opinions of his successors stands 
 recorded in their actions no less than in their words. 
 It does not come within the scope of such a work as 
 this to enter into the subject of our political rela- 
 tions in Upper India at this time. It is enough for 
 my present purpose to treat of the great financial 
 question which Lord Cornwallis was now called upon 
 to solve. The British-Indian Government was in a 
 state of absolute bankruptcy. The alarm which was 
 entertained in Leadenhall-street had communicated 
 itself to the Home Ministry, and the new Governor- 
 General was sent out with peremptory instructions 
 at once to curtail the ruinous war- charges which 
 were overburdening the State, whatever might be 
 the result of such retrenchments upon the military 
 and diplomatic operations then in progress in the 
 North-West. 
 
 On the 30th of July, as has been said, Cornwallis 
 took, a second time, the oaths of office. It was, I 
 believe, upon the very same, or on the following 
 
 M 2 
 
LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 day, that he sent for Mr. Tucker, and requested him 
 again to take charge of the Public Finances. The Go- 
 vernor-General, who knew well how the success of 
 the measures, which he was now about to undertake 
 in an hour of extreme peril, depended upon the 
 ability of the Finance Minister who was to shape 
 his plans of reform and to carry out all their details, 
 had taken counsel with the chief functionaries who 
 met him on his arrival, and inquired into the per- 
 sonal agency at his disposal for the execution of the 
 policy on which he had determined. He had known 
 Mr. Tucker during his first tenure of office only as 
 a young but a promising subordinate. During the 
 years, however, of his absence from India, he had 
 taken the liveliest interest in its concerns, and had 
 continually corresponded with one of the ablest 
 officers and readiest writers in the country. From 
 Mr. Barlow he had never ceased to receive detailed 
 accounts of all that had been passing in India ; and 
 he must have been well acquainted with the services 
 which Mr. Tucker had rendered as a financier 
 during the early years of Lord Wellesley's adminis- 
 tration. What he before heard was now repeated 
 what he before believed was now confirmed by the 
 representations of Barlow, Edrnonstone, and Lums- 
 den ;* and he determined, therefore, to endeavor to 
 recall Mr. Tucker to his old place in the financial 
 bureau. 
 
 * Barlow at this time Sir George Barlow, for his distinguished services 
 had earned him a baronetcy was senior Member of Council, Mr. Edm on- 
 stone and Mr. Lumsden were the chief officers of the Secretariat. 
 
THE STATE AND THE " HOUSE." 165 
 
 By no man was Lord Cornwallis more respected 
 and more beloved than by Mr. Tucker. No man 
 saw more clearly than the old Accountant- General 
 that the State had need, in sucji an emergency, 
 of all the administrative capacity it could com- 
 mand and most especially in the department of 
 Finance. But much as, on these accounts, it would 
 have delighted him to return to his old office, he was 
 compelled, at this time, to recognise the cogency of 
 other more immediate claims. He could not, with- 
 out injury to his associates in business, withdraw 
 himself from the mercantile House with which he 
 was connected, and of which his industry and ability 
 had rendered him confessedly the main stay. It 
 was, indeed, his primary duty, under the circum- 
 stances which then surrounded him, to cling to the 
 mercantile friends with whom he had linked himself, 
 whatever might be the allurements which tempted 
 him to return to the service of the State. He was 
 still on the list of Government servants ; but he had 
 made his election to retire. And the pledges which he 
 had made to his associates could not then be violated 
 without injury to the House and without discredit 
 to himself. He could only, indeed, withdraw under 
 a voluntary release from his partners in business, 
 and the assurance that his withdrawal would not be 
 detrimental to the House. 
 
 The flattering offer made to him by Lord Corn- 
 wallis was therefore declined. Whether any advice 
 was elicited from him at this time I do not know, 
 but the course adopted by Lord Cornwallis was that 
 
166 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 of which, had his opinion heen sought, he would have 
 cordially approved. Two days after his arrival, his 
 Lordship addressed a letter to the Court of Directors, 
 in which he said, " I take the earliest opportunity 
 of an overland despatch to inform you of my arrival 
 at this place, and of my having taken upon me 
 the office of Governor- General on the 30th ultimo. 
 Finding, to my great concern, that we are still at 
 war with Holkar, and that we can hardly be said to 
 he at peace with Scindiah, I have determined to 
 proceed immediately to the Upper Provinces, that I 
 may he at hand to avail myself of the interval which 
 the present rainy season must occasion to the mili- 
 tary operations, to endeavor, if it can he done with- 
 out a sacrifice of our honor, to terminate by nego- 
 tiation a contest in which the most brilliant success 
 can afford no solid benefit, and which, if it should 
 continue, must involve us in pecuniary difficulties 
 which we shall hardly be able to surmount." 
 
 In fulfilment of the intentions here expressed, 
 Lord Cornwallis set out immediately upon his 
 journey, by water, to the Upper Provinces of India. 
 On the 9th of August he wrote from his pinnace on 
 the Ganges a more detailed letter to the Court of 
 Directors. " One of the first objects," he wrote, 
 " to which my attention has been directed since my 
 accession to this government, was an inquiry into 
 the state of our Finances, the result of which affords 
 the most discouraging prospects." And then, 
 having enlarged upon the necessity of disbanding 
 the large bodies of Irregular troops, the mainte- 
 
SACRIFICE OF THE INVESTMENT. 167 
 
 nance of which was then costing the State little less 
 than six lakhs of rupees a month, and of paying up 
 the arrears due to the regular forces, he went on 
 to say : "I am necessitated to look to an extraor- 
 dinary resource in this state of things, and that 
 which has presented itself to my mind as the most 
 expedient is the detention of the treasure destined 
 for China, and expected in the ships under the con- 
 voy of Sir Thomas Troubridge. Whether that may 
 be the full extent of 200,000/. advised to be intended 
 for China, or whether a portion of it only is in those 
 ships, I am not informed ; but the urgency of the 
 case is so great here, that I have taken upon myself 
 to direct the whole of what may be imported on 
 that part of the China fleet to be landed at Madras, 
 and to be forwarded immediately to this Presidency ; 
 and I have also strongly urged the Madras Govern- 
 ment, if they find they can spare 50,OOOZ. of the 
 specie allotted for the service of that Presidency, to 
 consign that sum also to Bengal, applying to the 
 Admiral for such protection for the despatch of the 
 treasure as may obviate all risk from the danger of 
 an enemy." The crisis, indeed, was such, that it was 
 necessary to sacrifice the Investment. The imme- 
 diate demand for money utterly overwhelmed the 
 thought of prospective advantage. 
 
 Such were the first measures to which Lord Corn- 
 wallis directed his attention. As he proceeded up 
 the river, however, his health began to decline, and 
 with only some transient intervals of delusive im- 
 provement his malady increased upon him, until at 
 
168 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 Ghazeepore, on the 5th of October, he sunk into 
 rest. Many deplored his return to office, and ques- 
 tioned the wisdom of his measures ; but all beloved 
 and respected him living, and all lamented him 
 dead. 
 
 Sir George Barlow had some time before been 
 appointed provisional Governor-General. He now 
 took the oaths of office. "What Lord Cornwallis had 
 desired, his successor also yearned and strove to 
 accomplish the re-appointment of Mr. Tucker to 
 the Accountant- Generalship of Bengal. It seems that 
 the latter had, some time before, promised Sir George 
 Barlow, that if ever the Governor-Generalship de- 
 volved upon him, he would become his chief Minister 
 of Einance. The new Governor- General was not for- 
 getful of this promise. A change had come over Mr. 
 Tucker's position with regard to the mercantile House 
 of which he was a partner, since he had conceived 
 himself necessitated to decline the flattering invita- 
 tion of Lord Cornwallis. Mr. Palmer was now return- 
 ing to Calcutta, and his arrival was shortly expected. 
 It was now therefore in the power of Mr. Tucker to 
 enter again into official life without injury to his 
 associates. So he consented to take charge of the 
 finances. 
 
 It was with no common feelings of delight that 
 Sir George Barlow welcomed the succor which thus 
 opportunely presented itself to him, at a time when 
 the Government was beset with embarrassments and 
 perplexities from which there seemed to be little 
 hope of extrication. It was not a great military 
 
ACCEPTANCE OF OFFICE. 169 
 
 question it was not a great political question that 
 had now to be solved. It was simply a Financial 
 question. The Financial question had absorbed every 
 other consideration ; and of little service to the State 
 was it at such a time that the military skill of a 
 Lake, and the diplomatic talents of a Malcolm, were 
 continually at its command. What was wanted to 
 save the country in such a juncture, was not a great 
 Soldier, or a great Diplomatist, but a great Financier ; 
 and now the Government had obtained the services 
 of the man they needed, and Sir George Barlow was 
 full of gratitude and joy, which he did not hesitate 
 to express. The letter in which he communicates 
 these sentiments to his friend, is written with a 
 fervor the sincerity of which gleams out of every 
 sentence : 
 
 " SIR G. II. BARLOW TO MR. TUCKER. 
 
 " Saturday. 
 
 " MY DEAR TUCKER, Incessant interruption has prevented 
 me from answering your note. I am at a loss for words to ex- 
 press my sense of this mark of your friendship. Your under- 
 taking again the management of the Finances at this critical 
 period under the circumstances supposed, would be of the 
 greatest importance to the public interests and welfare, and the 
 success which I am confident would attend your exertions 
 would reflect the highest degree of credit on my Government, 
 and constitute its chief support. I therefore accept your offer 
 with joy and gratitude; and only hope that I shall not find you 
 have made too great a sacrifice of your personal interests to 
 your friendship for me. 
 
 " I am persuaded there will be no difficulty with Davis; and 
 I will make any consideration you may think proper to Eger- 
 ton for waiving his claim to the succession, under the promise 
 of it which I obtained from Lord Cornwallis. If you will call 
 
170 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 upon me to-morrow we will settle tlie whole arrangement as 
 you may wish it should be made, if it is to take place. 
 " Believe me to be, with the greatest regard, 
 
 " Yours ever sincerely, 
 
 " G. H. BARLOW." 
 
 The necessary official arrangements were soon 
 completed. There was much good feeling on the one 
 side, and of delicacy on the other. It was settled 
 that Mr. Davis, the retiring Accountant- General, 
 should make up the accounts of the old year, and 
 retain his official designation until his departure for 
 England, which was close at hand. That every con- 
 sideration should he shown to his predecessor, and 
 that Government should especially recognise his 
 services, Mr. Tucker anxiously desired, and emphati- 
 cally requested, whilst Mr. Davis upon his part ex- 
 erted himself to facilitate an arrangement which he 
 knew to he advantageous to the State.* On the 18th 
 of October, Mr. Tucker took charge of the current 
 business of the office, t A week before this, however, 
 
 * " I am to take charge of the current business from Davis to-morrow," 
 he wrote to Mr. Lumsden, on the 17th of October. "He has shown every 
 possible desire to accommodate matters in the most satisfactory manner." In 
 another letter from Mr. Lumsden to Sir George Barlow, the writer says : 
 " Tucker desires me to say, that from what he has already seen he is satisfied 
 that Davis is entitled to very high credit for his general management, that he 
 has shown the most cheerful readiness to come into all his wishes, and that 
 he (Tucker) hopes that you will record a handsome testimony of your sense 
 of Davis's conduct, on the occasion of his resignation of the office of Account- 
 ant-General." 
 
 f It was arranged that Mr. Tucker should covenant to relinquish his con- 
 nexion with the House of business within a month after the arrival of Mr. 
 Palmer, which was then shortly expected. See letter from Mr. Lumsden to 
 Sir G. Barlow (November 2, 1805), in which the writer says : " In consequence 
 of the arrival of your despatches for the Medusa, the meeting of Council in- 
 tended to be held on Thursday was postponed by Mr. Udny till yesterday. 
 Davis's resignation was then ready, and Tucker's appointment to the office of 
 
FINANCIAL MEASURES. 171 
 
 he had fully determined upon the measures which it 
 behoved Government to prosecute in the existing 
 crisis, and had written the following elaborate letter 
 to the Governor-General : 
 
 "FROM MR. TUCKER TO SIR GEORGE BARLOW, BART. 
 
 "llthOct,, 1805. 
 
 "MY DEAR SIR GEORGE, In consequence of Egerton 
 having somewhat prematurely mentioned to Davis your in- 
 tended arrangement for my succession to the office of Ac- 
 countant-General, I thought it necessary to explain to the latter, 
 and found that he had no objection to deliver over charge of 
 the office whenever you might wish it. I thought it advisable, 
 therefore, to inform myself of the state of affairs as soon as 
 possible ; and as a few questions will call for your early atten- 
 tion, I shall briefly advert to them. 
 
 " From a cursory view of the accounts, it would appear that 
 our situation is such as to require the most particular attention. 
 It must be thoroughly probed ; and when fairly exhibited, you 
 will be convinced, I think, that nothing but the most deter- 
 mined resolution, and the most vigorous measures, will extricate 
 us from the greatest embarrassment. Our expenditure of late 
 for military and political purposes has been enormous ; and 
 instead of a surplus revenue, the Indian account proper ex- 
 hibits at present a most lamentable deficiency. The supplies to 
 the other Presidencies, too, and particularly to Bombay, appear 
 to have been on a scale altogether disproportionate to our re- 
 sources. 
 
 " Now, whatever we may hope for from good management, 
 or the influence of public opinion, our prosperity can never be 
 solid or permanent unless it rest upon a substantial foundation, 
 and this foundation must be a solvent account. If we go on 
 upon a scale of expense far exceeding our income, the concern 
 
 Accountant-General has been made. A note will appear in the proceedings, 
 stating that Tucker will relinquish all concern in the House of Trail, Palmer, 
 and Co., at the expiration of a month after the arrival of Mr. Palmer, which 
 may be expected in the course of the present or the ensuing month." 
 
172 LIFE OF H. ST.a. TUCKEK. 
 
 to the Company, as I have before observed to you, must be 
 ruinous, in whatever degree the nation may benefit from our 
 possessions in India. 
 
 " I am persuaded, therefore, that you will see the absolute ne- 
 cessity of making a complete reform in our expenditure, not con- 
 fining it to this Presidency, or stopping at slight reductions, but 
 extending it so far as to bring our annual charge within our 
 annual revenue at the very least. Should peace be happily re- 
 established, I should hope that great reductions might be effected 
 in the military establishments of Fort St. George and Bombay ; 
 and this object cannot too soon or too forcibly be impressed 
 upon the attention of those Governments, and of the Court of 
 Directors. Here, too, I trust further reductions will be found 
 practicable ; and it is of great importance that they should be 
 made at as early a period as possible, consistently with a proper 
 regard for our external and internal security. The magnitude 
 of our military Establishments in the Western Provinces sub- 
 jects us not only to a direct charge to an immense amount, but 
 also to an indirect charge, by compelling us to remit from hence 
 the deficiency upon the account of revenue and charge of those 
 provinces at very great expense. 
 
 "I am apprehensive that the ten-per-cent. loan will not suc- 
 ceed to such an extent as might have been wished, and I regret 
 extremely that the interest was not allowed to have retrospec- 
 tive operation, because it would have furnished a strong addi- 
 tional motive for the transfer of the cash passes and Treasury- 
 bills, and cur object should have been to render the loan as 
 productive as possible, in order that we may not be compelled 
 to recur to any similar expedient at a future period. Had the 
 outstanding passes and a fair proportion of the Treasury-bills 
 been transferred, I should have entertained sanguine hopes of 
 our succeeding very soon in re-establishing the credit of our 
 currency, which is the very first object to be attended to. 
 About 28,00,000 rupees in passes still remain in demand against 
 the Treasury ; and if these be not transferred before the loan 
 closes, which I scarcely now expect, some other means must be 
 do vised to relieve ourselves from them, and nothing occurs to 
 
FINANCIAL MEASURES. 173 
 
 me. at present, but to get them exchanged for bills at a pretty 
 long sight on the provincial treasuries. This is a sort of anti- 
 cipation of our land-revenue ; but still nothing can be done 
 until we get rid of this encumbrance. The Treasury-bills out- 
 standing amount to about 1,14,00^000 rupees ; but I am not 
 alarmed at this sum. 
 
 " It will be advisable, in my opinion, to open an eight-per- 
 cent, loan as soon as possible after the ten-per-cent. loan closes, 
 both for the purpose of supplying the remaining deficiency of 
 the year, and of affording the military in Oude, &c., &c., an 
 opportunity of realising their arrears, a proportion of which 
 they are always glad to remit to the Presidency through the 
 channel of the public loans. I have been reflecting a good 
 deal on the terms which it would be expedient to grant ; and, 
 after the best consideration I have been able yet to give the 
 question, it appears to me that an eight-per-cent. loan at par 
 will be most suitable to existing circumstances. I was disposed 
 to think at first that a loan might be attempted even above par; 
 but, considering our actual situation, I am apprehensive that 
 this would be found too large a stride, and it is moreover ex- 
 tremely desirable to fund a large proportion of the heavy 
 arrears in Oude, for which a loan above par would scarcely 
 afford sufficient inducement. I would keep the loan open but 
 for a short period (say to the 1st February), in order that we 
 may have more time to raise our terms gradually ; and should 
 we succeed in this first step, the next loan, I should hope, 
 might be opened at two per cent, above par. We must do 
 everything possible to raise the eight-per-cents., that we may 
 be able to offer by some subsequent loan next year favorable 
 terms to induce the transfer of the ten-per-cent. debt, amount- 
 ing to a crore of rupees, which becomes payable in January, 
 1807. This debt will otherwise be most embarrassing. 
 
 " With regard to Investment, I can only say that Davis 
 seems to think it will be impossible to furnish further advances 
 this year; and I am much inclined to concur in the opinion, for 
 the first consideration is to emancipate ourselves from a state of 
 absolute bankruptcy, and to re-establish our credit. This done, 
 
LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 we shall have a fair prospect of being able to furnish a proper 
 Investment next year; but if we neglect to attend to this 
 primary consideration, I can perceive no better ground for ex- 
 pecting an Investment next year than we have had in the pre- 
 sent. I understand, however, that some arrangement has been 
 made for disposing of the shipping, founded on a presumption 
 that an Investment to the amount of 80,00,000 rupees may be 
 provided by the month of August next. This appears to me a 
 most extravagant proposition I believe no precedent for any- 
 thing of the kind is to be found in times of our greatest pros- 
 perity ; but to attempt such a violent effort while we are yet in 
 uncertainty whether we are at peace or war, and while our 
 credit is in a state of great depression, would be both impru- 
 dent and fruitless. I do not enter into the consideration of the 
 question, how far it is wise to keep the ships here so long on 
 demurrage on any uncertainty, or how far it is judicious to 
 make a total alteration with respect to the period of sending 
 home the annual Investment, because these are professional 
 questions on which others are better informed But I would 
 not engage to furnish the means of providing this premature 
 Investment, and I would not hold out expectations to the Court 
 of Directors, which may influence their arrangements, when 
 the expectation cannot be indulged upon any solid grounds. 
 
 " This is all which it occurs to me at present to mention on 
 public business. I shall keep you regularly advised of every- 
 thing ; and after my appointment takes place, I shall wait upon 
 Mr. Udny from time to time, and submit to him every mea- 
 sure of importance which it may appear to me necessary to 
 adopt. There is one little matter, however, which concerns 
 myself individually, with which I must trouble you. I could 
 wish to be permitted to occupy the apartments in the office 
 which were heretofore occupied by my predecessors, and which 
 are at present unoccupied. Independently of considerations of 
 economy, comfort, and health (for the situation of the house is 
 particularly favorable), I should experience real convenience 
 from living in my office with my books and papers always 
 about me. I could do business at hours when it might other- 
 
FINANCIAL ARRANGEMENTS. 175 
 
 wise be impracticable those under me would probably be 
 more regular in their attendance when I should be always at 
 hand to overlook them and individuals with whom I might 
 have business would not have to search for me in different 
 places. This was sometimes, I believe, attended with no 
 trifling inconvenience when I had three separate haunts, as I 
 must have still for two or three months. If it be judged ne- 
 cessary to put the house into a state of repair, it can now be 
 done without incurring the expense of hiring another building 
 for the temporary accommodation of the office, as I would give 
 up my own house for the purpose. I am not, however, solicitous 
 myself to have this done immediately, if it be not necessary, as 
 I can always make my own apartments sufficiently comfortable. 
 Nor have I a word more to say with respect to the arrange- 
 ment if it be liable to the slightest objection.* 
 
 " We continue to receive none but the most afflicting 
 accounts of poor Lord Cornwallis; but this distressing subject 
 has been sufficiently long on your mind, and so it has on mine. 
 I shall ever continue to revere his memory as the greatest of 
 public characters and the most excellent of men. 
 
 " Believe me ever, very sincerely, &c., &c., 
 
 " H. ST.G. TUCKER." 
 
 In all cases of pecuniary embarrassment, national 
 or individual, the first step towards extrication must 
 be a correct ascertainment of the debts and liabili- 
 ties for which provision is to be made. It was cer- 
 tain that in Upper India the military expenditure had 
 been enormous, and that the pay of the army was 
 greatly in arrears. What the exact deficiency was, 
 Mr. Tucker set himself at the outset to ascertain; 
 but it will be gathered from the following letter, that 
 correct information on this vital point was with 
 difficulty to be acquired : 
 
 * These arrangements were cheerfully sanctioned by the Governor-General; 
 and Mr. Tucker re-occupied his old official residence. 
 
176 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 " MR. TUCKER TO SIR GEORGE BARLOW. 
 
 " Calcutta, 13th October, 1S05. 
 
 " My DEAR SIR GEORGE, Lumsden favored me this morn- 
 ing with the perusal of your letter to him of the 10th instant, 
 and I hasten to communicate all the little information I can on 
 a subject which must engage your particular attention, 
 
 " One of the first inquiries I made was to ascertain the arrears 
 of the army in the Western Provinces, and they were stated 
 to me, on the latest information obtained at the Accountant- 
 General's office, at 33,00,000 rupees. To meet this and other 
 demands, I learnt from Davis that 37,00,000 had been remitted 
 in specie and bullion. 
 
 Not being satisfied, however, that the arrear was ascertained 
 to a period sufficiently late, I referred again to Egerton yester- 
 day, but have not yet been able to obtain more accurate infor- 
 mation. I have written also to Mr. Mackenzie, and when I 
 can ascertain the probable extent of the demand I shall do 
 everything in my power to provide for it. In the mean time I 
 have sent for one of the principal shroffs, to see if it be possible 
 to effect remittances from hence by Hoondee or otherwise. I 
 have no great hopes of immediate success, but you shall be im- 
 mediately advised if anything can be done. Perhaps the Com- 
 mander-in-Chief or yourself may be able to draw on Moorshe- 
 dabad at or near par, as the purchasers of your bills would be 
 certain of obtaining payment in specie. You could not do so 
 in Calcutta just now without stipulating for payment in specie, 
 because the shroffs Avill certainly demand a difference of ex- 
 change equal at least to the real or expected discount on the 
 Treasury-bills. By drawing on Moorshedabad, you would avoid 
 the necessity of making a stipulation which is calculated to dis- 
 credit the Treasury-bills; and I should do everything in my 
 power to provide funds at that place to meet your bills. 
 
 " It is impossible that we should go on well if we continue 
 so much in the dark with respect to the military disbursements 
 in Oude, &c., for the distance is so great that the arrangements 
 for furnishing the necessary supplies must be made long before 
 they are likely to be required. I have therefore furnished 
 
ACCOUNTS OF THE ARMY. 177 
 
 Lumsden with the form of an estimate, and have suggested 
 that all the paymasters of the army be directed to forward one 
 on the 1st of every month to the Accountant- General direct. 
 If we are to wait for information until it passes through all the 
 processes of the Military Department, we never can depend on 
 receiving it in time. I do not mean to say that the present 
 distress for supplies has proceeded from not knowing our 
 wants, for we have not actually possessed the means of supply- 
 ing them ; but still the information is essential. 
 
 " It occurred to me that some person experienced in accounts 
 (Sherer, for instance) might be of great use, either with you 
 or the Commander-in-Chief ; but I hear that Mr. Nugent has 
 been appointed to superintend the accounts of the army ; and 
 if you will only direct him to keep the Accountant- General 
 regularly informed of the arrears, probable disbursements of the 
 army, &c., &c., every necessary purpose will, I trust, be an- 
 swered. 
 
 "Every possible attention will be paid to the state of 
 Colonel Collins' treasury ; and if means can be devised for 
 supplying it at an early period, I will not fail to let you know. 
 It must, in fact, be considered one of the treasuries of the 
 army. 
 
 " Believe me ever, very sincerely, &c., 
 
 " H. ST.G. TCJCKER. 
 
 " P.S. I find, from Mr. Mackenzie, that he has no account 
 of the military arrears in Oude later than the 31st of July, 
 when they amounted to Sicca rupees 33,00,000, as noted by 
 Egerton (Sonaut rupees 35,00,000). 
 
 "H. T." 
 
 A few days afterwards lie wrote again to the 
 Governor- General, urging upon him, in emphatic 
 language, the necessity of prompt and decisive mea- 
 sures, regardless of all scruples on the score of 
 personal considerations : 
 
 N 
 
178 ;LIEE OP H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 " MR. TUCKER TO SIR GEORGE BARLOW. 
 
 Calcutta, 19th October, 1805. 
 
 " MY DEAR SIR GEORGE, Lumsden will have informed 
 you that Davis readily assented to everything that was pro- 
 posed regarding the future arrangement of the office, and I now 
 attend to the current business, and shall take charge from him 
 regularly, as soon as he can complete the annual accounts of the 
 past year. 
 
 " I have held in mind the necessity of making provision for 
 the supply of the army in the field, and orders have been sent 
 to the collectors of Behar to make a remittance in specie to 
 Cawnpore with all possible expedition. I am in hopes that 
 three or four lakhs may be sent off immediately, and you or the 
 Commander-in-Chief will of course give the necessary orders for 
 the disposal of the money on its arrival at Cawnpore. Much 
 cannot be done at present. I could obtain Hoondees for a few 
 lakhs of rupees on Lucknow, in exchange for bills on our Bengal 
 treasuries; but it will be giving away our only resource here, 
 and I wish, therefore, to wait a little before I adopt this mea- 
 sure. If I find that the money is absolutely necessary for the 
 army, all other objects must give place to this paramount con- 
 sideration . 
 
 "The loan closes to-day; and I fear it will not have suc- 
 ceeded to the extent necessary to relieve us from our embarrass- 
 ments. The amount of Treasury passes outstanding has in- 
 creased within a day or two, instead of being diminished; and 
 to place the Treasury in a solvent state will now be impossible. 
 We have only about seven lakhs of our English money remain- 
 ing to meet demands to a very large amount, independently of 
 a heavy arrear. 
 
 " I have prepared the plan of an eight-per-cent. loan, which 
 I propose to submit to Mr. Udny immediately. I propose that 
 subscriptions should be received at par that the acknowledg- 
 ments should bear an interest of ten per cent, per annum, until 
 they are exchanged for notes and that, in the instance of cash 
 passes and Treasury-bills, interest should be allowed at the same 
 rate (ten per cent.) from their respective dates, instead of the in- 
 
LETTER TO SIR GL BARLOW. 179 
 
 terest which they severally bear at present. The same reasons 
 which induced me to recommend that interest should be allowed 
 retrospectively at ten per cent, on subscriptions to the present 
 loan, apply equally to the proposed loan; and I have some hopes 
 that the difference of interest which will be obtained may 
 operate as an inducement to individuals to transfer their cash 
 passes and Treasury-bills which have been long outstanding. It 
 is very desirable of course to get rid of these, for while the 
 passes hang over us, we can never re-establish our credit, and 
 the old Treasury-bills, as they come in, will be converted in 
 general into these passes. Moreover, the service to be provided 
 for this year is so extensive and urgent, that we must have a 
 productive loan, and every inducement should be held out to 
 render it so. 
 
 "With respect to investment, I am much afraid that it will 
 be quite impossible to furnish any further advances this year. 
 Had the loan taken off nearly the whole of our cash passes, I 
 was in hopes that something further might have been done for 
 the investment ; but we have not only to encounter still a large 
 deficiency here, but we must attend to the supply of the army 
 as an object of the first consideration. 
 
 " As soon as Davis has finished the accounts of last year 
 and the estimate of the present, it is my intention to prepare for 
 you a brief abstract calculated to exhibit our real situation, or 
 the present state of the account proper of India, unconnected 
 with the supplies to or from Great Britain. I fear it will exhi- 
 bit a very discouraging result; but I confidently rely on your 
 exerting every degree of energy to give a different complexion 
 to our affairs. From all I have seen, I am firmly persuaded 
 that another year of improvident expenditure on the scale of the 
 past, would have exposed us to the most serious calamity, and 
 the mischief is only now to be averted by the most determined 
 conduct on your part without regard to personal considerations 
 of any kind. You will excuse my writing to you with freedom, 
 for you know that I can have but one motive. Reflect for one 
 moment what might be apprehended if, after going on antici- 
 pating our resources, we came at length to that point that we 
 
 N2 
 
180 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKEK. 
 
 could no longer pay our troops. It is obvious that an army 
 cannot be of any use unless it can be moved, and that it cannot 
 be moved unless it can be subsisted. We have touched very 
 nearly upon this point already; and if we had not received so 
 liberal a supply of money from England, I know not how you 
 could have undertaken another campaign. If any accident 
 should happen during your administration, the blame and 
 responsibility will attach to you, although the mischief may 
 have been prepared by others. I do not mean that you are to 
 be influenced by the consideration of what may happen to 
 yourself. The object to be attended to is the public interest; 
 and this is inseparable from your own. I only hope that you 
 will not allow delicacy towards others, nor any collateral consi- 
 deration, to interfere with the steady pursuit of this object. 
 You are placed in a most delicate and a most arduous situation ; 
 and the most determined firmness can alone, I think, enable you 
 to avoid very great embarrassments. 
 
 " I know little of our political situation, and it would not, 
 therefore, become me to say anything on the subject. Peace is 
 evidently most desirable, if it can be established on a solid 
 foundation; for, until it be restored, we cannot expect to get 
 rid of the enormous military charge which at present oppresses 
 us. I trust, however, that as far as reform can be effected, 
 both military and civil, you will do everything possible to ac- 
 complish it, whether we are to have peace or war. Much may 
 be done, no doubt, if we set seriously to work; and that it is 
 necessary, both with a view to the public interests and your 
 own reputation, that a very material reform should be made, 
 there cannot be a doubt. 
 
 " 20th October. I was interrupted yesterday, and was unable 
 to conclude my letter. 
 
 " On looking more minutely into the accounts, it appears to 
 me that the difficulties which Davis has had to encounter have 
 not been fairly appreciated. They have been very great. I 
 have not had for some time past a favorable opinion of our 
 situation; but I never apprehended that our expenditure, pro- 
 
XETTER TO SIR G. BARLOW. 181 
 
 fuse as I suspected it to have been, was on such a scale. I was 
 as much surprised to hear of a military disbursement of 
 3,40,00,000 of rupees, as I should have been if it had been 
 ten times that amount. It is not, too, in the Military Depart- 
 ment only where this lavish expenditure appears to have taken 
 place of late. Considering, therefore, the difficulties which 
 Davis has had to surmount, I trust that you will bear ample 
 testimony to his merits. It will be but bare justice. He has 
 manifested, too, the greatest desire to accommodate and to 
 comply with your wishes in everything relating to the change 
 in the office. 
 
 " It is very possible, I think, that our late expenditure here 
 may be severely scrutinised in England, as in my opinion it 
 ought to be ; but whether it is, or not, I trust you will put an 
 immediate stop to it. 
 
 "I most earnestly conjure you not to leave the public purse 
 in the hands in which it has been placed for some time 
 past. I trust that you will take everything into your own 
 hands, and look to everything yourself. Let military men lead 
 our armies ; but do not make statesmen and financiers of men 
 who have not been formed such, either by nature or education. 
 If you wish me to speak more plainly, I will do it ; for I have 
 no idea of delicacy when there are great interests at stake. In 
 all matters of public duty, I am disposed at all times to say and 
 do what I think right and proper, without the smallest regard to 
 consequences. Is it not a miserable state of things, as Malcolm, 
 I think, very naturally asks, that the movement of our armies 
 should be obstructed, and those armies prevented from ' driving 
 Holkar to the devil,' for the want of a few lakhs of rupees? But 
 who has brought on this state of things? And is it not more 
 lamentable still that the fate of a great empire should in a great 
 measure be in the hands of a man who manifests such total igno- 
 rance on one branch of duty (the administration of finance) which 
 seems to have been especially entrusted to him of late? You 
 will excuse my harping on this subject, and indeed my agi- 
 tating it at all. Nothing but my feeling the deepest interest in 
 
182 LIFE OF H. ST.GL TUCKER. 
 
 the prosperity of our affairs, and the success of your adminis- 
 tration, could have induced me to write on it. 
 
 " I have just had the perusal of poor Lord Cornwallis's in- 
 structions to Lord Lake of the 19th ultimo, and was particu- 
 larly gratified at observing the moderate course of policy which 
 it appears to have been his intention to pursue. I have also 
 had a long and confidential conversation with Robinson, which 
 has afforded me a good deal of information with regard to his 
 Lordship's sentiments and intentions. I shall never cease to 
 revere his memory ! May you happily conclude what he sacri- 
 ficed himself to accomplish. 
 
 " Believe me ever, very sincerely, &c. 3 &c., 
 
 " H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 " 20th October, 1805. 
 
 "P.S. The loan has produced only 60,00,000 rupees, and I 
 am sorry to say that it has called in but a small proportion of 
 the outstanding passes. 
 
 "H.T." 
 
 These manly utterances are to be admired; but 
 Sir George Barlow needed no such stimulants to 
 urge him to do what he believed to be the duty of 
 the chief ruler. Of the character and the conduct 
 of this statesman different opinions have been ex- 
 pressed. There is a mist of controversy about him. 
 History has taken note of him, chiefly to condemn ; 
 but they who have censured him most have under- 
 stood him least, and he never lived to see justice 
 done to him. His great moral courage, however, 
 has never been questioned even by the most viru- 
 lent of his assailants, and it shone forth conspicu- 
 ously at this time. He was one of those men who 
 never shrink from responsibility, but go straight 
 to the work before them without halting or waver- 
 
SIR GEORGE BARLOW. 183 
 
 ing, or turning aside to regard personal distractions. 
 " I am fully sensible," he wrote to Mr. Tucker, on 
 the 18th of October, " of the nature and extent of 
 our financial difficulties, and that there is no other 
 mode of overcoming them but that which you have 
 described. You may rely that in this, as in all other 
 points, I shall pursue, without hesitation, the direct 
 course of my public duty. I shall rely on your 
 pointing out to me, from time to time, such articles 
 of expense as may appear to you to admit of being 
 reduced, and as may escape my notice." And again, 
 a week or two afterwards, he wrote: "You may 
 confidently rely on my executing, without hesitation, 
 whatever the exigencies of the Public Service may 
 require, in the most prompt and decided manner. 
 Lumsden will inform you that I had resolved to 
 pursue the line of conduct which you have so justly 
 stated to be absolutely necessary for the public in- 
 terests, as well as for the maintenance of my own 
 character, in the very arduous and responsible situa- 
 tion in which I have been thrown. I entirely concur 
 in all your able reasoning upon this subject, and 
 shall regulate my conduct accordingly, without re- 
 gard to any personal consequences or considerations 
 whatever. Lumsden will probably have informed 
 you that I have taken the most decided steps with 
 reference to this course of proceeding. I cannot 
 sufficiently thank you for the warm interest you take 
 respecting me, nor for the undisguised manner in 
 which you have stated to me the difficulties of my 
 situation. Confidently rely, that in so doing you 
 
184 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 have added greatly to my esteem and affection for 
 you ; and I trust that you will find me deserving of 
 the confidence you have reposed in me." And in a 
 later letter he wrote, still in the same strain, but 
 with more emphatic earnestness : " I entreat, my 
 friend, that you will continue to write to me with 
 the utmost freedom ; for no person can be more fully 
 sensible than myself that my character and future 
 happiness depend upon my doing not what I wish, 
 or what I think right, but what is actually right. 
 I trust, however, that in future you will always 
 suppose that when your opinion differs from mine, 
 or when events shall prove that I have erred, that I 
 at least acted for the best, and under the influence 
 of public motives exclusively, without any private 
 motive in view whatever." 
 
 There was little fear of two men, who entered into 
 their work thus manfully and in the same spirit, 
 not co-operating heartily together. What they had 
 to do may be gathered, in some measure, from Mr. 
 Tucker's letters already quoted. In a few words, it 
 was to find money for present emergencies, and to 
 diminish the future expenditure of the State. The 
 former was to be done by applying to immediate 
 purposes the money which, under ordinary circum- 
 stances, would have been devoted to the Investment, 
 and by opening a new loan. The latter was to be 
 done by a reduction in every department of the 
 State, and especially by a reduction of the war- 
 charges. " The great reforms from which we are 
 to expect relief," wrote Sir George Barlow to Mr. 
 
SIR GEORGE BARLOW. 185 
 
 Tucker, " must be made in the Political and in the 
 Military expenses ; and, depend upon it, I will not 
 stop until I have rendered our expenses propor- 
 tionate to our income. The danger to which we 
 are exposed whilst our finances remain in their pre- 
 sent melancholy state is, in my opinion, infinitely 
 greater than any danger which we are likely to 
 incur by the reduction of our military and political 
 expenses to the scale which I have stated." And 
 again, in another letter : " Lumsden will have in- 
 formed you of the orders for the return of the Bom- 
 bay army to Goozerat, and I have taken measures 
 for the reduction of all war-expenses both at Port 
 St. George and Bombay ; and I am now preparing 
 further orders for effecting reductions in their ordi- 
 nary military expenses to the extent which may be 
 practicable consistently with our security. I shall 
 not, indeed, scruple to expose that security to some 
 little hazard to avoid the greater danger resulting 
 from the deranged and embarrassed state of our re- 
 sources. Lord Lake has assured me that he has 
 every reason to hope he shall be able to order all 
 the troops on this side into Cantonments without 
 delay, excepting a light army, which he proposes to 
 retain under his own personal command, until we 
 have brought matters to a termination with Holkar, 
 which I trust we shall be able to effect in a very 
 short period of time. Lumsden will have informed 
 you of the reductions which I have ordered or pro- 
 posed in the civil branch of our establishments 
 here; and I believe that I have anticipated or 
 
186 LIFE OP H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 adopted all your suggestions on this subject. I am 
 firmly determined to proceed in making reductions 
 throughout India, until we have rendered our fixed 
 expenditure proportionate to our income." 
 
 These views were entirely in unison with those 
 entertained by Mr. Tucker, who saw, perhaps even 
 more distinctly than the Governor- General himself, 
 the dangers which surrounded our position ; for the 
 one subject of [Finance was ever present to his 
 thoughts. Erom all quarters there was a cry for 
 money, and who could be more painfully conscious 
 of our embarrassments than the man whose duty it 
 was to provide it if he could? But to respond 
 satisfactorily to all these demands was clearly an 
 impossibility. " If it would answer any useful pur- 
 pose to enter into details of our situation," he wrote 
 to Mr. Edmonstone, towards the close of November, 
 " you would see how impossible it is at the present 
 moment to provide for the demands which are 
 pressing upon us from all quarters. I yesterday re- 
 ceived a statement showing that the troops in 
 Bundlekund are six months in arrear, (there will be 
 above fifteen lakhs due to them at the end of the 
 present month,) and some of them have not even 
 been completely paid for April and May. The Grand 
 Army is also greatly in arrear. There are defi- 
 ciencies in every principal Treasury in the country. 
 Our general Treasury has long been bankrupt. Our 
 currency is vitiated, and our means of borrowing 
 are pretty well exhausted." " We have been going 
 on very heedlessly," he added, " towards a precipice, 
 
FINANCIAL PROSPECTS. 187 
 
 and it will require a good strong arm and a skilful 
 horseman to pull up without a tumble." 
 
 A few weeks afterwards, in a letter to Sir George 
 Barlow, he entered upon an elaborate review of the 
 Financial position of the country, and the difficulties 
 and obstructions which impeded his efforts to meet 
 the demands which were made upon the Public 
 Treasury, and to substitute something like order for 
 the confusion in which the accounts were involved. 
 The letter affords so clear an insight into the cha- 
 racter of these difficulties, that it would be well to 
 give it with scarcely an erasure : 
 
 " MR. TUCKER TO SIR GEORGE BARLOW, BART. 
 
 "Calcutta, 12th December, 1805. 
 
 " MY DEAR SIR GEORGE, .... I understand that you 
 have begun upon your intended reform ; but I fear what has been 
 done, or what can be done immediately, will afford but a very 
 trifling and inadequate relief. Unless the charge of the army 
 can be reduced at least one-fourth at all the three Presidencies, 
 and the charge of the Political Department in a much greater 
 proportion, the retrenchments which can be made in the other 
 branches of the service will not be felt, and India will continue, 
 as at present, a heavy charge upon England, instead of contri- 
 buting to the resources of the empire. The accompanying copy 
 of one of the monthly cash accounts of one of our foreign Resi- 
 dents, will show you to what a height the charges of this 
 department have been carried; and the register of bills drawn 
 by the same Resident, a copy of which is also enclosed, will 
 show the enormous expense incurred in supplying funds for 
 this wasteful disbursement. The sum of 41,985 rupees appears 
 to have been lost in drawing a single bill upon Hyderabad, 
 where the currency is in a most wretched debased state, as you 
 will probably hear in due season from other quarters. I do not 
 mean to say that the charges of the Residency latterly are upon 
 
188 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 the same scale; but they are still enormous, and I know not 
 how they can be reduced within moderate bounds but by 
 allowing the Residents a fixed salary to defray all personal 
 expenses of every description, in the same manner as is done 
 at Lucknow. The salary of 7000 rupees per month would be 
 ample, I think, for a Resident at a fixed station ; and if at any 
 time he should be compelled to move, a fixed allowance (say 
 '1000 rupees per month) might be granted for camp-equipage, 
 &c., contingencies. I know it was your object to accomplish 
 something very like this; but it would be better, I think, to 
 place all the Residencies at once upon the footing of that at 
 Lucknow. Much trouble, too, would be saved ; for there 
 would be no occasion to audit their charges, &c. 
 
 " You are not aware, perhaps, that the Dawkes at the dif- 
 ferent Residencies are maintained at a very great expense. 
 Some reform here may be practicable; and a very great reform 
 is necessary in the regulation of the Post Office generally. 
 Nothing can be more lamentable than the manner in which the 
 business of it is conducted at present. 
 
 " You have not, I believe, been furnished with any statement 
 of the fixed establishment of the Military Department (the 
 staff, &c.). It may be well, therefore, to call for a copy of the 
 Auditor's abstract statement; as it may appear to you that re- 
 trenchments can be made in this department. 
 
 " The loan, I am concerned to observe, scarcely produces 
 anything, and I have now abandoned all hope of being able to 
 provide for the deficiency of the year by any means which at 
 present occur to me. The demands from all quarters are 
 immense, and particularly from Bombay, where you will be 
 astonished to hear that their disbursements for military pur- 
 poses are at present at the rate of 17,00,000 rupees per month, 
 or above 2,00,00,000 rupees per annum. The resources of 
 India cannot possibly support the present charge, nor can we 
 even borrow to the extent of the deficiency. The capital of 
 India, although large, is not at all equal to the supply of the 
 demands which have been made upon it of late: there has 
 been much anticipation, as I have already observed and now 
 I have some reason to suspect that individuals are withdrawing 
 
FINANCIAL PROSPECTS. 189 
 
 their capital, in many instances, from the public funds. This 
 proceeds partly, perhaps, from the apprehension excited by the 
 great depreciation of our currency of late, and the reports of 
 the distress for money experienced all over the country; and 
 partly but in a less degree from there being a demand for 
 capital for commercial purposes, the indigo and cotton specu- 
 lations having been very successful of late. 
 
 " The discount on the Treasury-bills rose lately to eleven per 
 cent. ; and it is impossible to say where it will stop, or how 
 business can be carried on if it continues. To get rid of it 
 will be a matter of great difficulty, and will require much 
 time; for it is not only established into a habit, but there are 
 many individuals deeply interested (and some, I am sorry to 
 say, most improperly so) in perpetuating it. I shall do all 
 I can to overcome it ; but without any prospect of immediate 
 success. The treasure expected from England by the July 
 Fleet will be of great assistance to us; but I have no idea now 
 that it will relieve us from our difficulties, as I once hoped it 
 would have done. Of the extent of these difficulties, I doubt 
 whether you have yet a just conception; but they will force 
 themselves into notice sooner or later. I am not apt to be 
 terrified at distant dangers; but it is the part of prudence to 
 look forward to them, and it is pusillanimity often which makes 
 us shut our eyes upon what we do not wish to see. Judging 
 from present appearances, I think it not only very improbable 
 that we shall be able to provide an investment, even on the 
 smallest scale, in the ensuing year, but I think it doubtful 
 whether we shall have the means of providing for the payment 
 of the army for the salt and opium advances and other in- 
 dispensable disbursements. With all our resources in the three 
 ensuing months, we shall not be able to get rid of the present 
 arrear; and after the month of February our receipts from the 
 land-revenue will be inconsiderable, and we cannot expect to 
 receive specie from any other source. A supply of specie, 
 however, to a certain extent, you must be sensible, is abso- 
 lutely necessary ; and if we cannot procure it, the public service 
 may be completely at a stand, and the most serious mischief 
 may be the consequence. While we continue to be burdened 
 
190 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 with a heavy arrear, and while our Treasury -bills remain depre- 
 ciated, not a rupee in cash will be received from the salt, 
 opium, and other branches of the revenue. The discount on 
 the Treasury-bills has become so serious a charge, that indi- 
 viduals are beginning to have two prices for their goods, 
 according as payment may be made or promised in specie or 
 bills; and a difference of twelve per cent, has been made of 
 late, I understand, between these two rates. Nor is it very 
 surprising, considering all circumstances (our inability to dis- 
 charge the demands upon us the manner in which money has 
 been taken up in Oude, &c., &c.), that things should be in their 
 present state. It has been reported among the shroffs here, 
 and it is, I fancy, very generally believed, that Lord Lake has 
 been taking up money for bills on the provincial treasuries at 
 65 rupees per cent. I, myself, have no information of anything 
 of the kind ; and I cannot believe it possible that he can have 
 drawn at such a rate; but, admitting the fact, it will not appear 
 surprising that the public should consider us in the last stage 
 of bankruptcy, and act accordingly. The idea of preserving 
 credit, or of preserving bread and water for our subsistence 
 under such circumstances, would be romantic in the ex- 
 treme. 
 
 " The Bombay Government have not yet furnished a copy of 
 their annual accounts ; but as soon as they are received, I will 
 prepare and submit to you an abstract statement, showing the 
 deficiency upon the Indian Account of Revenue and Charge in 
 1804-5 and 1805-6, on estimate. It will convince you, I think, 
 that the deficiency is so great as to render it impossible that it 
 should be raised from the capital of this country by any ordi- 
 nary means. Even in England, where a large proportion of the 
 capital of the whole world centres, there is a limitation to 
 borrowing ; and you may perceive, from what has recently 
 transpired, to what difficulties the Government were reduced, 
 and to what objectionable expedients they were obliged some- 
 times to have recourse, in consequence of the magnitude of the 
 public disbursement. To this day the Bank has not recovered 
 itself ; and it is very questionable whether the whole system of 
 our country has not experienced a very injurious change. See 
 
RESPONSIBILITY OF GOVERNMENT. 191 
 
 Lord King's pamphlet, and other publications on the same 
 subject. 
 
 " Here we are, in fact, in a new country, where there is no 
 fictitious capital arising from credit ; and it is utterly impossible 
 to raise resources beyond a certain moderate extent. If, there- 
 fore, we strain our means, the most serious inconvenience is to 
 be apprehended. 
 
 " You will, I fear, suspect that I have a pleasure in dwelling 
 upon this gloomy topic ; but I can assure you that the reverse is 
 very much the case. I have thought it my duty to represent our 
 situation to you in what appeax to me to be its true colors ; and it 
 rests with you to draw just inferences, and to act according to 
 the exigency of the case. The whole weight is upon you I have 
 no responsibility to apprehend ; for if I had, I should consider 
 it necessary to address you publicly on the present state of our 
 affairs, in order that I might not incur censure for improvidence 
 and a want of foresight. I shall not willingly recur to this 
 subject ; and I trust that I have said enough to admit of my 
 taking leave of it altogether, otherwise than to submit to you 
 such accounts as may be necessary for your information 
 
 " Some embarrassment has been experienced also from the 
 base coin issued a year or two ago from the Illahabad Mint, 
 and Government are experiencing a heavy and a constantly 
 recurring loss in consequence. I know not what to recommend 
 to do away the evil ; for we are too poor just now to call in the 
 coin. This question was treated with singular neglect, con- 
 sidering the very strong representation which Davis made at 
 the time to Government ; and I shall not be surprised if this, 
 among various other matters, should attract the particular notice 
 of the Government at home. The accounts of our military and 
 political expenditure of late, will, I have no doubt, become the 
 subject of inquiry ; and this is one motive for rny^urging on 
 you so strongly the necessity of making every practicable reform 
 with the least possible delay. A still stronger motive, however, 
 arises from the real exigency of the case. 
 
 " I was happy to hear, within a few days, that you intended 
 to proceed to the westward ; and I am only sorry that you 
 found it necessary to halt at all at Illahabad. I have not said 
 
192 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 anything on this subject, because I was ignorant of your reasons 
 for not proceeding further, and I did not suspect that you would 
 have stopped so long at that place. The only reason which I 
 have heard suggested for the delay, was delicacy towards the 
 Commander-in-Chief, whose local authority and influence you 
 did not wish to supersede or interfere with ; but this delicacy, 
 I imagine, cannot have been necessary, or have influenced your 
 proceedings in any degree on the occasion. 
 
 '* Believe me ever, very sincerely, &c., &c., 
 
 " H. Sx.G. TUCKER. 
 " 13th December, 1805." 
 
 This was but a gloomy picture of the existing 
 state of aifairs. At the end of the month, however, 
 he wrote somewhat more cheerfully, though still 
 there were great evils to be contended with, and 
 great obstacles to be surmounted. " I have learnt 
 with great satisfaction," he said, in a letter to Sir 
 George Barlow, written on the* last day of 1805, 
 " that you are prosecuting your reforms with vigor, 
 and I hope that the early return of the Army to 
 Cantonments will enable you to extend them to those 
 branches of the service where there is most room for 
 reform. At the other Presidencies, also, there is 
 certainly great room for amendment. The enclosed 
 papers from Eort St. George will show you on what 
 ruinous terms they have been raising money of late 
 at that Presidency. The practice of purchasing 
 specie is a miserable expedient indeed ; and if entire 
 dependence cannot be placed on the officer employed, 
 it is liable to the greatest abuse. Is it possible that 
 we could have gone on long in the course we have 
 been pursuing for some time past ? We have been 
 consuming a moderate revenue in interest, ex- 
 
DISORDER OF THE FINANCES. 193 
 
 change, and premiums. The loss incurred on this 
 account is so great, that it will never be believed in 
 England that it can have been incurred without the 
 grossest misconduct on the part of the Government 
 and the public servants. Had the fact been stated 
 to me, I should not have believed it." "But," he 
 added, a little further on, continuing in a more hope- 
 ful strain, " if the Commander-in-Chief does not 
 find it necessary to interfere, by drawing or other- 
 wise, I have great hopes that we shall be able, by- 
 and-by, to reduce everything to order, and to make 
 arrangements for applying our resources to our 
 
 wants in the most advantageous manner 
 
 Within a few days we have succeeded in getting 
 down the discount on Treasury-bills to a moderate 
 rate (four or five per cent.) ; but whether we shall 
 succeed in reducing it further, or how long we shall 
 keep it at this rate, I cannot pretend to say. It had 
 risen to a most alarming height (between eleven 
 and twelve per cent.), and I began to apprehend 
 that an entire stop would be put to all commercial 
 transactions. I shall do everything in my power to 
 support the credit of our currency ; but you must 
 be sensible how difficult it will be to accomplish this 
 object, when the Treasury-bills have become quite a 
 matter of traffic, and all those engaged in the traffic 
 have an interest in causing the most violent fluctua- 
 tions." 
 
 "The Loan," he continued, "has produced only 
 about ten or eleven lakhs of rupees ; but it has sup- 
 ported the credit of the Public Securities, which 
 
 o 
 
194 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 have lately, I am happy to say, experienced a trifling 
 rise. I have encouraged the disposition to rise by 
 making large purchases on account of the Sinking 
 Pund ; and if we could hut get rid of our present 
 burdensome arrear, I should indulge very sanguine 
 hopes of raising the credit of our paper, and of 
 restoring even the circulation of our Treasury-bills 
 in a short time. Next year, at all events, every- 
 thing will, I trust, be in a more prosperous state, 
 provided always that you are enabled to effect the 
 extensive reform which I am at present encouraged 
 to expect. If a favorable change be not effected, 
 we shall be very ill-prepared to meet the ten-per- 
 cent, debt, which becomes due this time twelve- 
 month ; but bad as is the present state of affairs, I 
 hope for a great deal from the Future. My best 
 efforts will not be wanting to ensure success." 
 
 An opportune arrival of bullion from England in 
 the early part of the year (1806), did much to facili- 
 tate the operations of the Accountant-General ; and 
 Mr. Tucker, in the month of March, referring espe- 
 cially to this seasonable remittance, wrote to Mr., 
 afterwards Sir George, Robinson, a Director of the 
 East India Company, the following account of the 
 financial prospects of the State : 
 
 "MR. TUCKER TO MR. GEORGE ROBINSON. 
 
 "Calcutta, 12th March, 1806. 
 
 "MY DEAR SIR, As you feel interested, I am persuaded, 
 in our proceedings in this part of the world, I shall trouble you 
 with a large packet, if the papers can be copied in time for the 
 Thalia, for the purpose of showing you how we are going on 
 in the department of finance- 
 
LETTER TO ME. ROBINSON. 195 
 
 " The large and seasonable supply of bullion just received from 
 England will be of infinite service to us ; and I trust that we 
 shall make good use of it. We have been in a most lamentable 
 state of poverty and distress of late ; but I flatter myself that the 
 current will soon be turned. If the military establishments be 
 immediately reduced to a proper scale if we continue at peace 
 and the Court of Directors continue to assist us with supplies 
 of bullion to a moderate extent, I would be answerable for the 
 speedy re-establishment of our finances, and I should hope to 
 commence a reduction, in a very short time, in the present 
 enormous charge of interest. 
 
 ' * You may be surprised that I should express any doubt with 
 respect to the continuance of peace ; but I must confess I have 
 never had any great confidence in our new situation. When 
 things have been so much disturbed as they have been of late, 
 they do not easily settle into order. Our present ' political 
 relations' are not, in my opinion, very well calculated to secure 
 permanent tranquillity. 
 
 "You may also be surprised that I should entertain a doubt 
 with respect to the immediate reduction of our military esta- 
 blishments ; but although Sir G. Barlow has with heart and 
 soul urged on this reform, little has yet been accomplished. The 
 Irregulars are still an intolerable burden upon us. Great efforts, 
 however, have been made, at great expense, to provide funds 
 for discharging them, as well as all extra military establish- 
 ments maintained during the war ; and if they are not now 
 discharged, you will be able to form as accurate a judgment of 
 the reasons as I can pretend to do. 
 
 " We are now besieging Gohud, in order, I believe, that we 
 may be in a capacity to deliver over the country which has been 
 ceded by us. Some little loss has been sustained in an attack 
 upon an outpost ; but it is expected that we shall soon obtain 
 possession of the place. 
 
 " Captain Baillie is engaged in resuming the Joidaad lands 
 in Bundlekund, from which we hope to obtain a considerable 
 increase of revenue. He has gone on successfully hitherto ; but 
 I shall not be much surprised if the object should not be accom- 
 plished without military operations. 
 
 o2 
 
196 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 " The army under Lord Lake is still at Delhi, having a con- 
 siderable detachment in advance at Panniput, under Colonel 
 Burn. This advanced position will be maintained, I believe, 
 until Holkar thinks proper to move on to his own territory. 
 He is at present employed, we hear, in squeezing his friends the 
 Sikhs a little ; and when he may be disposed to leave ' the 
 right bank of the Hyphasis,' it is not very easy to say. I sus- 
 pect you will be a little surprised in England to find us engaged 
 on the theatre of the Macedonian conqueror. There are not 
 many men whom I will suspect hastily of possessing the en- 
 lightened mind and extended views of the son of Philip ; but 
 there are a few in camp who might, perhaps, personate him in 
 some other respects, and I am not quite certain that this idea 
 has not occurred to their own minds. 
 
 " The Rajpoot Rajahs are about to take up arms for the 
 purpose of deciding their claims to the fair hand of the Princess 
 of Oudipoor ; and as Scindiah feels deeply interested in the 
 question, and Holkar is supposed to be not altogether indifferent 
 to the young lady's fate, hopes may be entertained that she will 
 make a very desirable diversion in our favor. The gallantry of 
 our Alexanders, however, if they were left to themselves, would, 
 I believe, induce them to take a very active part in resolving 
 this connubial difficulty. 
 
 " If the Honorable Court of Directors feel any curiosity to 
 ascertain exactly the causes of the present derangement of their 
 affairs, I hope they will refer to Davis, for he will be able to 
 give them full and accurate information, and he is a man who 
 will tell a plain unvarnished tale. I do not, however, despair of 
 overcoming our difficulties in time, as you will perceive from the 
 tenor of my remarks on the Estimate for 1806-7, which I have 
 the pleasure to enclose. There are some reserves and provisos, 
 it is true ; but still I have great *hopes that we shall succeed 
 ultimately. 
 
 " I have nothing to add respecting the estate of poor Lord 
 Cornwallis nor, indeed, on any other subject which can 
 interest you. 
 
 " Believe me, my dear Sir, yours very sincerely, 
 
 " H. ST.G. TUCKER." 
 
UNPOPULAR MEASURES. 197 
 
 To carry out such reductions of public expendi- 
 ture as had been determined upon by Sir George 
 Barlow and Mr. Tucker, without causing much 
 private inconvenience and exciting much personal 
 resentment, was clearly an impossibility. These mea- 
 sures, indeed, were of a character which, looking 
 back at them now, after the lapse of half a century, 
 seems to be so steeped in unpopularity, that if they 
 had been designed for the express purpose of goading 
 into hostility many of the ablest and most influen- 
 tial men in the country, could not have achieved 
 that object with more entire success. It was not 
 only in Lord Lake's Camp that the utmost indigna- 
 tion was excited and the bitterest enmity provoked. 
 There was hardly a native Court, with a Residency or 
 a Commissionership attached to it, in which a group 
 of political officers did not tremble for the security 
 of their old gains, whilst the lavish expenditure in 
 which they had been wont unquestioned to indulge, 
 was now regarded by Government as profligacy, and 
 denounced as a crime. Prom one end of the country 
 to the other, sinecurists and monopolists were smitten 
 with dismay. There was no longer to be any shelter 
 for idleness ; any toleration for extravagance. Every 
 man, who drew the money of the State, was to be 
 expected to work for it. Two men were no longer 
 to be suffered to do the work of one ; nor were places 
 to be made, that favored officers might fill them. A 
 general war was to be waged against slothfulness 
 and corruption of all kinds ; and the licence of un- 
 controlled expenditure was thenceforth to be a folly 
 
198 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKEH. 
 
 of the Past. How such, stern resolutions as these 
 must have affected vested interests in public extra- 
 vagance, it is not difficult to conjecture. 
 
 A few paragraphs from one of Mr. Tucker's letters, 
 written at this time, will illustrate, better than any- 
 thing else, the personal bearings of this great question 
 of economical reform. " The expense," he wrote to 
 Sir George Barlow, " of the foreign Residents, Com- 
 missioners, &c., has risen to an amount that will 
 astonish you ; but I hear that you have placed them 
 all under limitations, and you will not, I am sure, 
 make any exceptions. Malcolm's disbursements are 
 very heavy, and I cannot perceive the necessity or 
 propriety of allowing ten or a dozen of the public 
 servants to support something approaching to a 
 royal state. The establishment of the Governor- 
 General's office may, I think, admit of very great 
 reduction, for a few good writers, I should suppose, 
 would now perform all the duty of it, conducted, as 
 I have no doubt it will be henceforward, on a mode- 
 rate scale. The voluminous despatches of Lord Wel- 
 lesley were a great evil, for they not only caused 
 great delay in making very necessary communica- 
 tions, but they were not, I believe, read by half a 
 dozen individuals. The expense of the College should 
 be reduced as much as possible, and all sinecures, 
 such as Provosts, Vice-Provosts, &c., should, I think, 
 be altogether abolished. Great reductions, I should 
 hope, may be made by-and-by in collecting the re- 
 venues of the Ceded and Conquered districts ; and 
 the Provincial Corps may, perhaps, be dispensed with 
 
UNNECESSARY OFFICES. 199 
 
 hereafter. The Assistant- Judges, I have heard, are, 
 in most instances, if not everywhere, an unnecessary 
 expense. Registers and Assistants might, I think, 
 do the duty perfectly well ; and the Judges should 
 be stimulated to greater activity. Some of these 
 extra-Judges, I understand, ridicule the appoint- 
 ment as absolutely useless. There have been some 
 appointments created of late years (the Superin- 
 tendent of Civil buildings, Assay-Master at Benares, 
 &c., &c.), which, I should suppose, can scarcely be 
 necessary in a time of distress. The Government 
 here might revise all such establishments, and strike 
 off everything superfluous. We shall not too, I hope, 
 have any occasion for establishments on account of 
 the Calcutta Militia. The Commercial Residencies 
 in Oude appear to me to be absolutely useless at 
 least for the present." "A systematic attention to 
 economy," he added, "should be observed through- 
 out every branch of the public expenditure. The 
 military charge is the great object to be looked to ; 
 and even during war much expense may be saved 
 by a strict attention to the manner of providing the 
 army with stores, provisions, &c., through the public 
 agents and contractors." What a blow is here struck 
 at personal interests of all kinds from those of the 
 lazy sinecurist to those of the greedy contractor ! 
 
 If such measures had not been unpopular, our 
 Indian officials would have been the most virtuous 
 and self-devoted in the world. But they were 
 grievously unpopular. Never, perhaps, before or 
 after not even in that second great epoch of econo- 
 
200 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER, 
 
 mical reform, when officers of the Indian army 
 evinced their impotent indignation by refusing to 
 dine with Lord William Bentinck has such a flood 
 of wrath been poured upon a public functionary as 
 now streamed out, primarily against Sir George 
 Barlow, and secondarily against Mr. Tucker. There 
 are broad marks of this extant in the correspon- 
 dence of the period to which I now refer ; but from 
 Tradition it may be gathered that worse things were 
 uttered, even at the dinner-tables of great men, 
 than any that were ever embodied in written words ; 
 though in those days much was recorded which, 
 after the unfailing action of time had cooled down 
 their individual resentments, the authors would 
 have blushed to read. I am not passing judgment 
 upon these displays of party and personal hostility. 
 The men who were betrayed into them were not 
 weaker than their brethren. Such infirmity is com- 
 mon to mankind. I only speak of it now, to show 
 that the great work of Reform to which Barlow and 
 Tucker had devoted themselves, was not one without 
 its own peculiar miseries, and that it demanded no 
 small amount of moral courage to prosecute it con- 
 sistently to the end. Even in these days men may 
 question the wisdom and propriety of some of these 
 individual acts of reform ; but looking at the aggre- 
 gate, it must be admitted that they were necessary. 
 Impartial History cannot refuse to pronounce that 
 they were honestly and manfully carried out. Bar- 
 low and Tucker had not a thought beyond the in- 
 terests of the State. The duty which had devolved 
 
LETTERS TO THE COLLECTORS. 201 
 
 upon them was as painful as it was onerous ; and 
 they went through it with the sturdy resolution and 
 self-negation of honest men. And I believe that if 
 their cotemporaries had read, as I have done, all 
 the correspondence which passed between these two 
 public functionaries at this time, they would, in 
 spite of all private inducements to censure and con- 
 demn, have regarded with respect the straightfor- 
 ward conduct of the Governor- General and his Mi- 
 nister of Finance. But the exigencies of the occa- 
 sion were not appreciated. And the motives of the 
 men were not understood. It was natural that in 
 such a conjuncture rash judgments should be passed. 
 It is the great privilege of Honesty to live them 
 down. 
 
 In carrying out the details of the measures, which 
 little by little, and almost against the fondest hopes 
 of their projector, had the eifect of restoring some- 
 thing like order to our Finances, Mr. Tucker was ne- 
 cessarily brought into collision with members of his 
 own service, for it was his to stimulate the tardy 
 and to reproach the indolent ; and more than one 
 revenue-officer at this time received a private hint 
 from the Accountant- General, that if a little more 
 activity were not displayed in the collections, a pub- 
 lic reprimand would be the result of his remissness. 
 To one collector he wrote : " You are charged with a 
 most important trust ; and much will depend upon 
 your energy and activity. I trust, for your sake and 
 my own, and for the sake of the public service, that 
 you will exert yourself with vigor ; for I tell you 
 candidly, and from motives of real good- will towards 
 
202 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 you, that if I perceived the least relaxation upon 
 your part, it would be my duty to represent it, that 
 steps might be taken to give effect to the efforts 
 which I have been called upon to make." To an- 
 other he wrote, in the same strain : " This is a mo- 
 ment when the exertions of every public officer may 
 be of importance to the service ; and I trust you will 
 exert yourself, and pay immediate attention to the 
 instructions you receive. I know that I have no 
 right to urge or recommend anything privately to 
 you, or any other public officer; but knowing, as 
 you must, that I can be influenced by none but 
 a good motive, you will, I am persuaded, take 
 what I say in good part ; and be better satisfied 
 with my calling your attention to an object of 
 importance in a private letter, than if I had ad- 
 dressed you in my public capacity." Other passages 
 of a similar tendency might be quoted from Mr. 
 T acker's correspondence with the revenue- officers 
 in the Provinces . " When I inform you," he 
 wrote to them, " that every lakh of rupees which 
 you remit to the army probably puts an end to a 
 monthly expense to an equal amount, you will be 
 able to understand my urgency." This, indeed, 
 was not the least distressing of his duties at this 
 time ; but he performed it, not only with temper and 
 moderation, but with such kindness, that it does not 
 appear that the performance, uncompromising as it 
 was, entailed much odium upon him. In estimating, 
 however, the difficulties of Mr. Tucker's position, it 
 should be borne in mind that he was a younger man, 
 and younger in the service, than the majority of 
 
SYMPTOMS OF SUCCESS. 203 
 
 those whose proceedings he controlled, and whose 
 conduct he commented upon ; and that he had just 
 been called from the counting-house of a private 
 mercantile firm to take these responsibilities upon 
 him. 
 
 I have said that the resolute measures of Barlow 
 and Tucker began in time to develope symptoms of 
 success. As the new year advanced, the financial 
 prospects of the country gleamed more cheerfully 
 upon them ; the worst difficulties were surmounted ; 
 the crisis was passed ; and to the steady action of 
 Time might they now look hopefully for the rest. 
 They had begun by applying desperate remedies to des- 
 perate evils. They had sacrificed the Investment, and 
 they had anticipated the Revenue. It was their one 
 great pressing object to obtain ready money; for only 
 by the action of Cash payments at the outset could 
 the great icebergs of difficulty before them effectually 
 be melted away. Debt, indeed, was breeding debt so 
 rapidly, that, as Mr. Tucker truly said, every luipaid 
 lakh of rupees was entailing a monthly cost almost of 
 the same amount practically, something approach- 
 ing to an interest of 1200 per cent. Ruinous esta- 
 blishments, for all effective purposes quite unneces- 
 sary, were being maintained, simply because an em- 
 barrassed Government could not discharge their ar- 
 rears of pay. Prospective measures of reform were of 
 little use so long as there was no money in the Trea- 
 sury to give them immediate effect. As with indi- 
 viduals, so is it with Governments, the impoverished 
 and embarrassed cannot afford to retrench. Re- 
 
204 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 trenchment, in most cases, involves prompt pay- 
 ment of arrears ; and how is this to be accom- 
 plished, if there be no money in the Treasury ? It 
 was necessarily, therefore, the first care of our ad- 
 ministrators in this great conjuncture of 1805-6 to 
 provide ready money for the purposes of the State, 
 even at a great prospective sacrifice, for no sacrifice 
 could be so great as that involved in the continuance 
 of the existing order of things. Cornwallis appro- 
 priated to general purposes the money intended for 
 the China investment. And his successor reluc- 
 tantly consented to measures which were identical 
 with a forestalment of the Revenue. The evils of 
 such a system were apparent; but such was the 
 pressure of the times, that the representations of 
 Lake and Malcolm, though every sound financial 
 theory might be violated by the forestalment, were 
 successful in the end, and an anticipation of the 
 Revenue of the Western Provinces was authorised 
 by Sir George Barlow, with the sanction of his 
 Financial adviser. " I am glad," wrote the latter, 
 " that your arrangements are satisfactory to Lord 
 Lake ; but he must not expect us to supply all that 
 may be wished, or all that may be wanted. We will 
 do all that circumstances may admit of, although 
 this, I fear, will fall short of what is required, in 
 a lamentable degree, if great and immediate re- 
 ductions be not effected. This plan of forestalling 
 is somewhat embarrassing ; for it leaves me in some 
 doubt with respect to what may be expected from 
 the future. Lord Lake is an experienced soldier; 
 
VIEWS OF COLONEL MALCOLM. 205 
 
 and he ought to know that it is not very prudent to 
 lay waste a country, or even to forage in a country, 
 which you have occasion to march through. The 
 anticipation of our Revenue is precisely the same 
 thing, 5 ' "although," added Mr. Tucker, "I am 
 sensible that it may have been entirely justified by 
 the urgency of the case." 
 
 Of course, a grand feature in these, as in all other 
 arrangements of embarrassed Governments, was the 
 borrowing of money or, in technical language, the 
 opening of a loan. " I should borrow," wrote Mal- 
 colm* at this time, "two, three, or four crores if 
 necessary, and stop every species of investment, in 
 the full confidence that I was promoting the in- 
 terests of my country." The stoppage of the In- 
 vestment was easy; but the borrowing of the four 
 crores was a matter to be talked of at Muttra rather 
 than to be accomplished in Bengal. Money was 
 with difficulty to be obtained from the community 
 at an interest of ten per cent. The capital, indeed, 
 
 * It is well known that Malcolm's views were greatly opposed to those 
 of Cornwallis and Barlow; but it is an error to suppose that at this time 
 his opinions found utterance in bitter or disrespectful words, or that he 
 gave practical expression to them by hesitating to carry out their plans of 
 financial reform. Of Lord Cornwallis he wrote, in language of emphatic 
 admiration, as of " a great and good man, who has continued to the last to 
 devote himself to his country." "Few, if any," he continued, "have lived 
 with such honor; no one ever died with more glory." Of Sir George Barlow 
 he wrote, a month afterwards, " I am at a loss to express my gratitude for 
 the very flattering manner in which he has expressed his approbation of my 
 conduct. I shall thank him by my future exertions." " I trust," he con- 
 tinued, "that we shall have the definite treaty signed to-morrow, or next day 
 at furthest. I work at that and the reductions as hard as I can. The latter 
 will be reported on in a few days. They amount to about two lakhs per 
 mensem and if we can only send Holkar out of the Punjab, or out of the 
 world, the whole of this expense will be done away, and many others." 
 
206 LIFE OE H. ST.a. TUCKER. 
 
 of the settlement had been forestalled. There was 
 little floating about, seeking public or private in- 
 vestment. Upon such a subject there was no better 
 authority than Mr. Tucker. " The loan proceeds 
 but slowly," he wrote to Sir George Barlow, in the 
 middle of November, "and I am not now at all 
 sanguine that it will succeed to the extent required. 
 In fact, there has been so much anticipation of late, 
 that there is no disposable capital in the market at 
 present, and of this I can form a very good judg- 
 ment, from what has been done by our own House. 
 We have invested, since the 1st of January last, in 
 the public loans, on account of our friends and our- 
 selves, about thirty- six lakhs of rupees, and Govern- 
 ment, within the same period, have borrowed about 
 two crores of rupees. This sum, I think, exceeds 
 the annual accumulation of capital at this Presi- 
 dency, and a part of it, therefore, must either have 
 been on anticipation, or have been drawn from some 
 other channel (from the support of commerce)." 
 This seems to be unanswerable. It was easy to talk 
 of borrowing money ; but no one had any to lend. 
 
 But money for immediate necessities was provided 
 in the manner above described ; and an opportune 
 arrival of bullion from England came to the further 
 aid of our financial administrators. In the mean 
 while an able and experienced civil officer was 
 despatched to the Western Provinces to exercise 
 personal superintendence over the monied concerns 
 of the Grand Army. Not one of the least of the 
 evils which had stared the new Accountant-General 
 
IRREGULARITY OF THE PAY-ACCOUNTS. 207 
 
 in the face on Ms assumption of office, had been the 
 extreme confusion of the military accounts. At the 
 end of October, 1805, Mr. Tucker was informed by 
 the Military Audit or- General that no account had 
 been received from the Paymaster to Lord Lake's 
 army, since the month of September, 1804.* So gross 
 an evidence of irregularity was fit subject for severe 
 animadversion. Mr. Tucker commented forcibly upon 
 it ; but that was not a season in which time or energy 
 could be advantageously expended in reproaches and 
 regrets; so he addressed himself at once to a re- 
 medy. " Considering," he wrote, " the great distance 
 of the army from the Presidency the unsettled 
 state of everything at present in the new territory 
 the want of experience on the part of those who have 
 been recently introduced into the Pay Department 
 and the extensive duty to be performed by the 
 public officers here it appears to me that the super- 
 intending Power at the Presidency is not efficient ; 
 and that it would be highly desirable to have a 
 strong controlling power on the spot, acting under 
 your immediate authority and direction. I should 
 recommend the appointment of an Auditor and 
 Accountant for the Military Department "West of Be- 
 nares, to continue only until everything is brought 
 into order; and this officer should, of course, act 
 under the Military Regulations at present in force, 
 and report everything regularly to the superintend- 
 
 * " Even if we had been galloping after Holkar all the time," wrote Mr. 
 Tucker to Sir George Barlow, " a statement might have been furnished of 
 the money transactions which occurred; but during the last six months, 
 the Army and the Paymaster have been quietly settled in Cantonments." 
 
208 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 ing officers at the Presidency, with which he should 
 hold direct correspondence. " 
 
 " Everything," continued Mr. Tucker, "will de- 
 pend upon the individual who may be selected for 
 such a duty." He had first thought of Mr. Slier er, 
 a young and promising civil officer, who had early 
 displayed great aptitude for financial business ; but 
 the state of his health at that time seemed to render 
 it desirable that his zeal for the public service should 
 not then be taxed by the arduous duties of such an 
 appointment, and Mr. Tucker therefore made another 
 and an equally judicious selection from among his as- 
 sociates in the service. " The man in the whole ser- 
 vice," he wrote to the Governor- General, "to whom 
 I should commit the office with the greatest confi- 
 dence of success, is Richardson. He is acquainted 
 with the duty of a Paymaster ; and has had a great 
 deal of experience in the Revenue and Military 
 accounts ; but what is of most importance on this 
 occasion is, that he possesses an inflexible firmness 
 of mind, which will enable him to go through with 
 a very arduous, unpleasant duty. There are few men 
 who have zeal and firmness enough to undertake an 
 ungracious, invidious duty from disinterested mo- 
 tives; but Richardson's regard for the public in- 
 terests, and his friendship for you, would, I am sure, 
 stimulate him to make every possible exertion, and 
 I really do not know a man from whom I should 
 
 expect so much Should any objection occur to 
 
 this arrangement, I would recommend as an alter- 
 native, that Richardson be directed to take charge 
 
APPOINTMENT OF MR. RICHARDSON. 209 
 
 of the office of Paymaster in the Pield, in order that 
 he may bring up the accounts which are in arrear, 
 and place everything in proper train. This is essen- 
 tial, at all events. Richardson will not, I am per* 
 suaded, like either duty, for his wishes are all directed 
 to the Political Department ; but I am convinced, 
 at the same time, that he will be ready to sacrifice 
 his own inclination and convenience to promote the 
 public service. You will not suspect me of an in- 
 terested recommendation on this or any other occa- 
 sion ; for I never was a jobber, or indeed a suitor, in 
 my life." 
 
 The arrangement here suggested was approved 
 by the Governor-General ; and Mr. Richardson was 
 despatched to join the Grand Army. Vested with 
 large powers to supply Lord Lake with necessary 
 funds, and to control generally the financial affairs 
 of the Army, he executed his appointed task with 
 all the zeal and ability that were expected from 
 him; and the best results attended this important 
 innovation upon a defective and disastrous system. 
 There had, hitherto, been a grievous want of order 
 and regularity in the management of the pecuniary 
 concerns of the Army; and good management is 
 often as serviceable as much thrift. Now, not only 
 was new vigor infused into the department, but 
 there was for the first time effective supervision on 
 the spot. The work of the Army, too, was done. 
 As the new year dawned upon India, Peace began 
 to dawn with it. The Army was to be broken up ; 
 its arrears were to be paid; and Mr. Richardson 
 
 p 
 
210 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 was there to see that the puhlic money was pro- 
 fitably expended. For immediate purposes, as I 
 have shown, cash had been supplied ; and now the 
 whole machinery of Finance was regularly set 
 a-going. It needed, indeed, only that a good be- 
 ginning should be made that the difficulty should 
 be looked boldly in the face, and that the onward 
 progress of extravagance and ruin should be reso- 
 lutely arrested. With every new week appeared 
 some new symptoms of revival. The accounts from 
 the other Presidencies continued to improve. And 
 before it was announced in letters from England, 
 which took most people by surprise, that Sir George 
 Barlow, to whom the succession to the Governor- 
 Generalship had been promised, was to be super- 
 seded by an English nobleman, the peril was sur- 
 mounted; the great work was done.* The energy 
 and resolution which had been exhibited at the 
 right moment, were attended with results beyond 
 the expectations of the most sanguine; and Lord 
 Minto entered upon his government with little to 
 embarrass his movements, or to perplex his judg- 
 ment. That the precipitate abandonment of the 
 "great game" in the North- West was not pro- 
 ductive of after-results both embarrassing and per- 
 plexing, I am not prepared to show. I have nothing, 
 
 * On the 28th of August, 1806, Sir G. Barlow recorded a minute, in which 
 he says: "The present state of the Finances of the Honorable Company in 
 India, together with the several arrangements which Mr. Tucker has sug- 
 gested for their improvement, will manifest that the public interests have 
 derived very important benefits from his able and zealous exertions in the 
 conduct of the business of the department under his immediate super- 
 intendence." 
 
IMPORTANCE OF THESE EVENTS. 211 
 
 indeed, to do with the solution of that question. 
 This is a chapter only in the Financial History of 
 India ; a chapter that has never yet been written 
 but one which is most necessary to a right com- 
 prehension of the Annals of a most eventful epoch. 
 It is not because I am engaged on this Biography 
 that I aver, that no History of India can be com- 
 plete without a record of these Financial measures, 
 or a just tribute to the exertions of Henry St. George 
 Tucker.* 
 
 * The correspondence between Sir George Barlow and Mr. Tucker, in the 
 years 1805-6, the whole of which is now before me, is so voluminous, that 
 I have been necessitated to reject very much which would have illustrated 
 the events narrated in this chapter, and greatly enhanced its historical value. 
 This is much to be regretted, because the more minutely it is studied, the 
 more impressed will the student be with a conviction both of the necessity of 
 the measures and the integrity of the men. 
 
 p 2 
 
212 LIFE OF H. ST.a. TUCKER. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 The Settlement of the Ceded and Conquered Provinces The Special Com- 
 mission of 1807 Mr. Tucker's Appointment His Colleagues Duties of 
 the New Commission Their Reception in Upper India Mr. Tucker's 
 Report. 
 
 UNDER the administration of Lord Wellesley the 
 dominions of the East India Company had been 
 greatly extended. The Ceded districts of Oude, and 
 the Conquered provinces wrested from the Mah- 
 rattas, had so swollen our Eastern Empire as to 
 demand a large accession of administrative agency 
 and administrative skill. The country which we 
 had acquired by our diplomacy and by our arms 
 was now to be governed for the benefit of the Com- 
 pany and the benefit of the People. A great He- 
 venue was to be raised ; and a great Nation was to 
 be protected. Now that the clang of arms no longer 
 drowned the counsel of the statesman, it was a 
 matter of primal concernment so to settle these 
 North-Western Provinces as to render our accession 
 of territory advantageous alike to the British Go- 
 vernment and the people whom we had subdued. 
 
 Even whilst the measures for the extrication of 
 the British-Indian Empire from the financial em- 
 
SETTLEMENT OF THE NORTH-WEST PROVINCES. 213 
 
 barrassments which threatened to overwhelm it, 
 were in progress tinder the supervision and superin- 
 tendence of Barlow and Tucker, this great subject 
 of the revenue-settlement of the North- West had 
 been under their consideration ; and before the close 
 of the year 1805, the Governor-General had written 
 to his Finance Minister : " "When you succeed to a 
 seat at the Board of Revenue, you must turn your 
 mind immediately to the forming of the next set- 
 tlement for the Ceded and Conquered Provinces. It 
 will require a year or more to collect the necessary 
 accounts and information for making the settlement 
 properly ; and there is no time to be lost in laying 
 the foundations of this important measure." Sir 
 George Barlow knew that in Mr. Tucker he had a 
 man to whom he could safely entrust this important 
 duty; and his successor saw, with the same clear 
 vision, the expediency of availing himself of the 
 services of an administrator in whom soundness of 
 judgment and energy of action were eminently com- 
 bined. 
 
 In February, 1806, Mr. Tucker had been ap- 
 pointed a member of the Board of Revenue. To 
 the general subject of Indian taxation, from his 
 very boyhood he had devoted much earnest re- 
 flection, and the weight of his opinions was acknow- 
 ledged by all his official colleagues. Erom his cor- 
 respondence at this period something may be ga- 
 thered respecting the light in which he regarded 
 the existing mode of raising the necessary revenue. 
 The following letter to Captain Baillie, who was 
 
LIFE OP H. ST.a. TUCKER. 
 
 then in political charge of our new districts in Bun- 
 dlekund, glances at so many important questions 
 within so small a space, that, before passing on to 
 the substantive matter of this chapter, I am tempted 
 to insert it here : 
 
 " MR. TUCKER TO CAPTAIN BAILLIE. 
 
 " Calcutta, 4th October, 1806. 
 
 " MY DEAR BAILLIE, Many thanks for your favor of the 
 13th ultimo, and for your early notice of my public application 
 to you. The information you have furnished is all very satis- 
 factory; but have you not estimated the whole revenue of 1214 
 as receivable within the year of account 1806-7 (or before the 
 30th of April next), while a proportion of that revenue must 
 necessarily fall into the ensuing year? On the presumption 
 that this was the case, I have ventured to deviate from your 
 estimate. 
 
 " I am very glad to hear that you are so rich in mines and in 
 other valuables, and I trust that you will be able to give a good 
 account of them. We should not, in my opinion, be in a hurry 
 to harass the country with customs, or any other new taxes ; and 
 I have long considered the abolition of the syer, a tax to which 
 the people were familiarised, a very hasty measure. A tax even 
 objectionable in principle, when once established and accommo- 
 dated to a country, may be much less injurious than a new tax, 
 to which the same objection may not apply; and in this country, 
 where your inferior officers are so little to be relied upon, all new 
 impositions are especially to be avoided. I have no time, how- 
 ever, just now for discussing the principles of taxation. I shall 
 be glad always to hear from you, and to receive information on 
 all subjects connected directly or indirectly with our public 
 duties; and you may rely that I will make the best use of it I 
 can. You will not, I hope, be discouraged from continuing 
 your communications should I not immediately acknowledge 
 them ; for I am not always master of my own time indeed, I 
 am seldom master of it. With respect to saltpetre, I have only 
 
LORD WELLESLEY AND THE SETTLEMENT. 215 
 
 to observe, that if anything can justify a monopoly, the circum- 
 stances which you urge appear to render a direct interference 
 on the part of Government highly expedient. I, myself, am a 
 decided enemy to commercial restrictions; and I think that a 
 great Government ought to engage as little as possible (if at 
 all) in commercial transactions, and particularly petty transac- 
 tions. I approve of the opium monopoly, because it enables 
 us to draw a large revenue from a foreign country; of the 
 salt monopoly, because it is a very productive tax, with- 
 out being attended with personal oppression, because it is 
 paid voluntarily according to the means of the consumer, 
 and because I know no other tax equally productive and less 
 objectionable which could be substituted for it. In the same 
 manner, if a monopoly of saltpetre could be managed without 
 oppression and injustice, and could be made conducive to the 
 preservation of domestic tranquillity, I shall consider it an ad- 
 mirable tax, and it will have my warmest support. 
 
 "Believe me, yours very sincerely, 
 
 "H. ST.G. TUCKER." 
 
 There is no task, indeed, more worthy of the best 
 efforts of the philanthropist no task that demands 
 for its due performance a larger amount of adminis- 
 trative capacity than the revenue-settlement of a 
 new country. It is so great a work, indeed, and 
 one that requires a combination of so many rare 
 qualities, that it can seldom be entrusted with safety 
 to a single man. At all events, Lord Wellesley, 
 writing prospectively of the settlement of the coun- 
 try on the banks of the Jumna, recorded his opinion 
 that such researches as it was necessary to institute 
 "must be entrusted to the best principles and the 
 best talents/' "And," he added, "as the variety 
 of talents requisite for a successful prosecution of 
 divers inquiries may not often be eminently pos- 
 
216 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 sessed by one and the same person, it may perhaps 
 be found advisable to select two or three of our 
 most intelligent servants to act together in each 
 quarter." These opinions were shared by Sir George 
 Barlow; and accordingly, in the month of June, 
 1807, a Commission was appointed, charged with 
 the important duty of inquiring into the condition of 
 the Ceded and Conquered Provinces, and reporting 
 upon the system of internal administration best 
 adapted to the requirements of the people. 
 
 Mr. Cox* and Mr. Tucker were nominated Com- 
 missioners.! Mr. Sherer was appointed Secretary 
 to the Commission ; Mr. Portescue, Assist ant- Secre- 
 tary ; and Mr. Butterworth Bayley, Interpreter. 
 
 With the full approbation of his brother-commis- 
 sioner, Mr. Tucker, in the first instance, had de- 
 signed the Secretaryship for Mr. Charles Metcalfe 
 then a young man of great promise, whose high 
 qualities were recognised alike by his cotemporaries 
 and his seniors in the service. But Metcalfe had 
 chalked out for himself a career in another line. 
 He had made his election in favor of Political J em- 
 ployment; and the predilections, which were first 
 generated by early ambition, had been subsequently 
 strengthened by the experiences of a stirring life in 
 
 * This gentleman had been Accountant-General prior to Mr. Tucker's first 
 tenure of office ; and subsequently a member of the Board of Revenue. 
 
 f Shortly before this, Sir George Barlow had offered Mr. Tucker the office 
 of Head-Commissioner at Madras to inquire into the debts of the Nabob of 
 Arcot; but Mr. Tucker was unwilling to quit Bengal, and he declined the 
 appointment. 
 
 t The English reader must bear in mind, that in Indian official language 
 Political means Diplomatic. 
 
CHARLES METCALFE. 217 
 
 Lord Lake's camp. He was unwilling, therefore, to 
 connect himself, in so decisive a manner, with the 
 Revenue branch of the Administration ; and he 
 would probably have declined the offer if it had 
 been formally made to him by Government. But 
 he thoroughly appreciated the compliment, and he 
 wrote to his friend Mr. Sherer, on whom the ap- 
 pointment was subsequently conferred, explaining 
 the grounds of his disinclination to accept it. " By- 
 the-by," he wrote, " Tucker will doubtless have 
 mentioned to you what I read in a letter from him 
 to Bichardson, that at first, with the assent of Cox, 
 he had proposed to Sir George Barlow, through 
 Lumsden, my appointment as Secretary to the Com- 
 mission. Of course, at that time, he could not 
 have expected that the Secretary's office would be 
 put on so respectable a footing. He could have had 
 no idea that the Government would spare yon, 
 Bayley, and Portescue ; otherwise he would never, 
 it is clear, have thought of me. I will tell you the 
 effect that this had on my mind, when Bichardson 
 sent me Tucker's letter I must observe that Tucker 
 wrote just after Lumsden left him to carry the pro- 
 position to the Governor, and therefore could give 
 no hint of the result I was of course flattered by 
 the circumstance, and obliged to Tucker ; but I 
 wished that he had not made the proposal, and I 
 did not like the thought of getting so deep into the 
 Bevenue line and so far from the Political. I did 
 not know which I should do, if any reference were 
 made to me, as on the one hand to give up a 
 
218 LIFE OF H. ST.GL TUCKER. 
 
 favorite line, and on the other, to reject so respect- 
 able a situation, likely to be attended with consi- 
 derable advantages, would be, either way, difficult. 
 My hope was that Government, without any re- 
 ference to me, would make its own arrangement, 
 excluding me, and so relieve me from the responsi- 
 bility of guiding my own destiny. The sight of 
 your appointment was the first, and is the only in- 
 telligence which I have yet received ; and, besides 
 the pleasure of seeing your appointment to a post 
 which I thought would be pleasing to you, I felt 011 
 my own account great relief. Although I am 
 obliged to Tucker for thinking of me, I am glad, on 
 many accounts, that the present capital arrange- 
 ment has taken place." After the lapse of more 
 than a quarter of a century it again fell to the lot 
 of Henry St. George Tucker to recommend Charles 
 Metcalfe for a situation. As Chairman of the East 
 India Company he recommended him. for the situa- 
 tion of Governor- General of India. 
 
 On the 25th of June Mr. Tucker quitted Cal- 
 cutta, on his journey to the Upper Provinces. The 
 appointment possessed peculiar advantages, which 
 he well knew how to appreciate, and he quitted the 
 Presidency in high health and spirits. A little 
 before his departure he wrote to his sister, speaking 
 of the prospects before him, and showing the cheer- 
 ful temper with which he regarded them : 
 
 " Calcutta, June 15, 1807. In the midst of bustle and prepa- 
 ration for a long journey, I must still write you a line to assure 
 you that I am perfectly well, and as happy as I can reasonably 
 
CHEERING PROSPECTS. 219 
 
 expect to be in a life which admits not, I believe, of perfect 
 happiness. I set off in the course of ten days on a deputation 
 to the Western Provinces, for the purpose of superintending 
 the settlement of our new territory. The duty will be trouble- 
 some and laborious, as we shall have an immense tract of 
 country to put into order; but the appointment is most re- 
 spectable, and as I am accustomed to labor, as our party 
 (consisting of some of my most intimate friends) will be a very 
 pleasant one, and we shall have to travel over the finest 
 country in India, I am quite reconciled to the expedition; in- 
 deed, I am more than reconciled I am quite pleased at the 
 idea of penetrating to the very sources of the sacred Ganges, 
 and of picking strawberries on hills which are familiar with 
 ice and snow. This would be no novelty to you; but it will 
 be a very great one to me, who have not seen a strawberry- 
 bush for one-and- twenty years. I shall be employed on this 
 duty, probably, for eighteen months or two years; and on my 
 return to Calcutta I shall be thinking of proceeding home- 
 wards, to pass the remaining years which fate may have al- 
 lotted to me, in retirement and tranquillity. At least, I hope 
 that I may be permitted to enjoy both, after having devoted 
 so many years to severe and incessant labor. My fortune by 
 that time will be equal to all my wishes, which are moderate 
 enough. I have already, indeed, an independence, sufficient 
 to enable me to retire at any time; but it is as well to have, 
 something more than enough, and on this idea I shall remain 
 in India two years longer. In January or February, 1810, 
 Heaven willing ! I shall bid adieu to India for ever; and, in the 
 ordinary course of events, I may expect to have the happiness 
 of seeing you all in about three years from the present time. 
 It is a long period to look forward to, I own; and after so 
 many disappointments, I ought not to be sanguine in my ex- 
 pectations ; but I will flatter myself that there is some happi- 
 ness in store for me, and that I shall at last reach the haven to 
 which I have so long and so anxiously directed my course. 
 
 " Say everything kind and affectionate for me to our respected 
 parents; for, unless the packet be detained, I shall not be able 
 to write to them." 
 
220 LIFE OF H. ST.a. TUCKER. 
 
 The circumstances under which this important 
 Commission was appointed, were many years after- 
 wards thus detailed by Mr. Tucker himself. " In 
 1803," he said, " during the administration of Mar- 
 quis Wellesley, a Regulation was passed (XXV. of 
 that year), declaring, that a permanent settlement 
 of the Ceded Provinces would he concluded at the 
 end of ten years, for such lands as should be in 
 a sufficiently improved state of cultivation ; and fur- 
 ther proclaiming the ( proprietary rights of all Ze- 
 mindars, Talookdars, and other descriptions of land- 
 holders possessing a right of property in the lands, 
 composing their zemindarries, talooks, or other 
 tenures, to be confirmed and established under the 
 authority of the British Government, in conformity 
 to the laws and usages of the country, and to the 
 regulations which have been, or shall be hereafter 
 enacted by the Governor-General in Council.' It 
 was also provided by the same Regulation, that 
 those Zemindars who might decline to enter into 
 engagements for their lands, should be allowed 
 c Nankar' not exceeding ten per cent, on the Jumma 
 of their estates. In 1805, a Regulation (IX. of 
 that year) was passed by the same Government in 
 nearly corresponding terms; declaring that a per- 
 manent settlement would be concluded with the 
 Zemindars and other landholders in the Conquered 
 Provinces, at the expiration of the decennial leases. 
 But in 1807, the Supreme Government being anx- 
 ious to extend to the landowners of our newly-ac- 
 quired territory those advantages which had been 
 
INTRODUCTION OF THE PERMANENT SETTLEMENT. 221 
 
 conferred on the Zemindars of the Lower Provinces, 
 by fixing the land-tax in perpetuity, Regulation X. 
 of that year was enacted, appointing Commissioners 
 for superintending the settlement of the Ceded and 
 Conquered Provinces ; and notifying c to the Zemin- 
 dars and other actual proprietors of land in those 
 provinces, that the Jumma which may be assessed 
 on their estates in the last year of the settlement 
 immediately ensuing the present settlement, shall 
 remain fixed for ever, in case the Zemindars shall 
 now be willing to engage for the payment of the 
 public revenue on those terms in perpetuity, and 
 the arrangement shall receive the sanction of the 
 Honorable Court of Directors." 
 
 That it was the intention of Lord "Wellesley, of 
 Sir George Barlow, and Lord Minto, to introduce 
 the Permanent Settlement into the Ceded and Con- 
 quered Provinces, is not to be doubted. It is 
 equally a fact that the Commission which was 
 despatched to Upper India in 1807 was instructed 
 to adopt measures for the furtherance of its intro- 
 duction. There were few more consistent supporters 
 of the Permanent Zemindarry Settlement than Mr. 
 Tucker. But he did not at that time conceive that 
 our newly- acquired territory was ripe for such an 
 adjustment of the landed revenue. He believed that 
 our information was deficient; and that great in- 
 justice would be the result of the precipitate intro- 
 duction of a system, the very name of which implied 
 a necessity for the extremest caution and the most 
 elaborate preparation. Such a settlement ought 
 
222 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 eyer to be based upon a careful ascertainment of 
 existing rights and how could these rights be 
 ascertained in a day ? So reasoned Mr, Tucker and 
 his associates; and the further they advanced in 
 their inquiries, the more apparent it was that it 
 was their duty to promise a Permanent Settlement 
 to the landholders not immediately to declare it as 
 the law of the land.* 
 
 So they went on from Station to Station, gather- 
 ing information as they went seeking the opinion 
 of all the principal revenue- officers on their line of 
 route ; and not confining themselves (for indeed the 
 objects of the Commission were not solely of a fiscal 
 .character) to inquiries respecting the landed tenures 
 or the general taxation of the country. Whatever 
 related to the prosperity of the country and the pro- 
 tection of the people, came within their sphere of 
 observation Judicial and Police establishments, 
 Public works and other great agencies for the ame- 
 lioration alike of the moral and physical condition 
 of the inhabitants races of men then believed to 
 
 * Very many years afterwards, Mr. Tucker, referring to this period of his 
 early history, placed on record a clear exposition'of his course of conduct as a 
 member of the Commission. " I was appointed in 1807," he wrote, " to carry 
 into execution a measure which successive administrations had considered to 
 be essential to the prosperity of the country. Although concurring most 
 unreservedly in the opinion that it was wise and salutary, and that it con- 
 tained a vital principle, which must in the end work out all the good anti- 
 cipated, I ventured to counsel delay, upon the ground that we were not at 
 the moment in a state of preparation to consummate so great an undertaking ; 
 but it never occurred to my mind that the principle of the measure was to 
 be abandoned, or that the landholders, who had received from us the most 
 solemn pledge given in the most authentic form, were to be denied for ever 
 the promised benefit, and that in the end they were to be cast aside as a mere 
 encumbrance on the earth. That pledge can never be effaced, although it 
 remains unfulfilled." 
 
PROGRESS OF THE COMMISSION. 223 
 
 be " unaccustomed to any regular system of order 
 or law, and habituated to commit the utmost ex- 
 cesses of violence and oppression" came within 
 their scope, and were duly included in their official 
 reports. 
 
 The trade of the Provinces the reform of the 
 Customs the superintendence of the Mint and 
 Coinage were matters, also, to which they were in- 
 structed to address themselves and it would have 
 been difficult to find in the whole range of the ser- 
 vice a little cluster of men so eminently qualified, 
 alike by their peculiar antecedents and their pecu- 
 liar abilities, to carry out the intentions of the 
 Government which appointed them. 
 
 Mr. Cox and Mr. Tucker,* it need not be said, 
 had both been Accountant-General. Mr. Sherer 
 had been Deputy-Accountant-General and Civil- 
 Auditor. He owed his advancement, in no small 
 measure, to Mr. Tucker, under whom, indeed, as he 
 delighted to acknowledge, he had graduated as a 
 financier. It was mainly the circumstance of the 
 Commission having been instructed to inquire into 
 the Commerce and the Coinage of Upper India that 
 induced him to accept the Secretaryship. Mr. 
 Tucker had mentioned to him that he had recom- 
 mended Metcalfe for the office, and subsequently, 
 since that appointment could not take place (for 
 reasons known neither to Sherer nor to Metcalfe), 
 mentioned to him the name of another officer who 
 
 * Mr. Tucker, it should be said, was the working Commissioner. He did 
 all the more active part of the business ; and drew up the reports. 
 
224 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKEK. 
 
 had applied for the situation. It was admitted 
 that the applicant had no peculiar qualifications for 
 such an ofiice. "But," said Mr. Tucker, "it does 
 not much matter. He is a quiet, gentlemanlike 
 man ; and as to business, I shall work hard myself. 
 With Metcalfe, indeed, it would have heen a dif- 
 ferent thing. He might relieve me of a great deal of 
 trouble, and be of essential service to me." Nothing 
 more took place at the time. " But, a few days 
 afterwards," wrote Mr. Sherer, " we were again 
 conversing on the general object of this Commission, 
 when I found that it was by no means to be limited 
 to the settlement of the Land-Revenue, but was 
 meant to embrace an inquiry into the Trade of the 
 Provinces, a reform of the Customs, a superinten- 
 dence of the Mint and Coinage, &c., &c. Now, 
 having been for some months a member of the Mint 
 Committee at Calcutta, the subject of coinage had 
 occupied a good deal of my attention, and I began 
 to fancy that I knew something about it. I had 
 also had a good deal of talk with Tucker of late on 
 the subject of Trade, and become very anxious to 
 possess the means of acquiring some practical know- 
 ledge of a subject so intimately connected with my 
 profession. I had hoped to get some little insight 
 into the various modes of employing commercial 
 capital in this country by my situation in the Bank, 
 but had been disappointed. This conversation, 
 therefore, had peculiar charms for me, and in the 
 course of it so many things occurred to fire my 
 imagination and excite a desire to go with the Com- 
 
APPOINTMENT OF MR. SHERER. 225 
 
 mission, that I at length burst into an exclamation 
 to that effect. The wish was no sooner formed than 
 I was ready for its accomplishment. Tucker thought 
 it feasible ; and recommended me to apply directly to 
 Sir George Barlow." And so the application was 
 made, and it was granted but grudgingly by the 
 Governor- General ; for Sherer's services could not 
 well be spared from the Department to which he 
 belonged. The flattering hesitation was overcome ; 
 and the Civil- Auditor, still retaining his appoint- 
 ment at the Presidency, joined the Commission, to 
 the great satisfaction of all who were attached to it. 
 He was a very able and a very amiable man ; some- 
 thing, perhaps, of an enthusiast, but always in the 
 right direction; and it is not a little to his honor 
 that he was the cherished friend of three such men 
 as Charles Metcalfe, Butterworth Bayley, and Henry 
 St.George Tucker. 
 
 The hospitality of the English residents, all along 
 their route, was most cordially extended to them. 
 The first part of the journey had been performed by 
 water. They had proceeded up the river as far as 
 Eurruckabad, halting at the principal stations on 
 the way. " You will be glad," wrote one of the 
 party, at the end of August, " to hear that we have 
 been well received at every station we have stopped 
 at. At Benares, Tucker spent a week in Mr. 
 Brooke's family, and, indepd, was detained there so 
 long by the solicitude shown by every one to enter- 
 tain us. We have had a sad, tedious time of it 
 since we left Benares (on the 2nd of August) the 
 
 Q 
 
226 LIFE OP H. ST.a. TUCKER. 
 
 wind having been so high, and adverse, and the 
 stream so uncommonly rapid, that we have been 
 creeping on at the rate of a few coss a day only. 
 To Benares we had been fortunate enough, for we 
 left Calcutta on the 29th of June, and arrived there 
 on the 27th of July, after stopping to see everything 
 worth seeing on the way up. We shall disembark, 
 I believe, at Furruckabad, and after doing what we 
 may have to do there with the Mint, shall proceed 
 to Bareilly, thence to Mooradabad, Saharunpore, 
 and so down by the way of Delhi to Alighur and 
 Agra." A few days afterwards, Mr. Tucker himself 
 wrote, in one of his letters to England, similar com- 
 plaints of the tediousness of the journey : " We have 
 had a tedious and unpleasant journey, and the heat 
 has been excessive. We shall, however, I hope, get 
 to the end of it in ten or twelve days (at least the 
 water-part of our expedition), and we flatter our- 
 selves that the pleasure of travelling by land in a 
 fine season will compensate for all the inconveniences 
 of travelling by water at a very unfavorable one. 
 This is the usual course of life. We go on to the 
 conclusion of it, expecting always that the Future 
 
 will make amends for the Past B 
 
 will tell you that I talk of paying you a visit; 
 and if I were not in so respectable a situation, I 
 should think seriously of it. This circumstance, 
 and some little difficulties which at present oppose 
 my wishes, will probably detain me in the country 
 two or three years longer ; but my expatriation can- 
 not exceed that period. In the society of my family, 
 
EXCITEMENT OP TRAVEL. 227 
 
 I hope to enjoy a few years of tranquillity and com- 
 fort, after a life which, has had little to disting-oish 
 it but a succession of toilsome and uneasy struggles." 
 It is no small proof that the wearisomeness of the 
 river-voyage, the inactive life, and the incessant 
 heat, had greatly affected both his health and his 
 spirits, that one of so eminently cheerful a disposition 
 should write in such a strain as this. 
 
 But the river-journey accomplished the hot sea- 
 son passed and the little party once fairly launched 
 upon the scene of their labors, the unusual depres- 
 sion of spirits under which Mr. Tucker had suffered 
 in his boat, was very soon dissipated by the pleasing 
 excitement of a new life in a new country. Many 
 objects of extreme interest presented themselves to 
 the members of the Commission at every stage. 
 Nature and Art revealed to them beauties unknown, 
 almost unimagined, by those who had hitherto been 
 familiar only with the comparative insipidity of the 
 plains of Bengal and Behar. The majestic scenery 
 of Upper India, and the stately architectural monu- 
 ments of the Moguls, appealed irresistibly to the 
 sensitive temperaments of more than one of these 
 accomplished travellers. Mr. Tucker used to relate 
 how the exquisite beauty of the Taj of Agra affected 
 Sherer to such a degree, that he prostrated himself 
 before it and kissed the ground in an ecstasy of 
 delight; and long years afterwards, when Indian 
 pilgrimages were no more than dim recollections of 
 the Past, though the old enthusiasm was not yet 
 quenched within him, the sometime Secretary wrote 
 
 Q2 
 
228 LIFE OP H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 to Mr. Tucker, reminding him of those " light-hearted 
 days." " The beautiful and sublime scenery of North 
 "Wales," said Mr. Sherer, "is, indeed, truly enchant- 
 ing ; and my occasional rambles on the mountains 
 recall to my mind those light-hearted days, when, 
 as your unworthy Secretary, I was so delighted 
 with the hills and scenery still more sublime at 
 Hurdwar." 
 
 But they had other work than this to occupy their 
 minds and to exercise their bodies the strenuous 
 realities of the new Commission. And they set 
 about it with becoming zeal. It soon, however, be- 
 came evident to them that they would " not be able 
 to superintend the formation of the settlement in 
 person throughout the several districts of the Ceded 
 and Conquered Territory." " It was scarcely pos- 
 sible to traverse this extensive country within the 
 season which admits of travelling in tents; while, 
 to form the assessment on the spot, and to obtain 
 engagements from the numerous Malguzars, several 
 months must have been dedicated to the business of 
 a single district. It became necessary, therefore, to 
 commit the execution of this duty to the local 
 officers, and for the Commissioners to direct their 
 attention to those general objects on which they 
 could hope to employ themselves with more effect."* 
 
 Having thus wisely resolved not to attempt what 
 was plainly impossible, by entering into minute 
 details which would have embarrassed their opera- 
 tions and rendered the result of the Commission a 
 
 * Report of the Board of Commissioners in the Ceded and Conquered Pro- 
 vinces, dated April 13, 1808. 
 
VIEWS OF THE COMMISSIONERS. 229 
 
 mere nullity, they set about the possibilities before 
 them with all earnestness and activity, and relied 
 upon the local officers for the local information they 
 required. They took, as it were from a tower of 
 observation, an extended view of the country which 
 lay stretched beneath them, and they garnered up 
 a great store of general truths of the most ser- 
 viceable kind. It would not have been possible for 
 them to have carried to their work fewer prejudices 
 and foregone conclusions to have entered upon it 
 in a more enlarged spirit of toleration, or with a 
 more genuine desire to turn their opportunities to 
 the best account for the benefit of the people. They 
 were not mere system-mongers. They did not go 
 there to skim the surface of the country on a plea- 
 sure-progress, and then to declare that the people 
 wanted nothing but British rule to make them 
 happy and prosperous. They saw, and they ad- 
 mitted, that there had been some good things even 
 in Mogul government, and they did not deny that 
 there might be, in spite of all our kind professions 
 and our good intentions, some evils in the change 
 of sovereignty which we had inflicted upon them. 
 Convinced, too, as they were, of the benefits which 
 had been conferred upon Bengal by the Regulations 
 of 1793, they were by no means prepared to pre- 
 scribe them as a panacea for all the maladies of 
 Upper India. They saw that they had to deal with 
 a different race of men, and that different institu- 
 tions were existing among them. They saw that 
 there were conflicting claims to be reconciled, and 
 that any undue eagerness to recognise the rights 
 
230 LIFE OF H. ST.O. TUCKER. 
 
 of one class might be attended with injustice to 
 another. They went about, therefore, seeking in- 
 formation; not merely from our own local officers 
 and their native subordinates, but from the people 
 themselves, high and low from the great land- 
 holder to the petty cultivator; and the more they 
 acquired, the more convinced they were that they 
 had much more to acquire, and the more clearly they 
 saw the necessity of much caution and longer delay. 
 And, therefore, they counselled delay. But it was 
 not done without reluctance reluctance, which 
 had they seen far into the future, and anticipated 
 the eventual results of the postponement, would 
 have been even stronger than it was. " When we 
 reflect," they said, " that the miseries of famine 
 have, perhaps, been arrested in Bengal, by the la- 
 mented patriot who gave the Permanent Settlement 
 to that country, we feel the utmost repugnance at 
 the idea of opposing its extension to our new pos- 
 sessions. But Bengal is different in many particu- 
 lars. The land is more easily cultivated, and is fer- 
 tilised by a periodical inundation; water is easily 
 procured. Wells, reservoirs, and aqueducts are un- 
 necessary ; and a large capital is seldom required 
 for agricultural purposes. The inferior landholders, 
 and even the peasantry, can carry on the cultivation 
 of their lands without those aids which must be 
 furnished to secure the prosperity of the Western 
 Provinces. But above all, we were in every respect 
 better prepared in Bengal to undertake a measure, 
 which at a future period we shall gladly see ex- 
 tended to the rest of our possessions. 3 ' 
 
POSTPONEMENT OF THE SETTLEMENT. 231 
 
 It is not to be doubted that there is wisdom in 
 this. But the " future period 55 at which the Perma- 
 nent Settlement was to be extended to the North- 
 Western Provinces, Mr. Tucker never lived to see. 
 It was his recommendation on the part of the Com- 
 mission, " that the Permanent Settlement in the 
 Ceded and Conquered districts be for the present 
 postponed 55 "that the ensuing settlement be con- 
 cluded for a period of four years ; and that during 
 the interval a reference be made to the Court of 
 Directors, for the purpose of obtaining their au- 
 thority for the formation of a Permanent Settle- 
 ment unconditionally at a future period that during 
 the same interval, the attention of the public offi- 
 cers be particularly directed to the important duty 
 of collecting materials which may form the basis of 
 a fixed assessment ; and with this view the Collec- 
 tors who have distinguished themselves by their 
 successful exertions in the Ceded and Conquered 
 Provinces, be continued in their present situations, 
 and be remunerated by larger allowances, rather 
 than by promotion to higher offices. 55 
 
 It is beyond the scope of this work to enter 
 largely into the history of the landed Hevenue of 
 India, or even that particular branch of the subject, 
 which is known as the Settlement of the North- 
 Western Provinces. But before closing this notice 
 of Mr. Tucker's connexion with the Commission of 
 1807, it may be mentioned that the report which he 
 drew up, in the early part of the following year, 
 was less pleasing to the Supreme Government than 
 it was to the Court of Directors. "Allowing,' 5 
 
232 LIFE OE H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 wrote the former, " to Mr. Cox and to Mr. Tucker 
 all possible credit for the motives by which they 
 were influenced in the discussion of the subject, 
 and for the ability with which they have treated 
 it, their report has not occasioned any alteration 
 in the sentiments which we before entertained 
 with respect to the immediate establishment of 
 a Permanent Settlement in the Ceded and Con- 
 quered Provinces." But the latter subscribed to the 
 opinions of the Commissioners. The delay was 
 granted. Further information was sought. As 
 time advanced, the policy of the proposed measure 
 was freely canvassed. A strong party grew up in 
 the India House opposed to all permanent settle- 
 ments ; and at last the project of their extension 
 to the North- Western Provinces was shelved. The 
 result of much inquiry and much discussion was, 
 after all, a system of long leases, upon which the 
 Revenue administration of Upper India is now 
 based. But Mr. Tucker never ceased to declare that 
 this was a fatal error, and that the British Govern- 
 ment had been guilty of a gross breach of faith in 
 refusing to fulfil the pledges which doubtless it had 
 authoritatively made to the people.* 
 
 * The experiences gained by Mr. Tucker, during this tour, were often 
 spoken of by him in after-years ; and he delighted to dwell on the circum- 
 stances attending it. One characteristic illustration of this may be given here. 
 Moving through the country, not with the lavish magnificence, or as it was 
 commonly called the " great style," which had characterised all the official 
 movements of Lord Wellesley's administration, but still with a prestige of 
 authority around them, the Commissioners were everywhere regarded with 
 curiosity and received with respect ; and small as was their camp, and incon- 
 siderable as was the cortege that attended them, Mr. Tucker was not with- 
 out considerable apnrehension that his followers still harassed the people 
 
EXACTIONS OF CAMP FOLLOWERS. 233 
 
 of the villages through which he passed by unauthorised exactions in his 
 name. Very many years afterwards, when Chairman of the East India 
 Company, and writing on the subject of Governors' Visitation-Tours, he 
 spoke of the unauthorised exactions of the followers of men in authority, 
 and thus alluded to the circumstances of his progress through the North- 
 Western Provinces : " I believe I may say that no person could be more 
 unwilling than myself to countenance or permit oppression or injustice ; but 
 I am far from being satisfied that much wrong may not have been com- 
 mitted in my name, when I made a tour of the Western Provinces just forty 
 years ago. Our camp did not, I believe, with our escort, exceed 400 or 500 
 men ; but this cortege, moderate as it was, when compared with a Vice-Regal 
 movement, was large enough to levy contributions from the country. I made 
 an example of two of my servants at an early period ; but I am not sure 
 that their successors were more trustworthy." 
 
234 LIFE OP H. ST.GL TUCKER. 
 
 CHAPTEE VIII. 
 
 Mr. Tucker's Resignation of the Commissionership His Return to Calcutta 
 Letters to his Family Projected Visit to England Appointment to the 
 Secretaryship in the Public Department Death of his Father ; of his two 
 Brothers Letters to his Sister and Mother Embarkation for England 
 Public Testimonials. 
 
 BUT advantageous as in many respects was Mr. 
 Tucker's situation at this time, and pleasant as were 
 all its social environments, it had one very heavy 
 drawback. He found that the climate of the Upper 
 Provinces was detrimental to his health. That 
 Upper India is more salubrious than the low steamy 
 plains of Bengal, is a fact that all experience verifies. 
 But the Commissioners had started at too early a 
 season; and Mr. Tucker had left behind him his 
 spacious residence in the City of Palaces for the op- 
 pressive confinement of the Budgerow and the 
 Palanquin. If he had started in November the 
 result would have been different. But starting, as 
 the Commissioners did, in June, the fiery climate of 
 Upper India seems to have done its work upon 
 them. Before the end of the year 1807 Mr. Cox 
 had quitted the Commission ; and early in the fol- 
 lowing year Mr. Tucker forwarded an application 
 
RETURN TO CALCUTTA. 235 
 
 to Government for leave to be absent from his office 
 for the space of three or four months, intimating, 
 at the same time, that if his request were denied, 
 he must solicit to be relieved from his appoint- 
 ment. 
 
 The permission which he sought was refused. 
 Lord Minto's official answer was a courteous denial. 
 In the public letter which was returned, Mr. 
 Tucker's claims "to consideration, from his talents, 
 knowledge, and services," were fully recognised; 
 but Government at the same time expressed its 
 " regret that any circumstances should be in the 
 way to prevent compliance with his request, or that 
 anything should have arisen to deprive Government 
 of his services in the settlement of the Provinces ; 
 but as Ms request could not be granted without the 
 most serious inconvenience, his appointment was 
 cancelled." 
 
 So Mr. Tucker returned to Calcutta much sus- 
 tained by the thought of a speedy visit to England. 
 " I came down to Calcutta," he wrote to his sister 
 at the latter end of April, " almost determined to 
 go to England. The heat of the Western Pro- 
 vinces I could not bear ; and I am sufficiently tired 
 of the country altogether. The favorable season, 
 however, has passed away ; and I fancy I must re- 
 main here some time longer. Do not be surprised, 
 however, if I should suddenly make my appearance 
 among you, some ' beau matin.' I am still in doubt 
 whether I shall not take my passage with Captain 
 Marshall in the Diana, which will sail a month or 
 
236 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 two hence. There are so many objections, however, 
 that I feel a difficulty in deciding. My fortune is 
 very moderate ; it is not yet at my own command ; 
 and to render it equal to all my occasions, I ought 
 to remain in the country two or three years longer. 
 I shall consider a little longer, and decide ulti- 
 mately, I hope, for the best." 
 
 He considered, and he decided. He considered all 
 the bearings of the case, and he decided not to re- 
 turn to England. The sacrifice of his heart's de- 
 sires was great. He had been, for some years, in- 
 tent upon the thought of a speedy return to Eng- 
 land, and he had buoyed himself up with the belief 
 that this great object would be accomplished. But 
 he was not a man to think only of himself. There 
 were others whose happiness he might increase by 
 protracting the period of his exile. The Governor- 
 General had held out to him an assurance of honor- 
 able employment ;* and little as he cared, for his 
 own sake, to increase his worldly store, he thought 
 that for the sake of others it behoved him to make 
 further sacrifice of his ease and pleasure. So, in 
 September, he wrote to his friends in England : "I 
 cannot immediately leave the country without in- 
 jury to my affairs ; and I am afraid that I ought 
 
 * In the letter quoted above, Mr. Tucker says : " Lord Minto has treated 
 me with great personal kindness and attention ; and although my present 
 appointment is barren of all profit, I am persuaded that I shall obtain from 
 him everything I can expect or wish, the moment an opportunity occurs of 
 providing for me better. Whether it is worth while to wait is the question 
 which I find it so difficult to decide." The barren appointment to which 
 allusion is here made was that of a supernumerary member of the Board 
 of Revenue. 
 
PLANS AND PROSPECTS. 237 
 
 not to leave it for a year or two to come. Lord 
 Minto has held out to me every possible induce- 
 ment to remain here ; and although I am most 
 anxious to return to England as soon as possible, 
 the regard which is due to others will perhaps deter- 
 mine me to remain in India a couple of years longer. 
 My circumstances are so circumscribed that it will 
 not be in my power to assist all the many members 
 of our numerous family who require assistance; 
 and to see them distressed without the power of 
 assisting them would be distressing to myself. If 
 the Secretary, Mr. Brown, should go home, Lord 
 Minto has promised me the succession ; and the 
 situation is so respectable, and the allowances aue 
 so handsome, that I fear I should have cause to 
 reproach myself hereafter if I neglected such an 
 opportunity of improving my fortune. It may in- 
 duce me to stay a year or two longer in the country ; 
 but nothing else can, I think, delay my departure 
 after the month of February." 
 
 In December, he wrote again to his sister on the 
 same subject. A little while before, he had received 
 the sad tidings of the death of his excellent father,* 
 whom he had not seen face to face since his early 
 boyhood in Bermuda ; but the recollection of whom 
 he had cherished with the greatest fondness, and 
 to the happiness of whose declining years he had 
 earnestly longed to contribute from his own abun- 
 dance. The blow smote him to the heart. It had, in 
 
 * On the 3rd of February, 1808, in the 66th year of his age. 
 
238 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 all his thoughts of home, and all his comxnunings 
 with his family, been a sustaining reflection, that 
 " the old man of whom ye spake he is yet amongst 
 you," and now those grey hairs had gone down to 
 the grave. None but the wifeless and the childless, 
 who have toiled on through weary years of exile, 
 solaced and supported by the thought of paying 
 back for the parental tenderness of old the meet 
 reward of filial devotion, can know the full extent of 
 such an affliction as this. How deeply Mr. Tucker 
 felt the blow may be gathered from his letters to his 
 sister : 
 
 " Calcutta, 22nd Sept., 1808. I did not receive any letter 
 from you, my dearest sister, by the April Fleet ; but I can 
 easily conceive the grief which afflicted your heart, and how 
 painful it must have been to you to write under such circum- 
 stances. I feel it myself at the present moment ; but still, I 
 should be wanting in what I owe you, if I allowed my own 
 feelings to operate on such an occasion. Before this letter can 
 reach you, the sharp sense of this severe affliction will, I trust, 
 have been weakened. In my mind the impression is still fresh ; 
 and it is a misfortune which I must ever feel and deplore. Let 
 me not, however, renew in your heart feelings which I hope 
 are already less poignant. Time soothes the most bitter 
 sorrows, or nature must sink under the afflictions to which we 
 are exposed. Take care of our poor afflicted mother, and 
 alleviate her grief as far as possible. Would that it were per- 
 mitted me to assist in offering her consolation ! " 
 
 " Calcutta, 17 'th Dec., 1808. I wrote to you under date 
 the 22nd Sept., by the Preston ; and I believe I gave you 
 reason to expect that about this time I should be embarking 
 for England. I had so determined; but we can never be cer- 
 tain of what is to happen, even at the distance of a few hours. 
 I had taken my passage in the William Pitt, with my friends 
 the Fendalls, and was fully resolved to bid adieu to this 
 
APPOINTMENT TO THE SECRETARYSHIP. 239 
 
 country, in which I have passed so large a portion of my life. 
 I had scarcely made my arrangements, when the Secretary, 
 Mr. Brown, determined to go home; and as Lord Minto had 
 previously tendered me the office should it become vacant, and 
 it is a situation in every respect desirable, I felt myself under 
 a sort of obligation to abandon my design, and to reconcile 
 myself to a further residence in this country. You will believe 
 that I did not give up the hope of seeing you again, without a 
 poignant regret. At this moment, I am scarcely satisfied with 
 the change ; but whatever is, is right. At least, I will hope so ; 
 although I have had sometimes difficulty enough to reconcile 
 the maxim. 
 
 " I propose to remain here a couple of years longer; and, 
 much as I feel the unpleasant parts of this arrangement, 
 I cannot conceal from myself that it is likely to be 
 attended with some advantage. I should have found my- 
 self probably much cramped in my circumstances, had I 
 left India immediately, and should, I doubt not, have been 
 compelled to return to it. This will not, I trust, be the case, 
 if I remain here a year or two longer; but I have been so 
 often disappointed in my hopes, that I will no longer speculate 
 upon a distant future. Two years constitute an age ; and I 
 must learn to bound my prospects. I will hope to enjoy the 
 happiness of seeing my family once more, without pretending 
 to trace out projects which may never be realised. Our des- 
 tiny is not in our own hands. 
 
 " I have already written to friend B ; and shall of 
 
 course not neglect to write to our poor afflicted mother. Con- 
 sole her, dearest N , and receive consolation for the afflic- 
 tions of your own heart. Mine has been smote, until it has 
 almost lost the sense of feeling." 
 
 At the commencement of the new year 1809 
 Mr. Tucker took charge of the office of Secretary in 
 the Puhlic Department. " I have taken charge of 
 my new office of Secretary," he wrote, " at the busiest 
 time (the despatch of a large Meet), and Lord Minto 
 
240 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 having requested me also to continue to officiate as a 
 member of the Board of Revenue, in the absence of 
 two of the members, I have really my hands full." 
 
 He was now, indeed, in harness again ; and the 
 old subject of Finance was once more occupying 
 many of his official hours. It must have been with 
 satisfaction, not without alloy, that he now regarded 
 the state of the public accounts. There was now no 
 want of money in the Treasury ; and it was to be 
 borrowed from the community at an interest of six 
 per cent. " I shall be happy," wrote Lord Minto 
 from Madras, where the disturbances in the Coast 
 Army had taken him, " to find the reduction of in- 
 terest to six per cent, practicable and advisable ; and 
 I should conceive it possible to force a loan even on 
 those terms, with an overflowing Treasury such as 
 we now have, and without any immediate appre- 
 hension of events that would require a large ex- 
 penditure." So far, this was satisfactory. That 
 for which Mr. Tucker had so long striven had now 
 been fairly accomplished ; but a new source of alarm 
 now began to present itself to the Indian Financier. 
 In the month of August the Bengal Government 
 had sent home a long and elaborate Financial letter, 
 written with all that clearness and force which dis- 
 tinguished from first to last Mr. Tucker's official 
 papers, in which it was stated that " the rate of 
 Indian interest having of late approximated more 
 nearly to the standard of English interest, the capi- 
 talist has no longer the same motive for retaining 
 his funds in India ; and even if the security be sup- 
 
TRANSFER OF THE DEBT. 241 
 
 posed equal, the charges of agency, the risk of dis- 
 appointment, and other circumstances, will probably 
 deter the public creditor from, leaving his property 
 at a distance from his own immediate control, when 
 the advantage to be obtained is no longer con- 
 siderable." At that time four-fifths of the Public 
 Securities were in the hands of European creditors. 
 Fortunes were more rapidly acquired than in these 
 days; the period of Indian service was generally 
 shorter; and such was the difficulty and uncer- 
 tainty of communication between the two countries, 
 that the English creditor was naturally anxious to 
 carry home his property with him, even if he had not 
 been moved thereto by the unsettled state of Europe, 
 and a vague alarm of Indian invasion ; so that there 
 was an apprehension of a large amount of the Debt 
 being speedily transferred to England. " It is to be 
 apprehended," continued the Einance-letter quoted 
 above, "that many of those who have deposited 
 their Government Securities in the Treasury, as well 
 as those who have left their property in the hands 
 of private agents, will order a large proportion of it 
 to be remitted to England at an early period. In- 
 dividuals, also, who are returning to England, and 
 even some of those who are still resident in the 
 country, may be expected to remit at least a part of 
 their Eunds." The unlimited power of remittance 
 through the Government Treasury was found, in- 
 deed, in the existing state of things, to be a serious 
 evil. There was the greatest difficulty in effecting 
 remittances through the channel of Commerce ; and 
 
 R 
 
242 LIFE OF H. ST.a. TUCKER. 
 
 it appeared that so long as the Company's Treasury 
 afforded such facilities for the remittance not only 
 of the interest, but of the principal of the Deht to 
 England, there would be little money available in 
 India at a low rate of interest. " I do not think," 
 wrote Lord Minto to Mr. Tucker, " any money will 
 be left in India at six per cent., which can find its 
 way to England, excepting the Native property. 
 But the remittance of money to England otherwise 
 than by Sills on the Court of Directors, will occa- 
 sion no inconvenience to Government, and the low 
 interest on Public Securities will throw more capital 
 into trade, which must be advantageous to the 
 country. It seems to follow, from this view of the 
 subject, that we should ensure the first fundamental 
 operation of exchanging the present Securities for 
 others, without the option of remittance to England, 
 by refraining from those conditions which may be 
 expected to force the capital home, under the power 
 which now exists for that purpose. And when that 
 is accomplished, we ought, and may securely, take 
 the proper steps for reducing the interest. But, as 
 I have already said, my judgment will of course 
 remain suspended on these points till it can be ma- 
 tured by consultation and discussion at Calcutta." 
 
 To Mr. Tucker, however, it seemed that the main- 
 tenance of a low rate of interest in India was not 
 incompatible with those other conditions to which 
 allusion has been made; but he saw the urgent 
 necessity of impressing upon the Company the evil 
 results attending an almost exclusive system of re- 
 
COMMERCIAL REMITTANCES. 243 
 
 mittance by bills, when the industrial resources 01 
 the country, duly developed, and justly protected, 
 might be turned to this profitable account. And 
 in the masterly State-paper which I have quoted 
 above a paper which a quarter of a century after- 
 wards was read with interest, and cited with com- 
 mendation by some of the ablest men of the day 
 he pointed out the means of providing adequate 
 remittance through the channel of Commerce, and 
 making the advantage of the State the advantage 
 also of the people. For nearly fifty years, indeed, 
 was Mr. Tucker endeavoring to stimulate these 
 commercial remittances but all to very little pur- 
 pose. The sugar, cotton, &c., which he contended 
 were the legitimate means of remittance to this 
 country, still came in but scanty supplies ; and the 
 Justice to India, for which he clamored, he never 
 lived to see granted. A new state of things has 
 now arisen. The proportion of the Public Securities, 
 held by the native community has progressively in- 
 creased. Improved facilities of inter-communication 
 have placed Indian Securities more immediately 
 under the management of the English resident. 
 There is no longer any apprehension of the downfal 
 of our Indian Empire. And the long-continued 
 Peace in Europe has so reduced the interest of 
 money in England, that Indian Securities are still 
 sought, for the higher per-centage they bear. But 
 still the subject enlarged upon in the Financial letter 
 of August, 1809, is one that demands the considera- 
 tion of the Indian statesman, for with it is mixed up 
 
244 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 the whole question of the encouragement of the Agri- 
 culture, the Manufactures, and the Trade of India ; 
 and therefore of the prosperity of the country and 
 the happiness of the people.* 
 
 But he had not long devoted himself to the duties 
 of his new office, when fresh sorrows came to lacerate 
 his heart. In the summer of that year he received 
 information of the death of two of his brothers. 
 They had been drowned in the Channel on their 
 way to the coast of Spain. Colonel George and 
 Captain Nathaniel Tucker, of the King's service, 
 had embarked on board the Primrose sloop of war, 
 which formed part of a convoy proceeding to Spain 
 with troops destined to join the army then operating 
 in the Peninsula. Colonel Tucker had embarked 
 on board this vessel rather than on the frigate 
 which had charge of the convoy, because, crowded 
 as was the latter with officers of rank, there was 
 no room for his brother and his brotherly affection 
 cost him his life. A few hours after their embarka- 
 tion at Palmouth the Primrose was wrecked on the 
 " Manacles," and with the exception of a boy, who 
 was picked off one of the ship's tops, every soul on 
 board perished, f 
 
 These multiplied bereavements cut Mr. Tucker to 
 the soul. " Peel them I must," he exclaimed, in a 
 
 * For further information on this important subject I would refer the 
 reader to the paper on " Home Remittances," in Mr. Tucker's Memorials of 
 Indian Government, p. 381, et seq, 
 
 f Colonel George Tucker was the schoolfellow and favorite brother of the 
 subject of this Memoir. He was a good soldier, and on the high road to dis- 
 tinction, when his career was thus lamentably closed. 
 
DEATH OF HIS BROTHERS. 245 
 
 letter written at the time, " to the end of my life ;" 
 and writing to his sister, he thus expressed the sin- 
 cerity of his grief: 
 
 "Calcutta, 27th August, 1809. I have not heard from you 
 for a long time ; nor can I be surprised at it. The afflictions 
 which we have suffered must have oppressed your feeling heart, 
 and have made it painful to you to communicate with those who 
 were equal sufferers. I have felt this myself; and it required 
 an effort to write even to those who have not equal cause to 
 deplore our irreparable loss. To my poor unfortunate mother I 
 have not been able to write a line. What can I say to her? 
 For some misfortunes no consolation can be offered. Heaven 
 grant that she may have fortitude to support such a succession 
 of afflictions! I would willingly speak comfort to you, my 
 dearest sister; but it is in vain. I feel this loss almost as a dis- 
 solution of the family. Poor fellows ! they were its treasure ; 
 we can never forget them. I have known little happiness of 
 late ; but what is personal to myself, I can bear. I had hoped 
 to have enjoyed comfort in witnessing their prosperity and 
 happiness. They, however, have left a scene of trouble and 
 affliction without a reproach ; and we are the sufferers who sur- 
 vive. Let me not, however, afflict you. I ought not, perhaps, 
 to write on this distressing subject. It shall henceforward be 
 buried in my own heart." 
 
 All through the year 1810, Mr. Tucker continued 
 to devote himself diligently to the duties of the 
 Secretariat. He went through his work with a 
 heavy heart; but he performed it with his accus- 
 tomed vigor. The thought of a speedy return to 
 England was still uppermost in his mind. What 
 he felt on this much-engrossing subject may be 
 gathered from his private letters, which better than 
 anything else relate the inner history of the man. 
 His outer history was one, for the most part, of 
 official routine : 
 
246 LIFE OF H. ST.GL TTJCKEK. 
 
 " TO HIS SISTER. 
 
 "Calcutta, 17th February, 1810. 
 
 " It is now a period of full two years, I believe, since I had 
 the satisfaction of receiving a letter from you ; but I cannot be 
 surprised at your disinclination to write, under the distressing 
 circumstances which have occurred within that unhappy period. 
 I have felt the same repugnance myself, and did not indeed 
 write to you by the last Fleet; but these feelings we must over- 
 come if possible. 
 
 " .... I will not say that I am quite determined about the 
 period of my departure from India; for nothing beyond the 
 present moment can be depended upon ; but, as far as I can 
 judge at present, I apprehend no obstacle to my leaving the 
 country about this time twelvemonth." 
 
 " TO HIS MOTHER. 
 
 " June 10, 1810. 
 
 " .... I wrote to Mrs. T. that I should probably embark 
 for England about January next; and I do not foresee at 
 present that anything is likely to detain me longer in India. I 
 am most anxious to have the happiness of seeing you once more ; 
 and, please Heaven! I shall enjoy this happiness about this 
 time twelvemonth. My eyes are become so weak, that this is 
 an additional reason for my leaving the country ; for until I re- 
 tire from business, I cannot take care of them and spare them 
 as I ought to do. 
 
 " .... I do not propose to have a house, or an establish- 
 ment of any kind (in England) ; for my fortune is not sufficient 
 to admit of anything of the kind. A single room, and a single 
 servant, will answer all my purposes, if I should continue (as I 
 probably shall do) a bachelor. 
 
 "I have recommended to you, my dearest mother, to have 
 your little property secured as soon as possible in the Public 
 
 Funds; and I have written to J expressing the same 
 
 opinion. Do not, I entreat you, allow it to remain in any pri- 
 vate hands, or to be lent to any individual engaged in com- 
 mercial concerns of any kind. I have suffered so severely from 
 commercial speculations, that I have a dread of them; and 
 
LETTERS TO HIS MOTHER. 247 
 
 much as I regard Mr. , I would not advise you to place 
 
 your property in his House ;* for although his business may be 
 very good, and he is as kind and as good a being as ever lived, 
 it is better to avoid the risk which must attend his and every 
 
 other concern in trade. J , or my friend B , will be 
 
 able to give you the best advice with regard to the mode of dis- 
 posing of your little property." 
 
 "Calcutta, 24th September, 1810. 
 
 " . . . . My eyes are so weak, that I cannot venture to write 
 much ; and in reading I scarcely ever indulge. This defect in 
 my sight has determined me to leave the country a year or two 
 sooner than I had intended ; and by the e$d of May or begin- 
 ning of June I hope to have the pleasure 6T seeing you all once 
 more. I have written to Captain Hay to reserve accommoda- 
 tion for me in the Astell ; but I am a little afraid that others 
 have applied before me. I shall, at all events, take my passage 
 in one of the ships which will sail in December or January next. 
 My health, in all other respects, is perfectly good; and I shall 
 consider myself very fortunate if I enjoy as good health in 
 England. 
 
 " . . . .1 was exceedingly mortified to find that the little 
 Kentish property had been let again upon a long lease ; and 
 that my quondam friend, Mr. , had behaved so unhand- 
 somely on the occasion. These disappointments will occur, and 
 they must be borne with patience. I was very desirous of add- 
 ing to the property, and should have been disposed to settle in 
 the neighbourhood, as I understand the situation is a pleasant 
 one. This idea must now be abandoned, especially as my pre- 
 mature return to England will prevent my making that addition 
 to my fortune which I had counted upon. I shall not now 
 have it my power to form any regular establishment, except as 
 far as it may be necessary for your comfort. I shall live my- 
 self without house or equipage, upon as moderate a scale of ex- 
 pense as possible. 
 
 * The House to which allusion is here made failed in the following year. 
 
248 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKEK. 
 
 " November 2nd. All quite well. I have taken my passage 
 in the Sovereign, Captain Campbell ; and as we expect to sail 
 direct about the 1st of January, I hope to have the happiness 
 of seeing you early in May." 
 
 And so, after a quarter of a century of exile, he 
 set his face towards the white cliffs of England, eager 
 to realise the dreams of the Past. He went, carrying 
 with him the thanks and the commendations of the 
 memhers of the Supreme Government, who on the 
 last day of the year indited the following despatch : 
 
 " To the Honorable the Court of Directors for Affairs oftlie Honor- 
 able tlie United Company of Merchants of England trading to 
 the East Indies. 
 
 " HONORABLE SIRS, We are extremely concerned that 
 Mr. Henry St. George Tucker, the Secretary to the Govern- 
 ment in the Public Department of this Presidency, is compelled 
 to resign that office, and proceed to England in the Honorable 
 Company's ship, Sovereign. 
 
 " 2. On the departure of any of your servants, who have 
 discharged the duties of their official situations with distin- 
 guished credit and ability, and with eminent advantage to the 
 public interests, we deem it an act both of duty and of justice 
 to afford to your Honorable Court our testimony to the merits 
 of their conduct, and to the importance of their services. To 
 none could this testimony be more justly due than it is to Mr. 
 Tucker, who not only in the office which he is about to resign, 
 but in other important and responsible situations under this 
 Government, has established a more than ordinary claim to our 
 approbation and that of your Honorable Court, by the appli- 
 cation of talents and acquirements of the highest order, with 
 unwearied diligence, and unimpeached integrity, in the dis- 
 charge of the laborious duties committed to his charge during 
 a long course of active employment in the Civil Service of the 
 Honorable Company. 
 
 " 3. At the express desire of the late Governor-General, 
 
. KETURN TO ENGLAND. 249 
 
 Marquis Wellesley, Mr. Tucker was induced, at a season of 
 great financial difficulty, to relinquish the situation of Secretary 
 to Government in the Revenue Department, of which the 
 salary was 50,000 rupees per annum, and accept that of Ac- 
 countant-General, at a salary of not more than 38,000. Mr. 
 Tucker, we understand, was led to expect, but has not hitherto 
 received, a compensation for this sacrifice of private interest to 
 the calls of the public service, and proposes to submit his claim, 
 on this account, to your Honorable Court a claim to which we 
 cannot refuse to solicit your favorable attention. 
 
 "4. Mr. Tucker's peculiar abilities in the Department of 
 Finance are not unknown to your Honorable Court. The 
 services which he rendered to Government by the very able 
 manner in which he conducted the important and laborious 
 duties of the office of Accountant-General, merited and ob- 
 tained the recorded approbation of Government. We acknow- 
 ledge, also, the advantage which we have derived from Mr. 
 Tucker's assistance in forming our plans for the regulation of 
 your financial concerns since his appointment to the office of 
 Secretary to the Government in the Public Department; the 
 general duties of which have been conducted by Mr. Tucker 
 with distinguished ability, and in a manner to demand our 
 highest approbation. 
 
 "5. These long and meritorious services, we trust, will 
 appear to your Honorable Court to claim your favorable regard 
 to any representations which Mr. Tucker may have occasion to 
 address to you, and your consent to his return to India without 
 prejudice to his rank, if the state of his health, which has com- 
 pelled his departure without having acquired a competency, 
 shall enable him to resume his exertions in the service of the 
 Honorable Company. 
 
 " We have, &c., Honorable Sirs, 
 
 " Your most faithful, humble servants, 
 (Signed) "MiNTO. 
 
 " G. HEWETT. 
 
 " J. LUMSDEN. 
 
 " H. COLEBKOOKE. 
 
 "Fort William, the 31st December, 1810." 
 
250 LIFE OF H. ST.GL TUCKER. 
 
 At the same time the Governor-General wrote a 
 private letter to Lord Melville, who presided at the 
 India Board, in strong recommendation of Mr. 
 Tucker; and to other influential men at home 
 addressed himself in terms equally commendatory of 
 the public servant from whom he had derived such 
 important assistance. In the month of May, 1810, 
 the Sovereign entered port. 
 
RECEPTION IN ENGLAND. 251 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Mr. Tucker's Reception in England Meeting with his Mother Visit to 
 Mr. Carre Miss Boswell Mr. Tucker's Marriage His Wedding-Tour 
 Recognition of his Services His intended Return to India The Voyage 
 to Calcutta. 
 
 ON his return to England, Mr. Tucker met with a 
 most flattering reception, both from the Court of 
 Directors and the Board of Control. On the day of 
 his arrival in London, Lord Melville sent for him, 
 and held him in conference for more than an hour. 
 He was the depository of a rich store of information, 
 which the governing bodies were most anxious to 
 possess. 
 
 He had many old friends, too, in London, who were 
 eager to show him the attention that was his due ; 
 and much business, too, that it was necessary at once 
 to transact. So that, impatient as he was to em- 
 brace his mother and his sister, he was detained in 
 the metropolis, for some little time, against his 
 will. " I have some business of great importance to 
 transact," he wrote to the former, from Charles- 
 street, Berkeley-square, "which I cannot possibly 
 get through before Eriday or Saturday. On Eriday 
 or Saturday evening, however, I will positively set 
 off in the mail, come what will, for I will no longer 
 deny myself the happiness of embracing those who 
 
252 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 are so dear to me. I have been received here in the 
 most nattering manner, and this is one cause of my 
 detention ; for the kindness of my friends has pre- 
 vented my paying all that attention to business 
 which was necessary." In a previous letter he had 
 written, also to his mother, who was at Cheltenham : 
 " I am in the best possible health, and shall be most 
 happy in revisiting my country, if I find my friends 
 so. Heaven bless and preserve you !" He fulfilled 
 his promise, and was soon in his mother's arms. 
 
 Having spent a brief season of happiness in the 
 society of his widowed parent and his beloved sister, 
 he set out for Scotland, on a visit to those relatives 
 who had received him, when a boy in England, fresh 
 from his western home. He found, unfortunately, a 
 sick house ; and he wrote to his mother from Edin- 
 burgh, in July : " This illness has cast a glo'om over 
 us all ; but the sun is beginning to shine with us 
 again, and I hope that the conclusion of my visit to 
 Edinburgh will be more auspicious than its com- 
 mencement/' In this letter, as in many others 
 written at this period, the tenderest regard is 
 evinced for the happiness and comfort of the aged 
 parent, whose declining years he had done so much 
 to solace and to cheer. It was one of his chief 
 cares to provide her with a comfortable home. 
 Whether an arrangement could be made for them 
 to live together had been canvassed between them, 
 but there was an obstacle in the way. " You are 
 unequal," he wrote, "to the fatigue of house-keep- 
 ing; and it is impossible for me to impose this 
 
HIS MARRIAGE. 253 
 
 trouble upon you. I, myself, am totally ignorant 
 of everything of the kind ; and even if it were cer- 
 tain (which it is not) that I shall remain in England, 
 I could not undertake to manage a household esta- 
 blishment. I believe, therefore, that I have nothing 
 for it, but to look out for a wife, or some good- 
 natured friend, to assist me in this way." 
 
 This was said jestingly, but there was deep mean- 
 ing at the bottom of it. The idea of taking a wife 
 was not, indeed, at that time a mere abstraction. 
 It already pressed itself on his mind as an embodied 
 reality. It was not a thought of a wife ; but of the 
 wife. He had, in his heart, made the election that 
 was to influence the future happiness of his life. 
 
 On his way to Edinburgh he had paid passing 
 visits to some friends ; amongst others, to Mr. Alex- 
 ander Carre, of Caverse, in Roxburghshire. Mr. 
 Carre was married to Miss Boswell, daughter of Mr. 
 Robert Boswell, of Edinburgh, Writer to the Signet, 
 a member of the Auchinleck family, and a rela- 
 tive of Johnson's biographer. It happened that a 
 younger sister was then residing with Mrs. Carre. 
 Mr. Tucker there saw her for the first time ; but it 
 can scarcely be said that they met as strangers. 
 Another sister was married to Mr. Egerton, of the 
 Bengal Civil Service, who had succeeded Mr. Tucker 
 as Accountant- General, and with whom he had 
 long lived in habits of intimacy and friendship. Of 
 her younger sister, Mrs. Egerton had often spoken 
 to him in terms of the strongest sisterly affection ; 
 and in letters home had alluded to Mr. Tucker, as 
 
254 LIEE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 to an old and a dear friend, for whom, on his visit 
 to England, she hespoke all their kindness and hos- 
 pitality. So, now that Miss Jane Boswell and Mr. 
 Tucker met, face to face, at Caverse, they met 
 almost as old friends ; there were common ties to 
 knit them together. She had much to ask ; and he, 
 much to tell. And there was no disappointment on 
 either side. Mrs. Egerton had not exaggerated the 
 womanly heauty and gentleness of the one, or the 
 manly intelligence and kindness of the other. So it 
 happened that the acquaintance, which then com- 
 menced, soon ripened into love between them. 
 
 On the 15th of August he wrote to his mother, 
 from Charles-street, that he was "in a fair way, 
 after all, of getting married ;" and before the follow- 
 ing month had worn to a close, the Church had 
 pronounced Henry St. George Tucker and Jane Bos- 
 well to be man and wife. 
 
 Prom the letters written by Mr. Tucker, during 
 this interval, a few extracts may be made brief and 
 characteristic. They do not advance the progress of 
 his outer history ; but they afford many glimpses of 
 his inner life of thought and feeling. It is not 
 necessary to indicate the date of each particular 
 passage : 
 
 " I have always been of a domestic disposition, although the 
 tenor of my former life may seem at variance with this fact. 
 All my future joys must centre in my family; but still I am 
 not so churlish as not to partake in the amusements of others, 
 and I hope I have generosity enough to wish you to indulge in 
 every innocent gratification, even when I cannot be a partaker 
 in the enjoyment " 
 
LETTERS TO HIS BETROTHED. 255 
 
 " The forms and observances of religion ought to be attended 
 to; and I love the spirit of unaffected piety, at the same time 
 that I revolt from bigotry, violence, and the spirit of party in 
 religion I have always thought that religion should in- 
 spire us with pleasing ideas, and never render us gloomy. He 
 who is strongly impressed with the benevolence of the Creator 
 ought not to be gloomy. All Nature everything we see 
 assures us of His benevolence ! Nothing can elevate our ideas 
 of the Creator so much as the contemplation of the innumerable 
 worlds which are circulating around us " 
 
 " A noble pride is the best foundation of high character; but 
 that pride which occupies itself with petty objects, is neither 
 respectable nor amiable " 
 
 " Passion is nothing more than a little quickness of feeling; 
 and if it be not in excess, there is no harm in it. Oftentimes 
 it is accompanied by great generosity. On the other hand, ill- 
 temper and sullenness of disposition are real defects of character; 
 and they are calculated to produce as much misery in the mar- 
 riage state, as a want of principle and of every amiable quality." 
 
 " I observed to you that it would take me a month to answer 
 your letters; and so it would, if I went on writing as long as I 
 could find matter to write about. The mode I pursue is to read 
 them over, and take notes (in a single word or two) of the sub- 
 jects to which they refer; but I feel always so strong an interest 
 during the perusal, that at least half the subjects escape me, and 
 my notes are very imperfect. I must adopt a new plan, I think, 
 and reply to line after line ; but there is an advantage in taking 
 notes, for with a glance of the eye you can arrange the subjects 
 in their proper order. I used to adopt this practice in my public 
 correspondence, and it enables you to write in a more connected 
 manner. Not that this sort of regularity is necessary in private 
 correspondence. I do not know that it may not sometimes be 
 a little ungraceful, for ease ought to characterise this correspon- 
 
256 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 dence. Anything studied or constrained appears quite out of 
 place; and I am a thousand times more pleased with your un- 
 premeditated desultory observations, than I should be with the 
 most finished composition. Your sex are considered to excel 
 in letter-writing; and it is because you write as you feel. We 
 may admire Art; but we are always pleased with Nature, and 
 Nature never makes a fuss about anything. If she were to take it 
 into her head to write letters, they would be written with ease." 
 
 " Lord Minto has been most kind to my brother William, 
 and has given him an appointment (the situation of Deputy- 
 Paymaster-General to the troops employed on the Expedition). 
 It will not make W. rich; but it pleases him, and it pleases 
 me to find his Lordship so attentive to my parting request. 
 He has, indeedj complied with all my requests in the most 
 handsome manner; and I feel under great obligation to him." 
 
 " When I reflect and see the happiness which I have in 
 prospect, every wrong passion is, I hope, subdued, and I feel a 
 degree of gratitude which it is impossible to express." 
 
 " You are quite new to the world, and you have yet ex- 
 perienced none of its cares and anxieties. May you never ex- 
 perience them ! but . . . we must be prepared to meet a little 
 of those inconveniences, to which all mankind are subject. 
 We cannot expect that we shall be entirely exempt from ad- 
 versity. I would not willingly depress your spirits, or say 
 anything likely to check the current of your joy; but I would 
 wish to guard you, as far as possible, against disappointment." 
 
 " You have gratified me exceedingly by the ready manner 
 in which you have consented to take charge of my little wards, 
 the Richardsons. R. loves me, I believe, as a brother, and 
 I certainly love him as an invaluable friend. We have been 
 most intimate ever since I was a boy (he is some years older 
 than myself); and never, I believe, in the course of so many 
 
LETTERS TO HIS BETROTHED. 257 
 
 years, have we experienced the slightest interruption to our 
 friendship. 
 
 " I mentioned to you that I would not send any more letters 
 for your perusal ; but I must gratify myself by forwarding the 
 enclosed from Mrs. Fendall. Do not suspect that I send it 
 from any feeling of vanity. I am sometimes cut to the soul 
 on receiving praise which I do not deserve. I am mortified 
 when I look within, and find the reality so different from 
 what the partiality of my friends would represent me. It has 
 been my fortune through life to meet with enthusiastic friends 
 and inveterate enemies, You have seen what the former are; 
 and I will some day give you a singular instance of what the 
 latter are capable of doing. But never mind them they are 
 not our concern at present. I send you Mrs. F.'s letter to 
 read, because I natter myself that it will gratify you, and 
 make you better acquainted with this excellent, warm-hearted 
 friend." 
 
 " If I had been inclined to add a motto, it should be one 
 which I have long purposed to adopt ' Nil desperandum.' 
 The words apply well enough to some part of my life; and 
 they form part of a speech made by my Greek ancestor, 
 Teucer, to his companions, on the occasion of his banishment 
 from Salamis to the island of Bermuda. Your brothers will 
 tell you where to find this speech in Horace, and they 
 will translate it to you. I am descended, also, as I believe I 
 told you, from the Kings of Jerusalem, and the ancient 
 Princes of Wales. The Bosvilles cannot boast a higher pedi- 
 gree. Our name is, however, precisely the same as the Greek 
 Teucer; for this latter could not actually be written in Greek 
 letters. They would give Tuker, or Tucker. 
 
 " We are agreed, then, to prefer ancient simplicity, and not 
 to like finery of any kind. The ancients, I suspect, did not 
 usually drive four horses, except in battle, or at the race- 
 course; and we will therefore be content to travel with a pair; 
 for, according to the best calculation, four would double the 
 expense, -without much adding to our comfort. The other 
 
 S 
 
258 LIEE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 pair we will reserve for the peasantry in our neighbourhood. 
 We obtain a godlike gratification by indulging a spirit of 
 charity and benevolence." 
 
 This last passage was written a few days before 
 his marriage, which was solemnised on the closing 
 day of September. They were married from 2,lr. 
 Carre's house, Caverse, in Roxburghshire, and set 
 out immediately on a tour, through some of the 
 most beautiful parts of Scotland. " We have been 
 running about," he wrote, on the 10th of October 
 from Montrose, " to the Palls of Clyde, Glasgow, 
 Loch Lomond, Loch Katrine, &c., and nothing 
 could be more delightful than this excursion. We 
 have every prospect of many happy days and happy 
 years together; and I am grateful to Heaven for 
 the blessing it has bestowed upon me." 
 
 In November he proceeded to Edinburgh, and soon 
 began to busy himself with thoughts of his return 
 to India. He had made up his mind, before his 
 marriage, to take this step, not so much for his own 
 sake, as for the sake of others, and had written to 
 his betrothed a characteristic letter, in which he 
 said : " I think precisely as you do with respect to 
 our going abroad. It would be more pleasant to 
 remain where we are ; but circumstanced as I am 
 it is right to go. It would be to indulge a very 
 selfish feeling if we remained here, at the risk 
 of being compelled to deny others those little com- 
 forts which we have it in our power to procure for 
 them. If we retain our health, a short residence in 
 India will be no serious grievance. If you find that 
 
CONTEMPLATED RETURN TO INDIA. 259 
 
 the climate does not agree with your constitution, 
 we can always return, and be content with some- 
 thing less." And speaking further of this con- 
 tingency, he said: "You must be satisfied in this 
 case to settle down quietly in Scotland without 
 splendor or riches. I can perceive that your good 
 mother is anxious that I should give Scotland p/ 
 preference. Now I can do this without any diffi- 
 culty. I will readily agree to our residing near her, 
 if I should not have business which would fix me 
 in London. I am not likely to have any such busi- 
 ness, although I am told that a situation in the 
 India House would have been offered to me had 
 I arrived in England a year sooner. It has since 
 been given to another person." 
 
 It is probable that the resolution of returning to 
 India w^as formed in consequence of his intended 
 marriage. It seems to have taken a definite shape 
 in his mind between the months of July and Sep- 
 tember. In the former, although he had declared 
 himself ready to proceed immediately to Bengal, if 
 his services were required, he said that he had then 
 no fixed intention of returning to India. On his 
 first arrival in England he had been consulted by 
 Mr. Bosanquet, the Chairman of the East India 
 Company, respecting some financial matters, among 
 which was the question of the best means of re- 
 mitting to England the surplus funds in the Indian 
 treasuries. "With respect to remittances in bullion, 
 he wrote : " I cannot pretend to say what particu- 
 lar sum those on the spot may deem it prudent 
 
 s2 
 
260 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 to send off immediately, but I have no hesitation in 
 saying that I myself should consider it both safe 
 and practicable, and easy to despatch from Bengal 
 and Madras in January next a sum of from two to 
 three millions sterling in specie and bullion. Of 
 dollars, however, the proportion will, I imagine, 
 be very small. Some gold may be supplied from 
 Madras ; but the bulk of the remittance must be 
 in the Bengal silver currency. I have, for some 
 time past, considered the question of this remit- 
 tance as embracing a great national object, as well 
 as objects most interesting to the Company ; and I 
 would have gone back to India to assist in the 
 arrangements which might be necessary for carry- 
 ing it into effect, had my services been called for or 
 desired. I have formed no determination yet to 
 return to India, nor am I now soliciting employ- 
 ment there or elsewhere; but I take such an in- 
 terest in that branch of the public business in 
 which I have been long employed, that I shall be 
 disposed to do everything in my power to promote 
 its success, even under circumstances of incon- 
 venience to myself." 
 
 The admirable letter from which this passage is 
 taken indicates that neither the excitement of his 
 first arrival in England, after an absence of a quarter 
 of a century, nor the delightful thought of em- 
 bracing the relatives whom he so much loved, had 
 diminished his public zeal, or in any way dimmed 
 the clearness of his perceptions, or disturbed the 
 logical arrangement of his ideas. It was, too, about 
 
" HINTS FOR ACCOUNTANTS-GENERAL." 261 
 
 this time that he drew up a valuable paper entitled 
 " Hints for Accountants -General," full of truths, 
 which, obvious as many of them may seem to be, 
 are often disregarded by Financiers. It is written in 
 a style so pleasant and animated Finance, indeed, 
 seems to be made so easy in it that even the most 
 careless reader may peruse the more general portion 
 of it, which I now subjoin, without a complaint of 
 the dryness of the subject : 
 
 " HINTS FOR ACCOUNTANTS-GENERAL. 1811. 
 
 "1st. It is necessary to extend the view occasionally to a dis- 
 tant period, embracing at least the whole year ; but the service 
 of the two or three months next ensuing should never be out of 
 sight. It is no longer time to make provision for an emergency 
 when that emergency arrives. * Time and I against any two,' 
 was said heretofore. Time and the borrower will be an over- 
 match for any lender ; but without time there is no room for 
 the exertion of skill in financial affairs. Above all, it is neces- 
 sary to attend to the state of the general Treasury. Any blow 
 there is mortal. You may be bankrupt in any other quarter 
 without serious inconvenience, and without much discredit. 
 
 " 2nd. If you allow yourself to be pushed off your centre, 
 either from an over-anxiety to provide for the investment, or 
 otherwise, you may never recover the equilibrium. Credit once 
 lost is not suddenly regained. The stone which is precipitated 
 down in a few minutes, cannot be rolled up again without in- 
 finite labor. A temporary object may possibly be accomplished 
 by a violent effort; but, the sinews once over-strained, are 
 incapable for ever after of exerting the same force. It is some- 
 times judicious to husband your means to put your strength 
 out at interest, in order that you may act with greater efficiency 
 on important occasions. If we had not acted in this manner in 
 the year 1801, I do not believe that we should have got rid of 
 our twelve-per-cent. Treasury-bills at this moment ; and as for the 
 
262 LIFE OP H. ST. a. TUCKER. 
 
 reduction of the interest of the debt to six per cent., or the 
 production of a surplus revenue of a million sterling, we 
 might have dreamed of such things, but we should only have 
 dreamed. 
 
 " 3rd. There may be wisdom in a multitude of counsellors, 
 but I have not found this to be the case in the affairs of Finance. 
 Secrecy is sometimes indispensable ; and you cannot be secret 
 sometimes, if you are not habitually secret. I would not advise 
 you to consult with the agents or other individuals ; for I do 
 not recollect ever to have received an opinion or suggestion of 
 any value from them. The fact is, that they see only one part 
 of the concern ; and it is not, therefore, to be expected that they 
 can form any general combinations. Without at all supposing 
 that they would be influenced by their own particular interests, 
 it is impossible that they should take a judicious or compre- 
 hensive view of our affairs, with which they are so little ac- 
 quainted. 
 
 " The same degree of reserve should be practised even with the 
 confidential officers of the Government (and with one in par- 
 ticular). They cannot assist you with their advice, and they 
 may mar your projects by their indiscretion. Address yourself 
 directly to the Governor-General, or to the member of Govern- 
 ment who may preside in the department, and communicate as 
 little as possible with any other individual. If you find a dis- 
 position on the part of any meddling person to interfere with 
 you, resist it manfully in the first instance, and abjure all re- 
 sponsibility if it be permitted or countenanced in any manner. 
 
 " 4th. Watch the movements of Capital and Commerce. Vigi- 
 lance and circumspection are at all times necessary ; but in 
 times of difficulty the greatest attention is necessary to the state 
 of the money-market. The price of bullion the quantity im- 
 ported or exported the demand for bills on particular quarters 
 the rates of exchange furnish grounds for deducing parti- 
 cular conclusions ; but many other facts and appearances will 
 require attention. It may be supposed, perhaps, that the rates 
 of interest paid by individuals ought to furnish more direct and 
 certain inferences ; but I am not of this opinion exactly. The 
 current rates of interest must, doubtless, be attended to ; but 
 
263 
 
 my experience has convinced me that this market is affected by 
 circumstances, which do not by any means indicate the true and 
 legitimate demand for capital. It is sometimes put into an 
 unnatural, feverish state by the wants of a single individual; and 
 it is necessary to distinguish carefully between such paroxysms 
 and the effects produced by the regular demands of a more 
 healthful commerce. It is not easy to ascertain the extent of 
 the capital which is likely to be at the disposal of Govern- 
 ment ; but some judgment may be formed of it by attentive 
 observation. 
 
 " When the necessity for borrowing is become manifest and 
 certain, it is much better to offer at once to the public such 
 terms as are likely to be accepted, than to expose yourself to 
 the risk of being compelled to raise your terms. For instance, 
 if you offered seven per cent., and in consequence of a disap- 
 pointment it should be found afterwards necessary to tender 
 eight, it may happen that eight, which would have succeeded 
 in the first instance, will not be accepted after a failure. The 
 public will then speculate upon an increasing ratio of distress; 
 and they will be disposed to withhold their funds in the expec- 
 tation of obtaining ten or twelve per cent. When you have 
 secured the funds required, it will not be difficult to reduce your 
 rates of interest by a gradual operation. This was effected by 
 us in 1801 and 1802 with singular success. Subsequently, in 
 the end of 1805, I was induced to offer ten-per-cent. Treasury- 
 notes in order to get rid of an oppressive load of floating debt. 
 Here, too, we succeeded most completely, and in a very short 
 time we were again in a condition to resume the offensive; but 
 had we tendered eight per cent., it would not probably have been 
 accepted. We should have been obliged to raise our terms; 
 and we might have been embarrassed with a floating debt at 
 the present moment. The only time for undertaking any finan- 
 cial operation with the prospect of success, is when you have a 
 full Treasury, or at least when you are free from any immediate 
 pressure. 
 
 " The inequality of the instalments of our Revenue and charge 
 has now been well ascertained, and the necessity of attending 
 to it has been made sufficiently apparent. The same dispro- 
 
264 LIFE OF H. ST.GL TUCKER. 
 
 portion exists at Fort St. George; and it should of course be 
 adverted to. 
 
 "It is also necessary to attend to the flux and reflux of 
 money at the Presidency, as well as to those circumstances 
 which occasion a periodical exacerbation of the demand for it. 
 This demand is always very urgent at the periods fixed for clear- 
 ing out the salt and opium ; but it is sometimes increased by 
 other circumstances, which can only be ascertained by a watch- 
 ful and constant attention, since their operation is not steady 
 and invariable. 
 
 " The ebb and flow of money at the public treasuries must 
 be well known to the Accountant-General, for it is constantly 
 in his view ; but the periodical flux and reflux of the private 
 capital should also be attended to. For instance: the salt 
 is realised in the interior of the country; the amount is re- 
 mitted by the merchants to Calcutta, partly in specie, and 
 partly in grain and other articles which are required for the con- 
 sumption of the town. The specie, of course, comes directly 
 to the Treasury in payment for the salt, and the value of the 
 grain, &c., when sold, comes to us in the same manner. The 
 money issued from the Treasury on account of interest, in pay- 
 ment of salaries, &c., &c., is employed in part to make these 
 purchases of grain, &c., &c., and in part is remitted into the in- 
 terior for the purchase of goods, indigo, &c., intended for ex- 
 portation to Europe. These goods constitute the channel for 
 remitting the savings of incomes and the interest of the public 
 debt, which is paid by us in cash on the spot " 
 
 It has been mentioned that Mr. Tucker, on his 
 arrival in England, was received in the most flatter- 
 ing manner both by the Court of Directors and the 
 Board of Control. The former body soon after- 
 wards evinced their high sense of his services by 
 conferring on him a substantial mark of their appro- 
 bation. They voted him a sum of money, amount- 
 
RECOGNITION OP HIS SERVICES. 265 
 
 ing, at the exchange of the day, to about 6000/.* 
 Intimation of the grant reached Mr. Tucker soon 
 after his marriage. It was scarcely possible for 
 anything to have rendered him happier than he 
 then was ; hut looking as he did upon money as the 
 means of increasing the comfort and happiness of 
 others, the liberality of the Court added something 
 to the pile of blessings, and profoundly enhanced 
 the gratitude of his heart. 
 
 Early in the following year 1812 Mr. Tucker 
 was in London making preparations for the voyage 
 to Calcutta. The situation which he was to occupy 
 on his return to India was naturally an object of 
 consideration. He believed that his services entitled 
 him to aspire to one of the highest. And as a seat 
 in Council was likely soon to be vacant, he availed 
 himself of the opportunity afforded by a conversa- 
 tion with the Chairman of the East India Company, 
 to mention his views in that direction, and ask for 
 the support of the Court. 
 
 In the course of conversation, however, the name 
 of Mr. Edmonstone was mentioned in connexion with 
 the vacant seat ; and Mr. Tucker at once, with cha- 
 racteristic ingenuousness and magnanimity, declared 
 
 * " We have agreed," wrote the Court, early in November, to Bengal, " to 
 present Mr. Henry St.George Tucker, of your Civil Establishment, and lato 
 Secretary to Government in the Public Department, with the sum of 50,000 
 Sicca rupees, as a token of our approbation of the integrity and ability with 
 which he has discharged the duties of the several important situations he has 
 filled in our service, under your Presidency ; and, accordingly, direct that you 
 pay the same to Mr. Tucker's agents, in Bengal." 
 
266 LIFE OF H. ST.a. TUCKER. 
 
 that lie could not pretend to be as well qualified for 
 the situation as a man of such eminent attainments as 
 his friend. What effect this frank testimony in favor 
 of another may have had upon Mr. Tucker's chance 
 of nomination, I cannot even conjecture hut soon 
 afterwards Mr. Edmonstone was appointed memher 
 of Council. When the decision of the Court reached 
 the two candidates, they were both of them in Cal- 
 cutta. The generous conduct of Mr. Tucker had 
 been communicated to his friend, and when they 
 next met in the City of Palaces, Edmonstone ex- 
 claimed : " No one but you no one in the world 
 but you would have acted such a part." This was 
 almost better than the appointment itself. The 
 guns of Eort William proclaiming that he had been 
 sworn in Member of the Supreme Council could 
 scarcely have sounded more pleasantly in his ears 
 than such words as these so uttered. 
 
 This, however, is an anticipation of the narrative. 
 Mr. Tucker and his bride are now in London, pre- 
 paring for their voyage to Calcutta. They have 
 determined to take with them a niece of the former 
 the eldest daughter of his only sister. They have 
 taken their passage on board the Company's ship 
 Bengal, commanded by Captain Nicholl they have 
 excellent accommodation, what is technically called 
 " half of the round house" and now, in the month 
 of April, they are fairly afloat. 
 
 They met with no adventures on the way neither 
 shipwreck nor Pirates, so that there is nothing to 
 
VOYAGE TO INDIA. 267 
 
 record ; but it is still remembered, by the companion 
 of his voyage, how kindly and assiduously the some- 
 time Account ant- General instructed his niece, who 
 was an apt scholar, in the rudiments of mathema- 
 tics ; and how, when mirth was to be promoted, and 
 amusement was the order of the day, the grave 
 financier was as joyous and frolicsome as any of the 
 young midshipmen and cadets. 
 
268 LIFE or H. ST.a. TUCKER. 
 
 CHAPTEE X. 
 
 Keturn to India The Financial Secretaryship The Seat in Council Want 
 of Money at Home Bullion-supplies Correspondence with Sir Hugh 
 Inglis Mr. Tucker's Measures Scarcity of Money in India Correspon- 
 dence with Mr. Davis Death of Mr. Tucker's Mother The Chief 
 Secretaryship Keturn to England. 
 
 GEE AT beyond measure was Mr. Tucker's delight 
 on first returning to the scene of his old labors. 
 Escorting his wife, in the first instance, to Garden 
 Reach the loveliest river- side suburb in the world 
 -where he had made arrangements to share with 
 Mr. and Mrs. Egerton* one of those stately villas 
 which render the seaward approach to Calcutta so 
 picturesquely inviting, he hurried off to the busy 
 parts of the town, to receive the welcome of his old 
 companions. 
 
 Foremost amongst those who were eager to extend 
 to him a hand of kindly greeting was the Governor- 
 General. As soon as it was announced at Govern- 
 ment House that Mr. Tucker had arrived, Lord 
 Minto sent for him ; and the result of the conference 
 which then ensued was, that a special office was 
 created for the man whose great financial ability 
 
 * Mr. Egerton had succeeded Tucker as Accountant-General. Mrs. Eger- 
 ton was Mrs. Tucker's sister. 
 
THE SEAT IN COUNCIL. 269 
 
 had saved, and was saving, millions to the State. 
 On the 8th of August Mr. Tucker was appointed 
 " Secretary to Government in the Colonial and Fi- 
 nancial Department." 
 
 The April ships the very fleet, indeed, with which 
 Mr. Tucker sailed carried out intelligence of the 
 nomination of Mr. Edmonstone to a seat in Council. 
 This appointment was to take effect from the 31st 
 of July, at which date Mr. Lumsden's five years' 
 tenure of office terminated. Mr. Colebrooke, the 
 other member of Council, had then served for nearly 
 five years; and the same Court which appointed 
 Mr. Edmonstone, nominated also another Councillor 
 provisionally, to succeed to the seat which would he 
 vacant in the course of Octoher. By the Committee 
 of Correspondence, with whom the nomination ori- 
 ginated, Mr. Tucker was selected. But the General 
 Court did not confirm the appointment ; and it was 
 given to Mr. Seton. 
 
 By Mr. Tucker the disappointment was home, as 
 he might he expected to bear it, manfully and un- 
 complainingly, and with a grateful recognition of 
 all the blessings that had been vouchsafed to him. 
 " If I had been really distressed at this disappoint- 
 ment," he wrote to his wife, " your note w r ould 
 operate as a cordial to my heart. But, in truth, it 
 is not a serious evil ; and I should be the most un- 
 grateful being upon earth, if I allowed such a cir- 
 cumstance to make me forget the many and inesti- 
 mable blessings I enjoy. Never was man more 
 favored ; and I trust that I am not insensible to the 
 
270 LITE OP H. ST.G. TUCKEIl. 
 
 numberless benefits conferred upon me although I 
 am not perhaps so grateful, and, perhaps, it is im- 
 possible for me to be so grateful, as I ought to be. I 
 only pray Heaven to continue me these blessings ; 
 and other disappointments I can easily bear." And 
 again, he wrote, with reference to the same subject : 
 " Possessing, as we happily do, so many blessings, 
 we ought not to be depressed by a single disappoint- 
 ment. Everything is ordained for the best ; and we 
 have abundant reason to be grateful for that large 
 and unmerited (in my case, at least,) portion of 
 good that has been assigned to us." 
 
 His philosophy, indeed, was eminently cheerful ; 
 and he had a deep sense of gratitude, which he was 
 ever ready to express. " We cannot," he wrote in 
 another letter, "be too grateful for the blessings 
 which have been bestowed upon us ; and we best 
 show our sense of obligation to a gracious Provi- 
 dence by receiving His gifts with a grateful and a 
 cheerful heart, without repining at the idea that 
 something still is wanting to our happiness." 
 "There are two things," he continued, "which I 
 endeavor to avoid, in order to escape perpetual 
 vexation and annoyance. The one is, looking back 
 to the Past for the purpose of discovering omissions 
 and mistakes and errors* the other is looking into 
 the Euture for the purpose of anticipating evil. The 
 day brings with it troubles enough ; and if we add 
 
 * I conclude that Mr. Tucker here means only to express his sense of the 
 folly of vain regrets and repinings. But the lessons of the Past, rightly con- 
 sidered as guides to the Future, are the best heritage of man. 
 
DEATH OF HIS NIECE. 271 
 
 to the Present all the troubles of the Past and the 
 Future, our condition would be intolerable. So 
 much for the moral lessons of the day !" 
 
 But in the midst of all this enjoyment of so many 
 and great blessings a heavy blow descended upon 
 
 them. Their young charge, Miss L , who had 
 
 accompanied them from England, was prostrated by 
 one of the cruel fevers of the country, and never 
 rose again from her bed. The death of his niece 
 deeply afflicted Mr. Tucker, who trembled for the 
 effect which the sad tidings would have upon her 
 bereaved mother ; and looked with the most painful 
 anxiety for the arrival of the vessels by which he 
 expected to receive from England an acknowledg- 
 ment of the most distressing communication he had 
 ever been called upon to make. Eor many months 
 this sad event cast a shadow over their happiness, 
 and filled their affectionate hearts with apprehen- 
 sions that they could not suppress. In such a case 
 as this, Love proved stronger than Philosophy, and 
 the theory of never anticipating evil was not proof 
 against such a trial as now assailed them. 
 
 Nor was this the only sorrow that afflicted him 
 during the second period of his residence in India. 
 Another trial was in store for him, of which I shall 
 come presently to speak. But no private sorrows 
 ever interfered with the vigorous prosecution of his 
 labors as a public servant. The year 1813 wit- 
 nessed the completion of some great financial mea- 
 sures, which obviated a pressing difficulty severely 
 felt in Leadenhall-street, and conferred substantial 
 
272 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 benefits on the King's Government in a very cri- 
 tical conjuncture. 
 
 In the penultimate chapter it has been briefly 
 shown that whilst the financial prosperity of the 
 Indian Government had been established by the 
 series of great measures which Mr. Tucker initi- 
 ated, and there was everywhere an abundance of 
 money flushing the Public Treasuries, the very evi- 
 dences and results of this prosperity were causing 
 grievous inconvenience to those who had the ma- 
 nagement of the Finances at home. The clauses in 
 the terms of the Loans, which gave the public 
 creditor the option of receiving the interest of his 
 securities in the shape of Government-bills on the 
 Home Treasury, and of exchanging such securities 
 for bills on England, had caused such a strain upon 
 the resources of the Company at home, that Leaden- 
 hall-street was perplexed and dismayed. Bills were 
 coming in upon the Court in such numbers, and to 
 such an amount, that it was impossible to meet 
 them without foreign aid. In this emergency it 
 was natural that they should have looked in the 
 first instance to the cash balances in India, of which 
 they were receiving such flourishing accounts. It 
 appeared, at one time, that there was an available 
 surplus of two millions and a half sterling. The 
 Company, therefore, called upon their officers to 
 send home large supplies of bullion; but Lord 
 Minto was slow to meet the demands of the Court, 
 and for some time their expectations were disap- 
 
EMBARRASSMENTS AT HOME. 273 
 
 pointed. Bills came in in profusion ; but money to 
 meet them did not come. 
 
 The chagrin of the Court was great. And it is 
 easy to account for it. Not only was the perplexity 
 extreme, but singularly unseasonable. The Company 
 were seeking a renewal of their Charter. And there 
 was a scarcity of coin in England. At such a time 
 it was natural that the great corporation should 
 have desired to " stand well," as it was called, with 
 the country. The country itself was in a strait. 
 Cash was wanted to pay the Army in the Peninsula ; 
 but somehow or other all the specie seemed to have 
 been drained out of the land.* It was not a time 
 
 * Mr, Tucker attributed this to the erroneous financial policy of the 
 British Government. In an elaborate paper on the exportation of bullion 
 (drawn up about the year 1814), he thus expressed himself on the subject: 
 
 " The British Government have endeavored by means of penalties to pre- 
 vent the melting down and exportation of the established coin of the realm ; 
 but the coin has nevertheless disappeared entirely; and when a measure thus 
 fails in accomplishing the end proposed, there is reason to suspect some fun- 
 damental error. It was notorious that at the time, when the most rigorous 
 measures were enforced to preserve the national coin, the Government re- 
 quired remittances to the Continent to an amount far exceeding what the 
 trade could supply; and the remittances could not therefore be generally 
 effected without the aid of bullion. But bullion the Government could not 
 procure; guineas never approached the Exchequer; and the law forbade their 
 exportation even if they had more frequently appeared. As an alternative, 
 the public officers abroad were of necessity allowed to draw on the Treasury 
 at home; or in other words, individuals were invited to do what the Govern- 
 ment could not or would not do. They were invited by the temptation of a 
 high exchange to remit money for the supply of the military chest in Spain 
 and Portugal ; the current coin was accordingly melted down and exported 
 as bullion, or was smuggled out of the country at great risk and expense; 
 and for this additional charge, as well as for the ordinary expenses attending 
 the remittance, a full indemnification was required and was obtained in the 
 terms of the Exchange. The Government in this instance may be considered 
 to have held out, unconsciously, a premium to its subjects, as an indemnifica- 
 tion for the personal hazard and extraordinary expense attending a breach of 
 the law. 
 
274 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 for the Company to go to Parliament for pecuniary 
 aid without damage to themselves; and yet the 
 state of things that had arisen rendered such a 
 course inevitable. Mr. Tucker, when in England, 
 had told both the Court of Directors and the Board 
 of Control, that large supplies of bullion might 
 easily be remitted from India; and the Company 
 saw how advantageous to their interests it would be, 
 at such a time, to reciprocate favors with the King's 
 Government, by furnishing the specie of which the 
 latter stood so greatly in need.* But, in spite of 
 the urgent demands of the Court, and the promises, 
 as they said, of Lord Minto, the bullion never ar- 
 rived. So the Chairs put themselves into commu- 
 
 "The enormous difference of exchange paid by the Government on its 
 remittances to Spain and Portugal during the last four or five years, suf- 
 ficiently testifies the fact, although I do not mean to say that other circum- 
 stances did not concur to produce this unfavorable exchange. Still it is un- 
 questionable that, in prohibiting or obstructing the exportation of specie, the 
 Government pursued a line of conduct tending to counteract their own views 
 and interests in one quarter, without promoting at all the great object of 
 preserving the national coin." 
 
 * " A supply of bullion to the amount we were entitled to expect, would 
 have enabled the Company to have gone into Parliament for the 
 renewal of their Charter on much higher ground than can now be 
 taken. It would have enabled the Minister to have given us with more 
 ease that support we so much want. And an accession of the precious 
 metals in aid of the circulation of the country, and of the prosecution of the 
 war in the Peninsula, would have procured for the Company a popularity, 
 at all times useful, but at the present moment essential to their best in- 
 terests. A supply of treasure to the extent of Lord Minto's promise (made 
 previously to the receipt of our orders by the Acteori), in conjunction with our 
 claims on Government, on account of expenses incurred in the capture of the 
 French and Dutch Islands, and the large remittances in cash to the Mau- 
 ritius, would have amounted to so large a sum, that the additional aid re- 
 quired to enable us to meet our difficulties, would have been small in com- 
 parison with that for which it will now be necessary to apply." [Private 
 Correspondence of the Deputy- Chairman of the East India Company, March, 
 1812.] 
 
CORRESPONDENCE WITH SIR HUGH INGLIS. 275 
 
 nication with Mr. Tucker, on whom they knew they 
 could rely, and urged him immediately on his arrival 
 to press upon the Governor- General the necessity of 
 shipping the bullion without delay. " The object 
 of this letter," wrote the Deputy- Chairman to Mr. 
 Tucker, " is to induce you, knowing as you do the 
 host of enemies with whom we have to contend on 
 the renewal of the Charter, and fully sensible as you 
 must be of the ill effects the disappointment has 
 produced upon the general state of our affairs, to 
 impress upon Lord Minto's mind the necessity of 
 relieving, at the earliest possible period, our home 
 funds from the existing pressure, to the extent, at 
 least, of his promises, or of what we have directed in 
 
 the despatches now sent out I wished and 
 
 endeavored to see you previously to your departure 
 for India ; but before I could accomplish it, I found 
 that you had left Town. I have therefore troubled 
 you in this way, in the hope that on your arrival 
 there, you may, by reporting from your own observa- 
 tion our actual situation, stimulate the Government 
 to suitable exertions for our relief." 
 
 A few months afterwards,* the same correspon- 
 dent, who had then succeeded to the Chair, wrote 
 still more emphatically on the subject in a private 
 letter to Mr. Tucker : 
 
 " You will have learnt that no bullion has been sent to us 
 from India, and but a small amount from China. You, who 
 were acquainted with our wants and our expectations, will feel 
 for our disappointment, which is not alone confined to the 
 
 * September, 1812. 
 T2 
 
276 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKEH. 
 
 Company. The Public and the Government participate in it. 
 Silver is wanted for the current circulation of the country ; and 
 Government is distressed to find the means of making remit- 
 tances to pay our gallant armies in the Peninsula, and for other 
 purposes. 
 
 " From India we had reason to expect a large supply, not 
 only in consequence of the orders sent from hence, but in fulfil- 
 ment of a promise to remit in bullion to the amount of the drafts 
 that might be made from Bombay; but instead of making good 
 this engagement, we are told, and with the utmost indifference, 
 that it has been found necessary to stop the advances for our 
 Investment, and to draw down from the Provincial Treasuries 
 the balances, to relieve the more urgent wants of the Govern- 
 ment at Calcutta. At this very time we find loans to a very 
 considerable amount had been made to relieve the distresses of 
 individuals, not recollecting that the very existence of the Com- 
 pany might depend upon our Home Treasury being supported, 
 either by bullion or investment; but better by both. 
 
 " At a period like the present, when it was known to our 
 Governments that the Company's Charter was coming under dis- 
 cussion, when we stood in need of every aid to meet the heavy 
 pressure on our Home Treasury from the mass of bills from 
 India, it was not unreasonable to expect great and extraordinary 
 exertions on their parts; had they even set the example of 
 taking such part of their salaries as was not absolutely necessary 
 for their current expenses, it would have shown an anxiety to 
 assist the Company in this crisis of their affairs. 
 
 "I know it will be said the want of money in India has been 
 occasioned by the large supplies to the expeditions against the 
 French and Dutch Islands, and for their support; and that we 
 have claims on the Government at home for reimbursement. 
 It is true we have; but the Governments in India have not put 
 us in a way to substantiate these claims, by furnishing us with 
 clear and detailed statements, such as will enable us to make our 
 case good in Parliament. We have no such accounts; and 
 must beg as a boon what we are entitled to as a right. 
 
 " The Court have given their sentiments on the foregoing 
 subject, and pretty fully, in a finance letter which goes by this 
 
CORRESPONDENCE WITH LORD MINTO. 277 
 
 ship. It was withheld to the last moment, in the hope of some 
 satisfactory explanations or information from the Governments 
 of India, that would have rendered such a letter unnecessary." 
 
 At this time Mr. Tucker was busying himself in 
 Calcutta to provide the much-coveted bullion-sup- 
 plies. With characteristic promptitude and energy 
 he threw himself into the work. He had not, in- 
 deed, been many days in Calcutta, before he wrote 
 to Lord Minto,* that "not a moment should be 
 lost in commencing operations ;" and proceeded to 
 show what was to be done : 
 
 "Mr. Egerton," he said, "will call down immediately to 
 the General Treasury all our surplus funds in the Provincial 
 Treasuries; and I apprehend there will be no difficulty in 
 remitting from hence to England twenty-four or twenty-five 
 lakhs of rupees (fifteen lakhs in Furruckabad rupees, and ten 
 lakhs in gold), which, with a remittance of five lakhs of 
 pagodas from Madras, ought to realise 500,0007. sterling. Mr. 
 Egerton has written to Mr. Garrow to prepare himself; and 
 your Lordship will, no doubt, adopt the proper means to 
 obtain a conveyance for the treasure, if it be not judged expe- 
 dient to despatch it in one or more of the Company's ships. 
 
 " With respect to further supplies, I shall only state my in- 
 dividual opinion, without pledging my friend Mr. Egerton 
 and it is, that an additional sum of 500,000/. may be sent from 
 hence (or partly from hence, and partly from Bombay) in 
 January next. This question, however, may well lie over for 
 consideration, until we see the effect of the measures which it 
 is proposed to pursue. 
 
 " It will not be practicable, I fear, to enter into the neces- 
 sary explanations in reply to the late Financial despatch from 
 the Honorable Court of Directors before the departure of the 
 Sir W. Burrouglis ; but, if your Lordship approve, I can draft 
 
 * August 3, 1812. 
 
278 LIFE OP H. ST.GL TUCKER. 
 
 a short letter, expressing deep regret at the disappointment 
 which has been experienced promising to furnish a detailed 
 explanation of the causes by an early opportunity and assur- 
 ing the Honorable Court that a remittance of 500,0007. will be 
 despatched as soon as a proper conveyance can be provided; 
 and that the further sum of 500,0007. will be despatched in 
 January, if possible. Your Lordship will, I conclude, write to 
 the authorities at home ; and I propose also to give all the in- 
 formation in my power to Sir H. Inglis, with whom I shall 
 correspond regularly on this subject." 
 
 It need not be said that these efforts gave great 
 satisfaction to the Company, or that the result 
 was still more acceptable in Leadenhall-street. The 
 treasure sent home by Mr. Tucker arrived at an 
 opportune season, and was soon on its way to the 
 Peninsula. In March, 1813, his friend and corre- 
 spondent, the Chairman, Sir Hugh Inglis, wrote to 
 him: 
 
 " The bullion you sent by the Modeste came most a propos 
 both for the Company and for the public, as I have reason to 
 believe the whole of it is gone or going to the Peninsula, where 
 it is very much wanted for the payment of the troops, and the 
 general support of the army. The further remittances in 
 bullion will be most welcome, as they will be the means of 
 placing the Company on better ground than they have occupied 
 for some years past, especially if you can realise the expectation 
 you give of sending, in addition to the 700,0007., an anticipa- 
 tion of 250,0007. of next year's remittance. The aid derived, 
 and to be derived from the bullion remittances, and the money 
 due by Government for the advances made by the India Govern- 
 ments on account of the Expeditions, would have enabled us to 
 have gone through this year without any Loan from the public, 
 had we been able to keep our Bonds in circulation ; but, unfor- 
 tunately, they have been paid in upon our sales to such an 
 amount as renders an application indispensable for a credit to 
 the extent of 2,500,0007., though I hope, when our affairs come 
 
CONDUCT OF THE COURT. 279 
 
 before Parliament, some arrangements will be made so as to 
 raise our credit, and to restore confidence in our paper, and by 
 that means render unnecessary, at least for this year, the credit 
 we solicit." 
 
 If Mr. Tucker's previous services had not entitled 
 him to a seat in Council, he had now fairly earned 
 one. And there were honest, unprejudiced Directors 
 in the Court, foremost amongst whom was Sir Hugh 
 Inglis, a man of undoubted integrity and ability, 
 who, thinking only of the interests of the public 
 service, were eager to support his nomination to 
 a provisional seat in the Government. But Mr. 
 Tucker had his enemies in the Court, and the ap- 
 pointment was not carried : 
 
 " Before I left the Direction," wrote the late Chairman, at 
 the end of April, 1813, "I had the pleasure of hearing of the 
 second supply of bullion which came by the President, and by 
 private letters I learnt that there were considerable sums on 
 board the regular ships which Admiral Stopford had left at St. 
 Helena. Though I considered the former supply by the Modeste, 
 this by the President, and what we have further to receive, to 
 be owing to your exertions, yet I am sorry to say, I found it 
 impossible to accomplish what on public grounds I was most 
 anxious to do to nominate you a Provisional Counsellor. 
 
 "Mr. Thompson would inform you of the result, which I 
 assuredly did not contemplate when I gave notice of my inten- 
 tion to propose you for the situation; but I have reason to 
 believe that my intentions were frustrated by a most active 
 canvass made by the friends of a gentleman of higher standing 
 in the service than you; and when the time for decision came, 
 I found several on whom I had depended, and even some that 
 I considered your personal friends, were against me. Under 
 these circumstances, I thought it more creditable to you to let 
 the business pass without any one being appointed. I hope this 
 circumstance will not induce you to leave India next January, 
 
280 LIFE OP H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 as in one of your letters you intimated that it was your intention 
 to do ; for I shall consider it a serious calamity if the Company 
 are deprived of your most able services." 
 
 To Mr. Tucker, who had the strongest private 
 reasons for wishing speedily to return to England 
 for the health of his heloved wife was failing this 
 was no disappointment. Indeed, he had ceased to 
 think of official promotion content still to do his 
 duty, though in a subordinate capacity, in that De- 
 partment to which he had so long been attached, 
 and in which he had no competitor. 
 
 Indeed, there was much work for him still in this 
 old Department of Finance. The Financial history 
 of India is a history of Reactions. So it appeared, 
 when Mr. Davis, who had been Accountant- General, 
 and who, on his final return to England, had been 
 elected a Member of the Court of Directors, wrote to 
 Mr. Tucker in May, 1813 : " You individually have 
 great credit with the Court for the exertion the 
 Governments of Bengal and Madras have made to 
 send home the money-remittance; but I fear the 
 strain has been to an extent that may be felt in your 
 Finance Department. As to sending home an equal 
 amount in the current year, or indeed making any 
 similar remittance to England, until you are in a 
 condition very different from what you were at the 
 date of your last letter, I hope the Government 
 abroad and the Court here will think it quite out 
 of the question." And Mr. Davis was right. The 
 strain upon the Indian Treasuries had been too great. 
 And in a little while it was announced that whilst 
 
FINANCIAL REACTIONS. 281 
 
 the home Treasury was in a plethoric state princi- 
 pally owing to the gorging effects of some lucky sales 
 the Indian Treasuries were in a state of collapse. 
 
 Indeed, before the middle of 1814, by which time 
 Lord Moira had succeeded to the chief seat in the 
 Government of India, there appeared to be strong 
 symptoms of something like "a Financial crisis. In 
 May, Mr. Tucker wrote to Mr. Newnham, then 
 Secretary at Bombay, giving a lamentable picture of 
 the state of the Finances at the Chief Presidency. 
 " To give your Government," he said, " an un- 
 limited credit on Bengal, as heretofore, might sub- 
 ject us to great inconvenience. The bills which you 
 drew about the end of last year, coming upon us as 
 they did with other unexpected demands, had nearly 
 reduced us to absolute bankruptcy. Our disburse- 
 ments from the General Treasury alone in December 
 and January last, amounted to 1,20,00,000 rupees, 
 and during several days we had only 7 or 8,00,000 
 rupees in our Treasury. It is extremely hazardous 
 just now to sail in such shallow water ; and it re- 
 quired every effort to extricate ourselves at the period 
 alluded to. You must be sensible that any derange- 
 ment here would be felt in every money channel 
 throughout India ; and when financial derangement 
 once takes place, it is not very easy to restore 
 order." 
 
 The Governor-General, who had started on a 
 visitation-tour through the Upper Provinces, soon 
 became painfully conscious of this disagreeable fact. 
 The scarcity of money stared him in the face at 
 
282 LIFE OP H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 every turn. " The grievous want of money through- 
 out the country," he wrote to Mr. Tucker, " operates 
 most mischievously against the interests of Govern- 
 ment and the comfort of the inhabitants. The de- 
 fault of culture in the lands, through the inability 
 of the Ryot to command the slender advances neces- 
 sary for working it, and the insufficiency of the 
 Zemindar to aid him, strikes the eye painfully at 
 every step. It is only in the vicinity of some Euro- 
 pean, competent to furnish such assistance to the 
 peasantry around him, that one sees any justice done 
 to the soil and it is to that inadequate relief alone 
 that we must give the credit for the matters not 
 being much worse. The dissemination of some 
 amount of cash in a district is necessary to repair 
 the constant drain made to Calcutta." 
 
 In this emergency it was necessary to look abroad 
 for some extraordinary source of supply ; and it is 
 no insignificant proof of the real perplexity of Go- 
 vernment at this period, that so practised a Finan- 
 cier as Mr. Tucker could think of no better aid, in 
 the difficult conjuncture that had arisen, than a loan 
 from a native Prince. Towards the end of July, he 
 wrote to the Governor- General : 
 
 " MR. TUCKER TO LORD MOIRA. 
 
 " MY LORD, .... I have the satisfaction to inform 
 your Lordship that we have lately advanced the further sum of 
 ten lakhs of rupees on account of the Investment; but I am 
 apprehensive that we must now suspend our operations. The 
 balance of the General Treasury has been much reduced; the 
 collections in the Lower Provinces are now at a stand; and 
 
PROPOSED LOAN FROM OTJDE. 283 
 
 we have thought it prudent to discontinue our drafts on the 
 Western Provinces, as your Lordship may, eventuallv, require 
 large funds in that quarter. We depend, in fact, just now, upon 
 the salt revenue, for the supply of our General Treasury; and 
 if the Honorable Court of Directors should grant bills on this 
 Government in favor of individuals, (as I have reason to think 
 they have done, or will do,) we shall find it very difficult, and 
 perhaps impracticable, to provide for this, and other demands, 
 from our ordinary resources. 
 
 " It has occurred to me, therefore, that it may be necessary to 
 look abroad for some extraordinary source of supply; and as 
 the late event in Oude might be supposed to open a prospect in 
 that quarter, I consulted with Mr. Edmonstone yesterday on 
 the subject. He is naturally averse to any step which might 
 compromise the character of our Government in the minds of 
 our neighbours, and of our own subjects, and he thinks that 
 if we applied for a loan to the Newaub so immediately after 
 his accession to the Government, it would be regarded by the 
 natives, and perhaps by himself, as a consideration exacted for 
 our services. The weight of this objection will be best esti- 
 mated by your Lordship ; but if it can be got over, we certainly 
 should find it very convenient to obtain a supply of fifty to 
 eighty lakhs of rupees at the present period. The accommodation 
 would not, however, be very material if the loan were granted 
 only for a short time; and should your Lordship see reason to 
 entertain the proposition, I would beg to suggest that the sum 
 which his Highness may be disposed to advance, be received as 
 a subscription to our present six-per-cent. loan; and that the 
 interest be made payable half-yearly or quarterly, by assign- 
 ments on the treasuries of Rohilkund, or other treasuries in the 
 Ceded Provinces. A strict Mussulman will not receive interest 
 for money in its simple form ; but the most orthodox will, 
 I believe, receive the produce cf money employed in trade; 
 and I should imagine that any scruples of this kind might be 
 overcome by granting an assignment on a particular province 
 to the amount of the interest payable on the loan. If, indeed, 
 the late Newaub should have made any disposition of his 
 personal property in favor of the junior, or illegitimate, Or 
 
284 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 female branches of his family, perhaps this might be found the 
 most convenient and effectual mode of securing a permanent 
 provision for them. 
 
 11 Your Lordship will, I hope, excuse my travelling out of 
 my record on this occasion, as I do not often step beyond the 
 borders of my own immediate province. 
 
 " I have the honor to be, my Lord, 
 
 " Your Lordship's obedient, humble servant, 
 
 " H. ST. GEORGE TUCKER. 
 
 " Calcutta, 23rd July, 1814." 
 
 The proposal was sanctioned by Lord Moira ; and 
 Mr. Rlcketts was instructed to negotiate the Loan. 
 The scruples of the Newaub, if he had any, were 
 overcome ; and he advanced a million of money in 
 the shape of a subscription to the six-per-cent. 
 loan. Announcing this to his old friend Mr. Davis, 
 Mr. Tucker enters at some length into the general 
 politics of the times. What his political views 
 were, may be gathered from the following letter. 
 He had seen too much of financial embarrassment 
 financial embarrassment engendered by costly wars 
 not to tremble when he saw Lord Moira embark- 
 ing in great military operations, and swallowing 
 up the revenues of the State with something of a 
 Wellesleyan appetite. The letter is a curious and 
 suggestive one, if only on account of the glimpses 
 which it affords of the strong opinions on Indian 
 politics which he afterwards entertained, and the 
 emphatic manner in which he expressed them : 
 
 " MR. TUCKER TO MR. DAVIS. 
 
 "Calcutta, 12th Nov., 1814. 
 
 u DEAR DAVIS, Since I wrote to you on the 4th instant 
 we have received official advice from Lord Moira of his having 
 
CORRESPONDENCE WITH MR. DAVIS. 285 
 
 obtained a crore of rupees on loan from the Newaub of Oude, 
 one moiety of which is to be received immediately, and the 
 other moiety on the 1st March. The money is to be paid in 
 as a subscription to the six-per-cent. loan ; and this is obviously 
 the best footing on which we could have obtained it. Some 
 special arrangement is to be made with regard to the payment 
 of the interest, with a view, as I conceive, to obviate Mussul- 
 man scruples. 
 
 " We lost no time here in calling upon Egerton to report on 
 the best mode of disposing of our superfluities; and his letter is 
 at present in circulation. We shall, I hope, commence im- 
 mediately on the payment of debt; and although there are 
 some serious contingencies impending, I have urged that we 
 should discharge the Bombay eight-per-cent. debt, with a small 
 amount of six per cent, standing before it on the Register, 
 amounting together to 54,56,000 rupees. We shall begin to ad- 
 vertise next week; and the operation will, I trust, be completed 
 by the 30th of April. Two objects will be gained by it. We 
 shall raise the value of our paper, and supply the houses of 
 business with funds. They are the principal holders of the 
 paper which will be paid off; and it is on every account much 
 better to assist them in this way, for whenever we send them 
 money there is difficulty and dissatisfaction experienced when 
 the day of payment arrives. 
 
 " With this loan from the Newaub we should have per- 
 formed glorious service, if we could have ventured to bring all 
 our resources into action; but, not content with our Nepaul ex- 
 pedition, we are, I find, meditating other projects which may 
 involve us in a general war. I have seen nothing of the cor- 
 respondence, and I have heard but little on the subject, so that 
 my opinion cannot have any solid foundation. I do think, 
 however, that, while the whole of our disposable force is 
 employed on our Northern frontier, it would have been as 
 prudent to allow affairs to remain in tranquillity to the South. 
 But then I shall be told, an opportunity presents itself which 
 may never again occur. What is this opportunity ? The 
 Newaub of Bhopaul and the Chief of Saugor are threatened 
 by Laindich and the Rajah of Berar. Now, by fixing our- 
 
286 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 selves in the little principality of Bhopaul, we shall gain a 
 fulcrum, from which we may sweep away or smash the Pin- 
 darries, and drive a subsidiary treaty down the throat of the 
 Berar Rajah. Saugor, too, is a fine central point, round which 
 we may draw certain magic circles for promoting the success 
 of the same object. 
 
 " This may be all very good; but I say we must be dotards 
 if we cannot make as good an opportunity at any time. When 
 did ambition ever want opportunities for developing itself? 
 We must be downright bunglers if we cannot find at any mo- 
 ment an excuse for interfering in the affairs of Hindostan and 
 the Dekhun, disturbed as they are at present with jarring 
 interests. 
 
 " And what, after all, is the end proposed ? I asked a friend 
 of mine, whom you esteem as much as I do, * Do you propose 
 to hang up the Pindarries at the nearest tree ? Do you expect 
 by hard blows at once to effect a change in their character and 
 habits of life ? Do you intend to give them employment in 
 your service, or to bestow on them, otherwise, the means of 
 subsistence?' The answer was, ' We think it necessary to pre- 
 vent their future incursions into our territory, and for this pur- 
 pose it is necessary to expel them from the position which they 
 have occupied on the line of the Nerbuddah.' 
 
 " I do not mean to say that it is not desirable to do this and 
 many other things ; but I do think that these plunderers are 
 likely to be less troublesome when they obtain some territorial 
 footing; and I am quite satisfied that, extend your frontier as 
 far as you please, you will be liable always to have troublesome 
 neighbours, whom it will not be quite convenient to annihilate. 
 Annihilate you must, in pretty round numbers, if you are de- 
 termined that no soldiers of fortune shall remain in any part 
 of India. 
 
 "As for subsidiary treaties, I am sick of the very term. 
 Lord Wellesley was for firing off these treaties at every man 
 with a blunderbuss; but I had hoped that there was an end of 
 these forcible operations. After sacrificing, too, a little repu- 
 tation to the object of extricating ourselves from a connexion 
 with the petty states of Hindostan, I did not certainly expect 
 
OUR POLITICAL RELATIONS. 287 
 
 that we should volunteer our services to support the Newaub 
 of Bhopaul, or the Chief of Saugor. The mischief is, that the 
 frequent change of our statesmen in this country must cause a 
 change of measures, and even of principles. What must the 
 natives think of our maxims of policy, when we one day break a 
 treaty with the Rajah of Jeypore because we wish to withdraw 
 from foreign connexions and the next, form a treaty with the 
 Newaub of Bhopaul, for a directly contrary reason ? I am no 
 politician myself; and I know that the idea of justice and 
 morality in politics is matter of ridicule; but, justice and 
 morality out of the question, I cannot perceive the policy of 
 our engaging more deeply in the affairs of Hindostan. Our 
 military power is so formidable, that we are not likely to be 
 attacked; and as for the Pindarries it would be quite suffi- 
 cient, I think, to beat them down whenever they presumed to 
 .show themselves in the neighbourhood of our territory. De- 
 fensive precautions might have cost us a few thousands or hun- 
 dred thousands annually; but a war with the Mahratta States 
 will cost us more than I would venture to estimate. For- 
 tunately, they are not very well prepared, and they are not very 
 enterprising, or they might at this moment when our southern 
 frontier is completely ungarnished of troops sweep through 
 the Doaub, and levy contributions within the sacred limits of 
 Benares. We common men can only say, ' let the General 
 look to that.' .... 
 
 " Farewell with best wishes, believe me 
 
 " Very sincerely yours, 
 
 "H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 " P.S. 14th Nov. The difficulties of our Nepaulese enterprise 
 are beginning to show themselves even sooner than I had appre- 
 hended. An express has just been received, announcing that 
 General Gillespie had been repulsed and killed in an attempt 
 to carry Kalounga by assault. We have lost, it is said, about 
 400 men, killed and wounded, and I fear a large proportion of 
 Europeans and officers. This is a very inauspicious commence- 
 ment ; but we are now fairly in for the service, and must go on. 
 What an opportunity for the Mahrattas, while we are knocking 
 
288 LIFE OF H. ST.a. TUCKER. 
 
 our heads against these mountains ; but they are, I trust, in too 
 distracted a state to avail themselves of it. Ought we to give such 
 opportunities unnecessarily? and is there wisdom in provoking 
 one neighbour, while we are endeavoring to subdue another ? 
 These are very simple questions, no doubt, and it would be silly 
 almost to propose them, if our conduct did not justify them. 
 This first failure may possibly have a good effect in inducing 
 Lord Moira to withdraw from his southern projects ; and, in 
 fact, I am not so much afraid of the Nepaulese as I am of our 
 southern neighbours. The former may repulse us; but they 
 cannot follow up their success. They have no description of 
 force which could act with effect on the plains ; and they are 
 not, therefore, formidable in offensive operations against us. 
 The force which might assail us from the south, is of a character 
 directly opposite. I shall not be surprised if Lord M. should 
 now be induced to take the field, especially if our difficulties 
 should increase upon us. There is a little of the romantic in 
 his character, and I think he will like to take a part, if there 
 should be any serious work on hand. This may be all very 
 right ; but what I object to is, that he should have made such 
 work for himself without a necessity. I already look upon our 
 crore of rupees as upon a departed spirit. Our financial opera- 
 tions will, I fear, be suspended, although I shall myself vote for 
 getting rid of our eight per cents, at all hazards. There are 
 more crores in the same coffers, if we should be much at a loss ; 
 and we may repay them with the sovereignty of Nepaul, if we 
 should succeed in conquering it. I am only surprised that any 
 individual should prefer war to peace, after the example of the 
 French Emperor. 
 
 "Farewell, sincerely yours, 
 
 " H. ST.G. T." 
 
 Erom the military operations in which Lord 
 Hastings had emharked, Mr. Tucker had too much 
 reason to anticipate the most calamitous financial 
 results; but he afterwards acknowledged that the 
 evils which he predicted had been fortunately 
 
THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD HASTINGS. 289 
 
 averted. " The Marquis of Hastings," he wrote 
 ten years afterwards, "unquestionably left the Fi- 
 nances of India in a most flourishing condition. 
 Hostilities had been carried on, upon an extensive 
 scale, without causing any very large addition to be 
 made to the public burdens. " A sum of about a 
 million of money " received from the King of Oude, 
 for the sale of Kyraghur, reduced the military charge 
 of 1815-16. Large consignments of bullion were 
 also received from England, remitted from the 
 ' Surplus Eund of Commercial Profit ;' and these 
 tended materially to prevent the increase of debt, 
 and to facilitate all the financial operations of the 
 Government abroad." " Still," added Mr. Tucker, 
 " it is but just to Lord Hastings to notice, that his 
 Lordship's military expenditure, as compared with 
 that in the preceding Mahratta war, was very mo- 
 derate, as was shown by the Commissary- General. 
 This is to be ascribed, partly to the establishment of 
 an efficient Commissariat by Sir George Hewett, 
 during the administration of Lord Minto partly to 
 the extent of our pecuniary resources, which enabled 
 the Government to discharge the irregular troops 
 the moment their services were no longer wanted ; 
 and partly to the strict attention paid by Lord Has- 
 tings to economy in his military dispositions as 
 Commander-in-Chief . ' ' * 
 
 But the time was fast approaching when Mr. 
 Tucker's ministerial connexion with the Finances of 
 India indeed with all the official business of the 
 
 * Review of the Financial situation of the East India Company in 182-1. 
 
 U 
 
290 LIFE OE H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 State was permanently to cease. The health of 
 his wife had been, for some time, declining. The 
 climate manifestly did not agree with her constitu- 
 tion. She had more than once been prostrated by 
 fever, so severe and exhausting, that Mr. Tucker 
 had trembled for her life. It was in no small mea- 
 sure owing to his unremitting care and attention 
 to the love which took no account of fatigue, to the 
 almost womanly tenderness and patience with which 
 he watched by her sick bed, and ministered to her 
 wants, that, under Providence, she was enabled to 
 struggle through these fearful maladies. But his 
 apprehensions of the too great danger of another 
 such attack, moved him to prepare for his final 
 departure from India. There was nothing in the 
 country no wealth, no honor, that it could yield- 
 to tempt him to incur so terrible a risk. 
 
 These years, indeed, of his second visit to India, 
 had not been years of unclouded happiness. The 
 death of his niece, and the repeated illnesses of his 
 wife, had tried him sorely in the furnace of affliction. 
 But another great sorrow had also been dispensed to 
 him. In the course of 1814 tidings reached him of 
 the death of his beloved mother. When he opened 
 the letter announcing this mournful event, he was 
 moved as he had never been before. Habituated as 
 he was to self-control, he gave way to a paroxysm of 
 grief; threw himself into a chair, wept aloud, and 
 for a time was not to be comforted. 
 
 But in the domestic history of most men there 
 are blessed compensations. Henry St.George Tucker 
 
FATHER AND SON. 291 
 
 was now parentless ; but lie had become a parent. 
 His mother had lived long enough to congratulate 
 him on the birth of his first-born. It was such 
 congratulation, too, as delights the soul of the reci- 
 pient. "May the child/' she wrote, "in every re- 
 spect resemble his parents ; and be as great a com- 
 fort to them, as our beloved Henry has been to us." 
 Alike by Father and by Mother had this praise been 
 often uttered before ; and most merited, indeed, was 
 the laudation. He had been the prop and the solace 
 of their declining years. From the fruits of his toil 
 he had contributed largely to the comforts of their 
 home. His generosity was that true generosity of 
 the heart which blesses alike the giver and the 
 receiver, and never makes bounty burdensome. 
 It is to be hoped that filial piety is not rare. The 
 gracious privilege of paying back in maturity the 
 care and kindness lavished upon the child may 
 not be vouchsafed to many; but for the honor of 
 human nature we would fain assume that when 
 vouchsafed it is seldom rejected. It is an error in 
 Biography to claim for each individual quality com- 
 mented upon, something peculiar to the possessor. If 
 there were not a peculiar combination of qualities, 
 there would be little for the Biographer to record. 
 But the peculiarity resides in the combination, not 
 in the individual virtues. Bare qualities are one 
 thing ; a rare character is another. 
 
 The thought of all these gaps in the family circle 
 may have done something to moderate the intensity 
 of Mr. Tucker's yearnings after home; but the 
 
 TJ2 
 
292 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 health of his wife was a paramount consideration, 
 and before the close of 1814, he had come to the reso- 
 lution of removing her to a milder climate. Official 
 advancement was then within his reach ; but he was 
 indifferent about it. The Court of Directors had 
 disapproved of the creation of the new appointment 
 bestowed upon Mr. Tucker, and in a letter most flat- 
 tering to the incumbent himself, had directed the 
 abolition of the office.* " "With respect to the pro- 
 posed arrangement, " wrote Mr. Tucker at the end 
 of October, " as it may affect me individually, I have 
 little to say. During the short period in which I 
 am likely to remain in India, I shall be glad to do 
 all in my power to promote the public service ; but 
 I have no wish or intention to continue long in that 
 service, and the abolition of my present office would 
 not, therefore, give me any concern. The Colonies 
 cannot well be transferred for six or eight months, 
 and beyond that period I shall not be disposed to 
 retain the office, whatever may be the disposition of 
 the Court of Directors, or of this Government." But 
 before definite instructions for the abolition of the 
 Colonial Secretaryship had been received, Mr. 
 Tucker was promoted to a higher office. The 
 
 * " We entertain," wrote the Court of Directors, " a very high opinion of the 
 abilities and zeal of Mr. Tucker, and we are satisfied that you could have 
 selected no one of our servants who would discharge the duties confided to 
 him with more advantage to the public service; but \ve cannot, under the 
 actual state of our Finances, approve of your having incurred this additional 
 expense; and we direct that the office be discontinued upon the receipt of this 
 despatch. We, however, recommend Mr. Tucker to particular attention, when 
 any office may fall vacant suitable to his rank and claims in the service." For 
 the Indian Government's justification of this appointment, see a document in 
 the Appendix. 
 
DEPARTURE FROM INDIA. 293 
 
 Chief Secretary, Dowdeswell, succeeded to a seat 
 in Council; and Mr. Tucker was appointed Chief 
 Secretary to Government in his place. 
 
 On the 28th of December, 1814, this appointment 
 passed Council. On the following day Mr. Tucker 
 wrote privately to his friend Edmonstone, who was 
 then Vice-President : " You already know that the 
 state of Mrs. Tucker's health requires a change of 
 climate ; but instead of passing the hot weather at 
 Chittagong, as I had proposed, it is my intention to 
 proceed to the Cape of Good Hope, or St. Helena, 
 and eventually to England ; and it is proper that I 
 should give you the earliest intimation of this inten- 
 tion. " Soon afterwards he sent in a formal applica- 
 tion for leave to proceed with his family to the Cape 
 of Good Hope or St. Helena, in the Honorable Com- 
 pany's ship Marchioness of Ely> and to be absent 
 from the duties of his office for a period of six 
 months from the date of his embarkation. And on 
 the 10th of February, 1815, the leave he sought was 
 officially granted. 
 
 And so they bade adieu to India. They sailed for 
 the Cape in the Marchioness of Ely ; and eventually 
 went on to England. The health of Mrs. Tucker 
 improved under the influence of the sea- voyage; 
 but it was thought advisable to proceed onward, 
 that the invalid might enjoy the benefit of a re- 
 turn to the climate of her native home. So Mr. 
 Tucker despatched from St. Helena a formal re- 
 signation of his appointment, and returned to his 
 ship-board cabin. The passage was a long and a 
 
294 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 fatiguing one ; and it was not until the month of 
 August that they sighted the white coast of Great 
 Britain. 
 
 He had now made up his mind to retire altogether 
 from the active service of the Company. He was in 
 his forty-fifth year. He had served the State in 
 various capacities for nearly thirty years; and he 
 had amassed a moderate fortune. The Government 
 of Java was designed for him; hut he had seen 
 enough of Eastern life, and desired nothing more 
 than rest, domestic enjoyment, and literary leisure. 
 All these were now within his reach ; and he was 
 abundantly content. 
 
 On his arrival in London he waited upon the 
 Indian authorities, and was received by them with 
 marked consideration. He had much information 
 to impart, and the exposition of his views on the 
 great political questions of the day was listened to 
 with the greatest respect. To his friend Mr. Ed- 
 inonstone he wrote in October, with especial re- 
 ference to his conversations with Lord Buckingham- 
 shire, who then presided at the Board of Control. 
 He had by this time quitted the southern metropolis, 
 and was on a visit to his friends in the North : 
 
 " TO N. B. EDMONSTONE, ESQ. 
 
 "Carerse, 1st October, 1815. 
 
 " DEAR EDMONSTONE, I ought to have written to you 
 much sooner ; but a man arriving in a new country finds 
 abundance to do, and what is worse, he finds strong induce- 
 ments to be idle. 
 
 " This was my case ; and I am apprehensive that the habits 
 
LETTER TO MR. EDMONSTONE. 295 
 
 of idleness are not likely to be dissipated, now that I have 
 really nothing to do, unless I choose to cull flowers, or to make 
 verses on cows, sheep, and other Arcadian objects ! 
 
 " On my arrival in London, I of course waited on the Indian 
 authorities, and I had a long interview with Lord Bucking- 
 hamshire, who seemed to be very anxious to obtain information 
 regarding the state of affairs in India. I gave his Lordship 
 the best information I could ; and I gave also my own opinion 
 on questions which were proposed to me. Lord B. was also 
 very desirous of knowing your opinions on particular points ; 
 and although it was a very delicate office to undertake^ I did 
 not hesitate in stating what I believed to be your sentiments 
 on some of our late measures. The necessity for the Nepaulese 
 war seems to be very generally admitted ; but our proceedings 
 to the south are quite incomprehensible to all parties, as well 
 those who possess information, as those who are debarred access 
 to the official documents. You will be surprised to hear that 
 the great majority of the Directors are in the latter class, the 
 secret correspondence being withheld from them ; and even 
 Davis, one of the most active and intelligent of the corps, had 
 never heard of your controversial minutes with Lord Moira, 
 until I mentioned them to him. 
 
 " I was particularly glad that I had seen these documents; 
 for I took occasion to refer Lord Buckinghamshire to them, 
 and had the satisfaction to find that they were quite familiar to 
 his Lordship, although unknown to Davis. Lord B. spoke 
 of them as being most able productions ; and I can assure you 
 that your public character is justly appreciated, both at the 
 Board of Control and in Leadenhall-street. I had some diffi- 
 culty in satisfying Mr. Reid, the Deputy Chairman, that you 
 could not possibly have accompanied the Governor-General on 
 his tour ; for he, Mr. R., was disposed to attribute all our em- 
 barrassments to your having remained behind an opinion in 
 which he is not, I fancy, quite singular. 
 
 ' ' In venturing to state what I believed to be your opinions, I 
 of course took care to observe as much delicacy as possible 
 towards Lord Moira. On the main question, I stated distinctly 
 that, desirable as you considered it that effectual means should 
 
296 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 be taken to suppress the Pindarries, you were of opinion that no 
 decisive step should be taken with a view to this object until a 
 reply should be received to the reference which had been made 
 to the public authorities at home; and that, whatever judgment 
 might be formed with regard to the projected connexion with 
 the principalities of Bhopaul and Saugor, you were of opinion 
 that the agitation of these questions was unseasonable and unfor- 
 tunate. On the employment of irregular corps, and some other 
 minor points, I could speak from public documents, and I ran 
 no risk, therefore, of mis-stating your opinions. My own I 
 gave, as I usually do on such occasions, with no other re- 
 serve than what consideration towards others suggests as being- 
 proper 
 
 " I urged on Lord Buckinghamshire the expediency and the 
 necessity of your being furnished immediately with a supply of 
 bullion, to enable you to pay your army, and to keep faith with 
 the public creditors; and his Lordship appeared to be so im- 
 pressed with this necessity, that he despatched a messenger to 
 the Admiralty, while I was with him, to expedite the equip- 
 ment of the frigate ; but some assurance had been given that 
 the seamen should have liberty to spend their money, and it 
 was found that not a single ship could be manned while a 
 guinea remained. A large supply of money will, however, be 
 sent both to China and India, for the Directors have about 
 two millions sterling in their Treasury almost in a state of in- 
 activity. 
 
 " I insisted at the India House, with little success, that the 
 money destined for China should all be consigned to you ; but 
 they will not trust you further than is necessary, and they 
 seem not at all confident that what they may send will be 
 applied to the proper object. Your Lucknow Loans have done 
 you good service ; and they will, I hope, carry you fairly 
 through the present year; but this cannot be looked to as an 
 every-day resource, and I am not quite certain that your pos- 
 sessing such a resource has been regarded with much exultation 
 at the India House. 
 
 "You will, I think, have been a little surprised at their 
 having abolished my office of Secretary; but Lord Bucking- 
 
LETTER TO MR. EDMONSTONE. 297 
 
 hamshire informed me that I was intended for the Government 
 of Java, and that he had written to Lord Moira to appoint me 
 to it. I thanked his Lordship, but told him it was an honor 
 which I must have declined, and that I had quitted India with 
 no intention of ever returning to it. 
 
 " The Lumsden and Davis families are your only con- 
 nexions whom I met in London; and as they correspond with 
 you, I shall leave them to give an account of themselves. 
 Lumsden is canvassing for the Direction, and with every 
 prospect of success, for his character, public and private, is well 
 known, and he will, I hope, be supported at the India House 
 and by Lord Buckinghamshire. He must, however, wait an- 
 other year before he is considered qualified for this high 
 
 honor 
 
 " Believe me ever, with great esteem, 
 
 " Very sincerely yours, 
 
 " H. ST.G. TUCKEE. 
 
 " P.S. I pass the winter in Edinburgh ; but prepare to 
 return to England with my family early in spring." 
 
298 LIFE OF H. ST. a. TUCKER. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Residence in Edinburgh Journey to London Adventures on the Road 
 Residence in London Excursion in Wales Visit to Ireland Thoughts of 
 Public Life. 
 
 SETTLED with his wife and children, and surrounded 
 by the relatives of the former, in the Scottish capi- 
 tal, Mr. Tucker now found himself for the first time 
 in the full enjoyment of the literary leisure for 
 which he had so often sighed. He was an enthu- 
 siast after knowledge of all kinds ; and now day after 
 day he was to he seen, at the age of forty-five, at- 
 tending the lectures of the Edinburgh professors of 
 Hope, Playfair, and others with as much ardor 
 as the most ambitious of the youthful students who 
 sate in the class beside him. The lecture over, he 
 seldom failed to hurry off to St. Andrew's and to 
 St. George's-square, to pay a visit to Mrs. Boswell 
 and to Mrs. Carre a visit always looked for and 
 always enjoyed, for he had truly become to the latter 
 an affectionate brother, and to the former a dutiful 
 son. 
 
LIFE IN EDINBURGH. 299 
 
 In the society of the neighbourhood he mixed, 
 but with becoming moderation. He had many 
 friends and many connexions in Edinburgh, and he 
 delighted to see them assembled at his own hospi- 
 table board. This was the convivial intercourse 
 which pleased him best ; for it gratified at once his 
 social propensities and his affection for home. 
 
 But this pleasant life was broken in upon by an 
 event of a painful nature, arising out of the circum- 
 stances of a near relative, which compelled his pre- 
 sence in London. The business was of so distressing 
 a nature, and the anxiety it occasioned him was so 
 great, that during the two or three days which pre- 
 ceded his departure there was a marked change in 
 his appearance. A worn and harassed look beto- 
 kened the intensity of the inward struggle. He set 
 out under great depression of spirits, in the midst of 
 a violent snow-storm, although it was in the middle 
 of the month of May. 
 
 The excitement of the journey to the South seems 
 in some measure to have restored his composure ; 
 and he wrote cheerfully from Newark an amusing 
 account of his travels across the Border. In those 
 days a man, between Edinburgh and London, might 
 meet with adventures sufficient to fill a volume, and 
 companions enough to stock a portfolio with their 
 portraits. I shall devote this chapter to private 
 affairs, and leave Mr. Tucker's family letters to 
 carry on the story of his life. His journey to Lon- 
 don, and his residence in the metropolis in 1816, 
 are the first incidents described : 
 
300 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 " Newark, Tuesday, 6 o'clock A.M. 
 
 " My progress hitherto has been much like 
 
 the ordinary progress of human life, sometimes smooth and 
 pleasant, and occasionally rough and disagreeable enough. 
 From Edinburgh to Berwick I had a companion who was com- 
 pletely drunk, and who took care to renew the stimulus (al- 
 though it was scarcely necessary) whenever the mail halted for 
 a few minutes. From his conversation while asleep (for he 
 was stupidly silent while awake), I discovered that he was a 
 sailor, and probably the master of a Berwick smack, under 
 whose good guidance I should be sorry to place myself. In 
 his sleep he was very lively as well as talkative, and he began 
 at one time to figure away with his feet at the roof of the mail ; 
 but as I did not much admire his dancing, I took the liberty 
 to interfere and put his legs in their proper place. Luckily he 
 was good-humored in his cups, and he took my hints in good 
 part; and on my presenting him with a few gingerbread-nuts 
 
 (a present from Alexander) he gave me a most 
 
 cordial invitation ' to take pot-luck with him' at Berwick. As 
 we did not arrive, however, until near midnight, the invitation 
 would not have been Tery seasonable, even if the host had been 
 in better condition to entertain his friends. 
 
 " Throughout the whole journey, as far as Newcastle, we had 
 a violent storm of snow, rain, and sleet; and the cold was more 
 severe than I have felt it during the winter. The coach was 
 not wind-tight at the bottom ; and as I was obliged to keep my 
 window open to allow the escape of certain fumes, the produce 
 of whisky, rum, and brandy, I felt the cold so pinching, that I 
 should have been glad of Mrs. S.'s fur cap, and the Doctor's 
 capacious worsted stockings ; but as these were not at hand, 
 and I was too lazy to look out for substitutes, the night was not 
 passed quite so snugly as I have passed nights at Bonington 
 and elsewhere. To aggravate the evil, I had not a decent com- 
 panion to converse with. We picked up sundry vagabonds on 
 the road ; but there was only one, between Edinburgh and 
 York, who bore the slightest appearance of being a gentleman. 
 The exception, too, a genteel-looking young man, who joined 
 
JOURNEY TO LONDON. 301 
 
 at Durham, was not a very valuable acquisition, for he was 
 effeminate and affected. In addition to a great-coat, he had an 
 immense surtout, resembling a Japan gown ; and I was at no 
 loss to discover that he was some spoilt child, whose mamma 
 had shown more fondness than wisdom. He professed to be 
 very fond of reading in the mail, (rather an odd taste,) and he 
 told me he had got through two volumes on his last journey; 
 but I suspect his reading on these occasions was not to much 
 purpose, for I seldom turned towards him without catching 
 him peeping from under his eye, in search of a little admira- 
 tion. We had but one female in this part of the journey, 
 whom I at first took to be a Quaker, but who afterwards proved 
 to be a sturdy Jacobite. She was lamenting that we should 
 have no oaA-leaves to wear on the 29th of May; and I, who 
 neither recollected the origin of the custom nor the custom 
 itself, stupidly observed that I was not aware of the motive for 
 wearing oak-leaves on any particular day. ' Then, Sir,' said 
 she, ' you cannot be a Protestant. 1 I protested that I was a 
 Protestant ; and even if I had been a Jew or a Turk, I could 
 not discover the legitimacy of the lady's inferences. 
 
 " As far as Newcastle, all was sterility and dreariness ; and 
 you may tell Mrs. S. that even as far as York I met with no- 
 thing so summer-like as her garden. Not a rose was to be seen 
 011 the road; and if the hedges contained auriculas or violets, 
 they were concealed in the snow. The country between New- 
 castle and York was in an intermediate state, hesitating be- 
 tween winter and spring; but as soon as you pass the latter 
 city, the most beautiful verdure appears, and you find yourself 
 really in England. The neat cottages then present themselves, 
 and everything looks so cheerful and blooming, and rich and 
 elegant, that you cannot doubt the fact of your having passed 
 from the barren heaths of Scotland to a civilised country. 
 " I reached York at about ten o'clock at night, and was not 
 
 at all fatigued with the journey 
 
 "Here am I at the end of my first sheet, without having 
 advanced beyond the city of York; but from thence my journey 
 has been much more pleasant. The weather has been delight- 
 
302 LIFE OF H. ST. a. TUCKER. 
 
 ful; and in the 'High Flyer' I have been much more fortunate 
 in my companions. The mail coachmen, I suspect, pick up any 
 vagrants who can afford to give them a few shillings or pence 
 to convey them a short distance ; but in the High Flyer things 
 were different. Our party consisted of a General Hunter and 
 his son, a lieutenant in the 52nd Regiment, a major on the 
 Madras establishment (I believe), whose face was very familiar 
 to me, an Englishman from Aberdeen, who had metLumsden, 
 and others of my acquaintance, a spruce citizen, and, for a short 
 time, an honest, fat, Yorkshire yeoman. The Aberdeen man 
 entered very soon into an argument with me on Finance; and 
 not suspecting his opponent, he told me very bluntly that one 
 part of my argument overset the other. I smiled at this ; and, 
 determining not to be whipped in my own school, I began a 
 regular attack, called upon him to define his terms, then placed 
 myself close along side ; and in the course of a very few broad- 
 sides, I completely silenced his fire. I did not, however, wound 
 his self-love by any undue exultation; and we parted the 
 best friends possible. Indeed, he came up to shake hands 
 with me on taking leave; and both he and my friend the 
 major expressed great regret that I was not to continue the 
 journey with them. This was no small compliment, consider- 
 ing that the coach was crammed with six lusty fellows, all as 
 fat as myself ! 
 
 " On this part of the journey, too, we had only one female 
 companion, and she remained with us only ten minutes. She was 
 going to a fair at Tuxford ; and that she might make her ap- 
 pearance with eclat, she begged General Hunter to allow her to 
 take his place in the inside. To this he, very good humouredly, 
 consented 
 
 " We had a great deal of pleasant conversation during this 
 part of our journey; but the sketch which I have given of our 
 party must content you for the present. We arrived at this place 
 (a distance of seventy miles from York) between six and seven 
 o'clock in the evening : we all dined together, and I remained 
 here, and passed a tolerable night. I got up this morning be- 
 times to write to you; and after breakfast I shall resume my 
 
JOURNEY TO LONDON. 303 
 
 journey in the mail, and shall reach London, I expect, about 
 
 five o'clock to-morrow morning 
 
 " . . . . Heaven bless and preserve you all; and may I 
 find you all on my return as well and as happy as when I left 
 you. 
 
 " Ever most affectionately yours, 
 
 " H. Sx.G. TUCKER." 
 
 "27, Leicester- square, May 16, 1816. 
 
 " . . . . I believe I gave you pretty nearly a complete 
 journal of my travels. My Aberdeen acquaintance turns out to be 
 Mr.Irvine of Drum, of avery old and opulent familyin Aberdeen, 
 and a very respectable, well-informed man. I took him for one 
 of us ; and he was, perhaps, educated in England. The last stage 
 of my journey from Newark was passed in a very comfortable 
 ma'nner. I had only two companions: the one an enormous 
 fat man, who occupied one side of the carriage: the other, the 
 son of a clergyman in Essex, who, although not very brilliant, 
 appeared to be a decent, well-behaved man. Upon the ground 
 of this appearance, I lent him two shillings to pay the coach- 
 man at Huntingdon; but as the gentleman did not think it 
 necessary to repay the debt, I began to waver in my opinion 
 of him, and during the latter part of the journey I stood aloof. 
 Mem. to insert in my Common-place Book Never to volunteer 
 the loan of money to entire strangers ; and if I should be more 
 cautious in future, the lesson will not be purchased dearly at two 
 shillings. I endeavored to recollect if I had drawn any in- 
 formation from him, or acquired any other advantage from 
 his company, to repay me for my shillings; but the only 
 thing I can remember is his explanation of the origin of 
 Wandsford being called ' Wandsford in England! A peasant 
 fell asleep on a stack of hay, and was carried into the river by 
 a sudden flood. When he was at length picked up by the 
 country people, he asked where he was ? They told him at 
 Wandsford. ' What, at Wandsford in England? Bless me 
 I thought I was gone abroad.' This is scarcely worth two 
 shillings, although brother C. might make something of such 
 
304 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 materials. If he will take the bargain off my hands, let him 
 give me two shillings, and he is welcome." 
 
 The date of the preceding letter shows that Mr. 
 Tucker had taken up his quarters in Leicester- 
 square, where, after considerable trouble, he had 
 managed to secure lodgings. London was at this 
 time unwontedly full fuller even than it com- 
 monly is, at this fullest season of the year. " Prom 
 about five o'clock to seven or eight," he wrote on 
 his arrival, "I was running about in search of a 
 place of shelter for myself and my trunk. I was 
 refused admittance at seven different hotels, both in 
 the fashionable and unfashionable parts of the 
 town." A friend, however, had secured apartments 
 for him, "none of the best," and to these he 
 betook himself, and set resolutely about his work. 
 He had much to do besides the immediate business 
 which had brought him to town. His letters written 
 from Leicester-square, exhibit him now calling at 
 the India House and at the Board of Control* 
 now looking after his tenants at Crayford now 
 winding up the affairs of his deceased father, the 
 Bermuda treasurer, and convincing the Audit Office 
 of the correctness of the accounts now advancing 
 his brother's interests at the Horse Guards now 
 visiting his old friend Sir G. Barlow now dining 
 with old schoolfellows, and after a lapse of thirty 
 years being familiarly addressed by them as " Harry " 
 
 * He wrote, however, very emphatically at this time, " I do not mean to 
 trouble myself with India matters; for I shall have trouble enough probably 
 with my own concerns." 
 
RESIDENCE IN LONDON. 305 
 
 now attending the theatres and seeing Miss 
 O'Neill and Edmund Kean and now complain- 
 ing that there was no good music to be heard at the 
 Opera House : 
 
 " Leicester-square, 21st May, 1816. 
 
 " I dined as I mentioned I should at the S 's. In the 
 
 evening, we had a rubber at whist ; and I was so lucky as to 
 come off winner four shillings, a sum more than sufficient to 
 pay for the dirtiest hackney coach I ever chanced to meet. 
 My two schoolfellows were present ; and they seemed really 
 glad to see me. It appeared strange, after the lapse of thirty 
 years, to be called by them 'Harry/ just as if we had lived 
 together all the time. They both urged me to come and settle 
 among them near Southampton, and they mentioned half a 
 dozen charming places for sale in their neighbourhood, and all 
 great bargains. What is to be done ? . . . . 
 
 " Tell sister M., with my kind love, that I saw her boys at 
 C., and that I was well pleased with their appearance. I have 
 not yet seen Mr. Colebrooke. 
 
 " I went yesterday to the Horse Guards, and had an inter- 
 view with my friend Shawe, and with another of the Duke of 
 York's staff. From what they tell me, I think Charlton is 
 pretty secure of his troop; but Shawe recommended that I 
 should have an interview with Sir H. Torrens, the Military 
 Secretary, and I am accordingly to see him this morning at 
 two o'clock, after my return from the city. Shawe is very- 
 cordial ; and it is satisfactory to find that you are not forgotten 
 by your friends. 
 
 " I afterwards went to Somerset House, to call on Mr. M.., 
 the Auditor of the Exchequer, and I found my father's ac- 
 counts in a more promising state than I could well have ex- 
 pected. They all acknowledge his extraordinary regularity 
 and correctness; and there is not an item of the account which 
 would not have been passed if he had lived to settle it. Even 
 under every disadvantage, all the larger items will, I trust, be 
 passed ; and those which cannot be admitted, from some defect 
 
 X 
 
306 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 of form, or from want of explanation, will not, I hope, amount 
 to more than 50Z., a sum which. I shall very readily pay, if 
 necessary. The adjustment of the account will take place pro- 
 bably in July next ; and I shall have the satisfaction of know- 
 ing that you and our dear boy can never be troubled on the 
 subject when I am no longer here to manage such concerns. 
 
 '" I dined with L., and went afterwards to the play to see 
 Miss O'Neill. She is certainly a good performer ; but the 
 piece was not a good one (' The Jealous Wife '), and I was, upon 
 the whole, rather disappointed. We came away before the 
 farce was half over, for we were all sufficiently tired. I have 
 little enjoyment now in the theatre ; and as Madame Catalini 
 is abroad, I shall not probably go to the Opera." 
 
 " Leicester- square, 23rd May, 1816. 
 
 " After writing to you on Saturday, I had a very busy day. 
 I called twice on Mr. G. ; but I have never yet been so fortu- 
 nate as to meet him. I next proceeded to the Board of 
 Control; and left my card for Mr. Sullivan. There is no Pre- 
 sident to the Board just now; and indeed, to prevent the possi- 
 bility of any reference to me on business, I do not even leave 
 my address on my cards. 
 
 " I then went to the Audit Office, to inquire into the state 
 of my poor father's accounts ; and I had a very satisfactory 
 interview with Mr. Rawlinson, who, without any exception, is 
 one of the most gentlemanly men of business I have ever met 
 with in public life. I thought we were patterns in India ; but 
 he is quite equal to the best of us. He seemed to take a per- 
 sonal interest in my concerns ; and he has put me in a way, 
 I hope, of bringing the question to a final settlement. He took 
 the trouble to go over and explain to me the different reports ; 
 and if I find Mr. M., the auditor of the Treasury, equally ac- 
 commodating, I foresee no further difficulties. At all events if 
 I do not succeed here, I shall write to Mr. G., or to Mr. L , 
 the joint secretaries ; and I have no doubt that the ultimate 
 demand will be much reduced, if it be not altogether relin- 
 quished 
 
 " At Chiselhurst I met C., and found them all tolerably well. 
 
RESIDENCE IN LONDON. 307 
 
 Next day I rode over to Crayford. There I had the satisfaction 
 to find our estate in the best possible condition, owing to the 
 exertions of one of the sub-tenants, a gardener, who tells me 
 that he has laid out 500/. on the cottage, and TOO/, on the 
 ground in his occupancy. He has, in fact, converted ten acres 
 of the land into a beautiful garden ; and the tenants, I suppose, 
 receive from him more than they have engaged to pay me 
 . I walked over the estate, examined the cottage, &c., 
 and looked as big and as important as any Scotch laird in the 
 land ! The ride was pleasant, and the visit to this little pro- 
 perty was altogether very satisfactory. It will, I hope, be a 
 more valuable possession to our dear boy. I saw many houses 
 in Kent which I thought would have suited us nicely ; but I 
 do not repent of our purchase in Charlotte-square. Kent is a 
 delightful county; the beautiful verdure, the fine trees, the 
 undulating nature of the ground, &c., &c. ? all concur to render 
 it a most picturesque country. 
 
 " 29, Leicester- square, 27th May, 1816. 
 
 " After dressing and taking my dish of tea, I 
 
 went to Davis, in Portland-place, and from thence proceeded, 
 after breakfast, to Lumsden, in Gloucester-place, from whence 
 I accompanied him to pay a visit to Sir G. Barlow, at Streat- 
 ham. Sir George was well, and in good spirits, and he ap- 
 peared to be really glad to see us, and highly delighted with 
 our visit. On my return to town, I waited on Mr. Sullivan, 
 at the Board of Control, and had a pretty long interview with 
 him, which I was obliged to put an end to, in order to save 
 my dinner. He received me most graciously, and I was glad 
 that I had devoted an hour to pay him this attention. After 
 returning home and dressing for the Opera, I went into the 
 city by water, dined with E., got your dear letters, set out for 
 the Opera on foot (no coaches being procurable near at hand) 
 with C. and cousin J., in a shower of rain got a coach at 
 length in Cheapside put down J., proceeded to the Opera, 
 got a good seat in the pit, heard execrable music, saw very in- 
 different dancing, but had the satisfaction of sitting within four 
 or five yards of the Princess Charlotte and her good man. I 
 
 x2 
 
308 LIFE OP H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 will describe both when we meet. He is a good-looking man, 
 with a sombre, thoughtful countenance she is a laughing, 
 careless girl, with more spirits, perhaps, than discretion. The 
 Opera is miserably fallen off in every particular, and I should 
 never think of attending it a second time in its present condi- 
 tion. Madame Merconi was the only tolerable singer, and she 
 performed a male character. C. and I returned home in what 
 you would call & pour of rain ; but I suffered no other injury 
 than what befel my black silk stockings. 
 
 "Lord Melville, it is said, comes into the Board of Control, 
 and leaves the Admiralty to Mr. Canning. This arrangement 
 I should like, if I had any concern in Indian affairs; but I 
 take little interest in them at present, and I am likely to feel 
 less every day. 
 
 " I take my seat in the mail to-day, and, please Heaven ! I 
 shall have the happiness of seeing you again on Saturday 
 next. I shall not probably write to you to-morrow, unless 
 something should occur to detain me, for I shall have enough 
 to do on leaving town. I have no fear of detention, however ; 
 nor am I aware that I shall have left anything essential undone, 
 with the exception of the question with Mr. Adams 
 
 " I dine to-day with the L.'s, and accompany them to the 
 theatre to see Mr. Kean and the new tragedy. I shall there- 
 fore have seen most of the sights ; but there is no sight which 
 
 can gratify me half so much as that of my own dear J and 
 
 her sweet pets ; and it must be something very urgent indeed 
 which can ever induce me to leave them again. I shall leave 
 this place with joy, although the longer you stay in it the more 
 you become reconciled to it." 
 
 Mr. Tucker returned to Edinburgh poorer by 
 4000 . It had cost him that sum to arrange the 
 business which had carried him to the south of the 
 Tweed. 
 
 The autumn and winter of this year and the 
 spring of 1817 were spent principally in the Scottish 
 
VISIT TO CHESHIRE. 309 
 
 capital. In the summer, accompanied by his sister- 
 in-law, he undertook an excursion to the Welsh coun- 
 ties, with the intermediate object of visiting some 
 friends at Backford, in Cheshire, from which he pro- 
 ceeded to Tenby, Carmarthen, and other places. 
 His impressions are conveyed with much liveliness 
 of manner in the letters which he wrote to Edin- 
 burgh at the time : 
 
 " Backford, 21st June, 1817. 
 
 " .... I did not write to you yesterday, as we sallied 
 out immediately after breakfast, and did not return until late, 
 after having undergone a sort of boiling process in a hot-house, 
 in addition to the roasting effects of a burning sun. I shall now 
 give you a brief journal of our transactions. 
 
 " On the evening of my arrival, E. and I took a long ramble 
 on foot into the fields, for the purpose of viewing and exploring ; 
 but there is nothing very delightful in the aspect of the country. 
 It is flat, with little diversity of scenery : the trees are stunted, 
 and bend generally in one direction : the brick houses are mean 
 in appearance: the roads are dusty and bad; and, in short, 
 there is no prospect which can compare at all with that from 
 my own window. Backford itself is a commodious house, and 
 
 it is comfortably furnished Yesterday morning 
 
 we set out for ' Eaton,' the seat of Lord Grosvenor, distant 
 from hence about seven miles; and a most magnificent palace 
 it is ! When I tell you that it cost 400,OOOZ., you will conclude 
 that it ought to be something worth seeing ; and in truth it is 
 a most costly and superb mansion. I must, however, discover 
 defects in everything which is not my own ; and here the fault 
 is, that everything is too fine: ornaments are heaped upon 
 ornaments; and there is throughout a lavish and a gaudy 
 display of splendid decorations. The Mausoleum at Agra is as 
 rich in beauties, and those beauties are more chaste and simple. 
 The building, which is in the Gothic style, is, nevertheless, 
 very handsome : the painted glass windows are most resplendent 
 
310 LIFE OF H. ST.GL TUCKER. 
 
 and beautiful : the staircase is superior to any tiling of the kind 
 I have ever seen; and the tout-ensemble has a noble effect. The 
 gardens and grounds are extensive : the green-house and hot- 
 house very large; and there is everything which you can 
 imagine to be necessary to form a princely establishment. 1 
 was surprised, however, to see so few pictures. There are 
 scarcely a dozen in the house; and these are chiefly by West. 
 There are only two or three by the old masters, and they arc 
 not at all remarkable. 
 
 " . . . . We dine to day with Mrs. E ; but first we 
 
 pay a visit to Lady B. at Hoole, which is only three or four 
 miles from hence. To-morrow we attend Divine Service at the 
 cathedral. On Monday we go to Oulton. On Tuesday we 
 shall rest ourselves, I hope, at home; and on Wednesday I 
 shall pursue my journey through Wales. 
 
 " Farewell I must now take an abrupt leave. 
 
 I shall hope to receive a letter from you to-morrow, and I am 
 longing for it. Heaven protect and bless you all ! 
 
 " Ever yours, &c., &c., 
 
 " H. ST.G. TUCKER." 
 
 " Cheltenham, 1st July, 1817. 
 
 " . . . . I was delighted just now at receiving your 
 letter of Friday last. I had become a little impatient to hear 
 from you, and yet I scarcely expected to have this gratification ; 
 for in changing my route I necessarily deranged all our plans of 
 communication. _ I never paid five shillings postage with more 
 pleasure than I did to-day; and all your accounts are satisfactory. 
 . . . . I am heartily tired of this place; but I have en- 
 gaged a seat in the coach to Gloucester, and shall set out this 
 evening. I packed up my baggage betimes this morning ; but 
 I was still lingering in the hope of receiving letters when your 
 epistle came to hand and determined me. From Gloucester I 
 shall proceed on to-morrow morning by the mail to Tenby, 
 without going to Bristol as I had intended, and I hope to reach 
 Tenby on Thursday evening. I have resolved not to go to 
 London, in spite of all your injunctions. The trip would not 
 
EXCURSION IN WALES. 311 
 
 be productive either of pleasure or advantage, and it would be 
 attended with expense and inconvenience. I could not take 
 any step with regard to our future residence ; and it will be 
 much better that we should go together next spring, when we 
 can look about us at leisure. I have had a very inviting ac- 
 count of Devonshire from an old acquaintance whom I met 
 here, and he has offered either to make inquiries for me about 
 a house, &c., or to give me a bed, that I may be enabled to 
 make them in person. He keeps his carriage and horses, has an 
 excellent house in or near Exeter, goes about, sees his friends, 
 has two or three grown up daughters, and his expenditure does 
 not, he tells me, exceed 1400Z. per annum. The house which 
 I looked at near Wrexham, in Denbighshire, would suit us very 
 well, and would be a very suitable establishment for us in all 
 respects; but there are many points to be considered before we 
 move with a view to a permanent settlement, and these we can 
 discuss at leisure." 
 
 " Tenby, 3rd July, 1817. 
 
 " . . . . I arrived here two hours ago with a beard as 
 long as a Turk's; but I have now got rid of this ornament, and 
 although I have had rather a hard journey over bad roads, I am 
 perfectly well and stout. I could not write to you en route ; for 
 between Gloucester and this place a distance of about 150 
 miles we did not halt for twenty minutes at any one time. I 
 neither had dinner, tea, nor supper yesterday, and only tasted 
 two biscuits and three sponge cakes between eight o'clock 
 yesterday and eight o'clock this morning. You will not consider 
 this very good fare for a hungry traveller; but I find it answer 
 better to eat little when I am travelling, and I am just now 
 reaping the benefit of my abstinence. Had I been disposed to 
 dine, I must, under the arrangements of the mail, have taken 
 my dinner at twelve o'clock, and my supper at twelve o'clock 
 following ; but I was not at all sorry that these hours did not 
 suit my appetite. I mention these circumstances to show you 
 that I had no time to write to you, chemin faisant ; and I am a 
 little afraid that you may be disappointed at the long interval 
 which must elapse between your receiving my last and my 
 
312 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 present epistle. I was delighted with two letters on my arrival 
 here, and I thank you for them with all my heart. 
 
 " The country I have just passed through, and I think the 
 road from Ross to Monmouth, is as beautiful as any part of 
 England or Scotland which I have seen. The river Wye 
 meanders in sight of it a great part of the way ; and although 
 the scenery is different, and not perhaps so picturesque as that 
 between Lang Town and Langholm, it is by no means inferior 
 to it. The house I, of course, have not seen. . . . Before we 
 move, there are many points to consider and arrange ; and all 
 these we will discuss by-and-by at leisure. 
 
 " We have had Scotch weather for the last three days, 
 alternate wind and rain, and a little occasional sunshine. The 
 rain having predominated since my arrival, I have not been 
 abroad, and the only peculiarities which I have yet remarked 
 are, that the cattle are almost universally black ; that the women 
 ride on horseback and wear hats like those which are worn by 
 our sex; that the people speak in a sharp tone, with a quick 
 utterance, something after the manner of their relations, the 
 French ; that the coal looks like coaldust ; and that they put 
 two bullocks and two small horses, and sometimes three small 
 horses, into a cart which would be easily drawn by one in- 
 diflerent Scotch horse ; and, finally, that the country is more 
 ( denuded ' of trees than even Scotland itself I mean the 
 country within thirty miles of this place; for I repeat that the 
 country near Monmouth is most beautiful." 
 
 " Backford, July 10, 1817. 
 
 " I am once more snug and comfortable with 
 
 our friends here, after a long and very tiresome journey. I 
 left Tenby on Monday, after breakfast, and posted thence to 
 Coldblow to meet the mail ; but, after waiting two hours for it, 
 it arrived quite full of passengers within and without ; and I 
 was obliged to post on to Carmarthen in a most sorry equipage. 
 At Carmarthen I was detained again nearly a whole day ; and 
 the coach which brought me from thence to Shrewsbury was 
 one of the most wretched conveyances I ever met with. We 
 travelled at the rate of about four miles and a half per hour ; 
 
VISIT TO IRELAND. 313 
 
 and during a part of the distance I could have walked much 
 faster than the coach. Here I am, however, as fresh and as 
 well as ever, and ready to set out again to dine with Mrs. E. in 
 
 Chester " 
 
 Backford, July 14, 1817, 
 
 " We have just returned from haymaking ; but as it was 
 
 very hot, our labors have not accomplished a great deal. S 
 
 is the most indefatigable of the party, and as for V , she can 
 
 do nothing but read ' Cecilia.' We are both very 
 
 comfortable and happy here ; but we shall be quite as well at 
 home. We shall not, however, I fear, get away until Friday 
 morning ; and I shall find it rather a difficult affair to get to 
 you on Tuesday. I shall push hard for it." 
 
 " Penrith, July 24, 1817. 
 
 " . . . . We arrived here yesterday quite well, after 
 exploring the Lakes, &c. We have had a very pleasant ex- 
 cursion I shall not, I fear, have the happiness of 
 
 seeing you until Wednesday evening at the earliest ; for we 
 must pass a few hours at the least with dear Anne. I am very, 
 very impatient, but neither the sun nor post-horses will move 
 much faster in consequence. I pray Heaven that we may have 
 a speedy and a happy meeting " 
 
 The summer of the following year found Mr. 
 Tucker in Ireland. The immediate object of his 
 journey was a visit to an old Indian friend, Mr. 
 Bichardson, who had settled himself down in Dun- 
 dalk. But over and above this sacrifice to friend- 
 ship, there was in this, as in all his other excursions, 
 a further end to be attained. He who spends all 
 the best years of his life in a distant country, differ- 
 ing in every conceivable point of view from his own, 
 has necessarily much to learn and something to un- 
 learn, on settling down again in the land which he 
 
LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 quitted as a boy. To Mr. Tucker it seemed, as to 
 every intelligent Anglo-Indian in these later days it 
 has seemed, on revisiting the home of his fathers, 
 that cognisant as he was of the manners and insti- 
 tutions of the East, he was necessarily behind his 
 neighbours in practical acquaintance with the people 
 and the usages of the British Isles : and it appeared 
 to him a duty to guard himself against the forma- 
 tion of erroneous opinions, by extending his expe- 
 riences to all parts of the country, and filling his 
 pitcher at the fountain-head. Time was, if we may 
 believe the traditions of the past century, when the 
 retired Nabob squared all his opinions by the rule and 
 plummet of his Indian experiences when he trans- 
 planted to Bath, to Cheltenham, or to Edinburgh, 
 the manners of the Cutcherry and the morals of the 
 Zenana when his local knowledge went little be- 
 yond the boundaries set forth in the map of Bengal, 
 or "the Coast," and all the institutions with which 
 he had any distinct acquaintance were the Regula- 
 tions of the Indian Government. But in these days 
 it is subject of common remark remark always 
 mingled with expressions of astonishment that 
 men who have passed by far the greater part of 
 their lives in some distant Indian settlement, appear 
 soon after their return from exile to know at least 
 as much of the countries, the people, and the insti- 
 tutions of Europe, as those who have lived all their 
 years in the "West. Strange as this may appear at 
 the first glance, the strangeness vanishes after a 
 little reflection. Men who, after years of absence 
 
"OLD INDIANS." 315 
 
 and years of toil, return to their Western homes, 
 are slow to settle themselves down into the fixture- 
 life which is the characteristic of our home-bred 
 civilisation. They have health to regain ; they have 
 leisure to exhaust ; and they have money to expend. 
 They are accustomed to frequent migrations. They 
 take little account of distance. They are citizens of 
 the world. The polarity of the fireside is not to 
 them what it is to their brethren of Somerset House 
 and the Exchange. Many a returned Indian in the 
 course of a year or two sees more of Great Britain 
 more of continental Europe than all the rest of his 
 family in their aggregate experience during the 
 whole course of their lives. He sees it, too, at a 
 period of his career when he is less likely to form 
 hasty conclusions when his mind, enlarged by 
 foreign travel, and much intercourse with men, is 
 more capable of forming comparisons and analogies, 
 noting differences and distinctions, and illustrating 
 the observances of one country by a reference to the 
 experiences of another. "When Mr. Tucker returned 
 from India, there were scarcely any of those facili- 
 ties of locomotion which exist in the present day, 
 and he could not visit, in rapid succession, the va- 
 riety of places at home and abroad to which now his 
 successors are whirled. But to travel more is not 
 necessarily to see more. During the three first 
 years of his sojourn in Europe, he visited many 
 parts of England and Wales, Scotland and Ireland; 
 and with that rare aptitude for acquiring informa- 
 tion which had enabled him when yet a boy, in 
 
316 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 Bengal and Behar, to discourse knowingly on sys- 
 tems of Indian revenue, he gathered up rich ex- 
 periences, to he turned to profitable account in the 
 game of statesmanship which he was yet destined to 
 play. 
 
 But I am writing, in this chapter, of Mr. Tucker 
 in his private relations, and desire to illustrate only 
 the domestic side of his character. The passages 
 which I am culling from his correspondence are 
 gathered from letters addressed to the companion of 
 his life, and were intended only to gladden the home 
 from which he was never ahsent in spirit. It is 
 time now that I should resume my quotations : 
 
 "Leinster Hotel, Dublin, May 14th, 1818. 
 
 " . . . . We arrived here last night at eleven o'clock, 
 after a passage of thirteen hours, which is considered sufficiently 
 
 favorable I fear that you will have expected to 
 
 hear from me sooner, and that you may have been a little dis- 
 appointed in not getting a letter from me ; but after getting 
 into the mail at Llangollen, I had not one single moment 
 which I could command. From Llangollen 1 did not think it 
 necessary to write, as I had only just left you, and I had not 
 seen anything which I thought worthy of a description. 
 
 "Do not expect to hear from me regularly, for I find that 
 the packet is sometimes two days, or longer, in getting across ; 
 and while I am travelling, it is not possible to write. I am at 
 this moment writing in a public coffee-room, with people all 
 around me talking Irish in the purest style ; and this confuses 
 me a little, since I cannot choose but hear them. You must 
 not be surprised, indeed, if I should give you a little of the 
 brogue. 
 
 11 On Saturday we set off for Dundalk, where I propose to 
 remain until Tuesday or Wednesday, and on Friday or Satur- 
 day we shall, I trust, embark again for England. This, how- 
 
IRISH EXPERIENCES. 317 
 
 ever, must depend upon wind and weather; for if the wind be 
 adverse, or (what is worse) if there be a calm, there is no use 
 in commencing the voyage. Calms are to be expected at this 
 season ; and we may therefore be a couple of days in crossing 
 the water. Do not, then, expect us before Tuesday, nor in- 
 deed on any particular day or hour ; for it is impossible to 
 make arrangements which must depend on winds and weather. 
 
 I can give you no description of Dublin, for I 
 
 have not yet seen it ; and the fine bay, which is its greatest 
 ornament, we saw almost in the dark. You shall, however, 
 have a full account of our travels on our return." 
 
 " Dundalk, May 15th, 1818. 
 
 " . . . . We arrived here at two o'clock to-day, after 
 a pleasant journey. We came through a country not at all 
 remarkable for beauty ; and as for this good town, it is one of 
 the dirtiest holes I ever saw. You have nothing in Scotland 
 half so dirty or disgusting. The utmost degree of wretchedness 
 seems to prevail throughout the country ; and except during 
 the famines in India, I have never anywhere met with such a 
 ragged, squalid, miserable race of beings. Half the population 
 is half naked, or in filthy rags ; and the number of beggars is 
 so great as to be a serious nuisance. In short, things are much 
 worse here than in Scotland ; and, go where I will, I come al- 
 ways to this conclusion, that everything is best at home. I am 
 really sorry to see R. fixed eve,n for a short time in such a 
 wretched town. The house is large and commodious, and they 
 have a very pretty garden ; but nothing could reconcile me to 
 such a neighbourhood. 
 
 " Upon the whole, I have seen nothing yet to delight me; 
 but I have seen a new country, which is always an object of 
 interest, and I am not sorry that I made the trip. I have been 
 most amused with the language and remarks of the lower orders 
 of the people. There is something so original and so ludicrous 
 in their manner and expressions, that I listen to them with a 
 great degree of interest; and I am induced to laugh at them, or 
 with them, as I should do at good comic acting. We shall 
 stay here probably until Tuesday; and after rambling about 
 
318 LIFE OF H. ST. a. TTJCKEB. 
 
 Dublin and its neighbourhood until Friday or Saturday, I hope 
 to embark again for dear England. We cannot, however, be 
 with you before Monday at the soonest." 
 
 "Dundalk, May 17th, 1818. 
 
 " . . . . We have just come in from church, where 
 we had very good service; and the day being extremely fine, 
 and the people being all in their best attire, things wear rather 
 a more cheerful appearance. But, at best, this is one of the 
 most dirty, disagreeable places I have ever been in. We yes- 
 terday took a ride out on horseback, a distance of five or six 
 miles from the town; but although this is considered the best 
 ride in the neighbourhood, there is scarcely any part of Scot- 
 land which I should not think more civilised and more inviting 
 in its appearance. The people seem either habitually lazy, or 
 altogether disheartened by their poverty and misery. In each 
 field you see some three or four ragged laborers (sometimes the 
 fair sex are of the party), who stand leaning on their spades, as 
 if totally indifferent to the work they have in hand. The 
 ground being scarcely turned up by the plough, they are 
 obliged to break it up as well as they can with the spade ; and 
 then they send a light harrow tripping over it, for no one pur- 
 pose whatever which I could discover, since if they brushed the 
 ground with an ostrich feather they would make quite as much 
 impression upon it. The lower Irish are the most careless, 
 thoughtless beings which it is possible to conceive. Yesterday 
 we met in our ride two strapping fellows upon a miserable lean 
 horse, with two large sacks of bran dangling one on either side, 
 the mouths being downwards. Well, by way of showing off, 
 as they passed us, the poor animal was goaded into a rumbling 
 trot, the mouth of one of the sacks opened, and the bran went 
 flying about until the road was strewed with it. These fellows 
 went jogging on, notwithstanding, as if perfectly unconscious 
 of what was going forward; but at length one of them, appear- 
 ing to awake, he set about dismounting. Instead, however, of 
 getting off on the side of the empty bag, which I should have 
 conceived the more easy and obvious proceeding, he threw 
 himself back the other way ; and his weight being thus thrown 
 
IRISH EXPERIENCES. 319 
 
 into the heavier scale, the whole party came to the ground. 
 Everything seems to be matter of indifference to them. The 
 boys amuse themselves in jumping from the walls of the cot- 
 tages into the filthy dunghills below ; and this seems to delight 
 them as much as if they were plunging into beds of roses. The 
 streets and roads are crowded with children and young lads 
 in tatters, playing at hop-step-and-jump, and apparently well 
 pleased to do anything but work. The best estate in the county 
 would not tempt me to live in it ; and I am no longer surprised 
 that there should be so many absentees. 
 
 " We shall set out on our retunTto Dublin on Tuesday, and 
 on Friday evening I hope to embark again for England, with 
 purpose never to revisit this sweet little island of Erin. I am 
 glad that I have seen it ; but I shall be glad not to see it 
 
 again." 
 
 " Dundalk, May 18th, 1818. 
 
 " . . . . Yesterday we had crowds of visitors here, all 
 pure, unadulterated Irish. One lady asked me very gravely 
 ' If India were not much nearer now to this country than it was 
 some years ago?' This was rather a puzzler; but I got off as 
 well as I could without offence to her, or to the laws of nature. 
 To-day we have a fair in the town; but as the county has been 
 proclaimed, and is under military law, the people are obliged to 
 be very circumspect, and we shall not probably have any of the 
 usual fun of broken heads, or the like. We are going, how- 
 ever, to sally out on horseback, to see what is to be seen. Such 
 was the state of this neighbourhood during last year, that they 
 were obliged to enforce what is called the Insurrection Act; 
 and no person can stir out of his house after the curfew, with- 
 out being liable to be taken up as a vagrant, and sentenced to 
 transportation. What a country to live in ! 
 
 " P.S. Dublin. We arrived here, all well, yesterday even- 
 ing, after having had a genuine specimen of Irish posting. The 
 horses were so lame, and the equipage altogether so wretched, 
 that we were ashamed to show ourselves in it to the citizens of 
 Dublin; and so we got out, and walked the last mile. Indeed, 
 we thought that the horses could drag us no further. The 
 
320 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 weather was, however, delightful, and we perambulated the 
 city afterwards, until past nine o'clock." 
 
 On his return from Ireland, Mr. Tucker, accom- 
 panied by his wife, paid a brief visit to London. In 
 the course of the following September he escorted 
 Mrs. Tucker's sister and a party of young friends on 
 an excursion to the Scotch lakes a work of kind- 
 ness rather than of inclination, for he was familiar 
 with the ground which they traversed, and the in- 
 cessant sight-seeing was wearisome to him. He was 
 longing all the time to be again in Charlotte-square. 
 " It is all very well," he wrote, " to view objects of 
 curiosity ; but my real delight will be in reviewing 
 my own dear home." 
 
 Towards the close of the following year (1819), 
 Mr. Tucker was called by business to London, where 
 he took up his residence in the Haymarket, which 
 was then something more than a name. " You may 
 be curious to receive some account of my present 
 abode," he wrote. " It is directly opposite to the 
 Opera House, within a few doors of the little 
 theatre; and I have, therefore, music and dancing 
 quite within reach. I have also a fine prospect of 
 hay from my windows." He had much business to 
 do, and many visits to pay on his own account ; but 
 he yet could make time to advance the interests of 
 others ; and much of his private correspondence re- 
 lates to his toilsome, but in the end successful efforts 
 to obtain appointments for some young relatives and 
 connexions, who had very little claim upon him. 
 
RESIDENCE IN LONDON. 321 
 
 He entered but sparingly into the amusements of 
 the town. "R. and I," he said, still writing to 
 Charlotte-square, " dined together at a coffee-house 
 yesterday, and went afterwards to the House of 
 Commons, where we heard a very interesting debate. 
 We were fortunate in procuring excellent seats, and 
 remained in the House till near three o'clock in the 
 morning. This is the greatest raking I have been 
 guilty of for many a day. The evening before I 
 dined alone at a vile coffee-house, recommended 
 
 to me by Colonel C , that I might go and 
 
 see Drury Lane Theatre. Kean performed, what I 
 think his best character, Sir Giles Overreach; and 
 as I was in the Pit, I saw and heard to great ad- 
 vantage.* I have only now to attend the House 
 of Lords, and then I shall have satisfied all my 
 curiosity in this way." 
 
 He visited also the India House and the Board of 
 Control, and the subject of an appointment in the 
 Examiner's Office at the former, again came before 
 him for consideration. " I passed four or five hours," 
 he wrote, " yesterday at the Board of Control and 
 the India House, and was most cordially received 
 by all my acquaintance, who seem to regret that I 
 have not been placed amongst them. It was, I 
 believe, in contemplation, when the last arrange- 
 ment took place but they concluded that I would 
 not accept a situation on the footing on which they 
 
 * In a letter written about this time, Mr. Tucker says, " I am getting one 
 of my Comedies transcribed; and if it should be finished in time I shall submit 
 it to one of the managers." Whether he did so or not, does not appear. 
 
322 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 would have been disposed to place me. Mr. M'Cul- 
 loch, I hear, "behaved extremely well. He assured 
 the Chairman that he did not wish to stand in the 
 way of any arrangement which it might be found 
 convenient to make; and that he should be quite 
 content to remain under any person who might be 
 selected for the head of the office. But," added 
 Mr. Tucker, communicating this to his wife, "we 
 are both quite content, my own dear Jane, to remain 
 comfortably in Charlotte- square, instead of encoun- 
 tering the noise and smoke of this overgrown me- 
 tropolis." He saw, at that time, little to induce 
 him again to wear the harness of official life. 
 
 His business in London accomplished, Mr. Tucker 
 hastened back to the northern metropolis. E/eports 
 of disturbances in Scotland caused him to accelerate 
 his homeward movements. There seemed to be a 
 prospect of exciting times, and except the thought 
 of giving assurance by his presence at home to his 
 own family, nothing pressed upon his mind more 
 eagerly than the desire to testify his loyalty by join- 
 ing any volunteer force that might be raised for the 
 protection of the country. " Beg Boswell, or Alex- 
 ander," he wrote, " to insert my name immediately 
 as a member of the volunteer cavalry ; and request 
 
 A to look out for a light active horse for me. 
 
 He had better consult my friend Richardson about 
 him, as he is an old cavalry officer, an excellent 
 judge of horses, and he knows the kind of animal 
 which would suit me." But the disturbances were 
 soon at an end ; and Mr. Tucker was not called upon 
 
THOUGHTS OF PUBLIC LIFE. 323 
 
 to exhibit himself, in the "West, as he had done in 
 the East, as a Light-Horse Volunteer. 
 
 But he was about soon to gird himself up for 
 another contest. This is the only chapter of Mr. 
 Tucker's adult life which is purely one of private 
 history. I have expanded it the rather on this ac- 
 count, and dwelt upon circumstances of little im- 
 portance except as illustrations of private character, 
 because such a chapter affords a sort of halting- 
 ground, where the reader may rest before passing 
 from the record of Mr. Tucker's career in the East 
 to the narrative of his public life in the "West. It 
 is not to be doubted, that during this period of re- 
 pose he was very happy. In the wife of his bosom 
 he had a true help-meet and a charming companion. 
 And his children were growing up at his knees, 
 visions of delight filling him with joy. But man, 
 who knows himself but little, knows himself in 
 nothing so little, as when he estimates his power, 
 in the prime of life and the vigor of intellect, to 
 retire into privacy and to subside into inaction, 
 without a regret or a desire to ruffle the surface of 
 his domestic peace. If it be an infirmity for a man 
 at the age of forty-eight to think that his work is not 
 done, and to desire to take part in public affairs, 
 such is the " infirmity of noble minds," and I envy 
 not the man without it. Henry St. George Tucker 
 thought for a time that he was " quite content" 
 with Charlotte- square, with his loving wife, and his 
 dear children. And in one sense he was content. 
 Happy is the man, who feels in his inmost heart 
 
 Y2 
 
324< LIFE OP H. ST.Q. TUCKER. 
 
 that public success is not a necessity of his life 
 that if entrance into the great world of Politics be 
 denied to him, he has still abundant store of comfort 
 left him in the solid realities of domestic bliss. But 
 the excitement of public life, rightly considered and 
 legitimately encouraged, is not antagonistic, but an- 
 cillary, to domestic happiness. As with the body, 
 so with the mind, the proper exercise and just de- 
 velopment of each part is essential to the health and 
 perfection of the rest. Men are not worse, but 
 better husbands and fathers, for taking part in the 
 external realities of public life. It has been said, 
 by the greatest 1 " of English prose-writers, that the 
 pleasures of the intellect are greater than the plea- 
 sures of the affections as though they were antago- 
 nistic properties. But it is only in combination 
 that either is perfect. No man really knows the 
 delights of home no man can justly appreciate its 
 blessings who has not another life, another history, 
 than that of the fireside. 
 
DEPARTURE FROM SCOTLAND. 325 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Mr. Tucker's Departure from Scotland" Starting for the Direction" Con- 
 stitution of the Court of Directors The Canvass Candidates and Voters 
 The " City Interest" The " West-India Interest" Mr. Tucker'g Defeat- 
 Renewal of the Canvass His Election Incidents of Private Life. 
 
 WHEN, therefore, Henry St. George Tucker formed 
 the resolution of leaving Edinburgh, and again enter- 
 ing into public life, all that his Biographer can say of 
 the matter is, that he did wisely. In the course of 
 the year 1820, he removed his family to England ; 
 and hired a residence in that part of the country 
 where Middlesex and Hertfordshire join, in the 
 neighbourhood of Barnet. And then, early in the 
 following year, he began " to canvass for the Direc- 
 tion." In other words, he bethought himself of 
 again entering public life, as a Director of the East 
 India Company. 
 
 It was a legitimate and a worthy object of ambi- 
 tion that he had now set before him. He aspired to 
 be nothing less than the twenty-fourth part of a 
 King of one of the greatest sovereigns in the 
 world. If all kings were as competent to govern 
 the empires entrusted to them, they would have no 
 
326 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 need of bad ministers. Mr. Tucker felt that he 
 had within him the knowledge and experience the 
 earnestness and zeal necessary to the character of 
 one who aspires to take an active part in the manage- 
 ment of such a country. He did not merely want 
 employment. He did not want position. He did not 
 want patronage. He wanted to be useful. He 
 wanted to do good. 
 
 The Court of Directors of the East India Company 
 at that time consisted of twenty-four effective mem- 
 bers ; and six on a non-effective list, formed by the 
 yearly rustication of that number of the fraternity, 
 all going out in succession. These thirty Directors 
 were elected by the Proprietors of East India Stock 
 no other qualification being necessary than the posses- 
 sion of a certain amount of the prescribed securities.* 
 It happened, therefore, that a considerable number 
 of these Directors were chosen not from among men 
 who had passed many years in India and had 
 garnered up rich stores of Indian information, but 
 from among Merchants and Bankers, and men con- 
 nected with the Shipping interests, who had but 
 slender acquaintance with the history, the geo- 
 graphy, the institutions, and the usages of the East. 
 Nor was it altogether unfitting that such general 
 elements should enter into the constitution of the 
 Court. The East India Company was at that time a 
 " Company of Merchants trading to the East Indies ;" 
 and, although when Mr. Tucker canvassed the Pro- 
 
 * I write in the past tense, because, doubtless, there will be some readers 
 of this volume into whose hands it will not pass before all this is tradition. 
 
THE " CITY INTEREST." 327 
 
 prietors, the monopoly of the India trade had been 
 abolished, the China monopoly still existed, and the 
 management of this trade formed an important part 
 of the duties of the Leadenhall-street Council. 
 
 It may be doubted whether even in those days 
 the " City-interest" was not too powerful for the in- 
 terests of India. But it is not to be doubted that 
 many men, who have had no Indian antecedents, 
 or whose connexion with India has been of the 
 slenderest and most uninstructive kind, have risen 
 into very useful and very influential Directors, whose 
 merits their more experienced brethren have de- 
 lighted to acknowledge. It is not because such men 
 were often elected, that I speak of the undue power 
 of the City-interest ; but because in effect a few great 
 Houses monopolised so large a number of votes, that 
 the real constituency was greatly narrowed, and it 
 became not so much a matter of primal concernment 
 for the candidate to canvass the general body of Pro- 
 prietors as to canvass these great Houses. And it 
 need not be said that it was not the individual fit- 
 ness of the candidate his ability, his experience, 
 his zeal, and his integrity which these Leviathan 
 Houses were wont in the first instance to regard. 
 This Mr. Tucker knew and deplored. He would have 
 amended it, if he could ; but as he could not, he had 
 no sooner formed his intention to " stand for the 
 Direction," than he took counsel with some leading 
 members of certain great City Houses, and invited 
 their support. 
 
 In the following letter written to one of these great 
 
328 LIFE Or H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 vote-holders a merchant whom he had known well 
 in India it may be seen how the course which he 
 purposed to adopt was then taking shape in his 
 mind: 
 
 " TO JAMES A , ESQ. 
 
 "Friern Lodge, Whetstone, 22nd January, 1821. 
 
 " DEAR A , I came into the country, like certain 
 
 pugilist?, for the benefit of a summer's training ; but I hear 
 that the Ring is likely to be formed much sooner than I 
 could have anticipated. From Cox and other friends I have 
 heard lately that there is a probability of no less than three 
 vacancies in April, by the resignation of two of the Directors ; 
 and if this information be correct, it may be as well for me to 
 consider whether I ought not to offer myself for one of them. 
 Not that I am at all impatient to stand. On the contrary, 
 Mr. Forbes' advice to me ' not to be precipitate' was unques- 
 tionably good, and I feel much disposed to follow it. I feel, 
 moreover, great reluctance to stand against Welland; for 
 although I do not myself believe that I should prejudice his 
 interests, he and his friends will, perhaps, think differently. 
 
 " On the other hand, by standing in April, I may derive 
 some benefit from the attendance of some of the distant voters, 
 who are not likely to be in London at any other season ; and 
 there are some on the spot who would give me their second or 
 third votes, although I could not expect from them their first 
 votes in a single contest. 
 
 " Now, I do not wish to be importunate or troublesome to 
 you; but if you have had an opportunity of consulting your 
 friends, and if they are prepared to come to a determination, it 
 would be of great importance to me to know whether you and 
 they are disposed to support me with your second or third 
 votes, in the event of three vacancies occurring. If you should 
 be so disposed, and if I should be advised to stand, it is evident 
 that I have not a moment to lose ; for I have my testimonials 
 to collect and arrange, and I have to undertake a personal 
 canvass, which I can scarcely be said to have yet commenced. 
 
PLANS AND PROSPECTS. 329 
 
 I have received most flattering encouragement from many indi- 
 viduals, and abundance of very gratifying compliments, which, 
 after due abatement, incline me to think (or at least to hope) 
 that I shall have a fair share of the benefit of public opinion in 
 my favor; but I have neither commenced a regular canvass, 
 nor had I any idea of commencing one, before the General 
 Election, until I heard of the expected vacancies. 
 
 "Again, I repeat, that I am not in a hurry to stand myself, 
 nor would I wish to hurry you; but if your decision be formed? 
 the communication of it would relieve me from a little dilemma, 
 or awkwardness; for while a doubt exists with regard to it, I 
 feel that I cannot in delicacy ask advice from Shore and others 
 who act with you, and whose advice would be to me of the 
 utmost importance. In any case, you will do me the justice to 
 believe that I am not so unreasonable as to harbour anything 
 like a feeling of dissatisfaction, if you were to tell me at once 
 that you could not support me. I am perfectly satisfied of your 
 good wishes; and I am well aware that, in so extensive and 
 complicated a connexion, it may be necessary to consult the 
 views and interests of so many, as to render it difficult, and 
 perhaps impracticable, for you to give effect to those wishes. 
 Tn truth, too, it would not seriously distress me if I were to 
 stop short to-morrow ; for I have not placed my happiness in 
 the East India House, and I have received testimonies of regard 
 and of approbation of my public conduct, more than sufficient 
 to recompense me for the little trouble I have hitherto taken. 
 A seat in the Direction is a legitimate object of ambition. I 
 like active employment, and I prefer, from habit, those public 
 duties and occupations to which I have been so long accus- 
 tomed; but I shall not be unhappy if I am not allowed to 
 become a public drudge. Even the patronage is not a principal 
 object with me, although it would, no doubt, be the source of 
 very great gratification; for my friends in the Direction have 
 hitherto supplied my wants. 
 
 " In short, this is a long letter, which it is time to conclude; 
 and I shall conclude by repeating that, although I am far from 
 being indifferent to the object which I have proposed to myself, 
 I am by no means impatient to prosecute it; and that, if you 
 
330 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 and Mr. Forbes, and your friends, would only interest your- 
 selves so far as to say ' halt,' or ' move forward,' I should cheer- 
 fully and thankfully obey the word of command. 
 
 " Believe me, very sincerely, &c., 
 
 "H. Sx.G. TUCKER." 
 
 Though the plan here spoken of was abandoned, 
 he now began to prosecute his canvass in earnest. 
 A long and a wearisome business was this " can- 
 vassing for the Direction." The canvassing of con- 
 stituencies is never pleasant. A man with a vote in 
 his pocket rides the suffrage like a high horse. He 
 is as extortionate as a Chief Inquisitor, and as pre- 
 sumptuous as the Grand Turk. He thinks himself 
 privileged to ask anything, to exact anything, to 
 dictate anything ; and to give in return grudging 
 assents, half promises, or impertinent denials. But 
 the torture to which the candidate is subjected is 
 generally brief. The circle of suffering is bounded 
 by a few weeks. The canvass is not commenced 
 till the opening has presented itself and the day of 
 election is near at hand. Canvassing for the East 
 India Direction was, however, a work of years. It 
 looked far into the future. It addressed itself to re- 
 mote contingencies. It contemplated events not 
 in esse, but m posse. It anticipated the will of Pro- 
 vidence, and hungered after empty places before the 
 hour was ripe. It took its stand upon the doctrine 
 of probabilities, and calculated rates of mortality. 
 It assumed that the ranks of a corps, composed 
 chiefly of men who had long passed* their prime, 
 must be periodically thinned, and that in no single 
 
CANVASSING FOR THE DIRECTION. 331 
 
 year of the century was a vacancy far off. A man, 
 therefore, declared himself a candidate for the Di- 
 rection whenever he had a mind to put forth an 
 address to the Proprietors of India Stock. The 
 earlier he appeared in the field, the earlier in all 
 probability would he be returned. So the candidate 
 prepared himself for the contest put himself into 
 training, waited patiently, and worked strenuously 
 till the day of battle had come. 
 
 The operation was a tedious one. Of this patient 
 waiting and this strenuous working it demanded, 
 indeed, long years. When a man first declared 
 himself a candidate for the Direction, he knew that 
 others, who had declared themselves before, must 
 be elected before him. It was not the first vacancy 
 or the second or, perhaps, even the third, that 
 he believed himself destined to fill. A vacancy oc- 
 curred, and he did not even attempt to hoist himself 
 into the place. Another, and he still looked on. A 
 third ; and he went, perhaps diffidently or carelessly, 
 to the Poll, with scarcely a hope of success. A 
 fourth, and there was a sharp contest he was 
 beaten by a few votes. A fifth, and he was tri- 
 umphantly returned. He might be beaten twice, or 
 he might be beaten only once ; but few entered the 
 Court without sustaining at least one defeat. De- 
 feat, indeed, was almost a condition of election. I 
 believe that there is but one Director, at this time, 
 who secured his seat without years of canvass. 
 
 That in this state of things there were inherent 
 
332 LIPE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 evils is not to be doubted. A resolute candidate, 
 whatever might be his claims, sometimes gained his 
 point by dint of shere perseverance and importunity. 
 A vote would often be promised to a man for two 
 or three elections in advance, simply for the purpose 
 of getting rid of a troublesome candidate, or, in 
 very gentleness of heart, to smooth the asperity of 
 a present refusal. So that when candidates of high 
 rank presented themselves, they found the Pro- 
 prietors already prospectively pledged, and were ne- 
 cessitated to endure the ordeal of initiatory failure 
 or to withdraw altogether from the lists. So it 
 happened that men of distinguished reputation, un- 
 willing to be defeated by their inferiors, shrunk 
 altogether from the contest. And it was said that 
 the necessities of the canvass and the chances of the 
 competition filled the Court with second-rate men. 
 
 But this was only partly true. It has been asserted, 
 on the other hand, that such men as Munro, Elphin- 
 stone, and Metcalfe, needed only to declare them- 
 selves as Candidates for the Direction to secure an 
 immediate recognition of their claims. And I have 
 the utmost faith in the assertion. I believe that 
 there were few candidates who would not have 
 voluntarily given place to such men, and temporarily 
 released their supporters from the pledges that they 
 had ignorantly given. I believe that the claims 
 of such pre-eminent merit would never have been 
 denied. But it must be admitted that many men, 
 distinguished though in a lesser degree, shrunk from 
 the contest upon no insufficient grounds ; and that 
 
THE CANVASSING SYSTEM. 333 
 
 others who had braved it, were defeated by their 
 inferiors in ability and reputation. There was some 
 leaven of real evil in this but there was much, too? 
 that lay only on the surface. It was found in effect 
 that the men of the highest Indian reputations did 
 not always make the best Directors. Great names 
 are often great delusions. Men entered the Court 
 with great reputations; and were found to be in- 
 dolent, or prejudiced, or crotchety, or self-sufficient, 
 and rather obstructed than aided the working of the 
 machinery of Government. Sometimes they looked 
 upon a seat in the India House as an easy-chair, 
 in which they might lounge away the rest of their 
 lives, reposing under the laurels which they had 
 earned in India. On the other hand, men, w r ho had 
 a reputation to make, made it ; and were the more 
 eager to prove their fitness for office since they knew 
 that it had been questioned. I do not mean to say 
 that this was the rule, or that, if it had been, it 
 would have proved the excellence of the system. 
 I only mean that the most distinguished men did 
 not necessarily make the best Directors, and that 
 system had some advantages if it had many defects. 
 Of the general results of the system of the 
 working of the Government so constituted, I shall, 
 perhaps, have occasion to speak more fully in an- 
 other chapter. To this only belongs the subject of 
 election with the process of preliminary canvassing, 
 which was a work demanding no common amount of 
 energy and perseverance. It demanded, too, some- 
 thing more than this ; it demanded leisure, and it de- 
 
334 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 manded money. The constituency was scattered all 
 over the British Islands. There was no place, from 
 the Land's End to John O'Groat's, in which a Pro- 
 prietor of India Stock, with one or more stars to his 
 name, might not be located. An active canvasser 
 seldom relied on the effect of epistolary solicitation. 
 He generally, either in his own person, or through 
 the agency of a zealous friend, beat up the quarters 
 of the voter. It would be curious to estimate the 
 number of miles travelled by a candidate for the 
 Direction in the course of his canvass. The ex- 
 penditure of money, too, was not inconsiderable. A 
 man desiderating a seat in Parliament goes down 
 to a borough and spends, perhaps, a few thousand 
 pounds in the course of a few days. The trouble 
 and anxiety are intense whilst they last ; but they 
 are soon at an end. But the candidate for the Direc- 
 tion spent his money slowly, and his sufferings were 
 spread over a space of several years. The disper- 
 sion of the constituency, too, was a great evil to 
 the candidate. Men located in remote parts of the 
 country had their public virtue or their private 
 friendship severely tested by a request to come up 
 to London, in days when travelling was both costly 
 and expensive, to vote for an Indian Director. The 
 reluctance of the indolent, and the scruples of the 
 parsimonious, were alike to be overcome. Then 
 there was often the inopportune intervention of a fit 
 of gout, or an attack of lumbago, to keep the voter 
 to his own room at the very time when he was re- 
 
ELECTIONEERING TACTICS. 335 
 
 quired to put himself into the Mail, and be jolted to 
 the Poll at the India House. All sorts of disap- 
 pointments and vexations would arise in the course 
 of a canvass of such long duration. The delay, too, 
 tried the truth and consistency of voters to an ex- 
 tent sometimes beyond their powers of resistance. 
 I am afraid it sometimes happened that men pro- 
 mised their support to one candidate, and voted for 
 another. 
 
 One .of the first things that a candidate did, after 
 declaring his intention to stand for the Direction, 
 was to form a Committee of influential friends, and 
 to hire a Committee-room at some first-rate tavern 
 in the City. These Committees consisted of a cer- 
 tain number of good names ; and two or three 
 working members, who kept annotated lists of the 
 Court of Proprietors, and studied all methods, 
 direct and indirect, of approaching uncertain voters. 
 There was " treating," too, doubtless on a liberal 
 scale, but not after the fashion of a borough elec- 
 tion. A candidate for the Direction did not keep 
 open house during the years of his canvass, but he 
 recognised the necessity of entertaining his friends ; 
 and balls and dinner-parties constituted at least a 
 portion of the legitimate allurements which were 
 employed. This was, generally, the full extent of 
 the bribery and corruption. The canvass, indeed, 
 was altogether more toilsome than humiliating; 
 and it may be questioned whether, as a rule, any 
 other elections are conducted with so little resort to 
 
336 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 unworthy and illegal means of accomplishing a de- 
 sired end.* 
 
 There were exceptions to this, as to other rules, 
 and I shall come presently to speak of some of them. 
 In the mean while, let it be said that Mr. Tucker 
 set about this work of canvassing, as about every 
 other work which he undertook, with characteristic 
 energy and activity. He had not long formed the 
 resolution of starting for the Direction, before he 
 set out for Bath, Clifton, Cheltenham, and other 
 places where Proprietors of India Stock congregate, 
 to declare his intentions, and to solicit support. 
 Prom Bath, about the middle of February, he wrote 
 to his beloved wife, who was entirely in all his 
 councils, and who entered with the liveliest sym- 
 pathy and warmest affection into all his views : " I 
 have been running about a great deal this morning, 
 paying visits to Indian friends as well as to voters ; 
 but I found very few of either description at home, 
 and I do not promise myself great success as far as 
 electioneering objects are in question. I saw Sir 
 Robert Blair, Sir P. Dallas, General Cameron, and 
 Colonel Shaw, who are all Proprietors ; and I left- 
 cards for many others ; but they are all pretty well 
 engaged, and I cannot expect many of them to 
 travel above 200 miles, merely to gratify one who is 
 
 * Of course, a constituency so composed is not to be bribed with pots of 
 beer, or even with five-pound notes. But it has been alleged that the 
 patronage of the Directors has been forestalled for electioneering purposes 
 that Proprietors have been bribed by promises of writerships and cadetships. 
 If this charge be intended to have general application, it is singularly untrue. 
 If such has been done, the case is an exceptional one. The rule is altogether 
 the reverse. 
 
CANVASSING. 337 
 
 a stranger to them." From Clifton, he wrote a few 
 days afterwards, " I have been canvassing here with 
 better success than I had expected ; and I have 
 found here as elsewhere friends who are disposed to 
 exert themselves strenuously in my favor." From 
 Cheltenham he wrote, on the 2nd of March, " To- 
 day I shall pay my electioneering visits at this 
 place ;" and two days afterwards, having proceeded 
 to Malvern, he added : " I was most civilly received 
 by the Cheltenham voters." Everybody acknow- 
 ledged his fitness for the office, even when foregone 
 promises and pledges stood in the way of a tender of 
 individual support. 
 
 It was, indeed, solely on the strength of his per- 
 sonal fitness and his public claims to the support of 
 the Proprietary body, that he prosecuted his canvass. 
 He had little private influence at this time ; and 
 some powerful interests were arrayed against him. 
 Even the influential City men and there were some 
 who furthered his views did so, solely upon public 
 grounds. Eoremost amongst these was Sir Thomas 
 Baring, who steadily, consistently, and unwearyingly 
 supported Mr. Tucker. " If you succeed in obtain- 
 ing a seat in the Direction," he wrote, " which I 
 trust and feel persuaded you will do, upon the first 
 vacancy that may occur, you will owe your success 
 more to your own merits, than to any assistance 
 that I may be able to give you, although that assist- 
 ance may not, and I hope will not, be inconsider- 
 able." 
 
 But it was not the " first vacancy" that he was 
 
 z 
 
338 LIFE OP H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 destined to fill. Others had been in the field before 
 him. "When he first announced his intention of 
 coming forward, he had intended to go to the Poll 
 on the occurrence of the second vacancy. "My 
 present intention," he then said, "is to stand for 
 the second vacancy (Mr. Mills being supposed to 
 occupy the first), and to go on to a second trial of 
 strength should I not succeed in the first experi- 
 ment ; and should this experiment satisfy me that I 
 have a fair share of public opinion in. my favor. A 
 second defeat will infallibly lay me up in ordinary 
 for the rest of my life, as I have no wish to trouble 
 my Mends and myself to no purpose. I should my- 
 self be disposed to refrain from giving any pledge or 
 intimation with respect to the time of my coming 
 forward ; but the question has been repeatedly asked 
 me since the last election, and my answer hitherto 
 has been generally that I do not mean to stand 
 against Mr. Mills ; but that I shall probably come 
 forward on the second vacancy." Circumstances, 
 however, induced him to swerve from this reso- 
 lution. 
 
 Colonel Baillie, an officer much distinguished as a 
 soldier and a diplomatist, had declared himself before 
 him ; and his prospects of success were so good, that 
 Mr. Tucker determined not to oppose him. " Baillie 
 has been much longer in the field," he wrote, in 
 1821, " and is, probably, much better prepared for a 
 contest than I can pretend to be. His military 
 character is also of use to him just now." And 
 again, in the following year (August, 1822), he 
 
FRIENDLY COMPETITORS. 339 
 
 wrote to a friend : " As there seems now to be a 
 fair prospect that Colonel Baillie will succeed to the 
 next vacancy in the Direction, may I solicit the 
 favor of your powerful support when he shall have 
 accomplished this object ?" 
 
 It was subsequently to this that Sir Thomas 
 Baring expressed his confidence that Mr. Tucker 
 would succeed to the next vacancy ; but other can- 
 didates were then pushing forward. Mr. Mills was 
 elected in 1822 ; Colonel Baillie in 1823 ; and Mr. 
 Masterman in the same year. The contest, which Mr. 
 Tucker subsequently stood, was with Mr. Muspratt. 
 
 Among other candidates, too, who presented 
 themselves at this time, were some of Mr. Tucker's 
 oldest friends but the competition, if so it can be 
 called, was marked upon all sides by a delicacy and 
 generosity which it is a pleasure to illustrate. Mr. 
 Trant, who owed much to Mr. Tucker, hesitated to 
 push forward his claims, until the success of his 
 friend had been secured; but the latter, unwilling 
 to impede his advance, wrote to hhn in September, 
 1822: 
 
 " Now, while I thought that I could only put you back a 
 couple of vacancies after Baillie, I felt no repugnance at taking 
 the lead, since I flattered myself that the arrangement might 
 in the end conduce to the convenience and promote the success 
 of all parties ; but, foreseeing as I do, that I may myself be 
 put back for an indefinite period, it would neither be fair to 
 you, nor satisfactory to myself, that I should become the 
 means of putting you back for an indefinite, and, perhaps, an 
 extended, period. It is my wish, then, and I make it my re- 
 quest, that you prosecute your canvass, and proceed otherwise, 
 
 z2 
 
340 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 in the way which may appear to you best calculated to promote 
 the attainment of your object without reference or regard to me. 
 " Were I differently situated, I might determine at once to 
 take the bull by the horns; but circumstanced as I am, with 
 great numbers depending upon me, this is a step which I could 
 not very well justify to myself, while any fair alternative re- 
 mained. I must, therefore, resort to sober reflection, in the 
 first instance, and endeavor to avail myself of any favorable 
 chances which may occur. Should none such occur, I must, 
 before I quit the field, make trial of my fortune; although, as 
 matters stand at present, I see no reason whatever to expect 
 success. You are a younger man; and by persevering will 
 ultimately, I trust, prevail." 
 
 About the same time, another old friend, Mr. 
 James Stuart, eager, on his own account, to secure 
 a seat in the Direction, but equally reluctant to 
 oppose any obstacle to Mr. Tucker's success, thus 
 addressed him on the subject : 
 
 " I was happy to find that you think you have so good a 
 chance for the Direction, equally on your own account and 
 that of the Public. It would be idle on my part to offer you 
 my services, for I do not possess any means of being useful. 
 Friends have begun to suggest the same object to me; and if I 
 thought I should succeed without a troublesome and expensive 
 canvass, I should be inclined to try. I might, perhaps, be 
 assisted by some of the Court, and be countenanced by the 
 Government. I should feel a strong repugnance to interfering 
 with your prospects ; but I trust that you are too well forward 
 on the course to admit of your being embarrassed By a candi- 
 date who cannot at earliest be brought in these two years to 
 come. I fear that the good people in the City begin to be 
 jealous of the number of Indians who have succeeded to the 
 Direction." 
 
 To this Mr. Tucker replied : 
 
 u You cannot possibly, I think, interfere with me by offering 
 
 
LETTER TO MR. STUAUT. 
 
 yourself as a candidate for the Direction, because I shall pro- 
 bably be disposed of in some way or other, before you can 
 come upon the ground ; but at all events, whether it be pos- 
 sible or not, I would wish you to regulate your movements 
 without the slightest regard to such a contingency. Act pre- 
 cisely as if I were not a candidate, and pursue your own plans 
 without taking me into the account in any way whatever. You 
 have better counsellors than I could pretend to be; and I 
 would not take upon myself on any account the responsibility of 
 advising you either to stand or not to stand. I would not do 
 the one, because I might involve you in inconceivable trouble ; 
 I would not do the other, because I would not willingly be the 
 means of depriving the public of your services, or of dis- 
 couraging you from seeking that which, if found, is a desirable 
 acquisition to most men in our situation. I shall only, then, 
 observe, simply and briefly, that there appears now to be only 
 two ways of getting into the Direction ; the one, by the force 
 of such a transcendent public character as shall impose upon the 
 Court of Directors a sort of moral obligation to support the 
 candidate ; the other, by means of extensive and powerful com- 
 mercial connexions. To attempt to get in by collecting indi- 
 vidual votes, is to gather water in a sieve ; but it is better 
 to say no more on the subject, both because I should be sorry 
 to discourage you, and because it is impossible to convey any 
 adequate idea of the circumstances attending a canvass at the 
 present period." 
 
 And both Mr. Stuart and Mr. Tucker were right, 
 when they said that the City Interest was too ad- 
 verse to the influx of old Indians into the Direction ; 
 and that the best efforts to accumulate single votes 
 would seldom bring a Candidate to the goal of suc- 
 cess. Mr. Tucker had much prejudice and much 
 misrepresentation to combat. Identical with a sec- 
 tion, and a powerful one, of the City Interest was 
 what was known as the West-India Interest. It 
 
342 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 was given out that Mr. Tucker was hostile to these 
 interests; so all the West-Indians were arrayed 
 against him. The statement was no further true 
 than that he was one, who, seeing clearly the im- 
 mense advantages to be conferred on the people of 
 India hy the due development of the resources of the 
 country, was eager to stimulate production of every 
 kind, and adverse to all fiscal regulations that had 
 the effect of excluding Indian produce from the 
 markets of Great Britain. It is true that he desired 
 to bring East-Indian sugar the growth of the 
 labor of free men fairly into competition with 
 the slave-grown staple of the West-Indian Isles. 
 But surely it was a strange charge to bring against 
 a man, that he desired to advance the interests of 
 the country he aspired to govern. 
 
 But strange as such an objection might be, con- 
 sidering all the specialities of the case for Mr. 
 Tucker, in encouraging the production of East-Indian 
 sugar, had regarded no less the financial interests of 
 the Company than the welfare of the people of India 
 it was a very operative one. Men, who had pro- 
 mised to assist him, forsook their allegiance, when 
 it was said that he was adverse to the exclusive 
 interests of the West- Indian proprietors and others, 
 who had not promised, refused, with contumely, to 
 support him. One Proprietor told him that he 
 would not only vote against him, but that he would 
 exert himself to the utmost to keep such a man out 
 of the Direction. " I replied," said Mr. Tucker, 
 who used to tell the story with .a benignant smile, 
 
THE WEST-INDIAN INTERESTS. 343 
 
 " that I thought this was rather hard, as he had 
 never received any injury at my hands, but that he 
 had, of course, a right to dispose of his votes as he 
 pleased ;" " and," added the narrator, " he voted for 
 me after all." It happened in this way. Some time 
 afterwards Mr. Tucker met the same gentleman in 
 a public vehicle. They entered into conversation ; 
 and presently the voter said, " Sir, is not Sir Alured 
 Clarke a great friend of yours ?" To this Mr. Tucker 
 replied that he had the honor of Sir Alured's ac- 
 quaintance. "Then," said the voter, "tell Sir 
 Alured to ask me for my votes. He has been very 
 kind to a Mend of mine in India ; and if he asks for 
 my votes he shall have them for you, I promise." 
 He had found out by this time that Mr. Tucker was 
 not an enemy to any " interests" except when they 
 arrogated to themselves an exclusiveness injurious 
 to the interests of humanity.* 
 
 There were other questions, too, with respect to 
 which Mr. Tucker encountered some difficulty in 
 the course of his canvass, and had some prejudice to 
 overcome. The extent to which anything like inter- 
 ference with the religious usages and ceremonies of 
 the people of India might with safety be permitted 
 
 * The following note [without date] from Colonel Mark Wilks, the ac- 
 complished historian of Southern India, shows how much stress was laid upon 
 this question: 
 " Here are, my good friend, a tolerable large squad of votes depending 
 
 upon a question which Sir T B could not answer, and which I do not 
 
 like to answer positively without reference, viz., Is Mr. Tucker, or is he not, 
 inimical to the West India interests? What shall I say? 
 
 "Ever yours, 
 
 " MARK WILKS. 
 " Is Mr. Tucker a Methodist?' To that I have answered, ' No.' 
 
 "M.W." 
 
344 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 by the British-Indian Government, had long been a 
 vexed question, upon either side of which might be 
 seen arrayed men of eminent piety and wisdom. 
 But there were pretenders to both, who conceived 
 themselves qualified to dogmatise and to dictate, and 
 were angry when others were disposed to make the 
 question one between themselves and their con- 
 science, and to act, according to the light that was 
 in them, and in all humility of spirit. There were 
 some voters, indeed, who thought themselves privi- 
 leged to catechise candidates on points of faith, and 
 to call for pledges in respect of the most sacred and 
 most delicate points of procedure. It was Mr. 
 Tucker's wont to refuse to make any pledges. He 
 was determined to enter the Court free and unfet- 
 tered, or not at all. His language upon this head 
 was clear and emphatic. Here is a sample of the 
 manner of his replies : 
 
 " TO , ESQ. 
 
 " DEAR SIK, There is no person, I believe, more anxious 
 than myself to obtain and deserve the good- will of all good men ; 
 but in public life I have prescribed to myself certain rules of 
 conduct, from which I hope never to deviate, and from which, 
 I should hope, you would scarcely wish me to deviate. You 
 will hold in mind that I am not before the public just now for 
 the first time. 
 
 " I should have been much gratified by receiving your sup- 
 port, if you could have given it with satisfaction to your own 
 mind; but as I claim the right to judge and act for myself, I 
 freely allow the same right to others, and I neither ask, nor 
 wish for your vote, if it cannot be given me without placing a 
 constraint upon your own conscience. 
 
 "1 have perused with attention the publication which you 
 
PLEDGES. 345 
 
 were so good as to send me, and I thank you for it. The 
 subject is not new to my mind, and I give you credit for the 
 earnest zeal with which you enforce your opinions on a most 
 important question; but it is not incumbent upon me to sub- 
 scribe to those opinions, or to the opinions of your opponent, or 
 to any abstract propositions whatever. As a public func- 
 tionary (if I should ever be such), the plain and simple course 
 of my duty is to keep my mind perfectly free and unfettered, 
 that I may act in every case which comes before me according 
 to the best of my judgment and to the dictates of my con- 
 science. Upon this principle I always have acted, and upon 
 this principle it is my intention to act for the time to come, if 
 I should again be called into public life. 
 
 " I have the honor to be, &c., &c., 
 
 " H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 " 3, Upper Portland-place, 1st December, 1823." 
 
 This letter is of general application ; but a more 
 specific declaration of his views, with respect to what 
 was called the " Missionary question," was at a little 
 later period (in the course of 1824) called forth by a 
 circumstance which he has himself recorded. He 
 considered it advisable, indeed, to draw up a paper 
 on the subject, that no misunderstanding might be 
 perpetuated. The anecdote to which I refer is here 
 narrated. Thus Mr. Tucker wrote : 
 
 " I am of opinion that the Government should never identify 
 itself with the Missionary and other societies which have been 
 instituted for the propagation of the Christian religion in the 
 East. In the minds of the people of India, Government is 
 habitually associated with the idea of power, or force; and I 
 am persuaded that the slightest demonstration of an intention 
 to use force for the conversion of this people would alarm their 
 fears in a degree to produce immediate and serious danger. 
 Our Government is established in the spirit of toleration ; and 
 a sort of tacit compact, or understanding, exists that we shall 
 
346 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 not interfere with the religion of our native subjects. Our 
 Government stands in the situation of a powerful umpire, 
 whose duty it is to afford equal protection to all, and to main- 
 tain in the free exercise of all civil rights (and among these, 
 liberty of conscience), its subjects, of whatever description, 
 with strict impartiality. I consider, then, that the Govern- 
 ment could not take part in the proceedings of the Missionary 
 Societies with the slightest prospect of advancing the interests 
 of religion, nor without departing from those principles, upon 
 a strict adherence to which its own existence essentially de- 
 pends. 
 
 u This opinion I have not hesitated to offer with freedom 
 and candor, whenever I have been questioned on the subject in 
 the liberal spirit of inquiry. But, when called upon to give a 
 pledge that I would support particular doctrines, or co-operate 
 to promote particular ends or objects, I have invariably stated 
 that I would never pledge myself to any abstract proposition 
 whatever : that I considered it to be the duty of every in- 
 dividual, entering upon a public trust, to keep his mind free 
 and unshackled, in order that he may be enabled to decide 
 upon the merits of every case coming before him, according to 
 the best of his judgment, and to the dictates of his conscience; 
 and that, having acted upon these principles of perfect inde- 
 pendence throughout my public life, no considerations can 
 tempt me to deviate from them in any public situation in 
 which I may hereafter be placed. 
 
 " Having briefly stated my honest opinion on this great 
 question, I shall now notice in a summary way the circum- 
 stance which has given occasion to my offering the foregoing 
 explanation. 
 
 " I was called upon by a Proprietor to give a pledge that I 
 was friendly to particular views connected with this subject, 
 and disposed to promote particular objects. This demand I 
 resisted in limine; and it appeared to me more particularly 
 necessary that I should make a stand, because the interference 
 of the Government was distinctly pointed at. I was told, it is 
 true, that 'it was not wished that the Government should 
 come forward with the sword, but with the olive-branch.' 
 
THE " MISSIONARY QUESTION." 347 
 
 " On my declining to give the pledge required, the Pro- 
 prietor observed that e it was high time for him and other 
 Proprietors who thought as he did, to look out for a candidate 
 who would give such a pledge ; and that it was high time for 
 those, who were not Proprietors, to become such for the same 
 purpose.' 
 
 " This species of intimidation was not only very offensive to 
 my feelings personally, but it appeared to me highly unjusti- 
 fiable on public considerations ; for if a party, or body of men, 
 can combine successfully to impose conditions upon a candi- 
 date, it is obvious that his independence is completely de- 
 stroyed, and that he must enter upon his public station, not 
 for the purpose of acting according to the dictates of his own 
 judgment and conscience, but as the agent of a party. It is, 
 moreover, evident that such a power of prescribing terms to a 
 candidate, or of excluding him upon a refusal, might be em- 
 ployed to serve the most sordid and selfish purposes. 
 
 " The very peremptory requisition which was made by the 
 Proprietor in question, appeared to me the more unreasonable, 
 as I had grounds to believe that it was not his intention to 
 support me; and although this circumstance did not prevent 
 my answering his questions, I certainly felt that he had no 
 right to demand a gratuitous pledge from me, when he had 
 no intention, even if satisfied, to afford me that support which 
 might be considered as furnishing a plea for the attempt to 
 exact conditions from me. 
 
 " Under the irritation of feeling which this circumstance pro- 
 duced, the conversation was not carried on in that calm and 
 dispassionate manner, which is proper and desirable in all 
 cases, and more especially on an occasion where religion is the 
 subject. I was, in consequence, misunderstood, and my opinions 
 have since been misrepresented ; but although the misstate- 
 ment was calculated to prejudice my interests, I feel such a 
 repugnance to everything which might lead to controversy, 
 that I have refrained from noticing it ; nor do I harbour any 
 anger or resentment against the individual who (unintention- 
 ally, I am willing to hope) has done me the injury. 
 
 " In truth, it has been my wish and my study to obtain the 
 
348 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 good-will of all good men, and to conciliate, as far as possible, 
 even my opponents ; but, much as I have had this object at 
 heart, I still could never consent to sacrifice a principle to 
 disguise an opinion or to attain, by unworthy compliances, 
 an object which, however desirable in itself, would lose all its 
 value in my estimation, unless it were attained by means quite 
 unobjectionable, and in a manner perfectly satisfactory to my 
 own feelings." 
 
 Prom another and an unexpected quarter a 
 clamor against Mr. Tucker was raised, too, at this 
 time, intended, perhaps, to prejudice his chances of 
 success. It was said that in his office of Financial 
 Secretary, in 1810, he had counselled a breach of 
 faith to the Public. The outcry was raised by those 
 holders of public securities, who had suffered by the 
 financial measures of Lord Minto' s Government, at 
 the time when the threatened transfer of so large a 
 portion of the Public Debt to England rendered it 
 necessary to restrict the power, possessed by the In- 
 dian creditor, of converting his securities into Bills 
 upon the Court of Directors.* The old debt had 
 been placed in course of payment, and a new eight- 
 per-cent. loan, divested of the privilege of remit- 
 tance, had been opened in its stead ; but this course 
 had been suggested by Lord Minto himself, f Mr. 
 Tucker had counselled another. This he now ex- 
 plained in a letter to his friend, Sir Henry Strachey, 
 concluding with the following sentences, couched in 
 a strain of characteristic manliness : " I can truly 
 
 * See ante Chapter VIII. 
 
 f See letter from Lord Minto, quoted at page 242. 
 
SIK HENRY STUACHEY. 349 
 
 say," he wrote, "that throughout my public life I 
 have been anxious only to do my duty to the best of 
 my judgment : I am content to leave my conduct to 
 be judged by the Public, and to stand or fall by the 
 decision which may be passed upon it. In offering 
 myself as a candidate for the Direction, my chief 
 object is to obtain occupation public and honorable 
 employment ; but if any individual can believe that 
 I ever counselled a measure involving a breach of 
 faith to the Public, that individual will do right to 
 exclude me for ever from all public trust. He will 
 not, however, do right to pass judgment, in ignorance, 
 in this or any other case. For the rest I can only 
 say, that whether right or wrong, I shall continue 
 to act always on the principles on which I ever have 
 acted ; and those must not trust me for the Future, 
 who have reason to disapprove of the Past."* 
 
 In letters to other friends, written at a somewhat 
 later period, he thus spoke of his chances of suc- 
 cess, and of the motives by which he was actuated : 
 " In truth," he wrote, " if I find that I am not likely 
 to receive the support of those who have most in- 
 fluence in deciding upon the fate of a candidate, I 
 shall not long persevere in an unavailing attempt. I 
 came forward with no unworthy motives, and it will 
 cost me no violent effort to retire, if I should find 
 that I am not likely to obtain the countenance and 
 
 * The letter from which this passage is taken is given complete in the Ap- 
 pendix. It may advantageously be read in illustration of a portion of the 
 Eighth Chapter. 
 
350 LIFE OP H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 assistance of those who act upon public grounds. 
 .... I am not backward in encountering difficul- 
 ties ; but to exchange domestic comfort and inde- 
 pendence for all the annoyances of a protracted 
 struggle against desperate odds, is not the course 
 which any prudent man would pursue." And in 
 another letter, written like the preceding one, in the 
 autumn of 1822, he said : " If I had not believed 
 that there was among the Directors, as well as 
 among some of the Proprietors, a disposition to 
 countenance the pretensions of those who have had 
 opportunities of acquiring useful knowledge and ex- 
 perience in India, I should never have exchanged 
 comfort and independence for the annoyances of a 
 canvass. As it is, I must now bring the thing to a 
 test ; and if I am disappointed, I trust that I shall 
 only have to regret the loss of time which might, 
 perhaps, have been better employed." 
 
 And early in the following year he did "bring the 
 thing to a test" I need not dwell any longer on 
 this first canvassing period, extending as it did over 
 a space of more than three years ; enough has been 
 said on the subject. Mr. Mills, Colonel Baillie, and 
 Mr. Masterman having been elected, Mr. Tucker de- 
 termined to contest the next vacancy. Early in 
 1824, Sir Thomas Heid, who on more than one occa- 
 sion had occupied the chair, was removed from the 
 Direction by death. A ballot at the India House 
 was fixed for the 23rd of March. Three candidates 
 then went to the poll Mr. Tucker, Mr. , Muspratt, 
 
THE BALLOT. 351 
 
 and Sir Robert Farquhar. It was understood that 
 the contest would lie between the two former. 
 
 A ballot at the India House is destitute of all the 
 rude turmoil, the noise, the confusion, the outrages, 
 the broad practical humors of a contested election 
 in county or borough ; but it is not without excite- 
 ment of a certain kind ; and there is often a humor- 
 ous side to it, too, intelligible to the initiated looker- 
 on. There are no Hustings, and there are no 
 speeches. The election lasts but a single day. The 
 votes, written on paper, are slipped into a certain 
 number of ballot-boxes, or vases, lettered alpha- 
 betically, so that each elector knows in which to 
 deposit his vote-paper. Scrutineers are appointed, 
 and the voting over, the contents of the vases are 
 counted out. This is a very simple and a very 
 common-place process not provocative, it would 
 seem, of much excitement or of much mirth. But 
 the activity of the friends of the candidates, during 
 the election, sometimes exhibits itself in a strange 
 manner ; and Mr. Tucker used to relate how, on this 
 occasion, one friend carried up several of his voters 
 to the wrong side of the poll, and how another was 
 discovered, by some strange accident, distributing 
 his opponent's cards. These were purely uninten- 
 tional gaucheries ; but there were some accidents of 
 voting on the wrong side done on purpose, and 
 some resort to electioneering tactics of a very 
 questionable kind. In the heat of the contest 
 weapons were used, which would not have been 
 
352 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 employed in cooler moments, and which cannot 
 be remembered without pain by the most zealous 
 partisan. 
 
 The result of the Election was the defeat of Mr. 
 Tucker. On examining the glasses, it was found 
 that he had polled 684 votes ; and Mr. Muspratt, 
 752.* 
 
 It does not seem that, as is the wont of defeated 
 candidates, in like cases, he immediately began to 
 prosecute another canvass, or determined to contest 
 the next vacancy. He turned his thoughts, indeed, 
 towards other matters, and at one time contem- 
 plated the formation of a commercial partnership 
 with a gentleman of considerable ability and reputa- 
 tion, who was among the most active members of 
 the Court of Proprietors. Announcing this to his 
 friend, Mr. Sherer, who had recently returned to 
 India, he wrote, " You may conclude from the 
 present suggestion, that I have given up all 
 thoughts of the Direction. This is not exactly the 
 case, although in reality I am not so anxious about 
 the attainment of the object as I was, nor so much 
 disposed to make any great sacrifice for its accom- 
 plishment. If there should be a break or vacancy 
 in the House List, I shall come forward, and with 
 a fair prospect of success ; but my present plan is to 
 avoid an individual contest, until I can secure such 
 support from the Directors and others as will place 
 the issue beyond all uncertainty." 
 
 This was written in 1825. It was in the early 
 
 * Sir Kobert Farquhar polled 398. 
 
HIS PRINTED WORKS. 353 
 
 part of this year that he published his work on the 
 " Financial Situation of the East India Company." 
 It was intended to form part of a larger work ; but 
 as he intimated, in an "Advertisement" prefixed to 
 it, " the undertaking originally contemplated could 
 not have been completed for a considerable time, 
 and as the subject embraced in these pages was of 
 more immediate interest, he had been induced to 
 submit the present Essay to the Public, detached 
 from other matter." This was not the first time 
 that he had fixed his ideas on the printed page. In 
 1813 he had sent home for publication in Edinburgh, 
 a work entitled " Reflections on the Present State 
 of Great Britain, with Relation chiefly to its Fi- 
 nances." It had been studied during his English 
 furlough, and written during the monotonous leisure 
 of the voyage to India.* Authorship was, there- 
 fore, nothing new to him when he published his 
 volume on Indian Einance a work containing the 
 gathered results of much thought and long expe- 
 rience, which no one can write upon the subject 
 without consulting with advantage. 
 
 But although, for a little while, the ardor of Mr. 
 Tucker's pursuit after what had been a laudable ob- 
 ject of ambition a seat in the Home Government 
 of India had considerably abated, circumstances 
 ere long tended to revive it. He had, it has been 
 seen, determined to come forward to contest a seat 
 
 * Writing to his friend Mr. Myers, of this work, he said, " My opinions 
 will not be relished hy some I am aware ; but I care not ; ray object is to 
 speak truth and to do good." 
 
 2 A 
 
354 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 in the Direction, only if an opportunity should be 
 afforded to him at one of the periodical April elec- 
 tions. On these occasions, the six members who 
 a year before had " gone out by rotation," under- 
 went the form of re-election, in the place of six 
 other retiring members. All the six vacant seats 
 might legally be contested ; but the custom was to 
 re-elect the old members without opposition. It 
 sometimes, however, happened that a vacancy was 
 created by the death, resignation, or disqualification 
 of one of these six Directors ; and then at the April 
 election the new candidates came forward and were 
 included with the old Directors in the list out of 
 which six members were to be chosen. It was then 
 nominally an election of six Directors, but in reality 
 only of one, or of as many as there were gaps in the 
 old number. Now it happened that early in 1826 
 there were two of these gaps to be filled. Mr. 
 Tucker determined, therefore, in pursuance of his 
 old intention, to present himself to the constituency 
 at the April election. Mr. James Stuart, and Cap- 
 tain, afterwards Sir James Bivett Carnac, also 
 announced their intention of going to the poll. 
 
 The contest was a keen one. The scrutiny lasted 
 till morning, and the anxiety of the scrutineers was 
 kept alive to the last. The votes were so equally 
 balanced, that at one time, as they were being 
 counted out, Mr. Tucker would be in the minority ; 
 a quarter of an hour later he would command a 
 majority. It seemed at one time that the election 
 was going against him, and the friendly scrutineer 
 
HIS ELECTION. 355 
 
 trembled for his success. But when the last glass, 
 containing the letters E; to Z, was being counted 
 out, the aspect of affairs brightened. A large num- 
 ber of Mr. Tucker's supporters were to be found 
 under these initials. The lost ground was regained ; 
 and at the end of the scrutiny it was found that he 
 was in a majority of twenty-three. 
 
 A brief note from the friendly scrutineer de- 
 spatched early in the morning to Portland-place, 
 announced to Mr. Tucker the result of the election. 
 The majority was a small one. But there were many 
 powerful interests arrayed against him ; and he was 
 returned solely on the strength of his individual 
 merits. Even those who had opposed him acknow- 
 ledged the goodness of the choice, and some influen- 
 tial men, who had thrown the whole of their weight 
 into the scales on the side of the enemy, throughout 
 all the years of Mr. Tucker's candidateship, frankly 
 told him that they had committed a mistake. They 
 were men above the suspicion of interested motives ; 
 but there were others who now rushed in to pay 
 homage to success, finding high qualities in the Di- 
 rector which they had never admitted in the Can- 
 didate, and pretending to be the humble friend and 
 admirer of the man whom they had covertly opposed. 
 
 2 A2 
 
356 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Mr. Tucker in the Direction His peculiar Qualifications His Zeal and Ac- 
 tivityEarly Efforts Questions of Land-RevenueResumption Opera- 
 tions Salt and Opium Revenues The Company's Charter Negotiations 
 with the Board of Control Mr. Tucker's Minutes. 
 
 ME. TUCKER was now a member of the Court of 
 Directors of the East India Company the twenty- 
 fourth part of a King. "When I say that he was 
 eminently fitted for the post, I do not hazard an as- 
 sertion to be attributed to the partiality of the Bio- 
 grapher ; but state a fact, which all who have fol- 
 lowed me thus far who, having acquainted them- 
 selves with Mr. Tucker's antecedents, reflect upon 
 the character and constitution of the Company, as 
 then established will accept without a demur. The 
 East India Company was, in those days, still a 
 " Company of Merchants," and its functions were 
 therefore two-fold. It was the duty of the Directors 
 to regulate the Trade* of the Company, and to ad- 
 minister the Government of a great Empire. Now 
 
 * I need not explain that in 1826 it was only the China trade that re- 
 mained to the Company but still the administration of their commercial 
 affairs constituted no unimportant part of their business. 
 
DUTIES OF AN INDIAN DIEECTOH. 357 
 
 Mr. Tucker had been a merchant, and he had been 
 an administrator. He was as conversant with affairs 
 of Commerce as with affairs of State. He was 
 thoroughly acquainted with the Revenue and Judi- 
 cial systems of India. He was the best Financier 
 that ever concerned himself with the Company's ac- 
 counts. He had a true regard for the interests of 
 all classes of the Indian Community, from the Prince 
 to the Peasant. He had a genuine respect for the 
 faith of Treaties ; and, to the very core, he was an 
 honest man. 
 
 He entered upon his new duties with a full heart. 
 His whole soul, indeed, was in his work. He ever 
 had been an indefatigable man of business. His 
 capacity for labor was unbounded. Even under the 
 exhausting influence of the damp heats of Bengal, he 
 had at the same time regulated the Financial ope- 
 rations of the Empire, and the business of a gigantic 
 mercantile house. He now saw that there was abun- 
 dance of work before him ; and he regarded it with 
 the liveliest satisfaction. He had gone into the Di- 
 rection to work ; and his practice did not belie his 
 intentions. I have heard it said that the earnest- 
 ness with which he at once took part in the' discus- 
 sions of the Court, and the freedom with which he 
 expressed his opinions, was not considered by some of 
 the more punctilious members of the Court becom- 
 ing in a "young Director." But Mr. Tucker, though 
 a young Director, was not a young man. He had 
 lived more than half a century in the world ; and 
 had been graduating for five-and-thirty years in the 
 
358 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 school of Indian statesmanship. During five or six 
 of these years he had been before the Court and the 
 Public as an Embryo Director, and throughout that 
 period he had been maturing his views of all the 
 great questions which were likely to be discussed in 
 the Council-chamber of Leadenhall-street. It is not 
 strange, therefore, that being not at all a forma- 
 list, or a tactician, and probably altogether unac- 
 quainted with the etiquette of the Assembly of which 
 he was now a member^ he should have gone about his 
 work without a probationary interval of silence. 
 
 Mr. Tucker entered the Court at a period of 
 comparative tranquillity. Great questions were 
 looming in the distance they had not yet come on 
 for discussion. But there were then, as there always 
 are, many measures of internal administration 
 greatly affecting the prosperity of the country and 
 the happiness of the people, calling for present con- 
 sideration, and therefore engaging the energies of 
 the Court. Among these were matters of Land-re- 
 venue those especially of the settlement of the 
 North- Western Provinces and the Resumption of 
 Rent-free tenures. Erom his youth upwards, Mr. 
 Tucker had been a consistent advocate and supporter 
 of that great system of landed-revenue introduced 
 into Bengal and Behar during the administration of 
 Lord Cornwallis, known as the Permanent Settle- 
 ment of Bengal. The lessons, which he had learnt 
 as a boy, when Thomas Law and George Barlow 
 were his associates at Gyah, had remained impressed 
 upon his mind in the full maturity of his years and 
 
QUESTIONS OF LAND -REVENUE. 359 
 
 his intellect. He had never departed, indeed, for a 
 moment from his abiding faith faith the result of 
 personal knowledge and experience; the evidence, 
 indeed, of his senses in the wisdom of a system 
 under which the Lower Provinces of India had con- 
 tinued to increase in prosperity. He had been a 
 party, moreover, to the promises given to the land- 
 holders of the Ceded and Conquered Provinces, that 
 the same system of fixed assessment should become 
 the law of the land in that newly-acquired portion 
 of our Indian possessions ; and he had never ceased 
 to protest against the departure from the pledges 
 of Lord Wellesley and Lord Minto which, subse- 
 quently, under other counsels, had been ordained by 
 the Government of Leadenhall-street. So it hap- 
 pened, that when the measures, which finally re- 
 sulted in what is now known as the Settlement of 
 the North- Western Provinces, were under considera- 
 tion at the India House, they did not meet with Mr. 
 Tucker's support. 
 
 He was in a minority at the India House but he 
 did not fight the battle alone. There were one or 
 two who sided with him one especially who was 
 "a host in himself." On all questions of Land-re- 
 venue indeed, on almost all questions whether af- 
 fecting the internal administration of the country 
 or our exterior relations the opinions of Mr. Ed- 
 monstone were identical with those of Mr. Tucker. 
 They had been brought up very much in the same 
 school, and they entertained for each other the 
 
360 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TTJCKEK. 
 
 warmest regard until death put a period to their 
 friendship. 
 
 Strongly, however, as he expressed himself upon 
 this subject, there was not one which called forth a 
 louder, a more earnest expression of opinion, than 
 that which is known generally by the name of the 
 Resumption of Rent-free tenures that is, the as- 
 sessment of tracts of land which, for various rea- 
 sons, had been held rent-free for years, with the 
 cognisance of Government, although documentary 
 evidence of legal exemption was not to be adduced. 
 When Mr. Tucker first entered the Court of Di- 
 rectors these measures were only in their infancy. 
 But he very soon perceived, both in the Court and 
 at the Board of Control, indications of this pro- 
 pensity to increase the revenue, at the risk not only 
 of exciting popular discontent, but of violating sub- 
 stantive Justice. The measures which then sug- 
 gested themselves to the Authorities, were in them- 
 selves moderate and forbearing in comparison with 
 those which were subsequently carried into effect ; 
 and it was, probably, in anticipation of the tendency 
 of all such measures to gather strength from pro- 
 gress, that Mr. Tucker determined at the outset to 
 oppose the introduction of the " small end of the 
 wedge." Thus, in July, 1827, the Board had intro- 
 duced into a Revenue despatch a passage relative to 
 certain of these rent-free estates in the Lower Pro- 
 vinces, in which they said : " As we have no doubt, 
 however, that there is a considerable quantity of 
 land to which the holders have no better title than 
 
RESUMPTION OPERATIONS. 361 
 
 what is constituted by the loose and indefinite set- 
 tlement which became permanent, we conceive that 
 the uncertainty which prevails on both sides might 
 be removed with satisfaction to the holders of the 
 land, though with some sacrifice on the part of Go- 
 vernment, by a compromise. Something of the na- 
 ture," they added, "of what is called a fine in 
 English law might be taken, perhaps in the shape 
 of a stamp, for the grant of a Sunnud, confirming 
 the property in the land to which this uncertainty 
 attaches ; and the amount of the stamp should bear 
 a proportion to the value of the property thereby 
 confirmed." 
 
 To this the Board had added a suggestion, that 
 the fine might be commuted for the payment of a 
 small annual revenue but admitted, at the same 
 time, that in the permanently assessed districts the 
 exercise of such power must be preceded by a Judi- 
 cial Inquiry, and to this end they hinted that a 
 Commission, similar to that established by the 
 famous Eegulation I. of 1821, might be appointed. 
 
 Prom all this Mr. Tucker dissented : 
 
 " 1st. Because the grounds on which it is proposed to exer- 
 cise the power of taxation, are acknowledged to be doubtful and 
 uncertain ; while the terms of the order are so vague and 
 general, that it may be extended to cases where its application 
 would be both impolitic and unjust. 
 
 "2nd. Because any proposition for the increase of the land- 
 tax within the territory permanently assessed, will be regarded 
 by the people of India (and justly, too) as a violation of the 
 Settlement concluded in Bengal by the Supreme Government 
 
362 LIFE OE H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 in 1790, and confirmed and ratified in 1792 by the public 
 authorities in this country. 
 
 " 3rd. Because the proceeding enjoined by the Board will be 
 attended with so many difficulties, that any increase of revenue 
 likely to result from it will be but a poor compensation for the 
 expense the labor the loss of time and other inconveniences 
 incidental to the proposed scrutiny. 
 
 "Lastly. Because the Board's order, if confined to the Sun- 
 derbunds, or other territory, not included in the Permanent 
 Settlement, is at variance with the special instructions conveyed 
 to the Bengal Government in the Court's letter of the llth June, 
 1823; and if this order be intended to have a general applica- 
 tion to the settled territory, it is at variance with the paragraph 
 immediately preceding it in the Court's present despatch, and 
 with the letter and spirit of the existing Regulations. . . ." 
 
 After considering in detail the description of lands 
 to which this order might be made to refer, Mr. 
 Tucker proceeded thus emphatically to declare his 
 opinions : 
 
 " That the landholders will consider the proffered ' compro- 
 mise' as the first step towards the abrogation of the Permanent 
 Settlement of that settlement which is evidently viewed in 
 some quarters with no very friendly feeling cannot, I think, 
 be doubted. I myself regard it in this light. It is to tear the 
 seal off the bond it is to make the first breach in a formal 
 compact, which I had hoped, for the honor of the British 
 name, would have been held inviolate as long as our empire in 
 the East should endure : it is calculated to shake all confidence 
 in our engagements, to weaken the attachment of the land- 
 holders to our government, and to destroy the little credit 
 which we have established by one solitary act of self-denial in 
 limiting the public demand upon the land. The landholders, 
 I repeat, will view this first inroad upon them with jealousy, 
 distrust, and dismay ; they will feel that after the first barrier 
 has been broken down, further breaches will be made, and a 
 
RENT-FREE TENURES. 363 
 
 less scrupulous* proceeding be hereafter resorted to ; while even 
 those who have no interest in the question will not fail to per- 
 ceive that, if the demand of additional revenue, in the way of 
 1 compromise,' or otherwise, can be enforced from an estate 
 permanently assessed, upon the ground that the original con- 
 tract was * loose and indefinite,' there never can be wanting a 
 plea for calling in question the most sacred engagements, and 
 there never can be any safe ground of reliance on the steadiness, 
 the moderation, and good faith of a Government which, for its 
 own purposes, assumes to itself the right to revise and set at 
 nought its own acts, after the lapse of thirty-five years. . . ." 
 
 That tracts of land were held rent-free, which had 
 no title, legal or equitable, to such exemptions from 
 assessment -that in many cases fraud had heen at 
 work that boundaries had heen passed, land-marks 
 removed unlawfully that by artifice and connivance 
 the limits of rent-free holdings had been frequently 
 extended, Mr. Tucker did not deny ; but it was his 
 opinion that it would be the wiser course to submit 
 to a certain amount of imposition, rather than gain 
 a small accession of revenue at the cost, not only of 
 great inconvenience and considerable expense, in 
 the way of adjudication and collection, but of much 
 personal injury and injustice, and a sense of general 
 insecurity and alarm. " I am quite satisfied," he 
 wrote, " that the appointment of a Commissioner to 
 revise and new-model that which has existed undis- 
 turbed for a period of thirty-five years, would be 
 received by the landholders of Bengal with terror 
 and despondency. It is not difficult to issue man- 
 dates which may affect a whole people ; but before we 
 
 * This has actually occurred. H. St.G. T. 
 
364 LIFE OP H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 do so let us not conceal from ourselves the possible 
 consequences ; and let us at least pause before we 
 determine to prosecute an object which is not pre- 
 tended to be of much value, at the risk of compro- 
 mising the rights and of forfeiting the attachment 
 of our native subjects/ 5 At a later period, when re- 
 sumption-measures on a gigantic scale were in pro- 
 gress, Mr. Tucker lifted up his voice loudly against 
 them in Court, and recorded many an earnest dis- 
 sent or vehement protest for the perusal of his col- 
 leagues. The question was one which was much 
 discussed and debated, both in India and in Eng- 
 land ; and the names of many able and benevolent 
 men were to be found arrayed on both sides of the 
 controversy. It is not my province, in this place, to 
 do more than record the fact. 
 
 I have spoken, however, of dissents and protests, 
 of discussions and debates and it need not be con- 
 cealed that Mr. Tucker was sometimes at variance 
 with his colleagues, and that he was sometimes, too, 
 in a minority. The necessary inference from this is, 
 that either Mr. Tucker or the Court was in the 
 wrong. Now, infallibility is not to be claimed for 
 any human creature or any human tribunal. But 
 what, it may be asked, would be thought, collec- 
 tively and individually, of any body of men who were 
 to dismiss the business that came before them with- 
 out any expression of adverse opinions ? The dis- 
 cussions of the Court of Directors are the safeguard 
 of India. It is not to be expected it is not to be 
 desired that all the members of the Court should 
 hold the same opinions. A deliberative body com- 
 
DISCUSSIONS OF THE COURT OF DIRECTORS. 365 
 
 posed of four-and-twenty gentlemen, of different 
 professions, different antecedents, different political 
 opinions, and different habits of mind, is intended to 
 antagonise. Antagonism is a proof of zeal a proof 
 of honesty a proof of activity. The decision arrived 
 at may not in all cases be the right one, for, as I 
 have said, no human tribunal is infallible. But, what- 
 ever it may be, it has been reached after full con- 
 sideration and discussion. Of course, among four- 
 and-twenty members there are different degrees of 
 zeal and ability. Some men devote more time and 
 attention to the consideration of the great questions 
 which come before them, and are more competent to 
 form correct opinions than others; but the aggre- 
 gate result is the devotion of much thought and the 
 application of much knowledge to their elucidation ; 
 and, at all events, every case is decided upon what is 
 believed to be its merits, without any detraction or 
 diversion on the score of party feeling or political 
 strife.* 
 
 Among the earliest subjects, too, to which he 
 directed his attention, after taking his seat in the 
 India House, were the cultivation of Cotton and 
 Sugar, and the Salt and Opium Revenues. There 
 was no man more diligent in his efforts to further 
 the production of the staple commodities indeed, in 
 every possible way to develope the resources of a 
 country which was being sacrificed to the commer- 
 cial cupidity of the British capitalist. Against the 
 
 * I write this in the present tense. Though the " Four-and-Twenty" Di- 
 rectors will soon belong to the Past, the argument will hold good when 
 the number is reduced to eighteen, though not in the same degree. 
 
366 LIFE OP H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 policy which excluded from Great Britain the pro- 
 duce of the Agriculture and the Manufactures of 
 India, whilst it threw wide open the ports of India 
 to the produce of the British Isles, he earnestly and 
 indignantly remonstrated. He saw that the most 
 diligent promoters and the most clamorous expo- 
 nents of that policy that the men who were doing 
 their utmost to depress the commerce of India and 
 to impoverish the people were fast becoming the 
 loudest inveighers against the imputed misrule under 
 which, as they said, a once flourishing country was 
 sinking into decay. On the Salt-Tax and the Opium 
 Monopoly he wrote, from first to last, with un- 
 deviating consistency maintaining that there were 
 inherent objections to both sources of Revenue, but 
 that the amount which they yielded to the State was 
 necessary for purposes of government. But he laid 
 down as the principle that should regulate the collec- 
 tion of these taxes, that whereas, in the case of the 
 Salt-duties, it should be our object to levy the neces- 
 sary amount of revenue upon the largest possible 
 quantity of the article taxed ; in the case of the 
 Opium-tax the system should be the reverse the 
 amount should be drawn from the smallest possible 
 quantity that could yield the necessary revenue. In 
 the latter instance, he subsequently declared that 
 this salutary principle had been violated; and he 
 both deplored and condemned the extended produc- 
 tion of the deleterious drug.* 
 
 * See, for papers on these subjects, Tucker's " Memorials of Indian Go- 
 vernment." 
 
THE CURRENCY. 367 
 
 To questions of Finance lie naturally devoted no 
 little attention at this time ; and his opinions were 
 much sought by his colleagues. To one subject, 
 especially, in connexion with the Financial affairs 
 of the Company's Government, he applied himself 
 with no common earnestness. The question of the 
 Currency was then before the Company. Great in- 
 convenience had long resulted from the different 
 descriptions of silver coins which were used both 
 in Government and Commercial transactions. The 
 rupee was the common coin of the country; but 
 there were all sorts of rupees in circulation. "What 
 was known as the Sicca rupee, had, in 1773, been 
 recognised by the British Government as the legal 
 coin of the country. But there had been other 
 rupees of different standards in circulation the 
 Benares rupee, the Bombay rupee, the Furruckabad 
 rupee, the Madras and Arcot rupee and then there 
 was the Sonaut rupee, which was rather the nomi- 
 nal representative of value than an existing coin. 
 The Sonaut rupee, an old and much worn piece of 
 silver money, had, indeed, been called in, in 1793 ; 
 but although the coin itself had disappeared, it had 
 continued to be the common standard for the mea- 
 surement of all military disbursements. The troops 
 had been actually paid in the current coin of the 
 provinces in which they were posted. Thus, in the 
 Lower Provinces, they had been paid in the Sicca 
 rupee, according to the true standard of the value of 
 the silver. As the Sicca rupee was the most valuable 
 coin (being nearly five per cent, above the Sonaut), 
 
368 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 there was, of course, a deduction or discount when 
 the coin came to be counted out. For every 104 
 rupees and 5 annas (Sonaut) a hundred rupees 
 (Sicca) were paid. In other parts of India, how- 
 ever, the current coin the Benares, Furruckabad, 
 Arcot rupee, &c. so nearly assimilated to the re- 
 cognised standard of payment that it was actually 
 used, rupee for rupee, in the settlement of accounts. 
 All this, as I have said, caused great public incon- 
 venience ; and it appeared both to the authorities in 
 India and in England, that the establishment of an 
 uniform coinage would be attendedwith advantageous 
 results. Mr. Tucker perceived the advantages of such 
 a system, but his practised eye saw clearly that it 
 was surrounded by difficulties and dangers, only to 
 be avoided by wisdom and wariness in the execution 
 of the details. He contended that both in the ad- 
 justment of the pay of the public establishments, 
 and the realisation of the revenue, either a sacrifice 
 of the dues of Government, or an injustice to the 
 public, was likely to arise from the alteration of the 
 coin ; and at the end of an elaborate minute, show- 
 ing that minute acquaintance with the details of the 
 Indian currency which was to be expected from so 
 eminent a Financier, he thus summed up his cau- 
 tionary suggestions : 
 
 " I submit that the following questions must be decided 
 before we can proceed to reduce the value of the established 
 currency of Bengal in the proportion of six and a half per 
 cent. : 
 
 u First. Whether the pay of the Bengal army shall be regulated 
 
THE SILVER CURRENCY. 369 
 
 anew, in order to give the officers and men in the new cur- 
 rency, or Arcot rupee, the full value of their present regulated 
 pay in Sonaut rupees ; that is whether an addition of about 
 two per cent, shall be made to the present complement of pay in 
 the Sonaut rupee. 
 
 " Secondly. Whether the land-revenue of Bengal shall be 
 re-assessed, in order that the Government may obtain a greater 
 number of rupees in Tale, in proportion to their diminished 
 value; or whether the Government, in order to avoid the re- 
 proach of having violated a solemn compact, shall determine to 
 sacrifice a sum of not less than twenty lakhs of rupees in annual 
 revenue. 
 
 " Thirdly. Whether, in the event of its being determined 
 not to make such a sacrifice of income, the Government will 
 compel the Zemindars in the settled territory to adhere to the 
 existing pottahs, or leases, and to make that sacrifice of effective 
 income which the Government itself will not make ; or whether 
 they will authorise the landholders to recall and cancel the 
 present pottahs, and to re -adjust the rents of their Ryots and 
 under-tenants upon the same principle on which the Govern- 
 ment re-assess the public revenue. 
 
 " These questions involve considerations of great moment; 
 and whatever alternative may be embraced, considerable incon- 
 venience is to be apprehended. We cannot, however, escape 
 from the dilemma, if it be resolved to proceed in effecting the 
 equalisation of the currency; and all I would further urge on 
 the present occasion is, that we proceed with great caution and 
 deliberation that the difficulties of the case be fairly met, and 
 that, in our anxiety to obviate them, no step be taken incon- 
 sistent with the obligations of good faith, and with that spirit 
 of justice by which the proceedings of a Government ought 
 always to be characterised." 
 
 It would take not one, but many volumes, to 
 enter into all the historical circumstances connected 
 with Mr. Tucker's very varied minutes. It is suffi- 
 cient to state, in this instance, that an uniform silver 
 
 2 B 
 
370 LIFE OE It. ST.G. TTJCKEH. 
 
 coin, known as the Company's rupee a coin bear- 
 ing the image and superscription of the Queen of 
 England instead of the old Mogul legend, acknow- 
 ledging the supremacy of the House of Tiniour 
 was struck at the Company's mints, and substituted 
 for the heterogeneous coinage of old times ; and that 
 the measure was carried out with so much wisdom 
 and discretion that no evil resulted from the change. 
 
 But a greater question than any of these was now 
 pressing forward, for the consideration not only of 
 the Court of Directors collectively, but of every 
 individual member of the great Corporation. The 
 Charter, under which India was governed and the 
 exclusive trade with China was carried on, was now 
 approaching the close of its permitted span of ex- 
 istence; and it was generally believed that some 
 vital changes would be introduced into the Act 
 under which thenceforth British connexion with 
 India was to be maintained. The previous Charter 
 had deprived the Company of the monopoly of the 
 trade with India ; and it was now apprehended that 
 the Legislature would seek to deprive them alto- 
 gether of the remnant of their exclusive mercantile 
 privileges, and convert the Court of Directors into a 
 purely administrative body. 
 
 The country had been, for years, becoming more 
 and more inveterate against all monopolies. The 
 genius of Free-trade was pushing onward with re- 
 sistless strides. The accumulation of Capital and 
 the advances of Science had rendered Englishmen 
 more alive to the necessity of opening out new fields 
 
THE CHINA TRADE. 371 
 
 for the exercise of their commercial activity; and 
 without any very great knowledge of the subject, 
 they argued that what was worth keeping was worth 
 taking, and that if any benefit were derivable from 
 the trade with China, it ought to be enjoyed by the 
 country at large. Before the Charter- Act of 1813 
 had numbered half of its allotted years, Committees 
 had been appointed to investigate the whole question 
 of Exclusive Trade, and they had reported in favor 
 of a relaxation of existing restrictions. It was not 
 consistent with public faith to interfere with the 
 privileges of the East India Company until the ex- 
 piration of their Charter but it was generally felt 
 that the -monopoly could not survive the Act under 
 which it was then maintained. 
 
 Some vague Parliamentary discussions in 1829 
 were succeeded by a substantial movement, in the 
 early part of the following year, calling for an in- 
 quiry into " the present state, of the affairs of the 
 East India Company." Lord Ellenborough in one 
 House, and Mr. Peel in the other, moved for the ap- 
 pointment of Select Committees, at the beginning 
 of February ; and from that time the investigation 
 into both the commercial and administrative affairs 
 of the Company proceeded with but slight intermis- 
 sion. In July the Commons' Committee reported 
 on the China Trade ; and in October the Chairman 
 and Deputy-Chairman of the Court of Directors 
 were invited to an interview with the Premier and 
 the President of the India Board ;* and informed 
 
 * The Duke of Wellington and Lord Ellenborough. 
 
 2B2 
 
372 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 that, in all probability, on the expiration of the ex- 
 isting Charter, the Government of India would be 
 left in the hands of the Company, but that the 
 China monopoly would cease. Prom that time the 
 Court of Directors were in a continual state of con- 
 troversy with his Majesty's Ministers relative to the 
 arrangements which were to be made for the future 
 management of their affairs, and in these contro- 
 versies Mr. Tucker took no undistinguished part.* 
 
 Before the close of the year 1830, the Government, 
 of which the Duke of Wellington was the Chief, was 
 compelled to resign the seals of office ; and a Whig 
 Cabinet was formed, in its place, under the direction 
 of Lord Grey. In the distribution of the new 
 Ministry, the chief seat at the India Board was 
 allotted to Mr. Charles Grant. The distinguished 
 son of a distinguished father one who had gra- 
 duated in the best school of Indian politics, and 
 who, from his very boyhood upwards, had been en- 
 deavoring to render himself familiar with the his- 
 tory, the institutions, and the usages of our Eastern 
 Empire one, who twenty years before, when yet a 
 young member and a young man, had earned a great 
 Parliamentary reputation by a series of able speeches 
 on the subject of Indian Government he was, of 
 all the adherents of Lord Grey, the one best fitted 
 by his personal qualifications to preside at the Board 
 
 * In a work of this description, I am compelled to touch briefly upon this 
 important chapter of Indian history; but the negotiations relative to the 
 renewal of the Charter have been narrated so much in detail, and with so much 
 clearness by Mr. Thornton, in his fifth volume, that I can hardly regret the 
 compulsory brevity of my own account of these transactions. 
 
MR. CHARLES GRANT. 373 
 
 of Control. His qualifications were not solely of 
 an intellectual character. He had high moral 
 qualities, which rendered those who were deeply 
 concerned for the welfare of India and her people 
 hopeful in the extreme of the good results which 
 might flow from his connexion with her affairs. He 
 was a humane, and, in intention, he was a just 
 man. His integrity was unquestioned. It was said 
 of him, at a later period, that he was indolent and 
 compliant that he lacked energy and firmness, and, 
 indeed, all the sterner and robuster qualities. Eut 
 these defects must have grown upon him, for it is 
 certain that during the greater part of his tenure of 
 office, as President of the India Board, he exhibited 
 an extraordinary amount of activity, and sometimes, 
 as will he gathered from a subsequent chapter of 
 this Memoir, a degree of firmness which, in a bad 
 cause, degenerated into obstinacy. Upon Mr. Grant 
 now devolved the duty of incubating the new East 
 India Bill, and superintending, on the part of the 
 Government, the necessary negotiations with the 
 Company. 
 
 As the son of an old East India Director as one, 
 too, who had battled manfully on the side of the 
 Company the new President of the India Board 
 was little likely to bring to the performance of 
 his duties any prejudices against that great Cor- 
 poration. It was certain, however, that the Com- 
 pany's exclusive privileges of Trade must cease and 
 determine in 1834. The country had determined 
 that question ; and whether a Wellington or a Grey 
 
374 LIFE OF H. ST.a. TUCKER. 
 
 were supreme in Downing-street an Ellenborough 
 or a Grant in Cannon-row it was equally useless to 
 endeavor to obtain a reprieve for the monopoly 
 against which sentence of death had been irrevo- 
 cably written down. The Commercial affairs of the 
 Company were to be wound up; there was no 
 question in the public mind about that but there 
 was a question as to how they were to be wound up 
 how the commercial assets of the Company were 
 to be disposed of consistently with the just claims 
 of that body and the interests of the British nation. 
 The Company, however, battled manfully for the 
 preservation of their old privileges ; and it must be 
 acknowledged that they brought forward many sub- 
 stantial arguments in their defence, and exploded 
 many injurious errors which had been disseminated 
 by their opponents. But they had to contend 
 against a violent pressure from without. It had 
 long ceased to be a question to be decided by argu- 
 ment. The temper of the times was not favorable 
 to the maintenance of monopolies of any kind. The 
 nation had made up its mind upon the subject. The 
 Court argued, and argued truly, that the Commerce 
 of the Company had been advantageous to the inte- 
 rests of India, inasmuch as that its profits had been 
 devoted to purposes of territorial administration. 
 But it had ceased to be an Indian question a 
 question between the Company and the people of 
 India ; it was a question between the Company and 
 the people of England. And whatever might be 
 
ABANDONMENT OF THE MONOPOLY. 375 
 
 the gain of the monopoly to India, England de- 
 clared that she could not away with it. 
 
 "When, therefore, on the 10th of December, 1832, 
 at a conference between Lord Grey and Mr. Grant 
 on one side, and the Chairman and Deputy-Chairman 
 on the other, a memorandum, or paper of Hints, 
 illustrative of the Government plan for the future 
 management of Indian affairs, was laid before the 
 latter, it cannot have been matter of surprise to 
 them that the first words it contained were " The 
 China monopoly to cease." 
 
 It is beyond the scope of this Memoir, and would 
 hardly answer any useful purpose at the present 
 time, to enlarge upon the discussions of 1832-33, 
 relative to the abandonment of the China Trade, or 
 on the course which was pursued by the Court of 
 Directors and the Court of Proprietors. It is enough 
 that, at every stage of the proceedings, Mr. Tucker 
 was active among the active, and drew up many 
 vigor ously- written papers upon the Government 
 scheme. Of the measure, in respect of the aboli- 
 tion of the trade, he wrote in one of those minutes : 
 " Viewed in its commercial and financial relations 
 and bearings, it impresses me with the most serious 
 apprehension. A more sudden or violent change in 
 the commercial policy of a country has rarely been 
 witnessed; and although it may not be attended 
 with permanent evil, it must produce temporary de- 
 rangement. The accustomed channel of Commerce 
 has been broken up. The stream has been diverted 
 
376 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKEK. 
 
 from its course, and those noble establishments 
 which nourished on its banks are now doomed to 
 desolation and ruin. We ought to have made a 
 stand at the threshold, and to have insisted, as a 
 preliminary condition, that time should at least be 
 allowed us to wind up the commercial concerns of 
 the Company, and to prepare for the gradual intro- 
 duction of those changes in our commercial system, 
 which may have so extensive an influence upon the 
 national interests, and more immediately upon the 
 interests of this vast metropolis." 
 
 It was Mr. Tucker's opinion, as may in part be 
 gathered from the above passage, that the Company 
 sacrificed their chances of success by holding back 
 at times when they ought to have pressed forward ; 
 and that if they had come out more boldly to meet 
 their opponents, they would not have been so worsted 
 in the contest. It was his opinion, as early as 1830, 
 that it was expedient for the Court of Directors to 
 prepare their case, by collecting and arranging do- 
 cuments, illustrative of their good administration of 
 the Company's territories, so that there might be 
 something before the country in answer to the vehe- 
 ment and unscrupulous attacks of their opponents : 
 
 " About two years ago," he wrote in 1832, " I suggested 
 the expediency of our appointing a Select Committee to collect, 
 arrange, and digest evidence which might bear upon the many 
 important questions connected with the administration of India, 
 and with the commercial affairs of the East India Company, 
 then about to undergo public investigation ; and I urged that 
 such a body of evidence was not only essential to facilitate the 
 labors of the two Committees of Parliament, but that it was 
 
TACTICS OF THE COURT. 377 
 
 highly necessary with a view to justify the past administration 
 of the Company, and to substantiate its claim to a continuance 
 of public confidence. This opinion I have since repeated on 
 different occasions; and I now find that the late reference to 
 us from the Board of Commissioners point directly to some of 
 the objects of inquiry contemplated by me. 
 
 " My suggestion was overruled, and the Committee of Cor- 
 respondence, consisting of eleven members, with two associates 
 subsequently added, was appointed ( specially to watch over the 
 proceedings in Parliament, so far as regards the East India 
 Company,' and to report, from time to time, to the Court, &c. 
 In other words, a special, a most difficult, and most important 
 duty merged into the ordinary business of a Committee, which 
 has already, in my opinion, more work imposed upon it than 
 it can successfully execute. 
 
 " I am bound to believe that the Committee have been most 
 sedulous in the discharge of the trust reposed in them; but, 
 with the exception of a secret report of a conference held 
 with his Majesty's late Ministers in October, 1830, I have not 
 yet seen the produce of their labors. If evidence has been col- 
 lected and arranged to assist our own deliberations, or to aid the 
 inquiries of his Majesty's Government, or of Parliament, it has 
 not yet been submitted to the Court. If conferences have since 
 taken place, if the views and intentions of the present Minis- 
 ters have been ascertained, if the basis of any plan for the 
 future administration of India, and for regulating the Company's 
 trade, has been propounded and discussed, I have yet to learn 
 what has been done, and what it is proposed to do. I have 
 been asked by persons who take a deep interest in the welfare 
 of India, and who have a deep stake in the well-being of the 
 East India Company, if we have no case to bring forward if 
 we have no means of repelling the attacks which are so perse- 
 veringly made upon us by our indefatigable opponents. In my 
 opinion we have a case, and a very strong case ; but we have 
 taken no steps to bring it fairly before Parliament and the 
 Public. The members of this Court have not yet, to my know- 
 ledge, interchanged opinions upon the vital questions which 
 
378 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TTJCKEK,. 
 
 must be present to the mind of every man who knows anything 
 of India, and who takes an interest in the prosperity of that 
 country. We have not communed together for the purpose of 
 coming to an understanding with respect to the course which 
 we ought to pursue in order to obtain a renewal of our Charter, 
 both as the means of securing to the natives of India the bless- 
 ings of good government, and of continuing in the East India 
 Company one great commercial function which it has so long 
 exercised, and which, I maintain, it is still competent to exer- 
 cise with signal benefit to the national interests. I own that I 
 feel indignant at the idea of our tamely and silently submitting, 
 without even a struggle, to the annihilation of a great political 
 and commercial body, which has occupied so distinguished a 
 place in history, and from whose councils and arms a ray of 
 glory was shed over the mother country, at times when discom- 
 fiture and misfortune in the western hemisphere had cast a 
 shade over its destinies. 
 
 " But shall I be told, as I have been told in debate, that our 
 policy is to wait, and our best position that of defence ? I con- 
 tend, on the contrary, that we are in a false position that we 
 have waited too long and that every day's delay in bringing 
 forward our case is injurious to the Company. Are we to wait 
 until this Company is left a mere wreck to abide the contempt 
 of its assailants? to contend, in the last hour of existence, 
 against popular clamor and prejudice, popular ignorance and 
 commercial cupidity? 
 
 " Again, I may be told that it will be more prudent to stand 
 aloof until the near approach of the period when the Charter 
 expires; as his Majesty's Ministers will then be so embarrassed 
 with the difficulty and magnitude of the undertaking, that they 
 must shrink from it, and allow everything to proceed as here- 
 tofore. 
 
 " This would be both a foolish and a dishonest policy, which 
 my colleagues, I am sure, can never countenance. Public men 
 are rarely seen to possess this sort of salutary diffidence this 
 distrust of their own powers; and it would not, I apprehend, 
 be easy to persuade them that they are not sufficiently imbued 
 
TACTICS OF THE COURT. 379 
 
 with that knowledge and experience, and with those sound and 
 comprehensive views of Indian policy, which are so essential to 
 the preservation of our vast empire in the East. 
 
 " Still, it may be urged that the very delicate question of 
 settling the future constitution of India, and of arranging the 
 Company's commercial concerns, must be left to the discretion, 
 wisdom, and diplomatic talents of the Chairs, who are the offi- 
 cial organs of the Court in conducting all negotiations with his 
 Majesty's Ministers. I have the utmost respect for our high 
 functionaries; but I cannot consent to place my judgment 
 wholly in abeyance. Nor can they exempt me from the per- 
 formance of my own duty. Every Director is called upon to 
 take part in the proceedings of the Court ; and must act upon 
 his .own individual responsibility. We have all undertaken a 
 sacred trust we have all sworn to perform the duties incidental 
 to it, according to the best of our judgment, and there is no 
 power which can grant us a dispensation if those duties be 
 neglected. But even admitting that the Chairs can in the first 
 instance most conveniently conduct a negotiation with his Ma- 
 jesty's Ministers, I still think that they ought to be fortified 
 with the opinions of the Court, and that we ought to be pre- 
 pared with a clear and comprehensive statement of our case. 
 When the last Charter was to be renewed, the negotiations 
 commenced in 1808, or five years before its expiration ; whereas 
 we are now within about two years of the termination of our 
 present Charter, with less support from the Government to rest 
 upon, and with stronger opposition from the Public to contend 
 against without our having yet made, as far as I can perceive, 
 any progress whatever to set ourselves right with that public, 
 and to support the just claims of the East India Company, 
 whose accountable stewards we are, or we ought to be." 
 
 There is much in this which, after a lapse of twenty 
 years, may be read with advantage by those whom it 
 most nearly concerns. Mr. Tucker believed that, at 
 this time, when the East India Company were about 
 to be put upon their trial, they committed a grand 
 
380 LIFE OF H. ST.O. TUCKER. 
 
 error in not concerting measures calculated to prove 
 to the world that they had not been unprofitable 
 stewards. I am afraid that this is a chronic ailment, 
 and that years have not mitigated its severity. It 
 must be regarded, indeed, as a species of slow suicide. 
 Popular applause is an aliment necessary to the con- 
 tinued existence of all governments; and the go- 
 vernment of the East India Company has been re- 
 solutely starving itself to death. A contempt of 
 public opinion may be the growth of a consciousness 
 of right ; it may be very beautiful in theory, very 
 magnanimous in principle ; but practically, as the 
 world goes, it is a fatal mistake. People are always 
 willing to give us full credit for our vices ; but they 
 are slow to take our virtues for granted. An indi- 
 vidual may choose for himself whether he will 
 proclaim them. But if the East India Company, 
 or any other governing body, believe that the con- 
 tinuance of their government is beneficial to the 
 people who are subject to it, they have no right 
 inertly to suffer it to lie under a cloud of misappre- 
 hension and disgrace. 
 
 Mr. Tucker complained that at this time the 
 Court insisted upon playing a waiting-game; and 
 was of opinion, that if they had bestirred themselves 
 earlier they would have obtained better terms for 
 themselves. It was his maxim throughout life 
 never to put off to to-morrow what can possibly be 
 done to-day. He never played a waiting- game. 
 The Court of Directors, on the other hand, have 
 always waited until it has been too late to retrieve 
 the ground which they have lost at the outset. It 
 
OPINIONS OF THE NEW ACT. 381 
 
 is the true policy in these cases to take the initiative. 
 I believe that the position of the Company would be 
 far better than it is, at the present time, if they had 
 thought more of public opinion, and had been less 
 inclined to wait. 
 
 But although, perhaps, the Court armed them- 
 selves too late to carry on the war to a triumphant 
 issue, they gained some successes in the course of it. 
 Against several of the propositions of the Crown 
 Ministers, relating both to the local and the home 
 Governments, they protested with consistency and 
 vigor. And the result of the controversies between 
 the two authorities was that several important 
 points were conceded to the Company, and the draft 
 of the Act for the future Government modified until 
 it took shape more in accordance with the declared 
 wishes of the Court. 
 
 In the contest for these changes Mr. Tucker took 
 no undistinguished part. He was of opinion that 
 the establishment of the fourth Presidency (of Agra) 
 would strengthen and improve the administrative 
 machinery, and he believed that if the Government 
 were placed in the hands of an experienced Com- 
 pany's officer, like Sir Charles Metcalfe, there would 
 be little need of the aid of a Council. But he did 
 not think that, as a general rule, and under other 
 circumstances, it would be expedient to dispense 
 with the Councils of the minor Presidencies."* He 
 was opposed to excessive centralisation. He did not 
 think that it was desirable to vest the sole legislative 
 power in the Supreme Council ; and he was entirely 
 
 * See Minute dated July 2, 1 833, quoted in Memorials of Indian Government. 
 
382 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 of opinion that uniform legislation for the divers 
 peoples of India was neither desirable nor prac- 
 ticable.* He did not recognise the expediency of 
 enlarging, to the proposed extent, the Supreme 
 Council of India, and he protested against the at' 
 tempt to deprive the Court of Directors of the abso- 
 lute and uncontrolled power to appoint all the or- 
 dinary members of Council.! And the representa- 
 tions of himself and his colleagues on these points 
 were attended with a large amount of success. The 
 minor Presidencies were not stripped of their 
 Councils. The new Presidency of Agra became 1 
 a Lieutenant-Governorship under an experienced 
 Company's officer. The number of the Supreme 
 Council was reduced ; and the absolute right of ap- 
 pointing Councillors remained in the hands of the 
 Court. 
 
 On the free admission of Europeans to all parts of 
 India Mr. Tucker entertained very strong opinions. 
 He believed that some restrictions were necessary to 
 protect the natives of the country against outrage 
 and oppression ; and he used his utmost endeavors 
 to resist a measure J which he believed to be laden 
 with consequences injurious to the people of the 
 soil. Against that part, too, of the proposed Act 
 which decreed the abolition of Slavery throughout 
 the Company's territories, he lifted up his voice, not 
 because he did not hold slavery in as much abhor- 
 rence as the introducers of the clause themselves, 
 
 * See Minute dated July 2, 1833, quoted in Memorials of Indian Govern- 
 ment. 
 f Ibid. 
 % See Letter to Mr. Blunt, post, pp. 470, 471. 
 
INDEPENDENCE OF THE COURT. 383 
 
 but because, whilst he knew that the evil existed 
 only in a very modified form in India, if indeed it 
 were more than a name, he saw that much mischief 
 might arise from the abolition of it, and much 
 misery to the " slaves" themselves. And he suc- 
 ceeded in preventing all abrupt and violent inter- 
 ference ; so that in the end there was an ample 
 recognition of the principle of universal liberty, and 
 a due promotion of the interests of humanity, with- 
 out any of those attendant evils which legislative 
 indiscretion might unknowingly have associated 
 with them. 
 
 But that which above all things Mr. Tucker ex- 
 erted himself most strenuously to secure was the 
 independence and efficiency of the Court of Direc- 
 tors. He apprehended that, under the provisions of 
 the new Act, the Court would be reduced to a mere 
 shadow a name, without substance and without 
 power a delusion, leading men astray from, the 
 truth, and obscuring the responsibility which ought 
 to be patent to the world. One very important 
 concession had been made to the Company. In the 
 original plan of the Government it had been con- 
 templated to reserve to the Crown Ministers a veto 
 in the case of the recall of the Governor-General of 
 India, or the minor Governors ; but the Court had 
 contended for the absolute right of recalling these 
 functionaries, and had secured the power to them- 
 selves. This at all events had the effect of prevent- 
 ing the entire Government of India from falling into 
 the hands of the President of the India Board and 
 the Governor- General ; but it still appeared that the 
 
384 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 power of the former to over-ride the Court was too 
 great, and as a check upon that authority they con- 
 tended that the right of publicity that is, of laying 
 before Parliament their protests against the Board's 
 measures should be conceded to them. This, how- 
 ever, Government resisted. The Chairman and 
 Deputy- Chairman protested against this resistance 
 Mr. George Smith and Mr. Tucker followed on 
 the sam e side.But their remonstrances were of no 
 avail. The Chairs were resolute ; the last two 
 points for which they had contended were the exten- 
 sion of the Guarantee Eund and the right of pub- 
 licity; and now, in August, 1833, they declared 
 their unalterable conviction that, whilst the Pro- 
 prietors were justly entitled to the former, the latter 
 was " indispensable to the independence of the Court 
 of Directors;" and on these grounds they refused 
 to recommend the Ministerial Bill to their consti- 
 tuents. Mr. Tucker, however, argued on the other 
 hand, that, defective as was the Bill, and insufficient 
 as were the powers of the Court, it would still be 
 beneficial to the interests of India that the Govern- 
 ment should remain in the hands of the Company. 
 " Upon the whole," he said, " after long and anxious 
 reflection, I am compelled to say to our constituents 
 (not with perfect confidence I own), accept the Bill 
 with all its defects ; and let us by our prudence and 
 firmness remedy as far as we can the disadvantages 
 of our situation ; and by the faithful and zealous 
 fulfilment of our duties, promote to the utmost the 
 prosperity and happiness of the people." 
 
CONSTITUTION OF THE HOME GOVERNMENT. 385 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 The Court of Directors and the Board of Control Powers of the Board- 
 Collisions between the two Authorities The Case of William Palmer and 
 Co. Mr. Tucker's Dissent The Writ of Mandamus Conduct of the Court 
 The Case of the Lucknow Bankers Firmness of the Court Conduct of 
 Mr. Tucker The Mandamus stayed. 
 
 WHILST these negotiations for the renewal of the 
 Company's Charter were evoking the energies and 
 activities of the Court, other circumstances, of a 
 more accidental but more exciting character, were 
 keeping all these energies and activities on the 
 stretch. 
 
 By the Act of Parliament under which India was 
 governed, it was intended that, in respect of all 
 matters relating to the internal administration of 
 the country and our ordinary dealings with the 
 Xative States, the originating power should be pri- 
 marily that of the Court of Directors of the East 
 India Company. But that in questions relating to 
 Peace and War, and our negotiations with Foreign 
 Powers, the whole management should be entrusted 
 to the President of the Board of Control, and a 
 Secret Committee of the Company (consisting of the 
 Chairman, the Deputy- Chairman, and the Senior 
 
 2 c 
 
386 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 Member of the Court) the President being, in fact, 
 a Secretary of State for Indian affairs, and the mem- 
 bers of the Secret Committee performing the func- 
 tions only, as Mr. Tucker happily expressed it, of 
 66 a Secretary or a Seal." 
 
 Over the solution of these questions of Peace and 
 "War questions into which European politics might 
 sometimes largely enter it was right, perhaps, that 
 the Crown Minister should exercise undisputed con- 
 trol. It was assumed that he took counsel with his 
 colleagues in the Cabinet, and that every important 
 measure affecting our relations with foreign States, 
 or the extension of our Indian Empire, was under- 
 taken with their cognisance and sanction, and after 
 full inquiry and due deliberation. This may or may 
 not in reality have been the case. An arrogant, self- 
 sufficient President might scorn to consult his official 
 chief; or, with strong personal prejudices and pre- 
 dilections, might seek the advice of one particular 
 member of the Ministry to the exclusion of all the 
 rest. But men neither saturated with prejudice nor 
 case-hardened in egotism, were not incorrectly be- 
 lieved to express the views and to carry out the de- 
 signs of their colleagues, when they entered upon 
 great measures affecting the question of Peace or War 
 with Foreign Powers. If such authority as this were 
 not in the hands of the Crown Minister, or of some 
 functionary in immediate connexion with the Cabi- 
 net, it is clear that the British Government might 
 often be greatly perplexed and embarrassed by the 
 prosecution of measures undertaken in India and, to 
 
THE " SECRET COMMITTEE." 387 
 
 all outward appearance, of purely Indian signifi- 
 cance, but still bearing upon our political relations 
 with States beyond the Company's cognisance and 
 control. 
 
 Taking this view of the case, it was impossible 
 not to recognise the necessity of vesting the chief 
 political authority in the representative of the 
 Crown. Whether all the real power being thus in 
 the hands of the President of the India Board, the 
 responsibility should not more openly and intel- 
 ligibly have attached to him whether despatches 
 emanating from this functionary should have been 
 dated from the India House, and signed by the 
 representatives of the Company whether, in short, 
 the institution of the Secret Committee should have 
 been maintained, as a Fiction or a Pact, according 
 to the character and the caprice of the Crown Minis- 
 ter,* was a question, and a very important one, 
 which forcibly suggested itself to Mr. Tucker's mind, 
 and which, perhaps, I shall be called upon to con- 
 sider in another chapter. In the mean while it may 
 be said that, whether for better or for worse, such 
 was the constitution of the Government of India, 
 and such the intent of the Act of Parliament under 
 which it was carried on. But in respect of the other 
 department of Government, of the general adminis- 
 
 * I say this, because a not over-confident Minister will consult his India- 
 House colleagues and make use of their information, if he will not adopt 
 their opinions. In this respect the utility of the Secret Committee is not to 
 be questioned but all depends upon the character of the man. And under 
 any circumstances the measures are really those of the Crown Minister, 
 whilst the outward responsibility is the Company's, in whose name they arc 
 undertaken. 
 
 2c 2 
 
388 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 tration of the internal affairs of our East Indian 
 possessions, the intent of the Act was not so clear, 
 the authority of the Board was not so definite. That 
 there was any ohscurity about the Act, or any 
 doubts about the extent of the Board's powers, in 
 the department of internal administration, would 
 not be implied, in this place, if it were not that the 
 records of the East India Company abundantly 
 prove that the boundaries of the Board's autho- 
 rity, as understood at the India House, have been 
 continually passed, and the Company's interpreta- 
 tion of the Act falsified by the practice of the con- 
 trolling powers. Such, however, was the case. It 
 was the complaint of the Company that the Board 
 exceeded its legitimate authority, and often reduced 
 the entire Court, in its general administrative capa- 
 city, to a fiction as entire as that represented by the 
 Secret Committee. How this happened it is not 
 difficult to show. The mode of procedure was this : 
 A despatch to one of the local Governments, drafted 
 by a ministerial officer in the India House, was laid, 
 perhaps after private perusal and annotation by some 
 of the members, before an assembled Court; and 
 there discussed, revised rejected or adopted. If 
 adopted, it was forwarded in due course for the 
 approval of the Board of Control. Then began the 
 work of correction. Then, sometimes, began what 
 has been called " the battle of the inks." The in- 
 exorable red-ink rode down the black, trampling 
 under foot whole squadrons of paragraphs, and 
 drawing itself up, in orderly array, with conquering 
 
THE COURT AND THE BOARD. 389 
 
 front, all a-down the margins. The massacre was 
 often complete ; it stopped not short of total exter- 
 mination. And the luckless despatch then went 
 back to the Court, without a trace, perhaps, of its 
 original meaning left upon it and yet it was to be 
 adopted as theirs, to be signed with their names, and 
 to be sent out for the guidance of their servants. 
 
 For such alterations as these the Board were 
 under legal obligations to assign their reasons. But 
 whether those reasons were good or bad the Court 
 were compelled to be bound by them. They might 
 endeavor, by respectful representations, to mollify 
 the controlling power; and individually or collec- 
 tively the Directors might protest ; but if they re- 
 fused to forward the despatch to India, a writ of 
 Mandamus might be issued against them ; and then, 
 if they still continued recusant, there was no alter- 
 native but a prison. 
 
 It may be supposed that to such a length as this 
 the antagonism of the two bodies did not often pro- 
 ceed ; but it happened that in the years 1832 and 
 1833, there were two memorable conflicts of which 
 History has taken account, and concerning which, 
 inasmuch as Mr. Tucker's name is conspicuous in the 
 recorded proceedings of both affrays, this narrative 
 must not be silent. 
 
 The first of these is known as the Hyderabad 
 case the case of the claims of William Palmer and 
 Co., on account of certain sums alleged to be due to 
 their House by the ostensible Prime Minister of the 
 Nizam. To give a detailed account of a transaction 
 
390 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 which is illustrated by a correspondence extending 
 over several folio volumes, is impossible in such a 
 work as this and if it were possible it would not 
 be desirable. It is enough that certain English 
 gentlemen established a House of business in the 
 independent state of Hyderabad, in the Deccan, and 
 became money-lenders on a gigantic scale. The ruler 
 of Hyderabad, known as the Nizam, was a puppet in 
 the hands of his Ministers. The most influential 
 of these, one Chundoo Lall, to whom the financial 
 management of the country was entrusted, and who 
 was rightly described as "a creature of British 
 power," sought a refuge from embarrassments which 
 the prudent management of the resources of the 
 kingdom might have averted, in pecuniary dealings 
 with the English firm ; and thus plunged the State 
 into a sea of difficulty, compared with which the 
 troubled waters from which he had sought extrica- 
 tion were smooth and shallow in the extreme. Not 
 that it was now the Minister who paid the penalty 
 of these usurious loans. He was a powerful but 
 irresponsible go-between. Chundoo Lall and Pal- 
 mer and Co. both basked in the sunshine of the 
 British Residency. There was no one but the British 
 Resident to restrain them from sacrificing the un- 
 happy country. And he did not inquire too nicely 
 into the transactions which were enriching the few 
 and so cruelly oppressing the many. So it happened 
 in time that Palmer and Co. became masters of a 
 large portion of the revenues of the State indeed, 
 were in a fair way ere long to sweep the whole into 
 their net. 
 
AFFAIRS OF WILLIAM PALMER AND CO. 391 
 
 But a new Resident appeared on the scene and 
 that new Resident was, perhaps, the ablest and 
 honestest man that ever won for himself a coronet, 
 without bloodshed and without intrigue. Sir Charles 
 Metcalfe went to Hyderabad. The great iniquity 
 stared him in the face. The reign of the English 
 money-lenders was at an end. Already, the Court of 
 Directors had sent instructions to India to close the 
 transactions with Palmer and Co., which were en- 
 gulfing the resources of the country ; and now Met- 
 calfe instituted searching inquiries into all the cir- 
 cumstances of the Nizam's liabilities, and made a 
 painful, but most necessary exposure. The result 
 was a great expenditure of reputation; and the 
 payment, on behalf of the Nizam, by the Bengal 
 Grovernment, of upwards of seventy-eight lakhs of 
 rupees, in liquidation of the claims of the English 
 usurers. Soon after this the House of William 
 Palmer and Co. was Bankrupt. 
 
 But Bankruptcy in India means nothing. It is 
 often a renewal of strength a revival of activity. 
 "William Palmer and Co." were soon endeavoring 
 to re-establish their influence at Hyderabad; and 
 were preferring large claims, principally on the 
 score of balance of Interest, against the Chief Mi- 
 nister of the unfortunate Nizam. Into the Debtor 
 and Creditor account I cannot of course afford to 
 enter. But the Court of Directors were thoroughly 
 impressed with the conviction that Palmer and Co. 
 were not justly entitled to sixpence more than they 
 had received, and that any interference on the part 
 of the British-Indian Government to obtain pay- 
 
392 LIFE OP H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 ment from the Nizam woiild be entirely unjustified 
 by the circumstances of the case, and contrary to 
 the faith of treaties. 
 
 The subject attracted a vast deal of attention at 
 home. An immense mass of official papers strug- 
 gled into type. Pamphlets of all sorts and sizes 
 v/ere poured out upon the public. The Court of 
 Proprietors woke from their wonted apathy, and a 
 debate of six days' duration was distinguished by 
 more eloquence and more excitement than the India 
 House had witnessed for years. Everything that 
 ould be said to justify the proceedings of the House 
 of Usury was said but in vain. The Court of 
 Directors were convinced ; the Court of Proprietors 
 were convinced; the Public were convinced. An 
 irreversible verdict was pronounced. And the most 
 charitable were the most eager not to revive so 
 painful a discussion. 
 
 And so little was said about it for some time. 
 But the members of the Bankrupt House were 
 busying themselves in the collection of what they 
 called their debts; and again, after a period of 
 quiescence, the attention of the Court of Directors 
 was called by the local Government to these old 
 transactions, and again they were invited to in- 
 terfere for the settlement of the long- disputed claims 
 upon the Nizam. In 1828, the Court had permitted 
 Sir William B/umbold, one of the partners in the 
 House, to proceed to India, for the purpose of 
 assisting the Trustees of Wm. Palmer and Co. to 
 recover sums due to them by individuals, with the 
 
CONFLICTING VIEWS. 393 
 
 express stipulation that neither the House, nor any 
 member of the House, should " be suffered to con- 
 tinue or renew pecuniary dealings, under any pre- 
 tence whatever, with the Nizam's Government;" 
 but the Indian Government had somewhat relaxed 
 these restrictions, and contented themselves with 
 Sir "William Huinbold's guarantee that he individu- 
 ally would not interfere with the affairs of the 
 Nizam. For this departure from their instructions 
 the Court censured the local Government, ob- 
 serving that they should thenceforth expect a 
 " stricter observance of their former instructions, 
 which they saw no reason either to extend or to 
 vary." But the Board of Control had expunged 
 these condemnatory paragraphs ; and in remorseless 
 red-ink had substituted others, conveying altogether 
 a different meaning. The Board, in fact, found a 
 justification for what the Court declared unjusti- 
 fiable; and instructed the Indian Government to 
 inform Sir William Humbold, that although the 
 Court considered "every claim of the House of 
 Palmer and Co. on the Nizam's Government, which 
 was in any way sanctioned by the British authori- 
 ties, to have been more than satisfied, they no 
 longer restrained him from proposing to the Ni- 
 zam's Government, in such manner as he might 
 think fit, any legal claims of that House which he 
 might conceive to be still unliquidated." And fur- 
 thermore, the Board wrote : " The Resident will 
 intimate to the Nizam's Government that you (the 
 Indian Government) would hear with satisfaction 
 
394 LIFJB OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 that the House had recovered their just claims from 
 their private debtors ; and he will advise the Ni- 
 zam's G-overnment to adopt those measures which 
 may facilitate to that firm such recovery of their 
 just debts, by process of law in the ordinary Courts 
 of Justice in the country."* 
 
 Against such a wholesale alteration of the mean- 
 ing of their despatch, the Court of Directors loudly 
 remonstrated. They had been made to deviate from 
 a course of policy which for some time they had con- 
 sistently pursued ; and had been committed to future 
 proceedings which they could not conscientiously 
 adopt. " The policy about to be subverted," they wrote 
 through their Secretary, "has been steadily main- 
 tained by the Court of Directors throughout a period 
 of ten years. It has been sanctioned by four succes- 
 sive Boards of Commissioners. It has been publicly 
 canvassed by a Court of Proprietors, and approved 
 after six days of discussion, which excited more public 
 interest than any Indian question has done for many 
 years ; and it has been acted upon by four successive 
 Governments in India, not in the mere spirit of offi- 
 cial obedience, but with active and cordial co-opera- 
 tion." And after pointing out the serious nature of 
 the evils likely to result from the adoption of the 
 Board's corrections, the Court expressed their full 
 expectation that the Board would revoke the altera- 
 tions made in the draft. " Should the Court be dis- 
 appointed in this expectation," they added, " they 
 will still have performed their duty consistently and 
 
 * July 23, 1830. 
 
PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOARD OF CONTROL. 395 
 
 conscientiously, and the responsibility for the results 
 will rest undividedly on the Board." 
 
 The remonstrance was not without effect. The 
 despatch, as altered by the Board, was not sent out 
 to India. The question, indeed, was shelved for a 
 time ; and not until the beginning of 1832 was the 
 discussion again revived. Then the Board wrote to 
 the Court, intimating that in consequence of intelli- 
 gence received from India, relative to the affairs of 
 Palmer and Co., it would be advisable that the Court 
 should prepare a new Draft in lieu of that to which 
 objections had been raised, " alluding to all the un- 
 answered communications of the local Government 
 respecting the affairs of Messrs. William Palmer and 
 Co." " When this is done," added the India-Board 
 Secretary, " the Board will be prepared to give a de- 
 finite opinion upon the whole of the correspondence 
 now under consideration." 
 
 Accordingly, a new despatch was drafted review- 
 ing the past measures of the local Government, and 
 offering instructions for their future guidance. That 
 Government had endeavored to bring the question 
 between the House and the Nizam to an issue, 
 through the agency of a Punchayet, or native Court 
 of Arbitration. But the effort had failed. There 
 had been no satisfactory basis whereon to arrange 
 the terms of arbitration ; and no sufficient guarantee 
 that the award of the Arbitrators would be rendered 
 binding upon the parties to the suit. The Court now 
 suggested that these desiderata should be supplied, 
 and proceeded to argue upon the abstract merits of 
 
396 , LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 the case, with a view to its adjustment according to 
 the soundest principles of justice. Large sums had 
 been claimed on account of accumulations of inte- 
 rest, and the Court justly observed that "an in- 
 dispensable preliminary to all ulterior proceedings 
 would be to consider and determine what principle 
 of limitation it would be proper to apply."* But 
 the great objection to this was, that there was any 
 allusion to ulterior proceedings at all. It opened 
 out the whole case anew when it was desirable to 
 close it, and was in effect a retractation of the former 
 judgments of the Court. 
 
 The draft w^as carried through the Court on the 
 20th of March, but not without opposition. On the 
 22nd, Mr. Haikes gave in a dissent. On the 28th, 
 Mr. Tucker and Colonel Baillie did the same ; and 
 on the 4th of April, Mr. Wigram declared his opi- 
 nions emphatically against the Court's resolution. 
 Mr. Raikes pointed out the tendency of the despatch 
 to restore the influence of Palmer and Co. at the 
 Court of the Nizam, and therefore he protested 
 against it. Mr. Wigram denounced it as an at- 
 tempt to force British interference unjustly upon a 
 native Prince, and stigmatised such interference as 
 C( unsound and pernicious in principle, as derogatory 
 
 * The reasonings of the Court on this subject appear to be conclusive as far 
 as they go. " The high interest common under the native Governments is, in 
 
 great part, the consideration for insecurity The principal part of that 
 
 high interest, under such Governments, is in the nature of an insurance upon 
 a risk. But if the influence of the British Government is to be employed in 
 such a manner as to ensure payment and thereby to take away the risk, it 
 will deserve to be considered how much, if anything, of that which may be 
 regarded as the consideration for risk in the nominal rate of interest, it will 
 be equitable to allow." 
 
THE HYDERABAD DISSENT. 397 
 
 to the character of the British Government in the 
 estimation of the natives of India, as inconsistent 
 with the past practice of the Court, and as calcu- 
 lated to introduce a most destructive precedent." 
 And Mr. Tucker recorded the following Dissent, in 
 which Colonel Baillie concurred : 
 
 " DISSENT BY H. ST.G. TUCKER, ESQ. 
 
 " I am compelled to dissent from the letter to the Govern- 
 ment of Bengal on the affairs of Hyderabad, which passed the 
 Court on Tuesday last. Not because this letter appears to me 
 to be very defective as a composition, nor because it puts forth 
 inconclusive arguments upon unsound or questionable pre- 
 mises, but because it does not, in my judgment, advance us 
 one single step towards the end which the Court have in 
 view. 
 
 " The Supreme Government call for more specific instruc- 
 tions; and we give them none. They are in a state of per- 
 plexity; and we do nothing to put an end to their embarrass- 
 ment. The Governor-General, upon his own responsibility, 
 and in opposition to the advice of his Council, removes the 
 Resident, Mr. Martin; and we say not a word on the subject, 
 although this extraordinary exercise of power cannot fail, I 
 think, to have a powerful influence on public affairs at Hyder- 
 abad. 
 
 " The whole tenor of the Court's despatch would seem to 
 contemplate the establishment of some basis, on which an 
 equitable adjustment of the claims of W. Palmer and Co. on 
 the Newaub Moneer-ool-Moolk and others may be effected; 
 and yet I cannot discover that any such basis has been decided 
 upon, or that any approach to it has been made. 
 
 " The Court observe that risk enters as an element into 
 interest, and that high interest includes a premium of in- 
 surance ; but this proposition is qualified by a subsequent 
 remark that ex post facto (as it may be termed) security, ob- 
 tained by means of the interposition or influence of our Go- 
 vernment, must be admitted as a set-off against the original 
 
398 LIFE OE H. ST.a. TUCKER. 
 
 risk; and again, this qualification is considered to be liable to 
 modification by reason of the ' pain and anxiety' which may 
 have been endured intermediately between the period when 
 the sense of risk commenced, and the period when the sense of 
 safety supervened. 
 
 " These distinctions are, no doubt, highly intellectual and 
 refined; but they do not lead to any practical purpose of busi- 
 ness. To my simple understanding, the considerations which 
 regulate and determine the rates of interest are sufficiently 
 plain. They comprehend : 
 
 " 1st. The productive powers of money at the time and 
 place. 
 
 " 2ndly. The relation subsisting between the demand for 
 money for political or commercial purposes, and the means of 
 supply at the time and place. 
 
 " Srdly. The intelligence, skill, and credit of the parties 
 
 treating. 
 
 " Lastly. The degree of risk and uncertainty incidental to 
 the ultimate recovery of the money lent. 
 
 " But what shall we gain by subtle disquisitions upon ab- 
 stract propositions? Is it useful is it fit and becoming in a 
 Government to pursue a serpentine course of reasoning, whose 
 involutions are scarcely traceable by a common mind, when, 
 after all, we end just at the point from which we set out? 
 
 " The questions arising out of the case .before us appear to 
 me to be simply these : 
 
 " 1st. Did any fair and legal contract exist between the 
 late firm of W. Palmer and Co. and the Newaub Moneer-ool- 
 Moolk and others? 
 
 " 2nd. Has the contract been violated by either party ? 
 
 " 3rd. Is the British Government called upon to interpose its 
 authority, or influence, for the purpose of enforcing the fulfil- 
 ment of that contract ? 
 
 " Now, what are the facts of the case ? Sir Charles Metcalfe 
 asserts that six or seven years ago it was acknowledged by the 
 parties themselves that the loan to the Newaub Moneer-ool- 
 Moolk had been actually redeemed with more than twelve per 
 
THE HYDERABAD DISSENT. 399 
 
 cent, interest per annum* The Newaub had made over his 
 extensive Jagheers to the House they managed his estates, 
 collected his rents, and realised large sums of money. With 
 such a security in hand, and with the means of paying them- 
 selves more than twelve per cent, interest on their loan, what 
 can have been the value and amount of that 'pain and 
 anxiety for which compensation is to be sought in a high rate 
 of interest ? 
 
 " And upon what grounds can the British Government be 
 called upon to interpose its authority or influence for the pur- 
 pose of enforcing against a native nobleman of high rank, not 
 subject to our Government or laws, a demand for interest ex- 
 ceeding twelve per cent, per annum ? 
 
 " Did we sanction the usurious loans contracted by the late 
 Newaub of the Carnatic ? Did we assist his creditors further 
 than to guarantee payment of the principal of their just claims 
 with a very moderate rate of interest ? 
 
 " But it may be said that we gave publicity to the opinions 
 of three of the greatest lawyers of this country; and that these 
 opinions were found afterwards not to be sound law ; or rather, 
 that the twelve judges of England, by a bare negative, gave a 
 different exposition of the law with relation to the supposed 
 limitation of interest on loans made and contracted within the 
 territory of a 'native independent sovereign of India.' 
 
 " Admitting, then, what, however, I am not at all disposed 
 to admit, that the promulgation of a legal opinion of high 
 authority upon a special case, although subsequently impeached 
 by the answer of the twelve judges to a general question 
 (without, I understand, any argument by Counsel), may have 
 had, for a time, a prejudicial effect upon the affairs of W. 
 Palmer and Co. ; admitting that the English law opposes no bar 
 to the enforcement of a rate of interest, however extortionate 
 (say, cent, per cent., instead of twenty-five per cent.), within 
 the territory of a ' native independent sovereign? and that 
 Hyderabad was such a State ; admitting, too, that a debt or 
 
 * I quote from memory, as the papers had been sent to the Board before I 
 had an opportunity to refer to them. H. St.G. T. 
 
400 LIFE OF H. ST.GL TUCKER. 
 
 demand, composed of interest, will carry with it further interest, 
 without any limit whatever, in opposition to an opinion which I 
 have seen from one of the first Chancery lawyers in this country ; 
 admitting, again, that the Mahomedan law, which does not re- 
 cognise interest (on what it terms increase or accumulation), 
 may be dispensed with or evaded, under usage or otherwise, 
 and that interest can be legally enforced against the Newaub 
 Moneer-ool-Moolk, himself a Mahomedan; admitting all these 
 things, what have we done, either to determine the rate of 
 interest which it would be just and proper to allow, or to con- 
 stitute the tribunal which shall decide upon the general merits 
 of the case that is, upon the facts connected with the original 
 loan or contract the rate of interest stipulated for the value 
 actually received by the borrower and the value subsequently 
 realised by the lender. 
 
 " We have, it is true, pointed at something like a mean 
 between the rate of interest claimed (twenty-five per cent, per 
 annum) and the rates of interest which Saoucars (or native 
 bankers) are accustomed to charge and allow, in their trans- 
 actions with each other; but as the latter is an unknown and a 
 varying quantity, I do not perceive how we are to arrive at 
 this golden mean; nor is it likely that it would satisfy either 
 party, even if it were practicable to arrive at it. In point of 
 fact, the native bankers, I have reason to believe, accommodate 
 each other at a very low rate of interest. They know each 
 other's situation in general ; and by mutual accommodation, 
 they can economise their respective balances; that is, they are 
 enabled severally to retain a much smaller sum than would 
 otherwise be necessary to meet unexpected demands. Such 
 arrangements are well understood in this country, and not less 
 so by the native bankers of India, a most intelligent race of 
 men. 
 
 " Placing, as I do, this imaginary mean out of the question, 
 the next proposition which the Court's letter appears to me to 
 embrace, is, the resort to arbitration. But who are to be the 
 arbitrators ? and who is to enforce their decision ? Has not 
 an ineffectual attempt been made already to induce the parties 
 to have recourse to arbitration ? I discard the term " pun- 
 
THE HYDERABAD DISSENT. 401 
 
 chayet" which is a Hindoo institution, for this term is but 
 too often used and misapplied. Have not the two parties taken 
 opposite grounds with respect to the question of interest ? and 
 can any hope be reasonably entertained that they will now 
 consent to a basis, or that they will ever appoint arbitrators, 
 who may not be their respective tools and representatives? 
 And if they .should consent to nominate such arbitrators, will 
 these tools or representatives ever be brought to agree upon 
 the selection of an umpire? In my opinion, they never will; 
 and I say further, that no prudent, upright, independent man 
 is likely to be found to undertake voluntarily an office, which 
 may expose him to the machinations and intrigues of those 
 who never will remain quiet under an adverse decision, how- 
 ever honest, pure, and unimpeachable that decision may be. 
 
 " With these difficulties before our eyes, is it fair, is it candid, 
 is it just to the creditors of Wm. Palmer and Co., or to the Newaub 
 Moneer-ool-Moolk and others, to leave the Supreme Government 
 in a state of doubt and perplexity ? Is it not injurious to the 
 public service, and to the character of our Government, to go 
 on for years, casting this question backwards and forwards be- 
 tween England and India, without pronouncing any definite 
 judgment, and without conveying any intelligible instructions 
 to the Government abroad ? 
 
 " In my opinion, there are only two courses which we have 
 to choose between either to withdraw from all interference 
 whatever, and to allow the trustees of Wm. Palmer and Co. to 
 prosecute their claims against Moneer-ool-Moolk and others, 
 before such tribunal as the ' independent sovereign' of Hydera- 
 bad (and if he be not an ' independent sovereign' the answer 
 of the twelve judges does not apply) may have provided for 
 the administration of public justice within his territories, or 
 which his Highness (who is not understood to be a mere 
 cypher like his immediate predecessor) may, at our suggestion, 
 or by means of the representations of the parties, be induced to 
 appoint ; or secondly To constitute and appoint a Special 
 Commission, under the authority of the British Government, to 
 be composed (say, for instance) of a member of the Court of 
 Sadder Dewanny Adawlut, with the Ckzi ool Cozaat and a 
 
 2D 
 
402 LIFE OF H. ST.GL TUCKER. 
 
 Mufti of that Court, as assessors, with full powers to examine 
 into the whole case, including the original contract and claim 
 of debt, with all subsequent proceedings connected with its 
 liquidation; and to adjudicate finally on every point of dispute 
 between the parties, upon such grounds as law, usage, and the 
 general principles of justice may furnish for an equitable ad- 
 justment. 
 
 * ' I have abstained as much as possible from any allusion to 
 the nature and character of the transactions of W. Palmer and 
 Co. at Hyderabad; as it is, I think, for the honor of the British 
 name in India, that as little should be said on the subject as 
 possible. These transactions cannot be consigned to oblivion, 
 because the writings of Sir Charles Metcalfe, an officer alike 
 distinguished for great talents, high honor, great zeal, and 
 above all, for that moral courage which gives the seal and im- 
 press to the other virtues of a public man his writings, I re- 
 peat, and the able speech delivered in this house by the late 
 Mr. Impey (one of the most convincing arguments which I 
 ever heard in any public assembly), have cast a broad light 
 over those transactions, which nothing but time can ever ex- 
 tinguish. What I wish is, that this subject should not be kept 
 alive by our indecision. Every consideration of justice and 
 policy should impel us to bring the questions at issue to an 
 early and final settlement regard for the situation of the 
 Newaub Moneer-ool-Moolk consideration for the creditors of 
 W. Palmer and Co. and respect for the reputation of our own 
 Government, all alike demand from us a prompt, clear, and 
 unequivocal expression of our sentiments. It is because the 
 letter of the Court appears to me to be deficient in all these 
 particulars, that I record the present dissent, considering, as I 
 do, that letter to be altogether unsuitable to the occasion, and 
 not at all becoming that high authority from which it pro- 
 ceeds ; and which (whatever may be the term of its exist- 
 ence) I am anxious to see maintain always a high and undis- 
 puted place in public estimation.* 
 
 11 H. ST.G. TUCKEK. 
 
 " 24th March, 1832." 
 
 * This admirable dissent was published among the Proceedings connected 
 with the Writ of Mandamus published in 1833. 
 
CORRECTIONS OF THE BOARD. 403 
 
 The draft despatch so assailed at the outset was 
 sent in for the approval of the Board. The Board 
 absolutely annihilated it with their exterminating 
 Red Ink. It had originally consisted of thirty-seven 
 paragraphs. Of these the Board scored out all but 
 four, three of which contained only a preliminary 
 recital of facts, and the fourth a mere general pro- 
 position. For the paragraphs so expunged the 
 Board substituted ten of their own. In this 
 amended despatch the Court were made to declare 
 their conviction that " the joint interposition of our 
 Government and that of the Nizam will be requisite 
 to bring the matter in dispute to a final settle- 
 ment." The nature of the proposed interposition 
 was then declared. The Nizam was to be suffered 
 to take his choice between an ordinary plan of arbi- 
 tration (the umpire to be nominated by the Go- 
 vernor-General) and the appointment of a Com- 
 mission to be appointed by the Supreme Govern- 
 ment ; he was to be recommended by the Resident 
 at Hyderabad to consent to one of these plans, and 
 to make the decision final, whatever it might be. 
 And the despatch concluded with an admission that 
 the Court had unintentionally done an injustice to 
 Palmer and Co. by not urging an earlier settlement 
 of their claims. 
 
 This was too much for the Court. They could 
 not bring themselves to sanction such an authorita- 
 tive interference ; and the admission at the close of 
 the letter was intolerable to them. So they nega- 
 tived the resolution for the adoption of the altered 
 
 2D 2 
 
404 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 despatch, and wrote a letter of remonstrance to the 
 Board. 
 
 The Eoard consented to some slight alterations in 
 the body of the draft, and expunged the obnoxious 
 admission in the tail of it. But still the Court were 
 not satisfied. Mr. Grant,* who then presided at the 
 Board, had declared that it was far from his inten- 
 tion that there should be any authoritative inter- 
 ference on the part of the British Government. 
 But, look at it as they might, the Court could not 
 see in the despatch anything short of the recom- 
 mendation of such authoritative interference. So 
 they still declined to forward the despatch. Court- 
 day after Court-day arrived ; meeting after meeting 
 was held. The whole question was discussed and 
 re-discussed again, but still they could not overcome 
 their reluctance to sign the obnoxious despatch. At 
 length they came to a determination which does not 
 appear to me to be distinguished by their wonted 
 sagacity. They rescinded the Resolution of the 30th 
 of March, and virtually cancelled both the Draft 
 and its Amendments, declaring that they had no 
 authority to meddle with the case at all. Now they 
 were competent to rescind their own Resolutions, 
 but not to cancel a despatch after it had been altered 
 by the Board of Control, t And to declare their 
 want of authority to meddle with a case with which 
 they had been meddling for many years was simply 
 to stultify themselves. 
 
 * The present Lord Glenelg. 
 
 f This, at least, is my own impression, strengthened by the decision of the 
 Court of King's Bench but the contrary was very ingeniously contended by 
 Serjeant Spankie. 
 
THE MANDAMUS ISSUED. 405 
 
 To this Besolution the Board of course demurred ; 
 and again there were new discussions in the Court. 
 The difficulty seemed to thicken. There was no 
 hope of a reconciliation. So at last the Court, after 
 a controversy of eight months' duration, told the 
 Board that they had nothing to do but to leave the 
 Law to take its course. And accordingly, on the 
 24th of November, in the Court of King's Bench, 
 the Attorney-General made a motion to call upon 
 the East India Company to show cause why a writ 
 of Mandamus should not be issued to compel them 
 to transmit to India a certain despatch, finally 
 amended and approved, by the Board of Commis- 
 sioners for the Affairs of India, according to the pro- 
 visions of the Act of Parliament 33rd George III. 
 
 The 21st of January the first day of term was 
 fixed for the hearing of the case. It was argued at 
 great length by Mr. Serjeant Spankie, Sir James Scar- 
 lett, and Mr. Wigram, on the side of the Company ; 
 by the Attorney and Solicitor-General and Mr. Amos 
 on the side of the Crown. There was a vast display 
 of legal ingenuity. The clauses of the Charter- Act, 
 bearing upon the question at issue, were anatomised 
 with an amount of skill that must have astonished 
 the framers of it, whilst it perfectly bewildered the 
 judges on the Bench. Eight days afterwards Mr. 
 Justice Littledale delivered the judgment of the 
 Court. The rule for the Mandamus was made abso- 
 lute. 
 
 On the 13th of February the Mandamus was 
 served on the members of the Court then present at 
 
406 LIFE OF H. ST.a. TUCKER. 
 
 the India House. The opinion of Counsel was then 
 sought by the Company as to whether an appeal to 
 the King in Council would be attended with any 
 advantageous results. The opinion recorded was 
 that it would not. So on the 13th of March a 
 year wanting only a week from the date of the ori- 
 ginal draft the Court met pursuant to notice given 
 by the Chairman, to consider the expediency of 
 signing the despatch as altered by the 'Board. The 
 Court were divided on the question. There were 
 men prepared to face the Mandamus and to abide 
 the result, in defence of the Eight. When, there- 
 fore, the resolution for the signing of the despatch 
 was moved, the previous question was put, and the 
 votes were found to be equal. According to the 
 provisions of the Charter- Act it was, therefore, lost ; 
 and the original resolution was carried. That reso- 
 lution ended with the words : " The Court feel that 
 they have no alternative but to sign the despatch ; 
 but in doing so ministerially and by compulsion, 
 they desire to record their most solemn protest 
 against the orders which they are required to de- 
 spatch." 
 
 On the next Court-day, u Protest signed by Messrs. 
 Eavenshaw, Marjoribanks, Smith, Astell, Wigram, 
 Baillie, Tucker, Masterman, Stuart, and Ellice, was 
 delivered in and read to the Court. It was an able 
 and a dignified remonstrance closely argued, clearly 
 written carrying conviction with it at every stage. 
 It set forth and it proved that the interference 
 ordered by the Board of Control was 
 
PROTEST OF THE TEN MEMBERS. 407 
 
 Contrary to the faith of treaties. 
 
 Contrary to the policy of the East India Com- 
 pany. 
 
 Contrary to the established practice of the Court 
 of Directors. 
 
 Contrary to the general practice of the former 
 Governments of Bengal. 
 
 Contrary to the substantial justice of the case. 
 
 Contrary to the right use which should be made 
 of the experience derived from the past transac- 
 tions of the House. 
 
 All these points were conclusively established in 
 the Protest ; the nature of the transactions between 
 Palmer and Co. and the Nizam's officers was exa- 
 mined ; the accounts between them were analysed ; 
 the real character of the claim was exposed; and 
 then the remonstrance thus concluded : " To put a 
 stop at once and for ever to that real or supposed 
 influence, so assumed and so abused by Messrs. 
 William Palmer and Co., was once the object aimed 
 at, not only by the Court of Directors and the 
 Bengal Government, but also by the Board of Com- 
 missioners. To restore that influence to all its per- 
 nicious efficiency must be the result of the inter- 
 ference which the present Board of Commissioners 
 would compel the Court to enjoin, and against 
 which we hereby most earnestly protest. And we 
 cannot too strongly deprecate, not only the use 
 which the Board have made of their power on this 
 occasion, but the possession by a Minister or Go- 
 vernment Board (without appeal to another tribunal 
 
408 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 on the merits of the case) of such power a power 
 to transfer money, to any extent, and on any pre- 
 tence, from the possession of our allies or of their 
 subjects, to that of ourselves, or of the subjects of 
 the British Government." 
 
 This able and vigorous protest was subscribed by 
 Mr. Tucker ; but it did not contain all that he de- 
 sired to express. He had recorded a Dissent from 
 the original draft prepared by the Court, and now 
 he desired to declare his conviction that the one was 
 no better than the other, inasmuch as that neither 
 tended to that peremptory closing of the whole ques- 
 tion which he conceived to be demanded by all the 
 past circumstances of the case. He, therefore, in 
 conjunction with Colonel Baillie, who had signed his 
 original dissent, placed upon record the following 
 Addendum to the great Protest : 
 
 " FURTHER PROTEST BY HENRY ST.GEORGE TUCKER, ESQ., 
 AND JOHN BAILLIE, ESQ. 
 
 "1. We have subscribed the foregoing protest, believing it 
 to be substantially correct, and feeling it to be highly essential 
 that those members of the Court who have taken so decided a 
 part in resisting an arbitrary proceeding of the Board of Com- 
 missioners for the Affairs of India should place on record a state- 
 ment of those facts, and a review of those considerations, which 
 influenced them in opposing the orders of the Board. 
 
 " 2. But we wish, at the same time, to explain, that we by 
 no means consider the letter substituted by the Board for the 
 Political Despatch, No. 167, which passed the Court on the 
 20th March, to be of a more objectionable character than the 
 original Draft. On the contrary, the Board's letter is much 
 more intelligible, and of a more straightforward character, and 
 it avoids that circuitous course of reasoning which, in our 
 opinion, could lead to no useful result. Were we called upon 
 
FURTHER PROTEST. 409 
 
 to decide between the two, we should sign the Board's letter in 
 preference. We protested, however, against the Court's letter 
 of the 20th of March, and we have felt it to be our duty also to 
 oppose]the Board's despatch, upon considerations varying some- 
 what in degree and in their general import, but sufficiently 
 strong to make it impossible for us to adopt the Board's views. 
 
 "3. We cannot think it right to direct the Resident at 
 Hyderabad * to endeavor, by personal representations, to engage 
 his Highness the Nizam, on the strong grounds of justice, to 
 use his influence with Moneer-ool-Moolk, in order to induce 
 him to concur in the proposed reference.' 
 
 " 4. We cannot think it right to direct the Resident ' to urge 
 on his Highness, in terms of strong recommendation, the justice 
 of his resolving to enforce the final award.' 
 
 '* 5. Nor can we determine to express our conviction, when we 
 have no such conviction, * of our having been the instruments, 
 however unintentionally, of arresting, by the promulgation of 
 an erroneous opinion, the earlier liquidation of the debt.' 
 
 u 6, We cannot concur in these things; for after reviewing 
 the correspondence and minutes of Sir Charles Metcalfe, the 
 representations of the late Resident, Mr. Martin, the acknow- 
 ledgment of the parties themselves, and the figured statements 
 which have been prepared in this House, we cannot satisfy our- 
 selves that the House of William Palmer and Co. have any just 
 claim of debt on the Newaub Moneer-ool-Moolk, or that there 
 are any grounds whatever for exerting the authority and in- 
 fluence of our Government to enable that firm to enforce any 
 such claims. 
 
 '* 7. On the contrary, we are deeply impressed with the con- 
 viction, that such an exertion of authority on our part would 
 be an act of gross injustice, tending to violate our engagements 
 with a Native Power, to produce a most improper interference 
 in its domestic administration, to expose the rights and property 
 of its subjects to be dealt with in the most arbitrary manner, 
 and finally to lower the character of the British Government, 
 and to render our very name odious in the estimation of the 
 people of India. 
 
 (Signed) "H. Sx.G. TUCKER. 
 " J. BAILLIE." 
 
410 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 The altered despatch was sent to India. The 
 disputed claims were referred to arbitration. Mr. 
 J. M. Macleod was appointed by the Governor-Ge- 
 neral to the office of Umpire ; and it was decided 
 that the heirs of the Minister Moneer-ool-Moolk 
 should pay a further sum of ten lakhs of rupees to 
 the estate of Palmer and Co., bearing interest at nine 
 per cent. When this result was communicated to 
 the Court of Directors, it was received without re- 
 mark. But Mr. Tucker, with the practised eye of 
 an Accountant, saw that there was injustice in the 
 award, and he thus, on the 4th of May, 1836, recorded 
 his dissent : 
 
 " I feel it to be my duty to record my dissent from the resolu- 
 tion of the Court to sign the following brief, and to me inexpli- 
 cable paragraph, in the political despatch to India, No. 65, 
 bearing date the 26th ultimo viz. : 
 
 "'Paras. 1 to 16, reporting proceedings by which it 
 appears that Mr. J. M. Macleod, the umpire selected by 
 the Governor-General, has decided that the heirs ofV Ul ^ ^, 
 
 Moneer-ool-Moolk shall pay to Messrs. W. P. and Co. a | 
 further sum of ten lakhs of rupees, with interest at 9 per 
 cent., until the same shall be discharged.' 
 
 " First. I dissent on the following grounds : Because, with- 
 out reference to the merits of the case, it appears to me un- 
 becoming in this Court to pass over a question of great interest 
 and importance in a way which must leave the Government 
 abroad in doubt with respect to our real sentiments. Such a 
 proceeding cannot fail, I think, to produce very unfavorable 
 effects in India; and whether it be surmised that we are afraid 
 to pronounce a judgment upon a delicate and difficult question, 
 or that a want of union among us has led to a compromise, or 
 that differences with the Board have rendered it impossible for 
 the two authorities to concur in any one course of proceeding, 
 the impression upon the public mind in India must be such as 
 
COMMENTS ON THE AWARD. 411 
 
 I would most earnestly deprecate. The Government which 
 dreads and avoids responsibility cannot command respect ; and 
 although cases of collision between the two authorities will 
 sometimes occur, constituted as those authorities are at present, 
 it is far better that our differences should be fairly and honestly 
 maintained, than that we should be suspected of compromising 
 a public principle in order to preserve an appearance of concord 
 and good understanding. On the present occasion we are called 
 upon to answer a despatch involving important questions. We 
 have pronounced no opinion whatever we have disposed of a 
 subject which has engaged, and deeply engaged the attention 
 of this Court for years past, by the simple words ' No remark? 
 and I can scarcely picture to myself the astonishment of those 
 who are now waiting to hear the final judgment of this high 
 tribunal, when these words, ' No remark? proclaim our determi- 
 nation to let that which has been done pass without notice, 
 whether it has been well done or otherwise. 
 
 ts Secondly. I must contend that the award of the umpire 
 exhibits upon the very face of it a palpable error ; and although 
 the members of this Court are not expected generally to be 
 professional accountants, I will venture to say that there is no 
 practical accountant who would not detect the error at the 
 slightest glance. 
 
 " The following is the award in substance : 
 
 " e After mature deliberation, it appears to me that the best 
 mode of determining the amount of the debt at the present 
 time, is first, to fix its amount at the time of the failure of the 
 House, then to double the same, to deduct, without interest, the 
 principal monies of payment since made on account of the debt, 
 and to take the remainder to be the debt at this day.' 
 
 " Now, it is quite evident that the great principle on which 
 accounts are framed is here lost sight of. To double the prin- 
 cipal of the demand is to allow interest, and to allow it, indeed, 
 to the utmost extent to which, by usage, it is claimable;* but 
 * to deduct, without interest, the principal monies of payment 
 
 * Without reference to Hindoo law, or our own regulations (Mahomedan 
 law condemns usury or compensation for the use of money), I may observe, 
 that the penalty inserted in a bond is double the amount of principal, so that 
 the sum recoverable upon it for the interest is virtually limited. H. St.G. T. 
 
412 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKEK. 
 
 since made on account of the debt,' is to determine that one 
 side of an account shall not bear interest, while it is fully 
 allowed on the other. By this decision, the heir of the late 
 Newaub Moneer-ool-Moolk is placed in the same situation as if 
 he had only paid in the year 1835 monies which were actually 
 paid in 1823-24. To show to what an erroneous result the 
 process adopted by the umpire has led, it is only necessary to 
 quote his own words, from paragraph 21 of his letter of the 
 10th March, 1835, containing the award: 
 
 " ' On the other hand, were the account to be brought down 
 to the month of August, 1829 (or to Mokurrum 1244 Hegry), 
 the balance against him (the Newaub) would be reduced to 
 about four lakhs; and were the account to be brought down 
 to the present day, it would exhibit a balance of upwards of a 
 lakh of rupees against the representatives of the House.' 
 
 " This is a simple and, I believe, a correct exposition of the 
 case. As far as a judgment can be formed from very perplexed 
 accounts, I am led to infer that the principal of the debt had 
 been fully liquidated, and that the balance, if any, due by the 
 Newaub could only have resulted from a difference of interest, 
 to be determined in the usual manner by a regular interest 
 account. 
 
 " Other questions present themselves in a review of the 
 award and of the correspondence connected with it ; but I have 
 not the slightest wish to go beyond the plain duty of pointing 
 out an obvious error, which, I am satisfied, was quite unin- 
 tentional, but which, deeply affecting, as it must do, the interests 
 of one of the parties, ought not to be passed over in silence. 
 
 " Nor have I the slightest desire to enter upon the original 
 merits of a case which has been so often before the Court, and 
 on which I have had occasion so often to deliver my sentiments. 
 The facts connected with it have been so fully and so clearly 
 exposed in the protest which was recorded by ten members of 
 the Court on the 15th March, 1833, that anything which 
 I could urge on the present occasion would probably only 
 weaken the impression which that able document was cal- 
 culated to produce. 
 
 " H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 4th May, 1836." 
 
ME. CHARLES GRANT. 413 
 
 I have anticipated the sequence of time in the 
 record of this Dissent ; but I should feel more satis- 
 faction in dismissing the case altogether, if I had 
 not now to speak of another of kindred origin and 
 character. The years 1832-33-34 were, for the 
 Court of Directors, years of unusual excitement and 
 activity. Apart from the disturbance of their tran- 
 quillity necessarily engendered by the unwelcome 
 innovations of the new Charter- Act, they were years 
 rendered memorable by the repeated collisions into 
 which they were forced with the Board of Control. 
 
 I do not know how it happened, that during the 
 Presidentship of a man so high-minded, so just, and 
 so averse from strife, as Mr. Charles Grant, the 
 Court should have been so often compelled to resist 
 the eiforts made by the Board to force them into acts 
 of injustice. Perhaps it was that a sort of fatal good- 
 nature a disinclination to sift the claims of hungry 
 applicants, and to disbelieve the specious repre- 
 sentations which were made to him, induced him to 
 side with claimants who had no title to his support ; 
 and that in his eagerness to be more than just to 
 one party, he was sometimes less than just to 
 another. But, whatever may have been the cause, 
 during these years the Company were disturbed 
 by being called upon in no less than four dif- 
 ferent cases to interfere for the settlement of 
 claims advanced against certain native princes and 
 chiefs. 
 
 Of the claims upon the Zemindar of Noozeed and 
 the Eajah of Travancore I need not here make espe- 
 
LIFE OP H. ST.GL TUCKER. 
 
 cial mention. I pass on to the more notorious ease 
 known as that of the "Lucknow Bankers." It 
 bears a generic resemblance to the Hyderabad case ; 
 but its details are not quite so complicated. It was 
 a case of a spendthrift monarch on one side, and a 
 gang of hungry usurers on the other. Porty years 
 before, some native bankers, named Mooneer Doss 
 and Seetul Baboo, following the example of other 
 money-lenders, European and native, fell upon the 
 track of the profligate Nabob of Oude and lent him 
 some money, upon bonds, at a rate of interest which 
 implied either their belief in the badness of the 
 security, or their resolution to defraud the borrower. 
 It was the old story over again a native prince 
 wallowing in the deepest slough of sensual indul- 
 gence spending on dancing-girls and buffoons on 
 wild-beast fights and pageants all the treasure that 
 he could extort from the people ; then borrowing 
 more from the usurers, who were ready with their 
 money-bags to administer, for a consideration of 
 thirty per cent., to the necessities of his unscrupulous 
 lust. The borrower was reckless about the interest, 
 for he knew that, if it were paid at all, it would be 
 wrested from his unhappy people ; and the lender, 
 careless of the blood and tears which were to flow 
 from the extortion, believed that as long as the 
 country could yield a revenue, they who supplied 
 the necessities of the prince would be sure to enrich 
 themselves by the connexion. So these " Dosses" as 
 they were subsequently known in Parliamentary 
 History lent money at the close of the last cen- 
 
CASE OF THE " LUCKNOW BANKERS." 415 
 
 tury to the Nabob-Vizier Asoph-ood-dowlah and 
 thus a new contribution was made to the sufferings 
 of the people. 
 
 But borrowing must have some limits, and even 
 the possessors of rich Indian principalities must 
 come to a stand at last ; so the Nabob, being at 
 length awakened to a real sense of his position by 
 the British Resident, determined to compound with 
 his creditors that is, to pay them all something less 
 than their exorbitant claims, which consisted for the 
 most part of small advances, swollen into prodigious 
 sums by a process of tumefaction well known to 
 Oriental usurers. The composition, however, that 
 was offered was not of an uniform character. It 
 was determined that the European creditors should 
 be repaid at one rate, the native creditors at another. 
 It need not be said that the former was the higher. 
 The arrangement took place. The creditors, for the 
 most part, prudently took what they could get, 
 which was, in most cases, more than they deserved. 
 But the " Dosses," claiming to be British subjects, 
 stickled for the European rate of composition, and 
 were rewarded for their ambition by getting nothing 
 at all. 
 
 Soon after the completion of this transaction, 
 Asoph-ood-dowlah died. In his place, the English 
 Government set up one Saadut Ali, who was not of 
 a temper to part with sixpence, when he was not 
 actually compelled. So the "Dosses" went on from 
 year's end to year's end, clamoring for their money 
 and not obtaining it and employing the services of 
 
416 LIFE OF H. ST.GL TUCKER. 
 
 an European Agent, who was as persevering in his 
 pursuit of " Justice" as though he had heen one of 
 the principals. There was nothing which he did 
 not try, from a bill in equity to a humble petition, 
 to induce the East India Company to further his 
 suit. But all his efforts were vain. The Court of 
 Directors were resolute not to interfere. An appeal 
 was made to Parliament ; and Parliament got rid of 
 the nuisance by appointing a Select Committee, 
 which never reported on the case. This was in 
 1822. Ten years afterwards, the energy of the 
 European Agent was as sleepless as ever ; and he 
 saw before him at last something like a prospect of 
 obtaining the reward of his toil. The President of 
 the Board of Control was inclining a favorable ear 
 to the claims of Mr. Prendergast's friends. 
 
 In consequence of the representation of this inde- 
 fatigable gentleman, Mr. Grant had undertaken to 
 review all the circumstances of the case ; and the re- 
 sult of the inquiry thus instituted was a conviction in 
 his mind, that however sound the principle of non- 
 interference in such cases might be, "the circum- 
 stances connected with the transactions on which 
 their (the Bankers') claim is founded, give it so 
 peculiar a character, that the Court and the Board 
 would have been warranted in adopting a different 
 course." This conviction he communicated to the 
 Court, in a letter to the Chairman and Deputy- 
 Chairman, dated April 12, 1832 ; and, as the result 
 of it, declared his intention of making our interpo- 
 sition with the King of Oude "direct and formal" 
 
PROPOSED LETTER ON THE OUDE CLAIMS. 417 
 
 adding, " I propose, accordingly, that the Go- 
 vernor-General in Council should be directed to lose 
 no time in addressing to the King of Oude a letter 
 to that purport, and that his Lordship should be 
 desired to instruct the Resident to take an early 
 opportunity of delivering that letter to the King, 
 and of verbally explaining to his Majesty the 
 grounds on which the British Government have 
 felt themselves constrained to press upon his serious 
 attention a claim which ought to have been dis- 
 charged thirty years ago, and which the Agents of 
 the parties have not ceased to prosecute to the 
 utmost extent of their power, both in India and in 
 this country. The rate and amount of interest 
 should, of course, be settled according to the law 
 and usages of the country in which the debt was 
 contracted. The mode and details of payment must 
 be matters of negotiation between the King of Oude 
 and the Supreme Government." And the memo- 
 rable letter thus concluded : " Having thus ex- 
 plained briefly, because the merits of the case are 
 well known to you and to the Court of Directors, 
 the result of my investigation into the claim of the 
 Calcutta Bankers, I have to request that you will 
 be pleased to bring the matter under the considera- 
 tion of the Court, and that you will move them to 
 prepare the draft of a despatch to the Governor- 
 General in Council, containing instructions of the 
 tenor above stated. The despatch will, of course, 
 require the sanction of the Commissioners for the 
 Affairs of India." 
 
 2* 
 
418 LIFE OE H. ST.Gr. TUCKER. 
 
 This, as I have said, was dated the 12th of April, 
 1832. Only the day before, the Court had voted 
 against the adoption of the obnoxious alterations in 
 their despatch relative to the claims of Palmer and 
 Co. ; and now they were called upon to authorise an 
 act of interference which they conceived to be still 
 more impolitic and unjust. There seemed to be a 
 run upon their patience and forbearance ; and they 
 were well disposed to declare themselves Insolvent. 
 Where, indeed, was all this to end? There were 
 other claimants on the King of Oude other claim- 
 ants upon other Native Princes ; and if the claims 
 of the Dosses were conceded, and measures taken to 
 enforce their settlement, why should not the heirs 
 and representatives of other claimants English, 
 Indian, and those who were neither English nor 
 Indian, or both be satisfied too, by an equally au- 
 thoritative interposition in their behalf ? The Board 
 of Control was in a fair way, indeed, going on at 
 this rate, to beggar half the Princes of India. Every 
 claimant thought his own an exceptional case, and 
 the Board seemed to be adopting wholesale the 
 opinions of the claimants themselves. In sooth it 
 was time to stop. 
 
 So the Court of Directors drew up a general re- 
 monstrance against these acts of interference, It 
 was dated the 9th of May, 1832, and is a remark- 
 ably able State paper luminous, forcible, and con- 
 vincing. But it did not convince the Board of 
 Control. It pointed out all the evils of interference 
 the impolicy, the injustice; the manifest incon- 
 
REMONSTRANCES Or THE COURT. 419 
 
 sistency of such a course of procedure ; the loss of 
 character to Government; the inconvenience, the 
 danger of opening the door to a rush of hungry 
 claimants ; the certainty either of being hurried into 
 more concessions, or of raising louder clamors and 
 stimulating greater discontent hut it was all ar- 
 gued in vain. The President of the Board of Con- 
 trol was not to be convinced. He had made up his 
 mind that the Bankers who had waited for years 
 for the spoil, should be now let in to gorge them- 
 selves to the full. 
 
 But as argument was of no avail as the question 
 could not be settled by an appeal to principles of 
 reason and justice, the Court took the next best 
 course. They did nothing. They were silent. They 
 did not prepare the despatch. Seven months passed 
 in silence. The Court had been ordered on the 14th 
 of May to prepare the despatch. On the 15th of 
 December it was not written ; and they had given 
 no sign of an intention to write it. So, on that day 
 the Board forwarded to the India House a draft 
 despatch of the President's own framing, with in- 
 structions to the Court to prepare one of like ten- 
 dency, and transmit it to India. The Court did not 
 obey the injunction. They resolved once more to 
 try the effect of an appeal to reason; and after re- 
 newed consideration of the whole question, they 
 wrote a long letter to the Board, which was signed 
 on the 1st of March, 1833, setting forth, in detail, 
 the causes of their unwillingness to obey the in- 
 structions of the controlling authority. This was 
 
 2 E 2 
 
420 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 afterwards pronounced by Mr. Herries, in the House 
 of Commons, to be the very ablest public document 
 which had come under his observation for years. 
 
 Still the President of the India Board was not to 
 be convinced. And still the Court of Directors 
 were not to be driven into a course of conduct 
 against which reason and conscience revolted. So 
 there was again active strife between the two autho- 
 rities an irreconcileable difference which it seemed 
 that nothing but an appeal to the law could finally 
 adjust. But the Hyderabad battle had not yet been 
 fought out; so the Oude contest but slowly pro- 
 ceeded to an issue. On the 29th of January the rule 
 for a Mandamus was made absolute in the case of 
 Palmer and Co. ; on the 31st of that month the 
 Attorney-General made a motion in the Court of 
 King's Bench to call upon the Company to show 
 cause why a Mandamus should not be issued, to 
 compel them to sign a certain despatch relating to 
 the creditors of the King of Oude. 
 
 Mr. Tucker was at this time Deputy-Chairman of 
 the East India Company. He had felt strongly, 
 and he had written strongly, regarding the impolicy 
 and injustice of interposing authoritatively for the 
 adjustment of the Hyderabad claims. And now, 
 here, if possible, was a worse case worse, inas- 
 much as the claim was one of much longer standing 
 a veteran, indeed, of some forty years. If there 
 was one subject in connexion with the circumstances 
 of our position in India on which Mr. Tucker felt 
 
TREATMENT OF THE NATIVE PRINCES. 421 
 
 more ^trongly than on another, it was that of the 
 treatment of the Native Princes and Chiefs of India 
 by the British Government, as the paramount and 
 controlling power. He was always thinking that 
 it was "excellent to have a giant's strength," hut 
 "tyrannous to use it like a giant;" and he could 
 not by any means see that these Native Princes were 
 left upon the face of the earth only to be pillaged 
 and plundered, to be trampled on and oppressed, 
 according to the will of the English conqueror. He 
 respected their fallen state, though he took account 
 of their vices ; and he could not by any means see 
 how those vices were to be eradicated by sinking 
 them into deeper degradation, and making their per- 
 plexities thicken around them. In the present case, 
 he saw clearly both the injustice and the danger of 
 the course which the Board had ordained. How, 
 he asked, was such a payment to be enforced by 
 anything short of physical coercion ? Was the 
 money to be extorted at the point of the bayonet ? 
 It was impossible to conceive a measure so laden 
 with unrighteousness, and so pregnant with danger, 
 as that which the Court of Directors were now im- 
 peratively called upon to adopt. 
 
 Mr. Tucker had made up his mind on the subject, 
 and nothing, now, could shake his resolution. He 
 was as inflexible as adamant in defence of the right. 
 The law had no terrors for him. The Court of King's 
 Bench might rule what it pleased ; he was not to be 
 driven from his allegiance. He could go to prison ; 
 
422 LIFE OF H. ST..G-. TUCKEK. 
 
 but he could not violate the principles which, he had 
 made the rule of his life ; he could not be untrue to 
 himself. 
 
 On the 5th of February, 1834, five days after 
 the Mandamus had been moved for, Mr. Tucker ad- 
 dressed his colleagues in the following words. The 
 trumpet gave no " uncertain sound." It was in- 
 tended to " arm them for the battle :" 
 
 
 
 11 TO THE HONORABLE THE COURT OF DIRECTORS. 
 
 " HONORABLE SIRS, A writ of Mandamus having been 
 moved for in the King's Bench, to compel this Court to sign 
 and forward to India the despatch which was sent to us for 
 signature on the 15th December, 1832, relating to the claim 
 of the Lucknow Bankers on the Government of Oude, I feel it 
 to be my duty to declare that it is impossible for me to comply 
 with the requisition of the Board of Commissioners for the 
 Affairs of India on this particular occasion. 
 
 " I am quite aware that I am called upon to act ministerially 
 only, in signing the despatch of the Board; but there are cases 
 where I cannot act even ministerially there are obligations 
 superior to that of yielding obedience to a Mandamus and 
 there are acts which the law itself cannot command acts which 
 cannot be performed without a violation of those principles on 
 which all law is founded. The Legislature can, no doubt, 
 invest a public functionary with large discretional powers; but 
 these powers can never extend so far as to give a legal sanction 
 to an act in itself illegal and criminal. 
 
 " The order which we are required to issue has for its object 
 to enforce payment of a claim which has never been admitted 
 or substantiated which takes its origin some forty years ago 
 and which is understood to amount, with interest, to more 
 than a million sterling. The claim must be enforced against 
 one whom we recognise in the character of a sovereign prince, 
 and whom we must lay prostrate and involve in ruin, if, dis- 
 
LETTER TO THE COURT. 423 
 
 regarding his remonstrances, we persist in compelling payment 
 of this demand without a regular adjudication; since it is well 
 known that it will be followed by other demands of the same 
 kind to an enormous amount. Let it be remembered always 
 that this is only one of many claims on the State of Oude, 
 which we may be called upon, and which we have been called 
 upon, to enforce; and I can perceive no ground whatever for 
 separating it from the rest, or for exerting in favor of the 
 claimants an authority, or influence, which we will not exert in 
 any other case. 
 
 " If it be not intended to use force in the execution of the 
 orders of the Board, they will remain inoperative they will 
 effect nothing; and they will be, indeed, worse than useless; 
 for every means short of force were resorted to in 1816 for the 
 purpose of inducing the Newaub to satisfy this particular 
 claim. The next step must then be a resort to military exe- 
 cution, or the threat of military execution; and who is pre- 
 pared to say what consequences may result from such a pro- 
 ceeding ? One effect must certainly be produced we must 
 sink in the estimation of our allies and native subjects; for the 
 act will be stamped in their minds with the character of in- 
 justice and oppression; and who is so ignorant as not to perceive 
 that the loss of reputation must, in our peculiar situation in 
 India, endanger the stability of our power ? 
 
 " Far from wishing to carry on a hostile contest with the 
 Board, my study has been, in the station which I have the 
 honor to hold, to promote a good understanding between the 
 two authorities to conciliate confidence and to smooth away 
 difficulties, as far as this could be done without compromising 
 the independence of the Court, or the interests of the public 
 service. I have followed this course, both from inclination, 
 and upon principle; for even when the two authorities concur 
 and cordially co-operate, the work to be performed is of such 
 magnitude as to be almost beyond our power of execution; 
 while it is quite apparent that, if collision take place, if discord 
 prevail, and habitual opposition be offered on either side, the 
 machine of Government must absolutely stand still. 
 
 u But here let me render an act of simple justice. During 
 
424 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 the brief period in which I have had the honor of assisting at 
 personal conferences with the President of the Board, I have 
 found that Minister as anxious as the Chairman and myself to 
 promote harmony and to consult the interests of the service. 
 Every question has been debated with fairness and candor, and 
 the greatest solicitude has been shown to remove every cause 
 of difference, and to allow the utmost weight and consideration 
 to every proposition which our duty has led us to bring forward 
 on the part of the Court. 
 
 " On this one point the difference has been extreme and irrc- 
 concileable, involving a principle which it was impossible for us 
 to concede. We could not consent to be parties in overturning 
 the deliberate decision of successive Courts and successive 
 Boards. If the judgment of our predecessors is to be set aside 
 after the lapse of a long period of years, without new facts 
 being adduced, without the case assuming any new feature, 
 what would be stable in our proceedings ? what resolution 
 would be permanent ? what act would be final ? During the 
 long administration of Marquis Wellesley, when the case was 
 more recent, and the facts more susceptible of proof, no step 
 was taken by the Supreme Government to obtain an adjudi- 
 cation of the claim : his Lordship's subsequent advocacy of it 
 was at a time when he had no official responsibility, and when 
 he was not in a situation to pronounce a judgment. Lord 
 Hastings, although evidently disposed to favor the claimants, 
 limited his interference to importunate recommendations to the 
 Newaub through the Resident at Lucknow, and admitted that 
 the case was not one which ' the British Government was 
 warranted in formally supporting.' But the whole question 
 has been so fully canvassed in the Court's letter of the 1st 
 March last, that it is quite unnecessary for me to enter upon 
 any further examination of its merits. 
 
 " I am called upon, then, to make a decided stand ; and I 
 feel that it ought to be made at all hazards. Adjusted as are 
 the powers between the two departments, what gives, or can 
 give, weight and influence to the Court ? The knowledge, 
 experience, and political integrity of its members. Take away 
 
CHARLES GRANT. 425 
 
 these, and the Board becomes supreme. The Court, by mani- 
 festing, on great occasions, firm resolution and a high spirit of 
 independence, will raise its own character, and inspire confi- 
 dence and respect. Our servants, who have not always shown 
 a becoming deference to our authority and station, will learn to 
 obey a power which is prepared calmly to resist that which it 
 believes to be wrong, and steadily to enforce that which it feels 
 to be right; and acting thus, our constituents, and the British 
 public, and the people of India, will be satisfied that the Court 
 of Directors is, what it ought to be, an efficient organ of admi- 
 nistration, to whom the interests of a great empire may safely 
 be confided. 
 
 " I have the honor to be, Gentlemen, 
 
 " Your very obedient, faithful servant, 
 
 " H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 < ; 5th February, 1834." 
 
 It was not without pain that he wrote this nohle 
 remonstrance. There were many fine qualities in 
 Charles Grant which no man better appreciated than 
 Henry St. George Tucker. There were some points 
 upon which they differed; but there were many 
 more on which their opinions were identical, and an 
 abstract love of justice was paramount in the cha- 
 racters of both men. I believe that both as Indian 
 and Colonial Minister the conduct of Charles Grant 
 was regulated by the highest principles of justice ; 
 but that he sometimes missed the right application 
 of these principles, and in the plenitude of his kind- 
 ness did the unkindest things. In the great contest 
 of which I am now writing, it is my conviction that 
 Mr. Grant and Mr. Tucker each believed that justice 
 was upon his side. But Mr. Tucker had knowledge 
 as well as faith. He and not only he, but many of 
 
426 LIFE OE H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 his colleagues brought to the investigation of this 
 question much local knowledge and experience a 
 deep insight into native character in general, and 
 an intimate acquaintance, in particular, with the 
 profligate helplessness of Oriental princes, and the 
 almost fathomless cunning of Oriental usurers. Mr. 
 Grant, on the other hand, did not, perhaps, reflect 
 that what was justice in the West might not he jus- 
 tice in the East ; and that the arhitrement suited 
 to one country might be lamentably unsuited to 
 another. Had his father then been at his elbow he 
 would have followed a different course. 
 
 All this was manifest to Mr. Tucker. He greatly 
 esteemed the virtues of the man; and, therefore, 
 the more bitterly deplored the errors of the minister. 
 He often, indeed, at this time, expressed his regret 
 that the contest of public principle was with a man 
 whom personally he so much respected ; and in one 
 of his speeches at the India House, quoted with ad- 
 mirable felicity, and with deep feeling, the touching 
 words of the poet : 
 
 " Jc faimais inconstant qu'aurais-jefaitfidele ?" 
 
 In his resistance to the arbitrary measures of the 
 Board, Mr. Tucker did not stand alone. On the 
 15th of January a resolution had passed the Court, 
 without a dissentient voice, declaring that as the 
 proposed interference with the King of Oude was 
 unjust, inconsistent, and mischievous, the Court 
 could " not consent, even ministerially, to act upon 
 the orders of the Board until compelled by Law to 
 
CONDUCT OF THE DIRECTORS. 427 
 
 do so." It was in consequence of this resolution 
 that the Mandamus had been moved for and now 
 it became the duty of every Director to consider how 
 he should face it. The resolution had only com- 
 pelled them not to sign the despatch except under 
 compulsion of a Mandamus. But there were mem- 
 bers of the Court, who, like the Deputy-Chair- 
 man, were resolute not to affix their signatures, 
 under any circumstances, to the obnoxious despatch. 
 On the 5th of February the date which Mr. 
 Tucker's letter bears six members of the Court, 
 Messrs. Astell, Marjoribanks, Wigram, Russell El- 
 lice, Mills, and Thornhill, placed their opinions on 
 record in the following brief but emphatic commu- 
 nication which they addressed to their colleagues : 
 
 "Adverting to the proceedings which have already taken place 
 relative to the claims of the Lucknow Bankers, we feel it to be 
 our duty to place upon the records of the Court the expression of 
 our determination not to affix our signatures, under any cir- 
 cumstances, to the despatch proposed by the Board of Commis- 
 sioners; because we are impressed with the deepest conviction 
 that any attempt to enforce such claims by the direct inter- 
 ference of the British Government, would be nothing short of 
 an act of spoliation towards an ancient and prostrate ally, that 
 it would compromise the British character, and lead to con- 
 sequences most detrimental to the continuance of our rule in 
 India." 
 
 But there were other members of the Court who 
 took different views of their obligations as Directors 
 of the Company. One approved of the despatch, 
 and declared himself desirous of annexing his sig- 
 
428 LIFE OP H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 nature to it.^ The Chairman recommended that 
 the Court " should use every legal means in their 
 power to prevent the transmission of this most 
 objectionable despatch; but that after having done 
 so, they should obey the law, and by that example 
 inculcate in others the important duty of obedience 
 to their legal orders." Several members of the 
 Court subscribed this letter. The document is an 
 important one, for it contains an argumentative ex- 
 position of the grounds upon which an influential 
 section of the Directors based their belief in the 
 impropriety of resisting the operation of the Law. 
 Among other points, it was contended that no 
 responsibility attached to the Directors for acts 
 done in obedience to the authority of the Board, 
 when exercised in opposition to the protests of the 
 Court. " Sooner," said the Chairman, " than be 
 responsible for this draft, I would resign my seat 
 but no such responsibility exists. If I sign it, 
 I do so ministerially, and because the law compels 
 me ; and surely every Director knows that he is re- 
 quired in some cases to do what the Secret Com- 
 mittee is always required to do, to act merely minis- 
 terially in communicating to the Indian Govern- 
 ments orders and instructions for which the Board 
 are exclusively responsible." 
 
 In this letter there is much that has a gloss of 
 reason upon it ; but it would seem that the latent 
 
 * Mr. John Forbes. He had been absent from the Court when the reso- 
 lution of the 15th of January was passed or it would not have been carried 
 unanimously. 
 
PERSONAL OBLIGATIONS. 429 
 
 weakness of the argument peeps out from the ahove 
 sentence. A member of the Secret Committee signs 
 ministerially a despatch emanating from the Board 
 of Control, of the contents of which despatch he 
 does not approve, because he knows that it is the 
 intent of the Legislature that in this department of 
 the Government the Crown Minister should be 
 absolute. The case of the Secret Committee is a 
 special and exceptional case. But it was not the 
 intent of the Legislature, in framing the Act under 
 which India is governed, that in matters of general 
 administration, not bearing upon questions with 
 which the Crown Ministers, directly or indirectly, 
 have any concern, the President of the Board of 
 Control should dictate to the Court of Directors, and 
 force upon them measures utterly abhorrent to their 
 ideas of reason and justice. There may have been 
 certain ambiguities in the letter of the law, under 
 which the Board may have claimed this right to 
 force any thing upon a reluctant Court ;* but it was 
 assuredly not in harmony with the spirit of the law, 
 that the former authority should initiate measures, 
 
 * It was argued, in the Hyderabad case, that the powers of the Board 
 extended only to matters relating to the civil or military government of the 
 Company or the finances thereof, and that such transactions did not come 
 within those categories. This specification was intended to prohibit the 
 interference of the Board with the Company's commercial affairs; but I can 
 hardly believe that the Legislature ever intended to confer on the Board such 
 powers as they claimed with regard to these Hyderabad and Oude cases, 
 although the Charter- Act did give them authority to call upon the Court to 
 transmit despatches, framed by the Board, after they (the Court) had been 
 instructed and had neglected to prepare them for themselves. The letter of 
 the law appears to me to have been on the side of the Board, but the spirit 
 was with the Court. 
 
430 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 of the expediency or inexpediency of which the latter 
 must necessarily be better judges, and compel them, 
 in the face of all their aggregate knowledge and 
 experience, to attach their names to documents 
 which they believe to be irrational and unjust. 
 
 It was rightly said by Serjeant Spankie, arguing 
 in behalf of the Company in the Hyderabad case, 
 that " nothing is so material as to distinguish who 
 are the acting parties, and not to suffer them to be 
 blended and confounded till all responsibility is lost 
 between the parties who, to a certain degree concur, 
 and to a certain degree revolt and hold back." 
 " And so," he said, " I apprehend, in all cases in 
 which the Board take upon themselves the initia- 
 tive, the responsibility is with the Board, and that 
 the Court of Directors should not be forced into an 
 apparent responsibility." Mr. Loch, and the col- 
 leagues who voted with him, contended that there 
 was no responsibility. If the President of the 
 Board of Control could have signed the despatch 
 himself, and merely compelled the Court to transmit 
 it, their responsibility might have been merely that 
 of a porter or a postman. But as it was necessary 
 that the despatch should be adopted by the Court of 
 Directors that they should render it formally and 
 officially their act by attaching their names to it 
 that their servants should be called upon, under 
 their hands, to carry out the instructions it con- 
 tained there was at least " an apparent responsi- 
 bility." The act became in India their act, what- 
 ever it may have been in England ; and the natives 
 
QUESTION OF RESPONSIBILITY. 431 
 
 of the former country, who knew nothing of India- 
 House Protests, or Bang's - Bench Mandamuses, 
 would have regarded it as their act, and held them 
 responsible for it. I do not think, therefore, that 
 the responsibility was to be wholly escaped. 
 
 But it was admitted by Mr. Loch that circum- 
 stances might arise, to render it incumbent on a 
 Director to resign his office rather than sign, even 
 ministerially, a despatch forced upon him by the 
 Board of Control. The real question at issue, 
 therefore, between him and Mr. Tucker, related 
 simply to the magnitude of the present occasion. 
 Mr. Tucker conceived that now, if ever, the Directors 
 should make a stand that great principles were in- 
 volved in the contest between the two authorities 
 and that a fitter occasion for asserting the indepen- 
 dence of the Court was not likely to arise. 
 
 Mr. Loch thought that the occasion was sufficient 
 to warrant him in going to certain lengths of re- 
 sistance ; Mr. Tucker determined that he would go 
 all lengths. The Chairman said that he would sign 
 the despatch only under the operation of a Man- 
 damus. The Deputy-Chairman declared that he 
 would not sign it, even if the Mandamus were 
 issued. The question is surrounded with many diffi- 
 culties. A phalanx of substantial arguments is 
 arrayed on either side, and it would ill become me 
 to attempt a dogmatic solution of it. It may, how- 
 ever, be observed, that rightly to estimate the mag- 
 nitude of the occasion, and the degree of resistance 
 which it became the Directors to offer, we must 
 
432 LIFE OP H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 consider not so much the single act of attempted 
 coercion in the case of the Lucknow Bankers, as the 
 aggregation of four different cases of the same kind 
 which had heen pressed, within a short time, upon 
 the reluctant Court. It was, indeed, the cumula- 
 tive tyranny and injustice of the Board that was to 
 be resisted. All measures short of the actual defiance 
 of a Mandamus had already heen tried, and had failed. 
 It seemed, therefore, to Mr. Tucker and to six of his 
 colleagues, that it now became them to carry their 
 resistance to the extreme point, and either to resign 
 their appointments, or quietly to go to Prison. 
 
 And that they would have done so there is no 
 doubt. Mr. Tucker was prepared for the conse- 
 quences of resistance ; and as the time approached 
 for the issue of the Mandamus, talked cheerfully, 
 but resolutely, of going to Prison. The Mandamus 
 had been moved for on the last day of January ; 
 and the first day of term following had been fixed 
 upon for the hearing of the case. Of the result 
 of the motion there could be no doubt but just as 
 the contest had reached the culminating point of 
 interest, it was brought suddenly to a close. . The 
 proceedings against the Court were stayed. Por 
 reasons, which either lie on the surface, or deep 
 down in a gulf of mystery, the Mandamus was 
 never obtained. The East India Company tri- 
 umphed ; and Mr. Tucker did not go to Prison. 
 
THE "CHAIRS." 433 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 The "Chairs" Mr. Tucker elected Deputy-Chairman Succession to the 
 Chair The Bombay Government Appointment of Mr. Robert Grant 
 The Governor-General Nomination of Sir Charles Metcalfe Appoint- 
 ment of Lord Heytesbury Its Revocation Appointment of Lord Auck- 
 landMr. Tucker's Remonstrances Speech at the King's Table. 
 
 ON the 10th of October, 1833, Mr. Tucker was 
 elected Deputy-Chairman of the Court of Directors 
 of the East India Company. 
 
 According to the Law and Constitution of the 
 East India Company, a Chairman and Deputy- 
 Chairman are to be appointed every year on the 
 first Wednesday after the General Election in April. 
 The appointment rests with the Directors them- 
 selves. Sometimes the election is the result of a 
 close contest ; at others there is scarcely any com- 
 petition. The Deputy-Chairman of the preceding 
 year is always, by common consent, appointed 
 Chairman for the ensuing one, except in those rare 
 instances when, for peculiar reasons, the out-going 
 Chairman is requested to retain his seat for another 
 year. The election is in effect, therefore, only the 
 election of a Deputy-Chairman. It may, however, 
 happen that in the course of the official year, the 
 
434 LIFE or H. ST.a. TUCKER. 
 
 death, disqualification, or resignation of the Chair- 
 man or Deputy-Chairman necessitates the nomina- 
 tion of a successor before the appointed time. In 
 1833 both the Chairman and Deputy-Chairman 
 resigned in the month of October, so that it became 
 necessary to appoint two Directors to their vacant 
 seats. Then Mr. Loch was elected Chairman, and 
 Mr. Tucker Deputy-Chairman of the Court. 
 
 "I have never," wrote the latter to one of his 
 colleagues a few days before his election, " sought 
 the Chair, for reasons that are pretty well known to 
 you and other friends ; but I have never declined 
 it. I could not decline that which has never been 
 offered me. But I would not shrink from the per- 
 formance of any public duty which might be im- 
 posed upon me. I never have, it is true, solicited 
 the suffrages of my colleagues; nor will I ever 
 solicit them. I disapprove of the practice of can- 
 vassing for the Chair ; and I never will place any 
 colleague in the unpleasant I may say the painful 
 situation in which I have myself been placed by a 
 personal application, when my wish was to oblige, and 
 my duty told me that I ought not to assent. Much 
 
 as I esteem our colleague , I cannot support his 
 
 nomination. I consider it indispensable that one of 
 the Chairs should be occupied at the present 
 moment by an Indian, and if the youngest Indian 
 in the Court should be brought forward, he will 
 
 have my preference on public grounds 
 
 If any members of the Court should think proper 
 to propose me, and the Court should be pleased 
 
APPOINTMENT TO THE CHAIR. 435 
 
 in consequence to command my services, their 
 commands will be obeyed ; and those services will 
 be diligently and zealously exerted ; but I will not 
 solicit the honor. ' ' And then, adverting to what had 
 been remarked on the subject out of doors, he con- 
 tinued : " Indeed, I have been strangely placed ; for 
 I have actually been reproached out of Court for 
 want of zeal and public spirit in not undertaking an 
 office which has never been offered me, and which 
 has not in reality been within my reach, at least 
 not without my having recourse to a proceeding 
 which would not at all accord with my notions of 
 right and expediency." 
 
 Such were the opinions which Mr. Tucker enter- 
 tained all his life, and in accordance with which, at 
 the close of 1833, he accepted the invitation of his 
 colleagues, and was elected to fill the Deputy-Chair. 
 The period was one which seemed, upon public 
 grounds, to render the appointment extremely ad- 
 visable. The commercial affairs of the Company 
 were now to be wound up ; and it was expedient 
 that the most prominent positions in the Court 
 should be held hymen possessing a thorough practical 
 acquaintance, both as merchants and administrators, 
 with all the details of the system under which the 
 old monopoly had been worked, and with a com- 
 prehensive knowledge of the large financial opera- 
 tions rendered necessary by the abandonment of the 
 Trade. In the month of April, 1834, Mr. Tucker 
 succeeded, in due course, to the Chair. In the 
 same month the old Charter under which India had 
 
436 LIFE OP H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 been governed for twenty years expired ; and the 
 " winding-up of the Company's commercial con- 
 cerns" became one of the primary duties of the 
 Court. 
 
 But there were other matters at this time to en- 
 gage the thoughts and call forth the energies of 
 Mr. Tucker. No greater responsibility attaches to 
 the Chairmanship of the East India Company than 
 that involved in the nomination of those high offi- 
 cers to whom the Government of the Indian Presi- 
 dencies is entrusted. On the fit selection of these 
 officers, who are appointed by the concurrent autho- 
 rity of the Court of Directors and the Board of 
 Control,* the welfare of India in no small measure 
 depends. There are few matters, indeed, in con- 
 nexion with the whole question of Indian Govern- 
 ment more important than this few which it is 
 more desirable to illustrate historically in such a 
 manner as to show, by a recital of facts, how the 
 responsibilities vested by law in the two authorities 
 have been practically discharged. 
 
 In the early part of 1834, Lord Clare announced 
 his intention of retiring from the Government of 
 Bombay. Mr. Charles Grant was President of the 
 Board of Control, when his brother, Mr. Robert 
 Grant, presented himself as a candidate for the 
 
 * The selection is made, in the first instance, by the Chairman, generally 
 in concert with the Deputy. There is then a conference with the President 
 of the India Board, and if the authorities concur, the appointment is then 
 formally proposed to the Court of Directors, and, when carried, confirmed by 
 the Crown. 
 
EGBERT GRANT. 437 
 
 vacant government. It was the happy lot and the 
 high distinction of the elder Charles Grant to live to 
 see both his sons giving promise of future eminence. 
 After a brilliant university career, Robert had ap- 
 plied himself with success to the study of the law ; 
 but had varied his legal pursuits by diverging into 
 the more attractive fields of literature and states- 
 manship. During the discussions which introduced 
 the Indian Charter- Act of 1813, he had written an 
 elaborate work on the Government of the East 
 India Company, and twenty years afterwards, when 
 under a new Charter the Legislative Council of 
 India had been established, he had been a candi- 
 date for that office which was eventually conferred 
 on Mr. Macaulay. He was a man of eminent 
 ability, and of the highest principles. For one not 
 trained on the spot in the school of Indian politics 
 he had a large acquaintance with Indian affairs. 
 He had studied the great subject of Indian govern- 
 ment both in the closet and the bureau both as an 
 author and a statesman and he was eager to turn 
 his knowledge to practical account. He had ren- 
 dered good service to the Company at home; and 
 there was reason to believe that he would render 
 good service to them abroad. So when the Govern- 
 ment of Bombay was about to be vacated in 1834, 
 the Chairman of the East India Company did not 
 hesitate to recommend Robert Grant for the office. 
 "I anticipate only two objections," he wrote to 
 Charles Grant ; " the one, that lawyers do not often 
 make the best statesmen ; the other, that, connected 
 
438 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 as your brother will be with the Board, the Court 
 may not be able to exercise the same efficient control 
 over his proceedings. The first objection, I think, 
 applies only to those who from habit have bound 
 down their minds to the technicalities of the pro- 
 fession. On the second, I may observe that the 
 Court will never, I trust, find any difficulty in exert- 
 ing all its legal powers. 5 ' 
 
 With the full concurrence and approbation of the 
 Crown Ministers, Mr. Robert Grant was appointed 
 Governor of Bombay. But the selection, although 
 sanctioned by the Court of Directors, did not give 
 entire satisfaction to all the members of the Court. 
 It was whispered that the independence of the Com- 
 pany had been compromised that it was not the per- 
 sonal merit of one brother, but the official influence 
 of the other, that had caused such an arrangement to 
 be made for the future government of the Western 
 Presidency in short, that the Chairman had been 
 guilty of truckling to the Board of Control. This 
 was in effect, indeed, the charge which, subsequently 
 in a more open manner, was brought against Mr. 
 Tucker, and with so much authority too, that he 
 conceived it to be incumbent upon him to rebut it. 
 He therefore addressed a letter to the Court of Di- 
 rectors, in which, after alluding to " the peculiar 
 and very unusual terms in which Mr. Grant's ap- 
 pointment had been animadverted upon," he pro- 
 ceeded to say : 
 
 " .... I had hoped that my public character would 
 have saved me from unjust imputations and injurious suspi- 
 
BOMBAY GOVERNORSHIP. 439 
 
 cions, especially as- it must, I think, be known to my colleagues 
 that I have not the slightest connexion, political or personal, 
 with his Majesty's Ministers. 
 
 " As the law prescribes that every appointment to the office 
 of Governor in India ' shall be subject to the approbation of 
 his Majesty,' I conferred with the President of the Board on 
 the selection of a successor to Lord Clare. I did so according 
 to what I believed to have been the established usage in such 
 cases, and upon grounds of obvious convenience ; for it is quite 
 clear that without the concurrence of the advisers of the Crown, 
 no such appointment could take effect. Indeed, cases might 
 be cited where a nomination made by the Court, without the 
 concurrence of the Minister, had been overruled. 
 
 " Having, then, ascertained that the appointment of Mr. 
 Robert Grant would meet with the cordial approbation of the 
 Cabinet, and seeing no grounds for giving a preference to the 
 other candidates who aspired to the office (although unquestion- 
 ably gentlemen of high pretensions), I determined to propose 
 the appointment to the Court upon my own responsibility, and, 
 I will say, upon an honest conviction that he was peculiarly 
 qualified for the high and important trust. My guarantee was 
 his character, his known talents, his acquired knowledge, his 
 intimate acquaintance with the affairs of India, and his general 
 experience in public business. These, I thought, furnished a 
 sure promise that his public services would not only be most 
 useful to the Government, but that the powers of his mind 
 would be beneficially exerted in favor of the people of India. 
 In this anticipation I feel satisfied that I shall not be dis- 
 appointed. 
 
 " I declare that these were the grounds on which I proposed 
 the appointment of Mr. Robert Grant to the Government of 
 Bombay. I have never compromised my own independence 
 or that of the Court. I have never shown subserviency to any 
 Minister; and in the new position in which the Court has been 
 placed, it has been my anxious study to maintain its authority 
 and to uphold its reputation. If I could compromise its inde- 
 pendence or my own by any unworthy submission to the 
 
440 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 President of the Board, I should be unfit for the high station 
 which I have the honor to fill ; and if I could suppose that 
 I do not enjoy the full confidence to which I feel myself to 
 be justly entitled, I would not hold that station for a single 
 day " 
 
 There were many independent men in the Court 
 of Directors, but not one with a sturdier spirit of 
 independence than Mr. Tucker not one amongst 
 them less likely to truckle to the Crown Ministers. 
 Only a few months before, he had resolutely declared 
 his determination to be carried off to Prison rather 
 than to sign an unjust despatch; and he would 
 have abided by the resolution. "Well might he say 
 that there was nothing in his public character, 
 nothing in the antecedents of his life, to warrant 
 even a suspicion of his descending to anything 
 so foreign to the manliness of his nature. Eor 
 my own part, indeed, I have a very strong con- 
 viction that Mr. Tucker would rather have turned 
 the tread-mill or picked oakum all his life than so, 
 in a great battle of principle, have compromised 
 himself and the Court. At all events, it was his 
 good fortune not to wait long for an opportunity of 
 proving, by his conduct, the independence of his 
 spirit, his loyalty to the Court, and his devotion to 
 the interests of India. That honest statesman and 
 sturdy reformer, Lord William Bentinck, had now 
 held the chief seat in the Government of India for 
 more than the wonted period of office, and his fail- 
 ing health had compelled him to solicit the appoint- 
 ment of a successor. His resignation was received 
 
THE GOVERNOR-GENERALSHIP. 
 
 at the India House towards the close of the month 
 of August. The nomination of a new Governor- 
 General now devolved upon the Court of Directors. 
 Mr. Tucker, with whom, as Chairman, the selection 
 primarily rested, was not long in coming to a deci- 
 sion on this most important subject. He did not 
 doubt that what India most wanted in that con- 
 juncture was a statesman of ripe Indian experience, 
 with a name like a household word in the mouths 
 of the people.* He saw before him two such men, 
 either one of whom might fitly represent the sove- 
 reign power in India, and preside over the adminis- 
 tration of her affairs, to the benefit alike of the 
 parent State and the dependent country. There 
 was no need to draw upon the Peerage, or to re- 
 sort to the Cabinet for a Governor-General, when 
 Elphinstone and Metcalfe were yet in the ranks of 
 living statesmen. 
 
 Between the claims of two such men it was diffi- 
 cult to decide. And Mr. Tucker did not wish to 
 decide. He desired to leave the choice between 
 them, to be exercised by the King's Ministers. It 
 might, however, happen that there was no choice. 
 Mountstuart Elphinstone was in England, in the 
 placid enjoyment of a life of literary leisure, enhancing 
 the tranquil pleasures of the Present, rather by a re- 
 currence to the associations of an honorable Past, 
 than by anticipations of a still more honorable 
 Future. To him, therefore, Mr. Tucker at once 
 
 * It was especially desirable, at that time, when the new Act for the future 
 Government of India was to be introduced, that there should be an expe- 
 rienced statesman at the head of affairs to give effect to its provisions. See 
 Letters to Mr. Grant in the following chapter. 
 
442 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 addressed himself. " Government," he wrote, " may 
 have other views ; but I will not lend myself to any 
 project which I cannot cordially concur in and 
 justify. Others must move, if I am not allowed to 
 do what I think right." He then asked Mr. Elphin- 
 stone if, in the event of the Court and the Board 
 ratifying the choice of the Chairman, he " would be 
 prepared to undertake the important trust." 
 
 The answer was in the negative. The brilliant 
 offer could not tempt him. Elphinstone mistrusted 
 his physical health. He had never been greedy of 
 public honors. He knew how to resist all such 
 popular allurements; and he gratefully declined to 
 put out his hand for a prize, which the greatest 
 soldiers have coveted, and the most successful states- 
 men have not refused. 
 
 One difficulty, therefore, was removed. Mr. Tucker 
 now saw his way clearly before him. He took coun- 
 sel with some of his colleagues, found as he expected 
 that they approved of his choice, summoned a special 
 Court for the following Wednesday, and then wrote 
 to the President of the Board of Control that it was 
 his intention to move the following resolutions for 
 the confirmation of Sir Charles Metcalfe in the office 
 of Governor- General, which he then provisionally 
 held: 
 
 " That tliis Court deeply lament that the state of Lord William 
 Bentinck's health should be such as to deprive the Company of 
 his most valuable services ; and this Court deem it proper to 
 record, on the occasion of his Lordship's resignation of the 
 office of Governor-General, their high sense of the distinguished 
 
NOMINATION OF SIB, CHAKLES METCALFE. 443 
 
 ability, energy, zeal, and integrity with which his Lordship has 
 discharged the arduous duties of his exalted station. 
 
 " That, referring to the appointment which has been con- 
 ferred by the Court, with the approbation of his Majesty, on 
 Sir Charles T. Metcalfe, provisionally, to act as Governor- 
 General of India, upon the death, resignation, or coming away 
 of Lord William Bentinck ; and adverting also to the public 
 character and services of Sir Charles Metcalfe, whose know- 
 ledge, experience, and talents, eminently qualify him to prose- 
 cute successfully the various important measures consequent on 
 the new Charter- Act, this Court are of opinion that it would 
 be inexpedient at present to make any other arrangement for 
 supplying the office of Governor-General. And it is resolved 
 accordingly, that the Chairs be authorised and instructed to 
 communicate this opinion to his Majesty's Ministers, through 
 the President of the Board of Commissioners for the Affairs of 
 India."* 
 
 Some causes of delay having interfered, the Reso- 
 lutions given above were not carried through the 
 Court before the 26th of September. They were 
 then voted by an overwhelming majority. Out- 
 wardly they indicated only the desire of the Court 
 that Sir Charles Metcalfe should continue to hold 
 the provisional appointment, under which, on the 
 departure of Lord William Bentinck, he was em- 
 powered to assume the title and discharge the duties 
 of Governor- General ; but they meant something 
 more than this. When Mr. Tucker enclosed tho 
 
 * In the following chapter another draft of these ^Resolutions, differing 
 from the above, is given, at the end of a letter to Mr. Charles Grant. It will 
 be seen that the copy in the text is an amendment and amplification of the 
 original sketch. 
 
4.44 LIFE OP H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 first draft of them to the President of the India 
 Board, he wrote to that gentleman, saying : " I have 
 already conferred with many of my colleagues, and 
 by far the greater number cordially incline to the 
 arrangement, which I shall feel it my duty to pro- 
 pose to the Court, and to submit to you, for the 
 consideration of his Majesty's Government. It is 
 to confirm Sir Charles Metcalfe in the office of 
 Governor- General of India."* And he subsequently 
 explained that the Resolutions were framed in the 
 hope and in the belief that his Majesty's Ministers, 
 having once recognised the expediency of retaining 
 Sir Charles Metcalfe in the Government, would soon 
 consent to issue a new Commission, and render the 
 provisional appointment a substantive one. 
 
 But the advisers of the Crown were not inclined 
 to regard the matter in this light. They argued 
 that a provisional appointment was one thing and a 
 permanent appointment another ; and they demurred 
 to the permanent appointment of a man who had no 
 other claims to preferment than his own individual 
 fitness for the office to which it was proposed to 
 appoint him. To nominate Sir Charles Metcalfe 
 a civil servant of the East India Company, who had 
 spent all his life in India was, according to their 
 narrow views of political expediency, to throw away 
 a great chance. It was to appoint a man of no 
 
 * The letter from which this passage is taken is given entire in the follow- 
 ing chapter. 
 
MEASURES OF THE CROWN MINISTERS. 445 
 
 political connexions, who was neither to be pro- 
 moted nor to be got rid of, for the immediate benefit 
 of their party, to the highest office in the gift of the 
 Crown. "Whether in reality an appointment distin- 
 guished by an unusual amount of disinterestedness 
 and public spirit, would not have strengthened the 
 party more than the course which they determined 
 to pursue, is a question of no very difficult solution ; 
 but the fable of the Dog and the Shadow is as ap- 
 plicable to political as to private life ; and his Ma- 
 jesty's Ministers decreed that the appointment of 
 Sir Charles Metcalfe to the Governor-Generalship 
 should not be suffered to become a fact. 
 
 Arguments were not wanting in support of this 
 decision. But it is a trick of our self-love to find 
 a never-ending flow of argument in support of what- 
 ever consorts with our personal convenience. If 
 knowledge and experience, and proved capacity, 
 were to be recognised as the best claims to employ- 
 ment in the highest offices of the Indian Govern- 
 ment, all the Indian patronage of the Crown would 
 fall among the Elphinstones and the Metcalfes ; and 
 how then were Ministers to purchase aristocratic 
 support, or to provide for impracticable colleagues ? 
 So, on receipt of an intimation from the Court of 
 Directors that a Resolution had been passed in 
 favor of the appointment of Sir Charles Metcalfe, the 
 Board of Control announced that the Company's 
 nominee was considered ineligible to the station of 
 Governor- General ; and the grounds of objection 
 were such as would have excluded the whole, both of 
 
446 LIFE OP H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 the civil and military services of India. It hap- 
 pened that some years before, Mr. Canning, who 
 seldom said foolish things, hut who was not alto- 
 gether infallible, had pronounced an opinion hostile 
 to the claims of the Company's servants ; and now 
 his authority was emphatically quoted, as though 
 it had all the significance of Scripture. But the 
 Court of Directors were not to be put down even by 
 a dictum of Mr. Canning. If the question were to 
 be settled by a reference to the recorded wisdom of 
 this great statesman, they also might quote his 
 words in favor of the claims of the Company's 
 servants;* but they appealed to the authority of 
 deeds rather than of words they asked, with the 
 old E/oman, Dicta an Fact a pluris sint ; and reso- 
 lutely stood by their first decree. 
 
 The independence of. the Court and the welfare of 
 the people of India could not have been in better 
 hands than in those of Mr. Tucker. He took his 
 stand resolutely upon the palpable reason and jus- 
 tice of the case, and was not inclined to bate a jot. 
 When the letter of the Board announcing the re- 
 fusal of the Crown Minister to ratify the choice of 
 the Court was received by him, he drew up a 
 remonstrance, in the shape of a letter to the Presi- 
 dent of the India Board, and on the 8th of October 
 submitted it for the approval of his colleagues. It 
 
 * Mr. Canning had said in 1813 that the system could not be a bad one, 
 which had produced all the able and distinguished Company's servants who 
 had then recently given their evidence before the Parliamentary Committee, 
 and at a later period had spoken of Sir Thomas Munro as a man in whom 
 the highest qualities of the soldier and statesman were pre-eminently united. 
 
LETTER TO THE INDIA BOAKD. 447 
 
 is an admirable specimen of official correspondence 
 temperate and dignified in tone ; clear and forcible 
 in diction : 
 
 " TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF CONTROL. 
 
 " SIR, We have had the honor to receive your letter of 
 the 1st instant, communicating to us, for the information of 
 the Court of Directors, the sentiments of his Majesty's Ministers 
 on the resolution passed by the Court on the 26th ultimo, for 
 continuing Sir Charles T. Metcalfe in the office of Governor- 
 General of India. 
 
 " Having laid your letter before the Court, we have been 
 requested to submit to you the following observations: 
 
 " The Court of Directors concur with his Majesty's Ministers 
 in opinion that, in proceeding to fill up the office of Governor- 
 General, a permanent arrangement is to be preferred ; and 
 impressed as they are with the conviction that Sir Charles 
 Metcalfe is peculiarly qualified to do justice to that high and 
 difficult trust, and that his services are of the utmost im- 
 portance at the present moment, it would have been most 
 satisfactory to the Court if the King's Ministers had thought 
 proper to advise his Majesty to give his royal approbation to 
 the appointment of Sir Charles Metcalfe to the office of Go- 
 vernor-General, upon a footing more permanent than that 
 which the Court had themselves proposed. 
 
 " But the Court of Directors have learnt with deep regret 
 that Sir Charles Metcalfe is considered by his Majesty's Go- 
 vernment to be ineligible to the station of Governor- General; 
 and upon grounds which would exclude the whole Service of 
 India from that high office. 
 
 " The Court of Directors feel little disposed to engage in dis- 
 cussing the merits of an opinion which his Majesty's Ministers 
 appear to have adopted on the authority of the late Mr. Canning. 
 They will only observe, that the whole course of our trans- 
 actions in British India may be referred to as furnishing the 
 most conclusive evidence that the servants of the Company, 
 both civil and military, are eminently qualified for the highest 
 
448 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 public trust, and that the important office of Governor-General 
 has been held by several of them with the utmost advantage 
 to the national interests. The Court will not unnecessarily 
 recall to the recollection of his Majesty's Ministers those names 
 which have rendered the Service of India illustrious that 
 Service to whose merits, to whose talents and high tone of 
 character, the late Mr. Canning has himself borne the most 
 unqualified testimony. 
 
 " But the Court cannot refrain from observing that, inde- 
 pendently of the impolicy of putting forth any general declara- 
 tion of ineligibility, his Majesty's Ministers appear to them to 
 be scarcely justified in proposing to narrow the choice of the 
 Court, by excluding any class of men, possessing the necessary 
 qualifications, from the office of Governor- General. 
 
 " The Court of Directors, in exercising those functions with 
 which the law invested them, are still desirous, at all times, to 
 act in cordial concurrence with the King's Government, and 
 especially in those instances where the two authorities are 
 called upon to act together. With this feeling, the Court will, 
 at the proper time, take into their consideration the expediency 
 of adopting an arrangement for filling up the office of Go- 
 vernor-General of India; and the Court cannot for a moment 
 doubt that his Majesty's Ministers will fully concur with them 
 in opinion that high qualification for the office must be an 
 indispensable condition of the appointment that the selection 
 must be made primarily upon this ground, without regard to 
 other considerations and that to lose sight of this leading 
 object would be to compromise the interests and, perhaps, the 
 safety of our Indian Empire. 
 
 " We have the honor, &c. 5 &c., 
 
 " H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 " W. STANLEY CLARKE. 
 
 " East India House, 8th October, 1834." 
 
 This letter was carried triumphantly through the 
 Court. Only one dissentient voice was lifted up 
 against it. At the same time Mr. Tucker wrote 
 
MR. GRANT AND THE GOVERNOR-GENERALSHIP. 449 
 
 privately to Charles Grant,* remonstrating, in still 
 more forcible language, against the Ministerial 
 dictum, and pronouncing the practice, which it was 
 intended to support, an unconstitutional infraction 
 of the intent of the law under which India was 
 governed. He took counsel also with the legal 
 
 * In the letters which I have quoted it has appeared so prominently that 
 Mr. Grant was himself a candidate for the office of Governor- General, that 
 there was no need to repeat it in the text. This has long been, indeed, an his- 
 torical fact. It was first announced to the country by Mr. Mills, who, in a 
 speech characterised by his wonted candor and fearlessness, delivered at a 
 Court of Proprietors on the 15th of July, 1835, laid bare the whole proceed- 
 ings of the Court and the King's Ministers. Speaking of Mr. Tucker's oppo- 
 sition to Charles Grant's appointment, he said that " their late Chairman, 
 with that independence of spirit which distinguished his conduct both in 
 India and in this country, resisted the attempt of the President of the Board 
 of Control, though backed by all the powers of Government;" and the an- 
 nouncement was received with loud cheers. But, although Mr. Tucker acted 
 thus without hesitation, as he was bound to do, he did not oppose the appoint- 
 ment of Mr. Grant without strong feelings of personal regret. I have already 
 said that he respected and loved the man. He recognised his many fine 
 qualities; but believed that "ambition should be made of sterner stuff," and 
 that this sterner stuff was wanting. What Mr. Tucker wrote on this subject 
 to Mr. Grant himself is so honorable to both parties, that, after a lapse of 
 eighteen years, it may be cited without impropriety or indelicacy. " With 
 respect to yourself," he wrote on the 22nd of August, 1834, " I hope that it is 
 unnecessary for me to repeat, that I entertain the highest opinion of your 
 talents, your various acquirements, and your intimate acquaintance with the 
 affairs of India; and, if I were called upon to point out an objection to you, it 
 would have reference to qualities of the mind and disposition, which in pri- 
 vate life are justly esteemed virtues. But in India there is much rugged 
 work, calling sometimes for the most determined austerity of purpose. Your 
 having held your present office so long, and your long and familiar acquaint- 
 ance with the public transactions in India, would unquestionably give you a 
 very great advantage in undertaking duties of extreme difficulty; but there 
 are, on the other hand, objections to the arrangement, to which the Court 
 would, I am persuaded, attach the greatest weight. Among these, your posi- 
 tion relatively with your brother, and the unreasonableness of committing to 
 one family nearly the whole power and patronage of India, would immediately 
 be insisted upon. I must candidly own that they would operate with me ; 
 but even if I were prepared (which I confess I am not) to propose the appoint- 
 ment, I feel persuaded that I could not carry with me a majority of the 
 Court." 
 
 2G 
 
450 LIEE or H. ST. a. TUCKER. 
 
 advisers of the Company relative to the interpreta- 
 tion of that clause of the Charter- Act which com- 
 pelled the Court to nominate a successor within two 
 months of the announcement of the resignation of 
 an Indian Governor, and on their failure trans- 
 ferred the right of nomination to the Crown. The 
 decision of the Law-officers was, that under the 
 circumstances which had arisen the right of nomi- 
 nation would not be forfeited. But the Crown 
 Ministers took a different view of the matter ; and 
 were inclined to assert their prerogative. As 110 
 recent intelligence had then been received from Cal- 
 cutta, and as it was probable that further informa- 
 tion from the seat of the Supreme Government 
 might bear upon the question at issue, it might 
 Aave been convenient not to press it to an imme- 
 diate decision. But with the prospect before the 
 Court of forfeiting their right of nomination, what- 
 other course was it possible to pursue ? 
 
 It was a perplexing and embarrassing situation 
 in which Mr. Tucker now found himself placed. 
 He was resolute not to propose the appointment of 
 a man in whose public character and tried capacity 
 he had not the fullest faith. He had written in 
 August, with reference to this subject, that he 
 would rather resign his office than be a party to 
 any such appointment. " I never can bring for- 
 ward," he said, " a measure which I am not pre- 
 pared cordially and strenuously to support and jus- 
 tify ; nor can I vote upon the propositions of others, 
 in opposition to my own judgment; but I would 
 willingly leave the Chair to make room for others, 
 
MINISTERIAL TACTICS. 451 
 
 if my remaining in it would create any obstacle to 
 the adoption of any arrangement likely to be pro- 
 ductive of public advantage, and to meet with the 
 concurrence of the Court." And now, in October, 
 having vainly endeavored to secure the nomination 
 of either Elphinstone or Metcalfe, and not having 
 confidence in any of the Ministerial proteges, he 
 found himself approaching the close of the period 
 of grace allowed by the Act of Parliament, with- 
 out any appointment having been made, or being 
 likely to be made, whilst the Crown Ministers were 
 seemingly waiting to take advantage of the lapse. 
 The President of the Board of Control had, some 
 time before, expressed an opinion that no time 
 should be lost in appointing a successor to Lord 
 William Bentinck ; but now, although Mr. Tucker 
 pressed for a declaration of the Ministerial views, 
 Mr. Grant declared that he was not prepared to 
 enter on the question. He was playing a waiting- 
 game, thinking either to compel the Court to act at 
 a disadvantage, or to punish them for not acting 
 at all.* 
 
 It seems to have been, at this time, the policy of 
 the Crown Ministers not to precipitate the appoint- 
 ment of a Governor-General, but to wait patiently, 
 in the hope that something might be written down 
 in that great Chapter of Accidents which contains 
 the solution of so many perplexing enigmas. And 
 they waited to some purpose. For before the year 
 had expired before they had contrived to induce 
 
 * See letter from Mr. Tucker to Mr, Charles Grant [October 16, 1834], 
 given in the next chapter, page 480. 
 
 2G2 
 
452 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 the Court of Directors to nominate a Governor- 
 General of the Ministerial party the Cabinet was 
 broken up and Parliament was dissolved. 
 
 All through the year, events had been rapidly tend- 
 ing to this pass. The retirement of Lord Grey in Au- 
 gust had greatly weakened the Government, and now, 
 in November, the elevation of Lord Althorp to the 
 Upper House brought matters to a crisis. The removal 
 of the popular leader of the House of Commons to a 
 sphere of limited influence and utility was but the 
 last fitful gust that overthrew the tottering fabric. 
 Lord Melbourne believed that the mischief was not 
 irreparable. He went down to Brighton to persuade 
 Lord John Russell to take Lord Spencer's place ; but 
 the King, believing that the Cabinet could not be 
 patched up in this manner, sent for the Duke of 
 Wellington. 
 
 Sir Robert Peel was, at this time, the hope of the 
 Conservative party. But he was wandering among 
 the ruins of old Rome, intent rather upon the sha- 
 dowy dreams of the Past than the solid realities of 
 the Present. Party and Place were distant from his 
 thoughts when he was summoned from the banks of 
 the Tiber to the banks of the Thames, and invited 
 to take the command of a Ministry of his own re- 
 cruiting. Hastening to London, on what must have 
 seemed to him. a bootless errand, he arrived there in 
 the second week of December, and waited on the 
 King. Before the end of the month Parliament 
 was dissolved ; and the new year opened with a 
 General Election. It was altogether a hopeless ex- 
 
APPOINTMENT OF LORD HEYTESBURY. 453 
 
 periment. The Whig Ministry had lost the confi- 
 dence of the country, because they had exhibited 
 certain leanings towards Toryism which the people 
 could not tolerate ; and now the Tories themselves 
 were seeking for public support. It was certain that 
 the new Parliament would not keep the Ministers 
 in their places ; and it had scarcely assembled before 
 the fate of the Government was sealed. 
 
 But before the assembling of Parliament a new 
 Governor-General of India had been nominated by 
 the Court of Directors and accepted by the Crown. 
 On the 28th of January, 1835, Lord Heytesbury 
 was appointed; on the 5th of February, the ap- 
 proval of the Crown was given and there seemed 
 to be no sort of obstacle to the completion of an 
 arrangement which was looked upon with favor by 
 the authorities both in the East and "West end of the 
 town. Lord Heytesbury was a distinguished Euro- 
 pean diplomatist, and a man of moderate political 
 opinions. Of India he knew nothing ; but as it 
 had become an axiom among English statesmen 
 that ignorance and inexperience are essential qualifi- 
 cations for Indian office, the selection was at least as 
 harmless as any other that could have been made 
 from among the same class of men. " The appoint- 
 ment," said Mr. Tucker, in an able minute called 
 forth by circumstances which will presently be nar- 
 rated, " was formally and deliberately made by the 
 Court of Directors under the provisions of the ex- 
 isting law, with the full approbation of his Majesty. 
 ... It was the free and unbiassed act of the Court. 
 
454 LIFE OF H. ST. a. TUCKER. 
 
 It devolved upon me to have the honor of proposing 
 him to my colleagues ; and I did so, not hastily, 
 not under the domineering influence of the Govern- 
 ment, hut deliberately, after inquiry, and after satis- 
 fying myself that his Lordship was likely to do ample 
 justice to the high and responsible trust which it 
 was proposed to confide to him." " Sir Hobert 
 Peel's Ministry, I can declare," continued Mr. 
 Tucker, " acted most honorably on the occasion : 
 the great object seemed to me to make the most 
 judicious selection for the office ; and if it were per- 
 mitted me to enter into the details of what passed 
 on the occasion, I could establish beyond all dispute 
 that the (Conservative) Ministry were prepared to 
 concur in the appointment of one totally uncon- 
 nected with them in party politics."* 
 
 This 6 ' one' ' was Mount stuart Elphinstone. ' ' Lord 
 Heytesbury's appointment," wrote Mr. Tucker in a 
 private letter, dated June 28, 1835, " was not dic- 
 tated by any party spirit, nor intended to promote 
 any party views. The first individual whom I 
 named was Mr. Elphinstone, whose family and con- 
 nexions (as you know) are all "Whigs; and Lord 
 Ellenborough, I believe, immediately wrote to him 
 to express the concurrence of the King's Govern- 
 ment. I had made the proposition to Mr. Elphin- 
 stone during the former Administration of Lord 
 Melbourne; and I was prepared to place him in 
 nomination, if his health would have permitted him 
 
 * See Memorials of Indian Government, pp. 449, 450. 
 
APPOINTMENT OP LORD IIETTESBURY. 455 
 
 to accept the charge. The late (Conservative) Mi- 
 nistry showed no disposition whatever to force any 
 individual upon us. They acted most honorably, 
 and the sole object seemed to be to find out the best 
 qualified party within reach. Lord Heytesbury had 
 retired from public life, and was drawn from his 
 retreat under a conviction of his fitness for the 
 office. I had never seen his Lordship previously ; 
 but I know from very high authority that on the 
 Continent he is held in the highest estimation, not 
 merely as a skilful diplomatist, but for those higher 
 qualities which, as distinguishing the best of our 
 countrymen, commands the respect of foreigners."* 
 
 On the 4th of March, Lord Heytesbury was sworn 
 in as Governor- General of India. The usual Eare- 
 well Banquet was given to him at the Albion 
 Tavern. The entertainment was a brilliant one. 
 Sir Henry Pane, who had been appointed Com- 
 mander-in- Chief, was also the guest of the night. 
 The Duke of Wellington, Sir Robert Peel, and 
 many others of the most distinguished men of the 
 age, were to be seen assembled in the Banquet- 
 room. After the lapse of nearly a score of years, 
 all the circumstances of this great dinner are vividly 
 remembered by many of the guests. Mr. Tucker, 
 who occupied the Chair, spoke with even something 
 
 * In a Postscript to this letter, Mr. Tucker adds : " In excluding, as I 
 have wished to do, all party feeling from our Court, I do not, of course, dis- 
 claim political opinions and preferences. Every man who reflects at all, 
 must adopt political opinions, and must associate himself, more or less, with 
 those who adopt similar opinions ; but my maxim has been that India ought 
 to be of no party and that our Court ought to be independent, and to stand 
 aloof from all party connexions, which might compromise its independence." 
 
456 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKEE. 
 
 more than his wonted animation and impressiveness. 
 Among all the toasts that he introduced, not one 
 was given out with so much earnestness of utterance 
 and cordiality of manner as the health of the Duke 
 of "Wellington;* and I have heard it said by an 
 impartial and a competent witness, that the Duke 
 rarely spoke with so much feeling and so much 
 eloquence as when, responding to the toast, he re- 
 verted to his past career and his early connexion 
 with the Company. Mr, Tucker was all his life a 
 consistent advocate of Peace, and for the soldier 
 who fought for the mere love of fighting, no matter 
 what his eminence, what his success, he entertained 
 a sovereign contempt. But the qualities that make 
 up a great warrior no man knew better how to ap- 
 preciate ; and no man more respected the Duke of 
 Wellington than Mr. Tucker. The feeling of respect, 
 indeed, was reciprocal between them. The Duke 
 recognised the ability and integrity of Mr. Tucker ; 
 and though for a time he withdrew his favor from 
 the East India Director, it may be doubted whether 
 he ever ceased to esteem the man.f 
 
 So Lord Heytesbury partook of the Farewell 
 Banquet at the Albion, and was publicly congra- 
 tulated there as the Governor-General Elect. Pri- 
 
 * In the course of the speech, whilst alluding to the might with which 
 Wellington had broken the strength of our national enemies, Mr. Tucker 
 struck the glass before him with the Chairman's hammer, and shivered it to 
 pieces. It was not a theatrical coup; it was a mere accident but the im- 
 pressiveness of the speech was enhanced by so striking an illustration. 
 
 f When Mr. Tucker was with his family at Walmer, in 1840, the Duke, 
 hearing of his arrival, exclaimed: " Mr. Tucker here! I'll go and see him." 
 And he did so immediately inviting him and the members of his family to 
 the castle. 
 
RETURN OF THE WHIGS. 457 
 
 vately he was busy with his preparations prepara- 
 tions not limited to his material outfit, for which 
 the accustomed grant of money had been paid by 
 the Company but extending to the inner equip- 
 ment of his mind ; for he was continually in commu- 
 nication with Mr. Tucker, and exhibited a laudable 
 eagerness to acquire information relating both to 
 the internal and external affairs of his new Govern- 
 ment. His willingness to learn promised well for 
 his after-career but it was written down in the 
 Chapter of Accidents that there was to be no after- 
 career. The Conservative Ministry had been in a 
 moribund state from the very day of its birth ; and 
 now, in April, before Lord Heytesbury had em- 
 barked for Calcutta, the last throes of mortal sick- 
 ness were upon it, and it perished for lack of 
 strength. 
 
 Upon this the King sent for Lord Melbourne; 
 and the old Whig Ministry was reconstructed the 
 same, "with a difference." Mr. Charles Grant was 
 promoted to the Colonial Office, and Sir John Cam 
 Hobhouse went to the India Eoard. If great clever- 
 ness and great boldness had been all the qualities 
 requisite in an Indian Minister, the appointment 
 would have been an excellent one. A man of varied 
 accomplishments, with a genius which, if full justice 
 had been done to it, might have placed him in the 
 front rank of the statesmen of the age, and an auda- 
 cious candor which commanded the unwilling ad- 
 miration even of those who condemned it, he was as 
 little likely to bungle through his new duties, for 
 
458 LIFE OP H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 want of official aptitude, as any member of the 
 Ministry, but perhaps, of all its members, the most 
 likely to commit himself and his colleagues to some 
 act of splendid temerity. He was a very able, 
 but a very unsafe man. Possessing many fine 
 qualities both of head and heart, he yet lacked those 
 which are most essential to the character of a states- 
 man ; for he was without prudence and discretion. 
 Of India and its affairs he knew little; and ig- 
 norance did not magnify their importance in his 
 mind the omne ignotum pro magnifico principle 
 was entirely reversed for he held them of very 
 little account. He had not long, indeed, taken his 
 seat at the India Board, before he publicly declared, 
 that he thought it better that the interests of India 
 should suffer than that the Minister of the day 
 should be defeated.* Such opinions may have en- 
 deared him to his party, to which he was consist- 
 ently true no small merit in an age of tergiversa- 
 tion but the enunciation of them was not a cir- 
 cumstance of happy augury for the future welfare 
 of the country whose destinies were to be committed 
 to his hands. 
 
 Such, in a few words, was the man who, at the 
 end of the month of March, met the " Chairs" for 
 the first time, and confidentially announced that the 
 Ministry of which he was a member had come to 
 the resolution of revoking Lord Heytesbury's ap- 
 
 * See speech of Mr. Mills in the Court of Proprietors, July 15, 1835. 
 Asiatic Journal See also Appendix C. 
 
RECALL OF LORD IIEYTESBURY. 459 
 
 pointment.* They had suffered this rich piece of 
 patronage to slip through their hands in the autumn, 
 and now they were determined to lose no time in 
 grasping at it again, and securing it by greater 
 promptitude of action. And they did not miss it a 
 second time. Lord Heytesbury's appointment was 
 revoked ; and an amiable nobleman, who had exhi- 
 bited at the Admiralty some aptitude for official 
 business, but whose qualities were generally of that 
 negative character which can secure for a man only 
 a respectable character as a statesman, and that 
 only in quiet times and ordinary conjunctures, was 
 selected to fill his place. Lord Auckland was ap- 
 pointed Governor- General of India, t 
 
 * Perhaps it ought more strictly to be written, " had formed an intention 
 of revoking." The " resolution" came afterwards. " At the close of the 
 month of April," wrote Mr. Tucker, "Lord Heytesbury's preparations for 
 embarkation were complete; but at the first interview which the Chairs had 
 with the President of the India Board, after that right honorable gentleman 
 had assumed office on the 30th of that month, they were informed, under the 
 injunction of strict confidence, that his Majesty's Ministers intended to re- 
 commend the revocation of Lord Heytesbury's appointment ; and the Chairs 
 were not released from this injunction of confidence (which, indeed, was re- 
 peated at the instance of the President through one of the Board's secre- 
 taries) until the Cabinet had resolved upon the measure, which was accord- 
 ingly first officially announced in the President's letters to the Chairs of the 
 4th of May. Not one reason, however, was given for setting aside in so 
 abrupt and unprecedented a manner the appointment of a nobleman who was 
 selected for the office of Governor-General solely upon public grounds, and 
 free from all party bias or political feeling." 
 
 f The Whigs claimed credit at this time for having offered the appoint- 
 ment to Mountstuart Elphinstone. At a meeting of the Court of Proprietors, 
 Colonel Leicester Stanhope ostentatiously announced that this offer was one of 
 the first acts of the new Ministry. No such offer was ever made ; but if it 
 had been, I think it not improbable that the Whigs would have been about 
 as sincere as the Tories. Mr. Elphinstone had declined the appointment, 
 on account of the state of his health, when the Court of Directors were 
 
460 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 Mr. Tucker had by this time quitted the Chair. 
 He had ceased, indeed, to tie a member of the 
 Court of Directors, for his year of rustication had 
 come round, and, therefore, he had no part in the 
 councils of the India House. But these proceed- 
 ings rendered him indignant in the extreme; and 
 he drew up some masterly comments on the impro- 
 priety of the Government measure, and the evil 
 consequences of rendering India, in any sense, the 
 Government of a party. These minutes he could 
 not officially record at the India House ; but he sent 
 a copy of them to Sir Eobert Peel and other Con- 
 servative statesmen, and he embodied their sub- 
 stance in a series of Resolutions, which he proposed 
 to submit to the Court of Proprietors. Mr. Praed, 
 who had been Secretary to the Board of Control 
 under the Peel Ministry, had given notice of a 
 motion for the production of papers, and with re- 
 ference to this, Mr. Tucker wrote to the Tory 
 leader : 
 
 " TO SIR ROBERT PEEL, BART. 
 
 " Southgate, 26th June, 1835. 
 
 " DEAR SIR, I take a deep interest in the question which, 
 I understand, will be brought forward in the House of Com- 
 mons on Monday next by Mr. Praed; and, in fact, I am per- 
 sonally concerned, as the party who proposed to the Court of 
 
 anxious to appoint him, in the early part of 1834 ; and it was well known 
 that he could not be induced to accept it. If the Whigs had really made the 
 offer, as something more than a sham, they must have got over the objections 
 which existed, when Mr. Grant was at the Board of Control, to a Governor- 
 General reared in the ranks of the Company's service ; and if they had 
 abandoned their prejudices against competent and experienced statesmen, 
 there was no obstacle to the appointment of Sir Charles Metcalfe. 
 
LETTER TO SIB ROBERT PEEL. 461 
 
 Directors the appointment of Lord Heytesbury to the Govern- 
 ment of India. 
 
 " You will, therefore, I trust, excuse the liberty I take in 
 submitting to you the accompanying papers. The one is the 
 sketch of a series of Resolutions, which I propose to bring 
 forward, eventually, in the Court of Proprietors. The other 
 is the draft of a proposed dissent, prepared at the East India 
 House, but not yet recorded; nor do I know whether any of 
 my colleagues will determine to record it. I am not, at pre- 
 sent, a member of the Court, or I should certainly feel it to be 
 my duty to place on record a Protest, couched in the strongest 
 terms, against the act of supercession. My own proposed 
 Resolutions express very imperfectly the objections to which 
 the proceeding is liable; but by you these objections will be 
 felt in all their force, and will, I am sure, be exposed in the 
 most forcible manner. / shall not be found to call in question 
 the Prerogative of the Crown, but the recall of Lord Heytes- 
 bury is the act of the Minister, who is responsible for it to the 
 country. 
 
 " I cannot hope to throw any light on the subject; but the 
 accompanying papers will, at least, show the interest which it 
 has excited; and I am willing to hope that it cannot fail to 
 excite a strong interest in Parliament. At all events, I feel 
 assured that it is in hands which will do full justice to it. 
 " I have the honor to be, with great respect, 
 " Dear Sir, &c., &c., 
 
 " H. ST.G. TUCKER." 
 
 The Resolutions to which allusion is here made 
 were not brought forward at the Court of Proprie- 
 tors. Mr. Praed's motion for the production of 
 papers was negatived ; and it was considered, there- 
 fore, expedient that the Resolutions submitted to 
 the Court should embody a call for the documents 
 refused by Parliament. But as Mr. Tucker's draft 
 contains in a small space the substance of the ar- 
 
462 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 gunients elsewhere set forth, in detail, it may be 
 advantageously inserted in this place : 
 
 " PROPOSED RESOLUTIONS. 
 
 " That this Court cordially concur in and highly approve 
 the opinions expressed in the letter of their Court of Directors, 
 bearing date the 6th ultimo, to the President of the Board of 
 Commissioners for the Affairs of India, on the occasion of the 
 supercession of the Right Honorable Lord Heytesbury, who stood 
 appointed to the important office of Governor- General of India. 
 
 " That this Court could not view otherwise than with feel- 
 ings of deep concern and alarm any attempt to render the 
 high and responsible station of Governor-General of India 
 subservient to political purposes in this country, contrary to 
 the manifest intentions of the Legislature, which has carefully 
 provided against the assumption of the patronage of India, 
 directly or indirectly, by the Ministers of the Crown. 
 
 " That the act of cancelling an appointment formally and 
 deliberately made by the Court of Directors under the pro- 
 visions of the law, without the plea of incompetency, or other 
 sufficient cause assigned, must be regarded as an infringement 
 of the rights of the East India Company, and as calculated to 
 degrade the Court of Directors in the eyes of their servants and 
 public, and so far, to weaken their legitimate authority and 
 influence. 
 
 " That the practice of recalling the Governors of India, 
 upon considerations of political conveniency, on every change 
 of Administration (such changes having been of late years very 
 frequent), must have the effect of degrading the office and of 
 impairing its efficiency, since men of independent fortune and 
 high character would not be found to proceed to a distant 
 country, and to undertake a difficult and responsible trust, 
 when held upon so precarious a tenure; while the influence 
 and authority of such high functionaries would be weakened 
 in consequence of this want of permanency in their situations; 
 the confidence of the public would be diminished; measures 
 requiring time and persevering labor to bring them to 
 
DEBATE AT THE INDIA HOUSE. 463 
 
 maturity would not be undertaken; and the public servants 
 abroad would be taught to look to their political connexions, 
 and to political influence in this country, for that promotion 
 which has heretofore been sought as the reward of merit and 
 useful service. 
 
 " That this Court regard with sentiments of the most pro- 
 found respect the Royal Prerogative; but impressed as they 
 are with the conviction that the appointment of Lord Heytes- 
 bury to the office of Governor- General of India was adopted by 
 the Court of Directors, and approved by the late Government, 
 on public considerations, without reference to political objects; 
 that the high character, the known talents, and eminent services 
 of this nobleman in various stations of great trust, and under cir- 
 cumstances of great delicacy and difficulty, furnish a strong and 
 satisfactory assurance that his services in the important office of 
 Governor-General of India might be expected to promote, not 
 only the well-being and prosperity of our Indian subjects, but 
 the great interests of the empire at large this Court earnestly 
 recommend to their Court of Directors to address a further re- 
 monstrance to the President of the Board on the supercession 
 of Lord Heytesbury, and to urge upon his Majesty's Ministers, 
 in respectful, but decided terms, the expediency of their with- 
 drawing the letter of recall, and of giving effect to an appoint- 
 ment which has met with such general approbation, and 
 from which such favorable results may reasonably be anti- 
 cipated." 
 
 The call for papers at the India House, moved for 
 by Mr. Mills, seconded by Mr. Tucker, was success- 
 ful. There was a long and energetic debate. The 
 opposition, headed by Sir Charles Porbes, contested 
 the point with some spirit; but the papers were 
 eventually voted. This was on the 15th of July. 
 Six days before the meeting, Mr. Tucker had ad- 
 dressed to the Court of Directors a long and vigor- 
 ously-written letter, reviewing all the circumstances 
 
464 LIFE OP H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 of Lord Heytesbury's appointment, and commenting 
 upon the grievous injury that would be inflicted 
 upon India, if the administration of her affairs were 
 to be directly or indirectly influenced by the strife 
 of parties at home.* This also Mr. Tucker sent to 
 Sir Robert Peel, who, acknowledging the receipt of 
 it, truly said : "I think you underrate the effect 
 which your Protests and Remonstrances will pro- 
 duce. They may not avail in rescinding that par- 
 ticular act of unwarrantable interference, against 
 which they are especially directed, but they will 
 remain on record as a public proof that the undue 
 exercise of power was not tamely acquiesced in, but 
 that its motives were exposed, and its consequences 
 deprecated, with equal vigilance, independence, and 
 ability." 
 
 And this, indeed, was the use of Mr. Tucker's 
 remonstrances. Lord Auckland went out to India ; 
 but the revocation of Lord Heytesbury's appoint- 
 ment is an historical fact, the character of which has 
 been painted in its true colors. Of the soundness 
 of the arguments adduced in the papers to which I 
 have . referred, it is difficult to entertain a doubt. 
 It may, of course, be urged that it is at all 
 times desirable that the Governor- General of India 
 should enjoy the entire confidence of the Crown 
 Ministers. But, as to enjoy the confidence of 
 the Ministry means, in ordinary official language, 
 to belong to the same party, if this consideration 
 were paramount, it would be necessary to change 
 
 * See Memorials of Indian Government, in which this paper is inserted. 
 
EVILS OF PAHTY INFLUENCE. 465 
 
 the Governor- General of India as often as the Pre- 
 sident of the Board of Control, and the Government 
 of India would then become, to all intents and pur- 
 poses, the Government of a Party. If a Tory Go- 
 vernment can have no confidence in a Whig states- 
 man, or a "Whig Government no confidence in a 
 Tory, it may be, and we believe it is, desirable that 
 the Governor- General of India should not be closely 
 connected either with one party or the other that 
 men like Elphinstone and Metcalfe, whom neither 
 Paction would mistrust, on account of their Party 
 views or political antecedents, should be appointed 
 to this high office ; but it certainly is not desirable 
 that the Governor- General of India should occupy a 
 seat from which he may any day be driven by a 
 gust of Parliamentary caprice at St. Stephen's, or 
 the impetus of a Downing- street fracas. 
 
 It is true that in this instance Lord Heytesbury 
 was only a Governor-General Elect that he had 
 only been appointed to fill the office that he had 
 only received as much of the Company's money as 
 was supposed to be sufficient to provide his outfit, 
 and that his performances in the service of the Com- 
 pany had been limited to the consumption of the 
 initiatory turtle, and the delivery of the inaugural 
 address at the Albion. But, in principle at least, 
 it was as much a recall of a Governor- General and 
 a recall for Party purposes as if Lord Heytesbury 
 had actually inhaled the dust of Calcutta, and gazed 
 at the snows of the eternal Himalaya. It was 
 known throughout India that this nobleman had 
 
 2 H 
 
466 LIFE OP H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 been appointed Governor-General of India, and in 
 the presence of his Majesty's Minister and the 
 authorities of the India House had been publicly 
 congratulated on his accession to office. Therefore, 
 although the mischief of his precipitate recall might 
 not have been so disastrous as if any great political 
 measures had been suddenly arrested by his removal 
 from office, doubtless much mischief was done. The 
 natives of India had been taught, that often as they 
 had been told that their country was never again to 
 be made the battle-field of Party, their chief ruler 
 was, after all, not the representative of the British 
 Sovereign or of the British people, but the repre- 
 sentative of a Faction that might be dominant to- 
 day and utterly prostrate to-morrow. They had 
 seen Charles Metcalfe Sahib set aside first for one 
 English Peer and then for another, of neither of 
 whom they had ever heard; they had seen three 
 English Ministries within the space of a few months, 
 each Ministry grasping at the patronage of India, 
 and eager to send out an untried nominee of its own. 
 Could anything have been more surely calculated 
 than this to shake their confidence in the character 
 of that paternal Government of which they had 
 heard so much a Government, whose parental in- 
 stincts were now manifesting themselves in a frantic 
 eagerness to clutch the perquisites of office, and to 
 divide the spolia opima of Indian patronage among 
 themselves ? 
 
 But although the events to the recital of which 
 this chapter has been devoted are those, for the most 
 
CHAIRMAN-LIFE . 467 
 
 part, which, constitute the historical importance of 
 Mr. Tucker's first Chairmanship, they are but mere 
 accidental protuberances, which by no means repre- 
 sent the formal reality of Chairman-life in Leaden- 
 hall-street. Very different, indeed, was the daily 
 work in which Mr. Tucker was at this time engaged. 
 " My time," he wrote to Sir Charles Metcalfe, " has 
 been chiefly occupied with the question of compen- 
 sation to our maritime service the reorganisation 
 of our establishments the warehousing and ma- 
 naging private goods and other commercial mat- 
 ters quite alien to the business of administering to 
 the affairs of India, and by the time these trouble- 
 some questions are well settled I shall be leaving 
 the Directorship. So we go on." In other words, 
 he was superintending the obsequies of the Trade ; 
 seeing that its remains were decently laid out, and 
 that its interment was ceremoniously performed. 
 He was Undertaker and Executor too at the same 
 time. The assets of the dear departed were to be 
 realised. The estate was to be wound up. All this 
 demanded the exercise of no small amount of in- 
 dustryno small amount of ability; but it will 
 hardly be a subject of complaint that it is not dwelt 
 upon here more in detail. 
 
 But the record of this period of Mr. Tucker's 
 life would be imperfect, if I did not touch upon an 
 incident, connected with his Chairmanship, which 
 has a fine characteristic flavor about it. He was 
 invited to dine at the King's table, where, after din- 
 ner, William was pleased to drink to the prosperity 
 
468 LIFE OP H. ST.a. TUCKEIl. 
 
 of the East India Company. I believe that it is 
 not the etiquette of the Court on these occasions for 
 the royal guests to make " speeches ;" but, either 
 unacquainted with the observances of these royal 
 entertainments, or believing that the custom of 
 silent acknowledgment was more honored in the 
 breach, he thus responded to his Majesty's address : 
 
 " Sire, I beg to offer your Majesty my dutiful and respect- 
 ful acknowledgments for the compliment paid by your Majesty 
 to the East India Company, whose representative I have the 
 honor to be on the present occasion. 
 
 " As a very humble individual, I would willingly avoid public 
 observation; but in the performance of every public duty I 
 have endeavored always to forget, as far as possible, my own 
 personal identity. Your Majesty has been pleased to draw me 
 from my shell. And the just observations which your Majesty 
 has made, upon the effect of the social institutions of this 
 country, are strongly illustrated in my own person ; for in the 
 presence of my Sovereign stands a quondam sailor-boy 
 friendless, and half-educated but now the representative of a 
 public Body, whose deeds have cast a lustre over the brightest 
 pages of English history. 
 
 " Sire, Your Majesty's Councils and the wisdom of the Le- 
 gislature have lately introduced great and important changes 
 into the constitution of that Body. While this difficult and 
 complicated question was under consideration, my colleagues 
 and myself strenuously and vehemently opposed the projected 
 change. We did so upon principle, upon a strong conviction 
 that the proposed change of system would compromise the 
 national interests. But now that the decision has been finally 
 passed, it has become our duty as good citizens, as loyal sub- 
 jects, and as honorable men, to render the new system as 
 efficient as possible, and to extract from it the utmost good of 
 which it may be susceptible. 
 
 " But while, Sire, we cordially embrace, and promise to 
 
SPEECH AT THE PALACE. 469 
 
 cherish, the new Bride which has been presented to us^ may 
 I be permitted, without presumption and without offence, to 
 pay one last tribute of regard to the object of my early 
 affections the late East India Company. By an extraordinary 
 union of bold councils and daring enterprise in the field, that 
 singularly constituted Body succeeded in adding a whole region, 
 teeming with countless multitudes of industrious and faithful 
 subjects, to the Empire of Great Britain. Fostered, protected, 
 and encouraged by your Majesty's illustrious father, that Com- 
 pany placed in the British Crown its most precious jewel. 
 And may ' He that wears the Crown immortally' long preserve 
 the peerless gem in your Majesty's Crown, and long may your 
 Majesty and your royal House continue to wear that Crown, 
 for the well-being of these realms, and for the happiness and 
 prosperity of the people of India, whose destinies are now bound 
 up in the fate of the British Empire." 
 
 There was a manliness a sincerity in this that 
 must have pleased the Sovereign far better than 
 courtly words, or even more courtly silence. 
 
470 LIFE OF H. ST. a. TUCKEB. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Mr. Tucker's Private Correspondence Letters to Mr. Blunt Mr. Charles 
 Grant Mountstuart Elphinstone Lord William Bentinck Sir Charles 
 Metcalfe and Others, 
 
 FROM the Correspondence of Mr. Tucker, during his 
 tenure of office, I have made some selections, for the 
 most part in illustration of subjects touched on in 
 the preceding chapter. They tell, with sufficient 
 distinctness, their own story ; and call for no further 
 comment : 
 
 " TO WM. BLUNT, ESQ. 
 
 [On the Changes in the Constitution of the Company under the New Charter- 
 Act.] 
 
 "East India House, May, 1834. 
 
 " MY DEAR BLUNT, I have been favored with your two 
 letters dated the end of December; and I was much gratified 
 to find both you and my friend, Sir C. Metcalfe, concurring so 
 generally in the views which I had taken of our proper line of 
 policy in the course of discussing the Charter question. It is 
 much to be regretted that we, the Court, did not adopt a more 
 decided course at an earlier period; for, in that case, a modi- 
 fication of the new system might, I think, have been effected, 
 or, at all events, time would have been obtained for its more 
 gradual introduction. All parties seem to me now to feel that 
 the changes have been pushed forward with unnecessary and 
 injudicious precipitancy ; but we cannot retrace our steps now 
 that the old machinery has been nearly broken up. What I 
 
LETTER TO MR. BLUNT. 471 
 
 most dread, is the unchecked resort of Europeans to India, and 
 their location upon the land. This may lead to much injustice 
 and oppression to the natives, and to a fearful struggle at some 
 future period; but I used my utmost efforts, to no purpose, to 
 prevent the measure. I succeeded better with the slavery 
 question; and it will be the fault of the legislative Govern- 
 ment if any imprudent step be taken with relation to this 
 object. Mr. Grant was urged on by a strong popular feeling; 
 but we checked it here successfully. "We have just now, on 
 the table of the Court, a long letter, giving an outline of the 
 Plan which we think should be adopted for framing your new 
 constitution, and for the exercise of your legislative functions; 
 and I hope to be able to despatch it in the course of a month, 
 although these despatches go through a very operose process. 
 We proceed, however, very cordially and comfortably with the 
 Board; and in less than three months I hope to have every 
 letter from India answered, to the end of 1833. We are about 
 to put forth here a Transfer loan, for the admission of the 
 six-per-cent. remittable loan; and if it succeed, a great ad- 
 vantage will have been obtained for the Company ; but I took 
 an objection in limine to the project. I do not like the idea of 
 our financiering for India in this country, to the exclusion of 
 the local Government and the local officers, who ought to be 
 responsible for all such measures. 
 
 " With every good wish for your health and happiness, 
 " Believe me, very sincerely yours, 
 
 " H. ST.G. TUCKER." 
 
 " TO THE BIGHT HON. C. GRANT. 
 [On the Appointment of Mr. Robert Grant to the Governorship of Bombay.] 
 
 " East India House, 26th May, 1834. 
 
 " MY DEAR SIR, I have been favored with your note of 
 yesterday; and it is unnecessary for me, I think, to say that I 
 entertain the highest opinion of Mr. R. Grant's talents, and of 
 his qualification for a high public station. I do not, therefore, 
 hesitate in mentioning to you that I shall feel perfectly justi- 
 
472 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 fied in proposing him for the Government of Bombay, and that 
 I shall feel personal satisfaction in doing so. 
 
 " We have a Committee to-day ; but I do not intend to con- 
 sult my colleagues on the appointment until I have the plea- 
 sure of seeing you. I anticipate only two objections on their 
 part the one, that ' lawyers do not often make the best 
 statesmen ;' the other, that, connected as your brother will be 
 with the Board, the Court may not be able to exercise the 
 same efficient control over his proceedings. The first objec- 
 tion, I think, applies only to those who, from habit, have 
 bound down their minds to the technicalities of the profession. 
 On the second, I may observe, that the Court will never, 
 I trust, find any difficulty in exerting all its legal powers. 
 
 " On the first open day I shall have the pleasure of calling 
 upon you, when we may confer on the proper time for bring- 
 ing forward the nomination, and other particulars. 
 " Believe me, my dear Sir, 
 
 " Very sincerely, &c., &c., 
 
 " H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 " Eight Hon. Charles Grant, &c., &c. 
 
 "P.S. I have detained this note until the arrival of the 
 Deputy, as I wished to show it to him." 
 
 " TO THE RIGHT HON. LORD W. BENTINCK. 
 
 [On the Oude Despatches Military Eank in the Queen's and Company's 
 Services The Resort of Natives to England, &c., &c.] 
 
 " East India House, 19th July, 1834. 
 
 " MY LORD, I was glad to hear that your Lordship had left 
 Madras for Bangalore in perfect health ; and I hope that we 
 shall soon receive a report of your operations in Mysore that 
 they will all be successful and that the necessity for any mili- 
 tary operations against the Coorg Rajah will have been averted 
 by his submission. 
 
 " We have at length passed and despatched the Oude letter, 
 which has been so long upon the anvil, and which has pro- 
 duced so much difference of opinion among us. The authority, 
 to take the last decisive step, is given up, on the assumption of 
 
LETTER TO LORD W. BENTINCK. 473 
 
 an extreme necessity, of which your Lordship is constituted 
 the judge. The question has been now for two years before the 
 Court and the Board; and it appeared to the late Chairman 
 and myself, not only an act of justice to your Lordship, but a 
 measure of positive duty, to put an end to this state of suspense, 
 and to give, at least, conditional, if not peremptory, orders. I 
 feel myself the utmost repugnance to any proceeding which can 
 involve the violation or infringement of a treaty, and I am not 
 disposed to admit very easily considerations of expediency; but 
 in the present case we seem scarcely to have a choice. Some- 
 thing must be done; and the only question is, whether the 
 exigency is such as to justify the last extreme measure. 
 
 " We have had a great deal of discussion on the question 
 relating to the rank of colonel, the supply of general officers 
 for the station commands, &c. A voluminous correspondence 
 has taken place; many professional opinions have been obtained 
 by Mr. Grant; and I submitted the whole to the Duke of 
 Wellington, whom I was anxious to enlist on our side, both as 
 the highest military authority, and as the proper expounder of 
 the Regulations of 1828, which were framed under his autho- 
 rity. His Grace has written a very able paper on the subject; 
 but I fear that we shall not succeed in obtaining what we have 
 been contending for. The question will, however, I trust, be 
 soon brought to a decision; and I shall lose no time in com- 
 municating to your Lordship the result. 
 
 " Mr. R. Grant, the new Governor of Bombay, embarks in 
 the Buckinghamshire on the 1st Sept., and will probably reach 
 his destination by the end of the year. Mr. Cameron, our new 
 Law Commissioner, will accompany him, and probably land at 
 Point de Galle. Our proposed despatch on the constitution of 
 the Indian Government, the exercise of its legislative functions, 
 &c., &c., is still before the Board; but I hope that we shall be 
 able to launch it off' without much further delay.* 
 
 " The steam question has been for some time before a Com- 
 
 * This is the despatch to the Supreme Government of India, dated Decem- 
 ber, 1834, containing the views of the Court with respect to the interpretation 
 of the new Charter a very masterly state-paper. 
 
474 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 mittee of the House of Commons, who propose, I understand, 
 that we should undertake experimental operations on a joint 
 account with the King's Government. I am not, I own, quite 
 so sanguine as many others appear to be, both here and in 
 India, with respect to the success of the plans which have been 
 proposed; although I quite concur in the importance of the 
 object. I would not annihilate both time and space, but I 
 would gladly accelerate the communication between India and 
 England, and so far virtually approximate the two countries. 
 
 " We are beginning to be very much tormented by natives 
 resorting to this country, to prefer most extravagant claims, and 
 to obtain redress for all manner of grievances ; and it is very 
 difficult to deal with them here. We have at this moment in 
 the House one of these persons, in custody of one of his Ma- 
 jesty's attendants at Windsor, he having threatened to throw 
 himself under the King's carriage. Others threaten to sit 
 dhurna upon us, in order that we may restore to one his 
 wife, to another lands claimed as Jaghir (although never pos- 
 sessed), under a sunnud from Aulumjeer ; and a third, to be 
 restored to your Lordship's body-guard, &c., &c. All this will 
 be very embarrassing by-and-by; because the feelings in this 
 country are such that we cannot proceed in a summary manner 
 with such parties, although we have every reason to believe that 
 they are not entitled to a moment's attention. 
 
 " With every good wish for your Lordship's health, and the 
 success of your administration, 
 
 " I have, &c., &c., 
 
 " H. ST.G. TUCKER." 
 
 " TO THE HON. MOUNTSTUART ELPHINSTONE. 
 
 [On the Succession to the Governor- Generalship.] 
 
 "East India House, 28th August, 1834. 
 
 C( MY DEAR SIR, Lord W. Bentinck, as you perhaps may 
 have heard, has sent in his resignation ; and I shall be called 
 upon, at an early period, to propose a successor. My choice 
 would rest between Sir C. Metcalfe and yourself ; and I shall 
 be ready to place in nomination either, giving a preference only 
 
LETTER TO MR. GRANT. 475 
 
 to the one, who may be most acceptable to the Court and 
 the King's Government. That Government may have other 
 views; but I will not lend myself to any project which I can- 
 not cordially concur in, and justify. Others must move, if I 
 am not allowed to do what I think right. What I would re- 
 quest is, that you would say whether, in the event of my 
 having reason to believe that you would be the choice of the 
 Court and the Board, you would be prepared to undertake 
 this important trust. I ask particularly with reference to your 
 health; for if that should oppose an objection, I should proceed 
 no further. 
 
 " Believe me, with great esteem, 
 
 " Very sincerely yours, 
 
 " H. Sx.G. TUCKER. 
 
 " Hon. Mountstuart Elphinstone." 
 
 " TO THE EIGHT HON. CHARLES GRANT. 
 
 [On the Succession to the Governor-Generalship.] 
 
 "East India House, 4th Sept., 1834. 
 
 " MY DEAR SIR, I have been anxiously occupied, as you 
 will easily believe, in the consideration of the steps which it 
 will be necessary or expedient to adopt, in consequence of the 
 resignation of Lord Wm. Bentinck ; and I have summoned a 
 special Court for Wednesday next, in order that I may have 
 an opportunity of consulting my colleagues on the subject. I 
 have already conferred with many of them individually; and 
 by far the greater number cordially incline to the arrangement 
 which I shall feel it my duty to propose to the Court, and to 
 submit to you, for the consideration of his Majesty's Govern- 
 ment. 
 
 " It is to confirm Sir Charles Metcalfe in the office of 
 Governor-General of India. 
 
 " Of his superior talents, and of his high qualification for an 
 important public trust, he has afforded, I think, abundant 
 evidence, during a long and a very distinguished course of 
 public service ; and at the present period, when there is so 
 much to arrange so much crude matter to reduce into form, 
 it appears to me highly essential that we should command the 
 
4/76 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 services of one who, to great knowledge and experience, adds 
 energy of character and an uncompromising rectitude one, 
 in short, tried, and known to the public, and in whom the 
 public would place the utmost confidence. 
 
 " Should the Court make choice of Sir Charles Metcalfe for 
 the office of Governor- General, and should the selection meet 
 with the approbation of his Majesty's Government, it will 
 become necessary to adopt some subsidiary arrangements. 
 
 " Without, however, proceeding to these before the main 
 question has been decided, upon which, in fact, they will hinge, 
 I may be allowed to offer it as my individual opinion that it 
 will be advisable to give the new Governor of Agra (whoever 
 he may be) the aid of a Council ; and that it will be more con- 
 venient to assign the new Commander-in-Chief a seat in that 
 Council, than one in the Legislative Council of India. At 
 Agra he will be in the very centre of the army ; and will be in 
 a situation to exercise an efficient military control, while per- 
 forming his civil duties. I was always disposed to think that 
 a Council would, sooner or later, become necessary, or at least 
 be found useful; although it appeared to me that it might be, 
 for a time, dispensed with, while the administration remained 
 in the hands of Sir C. Metcalfe. 
 
 ' ; I have merely thrown out these suggestions, with a view 
 to call your attention to the subject generally; but I shall be 
 ready to enter into a more particular examination of these and 
 other points whenever you may be prepared to take up the 
 question, and to confer with the Deputy and myself upon its 
 different branches. 
 
 " I have the honor to be, my dear Sir, &c., &c., 
 
 " H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 " I beg to annex for your information a copy of the pro- 
 posed Resolution, on which I intend to take the opinion of my 
 colleagues on Wednesday: 
 
 " ' That this Court deeply laments that the state of Lord 
 Wm. Bentinck's health should be such as to deprive the Com- 
 pany of his valuable services at a period of great difficulty ; and 
 the Court desires to record its grateful sense of the distinguished 
 
LETTER TO Mil. GRANT. 477 
 
 zeal, energy, ability, and high honor, with which his Lordship 
 has discharged the arduous and important duties of his exalted 
 station. 
 
 " ' That referring to the appointment, which has been con- 
 ferred by the Court, with the approbation of his Majesty, on 
 Sir C. Metcalfe, provisionally to succeed as Governor-General, 
 upon the death, resignation, or coming away of Lord Wm. 
 Bentinck this Court is of opinion that is unnecessary, and, in 
 view to the measures now in progress, that it would be incon- 
 venient and inexpedient at present to make any other ar- 
 rangement for supplying that office; and that the Chairs be 
 authorised and requested to communicate this opinion to his 
 Majesty, through the President of the Board of Commissioners 
 for the Affairs of India.' " 
 
 " TO THE EIGHT HON. CHARLES GRANT. 
 [On the Danish Settlements.] 
 
 "East India House, 16th Sept., 1834. 
 
 " MY DEAR SIR, I have been favored with your note of 
 the 13th instant, enclosing a paper of suggestions signed 
 Gloijer. 
 
 "It cannot be doubted, I think, that in negotiating the 
 general peace, our Ministers committed a great oversight in not 
 retaining all the possessions and factories of France, Holland, 
 Denmark, and Portugal, on the continent of India. The 
 cession was gratuitous on our part : these possessions were of 
 no real value to the parties to whom they were restored, while 
 they were of great value to us, as excluding a nuisance. 
 
 " But the Danish settlements are of less inconvenience to us 
 than those of any other European power; for the Danes are a 
 quiet, unambitious, commercial people. They formerly ex- 
 ported considerable quantities of piece-goods from Serampore 
 and the coast ; but this trade has, I believe, almost entirely 
 ceased. 
 
 " The inconvenience and disadvantages which we experi- 
 ence from the European establishments on the continent of 
 India, may be stated as follows, viz. : 
 
 " 1st. In preventing our Government from levying the 
 duties of customs on the whole of the import and export trade. 
 
478 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 " 2nd. In compelling us to make compensation for requiring 
 them to forego the right to trade in salt and opium, to the 
 prej udice of our monopoly. 
 
 " 3rd. In affording an asylum to persons escaping from their 
 creditors, or from the hands of justice. 
 
 " 4th. In harbouring persons disaffected to our Government, 
 and in affording facilities for the establishment of a malignant 
 press. Upon these, and other considerations perhaps, it would 
 certainly be desirable to obtain the surrender of any of the 
 foreign settlements and factories, which we may have oppor- 
 tunity of obtaining ; but anything may be purchased too dear, 
 and the cession would resolve itself into a question of terms or 
 means. 
 
 " The proposed exchange of one or more of our West India 
 islands, I presume to be quite out of the question. We cannot 
 make over British subjects in this manner to a foreign power ; 
 although interchanges are sometimes made at a general peace 
 by the cession of actual conquests. 
 
 " What the money value of Tranquebar may be, I am not 
 prepared to say ; but the value of Serampore to us would not 
 be great, I apprehend, at present. To the Danes it must, 1 
 think, be an incumbrance ; and if they would surrender the 
 settlement for the value of the public buildings, and other 
 fixed property, to be taken at a fair valuation, both parties 
 would, I imagine, be gainers. Their trade with Bengal might 
 be guaranteed at the duties chargeable to the most favored 
 nation. 
 
 " As the suggestion which has been offered to you does not 
 seem to have proceeded from any functionary of the Danish 
 Government, and as I do not know whether your colleagues 
 in the Foreign or Colonial Departments have taken up the 
 question, I have confined my remarks to a few general points ; 
 but if the proposition should be seriously entertained by his 
 Majesty's Government, it will be my duty, and my wish, to 
 afford every information in my power, with a view to promote 
 a satisfactory arrangement. 
 
 " Believe me, my dear Sir, 
 
 4f Very sincerely yours, 
 
 " H. ST.G. TUCKER." 
 
LETTER TO MR. GRANT. 479 
 
 " TO THE RIGHT HON. C. GRANT. 
 
 [On the Succession to the Governor-Generalship.] 
 
 " East India House, 22nd Sept., 1834. 
 
 " MY DEAR SIR, In our conference on Tuesday last, you 
 gave us reason to suppose that we should be honored with an 
 invitation from Lord Melbourne to a personal interview in the 
 course of the week ; but as I have not been favored with any 
 communication from his Lordship, and as I stand pledged to 
 my colleagues to bring under their consideration, on Friday 
 next, the present state of the Indian Government, I can no 
 longer delay to solicit through you an intimation of the views 
 of his Majesty's Government with respect to the appointment 
 of a successor to Lord William Bentinck. 
 
 " I have already communicated to you, and to the Court, 
 the proposition which I intend to bring forward, for confirming 
 Sir C. Metcalfe in the station of Governor-General, for such 
 time as may be found necessary to enable him to carry into 
 execution the important arrangements consequent upon the 
 new Charter- Act ; and I continue decidedly of opinion that 
 this will be the most convenient proceeding which could be 
 adopted. Still, it will be my duty and my wish to place before 
 my colleagues the views of his Majesty's Ministers, if they 
 should be prepared to offer an alternative to the Court. 
 
 " The communication which I have had with you on the 
 subject, hitherto, having been confidential, I have not felt 
 myself at liberty to enter into any explanations officially ; but 
 when the question is formally brought forward, the Court will, 
 I think, expect from me every information which can assist 
 their deliberations, in appointing a successor to Lord William 
 Bentinck. 
 
 " I need not point out to you the necessity for an early 
 decision. When our last advices came away, the Indian Go- 
 vernment was evidently in an inefficient and unsatisfactory 
 state. Strictly speaking, there was no legal administration in 
 the two Presidencies of Bengal; and if any political occur- 
 rences, calling for prompt measures, should take place on our 
 western frontier, it appears to me that the utmost inconvenience 
 was to be apprehended from the absence of the principal au- 
 
480 LIFE OF H. ST.a. TUCKER. 
 
 thorities, civil and military, at so great a distance from the seat 
 of the Supreme Government. 
 
 " I have had but little time yet to reflect on the minutes of 
 Lord William Bentinck, which you were so good as to send 
 for my perusal ; but if I wanted an argument in favor of the 
 appointment of Sir C. Metcalfe, these documents would furnish 
 it. I feel persuaded that Sir Charles is almost the only indi- 
 vidual capable of extricating us from the difficulties which the 
 proposed reduction of the Indian army will, I apprehend, pro- 
 duce. Let me beg you to refer to his masterly minute of the 
 22nd January, 1831, on the proposition of the Finance Com- 
 mittee to reduce the army; and although I have not the pre- 
 sumption to pronounce a judgment on a question of military 
 reform, I must think that if such a delicate, such a difficult 
 operation is to be undertaken, it cannot be entrusted to any 
 hands so safely as to those of Sir Charles Metcalfe, who has 
 always been popular with the army, and whose prudence and 
 firmness will give him a peculiar advantage in conducting any 
 measure of difficulty. 
 
 " I shall not refer in this place to the subordinate arrange- 
 ments which will become necessary; because these will depend, 
 in some measure, on the selection which may be made for the 
 station of Governor- General; but I would observe that the 
 question of appointing a Council to Agra, to which I have 
 called your attention, will require an early decision. I have 
 already submitted to you my own opinion on the question ; and 
 it is unnecessary, therefore, to trouble you with any further 
 remarks on the subject. 
 
 ' c I have the honor to be, &c., &c., 
 
 " H. ST.G. TUCKER." 
 
 " TO THE RIGHT HON. CHARLES GRANT. 
 
 [On the Appointment of a Governor- General.] 
 
 "East India House, 16th October, 1834. 
 
 " MY DEAR SIR, I was favored with your note of yester- 
 day, which I had an opportunity of submitting to one of our 
 Committees. 
 
 " It has always been my earnest wish to act in concert with 
 
LETTER TO MR. GRANT. 481 
 
 you, and in concord with his Majesty's Government; but I 
 have a paramount duty to perform towards the Court, and I 
 must upon the present occasion act upon my sense of that 
 duty. 
 
 " The delay of a few days may appear of small moment; 
 but, after the declaration made by you, in the course of our 
 conference on Tuesday, that his Majesty's Ministers, in conse- 
 quence of the Court's resolution of the 26th ultimo, proposing 
 to continue Sir C. Metcalfe in the station of Governor-General, 
 no longer considered themselves pledged to abstain from making 
 an appointment under the 60th section of the Charter- Act, the 
 delay of a few days may involve the question of the forfeiture 
 of one of the most important rights of the Court. If I have 
 misunderstood you, it is easy to set me right; and if I have an 
 assurance from you that the King's Government do not mean 
 to avail themselves of any delay on our part, for the purpose of 
 taking the appointment into their own hands then it will be 
 no longer necessary for me to bring forward the question to- 
 morrow, as I now propose to do. 
 
 " In explanation (and, if you please, in justification) of my 
 proceeding, let me beg to call to your recollection the following 
 circumstances : 
 
 " 1st. That the tender of the resignation of Lord W. Ben- 
 tinck has been known to yourself, and his Majesty's Ministers, 
 for at least seven weeks. 
 
 " 2nd. That only two calendar months are allowed the Court 
 of Directors to fill up a vacancy. 
 
 " 3rd. That you yourself, in your letter to the Chairs of the 
 1st instant (sixteen days ago), intimated, to the Court the de- 
 cided opinion of his Majesty's Ministers that ' in reference to 
 the present state of India, no time should be lost in appointing a 
 permanent successor to Lord Wm. Bentinck, as Governor- 
 General of India/ 
 
 " Lastly. Let me beg to remind you that, if any lapse take 
 place on the part of the Court of Directors, and the appoint- 
 ment to the office of Governor-General devolve, in consequence, 
 upon the King's Government, the constitution of the Indian 
 Government is virtually changed. The Court of Directors can 
 
 2i 
 
482 LIFE OF H. ST.GK TUCKER. 
 
 no longer recall or remove a Govern or- General so appointed, 
 and, consequently, can no longer exercise the same efficient 
 control over that high functionary, who is already invested 
 with such extensive powers. 
 
 " Let me add that, at our two last interviews, I asked you 
 expressly if you were prepared to enter upon the question. 
 You stated that you were not prepared ; and acting, as I have 
 always done, with the utmost consideration towards you, I did 
 not press you further, although I myself was perfectly prepared 
 to submit my views to you, and to receive an intimation of the 
 views and wishes of her Majesty's Government. 
 
 " The foregoing explanation will, I trust, satisfy you that I 
 am not acting unreasonably in declining to accede to a further 
 delay in bringing forward the name of a successor to Lord 
 William Bentinck. I must give a week's notice to the Court, 
 as I have already stated to you ; and although I believe the law 
 will give us more time, under the legal opinion which I have 
 obtained, it is impossible for me, in a matter of such import- 
 ance, to run any risk. I could not do so without bringing the 
 rights of the Court into question, nor without subjecting my 
 own conduct to just animadversion. 
 
 " I have the honor to be, my dear Sir, 
 
 " Your faithful servant, 
 
 " H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 " If you would wish to see us, the Deputy and myself will be 
 happy to wait upon you, either this evening or early to-morrow, 
 when I can explain to you my intended course of proceeding." 
 
 ' TO , ESQ. 
 
 [On the Distribution of Patronage.] 
 
 " East India House, 22nd December, 1834. 
 
 ** MY DEAR SIR I have been favored with your note of 
 Saturday, and I regret very much that it is not in my power 
 (circumstanced as I am) to comply with your request for a 
 cadetcy for your young friend. 
 
 u The Court scarcely ever grant nominations to their service 
 as a body. I only recollect one instance (that of Sir D. Ochter- 
 
LETTER TO THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON. 483 
 
 long) where they have deviated from their general rule or 
 usage ; and the reason for this rule is obvious. We should have 
 innumerable applications, with which it would be impossible to 
 comply; and we should i>e compelled to make very invidious 
 distinctions. * 
 
 " With respect to myself, I determined some time since to 
 apply my extra patronage, as Chairman, to public objects, i. e. 
 to provide for the sons and relations of meritorious officers of 
 his Majesty's and our own service; and I have given effect to 
 this determination in the manner which appeared to me best 
 calculated to accomplish the end which I had in view. 
 " Believe me, dear Sir, 
 
 " Very faithfully yours, 
 
 " H. ST.G. TUCKER." 
 
 To the above letters may be advantageously ap- 
 pended two or three of a later date, in order that 
 the narrative continuity of the next chapter may 
 not be broken by their insertion : 
 
 "TO THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON. 
 
 [On the Authorities of the Board of Control and Court of Directors.] 
 
 September 27th, 1838. 
 
 " MY LOUD DUKE, I have had the honor to receive your 
 Grace's favor of the 14th inst., and I beg to offer my best acknow- 
 ledgments for the communication. Your Grace's remarks tended 
 greatly to fortify me in the opinion which I had previously 
 formed on the question, and enabled me to maintain that 
 opinion with greater confidence. 
 
 " I have the satisfaction to state that the proposition for 
 sending out the Irish Roman Catholic priests to India at the 
 public expense, has been negatived by a large majority of the 
 Court ; but as this attempt has been repeatedly made under 
 the auspices of the present Government, I am not without 
 apprehension that it may be renewed, and that sooner or later 
 it may be successful. 
 
 "Your Grace seems to consider that the administration of 
 
 2i2 
 
484 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 India is now vested in the National Government. This is very 
 much the case, no doubt ; but although the Legislature, by the 
 late Charter- Act, has stripped the Court of Directors of sub- 
 stantial power, we are still left in g, position to exert some 
 moral influence with effect. ^ 
 
 " In all our foreign relations and political concerns, the 
 Board can act independently of the Court, through the Secret 
 Committee ; and here we have no voice whatever, nor are we 
 even cognisant of the Board's proceedings. 
 
 The Board have, moreover, a general and absolute restrain- 
 ing power; but they cannot propel us forwards, if we choose to 
 resist. Our vis-inertias alone is sometimes sufficient to arrest 
 their proceedings. The present Government have on more 
 than one occasion resorted to a high judicial tribunal for the 
 purpose of coercing us by a Mandamus ; but they signally 
 failed. On a late occasion they ordered us to dismiss all the 
 Judges of our Court of Sudder Dewanny Adawlut (the head 
 Court of Appeal in Bengal) we refused they threatened to 
 dismiss them by their own authority they were told that this 
 could only be done by a mandate of recall under the Sign 
 Manual ; but they were not prepared to undertake such a re- 
 sponsibility, and the case was closed by a peevish censure. 
 
 " The Court of Directors still, by law, retain the initiative; 
 and although, by the connivance of their organs, this privilege 
 may be rendered of no avail, it has heretofore been asserted 
 with very salutary effect. We are also at liberty to protest, 
 and to expose to public view instances of mal-administration ; 
 so that, as long as the Court shall be filled by independent and 
 honorable men, they may not only, by their knowledge and 
 experience, assist in giving a proper direction to the machine of 
 Government, but they can also exert a wholesome influence in 
 checking the career of an unscrupulous Government. Had this 
 not been the case, we should have had at the present moment 
 an establishment of Irish Roman Catholic priests as an appen- 
 dage to our Indian army. 
 
 " Still, I feel most painfully that we are gradually sinking. 
 Our weight and influence have declined of late, and are de- 
 clining; and among the other evils of the time, I look forward 
 
ON THE EDUCATION OF THE CIVIL SERVICE. 485 
 
 with anxiety and apprehension to the future condition of India. 
 It may be preserved for a longer or a shorter period ; but I 
 doubt whether it will be long preserved in a condition to be of 
 real value to the mother country. Religious fanaticism, which 
 is not discouraged by the present Government, has already 
 done much to alienate the attachment of the people, to shake 
 their confidence, and to produce uneasiness and alarm. 
 
 " I scarcely need mention that I did not make use of your 
 Grace's letter with my colleagues, although I believe that it 
 would have had the effect of bringing our debate to an early 
 conclusion. 
 
 " I have the honor to be, &c., &c., 
 
 " H. ST.G. TUCKER." 
 
 TO 
 
 [On the Education of the Civil Service.] 
 
 "East India House, 17th Aug., 1844. 
 
 " MY DEAK , It would be great presumption in me to 
 
 oppose the professional opinion of so eminent a scholar as Pro- 
 fessor Wilson, when I am no scholar at all ; but I have on more 
 than one occasion ventured to place on record my opinions 
 with respect to Haileybury, and I have seen no reason to re- 
 tract those opinions. In establishing that College, our objects, 
 I apprehend, were threefold : 
 
 " 1st. To complete a liberal education, such as young men 
 receive at our Universities. 
 
 " 2ndly. To give our civil servants an elementary knowledge 
 of the Oriental languages, in order to facilitate the acquisition 
 of those languages on their arrival in India. And, 
 
 " Srdly. To obtain an assurance of moral character and con- 
 duct, and of that industry and application which are essential to 
 insure habits of business. This last has always been with me an 
 object of paramount consideration. 
 
 " With respect to European languages and literature, I should 
 say that we attempt too much. At seventeen or eighteen a 
 young man ought to know enough of Latin and Greek; and I 
 should be disposed to dispense with those languages in the two 
 
486 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 last terms, or to make the study of them optional. It may be 
 doubted whether French, Italian, or German, might not be 
 substituted with advantage ; but I have no wish to engage in a 
 controversy on this question, which, perhaps, in due season will 
 be decided, by the railroad, calculated as it is to mix together 
 the nations of Europe. 
 
 " But the Oriental branch of the question is that which wo 
 have to deal with at present, and I have no hesitation in 
 repeating my opinion that the study of three Oriental lan- 
 guages, in addition to the other studies which are imposed upon 
 our young men, cannot be prosecuted with advantage. 
 
 " Professor Wilson's argument is, that the acquisition of the 
 primitive language facilitates the acquisition of the derivative 
 language that when Sanscrit is acquired, the acquisition of 
 Bengali, &c., is easy. This is quite true; and the argument 
 might be applied to the acquisition of Arabic as a means of 
 facilitating the acquisition of the Persian. But is the process 
 necessary ? I think not ; and I will state a case in point. 
 
 " I was stationed for about two years in a Bengali district 
 (Rajeshahy), and with the aid of Halhed's little grammar I 
 learnt enough in about three months, I think, to be able to 
 transact public business with the people. Now, had I com- 
 menced with Sanscrit, I should have quitted the district before 
 I reached its derivative, the Bengali, although the latter was 
 really what 1 required. The best speaker of Bengali whom I 
 
 met with was a Dr. M (an age ago), and he knew nothing 
 
 of Sanscrit; and the best speaker of Hindustani whom I met 
 with (also an age ago), was an ill-educated Irishman, who had 
 never, probably, looked at a grammar in the course of his life. 
 
 He, like Mr. B , acquired the language in the Zenana, and 
 
 the natives admitted that he spoke the language so correctly 
 that they could not detect the European. He acquired it 
 entirely by the ear. 
 
 " Sir William Jones, on the other hand, although a Sanscrit 
 and a Persian scholar, could not hold the most common con- 
 versation either in Bengali or Hindustani; so that we have 
 here the primitive languages without their leading to the 
 derivatives. Nor do I believe that a single instance can be 
 
LETTER TO SIR CHARLES METCALFE. 487 
 
 adduced of one of our Haileybury students being able to carry 
 on a dialogue, either in Hindustani or Persian. This was not 
 the case in the Calcutta College some forty years ago. 
 
 " Persian is fast disappearing in our Bengal provinces, to 
 which my remarks are confined; and in the course of a few 
 years it will be of no use for any practical purposes of business. 
 With the Hindustani, neither our civil nor military servants 
 need ever be at a loss in the districts under the Bengal and 
 Agra Presidencies. 
 
 " What I would deduce from these premises is, that we 
 attempt too much, both in the European and Oriental branches 
 of study; that two Oriental languages are as much as can be 
 well attended to ; and that even one (the Hindustani), if pro- 
 perly cultivated, would be sufficient; and that the study of 
 Sanscrit, Arabic, and even Persian, might be left optional with 
 the student. I adhere to my opinion that sixteen is the best 
 age for entering Haileybury that the student should be 
 allowed to quit it and enter the service as soon as he is re- 
 ported to be duly qualified, even after the expiration of his 
 second term and that the acquisition of the native languages 
 should be remitted mainly to India, where more will be accom- 
 plished in six months, after a little elementary preparation 
 here, than can be effected by a two years' residence at 
 Haileybury. 
 
 " Believe me, &c., &c., 
 
 " H. ST.G. TUCKER." 
 
 ; ' TO SIR CHARLES METCALFE. 
 
 [On the Settlement of Bundlekund.*] 
 
 " . . . . If you should have taken charge of your Go- 
 vernment of Agra, your attention will, I am sure, be directed 
 immediately to the state of Bundlekund. I have instructed our 
 secretary to take up the subject here as soon as possible ; but 
 what can we do here? .... 
 
 * This is an extract from a letter written in 1834, and accidentally omitted 
 from the earlier part of the chapter. 
 
488 LIFE OF H. ST. a. TUCKER. 
 
 " When I visited the province, it seemed to be prosperous, 
 although not particularly well managed by the Lucknow 
 Tehsildars, whom Baillie had introduced or recommended ; but 
 the villagers (I am tired of the term Ryot) appeared comfort- 
 able, and I have never seen in any part of the country such 
 magnificent wells. There was a good deal of bishy (or surplus) 
 and alienated land, which enabled the people to pay a high as- 
 sessment; but when the late Mr. Scott Waring brought this 
 land upon the rental, and taxed it, the same high rate of assess- 
 ment could not be paid, and the province has rapidly declined. 
 This is a mistake which we often make. It does not follow that 
 
 by detecting alienations we can augment the revenue 
 
 " I cannot change the opinion of men, nor can I venture to 
 overturn a favorite system when in office only for a few months. 
 It would be presumptuous and dangerous for me to attempt to 
 move; but you on the spot have a heavy responsibility. The 
 country ought not to be allowed to go to ruin. What I wish 
 to see is, the demand of Government limited and fixed. The 
 party with whom the settlement is to be concluded is matter of 
 inferior consideration. I prefer moderate estates, say from 200 
 to 2000 rupees annual revenue; but I would not manufacture 
 estates, as my excellent friend Sir G. Barlow attempted to do 
 at Madras. Let them grow, as they will do if you do not crush 
 them. What I should like to see would be,' the grant of Mo- 
 kurrery tenures when estates have been well ascertained, where 
 they are in full cultivation, and where the assessment has been 
 made by trustworthy officers. If a beginning were once made 
 in this way, we should get on rapidly ; but what have we accom- 
 plished in the last twenty years? Of late, we seem to be retro- 
 grading. My friend, Sir H. Strachey, has often reproached 
 me for not having undertaken to form a Permanent Settlement 
 in 1807 ; and if we do not manage better than we have done 
 lately, I shall begin to reproach myself. There are various other 
 questions to which I should like to call your attention ; but I 
 have little leisure for correspondence " 
 
THE WAR IN AFGHANISTAN. 489 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 The War in Afghanistan Our Relations with the Persian Court Resistance 
 of Russia an European Question The Tripartite Treaty Mr. Tucker's 
 Letters to the Duke of Wellington and Others His Opinions on the 
 Afghan War and the Conquest of Scinde Recall of Lord Ellenborough. 
 
 THE narrative portion of the penultimate chapter 
 closed with the appointment of Lord Auckland to 
 the Governor- Generalship of India. The chapter 
 upon which I am now entering is to he devoted to 
 the consideration of the policy pursued towards the 
 states beyond the Indus during his and his succes- 
 sor's administration; and the part taken by Mr. 
 Tucker in the resistance of measures which he 
 believed to be both impolitic and unjust. I cannot 
 take upon myself to say that if Lord Heytesbury's 
 appointment had not been reversed, this chapter 
 would not have been commenced ; but I have a very 
 strong conviction, based upon the recorded senti- 
 ments of Sir Charles Metcalfe, that if the Indian 
 Civilian instead of the English Peer had been ap- 
 pointed to the Governor- Generalship, we should 
 have heard nothing of the wars in Afghanistan and 
 Scinde. 
 
490 LIEE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 Whilst Mr. Tucker was yet in the Chair, the sub- 
 jects of our relations with Persia and of the opening 
 of the Indus, for purposes, as it was said, of naviga- 
 tion and trade, had been brought prominently before 
 him. He seems to have seen through them both at 
 a glance. It was his conviction, in 1834, that the 
 Persian alliance was an European question with 
 which the Indian Government ought not to meddle ; 
 and that inasmuch as Commercial agencies were 
 prone to develope themselves, with extraordinary 
 rapidity, into Political agencies, the less we con- 
 cerned ourselves about the commerce of the Indus, 
 the better it would be for the prosperity of India 
 and the character of the British nation. 
 
 I am fortunately able to narrate in his own words 
 the consistent course which Mr. Tucker pursued with 
 reference to our Central- Asian policy, from the very 
 commencement of those unhappy operations which 
 terminated in a sea of disaster and disgrace. " I had 
 various personal conferences with the Indian Minis- 
 ter throughout 1834-35," he wrote in an interesting 
 retrospect which he drew up in 1842, " when I held 
 the station of Chairman; and in all these conferences 
 regarding the state of Persia and its relations with 
 Great Britain, I invariably maintained that it was 
 impossible to operate upon Persia with any effect 
 from India, whilst that Power was countenanced 
 and supported by Russia ; and that the national 
 force must be applied in Europe, if it should become 
 necessary to counteract or to arrest the proceedings 
 
OUR RELATIONS WITH PERSIA. 491 
 
 of Russia in any of the Asiatic states. The notes 
 of my conferences with his Majesty's Ministers I 
 have kept as a sealed book ; for I regarded them 
 always (at least for the time) as confidential on both 
 sides. The obligation of secresy may, however, be 
 considered to cease when questions have been finally 
 settled ; when the facts have become publicly known 
 through other channels, and when a disclosure can 
 neither prove injurious to the public interests, nor 
 hurtful to private feelings." 
 
 From these memoranda it appears that on the 
 7th of June, 1834, Mr. Tucker explained at great 
 length (to the President of the Board of Control) 
 the critical state of affairs in Persia and urged that 
 no measures, offensive or defensive, could be taken 
 in India and that the whole question should be 
 taken up by the British Cabinet. On the 23rd of 
 June and the 1st of July he reiterated these 
 opinions. On the 22nd of the latter month, advert- 
 ing to letters received from the Persian Envoy, Mr. 
 Tucker strongly objected J;o his proposition to pay 
 the demand of Russia (250,000/.*), and referred to a 
 letter, which he had written to the Board, explain- 
 ing the grounds of these objections and his views 
 of the policy to be observed in Persia. " It is 
 become," he again emphatically said, " a European 
 
 * It was proposed that the British Government should enable Mahomed 
 Meerza to satisfy the pecuniary claims of Russia, hi order that we might " take 
 from that Power all pretence for occupying the province of Ghilan, for de- 
 manding a cession of territory, and for interfering directly in the appoint- 
 ment of a successor to the throne." 
 
492 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKEH. 
 
 question." In the letter to which he alluded on 
 this occasion, he had laid down the following pro- 
 positions : 
 
 " 1st. That the British Government cannot, with 
 the smallest prospect of success, employ a military 
 force in Persia, for the purpose of opposing the 
 progress of the Russian arms, or of Russian in- 
 fluence in that quarter. 
 
 " 2nd. That we could not advance our military 
 line of frontier in India, in the direction of Persia, 
 without exciting jealousy and distrust on the part 
 of the intermediate states, nor without incurring 
 great expense unattended by any corresponding ad- 
 vantage. 
 
 " 3rd. That we could not undertake to furnish 
 supplies of money to the Government of Persia, in 
 whatever hands that Government may he, with 
 any prospect of advantage; nor, indeed, without 
 strengthening the very Power, whose designs are 
 supposed to be adverse to the British interests in 
 India." 
 
 "These considerations," he continued, "would 
 seem to lead to the conclusion that nothing effectual 
 can be done by the Government of India to coun- 
 teract the projects of Russia in the East that the 
 only means of opposing her advance in Persia are to 
 be sought in Europe ; and that whatever diplomatic 
 agency it may be thought proper to maintain at the 
 Court of Persia ought to act in immediate subordi- 
 nation to the political authorities in this country, 
 
OUR PERSIAN RELATIONS. 493 
 
 rather than under the Indian Government, which 
 has no quick or certain means of communicating 
 with the Envoy at Teheran, and which neither pos- 
 sesses the necessary information with respect to our 
 political affairs in Europe, nor any means of com- 
 pelling a European power to refrain from those acts 
 affecting the interests of other nations, or tending 
 to endanger the public peace." And in a postscript 
 he had added: "We might observe generally that 
 it is impossible for India to secure the independence 
 of Persia, unless it could furnish both a Government, 
 an Exchequer, and an efficient army. It is also 
 quite clear that our relations with Persia, Turkey 
 (including the Pachalic of Bagdad), and Syria, con- 
 stitute now a general question, which can be best 
 considered and dealt with as a whole."* 
 
 In the course of subsequent conferences with Mr. 
 Grant, up to the very last which was held with him 
 (on the 10th of December) before the dissolution of 
 the Whig Ministry, Mr. Tucker had used the same 
 language of remonstrance ; but almost immediately 
 on the accession of Lord Ellenborough to the Board 
 of Control, under the Peel Ministry, the new Presi- 
 dent announced that the Persian Mission was to 
 be made a European question that an Envoy was 
 to be deputed on the part of the Crown that Mr. 
 H. Ellis had been selected for the station, and that 
 a communication would immediately be made to the 
 
 * The letter is of considerable interest and importance in connexion with 
 the whole Persian question ; but it is too lengthy for insertion here. 
 
494 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 Secret Committee respecting the arrangement. But 
 Mr. Tucker at this time declined to give any pledge 
 with respect to the Company contributing to defray 
 the charge. 
 
 Doubtless, however, he was well assured in his 
 own mind that the Company would be compelled to 
 contribute largely towards the expenses of the Mis- 
 sion, although it was to be appointed by the Crown. 
 When, therefore, it was decreed that the Indian 
 contribution should amount to 12,OOOZ. per annum, 
 he felt that it would be of little use to remonstrate 
 against the " arrangement."* But he could hardly 
 have formed a just conception, at that time, of the 
 manner in which the settlement of the affairs of 
 Persia was to be made a "European question." It 
 was so far to be a European question, that all power 
 and authority over the Persian Mission, and all 
 control over the Politics of Persia, were to be vested 
 in the Crown Ministers ; but whenever great mea- 
 sures, costly and dangerous, were to be undertaken, 
 when armies were to be moved, and millions of 
 money expended for the counteraction of Russian 
 intrigue, it was the Establishment of the East India 
 Company that was to be indented upon, and the 
 Treasury of the East India Company that was to bo 
 drained. The Russo-Persian question was thence- 
 forth to be a "European question;" but it was 
 
 * He, however, steadfastly insisted upon the maintenance of this limit to the 
 demand upon the Company. On the 26th of February he repeated to Lord 
 Ellenborough that the Court would not consent to pay more than 1 2,000/. per 
 annum; and that the expense of the military must either be defrayed by the 
 Shah, or the officers and men be ordered back to Persia. 
 
THE "COMMERCIAL AGENCY." 495 
 
 Indian blood, and it was Indian treasure that was 
 to be lavished on its solution. 
 
 Very far removed from this was Mr. Tucker's 
 conception of a European question. With a saga- 
 city almost prophetic, he saw in the future the fata] 
 consequences of interfering, from the side of India, 
 in the affairs of Central Asia, whether the inter- 
 ference were to be called diplomacy or commerce. 
 With the countries beyond the Indus he desired 
 that the Indian Government should have nothing 
 to do. To the charmings of Alexander Burnes, 
 charm he never so wisely, he was insensible : " The 
 late Sir Alexander (then Lieutenant) Burnes," wroto 
 Mr. Tucker in 1842, "was introduced to me in 
 1834 as a talented and enterprising young officer; 
 and it was suggested that he might be usefully 
 employed as a commercial agent at Caubul, to en- 
 courage our commerce with that country, and to 
 aid in opening the river Indus to British industry 
 and enterprise. I am, upon principle, friendly to 
 the extension of all legitimate commerce ; but it 
 appeared to me that the commercial resources of 
 Afghanistan, and the means of deriving advantage 
 from an intercourse with that country, were greatly 
 magnified ; for I had reason to know that the 
 country was poor and difficult of access, that the 
 people were turbulent, and that the state of society 
 was not such as to justify an expectation that the 
 Afghans could easily be led to adopt peaceful and 
 industrious habits. I declined, then, to propose, or 
 to concur in, the appointment of Lieutenant Burnes 
 
496 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 to a commercial agency in Caubul, feeling perfectly 
 assured that it must speedily degenerate into a 
 political agency, and that we should, as a necessary 
 consequence, be involved in all the entanglement of 
 Afghan politics.* These, I believe, were nearly 
 the precise words frequently repeated by me, in ex- 
 pressing my objection to the projected arrange- 
 ment. Erom 1835-36 the entire charge of our 
 relations with Persia was assumed by his Majesty's 
 Government. Dr. (now Sir John) M'JSTeill was ap- 
 pointed Ambassador to the Shah ; and the only 
 duty, or function, which devolved upon the Court 
 of Directors was to supply the sum of 12,OOOZ. per 
 annum, under the arrangement of January, 1835, 
 to defray the charge of the embassy. Lieutenant 
 Burnes returned to India ; and after a short in- 
 terval was deputed on a mission to R/unjeet Singh 
 at Lahore, and subsequently obtained the appoint- 
 ment of political agent at Caubul, where his nego- 
 tiations with the ex-ruler, Dost Mahomed, and his 
 rupture with that chief, were made public under 
 an order of the House of Commons. In these 
 transactions the Court of Directors took no part ; 
 nor were we made acquainted officially with the 
 projects of the Indian Government and their hostile 
 preparations until an army was actually .assembled 
 
 * On November 11, 1834, with reference to Lieut. Burnes, Mr. Tucker men- 
 tioned his application to be recommended to the appointment of agent at 
 Caubul, or on the Indus, and gave it as his opinion that no such agency was 
 necessary at present, and that he could not with propriety interfere with the 
 local Government in selecting for public situations. Mr. Grant concurred 
 entirely with respect to the inexpediency of appointing au agent at Caubul. 
 
LETTERS TO THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON. 497 
 
 on the banks of the Sutlej for the invasion of Af- 
 ghanistan. I was not, however (continued Mr. 
 Tucker), inattentive to the proceedings abroad ; and 
 on the first intelligence reaching us of the military 
 movement on our "Western Frontier, I addressed a 
 letter to an illustrious statesman, so far back as the 
 8th November, 1838, deprecating the policy which 
 appeared to have led to that movement, and point- 
 ing out, in strong terms, the danger of prosecuting 
 an enterprise against Afghanistan for the purpose 
 of deposing the de facto ruler, and of substituting 
 our pensioner, Shujah-ool-Moolk, in his place. As 
 the papers were from time- to time produced, I 
 again addressed the same illustrious statesman, 
 under date the 8th and 12th February, 1839 ; and 
 I also addressed two other distinguished statesmen 
 on the same subject, under date the 16th March 
 and 3rd April following." The statesmen of whom 
 Mr. Tucker here speaks were the Duke of Welling- 
 ton, Sir Robert Peel, and Lord Ellenborough. It 
 would be an injustice to the subject of this Memoir 
 to withhold the remarkable letters to which he al- 
 ludes : 
 
 " MB. TUCKER TO THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON. 
 
 " 3, Upper Portland-place, 8th November, 1838. 
 " MY LORD DUKE, The late military movements in India 
 must, I am sure, have attracted your Grace's attention ; and I 
 will not therefore apologise for submitting some observations 
 on a subject which is of the highest national interest. 
 
 " About five years ago, when I held the situation of Chairman 
 of the Court, I ventured to urge an opinion that our concerns 
 in Persia, in consequence of the position and movements of 
 
 2K 
 
498 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKEH. 
 
 Russia, had become an European, and not an Asiatic question 
 that it was impossible to meet and counteract Russia at 
 Teheran that we might lavish our money upon a weak and 
 corrupt Court but that we could not assist it with a military 
 force sufficient to secure its independence as against Russia, 
 whose armies were at hand; and that therefore our obvious 
 policy was to operate upon Russia in Europe. 
 
 " I was also adverse to the project of establishing a mission at 
 Caubul. The professed object was to extend our commerce 
 with Central Asia by the Indus ; but it appeared to me certain 
 that our Agency would assume a political character, and that we 
 should soon be mixed up in all the perplexed politics of the 
 Afghans; and even if we should succeed in opening a commer- 
 cial road through the Punjab, or otherwise, to Afghanistan, we 
 should only make a military road from that country to Hin- 
 dostan, which appeared to me to be by no means desirable. 
 
 " Your Grace is aware that, about this time, the Persian 
 Embassy was transferred to his Majesty's Government, the East 
 India Company undertaking to defray the charge, to the extent 
 of 12,OOOZ. per annum, while the idea of establishing an Agency 
 at Caubul was for the time abandoned. 
 
 " But that which I had deprecated, and which it was my 
 great object to prevent a military movement from India has 
 now actually taken place; and, from certain indications, I am 
 persuaded that it has taken place under orders from this 
 country. The transfer of our Persian relations to his Majesty's 
 Government has therefore, I apprehend, brought upon us the 
 very evil which it was intended to prevent. The late Sir R. 
 Grant would never, I am satisfied, have made that pitiful 
 demonstration in the Persian Gulf without authority from 
 hence, nor would Lord Auckland who has shown great 
 prudence in other instances have embarked, I think, in so 
 fearful an enterprise without express authority from home. 
 
 " The evil, then, originating here, it is only in this country 
 that its progress can be arrested. 
 
 " In order to give your Grace some idea of the feeling which 
 has been produced in India by our projected movements on our 
 
LETTER TO THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON. 499 
 
 North- Western frontier, I beg to enclose an extract from a late 
 letter from a correspondent on trie spot ; and I will add a brief 
 summary of what appear to me to be the facts of the case, and 
 the position in which we have placed ourselves. 
 
 " 1st. We have contracted an alliance with Shah Shujah, 
 and have appointed a Minister to his Court; although he does 
 not possess a rood of ground in Afghanistan, nor a rupee which 
 he does not derive from our bounty as a quondam pensioner. We 
 thus embroil ourselves in all the intricate and perplexed concerns 
 of the Afghan tribes. We place Dost Mahomed, the de facto 
 sovereign, in open hostility against us ; we alienate the Prince 
 Kamran of Herat, who is nearer than Shah Shujah in the line 
 of succession of the Douranee Family ; and even if we succeed 
 in ousting Dost Mahomed, and placing Shah Shujah on the 
 throne of Caubul, we must maintain him in the government by 
 a large military force, at the distance of 800 miles from our 
 frontier and our resources. 
 
 "2nd. If our army should succeed in penetrating into 
 Afghanistan, our line of communication will be intercepted by 
 the Punjab and Scinde, which in the course of events may 
 become hostile to our proceedings. 
 
 " 3rd. Our right flank is already menaced by the Nepaulese; 
 our left is open to the Rajpoot States, who, I apprehend, are 
 by no means well-disposed towards us ; while our rear may be 
 attacked by the Burmese, who are notoriously hostile 
 
 " The military demonstration on the coast of Persia is as much 
 at variance with sound policy, as it is with political morality 
 (for we are not at war with Persia), and I can compare it with 
 nothing but our lamentable proceedings towards Holland and 
 Spain. The movement on our North- Western frontier seems 
 to have proceeded from the same source ; and it may involve us 
 in much more serious consequences. 
 
 11 In fine, if some decided steps be not speedily taken for the 
 purpose of averting the evils which seem to impend over us, we 
 shall not long, I fear, be able to say that the sun never sets 
 upon the dominions of Great Britain, or at least we shall not 
 be able to say that its widely-extended possessions are the 
 
 2x2 
 
500 LIFE OP H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 source of strength, power, and prosperity to the parent 
 country. I have the honor to be, &c., &c., 
 
 11 H. ST.G. TUCKER." 
 
 " THE DUKE OP WELLINGTON TO MR. TUCKER. 
 
 " Strathfieldsaye, December 12th, 1838. 
 
 "MY DEAR SIR, I have received and perused with much 
 interest your letter of the 8th of December, I conclude, but 
 you have written it November. 
 
 " I had understood that the raising the siege of Herat was 
 to be the signal for abandoning the expedition to the Indus. 
 It will be very unfortunate if that intention should be altered. 
 The consequence of crossing the Indus once to settle a go- 
 vernment in Afghanistan, will be a perennial march into that 
 country. 
 
 " The policy of the Persian Court has of course been in- 
 fluenced by its fears of Russian invasion. On the other hand, 
 nothing was to be looked for from her Majesty's Government. 
 I should think that the invasion by the Persian Gulf was 
 carried on as a make-weight against Russian influence. This 
 invasion certainly had an effect, and if I have not been mis- 
 informed, affected the Russian Government to a greater degree 
 than anything else that could be done. 
 
 " I don't know that while the siege of Herat continued, 
 particularly by the aid of Russian officers and troops, even in 
 the form of deserters, the Government of India could have 
 done otherwise than prepare for its defence. But I cannot 
 understand the Afghan or Sikh policy. I don't think that 
 Runjeet Singh, established on both sides of the Indus, is a 
 safer neighbour than Zemaun Shah was. An emergency, 
 such as an immediately expected invasion, might oblige a 
 Government to take a course inconsistent with its ordinary 
 political system ; but when the danger is passed, we ought not 
 to incur fresh risks in order to carry into execution a system 
 which must eventually be inconvenient to us, and lead to fresh 
 wars and expense. I confess that I anxiously hope that the 
 next accounts will bring us the report that the expedition is 
 given up. Believe me, ever yours most sincerely, 
 
 "WELLINGTON." 
 
LETTER TO THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON. 501 
 
 " MR. TUCKER TO THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON, 
 
 " 8th February, 1839. 
 
 " MY LORD DUKE, It was very satisfactory to me, and I 
 believe to all who are interested in the welfare of India, to 
 observe that both your Grace and Sir Robert Peel had called 
 the particular attention of Parliament to the present state of 
 our affairs in the East, for it is to Parliament only that we can 
 now look for the means of overcoming our difficulties, and I 
 may add, of averting our dangers. 
 
 " The Tripartite Treaty of Alliance concluded at Lahore, on 
 the 20th June last, has been laid before our Court, and your 
 Grace may like to run over it. A more extraordinary State 
 Paper has never come under my notice. It is evidently of 
 Native origin and character, having originated with Runjeet 
 Singh, but we have made some fearful additions to it for his 
 sole benefit. We undertake, in fact, to guarantee to him and 
 his heirs all of his present possessions east of the Indus, in- 
 cluding Cashmeer and Moultan, and a large tract of country on 
 the right bank extending west to the Khibur Pass and south of 
 the neighbourhood of Shikarpoor, including the valley of Pesha- 
 wur, &c., &c. I cannot trace its range to the south exactly, 
 for some of the places named are not to be found in the map. 
 
 " This treaty cannot fail to arm the whole Afghan nation 
 against us, not excepting the great tribe of Durannies, nor even 
 the clan of Suddozyes, to which Shujah-ool-Moolk himself 
 belongs; and it will also, I fear, be regarded with an evil eye 
 by the Ameers of Scinde and the Chief of Bhawulpore, for 
 it places these chiefs entirely at the mercy of Runjeet Singh. 
 In truth, the sole object of the treaty would seem to be to erect 
 the Sikh state into a stronger barrier between us and the Ma- 
 homedan states of the west ; but as the Afghans bear a most 
 inveterate hatred towards the Sikhs, both as ' KafFres,' as ( per- 
 secutors of the Faith,' and as invaders who have dismembered 
 their territory, I am persuaded that we could not have re- 
 sorted to more effectual means to ruin the cause of Shujah- 
 ool-Moolk, and to strengthen the government of Dost Ma- 
 homed, his opponent. 
 
502 LIFE OF H. ST.G-. TUCKER. 
 
 " The main army will halt, I have no doubt, for we are already, 
 I suspect, alarmed here at our own work ; but what will then 
 become of Shujah-ool-Moolk's hasty levies, or of the small 
 force under Sir John Keane ? The advance of the latter, I 
 apprehend, will be clandestinely obstructed, if not openly op- 
 posed by the Scindians, and the inhabitanst of the intervening 
 country. 
 
 "If we had pushed forward Runjeet Singh, as the Russians 
 have pushed forward Persia, I could have understood the policy 
 of such a proceeding, although I might demur to the wisdom 
 and justice of embroiling other nations in order to promote 
 our own interests, or even to ward off an apprehended danger ; 
 but I cannot understand the policy of undertaking a burden- 
 some and perilous war, for the purpose of aggrandising Run- 
 jeet Singh, whose armies, be it remembered, are under the 
 direction of French officers. 
 
 " As the treaty is almost unintelligible by itself, I have given 
 notice of motion for further papers explanatory of its origin, 
 objects, and provisions. These will not be granted, I fear, at 
 least not to the extent 1 require ; and I shall therefore prepare 
 to place on record a formal protest against our whole proceed- 
 ing, from such materials as I can command. 
 
 "I would not trouble your Grace again on this subject, but 
 I know that you take a warm interest in everything affecting 
 the great interests of the country ; and I am sure that you con- 
 sider the well-being of India as comprehended in those great 
 interests. 
 
 " I have not made any communication to Sir Robert Peel 
 on this subject; but if the question should be first mooted in 
 the House of Commons, where the Indian Minister is to be 
 found, and I can furnish any information likely to be of use, I 
 need scarcely say that I should be most happy to communi- 
 cate it, 
 
 " I have the honor to be, &c., &c., 
 
 " H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 "I had sketched a brief analysis of the Tripartite Treaty; 
 but as it is hasty and imperfect, I will not trouble your Grace 
 
LETTER TO THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON. 503 
 
 with it. As, however, my friend Mr. Edmonstone is much 
 better authority in these matters, your Grace might like to see 
 a private note written by him on the subject. 
 " His Grace the Duke of Wellington." 
 
 " MR. TUCKER TO THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON. 
 
 "February 12, 1839, 
 
 " MY LORD DUKE, I have been favored with your Grace's 
 note, and I regret that I cannot answer your question with any 
 degree of certainty. In fact, the motion which I shall make 
 to-morrow will have for its object to obtain information upon 
 this and other branches of the question. 
 
 ' ' There has, I have reason to believe, been a good deal of cor- 
 respondence, through the Secret Committee, on this subject, 
 with the Governor-General, and Lord Auckland's information 
 has, I have no doubt, been obtained through Captain (now Sir 
 Alexander) Burnes, who has been employed for some time in a 
 political capacity at Caubul. I have seen several private letters 
 from that officer, from which it appeared that a Russian agent 
 had been received by Dost Mahomed, and had been carrying 
 on very active intrigues for the purpose of engaging the State 
 of Caubul to take part in a confederation against the British 
 Government; but all this stands upon the authority of Sir A. 
 Burnes, who represented that he was endeavoring to counter- 
 act this intrigue. 
 
 " Your Grace may recollect that Captain Burnes came to this 
 country in 1834, with a view, as I had reason to believe, to 
 induce the Home authorities, upon the recommendation of 
 Lord W. Bentinck, to establish a commercial agency at Caubul, 
 or upon the Indus. This proposition I strongly, and, for the 
 time, successfully opposed, on the ground that a commercial 
 agency would soon become a. political agency, and be the 
 means of involving us in all the perplexed affairs of the 
 Afghans. The result has shown that I had but too much 
 reason for my apprehensions ; and I attribute mainly our late 
 unfortunate alliances, and the war with which we are threatened, 
 to our negotiations at Caubul. or rather, to our intermeddling 
 in the affairs of that State. 
 
504 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 " Your Grace will perceive, from the enclosed note from my 
 friend Mr. Edmonstone, that he entertains great doubts with 
 respect to our having any sufficient grounds for our connecting 
 Russia and Persia with those occurrences which have led to our 
 present hostile movement; but although Lord Auckland does 
 not name Russia in his proclamation of the 1st of October last, 
 it is quite evident that he points directly to that power, and 
 that the treaty which he has entered into with Runjeet Singh 
 and Shujah-ool-Moolk, was intended to create a barrier against 
 the supposed designs of Persia and Russia. 
 
 " As your Grace appears to have paid such kind attention 
 to my communications on this subject, I venture to submit for 
 your perusal a brief analysis of the Tripartite Treaty of alliance 
 lately concluded at Lahore; and you will perceive from this 
 paper that, although unacquainted officially with the facts of 
 the case, and with the causes of our present warlike proceeding, 
 I have at least endeavored to trace out their probable conse- 
 quences. 
 
 " The object of the treaty I think that I sufficiently under- 
 stand ; but I think, at the same time, that its policy is more 
 than doubtful. 
 
 "I have the honor to be, &c., &c., 
 
 " H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 " I have notes of numerous conferences with the President 
 of the Board in 1834 on the subject of our relations with 
 Persia, and I invariably maintained, on those occasions, that our 
 relations with that power, influenced as it was by Russia, con- 
 stituted a European question, and that it was impossible for the 
 Government of India to deal with it effectively. 
 
 " I urged, at the same time, the reasons which I have re- 
 peated in the papers before your Grace, against any attempt to 
 form a political connexion with the State of Caubul; but even 
 if it be admitted that such a connexion was desirable, very 
 strong and obvious objections exist, I think, to our alliance 
 with Shujah-ool-Moolk and Runjeet Singh." 
 
LETTER TO LORD ELLENBOROUGH. 505 
 
 " MR. TUCKEK TO LORD ELLENBOROUGH. 
 
 " 3, Upper Portland Place, 16th March, 1839. 
 
 "MY LORD, I have been favored with your Lordship's 
 note of yesterday, and beg to return my best thanks for the 
 papers ; but a copy of these precious documents was placed 
 before the Court on Wednesday last, and I cannot consider the 
 proceeding otherwise than as a mere mockery and insult to our 
 understandings; for some of the treaties are twenty or thirty 
 years of age, and have long been upon our open records. The 
 rest have no bearing upon the present state of our political and 
 military affairs in India. 
 
 " I have determined not to submit myself to this mockery, 
 and I shall accordingly place my protest upon record without 
 further delay; for I will not incur even the risk of responsi- 
 bility by my silence. 
 
 " I have been in India under critical circumstances, but I 
 have never had the same apprehension of danger as at the present 
 moment. Your Lordship will perceive the feeling which pre- 
 vails on the spot from the accompanying extract ; but although 
 there may be some exaggeration in the statement, it is corro- 
 borated in its leading features by the information which I 
 receive from other quarters. I do hope that your Lordship 
 and others, who really know India, will take some decided 
 step. To know what is right, and to see what is wrong, 
 without endeavoring to enforce the one and to avert the other, 
 is to incur, I think, serious responsibility. We all deprecate 
 the loss of Canada, as a national calamity; but what is Canada 
 to our Eastern Empire ? 
 
 " If things go on for another twelvemonth on their present 
 footing, and under the present management, my impression is 
 that the evil will be without remedy. 
 
 " We have been called upon to augment our European force, 
 by adding ten men to each company ; but these recruits will 
 not be available in the field as soldiers for two years to come ! 
 This is in keeping with all our late operations. 
 
 " I have the honor to be, &c., &c., 
 
 " H. Sx.G. TUCKER. 
 
 " Right Hon. Lord Ellenborough." 
 
506 . LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 " MR. TUCKER TO SIR ROBERT PEEL. 
 
 " 3rd April, 1839. 
 
 " MY DEAR SIR, I have been using my best efforts for 
 some time past to call attention to the state of our affairs in 
 India; but on my own proper ground these efforts have been 
 attended with little or no success. 
 
 " It appears to me, however, that in society a greater interest 
 has been shown of late in the state of India than I recollect to 
 have observed at any former period; and I am willing to hope 
 that this interest has extended itself to Parliament, where alone 
 any question of national concernment can be treated with any 
 prospect of advantage. 
 
 " I have, indeed, heard, and the report has afforded me par- 
 ticular satisfaction, that it is intended, at an early period, to 
 bring the present state of our affairs in India fairly and fully 
 under the consideration of both Houses of Parliament. 
 
 " Papers have been called for, and some have been produced 
 and printed ; but they are in general mere ' extracts of letters, 
 which do not afford a full and perfect relation of recent trans- 
 actions. 
 
 " Much has been suppressed ; and although there are strong 
 reasons for believing that the late movements have been di- 
 rected or encouraged from this country (in some instances, I 
 suspect, by means of an extra-official correspondence), the whole 
 responsibility attaching to measures of fearful importance would 
 seem at present to be thrown upon the Governor-General of 
 India. 
 
 " You must possess ample information with respect to India, 
 and you can command, when necessary, the best assistance from 
 the highest quarter; but it has occurred to me that the accom- 
 panying paper (which is the transcript of a letter addressed by 
 me to the Court of Directors) may aid your inquiries in some 
 slight degree, if it be intended (as I trust it is) to institute pro- 
 ceedings in Parliament, with a firm determination to examine 
 thoroughly and unflinchingly into the present state of our 
 affairs in India, and into the causes which have produced the 
 existing embarrassment. 
 
LETTER TO SIR ROBERT PEEL. 507 
 
 " In fact, if this be not done promptly, the rescue may come 
 too late. Individual exertions can effect nothing in this coun- 
 try. Party combinations, aided by eloquence, can alone give 
 an impulse and right direction to popular feeling, and in 
 nothing is popular feeling so sluggish here as on subjects re- 
 lating to India. Scarcely any question has excited a general 
 interest since the Bill of 1784. The last Charter- Act passed 
 with little opposition or notice, although it introduced some 
 desperate innovations in the pre-existing system, both political 
 and commercial. 
 
 "Foreigners understand the value of India to us. We do not. 
 They have heretofore been compelled to admire our wise and 
 self-denying policy. They now perceive our errors with a very 
 complacent feeling, and they will probably exult in our humi- 
 liation, which they, no doubt, anticipate. The loss of Canada 
 would be a misfortune. If the West Indies should become a 
 worthless possession (no improbable event) this, too, must be 
 regarded as a national calamity. But if our dominion in India 
 should, unhappily, be shaken or endangered, what would be 
 the fate of this empire, once so transcendently great and 
 glorious? It would be as melancholy an object as Palmyra in 
 the Desert ! 
 
 " I have the honor to be, 
 
 " My dear Sir, &c., &c., 
 
 " H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 " Right Hon. 
 " Sir Robert Peel, Bart., &c. &c." 
 
 The answers which these stirring letters educed 
 showed that the opinions which he so emphatically 
 enunciated were shared by the statesmen whom he 
 had addressed. "But," continued Mr. Tucker, in 
 the Retrospect already quoted, " as it appeared that 
 I should not by these appeals exonerate myself from 
 responsibility as a Director, I was induced to ad- 
 dress a letter to the Court, under date the 29th of 
 
508 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 January, 1889,* in which I reviewed much in de- 
 tail the grounds of the policy which had been 
 adopted by the Government of India in the Tri- 
 partite Treaty of the 20th of June, 1838, and in the 
 Proclamation of the Governor- General of the 1st of 
 October of that year, and in which I also pointed 
 out the consequences likely to result from the pro- 
 secution of so dangerous and so unjustifiable a 
 policy. One of our colleagues (Sir Henry Willock) 
 about the same time, from a high sense of public 
 duty, pursued the same course, and addressed the 
 Foreign Secretary on the subject ; and as he was well 
 acquainted with the country and with the character 
 of the people, his opinions were entitled to great 
 weight. I do not know how far our reasoning may 
 have produced an effect ; but the President of the 
 Board called for and received a copy of my letter on 
 the 6th of March ; and I cannot doubt also that he 
 received every necessary information to enable him 
 to form a sound judgment, from the gentlemen who 
 filled the Chairs of the Court at the time, and who 
 
 * This paper was " drawn up as a protest in consequence of Sir John 
 Hobhouse having refused to place certain documents before the Court for 
 their information." " Upon notice of motion, however," wrote Mr. Tucker to 
 the Duke of Wellington on the 31st of January, " he yesterday furnished us 
 with a copy of the treaty concluded by Lord Auckland, and my protest will 
 riot, therefore, be placed on record for the present. The subject will, how- 
 ever, be brought before the Court, as I conclude it must be also before Par- 
 liament." In the same letter Mr. Tucker says: " I am not one of those who 
 would rush headlong into a war with Russia, but I would wish to see our 
 Government pursue a more manly and straightforward course, and not fence 
 m the dark with a power which we do not even venture to name. Such a 
 state of things could not have occurred under ordinary circumstances, but we 
 are now so entangled that I cannot perceive how we can advance with safety 
 or retreat with honor." 
 
PROGRESS OF THE WAR. 509 
 
 were conversant with Indian affairs from a long re- 
 sidence in that country." 
 
 But whatever effect the reasoning of Mr. Tucker 
 and Sir Henry Willock may have had upon the 
 opinions of the Crown Ministers, it had none what- 
 ever upon their actions. In the East they pushed 
 forward the war ; and in the West they vigorously 
 defended it. There was a brilliant dawn of delusive 
 success ; and for a time the eyes of the multitude 
 were dazzled. But there were some far-seeing men, 
 who saw clearly and said truly that success at 
 the outset was necessary to the consummation of 
 eventual failure that our difficulties would com- 
 mence just at the point where they seemed to termi- 
 nate. The expedition into Afghanistan was, for a 
 time, considered a master-stroke of diplomacy and a 
 triumph of military enterprise. Lord Auckland was 
 the greatest of statesmen ; Lord Keane the greatest 
 of soldiers ; and Shah Soojah the most popular of 
 monarchs. But the Protests which Mr. Tucker 
 had recorded were not belied by the march of 
 events. 
 
 The papers, in which he placed upon record his 
 remonstrances against the dangerous course of 
 policy which had been adopted by the Crown Minis- 
 ters, were dated January 29 and April 12, 1839. 
 They have already been laid before the public, and 
 need not, therefore, be quoted here. Before the 
 issue of events had proved the remarkable pre- 
 science by which these Protests were distinguished, 
 the soundness of the reasoning, and the general 
 
510 LIFE OP H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 sagacity by which they were marked, no less than 
 the manliness of their tone and the eloquence of 
 their diction, had called forth the commendation of 
 some of the greatest of English statesmen. And at 
 a later period, one, who on such a subject as this 
 was even more competent than Wellington, Peel, 
 and Ellenborough to pronounce an authoritative 
 opinion,* wrote to Mr. Tucker that he had read 
 these papers, " not only with admiration, but almost 
 with wonder, at the correct, complete, and prophetic 
 view which they take of every part of the question 
 connected with our Afghan mania." "You_ were 
 one of the few," wrote the same great man, in an- 
 other letter, " who condemned our mad policy in 
 Afghanistan, when the world admired and ap- 
 plauded; and although you could not prevent it, 
 your opposition to it will ever redound to your 
 honor." 
 
 He could not prevent it. He saw the war run 
 its course. He saw the initial triumphs, and the 
 treacherous calm which succeeded them ; but he 
 was not deluded by the mask of success. Then he 
 saw the storm gathering, and he was one of those 
 who would have anticipated the failure which ere 
 long was to be written in characters of blood, by 
 leaving Shah Soojah to govern the country which 
 we had restored to him, without the aid of his Ee- 
 ringhee allies. He was one of those who, when the 
 storm burst over us, contended that it would be 
 madness to endeavor to re-establish our influence 
 
 * Lord Metcalfe. 
 
THE FINANCIAL RESPONSIBILITY. 511 
 
 in Afghanistan ; and that the sooner every British 
 soldier could be withdrawn to our own side of the 
 Indus the better for the stability of the British Em- 
 pire in the East. And he was foremost amongst 
 those who contended that, as the war had been 
 undertaken for European purposes, under instruc- 
 tions from the Crown Ministers, without the sanc- 
 tion or even the cognisance, officially and collec- 
 tively, of the Court of Directors, it was a great 
 iniquity to throw the entire financial responsibility 
 of the war on the shoulders of the East India Com- 
 pany. " It was no doubt very convenient," he said, 
 " for his Majesty's Government to cast the whole 
 burden of an enterprise directed against Russia on 
 the finances of India, instead of sending a fleet into 
 the Baltic or the Black Sea; but we are bound to 
 resist the attempt to alienate and misapply the re- 
 sources of India." 
 
 Such an unrighteous misapplication of the reve- 
 nues of the country, which it was the especial duty 
 of the Court to protect against all such unjust 
 spoliation, he determined to resist; and his col- 
 leagues were leagued together in the same good 
 work of resistance. In furtherance of this object, 
 he proceeded to estimate the ascertained amount of 
 war-charges which the expedition across the Indus 
 had entailed upon the Indian Government; and 
 then he enunciated the following undeniable pro- 
 positions : 
 
 " 1st. That Persia, having for some time prior to 1835 sub- 
 mitted to the influence of Russia, the political relations of the 
 
512 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 British Government with the former country, constituted pro- 
 perly a European rather than an Asiatic question, and that it 
 could only, therefore, be dealt with as such. 
 
 " 2nd. That this assumption was admitted and acted upon 
 by his Majesty's Government, who, on the 15th of January 
 and 24th of February, 1835, entered into an arrangement with 
 the Court of Directors, founded on these premises. 
 
 " 3rd. That the Tripartite Treaty of the 20th of June, 1838, 
 was contracted without the consent, or previous knowledge, of 
 the Court of Directors ; that the policy which dictated that 
 treaty was neither sanctioned nor approved by them ; and that 
 they were not made acquainted with the obligations contracted 
 by it until the * Army of the Indus' was put in motion, under 
 the Proclamation of the Governor-General of India of the 1st 
 of October, 1838, for carrying the treaty into effect. 
 
 " 4th. That an extraordinary expenditure has been incurred 
 in the execution of the treaty, to the extent of not less than 
 8,000,000/. sterling,* which ought not to fall on the finances of 
 India, the service having been undertaken as against Russia, 
 and with a view to European objects and policy, and not for 
 the protection of our Indian possessions or frontiers, which 
 were never endangered, or even menaced, by an enemy. 
 
 " 5th. That the East India Company having delivered up its 
 commercial assets, amounting to fifteen millions sterling, for the 
 purpose of being applied to the discharge of territorial debt, 
 and for other territorial objects, and having been compelled to 
 borrow large sums of money, amounting in the last year, 
 1841-42, to nearly three millions sterling, chiefly for the pur- 
 pose of maintaining our footing in Afghanistan ; its Adminis- 
 trators, the Court of Directors, are no longer in a condition to 
 raise the necessary supplies to defray the Home Charges, the 
 Interest of the Public Debt, and the Civil and Military ex- 
 penses abroad, without aid from the National Government; 
 and that, should it be judged necessary to put forth another 
 expedition for the re-conquest of Afghanistan, the resources of 
 
 * The entire expenses of the war were subsequently ascertained to amount 
 to 15,000,0007. 
 
THE FINANCIAL RESPONSIBILITY. 513 
 
 India will be found unequal to the enterprise. Money must be 
 raised (if it can be raised at all in India) at an extravagant 
 rate of interest ; the public creditors will be seriously injured 
 by the deterioration of the existing securities, bearing an in- 
 terest of only four and five per cent, per annum ; while the 
 public finances will, it is to be apprehended, be reduced to a 
 state of irretrievable disorder." 
 
 , having entered into the historical facts of 
 the case in a retrospect, which I have already quoted, 
 and emphatically repeated that " his Majesty's Go- 
 vernment is solely and exclusively responsible for 
 the expenditure which has heen incurred, and for 
 all the other consequences arising out of the occu- 
 pation of Afghanistan," he proceeded to say : 
 
 " If these premises be correct (and it is not even pretended 
 that we were willing instruments in the hands of his Majesty's 
 Ministers), I would submit that the Court are entitled and are 
 bound to claim indemnification from his Majesty's Govern- 
 ment. The extraordinary charge incurred, and to be incurred, 
 to the 30th of April, 1842, may be fairly estimated at eight 
 millions sterling ; and I would suggest, that in order to render 
 it more easy for the National Government to provide for the 
 demand, an annuity equal to the interest of that sum at 3^- per 
 cent, (the rate which Consols now yield), or 266,0007., be 
 settled by Parliament on the East India Company ; the amount 
 to be applied, in the first instance, to augment the existing 
 Guarantee Fund so far as to ensure its reaching its maximum 
 of twelve millions within forty years from the date of the last 
 Charter ; and such annuity to be afterwards applied as a Sink- 
 ing Fund for the security and ultimate redemption of the 
 Public Debt of India. 
 
 "There is nothing extravagant or unreasonable in this 
 claim; for the National Government must ultimately make up 
 the Guarantee Fund to the sum of twelve millions, by the terms 
 
 2L 
 
51-1 . LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 of the Charter-Act ; and when it is recollected that the Com- 
 mercial Assets of the Company have realised 15,215,654/., a 
 large portion of which sum has been appropriated to the dis- 
 charge of Territorial Debt, and other incumbrances, the Pro- 
 prietors of East India Stock have just reason to expect, and to 
 require, that their pecuniary interests be adequately secured 
 and provided for. 
 
 " Prospectively, some extension of the arrangement may 
 eventually become necessary ; for if it be determined to send 
 forth another expedition, on a larger scale, for the re-conquest 
 of Afghanistan, the resources of India will be found absolutely 
 unequal to the undertaking. We must go on borrowing at a 
 high rate of interest, while the dividends of the Proprietors of 
 East India Stock, and the interest payable to the public 
 creditors, must be provided for by means of loans. This is a 
 state of things which cannot long continue or be tolerated ; and 
 no man at all acquainted with India will be prepared to main- 
 tain that the extraordinary supplies required can be furnished 
 by means of increased taxation on the already over-taxed 
 people of India." 
 
 There was reason in all this there was justice in 
 all this : so much reason and so much justice, that 
 the Crown Ministers, then being Conservative states- 
 men, and not themselves the authors of the war, 
 made a show of considering the claims of the Com- 
 pany, and virtually, indeed, admitted their cogency. 
 It need not, however, be said that nothing was 
 done. The Court of Directors, true to themselves, 
 true to the country whose resources had been thus 
 lamentably wasted, pushed their claims with stead- 
 fastness and vigor. The Court of Proprietors made 
 a demonstration in the same direction ; and many 
 truths were uttered as truths often are uttered in 
 that assembly all to very little effect. The people 
 
THE FINANCIAL RESPONSIBILITY. 515 
 
 of India had paid the expenses of a war which, from 
 first to last, had heen a mystery to them a war 
 made for European purposes by the representatives 
 of the English Government and let the Court of 
 Directors and the Court of Proprietors clamor as 
 they might, not one sixpence was to he refunded. 
 
 Against this great injustice Mr. Tucker never 
 ceased to protest. He well knew that there were 
 no charges more often brought against the Govern- 
 ment of the East India Company than that it 
 wasted its resources on unprofitable wars, and was 
 greedy of territorial aggrandisement. And here 
 was a case, to be cited in all time, of a prodigious 
 waste of public money drawn from the labor of 
 the people of India an expenditure of millions 
 cast upon the waters to return to us in blood and 
 tears. This war had been prosecuted by the agency 
 of the armies of the East India Company, and 
 maintained by their revenues. In the flush of its 
 first success, the Crown Ministers, in Parliament 
 and on the Hustings, had boasted of it as a master- 
 stroke of policy redounding to the honor of the 
 existing Cabinet ; but when these boasted measures 
 were clouded by disaster and disgrace, and it was 
 found that millions of money had been expended 
 only to bring about the most appalling catastrophe 
 recorded in the annals of our Indian Empire, the 
 whole responsibility of the war was cast upon the 
 East India Company, and in spite of expostulations 
 and remonstrances bearing the eternal stamp of 
 justice upon them, the people of India were com- 
 
 2L2 
 
516 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 pelled to pay the cost of the vagaries of Downing- 
 street. Had the millions thus misapplied been 
 suffered to remain in the Company's Treasury, for 
 ordinary purposes of internal administration, 
 placing at the disposal of the local authorities an 
 increasing surplus, and so stimulating the benevo- 
 lent energies of the Home Government, it is hard 
 to say what blessings, in the shape of great repro- 
 ductive agencies, might not have been conferred 
 upon the people. But instead of this, throughout 
 the greater part of the period embraced by the 
 Charter- Act of 1834, the curse of a Deficit sate 
 upon the arm of our Indian administrators, and 
 paralysed their ameliorative efforts. That Deficit 
 the Company owed primarily to the misdeeds of the 
 Crown Ministers ; and, secondarily, to the supine- 
 ness of the Parliament of Great Britain, which took 
 no account of these misdeeds. But the rare Justice 
 which had squandered the revenues of India upon 
 objects of European policy continued to pursue the 
 East India Company. It was made a reproach to 
 them that they had wasted the money drawn from 
 the labor of the people upon profligate and im- 
 politic wars ; and because they had not done more 
 good with this money, it was authoritatively de- 
 creed, by the Government which had spent it and 
 the Parliament which had permitted the expendi- 
 ture, that therefore the share of the Company in 
 the future government should be diminished and the 
 Ministerial element increased. 
 
 Such was the justice of the first charge against 
 
THE CONQUEST OF SCINDE. 517 
 
 the Company's Government, and the justice with 
 which it was disposed of by the Government of the 
 Crown. The second charge of which I have spoken 
 of is, that the Company have proved themselves to 
 be greedy of territory, and have unrighteously ex- 
 tended their dominions. A signal instance of this 
 is to be found in the case of the appropriation of 
 Scinde. Scarcely had Mr. Tucker ceased to protest 
 against the iniquity of the Afghan invasion and the 
 scandalous misappropriation of the Company's re- 
 venues which it involved, when he was disquieted 
 by the announcement of the spoliation of Scinde. 
 Lord Ellenborough having restored peace to Asia, 
 and stamped the gratifying fact on a commemorative 
 medal, immediately made war upon the Ameers of 
 Scinde. These unhappy Princes, who might have 
 wrought us grievous annoyance during the brilliant 
 retributory operations of Pollock and Nott, and 
 who, if they had really desired to compass our over- 
 throw, exhibited in this juncture an extraordinary 
 amount of forbearance, were known to be weak, and 
 therefore they were declared to be hostile. Napier 
 and his battalions were let loose upon them. With 
 a signal display of courage worthy of a better 
 cause, the British General, with greatly inferior 
 numbers, flung himself upon the Belloochee host, 
 and humbled the Talpoor Princes to the dust. 
 There are some bright pages of military history in 
 our annals of Eastern conquest which should be 
 read apart from their political context ; and this is 
 one of them. The Ameers of Scinde were beaten 
 
518 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 in battle ; and their country proclaimed a British 
 province. 
 
 This was one of those grievous wrongs which 
 were sure to stir the heart of Mr. Tucker with 
 measureless indignation, and to call forth from him 
 no uncertain trumpet- sounds of expostulation and 
 remonstrance. It may be stated here again, that, 
 as a man, he was a stanch Tory. His political 
 sympathies were all with the Conservative party. 
 He had rejoiced in the return of Sir Robert Peel to 
 office. He had recognised the great natural talents 
 and the official diligence of Lord Ellenborough at 
 the Board of Control, and believed that the appoint- 
 ment of that nobleman to the Governor-Generalship 
 of India was to be hailed as an auspicious event 
 ominous of a reign of prosperity and peace. But 
 as an East India Director he was of no party. He 
 had denounced the invasion of Afghanistan and the 
 deposition of Dost Mahomed; and he saw in the 
 spoliation of Scinde a kindred act of injustice. The 
 Court of Directors, to a man, were ranged upon the 
 same side. I believe that a considerable majority 
 of them at this time belonged to the Conservative 
 party. But it is a distinguishing merit of the Go- 
 vernment of the East India Company that its Di- 
 rectors shake the dust of faction off their feet when 
 they pass the threshold of the great house in 
 Leadenhall-street. They looked only at the injus- 
 tice and impolicy of conquering and annexing a 
 country, the rulers of which had in reality exercised 
 singular forbearance under great provocation, and 
 
LETTER TO SIR HOBEKT PEEL. 519 
 
 the revenues of which could not be made to cover 
 the cost of its administration and its defence. So at 
 the end of August, 1843, they formally passed a 
 resolution, declaring that, in their opinion, the pro- 
 ceedings adopted towards the Ameers of Scinde had 
 been unjust and impolitic, and inconsistent with the 
 true honor and interests of our Indian Government. 
 Before this, Mr. Tucker had placed upon record 
 his opinions on the subject of the annexation of 
 Scinde.* In spite of his strong Conservative lean- 
 ings, and his disinclination to embarrass the Govern- 
 ment of Sir Robert Peel, he had been active in call- 
 ing for information relating to our proceedings 
 against the Ameers, and had not scrupled to de- 
 clare to the leader of the Conservative party that 
 the unrighteousness of these proceedings had forced 
 upon him a strong conviction that the Government 
 of India was not in safe hands. In the beginning 
 of June he wrote the following letter to Sir Robert 
 Peel: 
 
 " TO SIR ROBERT PEEL, BART. 
 
 " 1st June, 1843. 
 
 " MY DEAR SIR, I believe that you know that I have long 
 been an humble adherent of the Conservative body of which 
 you are the distinguished leader, and that, to the utmost of my 
 very slender means, I have, upon principle, advocated its cause 
 and interests through good fortune and through bad fortune. 
 
 " But as a member of the Court of Directors I have certain 
 duties imposed upon me, for the honest performance of which 
 I am responsible to my constituents and to the country. I 
 cannot believe that the Legislature intended to constitute us 
 mere unmeaning cyphers ; and, holding this opinion, I have 
 
 * See Memorials of Indian Government, pp. 313, et seq. 
 
520 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 always acted, according to the best of my judgment, an inde- 
 pendent part, as one of the administrators of our Indian affairs. 
 
 " I may venture to say to you, that wiser and better men 
 than myself have, for some time, been of opinion that the 
 Government of India is not at present in safe hands. I concur 
 in this opinion; but I have been unwilling to act upon it 
 hitherto, from a feeling that extremities ought to be avoided as 
 long as possible. 
 
 " But the late transactions in Scinde have produced, unhap- 
 pily, a crisis in our affairs ; and I cannot refrain from taking an 
 early part in inquiring into the conduct of our Governor 
 abroad, without exposing myself to the charge of inconsistency, 
 and to a suspicion that the part which I took on the occasion 
 of the invasion of Afghanistan was dictated by party and factious 
 motives. 
 
 " I have accordingly given notice of a motion for the pro- 
 duction of the Scinde papers for the 7th of June ; and I have 
 sketched the grounds on which I propose to support this 
 motion. 
 
 " If the papers be laid before the Court, I shall examine the 
 case calmly and dispassionately, and endeavor to arrive at its 
 real merits. 
 
 " If the papers be refused, I must work with my own mate- 
 rials, and place on record the result. I do not go so far as to 
 say that, if the papers should not be given us, a presumption 
 will arise that the Government cannot be justified, or defended; 
 but I must think that an unfavorable impression will be pro- 
 duced by even their temporary suppression ; nor will it be 
 possible to prevent the case of the Ameers from being brought 
 before the British public, sooner or later. 
 
 " If you should have any wish to see my Notes, a copy shall 
 be immediately submitted for your perusal. They are founded 
 on what is publicly known ; for I have not thought it right to 
 make use of any confidential communications on the subject, 
 in the present stage of our proceedings. 
 
 u I have the honor to be, my dear Sir, &c., &c., 
 
 " H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 "Bight Hon. Sir Robert Peel, Bart." 
 
EVILS OF SECRECY. 521 
 
 Mr. Tucker hated secrecy. It was his opinion 
 that the history of Indian Government was too 
 much a sealed hook that truth and justice de- 
 manded a more general ventilation of Indian poli- 
 tics and that out of the Secret Committee there 
 should he no official secrets. The resolutions con- 
 demnatory of the annexation of Scinde were 
 " secret" resolutions ; hut it was Mr. Tucker's 
 opinion that they ought to he recorded upon the 
 puhlic proceedings of the Court, "it heing con- 
 trary to usage and at variance with the constitution 
 of the Court, acting under responsibility to other 
 puhlic authorities, to establish any Secret Depart- 
 ment, or to withhold from the public records any 
 secret resolution, or proceedings, beyond such rea- 
 sonable period as can be justified, upon the ground 
 that immediate publicity would seriously compro- 
 mise the public interests." And in November, 
 1843, he had contemplated proposing a resolution 
 to this effect ; but he had been subsequently induced 
 to withhold it. That, apart from every other con- 
 sideration, such secrecy is injurious to the character 
 of the Company's Government is not to be doubted. 
 The conduct of the Court of Directors has in many 
 instances been misunderstood and misrepresented ; 
 and they have submitted to these misunderstandings 
 and misrepresentations with an amount of for- 
 bearance which appears to me mistaken in prin- 
 ciple and unjustifiable in practice. A private indi- 
 vidual may submit to be misrepresented he may 
 do good by stealth, if he will, and be accused of 
 
522 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 doing evil, without rebutting the charge he may 
 determine to let calumny have its way and to live 
 it down, without an effort to deprive it of its sting. 
 But a Government has no right to indulge in a 
 magnanimous forbearance of this kind. Its cha- 
 racter is public property. It cannot be misrepre- 
 sented without injury to the public. Every lie 
 affecting the character of a great constitutional 
 body is more or less a public calamity. If certain 
 Native Princes are violently despoiled of their pos- 
 sessions, and their broad lands annexed to the terri- 
 tories of the East India Company, it should be 
 known to the world whether it was or was not the 
 greed of the Company that caused this extension of 
 their empire. About such a matter as this, History 
 should not go groping in the dark. How is it to be 
 determined whether the Company ought expediently 
 to be trusted with more or with less power, unless it 
 is known what part they had in the furtherance or 
 the resistance of measures which have cast a stain 
 upon British policy in the East ? These were the 
 opinions of Mr. Tucker ; and if he had lived to hear 
 and to see what, during the discussions of 1853, was 
 said and written about the Company's Government, 
 lie would have been strengthened in his conviction 
 of their truth.* 
 
 * It was frequently said in my hearing that the Company might have ob- 
 jected to the annexation of Scinde, but that there was no proof of it before 
 the world, and that people were not called upon to take for granted the 
 truth of all vague assertions or obscure rumors on the subject. Others de- 
 clared that if the Company had condemned, either before or after the fact, the 
 unjust treatment of the Ameers of Scinde, they would have made it known 
 to the world, and that the mere fact of their silence was presumptive evidence 
 of their complicity in these foul transactions. 
 
LOKD ELLENBOROTJGH'S RECALL. 523 
 
 What Mr. Tucker, as an individual Director, 
 wrote about the conquest and annexation of Scinde, 
 is on record. What the Court of Directors did in 
 their collective capacity, is not. I have only to do 
 with the performances of the latter, in so far as they 
 illustrate the sayings and doings of the subject of 
 this Memoir. But even in this limited significance, 
 the obscurity of which I have spoken is incon- 
 venient and embarrassing. One secret makes many. 
 If the Resolutions passed by the Court of Directors 
 in August, 1843, with reference to the annexation of 
 Scinde, were on record, they would throw much 
 light upon the next subject which the Biographer of 
 Henry St. George Tucker is called upon to illustrate. 
 These Resolutions, relating only to our proceedings 
 towards the Ameers of Scinde, were in effect a vote 
 of want of confidence in Lord Ellenborough. There 
 were other sources of complaint, but they were only 
 petty tributary streams swelling the great flood of 
 censure which set in against the unrighteous appro- 
 priation of the territories of Scinde. What they 
 principally were may be gathered from Mr. Tucker's 
 papers.* It is matter of history that Lord Ellen- 
 borough was recalled. That Mr. Tucker, some time 
 before the measure was determined upon by the 
 Court, had foreseen the necessity of it, has been 
 shown. He had no prejudices against the man ; he 
 had greatly esteemed his many high qualities, which 
 he now saw were those of one capax imperil nisi 
 imperassU, and there was regret in the disappoint- 
 
 * See papers on the "Administration of Lord Ellenborough" Memorials 
 of Indian Government, pp. 339, et seq. 
 
524 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 ment. He was attached to Lord Ellenborough's 
 party; he was especially attached to some of his 
 Lordship's chief supporters the Duke of "Welling- 
 ton at their head and so little could he have heen 
 influenced by those considerations which were un- 
 truly said at the time, more than anything else, to 
 have moved the Court against him, that the very 
 measure which called forth the remarks of the Go- 
 vernor-General provocative, it was said, of his recall, 
 had been resolutely opposed by Mr. Tucker. But 
 he was not one to be deterred by any feelings of 
 personal regret from prosecuting his public duty. 
 
 Lord Ellenborough was recalled. The " gross in- 
 discretion" of the East India Company was publicly 
 stigmatised by the Crown Ministers; and every 
 effort was made to wrap the whole question in an 
 impenetrable fog, and set the public groping about 
 in ignorance and perplexity. Mr. Tucker was for 
 dragging it wholly into the clear light of day. In 
 truth, it was a very simple and intelligible business ; 
 and they who had looked for highly-seasoned reve- 
 lations would, if the whole history had been made 
 public, have been greatly disappointed. There was, 
 indeed, very little to reveal. The Court of Directors 
 believed that the public interests would suffer by 
 Lord Ellenborough's retention of the office of Go- 
 vernor-General, and therefore they recalled him. 
 What Mr. Tucker believed would be the effects of 
 the recall may be gathered from the following 
 letter : 
 
LETTER TO LORD HEYTESBURY. 525 
 
 " MR. TUCKER TO LORD HEYTESBURY. 
 
 " 29th April, 1844. 
 
 " MY DEAR LORD, Throughout a long course of years, in 
 good fortune and in adverse fortune, I have continued the steady 
 adherent of the party which now constitutes the Government 
 of this country, and to the utmost of my very humble means 
 I have rendered it all the little service in my power, without 
 receiving or seeking any recognition of those slender services. 
 I have acted upon principle ; and if I am compelled to place 
 myself in opposition to those whose cause and interests I have 
 been so long accustomed to advocate, my motives can scarcely 
 be mistaken. 
 
 " But I have other duties and obligations imposed on me of 
 a paramount character ; and those duties I will endeavor honestly 
 and fearlessly to fulfil. 
 
 " The Court of Directors are placed at this moment in a 
 position of singular embarrassment; and I must think that the 
 Government has placed itself, and the public service, in a 
 position of extraordinary difficulty, which may have very serious 
 results. 
 
 " The two co-ordinate Authorities entrusted with the admi- 
 nistration of India, have been exhibited to Parliament and to 
 the Public as directly opposed to each other upon a most 
 important question. The judgment pronounced by twenty-nine 
 independent and disinterested men (for such they are) acting 
 under the sacred obligation of an oath, has been virtually 
 denounced and condemned (most unhappily, as I think) by a 
 Minister of the Crown in his place in Parliament, that Minister 
 being perfectly aware that the question had undergone the 
 most deliberate consideration during eight months, and that 
 the Court of Directors were fully prepared to carry out and to 
 justify their resolution. 
 
 " Again, we have the Governor- General of India placed in 
 the very singular position of being condemned by one of the 
 co-ordinate Authorities, while he is supported and publicly 
 justified by the other. This state of things must inevitably 
 produce inconvenience and embarrassment. 
 
526 , LIFE OE H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 " The first result will be, that the Court of Directors will 
 find it necessary to make an immediate appeal to their consti- 
 tuents, and through them to the British Public, in vindication 
 of their proceedings. The whole of their correspondence with 
 the Board and the Governor-General will be published; and a 
 case will, I have no doubt, be made out fully to justify the 
 recall of Lord Ellenborough. 
 
 " The second result may possibly be an appeal to Parliament, 
 where we shall be able, I think, to show that the power entrusted 
 to us by the Legislature was not granted in ignorance, as sup- 
 posed by Lord Brougham that the question of reserving a 
 veto to the Government was discussed and abandoned that 
 any tampering with the existing law in Parliament would be a 
 virtual infraction of the Charter that the power entrusted to 
 the Court has been wisely conferred and that the absolute 
 power to retain a Governor-General, the colleague or partisan 
 of any Ministry, would establish a despotism in India, totally 
 irreconcileable with constitutional principles, and with the 
 public interests. 
 
 " We have temperately considered all which has been urged, 
 or which perhaps can be urged, against our resolution; but we 
 deduce inferences exactly the reverse of those which have been 
 drawn. 
 
 " We are persuaded that the recall of Lord Ellenborough 
 will go far to restore that confidence to the Princes and Chiefs 
 of India, which his Lordship's aggressive policy (especially in 
 Scinde) has had a direct tendency to destroy. 
 
 " That it will promote the re-establishment of peace in India; 
 and may be expected to avert the calamities of new wars which 
 are impending in different quarters. 
 
 " That it will enable us to place our recent acquisitions in 
 Scinde on a more safe and satisfactory footing. 
 
 " That it may prevent the further disorganisation of the 
 Native army. 
 
 " That it will show the people of the Continent and of the 
 United States that the Government of this country is not iden- 
 tified with the unscrupulous and aggressive policy which has 
 characterised the proceedings of the Governor- General. 
 
LETTER TO LORD HEYTESBURY. 527 
 
 " I could say a great deal more on the subject ; but our case 
 will be fully explained and enforced at the proper season, and 
 I have the most firm conviction that we shall be supported by 
 the Public. 
 
 " The Government paper of this morning has put forth a 
 foul calumny, that the Court have been influenced by a corrupt 
 feeling, originating in the Governor-General's economical re- 
 forms. Nothing could be more untrue Lord Ellenborough has 
 not effected any such reforms, although he has made innumer- 
 able changes, which are likely to occasion a great increase of 
 charge ; and if he had introduced such reforms, he would have 
 received the cordial support of the Court, who can have no 
 interest in any increase of expenditure. 
 
 "My seat in the Court is now of little or no value to me, 
 and I care not how soon it may terminate ; but while I hold it, 
 I shall do my best to maintain the independence of the Body 
 to which I belong, as well as what I believe to be the interests 
 of the public service. 
 
 " And why do I address myself to your Lordship at the 
 present moment on such a subject ? Because I foresee public 
 mischief, and because, well knowing your great prudence and 
 patriotism, I think it possible that you may have an opportunity 
 of averting that mischief. 
 
 " With this view, your Lordship is at full liberty to make 
 any use you please of this letter. 
 
 " I have the honor to be, &c., &c., most sincerely, &c., 
 
 " H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 " Right Hon. Lord Heytesbury." 
 
 Perhaps, Mr. Tucker somewhat over-rated the 
 calm and dispassionate judgment which he "believed 
 that Lord Heytesbury would bring to bear upon 
 this important question. His Lordship was, per- 
 haps, more of a party man than his friend sus- 
 pected ; and he was a devout follower of the Duke. 
 At all events, the communication which Mr. Tucker 
 
528 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 received in reply to the above earnest letter did not 
 encourage him to open out his mind any further to 
 his correspondent ; so he wrote back the following 
 brief rejoinder to Lord Heytesbury's reply : 
 
 " MR. TUCKER TO LORD HEYTESBURY. 
 
 " 1st May, 1844. 
 
 " MY DEAR LORD, I have been favored with your Lord- 
 ship's note of yesterday, and I have no wish to trouble you 
 further on the subject, except to explain that I never contem- 
 plated for an instant the possibility of the Court retracing its 
 steps. My anxious wish was to prevent, if possible, the Go- 
 vernment from identifying itself, to an unnecessary extent, with 
 the Governor- General, and from identifying its friends with its 
 political opponents. This has now been done. We have been 
 violently attacked; and as public men responsible for our acts, 
 we must defend ourselves. That defence will lead us into a 
 parallel line with those who are always ready to assail the 
 Government. Few will deplore the possible consequences more 
 than I shall do ; but many, I apprehend, will have greater 
 cause to deplore them. 
 
 " I have the honor to be, &c., &c., 
 
 " H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 " Eight Hon. Lord Heytesbury." 
 
 The Company did not "retrace their steps" 
 Lord Ellenborough returned to England. But it 
 was not thought expedient, now that the act of 
 "indiscretion" had been committed, that there 
 should be a public inquiry into its history. The 
 Company had accomplished their main object ; and 
 the Right of Recall remained in their hands. 
 
DOMESTIC LIFE. 529 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 Mr. Tucker's Domestic Life His Second Chairmanship Appointment of 
 Lord Dalhousie Mr. Tucker's Farewell Address Public Entertainments 
 Correspondence with Prince Waldemar of Prussia Dinners to Lord 
 Dalhousie and Lord Hardinge Patronage Official Duties. 
 
 IT is time that I should cease, for a little space, 
 from the records of these exciting political events, to 
 speak again of Mr. Tucker's domestic life, and the 
 repose which he enjoyed in the family circle. He 
 had now numbered the allotted years of man. In 
 1840 he entered his seventieth year. But there was 
 a long season of usefulness yet before him ; and his 
 strength was not labor and sorrow. He was in the 
 enjoyment of excellent health ; all his faculties were 
 unimpaired ; his memory was as perfect as in his 
 youth ; his intellect was in its fullest vigor ; and an 
 abundant flow of animal spirits, a perpetual cheer- 
 fulness of demeanor, rendered his companionship 
 truly delightful even to the very young. 
 
 His home-life was a tranquil one. He was in the 
 daily enjoyment of many blessings, and a perennial 
 stream of thankfulness flowed from his heart. He 
 had seen a large family grow up at his knees a 
 
 2M 
 
530 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 dutiful, an affectionate, a united family. No heavier 
 sorrow had thrown a shadow across his threshold for 
 long years, than that which all must bear who send 
 forth their sons to seek their fortunes in a strange 
 land. One by one his boys had received his benedic- 
 tion and set their faces towards the East. But there 
 was abundant compensation even in this. He knew 
 that his absent children were treading steadily the ap- 
 pointed path ; and that distance had little weakened 
 the ties which bound them to the old homestead. 
 He watched from a distance the career of his five 
 sons, and rejoiced in the thought that he had con- 
 tributed so many good workmen to the service of 
 the State. 
 
 There were other children, too, left to brighten 
 the fireside ; and there was the beloved companion 
 with whom he had climbed, hand-in-hand, the hill- 
 side of life. Day after day he journeyed down to 
 the India House, leaving his house in Upper Port- 
 land-place at an early hour of the morning, and 
 returning in the afternoon but little exhausted by 
 the labors of the day. He was not, as some men 
 who are much engaged in public business, absorbed 
 or distracted in the family circle. I have heard it 
 said, that he gleamed into it like sunshine, and had 
 a ready smile for the humblest of its members. He 
 left the India House, with all its cares and conten- 
 tions, behind him, and among his children was him- 
 self a child. Yet in his very playfulness there was 
 something that inspired respect. He was dignified 
 
TESTAMENTARY BEQUESTS. 531 
 
 without stateliness ; and though he often unbent, he 
 never descended. 
 
 He was in the enjoyment, too, of a moderate for- 
 tune a fortune somewhat impaired by his excessive 
 liberality for he was at all times a cheerful giver, 
 and there were many members of his family and 
 many not of his family, who had profited largely 
 by his bounty but still sufficient for all his wants. 
 With his temperate habits, his powers of self-denial, 
 and his utter freedom from ostentation, he could 
 have contented himself even with a humbler style 
 of living ; and at one time the education and equip- 
 ment of his sons, and other extraordinary items 
 of expenditure, having pressed heavily upon the 
 sources of his income, he had it in serious contem- 
 plation to abandon his old home in Portland-place, 
 and to seeli elsewhere a humbler tenement. But it 
 had happened that, at this juncture, his store was 
 unexpectedly increased. Providence deals as largely 
 in rewards and compensations as in retributions and 
 revenges. To him who gives much, much often is 
 given. It was meet that one whose self-denying 
 generosity had been manifested so conspicuously 
 throughout life whose open hand had cheered so 
 many households, should now in his turn be cheered 
 by a gift as little anticipated by him as a shower of 
 gold from heaven. In January, 1840, a near neigh- 
 bour and a valued friend of Mr. Tucker Mr. An- 
 thony Brough died, and bequeathed to him and 
 his family legacies amounting in all to 10,OOOJ. Nor 
 
 2 M 2 
 
532 LIFE OF H. ST.a. TUCKER. 
 
 was this the only unexpected boon that enriched 
 him in his declining years. At a somewhat later 
 period, Mr. Andrew Maclew, who in early life had 
 known Mr. Tucker in India, bequeathed to him 
 another lakh of rupees, with legacies to all his 
 daughters. Neither of these gentlemen was in any 
 way connected with Mr. Tucker; nor were they 
 beholden to him for any especial services. In both 
 instances the gift was nothing more than a spon- 
 taneous tribute of respect for the character of the 
 man. 
 
 A man neither prone to avarice nor to ambition, 
 nor abandoned to luxurious living, may have rejoiced 
 becomingly in these good gifts of Fortune ; and, 
 doubtless, they contributed to the happiness of the 
 last years of Mr. Tucker's life. It was an abiding 
 source of consolation to him to think that the house 
 in which he had lived a score of happy years, and in 
 which some of his beloved ones had first seen the 
 light, would still, when it pleased God to remove 
 him from the scene of his earthly labors, continue 
 to shelter those whom he saw daily assembling at 
 his board, and whom daily he commended to the 
 love of that kind Providence which had done such 
 great things for him. His cheerfulness and loving- 
 kindness, indeed, were without stint or abatement. 
 Increasing years seemed only to bring increasing 
 joyousness of heart and increasing gaiety of manner. 
 It was a calm, unclouded sunset which flushed all 
 the household with light. 
 
 Tew things have furnished to the literary essayist 
 
HOURS OF RELAXATION. 533 
 
 pleasanter topics of discourse than the amusements 
 of the wise, and there are few more delightful chap- 
 ters in the biographies of the most loveahle of great 
 men, than those which represent the statesman or 
 the philosopher, the poet or the divine, in his hours 
 of relaxation. The greatest, indeed, have delighted 
 in seasonable frivolities, and have come down, be- 
 nignantly, from the stilts. It little matters what 
 the diversion may be. It may be the flying of kites 
 or the blowing of bubbles or the sending up of 
 paper balloons it may be a game of nine-pins or 
 of push-pin or it may be the swimming of little 
 boats. No one respects a man less for these season- 
 able amenities ; and every one loves him more. 
 Mr. Tucker's favorite relaxation was of a more in- 
 tellectual character than any I have here indicated. 
 It consisted in the composition of poetical enigmas. 
 And it was by no means a selfish amusement. Eor 
 he read them aloud after dinner, to the infinite 
 delight of his family circle, offering a reward to the 
 first of his children who succeeded in supplying the 
 required solution. Many and many a happy even- 
 ing was thus spent, after the severer labors of the 
 day were done ; and nothing was ever more accept- 
 able than the announcement that the Sphinx had 
 something to reveal. Many of these enigmas were 
 distinguished both by the ingenuity of the puzzle 
 they contained and the elegance of the poetry which 
 encased them. When in 1845-46 his quinquennial 
 year of absence from the Court came round, and he 
 had necessarily more leisure for the indulgence of 
 
534 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 this harmless humor, he made a collection of these 
 little pieces, and printed them for the amusement of 
 his family circle and a few of his more intimate 
 friends. 
 
 Though no man ever delighted more in the tran- 
 quil enjoyments of Home, or hungered less after 
 extraneous excitements, he was one who, using the 
 World as not ahusing it, neither withheld himself 
 from social intercourse, nor desired to see his chil- 
 dren living the life of the Hecluse. But that which 
 was a distinguishing feature of his social character 
 was a never-failing hospitality. His doors were 
 opened freely to relatives and friends without regard 
 for his own personal convenience. His house, in- 
 deed, was one of those elastic houses which are not 
 unfitly called Family Hotels, and into which are 
 sometimes crowded an assemblage of guests far 
 beyond their legitimate capacity of accommodation. 
 There was no sacrifice of individual comfort which 
 he was not willing to make when there was any 
 peculiar claim upon his hospitality. He converted 
 his drawing-rooms into a sick- ward for the reception 
 of an invalid lady whom the Eaculty had pronounced 
 incurable ; and on another occasion received into 
 his house a more perilous inmate, with only a dis- 
 tant claim of consanguinity upon him. And, in 
 both cases, his kindness was rewarded by the unex- 
 pected recovery of his guests. 
 
 His humanity, indeed, was in all things con- 
 spicuous. He was tenderly compassionate of every 
 description of human suffering, and did not, whilst 
 
HIS HUMANITY. 535 
 
 taking account of the more imposing misery of large 
 classes of his brethren, overlook the humbler sor- 
 rows of individual sufferers who shivered at his 
 own door. He watched with the deepest interest 
 the progress of those great social questions which 
 involved the physical and moral welfare of large 
 masses of the working classes;* but he did not, 
 whilst the cry of the Factory children was sounding 
 in his ears, close his eyes to the appealing looks of 
 the poor cross-sweeper who stood at the corner of 
 the street. 
 
 Upon such traits of individual character it is a 
 pleasure and a privilege to dwell but I must re- 
 turn again to the India House, and revert to Mr. 
 Tucker's public career. Though he had numbered 
 nearly fourscore years, he was as regular in his visits 
 to Leadenhall-street as in the early days of his con- 
 nexion with the Court ; and as indefatigable in his 
 
 * The Factory question, iu all its branches, especially that which related 
 to the limitation of the labor of women and children, excited his compas- 
 sionate sympathies in no common degree; and he was zealous in his en. 
 couragement of Lord Ashley and others, who were forward at this time in 
 the cause of humanity. The following letter, which he addressed to that 
 nobleman, shows the deep interest which he took in the question: 
 
 " March 23, 1844. 
 
 " MY DEAR LORD, I hope I may be permitted to congratulate you on the 
 triumph of humanity and justice yes, and of wisdom and policy. 
 
 " We may be dazzled for a season by our victories in the field, but this is 
 a triumph which will be registered where the record will endure for ever. 
 
 " I hope that your Lordship will, by-and-by, direct your views to a quarter 
 where grievous wrongs are to be redressed, and where there is a noble field 
 for the exercise of those qualities which are given us for the good of man- 
 kind. 
 
 " I have the honor to be, with great esteem, 
 " Your Lordship's most faithful, 
 
 " H. ST.G. TUCREK." 
 
536 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 attention to business. Nor was it only the will that 
 was present. The power remained with him unim- 
 paired. He was as clear in all his conceptions ; as 
 tenacious of all the experiences of his long life ; as 
 methodical in the arrangement of his ideas ; and 
 both as vigorous and as perspicuous in his diction, 
 as he had been twenty years before. Such, indeed, 
 was the confidence which his colleagues reposed in 
 his unimpaired administrative ability, that, at the 
 age of seventy-five, he was invited by them again to 
 occupy one of the Chairs. " You will be surprised," 
 he wrote to one of his sons, on the 5th of May, 
 1846, "to hear of my undertaking the office of 
 Deputy-Chairman at my advanced age ; but I could 
 not well avoid it ; and so far I have not experienced 
 any inconvenience from my extra labors. My health 
 has been mercifully preserved to me, and should I 
 continue to be blessed with it for a year or two longer, 
 I may hope to perform my duties efficiently."* 
 
 It was not without some doubt and hesitation that 
 he accepted the office. But as the colleagues who 
 knew him best were the most eager to counsel his 
 acceptance, and the strongest in their assurance 
 that his occupation of the Chair would be advan- 
 tageous to the interests of India, he made up his 
 mind to sacrifice his private ease and convenience, 
 
 * His health was very good at this time: and he was profoundly thankful 
 for this and all the other blessings that had been vouchsafed to him. " How 
 mercifully have I not been dealt with!" he wrote in a private memorandum- 
 book, under date of May, 1846. " How many blessings do I not enjoy! At 
 seventy-five I have still health, and am capable of enjoying all the comforts of 
 life. May I never forget, or cease to be humbly grateful to that gracious 
 Power by whom all these blessings have been bestowed." 
 
APPOINTMENT TO THE CHAIRS. 537 
 
 and again to become one of the stroke-oars of the 
 Court. The only real objection to the arrangement 
 was purely of a domestic kind. Mr. Tucker believed 
 that if he were to take counsel with his family, 
 although every member of it would in her inmost 
 heart deplore his return to public life, not only be- 
 cause it would necessarily deprive her of so much of 
 his beloved society, but because it might endanger 
 his precious health, there might still be some re- 
 luctance, knowing as all did what was his sense of 
 public duty, to persuade him not to listen to the 
 solicitations of his friends in the Direction. And, 
 with characteristic generosity and refinement of feel- 
 ing, he determined, therefore, to take the step, past 
 revocation, without consulting any member of the 
 family-party, that the entire responsibility of the 
 step might be his own, and that, if any evil should 
 result from it, there should be no self-reproach be- 
 yond the limits of his own breast. It was not until 
 everything was concluded, that he announced in 
 Portland-place his intention of again accepting the 
 Chair. 
 
 In April, 1846, Mr. Tucker was, a second time, 
 elected Deputy-Chairman of the Court of Directors ; 
 and in April, 1847, he was, a second time, elected 
 Chairman of the Court. 
 
 Mr. Tucker's second Chairmanship was a less 
 troublous one than his first but it was not a less 
 busy or a less important one. It happened that in 
 the year 1847-48 an unusual amount of patronage 
 fell into the hands of the Court; and that there 
 
538 LIFE OP H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 was an unwonted number of those public entertain- 
 ments which draw together at the hospitable board 
 of the Company so many of the most distinguished 
 men of the age. During this year, not only was a 
 new Governor appointed to the Bombay Presidency* 
 and another to the Madras Presidency,! but it de- 
 volved also upon the East India Company to ap- 
 point a Governor-General in succession to Lord 
 Hardinge, who, greatly to the regret of the Court, 
 had announced his intention of laying down the 
 reins of office. " Lord Dalhousie," wrote Mr. 
 Tucker, in a letter dated the 26th of July, 1847, 
 " is to be the new Governor- General, and Sir Henry 
 Pottinger the new Governor of Madras. The papers 
 say that these appointments were proposed to us by 
 the Ministry ; but the fact is, that they were pro- 
 posed by us. There is only the difference of a pre- 
 position." 
 
 By Mr. Tucker, on whom, primarily as Chairman, 
 the duty of selection descended, the responsibility 
 was by no means lightly regarded; and it was a 
 source of personal regret to him that the vacancy 
 had occurred during his tenure of office. Writing 
 to Lord Hardinge in May, he said, " No proposition 
 has yet been made through me to the Court by her 
 Majesty's Government ; and I do believe that a 
 hope is still entertained that your Lordship will 
 continue at your post. I have a selfish feeling on 
 this subject, for a change may involve me in great 
 difficulty. I consider the selection for the office of 
 
 * Lord Falkland. f Sir Henry Pottinger. 
 
APPOINTMENT OP LORD DALHOUSIE. 539 
 
 Governor- General to impose a sacred duty. The 
 well-being of millions may depend upon this selec- 
 tion, and the public interests may be seriously 
 affected by it. This is not mere speculation. To 
 my infinite annoyance I was on a former occasion 
 compelled to oppose an arrangement in which I 
 could not honestly concur ; and it would be an 
 instance of extraordinary bad fortune (which I 
 should most earnestly deprecate) if I should, a 
 second time, be placed in the same embarrassing 
 position. I can only hope for the best; and re- 
 solve to do my best." 
 
 And, doubtless, he did his best, when, in con- 
 junction with the Court, he recommended Lord 
 Dalhousie for the high office of Governor- General of 
 India. There was fortunately on this occasion no 
 difference of opinion between the authorities of the 
 Company and of the Crown. The appointment was 
 one of those felicitous ones which evoke no conflict 
 of interests, and scarcely excite any antagonism of 
 opinion. It was approved in England ; it was ap- 
 proved in India. Lord Dalhousie was known to 
 be a man of unstained reputation and uncommon 
 ability; sedulous in his attention to business, and 
 energetic without extravagance. It was believed 
 that he would prove to be at once a vigorous and a 
 safe ruler one who knew when action was required 
 and when repose; one equal to the necessities of 
 stirring times, but not eager to create them. And 
 it was mainly because moderation was esteemed to 
 be a distinguishing feature of his character that Mr. 
 Tucker gave him his confidence without stint. 
 
540 LIEE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 It is one of the duties of the Chairman of the 
 Court of Directors to deliver a parting admonitory 
 address to every newly-appointed Governor. In 
 these addresses the same leading principles are 
 necessarily inculcated on all occasions ; and there 
 are certain stereotyped forms of expression, honored 
 by long usage, which one Chairman after another is 
 necessitated to use, for they are indispensable to 
 the completeness of the oration. By, the departing 
 statesman these valedictory harangues are generally 
 received as matters of course, and the exhortations 
 they contain not seldom whistled to the wind on 
 emerging into the outer air of Leadenhall- street. 
 On the occasion of which I am now writing, it is 
 probable that all that Mr. Tucker had to say had 
 been said more minutely and more emphatically in 
 private, and that he now only embodied his fore- 
 gone admonitions in more formal and stately periods. 
 Lord Dalhousie had visited the venerable Chairman 
 in his own private room at the India House, and 
 had shown himself eager to profit by the experience 
 of one who had been a ripe Indian statesman before 
 the youthful Governor-General had been born. It 
 is easy to divine what those lessons were. It is no 
 part of my duty to inquire how far they have been 
 regarded. 
 
 The formality of the valedictory address is followed 
 by the festivity of the, Farewell Banquet. "When 
 the Governor Elect has been instructed and admo- 
 nished in Leadenhall-street he is sumptuously feasted 
 and flattered in the coterminous street of Bishops- 
 
PRINCE WALDEMAH. 541 
 
 gate ; and then it is well that he should speedily 
 embark. The entertainment to Lord Dalhousie was 
 not the first at which Mr. Tucker had presided since 
 he succeeded to the Chairmanship in April. In 
 July, 1847, he had welcomed home some of the dis- 
 tinguished soldiers who had taken a conspicuous part 
 in the recent campaigns on the Punjahee frontier. 
 At this entertainment Prince Waldemar of Prussia, 
 who had earned for himself a right to be classed 
 among the heroes of the Sutlej, was an honored 
 guest. This was one of many features which ren- 
 dered the Banquet a remarkable one, not easily to 
 be effaced from the memory of those who took part 
 in the festivities of the evening. There was some- 
 thing in the open, ingenuous character of the young 
 Prince that drew Mr. Tucker's heart towards him ; 
 and there were few in this country who more sin- 
 cerely lamented the premature close of his career 
 than the venerable statesman who had entertained 
 him, with so much geniality, at the London Tavern. 
 The feelings of kindness and respect between them 
 were, indeed, reciprocal. It will somewhat inter- 
 rupt the narrative to introduce in this place the 
 following letters, which they interchanged some 
 months after their meeting in the City Banqueting- 
 room but the interruption will be readily forgiven. 
 They call for no introduction and no comment : 
 
 " MR. TUCKER TO PRINCE WALDEMAR OF PRUSSIA. 
 
 "East India House, 18th March, 1848. 
 
 "MY MUCH ESTEEMED PRINCE, I have been honored with 
 your Royal Highness's letter of the 29th ult.; and I beg to 
 
542 LIFE OP H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 tender my respectful and warm acknowledgments for your 
 R.H.'s kind recollection of my request to be favored with auto- 
 graphs of the Royal Family of Prussia; and I can assure your 
 R.H. that those which you have kindly sent will be highly 
 valued by my daughters, who will consider them a very in- 
 teresting addition to their collection 
 
 " Your Royal Highness will, I am sure, be glad to hear of 
 the safe arrival of Lord Hardinge in this country, in excellent 
 health and spirits. The Court of Directors give the noble Lord 
 an entertainment on Wednesday, the 5th of April; and if 
 Berlin were a little nearer to us, I should earnestly entreat your 
 R.H. to join your companions in arms on this occasion; and to 
 impart additional lustre to the compliment which we propose 
 to pay his Lordship on the occasion of his return. In that case, 
 I should enjoy the very great gratification of having to present 
 your R.H., and your personal staff, with the Sutlej Medals, 
 which we expect to have ready for distribution in the course of 
 a very few days. 
 
 {i I pray Heaven for the peace of Germany, and for the con- 
 tinued prosperity of your Royal Highness's illustrious House. 
 
 " 1 have the honor to be, with the highest consideration 
 and respect, 
 
 " Your Royal Highness's most faithful servant, 
 
 " H. S-1-.G..fiorG-E TUCKER. 
 
 " To his Royal Highness 
 " Prince Waldemar of Prussia, &c., &c." 
 
 "PRINCE WALDEMAR TO MR. TUCKER. 
 
 " Berlin, 28th April, 1848. 
 
 " MY DEAR MR. TUCKER, It was impossible for me to find 
 a quiet moment, in the troublesome and excited state in which we 
 are thrown in oar heretofore peaceful Germany, to fulfil my warm 
 desire, and to express to you earlier my feelings of gratitude for 
 the remittance of the Sutlej Medals. I can assure you that we 
 all whom you kindly decorated with it are proud to wear this 
 present, given as a remembrance of a for-ever-glorious cam- 
 paign, where British valor manifested its renowned fame, and 
 
DINNER TO LORD DALHOTJSIE. 543 
 
 where we Prussians were lucky enough to witness the invinci- 
 bility of our old allies. It is my sincerest wish that this friendly 
 understanding between our two nations, which are connected by 
 ties of relationship, may never be interrupted on account of 
 their mutual welfare, which is more uncertain than ever in 
 these times. 
 
 " I take this opportunity, dear Sir, to offer you my best 
 thanks for your amiable letter of the 18th ult. I hope you will 
 preserve your kindly feelings towards me, as I can assure you 
 that I still remember with gratitude your personal complaisance 
 with which you treated me during my stay in London, as much 
 as the very distinguished manner with which I was received in 
 the East India House a very gratifying moment of my life, 
 for which I have also to be thankful to you. 
 
 " I remain, dear Sir, with these feelings of gratitude, for 
 ever 
 
 "Yours, 
 " WAKDEMAE, PRINCE OF PRUSSIA." 
 
 In all its outer accidents and environments the 
 great Dinner to Lord Dalhousie on the 4th of Novem- 
 her, 1847, was much like any other dinner of the 
 same kind. There was the usual supply of turtle and 
 venison of cold punch and Champagne the usual 
 assemblage of my Lords and Gentlemen, including 
 many of the greatest statesmen and the greatest 
 soldiers of the age the usual vociferations of Mr. 
 Toole, the Toast-master, and the usual after-dinner 
 addresses. It is seldom given to man to enjoy better 
 dinners or pleasanter parties than these for not 
 only are the good things of the world abundant, but 
 there is an abundance of ready hands to dispense 
 them : there is a multitude of guests and no crowd ; 
 dignity without restraint, and cordiality with all 
 
LIFE OP H. ST.G. TUCKEH. 
 
 decorum. There is the excitement of a public en- 
 tertainment with the comfort of a private party. 
 And in all these pleasant characteristics the dinner 
 to Lord Dalhousie differed little from those which 
 have preceded or which have followed it. Neither 
 outwardly was there much difference in the de- 
 meanor of the Chairman. The wonted geniality 
 scintillated in all his speeches. He spoke with the 
 same earnestness with the same impressiveness as 
 he had done on former occasions. But the day had 
 been to him one of severest trial. 
 
 A short time before, one of Mr. Tucker's sons 
 a civilian on the Bengal establishment had been 
 thrown from his horse, with fearful violence, against 
 the portico of a friend's house. His head had come 
 in contact with one of the pillars, and he had since 
 been lying between life and death at the Mofussil 
 station, where the accident had occurred that very 
 station of Gyah, where Mr. Tucker's first Indian 
 experiences had been gathered. This sad intelli- 
 gence had reached him by a preceding mail ; and it 
 so happened that on the very morning of the great 
 entertainment to Lord Dalhousie, the arrival of 
 another overland despatch the despatch by which 
 Mr. Tucker expected to receive tidings either of 
 his son's death or of his recovery was announced 
 at the India House. The forenoon was passed in 
 painful suspense, and yet in necessary activity. The 
 letters had not yet been delivered. The pressure on 
 the father's heart was almost intolerable ; but there 
 was much work to be done much for which prepa- 
 
PARENTAL ANXIETIES. 545 
 
 ration was to be made and Mr. Tucker's wonted 
 firmness and self-control did not desert him. He 
 did all that it behoved him to do, and then waited 
 the arrival of the letters. 
 
 In the course of the day they were delivered. 
 There was not one in his son's handwriting. Tre- 
 mulously anticipating the worst, Mr. Tucker opened 
 the first that presented itself to him and a little 
 note fell from it. It was written by his boy. The 
 enclosure was from the medical officer who had 
 attended him announcing that so great an im- 
 provement had taken place that the invalid would 
 be speedily enabled to proceed to Calcutta for the 
 purpose of embarking for England. The weight 
 which had pressed so heavily on Mr. Tucker's heart 
 was now removed ; and it beat freely with exulta- 
 tion and gratitude. But there is always something 
 enervating and unhinging in such reactions. It is 
 a strong mind the equilibrium of which is not dis- 
 turbed by such shocks as this. But with all the 
 tender-heartedness of a woman, Mr. Tucker had an 
 habitual self-command truly heroic ; and he now 
 held his feelings in subjection to his will. He went 
 through his appointed duties with composure deli- 
 vered the valedictory address at the India House, 
 and presided at the complimentary Banquet at the 
 London Tavern as though he had not a few hours 
 before been in tremulous expectancy of receiving 
 intelligence of the death of a beloved son. 
 
 In the spring of the following year, just before his 
 retirement from the Chair, he twice again presided 
 
 2N 
 
546 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 at the public entertainments of the East India Com- 
 pany. The first of these was a farewell dinner to 
 Lord Falkland, who was about to proceed as Go- 
 vernor to Bombay. The second was a congratu- 
 latory Banquet to Lord Hardinge, on the occasion 
 of his return from India. This was on many ac- 
 counts a remarkable gathering and it was the last 
 one at which Mr. Tucker ever presided. It may be 
 said that on this 5th of April, 1848, he took his 
 leave of the Public. Of Lord Hardinge he had 
 ever been a steady admirer and consistent supporter. 
 There was not, perhaps in the whole kingdom, a man 
 with a sincerer love of Peace not one who despised 
 and condemned, with a more sovereign contempt 
 and a more vital abhorrence, those traders in War, 
 who make for themselves the occasion of battle, and 
 smite either for the love of smiting, or for the re- 
 wards that Victory brings. He had no toleration 
 for the cruel or the ambitious soldier ; but he saw 
 in Lord Hardinge one neither cruel nor ambitious 
 one who had kept the sword in the scabbard as long 
 as it could be kept there with safety and with honor 
 one who had been slow to strike, but who had 
 struck, in self-defence, bravely and well, and who, 
 in the hour of conquest, had exercised a forbearance 
 as conspicuous as his gallantry in the field. He 
 saw in Lord Hardinge a great soldier, with whom 
 courage and clemency, success and moderation, went 
 hand in hand ; and he honored the man who, amidst 
 so much to dazzle and to disturb, could still possess 
 himself in steadfastness of soul. 
 
DINNER TO LORD HARDINGE. 547 
 
 What, therefore, on this occasion, Mr. Tucker 
 said in praise of Lord Hardinge, he said from the 
 full heart; and he said it, too, with an enlarged 
 satisfaction, because he spoke in the presence of the 
 foremost soldier of the age. The Duke of Welling- 
 ton had accepted the invitation of the Company, 
 and had attended to do honor to one of the most 
 esteemed and heloved of his Lieutenants. He had 
 not partaken of the hospitality of the Company 
 since they had incurred his displeasure by the recall 
 of Lord Ellenborough* but now his animosity 
 seemed to have passed away, and he met Mr. Tucker 
 with even more than his old cordiality, extending 
 both his hands to greet the Chairman, and eagerly 
 inquiring after his health. This was not one of the 
 least of the circumstances which on that evening 
 stirred Mr. Tucker's heart with grateful emotions. 
 He knew that the displeasure of the great Duke 
 was unreasonable and unjust ; but although he never 
 regretted the cause of it, he could not help lamenting 
 the effect. 
 
 But there was a shady side to the picture, too. 
 This, as I have said, was Mr. Tucker's last appear- 
 ance, in a prominent position, before the Public. It 
 may be said, indeed, although his career of official 
 usefulness was not at an end, that he then virtually 
 bade farewell to Public Life. When Sir John Hob- 
 house, as President of the Board of Control, pro- 
 
 * Oji the occasion of the Farewell Entertainment to Lord Dalhousie, the 
 Duke had accepted the invitation, but had rot attended the dinner. This, 
 however, did not prevent Mr. Tucker from proposing his health, with all 
 warmth of heart and fervency of manner. 
 
 2 N 2 
 
548 LIFE OF II. ST.G. TUCKER,. 
 
 posed the health of Mr. Tucker and the Court, the 
 venerahle Chairman replied : " I accept the compli- 
 ment which has been offered on the part of the 
 Court of Directors, whose organ, on this occasion, I 
 have the honor to be. But I am only the Pageant 
 of a day ; and after having fretted my little hour I 
 must disappear. If, however, I may be allowed to 
 appropriate any part of the compliment, I must 
 assign it to its true source. I had the good fortune, 
 in the early days of my boyhood, to enjoy a pure 
 atmosphere. I first served under the great and good 
 Lord Cornwallis, who was the perfect personification 
 of disinterestedness and patriotism. He steadily 
 enforced the principles of justice ; he saw no object 
 but the honor and interests of his country. I had 
 also the good fortune to be patronised by the late 
 Sir William Jones, whose genius seemed to soar 
 above this lower world, and whose love of constitu- 
 tional liberty, and whose devotion to literature, im- 
 pressed me with a feeling which I have carried 
 through life. To these estimable men be assigned 
 the merit of anything which I have been fortunate 
 enough to accomplish. And now, my Lords and 
 Gentlemen who know me not, and whom I have had 
 the honor of seeing probably for the last time, I bid 
 you a respectful Farewell. To my colleagues, friends, 
 and companions, who do know me, I would say, 
 farewell till we meet again. 
 
 " ' Inveni portum, Spes et Fortuna, valete ! 
 
 Sat me ludistis, ludite nunc alios.' 
 " I've reached the haven Fortune, Hope adieu, 
 
 Let others now the slippery path pursue.' " 
 
CHAIRMAN-LIFE. 549 
 
 But although it may be said that in these words 
 he took farewell of the larger outside circle of the 
 Public, there was still a season of continued use- 
 fulness remaining before him ; his work, indeed, 
 was not yet done. I have hitherto only spoken in 
 this chapter of those circumstances, arising out of 
 Mr. Tucker's second tenure of office as Chairman of 
 the East India Company, which brought him pro- 
 minently before the Public. But it is not of these 
 public appearances that the Chairman-life of an East 
 India Director is made up ; all this, as Mr. Tucker 
 said, is but the pageantry of the hour. There is a 
 solid reality about it, far beyond the scope of fare- 
 well addresses to Governor-Generals, or complimen- 
 tary after-dinner harangues. And Mr. Tucker, at 
 least, was not one to suffer his office to degenerate 
 into a sham. 
 
 He was, indeed, very tenacious of the character of 
 the Court, and on all occasions asserted its rights 
 and upheld its dignity. To the very last he pro- 
 tested against the encroachments of the Board of 
 Control. At one of the public entertainments to 
 which reference has been made, Sir John Hobhouse, 
 who had long presided at that Board, on proposing 
 Mr. Tucker's health, had said : "A more conscien- 
 tious, a more zealous, a more vigilant guardian of 
 the interests entrusted to him could not exist ;" and 
 had added, that although " allusion had been made to 
 differences that might arise in the conduct of affairs 
 between the two authorities, he could only say, that 
 if these quarrels were between them, they were 
 
550 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 lovers' quarrels, which only ended in the renewal of 
 love." But the real state of affairs is not to be judged 
 of by these post-prandial amenities. Doubtless, the in- 
 tercourse between them was maintained without the 
 smallest leaven of personal animosity on either side. 
 They were both of them far above the littleness of 
 suffering any feelings of private resentment to enter 
 into the official conflicts which occasionally arose. 
 These were simply conflicts between the Court of 
 Directors and the Board of Control ; and it was in 
 the course of one of them that Mr. Tucker wrote to Sir 
 John Hobhouse that he could not bring himself to 
 believe that it was the intention of the Legislature, 
 that in the Secret Committee the representatives of 
 the East India Company should be reduced to a 
 mere nullity, and suffered only to perform minis- 
 terial duties which could as well be executed by " a 
 secretary or a seal." 
 
 That each statesman conscientiously pursued the 
 course of official conduct that seemed to him best 
 calculated to advance the public interests, is not to 
 be doubted. But there was much conflict of opinion ; 
 and it appears to me, that when the two authorities 
 came into actual collision, as they sometimes did, 
 there was unconstitutional encroachment on the side 
 of the Board, constitutional resistance on the side 
 of the Company. Thus, on one occasion, the Board 
 cancelled in a letter which the Court had addressed 
 to one of the local Governments, a passage ordering 
 the dismissal of one of their servants an officer of 
 the Indian navy. That the Court of Directors were 
 
THE COTJUT AND THE BOAKD. 551 
 
 invested by law with the power of dismissing their 
 own servants, is not to he questioned. They had 
 authority to dismiss a Governor- General and au- 
 thority to dismiss a naval lieutenant. Any attempt 
 to interfere with this authority was clearly contrary 
 to law ; and Mr. Tucker, when he resisted it, as 
 Chairman of the Company, did only what he was 
 bound to do in defence of the independence of the 
 Court. As an individual Director he had opposed 
 the measure in question ; but as the organ of the 
 Court it was his duty to enforce it, whatever might 
 be the decree of the Board. 
 
 This is given merely as an illustration of the 
 manner in which the two authorities were some- 
 times brought into collision ; but there were more 
 important differences of opinion regarding the ge- 
 neral functions of the Secret Committee and the 
 intent of its organisation. Upon this subject Sir 
 John Hobhouse and Mr. Tucker were hopelessly at 
 variance. The former regarded the Secret Com- 
 mittee as a mere sham ; and determined to keep it 
 so. He thought that there was little use in per- 
 sonal conferences between the President of the 
 Board of Control and the " Chairs" of the East 
 India Company ; and insisted that, although the 
 latter might relieve themselves, if they pleased, by 
 writing Dissents or Protests in their own houses, 
 for their own comfort or convenience, they had no 
 power to record them, and no right to claim for 
 them the distinction of being regarded as public 
 documents. He described the system of writing 
 
552 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 and recording minutes at the India House as an 
 inconvenient practice, which encouraged contro- 
 versy, retarded public business, and perpetuated 
 disunion; and declared that if he could do away 
 with this bad Indian habit, he would do so to- 
 morrow. Prom all of this Mr. Tucker emphatically 
 dissented. He asserted his belief that personal ex- 
 planations had sometimes removed difficulties, and 
 enabled the two authorities to carry on the public 
 business with more expedition, and in a more satis- 
 factory manner, than might otherwise have been 
 practicable; and so far from regarding the system 
 of recording minutes as a mischievous one, he ear- 
 nestly declared that the greatest consolation he had 
 enjoyed, or could enjoy, as a public servant, arose 
 from the reflection that he had placed on record his 
 sentiments and forewarning on the Afghan question, 
 the Scinde question, the Resumption of Rent-free 
 Tenures, the Extension of the Opium Monopoly, &c. 
 That the practice of recording the dissents of the 
 Secret Committee might have been inconvenient to 
 the Crown Ministers, is not to be doubted ; but that 
 was hardly the question at issue, nor could Mr. 
 Tucker so regard it. But irreconcileable as was the 
 difference of opinion between the two statesmen, 
 the utmost courtesy and kindness was maintained 
 in all their relations with one another ; and one of 
 the last letters which Mr. Tucker wrote to the Pre- 
 sident of the India Board, before quitting the Chair 
 in 1848, he concluded by saying : " My time is now 
 short ; and in six weeks I shall be relieved from a 
 
PATRONAGE. 553 
 
 charge, which in many respects has been irksome to 
 me, although I am very far from including my inter- 
 course with you among the disagreeables. On the 
 contrary, it has been the source of satisfaction to me." 
 Something, too, may be said in this place about 
 Mr. Tucker's distribution of his patronage. Much 
 has been written and spoken, at divers times and in 
 divers places, about the nepotism of the Court of 
 Directors of the East India Company. The corpus 
 delicti appears to be this, that having every year 
 a few writer ships and a considerable number of 
 cadetships, besides a certain number of appoint- 
 ments in the medical and clerical services at their 
 disposal, they provide, out of this fund, for their 
 children, or grandchildren and for a few more re- 
 mote connexions. But I have never been able to dis- 
 cern, in this, anything discreditable to the Directors 
 themselves, or disadvantageous to the public interests. 
 It may be assumed, in the first place, that it was the 
 intent of the Legislature, which fixed the salary of an 
 East India Director at an amount below the sum 
 apportioned to a junior clerk in the India House, 
 that the patronage of the Company should, in some 
 sort, be considered as the perquisites of office. But 
 setting aside this consideration altogether, it appears 
 that the department of Government, the chiefs of 
 which do not distribute the patronage at their dis- 
 posal among their own friends, is yet to be disco- 
 vered. And there is this remarkable difference 
 between the distributors of English and Indian 
 patronage, that whereas the tenure of office by a 
 
554 LIFE OP H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 Grown Minister is always more or less precarious, an 
 East India Director is elected for life. He is not, 
 therefore, under the necessity of grasping everything 
 within his reach whilst the sunshine of place and 
 possession is beaming upon him, lest some stray gust 
 of popular caprice should suddenly blow him back 
 into private life. Mr. Tucker, for example, held his 
 place at the India House for a quarter of a century. 
 During that period he sent out five sons to India 
 in the Company's service ; and he provided for some 
 collateral relatives. Now, there is this advantage in 
 the India House system, that however much a 
 Director may be given to nepotism, the nepotes are 
 never so numerous as not to leave a large surplusage 
 of patronage to be distributed among applicants 
 whose claims are mainly of a public character. That 
 every Director gives away a considerable number of 
 appointments solely on these public grounds is not 
 to be questioned. They who are best acquainted 
 with the secrets of the India House are best pre- 
 pared to depose confidently to the fact. 
 
 But, on the other hand, it is not to be doubted 
 that the claims of some applicants are advanced in 
 vain. I do not know that it is peculiar to the India 
 House that petitioners and worthy ones, too are 
 sometimes sent empty away. But I believe that 
 there is no public building in the country where so 
 much time is spent by the dispensers of patronage 
 in listening to and sifting such claims, and that no 
 official men are, on the whole, so patient and so 
 courteous. The Chairman of the Court of Directors, 
 
PAT110NAGE. 555 
 
 who is supposed to be the representative * of the 
 Court, and to exercise a sort of general power over 
 its patronage to be the depositary, indeed, of all 
 kinds of rich gifts, and the target at which all sorts 
 of complaints may be rightfully levelled day after 
 clay devotes a large portion of his time to the recep- 
 tion of these petitioners. He and his Deputy have 
 a double share of patronage at their disposal ; but 
 the number of appointments in their gift bears but 
 a small proportion to the number of applicants, and 
 there must necessarily be many refusals. This was 
 the most painful part of Mr. Tucker's duties ; as I 
 doubt not it was and is of all his colleagues who 
 have occupied the Chair. But he was accessible to 
 all comers ; he received them with ready courtesy, 
 and when compelled to return a refusal, was careful 
 that it should be a kindly one. It has been said of 
 him, indeed, as it was said of Marlborough, that " he 
 could refuse more gracefully than other people could 
 grant, and those who went away from him the most 
 dissatisfied as to the substance of their business, were 
 yet personally charmed with him, and in some degree 
 comforted by his manner." 
 
 It was his privilege, however, to distribute no 
 small share of his patronage beyond the circle of his 
 own private friends, and largely to elicit, by these 
 bestowals, the gratitude of the widow and the orphan. 
 As years advanced, he became increasingly solicitous 
 about the right appropriation of the appointments 
 in his gift. The dispensation of his clerical patron- 
 age had always been a matter of anxiety to him ; for 
 
556 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKEK. 
 
 he conscientiously recognised the greatness of the 
 responsibility it involved. During his first Chair- 
 manship he had placed two Indian chaplaincies at 
 the disposal of the Chancellor of Oxford then the 
 Duke of Wellington and now he made a similar 
 offering to Cambridge, through the Chancellor, 
 Prince Albert : 
 
 " TO H.R.H. PRINCE ALBERT, &C., &C. 
 
 "East India House, 16th December, 1847. 
 
 " SIR, When, on a former occasion, I had the honor of 
 holding my present station as Chairman of the Court of 
 Directors of the East India Company, I was induced to 
 solicit his Grace the Duke of Wellington, as Chancellor 
 of the University of Oxford, to do me the favor to pre- 
 sent from among the members of that University two clergy- 
 men for the appointment of Chaplain on the Indian Establish- 
 ment. I was desirous on this occasion to testify my personal 
 respect for his Grace, as well as my respect for the University, 
 and to feel satisfied that individuals would be selected for the 
 sacred office who would do credit to the nomination, and who 
 would be found useful and respectable members of the ser- 
 vice. 
 
 " Upon similar considerations I am induced to solicit that 
 your Royal Highness will be graciously pleased to present from 
 the University of Cambridge two of its members for the ap- 
 pointment of Assistant-Chaplain at the Presidencies of Bengal 
 and Madras; and in making this request, I may be permitted 
 to express my hope that it will be graciously received as a 
 testimony of my great respect for your Royal Highness, and 
 for the University over which you preside. 
 
 " I have the honor to be, with the highest respect and de- 
 ference, your Royal Highness's most faithful servant, 
 
 " H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 "To H.R.H. Prince Albert, &c., &c." 
 
LETTER TO Sill ROBERT PEEL. 557 
 
 Some years before he had offered a eadetship to 
 Sir Robert Peel, on the occasion of his election as 
 Rector of the Glasgow University, to be given to 
 one of the students of that Institution. The letter 
 in which he tendered the appointment is so charac- 
 teristic of the writer, that the retrospect will be 
 forgiven : 
 
 " MR. TUCKER TO SIR ROBERT PEEL. 
 
 "East India House, 17th January, 1837. 
 
 " MY DEAR SIR, The youth of Glasgow are worthy of all 
 honor; and I regard your recent visit to that city as the most 
 auspicious event which has occurred for some time an event 
 which I hail with joy and hope, as the harbinger of our coun- 
 try's deliverance. 
 
 "It has occurred to me that you would feel pleasure in 
 having an opportunity of providing for one of these public- 
 spirited young men; and I, in consequence, take the liberty of 
 
 placing at your disposal a nomination to the service of 
 
 India. 
 
 " I should, perhaps, feel some hesitation in taking this step 
 if I had anything to ask, and if you were the dispenser of 
 favor; but my motives cannot, I think, be mistaken. I am too 
 old for ambition, and too young, I hope, for avarice; even if 
 you were in a situation to gratify these passions. 
 
 " With the most fervent wishes for your complete success 
 in the glorious course which you have undertaken, I have the 
 honor to be, 
 
 " Dear Sir, your very faithful servant, 
 
 " H. ST.G. TUCKER." 
 
 The offer, however, was not accepted. Sir Robert 
 Peel's answer was full of courtesy and kindness, but 
 he said that he was not personally acquainted with 
 a single student in the University, and that he knew 
 
558 LIFE OP H. ST.G. TUCKEH. 
 
 no public object that was to be gained by his holding 
 the appointment in his gift.* "Whether it did not 
 occur to him that it might be placed at the disposal 
 of the Collegiate authorities for purposes of public 
 competition, or whether he was not sufficiently en- 
 lightened to recognise the expediency of such a mode 
 of dispensing the Company's patronage, I do not 
 pretend to know. 
 
 Ten years afterwards, Mr. Tucker declared his will- 
 ingness to place at the disposal of the Governor-Ge- 
 neral an Assistant- Surgeoncy, to be given to one of 
 the native students of the Medical College of Calcutta. 
 " The question," he wrote to Lord Dalhousie, in No- 
 vember, 1847, " of their eligibility to appointments in 
 the regular branch of the service has not yet been 
 mooted, but I will consult my colleagues on this 
 question at our next meeting, and if it should be 
 considered that they can, without objection, be in- 
 troduced into the Medical service as Assistant- Sur- 
 geons, I shall be happy to place a nomination for 
 one of them at your Lordship's disposal. One of the 
 greatest benefits, in my opinion, which we have yet 
 conferred on the people of India, is the introduction 
 of medical science among them, and the dissipation 
 
 * The passage in which this is stated is worthy of insertion here: "I feel 
 much obliged by your kind consideration, and assure you with perfect sin- 
 cerity that I should not hesitate a moment in availing myself of the kind 
 offer which accompanies your letter, if I could do so with advantage. But I 
 literally was not personally acquainted with any one student at Glasgow when 
 they elected me, and I have therefore no private and personal wish to gratify 
 
 by profiting by your kind consideration Having, therefore, no personal 
 
 wish to gratify, and fearing no public object would be advanced by my avail- 
 ing myself of your generosity, I return to you the enclosed, with thanks as 
 sincere and cordial as if I had been enabled to make use of it." 
 
PATRONAGE. 559 
 
 of their prejudice against anatomical operations." 
 But the Court, after mature deliberation, were of 
 opinion, that the appointment of these native 
 students to the covenanted branch of the service 
 would be attended with much public inconvenience. 
 The decision was severely criticised out of doors; 
 and many arguments, theoretically sound, were ad- 
 duced against the exclusion of the native students. 
 But there were practical considerations weighing 
 heavily on the other side ; and they who were best 
 acquainted with the nature of the Service to which 
 it was proposed to attach these deserving youths, 
 and the character of the duties to be performed by 
 them, believed that both the welfare of the students 
 themselves, and the interests of the public, would be 
 best promoted by effectually providing for them as 
 medical practitioners without giving them military 
 commissions.* 
 
 The activity of Mr. Tucker at this period was 
 great. There was scarcely a subject connected, in 
 any way, with the Government of India, from the 
 cultivation of cotton and sugarf to the officering 
 
 * With reference to the subject of Mr. Tucker's patronage, the reader may 
 advantageously turn back to a letter given at page 482, in which the writer 
 says : " I have determined to apply my extra patronage as Chairman, to pro- 
 vide for the sons and relations of meritorious officers in his Majesty's and our 
 own service." 
 
 f See, on the subject of Cotton Cultivation, letter to Mr. Thomason, given 
 in the following chapter; and letters to Mr. Cornewall Lewis and Mr. 
 Thomason, in Memorials of Indian Government (page 177). In one of the 
 latter Mr. Tucker says: " It is singular that I should, at this late period, after 
 the lapse of nearly sixty years, be pursuing an object which attracted my at- 
 tention as a boy, whilst residing in the Hurriaul Aurung, in the district of 
 Rajashaye." To the kindred topic of Indian Sugar reference is made in 
 Chapter XX. Some excellent remarks, written in l48 t on the want of sym- 
 pathy between the European officer and the native soldier, will be found in 
 Mr. Tucker's Memorials (pp. 93, et seq.~). 
 
560 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 of the native army, to the elucidation of which he 
 did not apply himself with all the energy and ahility 
 of his youth. Some of his most valuable papers were 
 written about this time. Nor was it only in the 
 minutes which bear his name that the results of his 
 intellectual activity were apparent. The rough 
 drafts of whole sheaves of India-House despatches, 
 with Mr. Tucker's pencil - notes and emendations 
 upon them, exhibit, in umnistakeable characters, the 
 earnest, sedulous attention which he devoted to the 
 duties of his office. Indeed, he more than fulfilled 
 the expectations of the friends who told him that 
 the Chair could not be occupied by one better able 
 to do full justice to the selection of the Court. 
 
PHIVATE CORRESPONDENCE. 561 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 Mr. Tucker's Private Correspondence during his Second Chairmanship 
 Letters to Lord Hardinge; to Sir T. H. Maddock; to Mr. George Clerk; to 
 Mr. Thomason; and to Lord Dalhousie. 
 
 To a selection from Mr. Tucker's correspondence, 
 during his second tenure of office, as Chairman of the 
 East India Company, the present chapter may be 
 fitly appropriated : 
 
 [Introductory The Affairs of the Punjab, Scinde, Gumsoor, &c. The Re- 
 ligious Controversy at Madras The Furlough Regulations, &c.] 
 
 " East India House, 24th April, 1847. 
 
 " MY DEAR LORD, As the Court of Directors have been 
 pleased to appoint me their Chairman for the present year, your 
 Lordship may perhaps expect to hear from me; and if I can be 
 of any use in conveying intelligence on matters of interest a 
 little earlier than you can receive the communication through 
 the official channels, I shall be happy to perform this office. 
 
 " I very cordially congratulate your Lordship on the success 
 of your Punjab arrangements; and I believe that all impartial 
 and intelligent men are now satisfied that these arrangements 
 were dictated by sound policy, while they were recommended 
 by considerations of a still higher character. We were latterly 
 somewhat favored by circumstances ; but our success was the 
 legitimate result of prudence, moderation, and justice. 
 
 " We have a number of important and difficult questions 
 
 2 o 
 
562 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 pending at present the Railroad projects the new Furlough 
 Regulations, &c., &c.; but I will not trouble your Lordship 
 just now with my particular sentiments on these questions. 
 The Madras controversy on that most delicate of all questions, 
 Religion, has occasioned us the greatest embarrassment ; but 
 only one feeling, I think, prevails here that the agitation of 
 this question is pregnant with danger, and that it is become 
 urgently necessary to enforce the policy so long observed by 
 our Government. 
 
 " The Scinde question is also most embarrassing. There is 
 a strong impression here (supposed most erroneously to originate 
 in personal feelings), that a regular system of civil administra- 
 tion should be introduced in that country ; but the quo modo is 
 still felt to be matter of difficulty. 
 
 " The Gumsoor disturbances will, I am sure, have received 
 your Lordship's early attention. I am quite satisfied that a 
 barbarous people are not to be reclaimed and civilised by the 
 process of burning and destroying; and your Lordship will 
 have known, historically, that a people, very similar to the 
 Khoonds in habits, character, and origin, were reclaimed and 
 civilised by the benevolent policy of an individual (the late 
 Mr. Cleveland, then Collector of Baugulpore). I am just now 
 engaged in preparing a despatch on this subject. 
 
 "The Furlough question will, I believe, be referred to your 
 Lordship's Government, as we cannot come to a perfect under- 
 standing with the Board on some parts of the new plan, on 
 which the late Chairman has bestowed a great deal of atten- 
 tion. .... 
 
 u I will only add, on the present occasion, my sincere wishes 
 for the continued success of your Lordship's administration; 
 and I do hope that you will continue long enough in the Go- 
 vernment to effect as much in the civil branches of the service 
 as you have accomplished in the political and military branch 
 of our affairs. I pointed out to Sir H. Maddock, some time 
 since, some objects which might admit of retrenchment on the 
 restoration of peace ; and I observe that they have not escaped 
 your Lordship's attention. I might add, perhaps, the She- 
 kawattee brigade, the Russell brigade at Hyderabad (with a 
 
LETTER TO LORD HARDINGE. 563 
 
 view to relieve the Nizam's finances), and some other objects; 
 but they will not, I am sure, be overlooked by your Lordship; 
 and I have hazarded enough for a first letter. I cannot, how- 
 ever, conceal from myself that we have an enormous financial 
 deficit to meet, and that it is impossible to go on prosperously 
 with an increasing debt. 
 
 " I have the honor to be, &c., &c., 
 
 " H. ST.G. TUCKER." 
 
 " TO THE RIGHT HON. VISCOUNT HA.RDINGE, G.C.B., &C., &C. 
 
 [On the Appointment of Sir John Littler, &c., &c., and the evils of frequent 
 Changes in the Administrative Agency of India.] 
 
 " East India House, 7th May, 1847. ! 
 
 " MY DEAR LORD, I have little of novelty or interest to 
 communicate to you since the despatch of the last maiL 
 
 " I have given notice of a motion for Wednesday next, for 
 the appointment of Sir John Littler as a provisional member 
 of Council, and I have no doubt of the cordial concurrence 
 of my colleagues. The appointment will, I think, give your 
 Lordship pleasure, and be highly satisfactory to the army, as 
 showing our sense of the merits and services of so distinguished 
 an officer 
 
 " The Madras controversy has occasioned us great embarrass- 
 ment, especially in its relation to the religious question ; but I 
 hope the orders from hence will put a stop to it, for no question 
 more mischievous could well be agitated. 
 
 " The Gumsoor disturbances have also caused us great 
 concern and some anxiety; but I feel assured that your Lord- 
 ship will have arrested the proceedings of the agent, Captain 
 M'Pherson ; for no people, I apprehend, will ever be civilised 
 by fire and devastation.* 
 
 " The attention of the Court has been drawn lately to the 
 practice of making numerous acting appointments, especially 
 in the North- West Provinces. They cannot always be avoided; 
 
 * This was written under an erroneous impression of the real character of 
 Captain M'Pherson's proceedings, which had been misrepresented to Govern- 
 ment. The charges brought against M'Pherson were afterwards investigated 
 by a Special Commission, and found to be entirely groundless. J. W. K. 
 
 2o2 
 
564 LIFE OF H. ST.a. TUCKER. 
 
 but they are very prejudicial, for the people have not time to 
 become acquainted with their rulers, nor the rulers with the 
 people. I merely mention this as a circumstance (not to say 
 an evil) which has been discussed at much length of late, in 
 reviewing the new Furlough plan. 
 
 " It is reported in some quarters here, that it is your Lord- 
 ship's intention to leave India in January next; but I do hope 
 that such is not the case. I have no connexion with her 
 Majesty's Government; but I feel satisfied^ from what I hear, 
 that they are quite sincere and earnest in the wish that your 
 Lordship should continue in charge of the Government. One 
 of the greatest evils attending our administration of India is 
 the frequent changes in the Government. The natives look to 
 persons, rather than to principles and to the system of Govern- 
 ment; and they see everything in a course of change; and, in 
 truth, there is too much disposition to change on our part. 
 Every man is more or less attached to some preconceived 
 notion ; and we do not always pay sufficient deference to the 
 wisdom of our predecessors. Your Lordship has been so much 
 engaged in military and political movements of vast magnitude 
 and importance, that you have had little leisure to enter into 
 the details of civil administration ; and I do hope that you will 
 remain long enough in the country to render your Government 
 in the civil department as beneficial to the country as your 
 political and military arrangements have proved to be, both to 
 the State and to our native subjects and allies. That your 
 Lordship's administration may continue prosperous in all its 
 branches to its termination, is the sincere wish of 
 
 " Your most faithful servant, 
 
 " H. ST.G. TUCKER." 
 
 " TO THE EIGHT HONORABLE VISCOUNT HARDINGE. 
 
 [On the Announcement of his Resignation, and the Appointment of a 
 Successor.] 
 
 " East India House, 23rd May, 1847. 
 
 " MY DEAR LORD, I have just been favored with your 
 Lordship's letter of the 5th April, and it was with unfeigned 
 concern that I received the announcement of your intention to 
 
LETTER TO LORD HARDINGE. 565 
 
 resign the Government in December next. I do believe that it 
 is the earnest wish of her Majesty's Ministers that you should 
 remain in India at least for another year ; and if for no better 
 reason, from the difficulty of finding a suitable successor. Lord 
 Clarendon goes to Ireland; and even if he had not been called 
 upon to fill this difficult (perilous, I might call it) this most 
 difficult station, his Lordship, I understand, had objections to 
 India. Two other noblemen have been mentioned, but I ap- 
 prehend that difficulties may occur in carrying through the 
 appointment of either; but no proposition has yet been made, 
 through me, to the Court, by her Majesty's Government; and 
 I do believe that a hope is still entertained that your Lordship 
 will continue at your post. I have a selfish feeling on this 
 subject; for a change may involve me in great difficulty. I 
 consider the selection for the office of Governor- General to 
 impose a sacred duty. The well-being of millions may depend 
 upon this selection, and the public interests may be seriously 
 affected by it. This is not mere speculation. To my infinite 
 annoyance, I was, on a former occasion, compelled to oppose 
 an arrangement which I. could not honestly concur in; and it 
 would be an instance of extraordinary bad fortune (which I 
 should most earnestly deprecate) if I should, a second time, be 
 placed in the same embarrassing position. I can only hope for 
 the best, and resolve to do my best. 
 
 "For the last fortnight a very uneasy feeling has prevailed 
 in this metropolis, partly from the dread of famine, and partly 
 from Financial derangement. Happily, we have had some 
 days of propitious weather, which has somewhat diminished the 
 alarm of an impending famine; and if we should be blessed 
 with a bountiful harvest, our financial difficulties will, I trust, 
 gradually disappear. They arose, in part, from the excessive 
 importation of corn; and they were felt in a degree which I 
 have never witnessed in this country the acceptances of the 
 first Houses having been discounted at nine and ten per cent. 
 You will judge of the alarm on the subject of food, when I 
 mention that the Premier, at a late public dinner, strongly en- 
 joined, on the part of her Majesty, the utmost economy in our 
 domestic expenditure. 
 
566 LIFE OP H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 " Your Lordship's very judicious minute of the 17th October 
 last, on the discontinuance of labor on public works on Sunday, 
 has attracted the attention of the Court, who entirely concur in 
 the prudent caution which you have inculcated with reference 
 to our native troops 
 
 " My opinion has always been, that the greatest danger we 
 have to encounter in India is from the intemperate zeal of re- 
 ligious enthusiasts; and I am also convinced that these indi- 
 viduals take the most effectual means to defeat their own 
 cherished object 
 
 " I had a good deal of conversation yesterday with Sir John 
 Hobhouse on the subject of the Law Commission, the Macaulay 
 Code, &c., and a reference will probably be made to your 
 Lordship's Government on both questions. The Law Com- 
 mission will die a natural death when Mr. Eliott repairs to 
 Madras, unless revived, or dissolved, which it cannot be, I 
 apprehend, without an Act of Parliament; and our total 
 neglect of the Code, which has cost us such an immense sum of 
 money, I have always felt as matter of reproach to us. ... 
 
 " I am, &c., &c., 
 
 " H. Sx.G. TUCKER." 
 
 " TO THE HON. SIR T. H. HADDOCK. 
 [On the Reduction of the Salt Duties.] 
 
 " East India House, 24th May, 1847. 
 
 " MY DEAR SIR, I have only just been favored with 
 your letter of the 4th ultimo, and I have derived very great 
 satisfaction from your very encouraging report on a prospective 
 view of our finances; and I trust that your most sanguine 
 anticipations will be fully realised. 
 
 " I cannot venture to commit the Court by any premature 
 opinion on your resolution to reduce the duty on Salt ; but I 
 may say that it harmonises with the opinions which I have 
 long maintained on the subject My principle has always been 
 to realise a moderate revenue upon the largest quantity, both 
 with a view to relieve the consumer, to diminish the motive 
 for smuggling, and to remove, as far as possible, the odium 
 attaching to a tax on one of the necessaries of life. I shall be 
 
LETTER TO MR. CLERK. 567 
 
 glad if I am enabled to satisfy my colleagues that your proceed- 
 ing is entitled to their approbation and support. 
 
 " The extension of your hypothecation advances will not, I 
 trust, expose your treasury to inconvenience, and they may 
 ultimately prove convenient to us, for we have not latterly 
 obtained so large a supply by our bills as we had estimated. 
 Your balance appears to be ample ; and in the present state of 
 the money-market here, it is not at all desirable that our 
 resources from India should be curtailed. 
 
 " I have been much concerned to hear of Lord Hardinge's 
 determination to resign the Government in December next, 
 for I had hoped that he would have remained long enough to 
 complete his work in the civil department of the Government, 
 which he has not yet had time to enter upon fully. 
 44 With every good wish, believe me, 
 " Very sincerely yours, 
 
 " H. ST.G. TUCKER." 
 
 " TO THE HON. G. R. CLERK, GOVERNOR OF BOMBAY. 
 
 [On the Treatment of Native Chiefs and the State of the Police.] 
 
 " East India House, 24th May, 1847. 
 
 " MY DEAR SIR, I was only this morning favored with 
 your letter of the 15th ultimo, and I was very glad to perceive 
 that it contained no complaint of your health, or of the climate 
 of Bombay; for I had been led to apprehend, from a late com- 
 munication from you to Sir James Hogg, that you had already 
 been suffering from the climate, and were even apprehensive of 
 the necessity for a removal. I know that Sir James strongly 
 deprecated the idea of your quitting your post; and I may add 
 that I should, if possible, still more strongly deprecate it. 
 
 " On the two leading points noticed by you, there is no pro- 
 bability of any difference of opinion between us. Nay, I was 
 right glad to hear your remarks on the treatment of the native 
 chiefs; for I have been advocating their cause (not so success- 
 fully as I could have wished) for the last twenty years, or longer. 
 The first year of my residence in India I passed in Behar 
 (chiefly at Gya), and there I received impressions very favor- 
 able to the old Mahomedan families, whose fate excited my 
 
568 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 commiseration. I met at different times Gholaum Hussein 
 Khan, the author of the Seer Mutakhereen ; and he appeared to 
 me the finest specimen of a nobleman I had ever seen. I have 
 never lost the impressions I received of the harsh treatment 
 which many of the old families had experienced at our hands ; 
 and I have since fought the battle of many of the chieftains whose 
 territories we have confiscated. I have also contended against 
 the sweeping resumptions of rent-free grants in our North-West 
 Provinces; but my most strenuous efforts have only succeeded 
 so far as to mitigate the evil. 
 
 " As Judicial Secretary in Bengal, the greatest difficulty I had 
 to encounter was with the Police. The Daroga plan was ineffi- 
 cient, and totally failed. The Darogas were ill-paid, and not 
 trustworthy; and I suggested the employment of the agency of 
 the landholders; but here, too, there were great difficulties to 
 overcome. I also suggested to Lord Wellesley the appoint- 
 ment of a Superintendent- General; and the late Mr. L. Davis 
 (an excellent officer) was appointed accordingly, and the office 
 has since been continued ; but I do not perceive that as much 
 good has resulted from it as I had anticipated. The fact is, 
 that there are inherent difficulties in the establishment of an 
 efficient Police in India. We cannot proceed according to the 
 notions and practice of the natives; and our principles and 
 usages are not suitable to them. But I have not time at present 
 to discuss these questions; and my antediluvian information 
 and opinions can be of no use to you. 
 
 " Believe me, with great esteem, very sincerely yours, 
 
 " H. ST.G. TUCKER." 
 
 " TO THE HON. GEORGE CLERK. 
 [On the Visitation-Tours of Indian Governors.] 
 
 " East India House, 24th July, 1847. 
 
 " MY DEAR SIR, I will frankly tell you my opinion, as an 
 individual member of the Court, in regard to the tours, or 
 periodical movements of our Governors. 
 
 " When those Governors, as in your case, happen to be well 
 acquainted with the people of India, and conversant with their 
 languages, I consider it to be highly desirable and eminently 
 
LETTER TO MR. CLERK. 569 
 
 useful that they should have personal communication with the 
 native Chiefs, Jagheerdars, and others, in order that they may 
 become better acquainted with the character of those chiefs, 
 with their feelings, interests, and general disposition towards 
 our Government, in order that they may be conciliated by 
 kindness, that their complaints may be heard, that they may 
 be benefited by wholesome and friendly advice; that they 
 may be taken out of bad hands, and, as far as possible, guarded 
 against habits of extravagance and dissipation. I am accus- 
 tomed to regard some of these chiefs as full-grown children, 
 who stand in need of parental care; and the Governor who can, 
 and will supply the place of a parent to them, may not only 
 become a benefactor to the individuals, but he performs an im- 
 portant service to the public. 
 
 " But a tour of mere parade, by one who knows little or 
 nothing of the country, is worse than useless; and I could 
 mention certain of these visitations which have proved most 
 mischievous in their consequences. 
 
 " Generally they, are inconvenient, as they dislocate the 
 Government, and, for the time, nearly paralyse it. 
 
 " Then, again, they not only occasion expense to the State, 
 but, what is much worse, they give rise to impositions on the 
 people, and not unfrequently to positive mal-treatment and 
 oppression. Crops are injured cattle and men are pressed 
 arbitrarily into the service articles of consumption (eggs, 
 poultry, milk, firewood, &c.) are appropriated without re- 
 muneration; and the people are sometimes frightened from 
 their villages. You cannot move a large body of men through 
 the country, and especially men armed with authority, or 
 assuming authority, without these contingencies. I believe I 
 may say, that no person could be more unwilling than myself 
 to countenance or permit oppression or injustice; but I am 
 far from being satisfied that much wrong may not have been 
 committed in my name, when I made a tour of the Western 
 Provinces, just forty years ago. Our camp did not, I believe, 
 with our escort, exceed 400 or 500 men; but this corteye, 
 moderate enough when compared with a Vice-Regal movement, 
 was large enough to levy contributions from the country. I 
 made an example of two of my servants at an early period; but 
 
570 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKEK, 
 
 I am not sure that their successors were more trustworthy; and 
 as for an ' Ellenborough Promenade,' I should say, that it 
 would be more destructive than any flight of locusts could 
 possibly prove. 
 
 " Here you have my genuine feeling on the general question ; 
 but in your particular case, I do hope to hear that you have 
 visited the interior (by-and-by, including even Scinde), to 
 the great comfort of the people, and to your own great satis- 
 faction. 
 
 " With every good wish, believe me, my dear Sir, 
 " Very sincerely yours, 
 
 " H. ST.G. TUCKER." 
 
 " TO THE HONORABLE JAMES THOMASON. 
 
 [On the Cultivation of Cotton in India.] 
 
 " East India House, 24th July, 1847. 
 
 " MY DEAR SIR, I have been favored with your letter from 
 Simla of May the 20th; but as our packet is about to close, I 
 can at present do little more than acknowledge it. 
 
 " I am very glad to hear that you are taking so great an 
 interest in the success of our cotton operations. It has been a 
 favorite object with me for twenty years, and I wrote a Memoir 
 on the subject many years ago ; but I met with little encou- 
 ragement for some time, although what I contended for em- 
 braced a great national object. 
 
 " Things have now taken a different turn, and I anticipate 
 entire success at an early period. A great meeting of the manu- 
 facturers, at which Dr. Royle and our American planters 
 (Messrs. Mercer and Blunt) attended, took place lately at 
 Manchester, and upon the explanations which were given, two 
 of the principal Houses immediately determined to send out 
 orders for the purchase of 18,000 bales of our Indian cotton, 
 and I believe they will, by-and-by, send out factors to purchase 
 from the cultivators on the spot, and to make advances in the 
 same manner as we have long done for indigo, silk, &c. 
 
 " Mr. Bell shall experience every attention, and receive 
 ample justice, if his produce be approved; but from some 
 strange oversight, 800 anonymous bales have arrived, which I 
 suspect to be from h.im, but which cannot be identified. They 
 
LETTER TO LORD HARDINGE. 571 
 
 were received per Monarch and Amwell. The first report of 
 the brokers on this cotton was very unfavorable; but I am 
 glad to find that it is likely to turn out much better than had 
 been anticipated. The fibre was represented to have been much 
 cut ; but a handful sent me by my son St.George, and which I 
 suspect was taken from the same consignment, was not found 
 to have this defect. 
 
 " Your North- West cotton will not, however, I fear, be found 
 equal to the produce of the districts further south; and your 
 cultivation is reported to be ' slovenly,' and very unequal to that 
 of the districts of Berar, Candeish, Dharwar, &c. This has 
 somewhat surprised me ; but the defect may surely be corrected ; 
 and another great defect, the want of due care in separating the 
 cotton from the seed and leaf, and other impurities, may also, 
 no doubt, be remedied by a little more attention. I have the 
 pleasure to enclose a short memorandum from Dr. Royle. . . . 
 " Believe me, my dear Sir, 
 
 " Very faithfully yours, 
 
 " H. ST.G. TUCKER." 
 
 " TO THE RIGHT HON. VISCOUNT HARDINGE, &C., &C. 
 
 [On the Affairs of Oude, Hyderabad, Gumsoor, &c. The Furlough Regula- 
 tions The Great Ganges Canal, and the Appointment of Lord Dalhousie.] 
 
 " East India House, 7th August, 1847. 
 
 " MY DEAR LORD, I have been favored with your Lord- 
 ship's letter of the 9th June, and I rejoice to hear that every- 
 thing is going on favorably and satisfactorily, with the excep- 
 tion, perhaps, of our relations with Oude and Hyderabad. But 
 both these cases have presented great difficulties for a long 
 course of years ; and I had to encounter them when in office 
 thirteen years ago. I have not yet seen the correspondence ; 
 but, after communicating with Sir John Hobhouse, I will here- 
 after state to your Lordship everything which may occur to me 
 on the subject 
 
 " We hope soon to hear that the Gumsoor disturbances have 
 been suppressed, and that a milder system has been introduced, 
 for the better management of that territory. Razias can never 
 succeed in tranquillising any country; and your Lordship will 
 
572 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 not, perhaps, be surprised to hear that the French Government 
 are at length becoming sensible of this truth, and that they have 
 actually applied to us to ascertain how we manage our Ma- 
 homedan population. I am surprised that your Lordship should 
 not earlier have been made acquainted with the state of affairs 
 in Gumsoor, for we had some information on the subject here; 
 and two very intelligent men Mr. George Russell and Mr. 
 Mills furnished me with memoirs on the causes of the recent 
 outbreak. 
 
 " Our military Furlough Regulations have not yet been 
 matured. I find from my Indian letters that an erroneous 
 sketch of what was projected has been received in Bengal, and 
 that it has produced much dissatisfaction. I always apprehended 
 that the army would be disappointed ; and it is to be regretted 
 that any expectation should have been held out to them until 
 the plan was matured. 
 
 " The question of the * Ganges Canal' has been much dis- 
 cussed of late among us ; and a member of the Court has given 
 notice of a motion for Wednesday next, and has prepared an 
 elaborate paper, strongly deprecating the undertaking. When 
 the project was first brought forward, I contended against the 
 attempt to combine the two objects of irrigation and naviga- 
 tion ; and all I have since learnt has tended to strengthen 
 and confirm my objections. Major Cautley, indeed, states that 
 * navigation' constitutes no part of his original plan, and that it 
 was super-added under a peremptory order of Lord Ellen- 
 borough ; but, in fact, he has not satisfied us that, even with a 
 view to objects of irrigation, the canal is likely to succeed in 
 producing more good than mischief, or that more simple, easy, 
 and economical means might not be resorted to for the purpose 
 of accomplishing the same end. The following objections, 
 among others, have been urged against the canal : 
 
 "1st. That the expense would be enormous, and incom- 
 mensurate with the object. 
 
 " 2nd. That, after the completion of the work, a large annual 
 charge must be incurred for establishments, repairs, &c., &c. 
 
 " 3rd. That the work cannot be completed for many years, 
 Major Cautley himself admitting that the Salam Aqueduct, ex- 
 
LETTER TO LORD HARDINGE. 573 
 
 tending for the first nineteen miles, cannot be completed in less 
 than five years. 
 
 " 4th. That the distribution of the water will be matter of 
 difficulty will give occasion to complaints and litigation, and 
 will be open to great abuse by the officers of Government. 
 
 " 5th. That the navigation of the Ganges above Allahabad 
 will be utterly destroyed, to the great injury of the landholders 
 and people of Rohilkund, Oude, &c. This fact almost admits 
 of proof even from what has occurred in the Jumna; and Major 
 Cautley's assumption that the deficiency of water in that river 
 has been supplied by percolation, would seem to be unsup- 
 ported by the facts of the case as exhibited by one of our 
 colleagues. 
 
 " 6th. That the sanatory effects of the canal may prove very 
 injurious, by converting a running stream into stagnant water 
 during the dry season. 
 
 "7th. That the extension of cultivation, by means of irriga- 
 tion from the canal, has been much over-estimated ; and that, 
 even admitting such extension, a falling off may take place in 
 other quarters, the Ryots and others having no sufficient means 
 of hoarding and preserving their surplus produce. 
 
 " Lastly. That the same object may be attained in a better 
 manner by sinking wells, forming reservoirs, &c., &c., accord- 
 ing to the usage which has long prevailed in different parts of 
 the country. 
 
 " After communicating with Sir John Hobhouse on the sub- 
 ject, and hearing the course of our deliberations, I will com- 
 municate the result to your Lordship at as early a period as 
 possible. 
 
 "I have only to add that Lord Dalhousie was appointed to 
 succeed your Lordship in the Government on Wednesday last, 
 and that he proposes to embark for Alexandria, in an Admiralty 
 steamer, in the middle of November, and may be expected to 
 reach Calcutta early in January. Sir H. Pottinger was ap- 
 pointed at the same time to succeed to the Government of Fort 
 St. George. 
 
 " With every good wish for your Lordship's health, and a 
 
574 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER, 
 
 happy termination to an administration which has been so suc- 
 cessful, 
 
 " I have the honor to be, most sincerely, &c., 
 
 "H.ST.G. TUCKER." 
 
 " TO THE EIGHT HON. VISCOUNT HARDINGE. 
 
 [On the State of Affairs at Hyderabad.] 
 
 " East India House, 24th August, 1847. 
 
 " MY DEAR LORD, I have not had the pleasure of hearing 
 from your Lordship by the July mail ; but Sir John Hobhouse 
 has communicated to me your letters of the 23rd June, on two 
 very important questions. 
 
 14 The state of affairs at Hyderabad involves a question of 
 great delicacy and difficulty, on which the Court have been 
 much divided during the last twenty years. From present ap- 
 pearances, there is reason to apprehend that a crisis has arisen, 
 or must soon arise, when some decided steps must be taken ; 
 and your Lordship's despatch on the late transactions at Hyder- 
 abad (military and financial), which may be expected by the 
 next mail, will fairly open the question to us. It is one which 
 is not new to me ; for I have frequently had occasion to reflect 
 upon it, and to discuss it publicly. My own principles lead me 
 to a strict observance of treaties, and I was a party to the Hyder- 
 abad despatch of 1843 ; but I do not go so far as to maintain 
 that a case may not arise to justify a peremptory interference ; 
 and I am disposed to think that, in the present instance, our 
 interposition may be necessary, both with a view to the in- 
 terests, and indeed to the safety, of the Nizam himself. Before 
 proceeding to an authoritative act, leading to the assumption 
 of the territory, I should be glad, I own, if an attempt were 
 made to obtain his Highness's consent to our undertaking the 
 administration for a limited term (say five or ten years), on 
 his part, and for his behoof ; the net evenue being receivable 
 by his Highness, after defraying the charges of administration, 
 and the interest of any bondjide debts, to which the State may 
 be liable. We have a case somewhat analogous in Mysore, 
 although in this instance an article in the treaty was considered 
 to authorise our assumption of the territory. Lahore presents 
 
LETTEK TO Mil. CLERK. 575 
 
 another instance ; but here we had a clear field. Much of our 
 success in this, as in other cases, would depend upon the agency 
 employed ; but on this point I am not prepared to hazard any 
 suggestion. Your Lordship must now be well acquainted with 
 the instruments within your reach. Some men easily inspire 
 confidence ; and you must gain the confidence of the natives 
 of India before you can negotiate with them successfully. 
 
 " With every good wish, I have the honor to be, most sin- 
 cerely, &c., 
 
 " H. ST.G. TUCKER." 
 
 " TO THE HON. GEORGE CLERK. 
 
 [On the Administration of Scinde and the Government of Aden.] 
 
 " East India House, 5th Sept., 1847. 
 
 " MY DEAR SIR, I have been favored with your letter of 
 the 3rd July, and Mr. Melvill has also given me the pleasure 
 of perusing a letter from you of the 17th. I trust that there 
 is now an early prospect of your having Scinde placed under 
 your administration, and I feel satisfied with great public ad- 
 vantage. If you can spare time to pay a visit to that province, 
 your inspection of the state of things on the spot may be very 
 useful. There is nothing so satisfactory as seeing with our own 
 eyes ; and I apprehend that you will see much which it is de- 
 sirable you should see. I have never been able to satisfy myself 
 with respect to the manner in which the land-revenue is 
 realised. The collections appear generally to be made in kind ; 
 but how is the grain valued when taken from the cultivator ? 
 and is it issued at the same valuation to the commissariat, &c. ? 
 or how is it disposed of? Our information has been defective 
 throughout in every branch of administration ; but you will be 
 able, on the spot, by examining the officers employed, and 
 their accounts, to satisfy yourself on the facts of the case. 
 With respect to the judicial administration, we are equally at a 
 loss for information ; but your inquiries will enable us to judge 
 of the system which will be most suitable for the country and 
 the people in their present condition. 
 
 " I am surprised that there should be any difficulty in 
 selecting a competent officer to command the troops ; but if he 
 
576 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 should not be found at Bombay, Lord Hardinge will, I trust, 
 be able to supply one from Bengal. It is desirable, no doubt, 
 that an officer should be selected from Bombay to command 
 Bombay troops ; but if he be not forthcoming, we must look 
 to some other quarter. I will make inquiry about the views 
 and intentions of General Hunter ; but we could not well invite 
 him to go out to take a command, without knowing exactly 
 what that command is to be ; and we could not safely make an 
 arrangement here until we shall be made acquainted with the 
 opinion and views of the Governor-General. 
 
 " I cannot think that the appointment of a Governor, or 
 Lieutenant-Governor, to such a petty place as Aden, can be 
 required. This would be to imitate what was called the 
 ' Scotch Invasion ' of Penang some half century ago. If the 
 public functionaries will not act harmoniously together, the 
 public service must otherwise be provided for. The distinction 
 between the civil and military authorities in India has been 
 long settled, and is well understood. The one points out the 
 service to be performed the other executes and determines the 
 means upon its own responsibility. If, however, a Head be 
 wanting, larger powers might be given to the Resident or Mili- 
 tary Commandant (as the case may be), without the costly 
 apparatus of a regular Government. 
 
 " With every good wish, believe me, my dear Sir, very 
 sincerely yours, 
 
 " H. ST.G. TUCKEK." 
 
 TO THE RIGHT HON. VISCOUNT HARDINGE, &C., &C. 
 
 [On the Appointment of Lord Dalhousie The Affairs of Nepaul Oude 
 
 Hyderabad.] 
 
 " East India House, 8th November, 1847. 
 
 "MY DEAR LORD, I have been favored with your Lord- 
 ship's letters of the 5th and 20th September, by the same mail; 
 and I was much pleased to find that the appointment of Lord 
 Dalhousie was so highly approved by your Lordship. 
 
 " I can confidently say that it was the wish of the Court of 
 Directors, and, I believe I may say, of her Majesty's Ministers, 
 
LETTER TO LORD HARDINGE. 577 
 
 to select a worthy successor to your Lordship; and I feel 
 satisfied that the earnest wishes of all parties are likely to be 
 fulfilled. 
 
 " I was very glad to hear that your Lordship had succeeded in 
 removing the Ranee from the scene of her mischievous in- 
 trigues with so little trouble and difficulty; and I have no 
 doubt that this step will tend greatly to maintain tranquillity 
 in the Punjab, and to preserve her son from the contagion of 
 vice. You have not announced officially your proposed ar- 
 rangement for the future management of our affairs at Lahore; 
 and until the first move be made in India, we cannot well make 
 the consequent appointments here. My intention is to propose 
 that the appointment of Sir F. Currie to succeed Colonel Law- 
 rence (Sir F. necessarily vacating his seat in Council) should 
 be confirmed, with the allowances of a member of Council; 
 that Sir John Littler should succeed to the vacant seat; and 
 that Sir H. Haddock should have his term in Council ex- 
 tended for another year. This will prevent the necessity for 
 any new appointment to Council will make an opening for 
 the re-appointment of Sir F. Currie to Council some sixteen or 
 eighteen months hence and will afford Lord Dalhousie the as- 
 sistance of an experienced officer in the commencement of his 
 government. But before all this can be arranged, we must 
 hear of Colonel Lawrence's retirement. 
 
 " We shall not, I trust, have any occasion to interfere in the 
 affairs of Nepaul. They must settle their own affairs in their 
 own way; and although we must desire always to see our 
 neighbours enjoy peace and internal order, I doubt whether 
 any interposition on our part would tend to promote that end. 
 
 " From the late despatches regarding Hyderabad, I am led 
 to hope that some amelioration has taken place, and that the 
 first move has been made to effect a reform in the finances of 
 the state. Had its financial embarrassments been further aggra- 
 vated, we should have been compelled, I fear, to take some 
 strong measures to secure the payment of the large arrears due 
 to us ; but I own that I shall be glad to hear that the Govern- 
 ment has reformed itself without our instrumentality. I have 
 
 2p 
 
578 LIFE OP H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 given notes for a reply to your Lordship's last despatch on the 
 subject; and, indeed, a draft has already been prepared. 
 
 " I am afraid that your Lordship will find more urgent occa- 
 sion for the interposition of our good offices with his Majesty 
 of Oude; and I shall be a little impatient to hear the result of 
 your interview with his Majesty. Our agency in managing 
 that country would be more easy and beneficial, and more ad- 
 vantageous to the Prince and people, than it would be likely to 
 prove at Hyderabad ; but I do hope that your Lordship will 
 show your accustomed liberality, and that everything will be 
 done for the behoof of the King, unworthy as he may be, and 
 that we shall only require indemnification for the expense of 
 our agency. 
 
 " We first exacted 70,00,000 per annum to defray the 
 charge of our subsidiary force : we then increased the subsidy to 
 1,20,00,000, and then commuted it for territory yielding double 
 that sum ! 
 
 " I have given directions for an immediate reply to the last 
 reference to the Court on the religious question, and I hope to 
 render the Court's instructions more specific; but it is a ques- 
 tion of great delicacy, and there are various feelings to be con- 
 sulted and reconciled. My own opinions are very decided, as 
 your Lordship is aware. Our late despatch was prepared by 
 Sir James Hogg with great care, and it passed the Court with 
 a very general feeling in its favor, and was cordially acquiesced 
 in, I believe, by the Board ; but I perceive that the members 
 of Council feel some difficulty in giving effect to our views and 
 wishes, and that some more precise instructions are required. 
 In the mean time, I think that it was very prudent to abstain 
 from publishing the Court's orders, or any which your Lordship 
 may have thought advisable, in the Gazette, since such publica- 
 tion would almost infallibly have given rise to a mischievous con- 
 troversy in the papers. We have had too much of this already 
 at Madras. 
 
 " I scarcely know what to say about the Ganges Canal; but 
 I fear with your Lordship, that we must go on with the work, 
 although I much fear, at the same time, that no advantage will 
 
LETTER TO LORD HAKDINGE. 579 
 
 be derived from it at all commensurate with the immense out- 
 lay. And, independently of pecuniary considerations, I foresee 
 that contingencies may result which are likely to become the 
 source of much future embarrassment. We have great mis- 
 givings on the subject here, where the project has been care- 
 fully examined, and difficulties and objections have presented 
 themselves which do not appear to have been sufficiently ad- 
 verted to by the original projectors. Engineers, very naturally, 
 regard such works with the eyes of engineers. It is not their 
 business to foresee remote consequences affecting the rights and 
 interests of parties, or the health and well-being of the com- 
 munity. 
 
 " Our railroad project is quite at a stand-still. The company 
 with which we have been so long negotiating, cannot raise 
 money sufficient to make the required deposit of 100,0007.; 
 nor, indeed, any large portion of it. We have given them to 
 the 31st March to make good this preliminary condition; but I 
 doubt whether they will then be better prepared than at pre- 
 sent. Such is the deplorable state of the money-market here, 
 that funds cannot be raised, even on Government security, at a 
 lower interest than 8 or 10 per cent, per annum; and there is 
 no immediate prospect of amendment. I fear that the money- 
 market of India must soon experience the effect of our embar- 
 rassment ; and I am apprehensive that difficulties may be experi- 
 enced in furnishing us with those large supplies, by means of 
 hypothecation, which we shall probably require in the ensuing 
 season. In the mean time, the Indian Treasuries will be relieved 
 by the very limited amount of our drafts; although commerce 
 must suffer from the difficulty of procuring funds for remittance 
 to India and China. I have mentioned to Sir H. Maddock 
 that early arrangements will be made with reference to the 
 amount of supplies to be furnished from India. 
 
 " Your Lordship's military reductions have afforded us here 
 the utmost satisfaction. It required no small degree of moral 
 courage, and, I may say, patriotism, to undertake such reduc- 
 tions ; but they were absolutely necessary to rescue us from a 
 state of bankruptcy, and the work has been manfully undertaken 
 and accomplished. 
 
 2p2 
 
580 LIFE OF H. ST.GL TUCKER. 
 
 es Your Lordship's suggestions with respect to the carriage of 
 the soldiers' baggage, &e., will receive every attention, as soon 
 as the subject comes officially before us. I have always under- 
 stood that one of the greatest difficulties attending military 
 operations in India arose from the extent of the baggage; but 
 this inconvenience has, I believe, been somewhat mitigated of 
 late years; and although your Lordship has done so much to 
 prevent hostile movements for some time, yet it is always de- 
 sirable to avail ourselves of a time of peace, to guard against the 
 contingency of war. 
 
 " I do hope that in a few months I shall have the pleasure 
 of seeing your Lordship in this country in perfect health, to en- 
 joy your success and your domestic comforts. 
 
 " I have the honour to be, very sincerely, &c., 
 
 " H. ST.G. TUCKER." 
 
 " TO THE EARL OF DALHOUSIE. 
 [On the Financial Affairs of the Company.] 
 
 "East India House, 7th December, 1847. 
 
 " MY DEAR LORD, In my last letter, I mentioned that 
 we were likely to experience great financial difficulty, in con- 
 sequence of the total derangement of the money-market in this 
 city ; nor do I very clearly see my way through these diffi- 
 culties. Moreover, they are not merely of a temporary character. 
 
 " We have entirely exhausted our reserved fund, arising out 
 of the residue of our commercial assets ; and we have not, 
 therefore, any resource to fall back upon in order to meet a 
 temporary emergency. 
 
 " 2nd. We cannot raise money, as heretofore, by our bills 
 on India ; for the commercial capital has been so shattered of 
 late, and the rate of interest is so extravagantly high, that 
 money cannot be supplied to effect the usual remittances to 
 India and China. 
 
 " 3rd. Many of the Houses on which our hypothecation bills 
 were drawn have failed, or suspended payment, and others are 
 anxious to obtain the indulgence of time to effect their pay- 
 
LETTER TO LOUD DALHOUSIE. 581 
 
 ments ; so that this resource has, in a great measure, failed us, 
 at least for the present. 
 
 " 4th. Our bonds have been of late at a heavy discount, and 
 it is not only impossible to effect any further issue, but we have 
 reason to apprehend that notice will be given, requiring pay- 
 ment of those outstanding, amounting to 2,300,0007., at the 
 expiration of twelve months. 
 
 "We shall, under these circumstances, urgently require the 
 bullion-remittance of half a million, which has been ordered, 
 and which I trust we shall receive in the course of April, or 
 early in May. 
 
 " Under present circumstances, it appears to me much more 
 prudent to resort to a moderate remittance in bullion, than to 
 lower the exchange for our bills. If India has 4,500,0007. 
 to pay on her commercial and political account, and only 
 4,000,0007. to receive, it is better to incur a loss on the remit- 
 tance of bullion to pay the excess (500,0007.), than to reduce 
 the exchange on the whole debt of India, or 4,500,0007. I 
 discussed this question, and the general theory of exchange, in 
 a despatch to the Court from the Financial Department, bearing 
 date the 23rd of August, 1809 ; and your Lordship can, if 
 you please, refer Mr. Dorin to it. 
 
 "But we cannot for a continuance depend upon remittances 
 in bullion ; and then arises the question How is the political 
 and commercial debt of India to be discharged? The public 
 debt, for which we must find a remittance, amounts now to 
 nearly four millions; and I fear that at least another million 
 must be added for private fortunes accumulated in India, for 
 which a remittance is periodically required. 
 
 " I have reason to believe, from the best inquiry which I 
 can make here, that India possesses at present a fair stock of 
 the precious metals, the importations greatly exceeding any ex- 
 portation or absorption which I can trace ; but it would be 
 very useful if your Lordship would direct Mr. Dorin to make 
 particular inquiry on this subject, in order that we may be 
 enabled to judge how far we can depend upon drawing, from 
 time to time, a supply of bullion from India, without deranging 
 
582 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 commerce or the circulation, and without creating the appre- 
 hension of a deficiency of specie. I found it very necessary to 
 satisfy myself on all these points while I had the charge of our 
 finances. 
 
 " But the discovery of the channel of remittance is not our 
 only difficulty. We must command the means of supplying 
 that remittance, by producing a substantial surplus revenue, 
 after defraying the large and increasing home charges. Lord 
 Hardinge has set to work manfully in reducing the military 
 expenditure, and I trust that the energy and zeal of Mr. G. 
 Clerk will do much to effect important reductions in the charges 
 of Scinde, although there is no one branch of the service to 
 which I can look forward with less satisfaction and less hope 
 than this same province of Scinde. It has sorely punished us 
 for our rapacity, our vicious ambition, and our violation of the 
 national faith ! What a contrast does not the Punjab present 
 to us! 
 
 ' ' Lord Ellenborough has attacked our plan of hypothecation ; 
 but we stand on strong ground, and I little heed opinions which 
 are not founded on public principles. Had we abandoned this 
 system to interested clamor, we should not have had at this 
 moment a hundred pounds in our Treasury, and we must have 
 gone to Parliament as paupers ! 
 
 " With every good wish, 1 have the honor to be, &c., &c., 
 
 " H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 " I have the pleasure to enclose a copy of some notes which 
 I wrote on a former occasion, in objection to a reduction in the 
 rate of the exchange ; but I was not successful in persuading 
 the Court to adopt my opinion. H. ST.G. T." 
 
 " TO THE EARL OF DALHOUSIE, &C., &C. 
 [On the Affairs of Hyderabad and Oude, and the Resignation of Mr. Clerk.] 
 
 " East India House, 24th December, 1847. 
 
 " MY DEAR LORD, I trust that you are now traversing the 
 Bay of Bengal, and that in a few days you will be safely landed 
 at the seat of your government. 
 
LETTER TO LORD DALHOUSIE. 583 
 
 " Sir John Hobhouse has been so much indisposed of late, 
 from the prevailing epidemic, and so frequently absent from 
 town, that I have not seen him for a month past, and we have 
 not, consequently, transacted any important business which it 
 might be desirable for me to notice to your Lordship. On 
 financial matters, I have already communicated as much as can 
 be necessary or useful, in my two last letters. 
 
 " We have at present on the table of the Court a proposed 
 despatch to India on the state of our affairs at Hyderabad; 
 and if it should be concurred in by the Board, it will show 
 your Lordship distinctly the sentiments of the Court, and the 
 line of policy which we think should be pursued towards that 
 state. It is in reply to Lord Hardinge's late despatches, en- 
 closing the correspondence with General Frazer; and it dis- 
 poses, I hope, of the main questions involved in that very volu- 
 minous correspondence. 
 
 " I have received a private letter from Lord Hardinge of the 
 6th ultimo, relating to the state of affairs in Oude, which are 
 embarrassing enough; but our relations with that state are 
 somewhat different from those which connect us with Hyder- 
 abad: and the difficulty of effecting necessary reforms in the 
 former are not so formidable, I should hope, as in the latter 
 case. I shall be anxious to hear the result of his Lordship's 
 personal conference with his Majesty of Oude ; and I feel 
 assured that his arrangements, whatever they may be, will be 
 dictated by a sense of justice, a respect for our engagements, 
 and a real desire to promote the best interests of his Majesty 
 and his people. These interests, I do believe, would be best 
 promoted by his allowing us to put his country in order for 
 him (he deriving the whole pecuniary advantage) ; but I fear 
 we have given so many instances of a grasping disposition, and 
 of a selfish policy, that his Majesty will not readily commit his 
 concerns to our good management. 
 
 "I have learnt from Mr. George Clerk, with extreme con- 
 cern, that he intends to resign the Government of Bombay on 
 the 1st May next, in consequence of the failure of his health. 
 This will be a great disappointment to us, and a real loss; for I 
 
584 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 expected much from his talents, energy, and public spirit, in a 
 station where all these qualities are so much required, and so 
 difficult to be commanded. I trust, however, that before his 
 departure, he will be able to collect and to furnish your Lord- 
 ship's Government and the Court with valuable information 
 regarding Scinde, which may assist materially in enabling us to 
 regulate beneficially its future administration. 
 
 " With every good wish, I have the honor to be, your Lord- 
 ship's most faithful, 
 
 " H. ST.G. TUCKER." 
 
 ;< TO THE HON. G. R. CLERK. 
 
 [On his Resignation of the Government of Bombay and the Administration 
 
 of Scinde.] 
 
 " East India House, 24th Dec., 1847. 
 
 " MY DEAR SIR, I have been favored with your letters 
 of the 12th and 13th ult., and I have learnt with extreme con- 
 cern your intention of resigning your government on the 1st 
 May. Your own correspondence with Mr. Melvill and myself, 
 independently of other sources of information, shows that much 
 is required to be done at Bombay to correct abuses, and to 
 place public affairs on a sounder and better footing ; and from 
 your experience, energy, and public spirit, and I may add, from 
 your familiarity with sound principles and practice, I had 
 hoped and anticipated that the necessary reforms would have 
 been effected. I am aware, at the same time, that we cannot 
 contend against failing health ; and that it would be unreason- 
 able and unjust to expect any man to sacrifice himself, without 
 even the prospect of his accomplishing the object of that 
 sacrifice. 
 
 " I do hope, however, that you will be able to satisfy yourself, 
 by careful and intelligent inquiry on the spot, with respect to 
 the real state of affairs in Scinde, past and present; and that 
 you will be able to suggest a remedy for existing and ascer- 
 tained evils. I have received, at different times, a good deal of 
 information, and from a highly respectable quarter, regarding 
 
LETTER TO MR. CLERK. 585 
 
 the internal administration of that country (revenue and ju- 
 dicial), and more especially with regard to the manner in 
 which the revenue in kind is realised and brought to account, 
 and the produce in grain subsequently disposed of to the com- 
 missariat, &c. ; but you will have better means of ascertaining 
 the facts on the spot ; and if any deceptions should have been 
 practised, you will, I am sure, be anxious to detect and to 
 correct them. I hope that Mr. Pringle is a man of energy, and 
 not likely to be discouraged or deterred by difficulties. The 
 great object of a retrospect into past mismanagement (if it has 
 existed) is to reform it, and to trace out a safer and better road 
 for the future. 
 
 " The specimens of your press, which I have lately seen, are 
 atrocious ; but nothing can surpass in calumny what we are 
 sometimes condemned to hear in the General Court in this 
 House. The times are strangely altered since my early days* 
 when all claiming to hold a place in society were compelled to 
 speak and act as gentlemen. The attacks on your administra- 
 tion, and on the Indian Navy question, are too flagitious to 
 excite any but one feeling, except among those who have 
 discarded every proper feeling. This Indian Navy question 
 has embarrassed us beyond measure, and it is still under con- 
 sideration. We are much astonished at the conduct of some 
 parties, who ought to have known better. 
 
 " With every good wish, believe me, my dear Sir, 
 " Very sincerely yours, 
 
 " H. ST.G. TUCKER." 
 
 " TO THE EARL OF DALHOUSIE, GOVERNOR-GENERAL, &C. 
 
 [On the Affairs of Hyderabad and the State of the Public Finances.] 
 
 " East India House, 24th April, 1848. 
 
 " MY DEAR LORD, I have been favored with your Lord- 
 ship's letter of the 9th of March ; and I scarcely know why I 
 neglected to write by the January Mail ; but I was a good deal 
 harassed at one time, and had more to do than I could possibly 
 do in a satisfactory manner. 
 
586 LIFE OP H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 " I am a great stickler for the observance of treaties, and so, 
 I have reason to believe, is your Lordship ; but I apprehend 
 that the time must arrive (even before the expiration of Lord 
 Hardinge's two years of grace) when our intervention in the 
 affairs of Oude will be found necessary even for the safety of the 
 Prince himself. I feel satisfied that, if the country were placed 
 under our administration, at least a third would be added to its 
 revenue in the course of three years; but the financial benefit 
 should all be secured to the Prince, and I would not take from 
 him a single rupee beyond the expense of management. Our 
 arrangement with his Majesty's predecessors in 1798 and 1801 
 were all to our advantage, and were sufficiently exacting on our 
 part. 
 
 " Towards the Nizam we stand in a different relation; and 
 there must be a strong case to justify our interference with his 
 Highness, except for the purpose of ameliorating his condition, 
 and rendering him an act of tardy justice, by relieving him from 
 a military charge, imposed upon him for our own purposes, with- 
 out any regard to the obligations of the treaty. I trust that this 
 military force may be dispensed with, by-and-by, as the most 
 easy means of restoring his finances. There are two difficulties 
 at Hyderabad : the one, to find a capable minister ; the other, to 
 get rid of European influences and connexions, which have 
 long operated injuriously on the affairs of that state. The well- 
 being and prosperity of all the native states depending upon 
 us, are liable to be much influenced by the character of our 
 Resident. If he understand the people, and with the union 
 of firmness with a conciliatory temper will take the trouble to 
 explain to them their real interests, and to show them how 
 those interests may best be prosecuted, he will soon gain their 
 confidence, and be in a condition to guide them. The natives 
 of India are easily led by those whom they believe to be their 
 friends. 
 
 " I feel very great anxiety on the subject of our finances. If 
 we cannot produce a surplus revenue in India, sufficient to 
 defray the home expenditure and if means cannot be found 
 to effect an annual remittance to the extent of three and a half 
 
LETTER TO LORD BALHOUSIE. 587 
 
 or four millions we shall, at an early period, be reduced to a 
 state of actual insolvency here. It would never do to go on 
 borrowing from year to year, during a period of peace, even if 
 funds could be raised at a moderate rate of interest, which is 
 far from certain; and, if once we begin to raise our rate of 
 interest in India, no man can say where we should stop; and 
 how are our stupendous works to be carried on without bor- 
 rowing? our canals, our railroads, our projected works at 
 Bombay, at Aden, and in Scinde, and elsewhere? I have had 
 a conversation with Sir James Lushington this morning on the 
 subject; and I own that I do not see my way. I am no longer 
 at the helm, and I am happy that I am not; but I take a deep 
 interest in my old department, in which I served so long. 
 
 " The last two months have produced more extraordinary 
 events in Europe than, under ordinary circumstances, would 
 fairly have occupied two centuries; but your Lordship will have 
 heard enough of them so far, and the result is still to be deve- 
 loped. The 10th of April was, however, a glorious day for this 
 country; and it .exhibited in strong contrast the difference 
 between our people and those of the other nations of Europe. 
 May we long enjoy our pre-eminence ! 
 
 " With every good wish, I have the honor to be, my dear 
 Lord, 
 
 " Most sincerely yours, 
 
 " H. ST.G. TUCKER." 
 
588 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 Mr. Tucker and Lord George Bentinck The Sugar Duties Committee The 
 Navigation Laws His private Life and Habits Illness and Recovery 
 Letter to his Children Projected Retirement from Office Address to his 
 Constituency His last Illness His Death Character of H. St.G. Tucker. 
 
 WHEN Mr. Tucker, in April, 1848, retired from the 
 Chairmanship of the East India Company, he had 
 entered his seventy- eighth year. But he was still in 
 good health and in the unimpaired possession of all 
 his faculties ; and still was he an active member of 
 the Court of Directors. At no time, indeed, of his 
 life did he take greater interest in public affairs, or 
 was he more competent to express an opinion re- 
 garding them. 
 
 Among other subjects which much engaged the 
 attention of Mr. Tucker at this time was the im- 
 portation of Indian -Sugar. He had been examined 
 before a Committee of the House of Commons whilst 
 yet in the Chair,* and he continued, after quitting 
 
 * Lord George Bentinck set great store by Mr. Tucker's evidence. " British 
 interests," he wrote, " cannot do without you. The dictum of the Chairman 
 of the East India Company, that 'the certain consequences of annihilating the 
 export trade of sugar to England and of rice to Mauritius, would be to bring 
 India's power of remittance to a dead lock before two years are out,' will 
 have more effect, in-doors and out, than all the evidence put together that we 
 hare heard, or shall hear, about India." 
 
LETTER TO LOUD GEORGE BENTINCK. 589 
 
 it, to correspond with Lord George Bentinck, whose 
 indomitable industry and activity excited in him no 
 common admiration. These were qualities which 
 won the respect even of political opponents, and 
 were sure to he appreciated by Mr. Tucker, who 
 concurred in the opinions of the Protectionist chief. 
 The subject was one which always had for him a 
 peculiar interest. He had been familiar with it for 
 half a century. In an earlier part of this Memoir 
 it has been shown how zealously Mr. Tucker con- 
 tended for the necessity of encouraging the pro- 
 duction of the staple commodities of India as 
 Sugar, Cotton, Silk, &c. not only for the benefit 
 that such encouragement confers upon the people, 
 but as a means of remittance to England.* The 
 importance of this argument Lord George Bentinck 
 clearly perceived, and with a view to the more com- 
 plete elaboration of his report on the evidence taken 
 before the Committee, he applied to Mr. Tucker for 
 some further information on the subject of the re- 
 mittance of the Indian tribute. In compliance with 
 the request made to him, the latter drew up a paper 
 of "Notes," under date May 2, 1848 ; and on the 
 following day wrote a long letter on the subject :f 
 
 " TO LORD GEORGE BENTINCK. 
 
 " East India House, 3rd May, 1848. 
 
 " MY LORD, I have had the honor to receive your Lord- 
 ship's note of yesterday, requesting me to state whether ; the 
 march of events enabled me to furnish the Committee with any 
 
 * See ante, pp. 365, 366. 
 
 f It was about this time that he wrote the paper on Remittances to 
 England, given in Memorials of Indian Government. 
 
590 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 facts illustrative of my evidence already given, that any serious 
 depreciation of the staple productions of India, and more par- 
 ticularly of sugar, would be calculated injuriously to affect the 
 power of India to make the remittance of her annual tribute 
 to England.' 
 
 " It would ill become me to indulge in speculations which 
 might create uneasiness or alarm. Nor should I be justified, 
 as an individual, in pronouncing a judgment on the commercial 
 policy which should be pursued by the Legislature of this 
 country with relation to our Indian dependencies; but I do 
 not hesitate to declare, that I have seen no reason whatever to 
 retract, or to modify, any of the opinions and statements 
 which I ventured to submit, in my examination before the 
 Committee. 
 
 " On the contrary, my apprehensions of the difficulty which 
 we are likely to experience in effecting our accustomed re- 
 mittances from India, have lately much increased. 
 
 " 1st. Because, notwithstanding the late reduction in the 
 exchange of our bills on India from Is. lOd. the rupee to 
 Is. 9-|d., the demand for these bills has been very incon- 
 siderable. 
 
 " 2ndly. Because, from the latest accounts which I have re- 
 ceived from Calcutta, bearing date the 21st of March, I am led 
 to believe that our remittances, by means of hypothecation, are 
 likely to be very deficient in the present year. It is observed : 
 ( You will learn from the despatch that, finding the advances 
 on hypothecation come in very slowly, we amended the terms 
 by advancing to the extent of three-fourths. This improvement 
 of the terms has, I am sorry to say, produced no sensible effect.' 
 
 " 3rdly. Because the late sales of sugar, consigned to the 
 Court in the last year under hypothecation, have been attended 
 with an actual loss, estimated at about one-fourth of the amount 
 of the bills drawn upon such consignments. 
 
 " 4thly. Because it has been found necessary to resort to a 
 remittance of bullion from India, in order to supply a portion 
 of the deficiency in the commercial remittance. 
 
 " It is scarcely necessary for me to observe that a remittance 
 in specie, or bullion, cannot be resorted to with advantage, 
 
LETTER TO LORD GEORGE BENTINCK. 591 
 
 except for the purpose of adjusting a balance on the commercial 
 and political debts and credits of two or more countries; and 
 I can state from my own experience, that any large abstraction 
 of the precious metals from India is likely to occasion great 
 public inconvenience. That country possesses no mines of 
 those metals the importations have much diminished of late, 
 as our Mint records and other accounts tend to show there 
 is an exportation to the countries beyond the Jumna, in pay- 
 ment for salt and other articles no inconsiderable amount is 
 absorbed in the manufacture of plate, trinkets, &c., by the 
 natives and our metallic currency is little assisted by a paper 
 currency, which cannot enter largely into the very minute 
 transactions of the native population, and which is liable to 
 expose them, from their ignorance, to frauds and impositions. 
 
 " Under these circumstances, I can state confidently that we 
 cannot often have recourse to a remittance in specie, or bullion, 
 from India, without the risk of financial derangement. The 
 wealthy natives, under any alarm, are very apt to withhold 
 specie from circulation ; and its abstraction is liable to affect 
 public credit, and to prevent the Government from raising the 
 funds which may, from time to time, be required for the public 
 service, at a moderate rate of interest. 
 
 " I need scarcely repeat that India can only discharge her 
 annual tribute to the mother country, for a continuance, by 
 means of her produce and manufactures; and if this country 
 will not receive that produce at remunerating prices, the same 
 amount of tribute cannot be realised. I have stated that sugar 
 appears to me our most promising article of export from India ; 
 but, at the present prices in this market, it cannot be exported 
 with advantage; and if the supply should cease, or be materially 
 curtailed (which is certainly to be apprehended), I know not 
 where a substitute is to be found. Cotton may, by-and-by, 
 furnish a very important resource, and our attention has been 
 directed, for many years past, to this great national object; 
 but we are not yet in a condition to compete successfully with 
 the cotton from the United States. Indigo, I fear, has reached 
 its maximum. Silk is not improving; and the indirect re- 
 mittance in opium through China is likely to be much dimi- 
 
592 LIFE OF II. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 nished, in consequence of the late fall in the price of the article 
 in Calcutta. 
 
 " Again, I would urge, without presuming to point out the 
 quo modo, that one of the greatest benefits which the British 
 Legislature could confer on India and on the East India Com- 
 pany, would be to encourage, by whatever means, the importa- 
 tion of sugar from our Indian territories. 
 " I have the honor to be, 
 
 " Your Lordship's most faithful servant, 
 
 " H. ST.G. TUCKER." 
 
 Among other subjects which engaged his atten- 
 tion at a little later period was the Repeal of the 
 Navigation Laws, and the reflexion of this measure 
 upon the Coasting Trade of India. He dissented 
 from the determination of his colleagues to grant a 
 relaxation of existing restrictions similar to that 
 which had been decreed in England, and recorded 
 his opinions on the subject in an elaborate minute- 
 He also addressed a letter to the present Lord 
 Derby on the subject, in which he declared that he 
 " viewed with jealousy and distrust every attempt 
 to extend to India the application of those novel 
 doctrines which, in his opinion, had already pro- 
 duced infinite mischief in our own country."* 
 
 In the same year (1849) he was actively engaged 
 in the discussions of the Court, arising out of the 
 appointment of Sir Charles Napier to the chief 
 command of the Indian army, and he drew up a 
 series of Resolutions on the subject, which show 
 that his pen had lost none of its old perspicuity and 
 
 * This letter, and the official minute, have already been published in the 
 Memorials of Indian Government. 
 
HIS ACTIVITY. 593 
 
 vigor. He recommended that the appointment 
 should be confirmed, but that the entire responsi- 
 bility of the measure should be declared to rest on 
 the advisers of the Crown. 
 
 He attended at the India House, at this time, 
 with all his old punctuality, generally proceeding 
 thither in a public conveyance. " I should consider 
 myself a perfect Heliogabulus," he wrote jestingly, 
 one day to his wife, " if I were to treat myself to 
 the luxury of a cab." He had for some time de- 
 nied himself horse- exercise, though his health 
 benefited greatly by it, that he might meet the 
 numerous claims on his benevolence. But at this 
 period (1847-8-9) it was his wont to ride with one 
 of his daughters almost every afternoon, except on 
 Court-days, after he had done his work at the India 
 House. And he would talk about old times, gaily 
 and pleasantly, and tell many stories of his early 
 Indian career, interspersing them with sketches of 
 Cornwallis and Wellesley, Barlow, Minto, and 
 Hastings, and anecdotes of his first friend, Thomas 
 Law, and other associates of his youth. It is hard 
 to say how much this Memoir has benefited by 
 these afternoon rides in the Park. 
 
 His health, as I have said, was excellent at this 
 time ; but he never forgot the years that he had 
 numbered, or the gratitude that was due to the 
 Almighty who had mercifully preserved him so 
 long. Some years before he had thought that the 
 final summons was near at hand; for there were 
 symptoms of what seemed to him to be an affection 
 
 2Q 
 
594 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 of the heart, which might suddenly terminate his 
 existence.* But the apprehension was groundless ; 
 and six years after the seizure, which was devoutly 
 accepted by him as a warning, he was in the full 
 enjoyment of all the tranquil pleasures of domestic 
 life, and capable, as ever, of pursuing his old career 
 of public utility. Still, as I have said, he never for- 
 got the years that he had numbered. 
 
 In February, 1850, he wrote to his sister-in-law : 
 " I did not take leave of you and yours ; for I am 
 not fond of this ceremony, and at my time of life I 
 cannot separate from my friends without the feeling 
 that we may never meet again. In the course of 
 nature my career must soon be brought to a close, 
 and, indeed, the term of my existence has been merci- 
 fully extended far beyond what I could have ex- 
 pected. I have, too, been blessed with health ; but 
 still I must be prepared to obey the great law of 
 nature, and I trust that I shall submit to it with 
 perfect resignation and composure.'' In the follow- 
 ing month, he wrote one day from the India House 
 to his wife : "I got here comfortably in a good 
 'bus ; and my visit was rather satisfactory than 
 otherwise. But it grieves me to think that my 
 
 * On the 17th of June, 1843, he wrote in a private memorandum-book: 
 " I was very unwell last night with a sort of nervous fever, palpitation of the 
 heart, &c. ; and I scarcely closed my eyes. The end approaches ! I have 
 long thought that I was subject to some affection of the heart, which 
 
 would terminate suddenly. Dr. , whom I consulted, was of a different 
 
 opinion. He assured me that there was no organic defect. I still doubt. 
 Thy will be done ! I should prepare to render up my account to that gracious 
 Power, by whom I have been so long and so mercifully preserved and 
 protected." 
 
SUDDEN ILLNESS. 595 
 
 children as well as your dear self should look for- 
 ward with such painful feelings to an event which is 
 inevitable, and which at my age cannot he long 
 postponed. My only feeling of pain will be to leave 
 you all, who are justly so dear to me." And soon 
 afterwards, in another letter, he said : "I have 
 been most mercifully dealt with, and I am deeply 
 grateful that at my advanced age I should be per- 
 mitted the use of my faculties of sight, hearing, 
 mind, and even some degree of bodily activity." 
 
 He attended to his business at the India House 
 at this . time without being distressed by the exer- 
 tion. Early in April, he made a spirited speech in 
 Court, on some subject in which he was greatly in- 
 terested. After the debate, a brother-Director con- 
 gratulated him on the force and vigor with which 
 he had spoken. " Ah !" replied Mr. Tucker, " it is 
 only the last flicker of the taper before it goes out." 
 
 Whether he had, at this time, in spite of his pre- 
 sent vigor, any internal promptings suggestive of a 
 failure to come, I do not know. But very soon after- 
 wards a sudden attack of illness, with strong symp- 
 toms of fever and inflammation, prostrated him ; 
 and, for a time, in spite of the ministration of three 
 experienced medical attendants, the keenest appre- 
 hensions were entertained for his life. Throughout 
 many days he lay stretched on what was believed to 
 be the bed of death, racked by the severest pains, 
 which he endured with beautiful patience and re- 
 signation. To all in that sorrowing household it 
 was a season of intense anxiety; at times of de- 
 
 2 Q 2 
 
596 LIFE OF H. ST.a. TUCKER. 
 
 spondency and despair. It seemed as though the 
 summons had come at last suddenly unexpectedly 
 finding all but the sufferer himself unprepared for 
 the blow. He had always been so full of life there 
 had been so much activity of body, so much energy 
 of mind, so much elasticity of spirit, that they had 
 never associated with all this vitality a thought of the 
 stillness of death. And yet now, at the threshold 
 of fourscore, under paroxysms of mortal illness 
 such as the frame of youth might vainly have re- 
 sisted, how probable was such an issue ! They could 
 only pray to Him in whose hands are all such issues 
 the issues of Life and Death. 
 
 And their prayers were heard. After many days 
 and nights of suffering, there were symptoms of 
 favorable change. The crisis of the disorder had 
 passed. A season of comparative ease had followed 
 the pain and the restlessness that had threatened 
 to bring him to the grave ; and, on the 1st of May, 
 he rose up from his bed. 
 
 The first words that he had uttered were words of 
 Prayer and Praise. "When he was seated in an arm- 
 chair, he asked for his purse, and gave out his 
 monthly contribution to the poor-box. Then his 
 thoughts reverted to some old pensioners the cross- 
 sweepers, who had long been recipients of his bounty ; 
 and he placed some money in the hands of his 
 daughters to be given to them, that they might not 
 suffer by his confinement to the house. 
 
 His recovery was retarded by a severe inflamma- 
 tion of the eye, which threatened, at one time, to 
 
LETTER TO HIS CHILDREN. 597 
 
 deprive him of sight. But the measures to which 
 recourse was had to arrest the evil proved eminently 
 successful, and he was soon enahled to take the pen 
 again into his hand, and to write without incon- 
 venience. His spirits soon regained their wonted 
 elasticity; and he became as cheerful in conva- 
 lescence as he had been patient in sickness ; never 
 at any time exhibiting the slightest symptom of 
 fretfulness or irritability, but with a rare appre- 
 ciation of the unfailing love which had ministered 
 and was ministering to him with so much gentleness 
 and assiduity, was prodigal of kindly acknowledg- 
 ments, and tenderly solicitous lest the unwearying de- 
 votion of his attendants should press upon the sources 
 of their health. But the greatness of this love and 
 devotion disquieted him. He had been mercifully 
 rescued ajmost from the very gates of death ; but 
 he could not hope much longer to be spared to 
 occupy his accustomed seat in the centre of that 
 loving circle. He knew that they must prepare 
 themselves to see his place empty and it saddened 
 him to see their grief. So, as soon as he was capable 
 of so much exertion, he drew up the following beau- 
 tiful letter of exhortation to his children. He kept 
 it for some time in his desk, and then gave it to one 
 of them, with instructions that it should be opened 
 after his death : 
 
 " 3, Upper Portland-place, July, 1850. 
 
 " MY BELOVED CHILDREN, Your unwearied and devoted 
 attentions to me during my late serious illness, have endeared 
 you to me, if possible, more than ever; and I feel profoundly 
 
598 LIFE OP H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 grateful to that merciful Providence which has supported your 
 dearest mother and all of you throughout this severe trial. 
 
 " But you must not give way to strong emotions; for they 
 are not only injurious to your health and well-being, but they 
 distress the object of your solicitude. 
 
 " I have reached a very advanced age. and must be prepared 
 for a change. Old age has its infirmities and suffering, and a 
 prolonged existence is not to be desired. Your care should 
 now be to comfort and console your beloved mother, who has 
 been everything to me, and everything to you all. I trust that 
 she will not leave this house, in which we have all enjoyed so 
 much happiness; and I feel assured that you will all tenderly 
 watch over her, and contribute by every means in your power to 
 her future comfort. Submit with resignation to the decree of 
 that merciful Power which cannot err, which has spared me for so 
 many years, and which in its goodness may call me soon to 
 another state. May that gracious Power continue to you all its 
 protection and favor ! and bestow upon you all those blessings 
 of which this life is susceptible ! ! Do not mourn for me like 
 those who are without hope. You have duties still to perform ; 
 and you have still, I trust, many years of future happiness in 
 prospect. 
 
 " Your most affectionate father, 
 
 " H. ST.G. TUCKER." 
 
 As the summer advanced, the health of Mr. Tucker 
 continued steadily to improve. It was his year of 
 absence from the Court, so that his zeal in behalf of 
 the public service did not impede his recovery ; and 
 in July his restoration to health had advanced so far 
 that he contemplated a yachting excursion along the 
 Southern Coast, and would have carried out his 
 design, but that the vessel which he had purposed 
 to engage, and in which he had before made a short 
 trip, chanced to be engaged for the season. His 
 
HIS OCCUPATIONS. 599 
 
 family were anxious that he should try the invigo- 
 rating effects of change of air, but he was averse 
 to any land-travelling, and preferred the sure com- 
 fort of his own home to the uncertainty of a strange 
 abode. He therefore remained in Portland-place, 
 continuing to improve in health, and deriving much 
 tranquil pleasure from the domestic occupations in 
 which he had, at all times, found abundant solace and 
 delight. He would dictate whilst one of his daugh- 
 ters wrote; or sometimes he would write himself, 
 with a hand that had lost but little of its firmness. 
 He would listen joyously to his children's music. 
 Occasionally he would balance his accounts, and 
 with as much precision as when he was Accountant- 
 Gen eral, and had charge of the revenues of India. 
 But that which above all else engaged a large share 
 of his time was the current literature of the day. 
 The English and Indian papers were read aloud to 
 him and discussed. Articles in periodicals of good 
 repute often afforded him considerable entertain- 
 ment ; and he would listen for hours, whilst his 
 wife or one of his daughters read to him some inte- 
 resting new work, or passages of that great old dra- 
 matist whose writings are always new.* A rubber 
 of whist with his children often afforded him evening 
 amusement ; and he played with so much spirit, and 
 
 * To an article in the Calcutta Review, on " The Lindsays in India," which 
 was read to him about this time, he listened with the greatest interest. It 
 seemed to excite many recollections of the Past, and it called forth a flood 01 
 anecdotes relating to Lord Wellesley and other celebrities of Mr. Tucker's 
 earlier days. Lord Campbell's "Lives of the Chancellors" afforded very 
 many hours of pleasant reading; and Shakespeare was always welcome. 
 
600 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 yet with such, charming good humor, that it was a 
 pleasure indeed to be one of the party, or even to 
 watch the game. 
 
 Nor was all his social intercourse at this time 
 confined to the members of his own family. He re- 
 ceived the visits of his friends, and took pleasure in 
 their conversation. Sometimes, accompanied by one 
 of his daughters, he would call on a near neighbour 
 or one of his brother-Directors who resided in a con- 
 tiguous street for he seldom, indeed, missed his 
 daily walk and occasionally he welcomed to his 
 dinner-table some of his most intimate and che- 
 rished associates. 
 
 It was towards the close of this year (1850) that, 
 in compliance with the wishes of one of his sons, he 
 bethought himself of arranging, for purposes of 
 publication, a selection from his public and private 
 papers relating to matters of Indian Government. 
 In pursuance of the intention which was taking 
 shape in his mind, he addressed the following letter 
 to one of his colleagues, who was among the most 
 honored and beloved of Mr. Tucker's friends : 
 
 "3, Upper Portland-place, 30th November, 1850. 
 
 " MY DEAR , I was urged some years ago to print a 
 
 selection from my Dissents ; but I had no ambition to bring 
 them, or myself, under particular notice. They were written 
 in the performance of my official duty, and without any 
 ulterior view. 
 
 " I have recently been solicited by one of my sons, who has 
 been carefully looking them over, to allow him to select and 
 print some of these documents ; but I am not disposed to give 
 
THOUGHTS OF PUBLICATION. 601 
 
 this permission, unless my doing so could be connected with 
 some public object. 
 
 " If I thought that, by printing some of these papers, I could 
 promote in any degree the interests and credit of the Court, 
 by showing that we are not unmindful (as is, I fear, suspected 
 in some quarters) of our public duties; or if I could flatter 
 myself that the discussions in which I have engaged were 
 likely to throw light on the questions which must soon occupy 
 the attention of the Court and of the Government, I should 
 not hesitate to contribute my share to the general stock of 
 materials to be used for framing the new Charter. 
 
 " I should not, of course, think for a moment of introducing 
 any personal questions such as my Comments on the case of 
 Colonel , Mr. , Sir , &c. 
 
 " The selection would have reference 
 
 " 1st. To our revenue systems of administration, including 
 the salt, opium, and customs. 
 
 " 2ndly. To our judicial administration, including the mea- 
 sure adopted in this country for prosecuting the appeals of her 
 Majesty in Council. 
 
 " Srdly. To our political proceedings, including the Afghan 
 treaty of June, 1838 the seizure of Scinde, &c. I should be 
 much tempted to add my comment on the confiscation of 
 Colaba, and on the general policy to be observed towards the 
 Princes and Chiefs of India; but I fear that this might lead me 
 to the ' tabood' question of Sattara, Delhi, &c. 
 
 " 4thly. I should be disposed to introduce my paper on 
 Cotton, my remarks on the powers of the Secret Committee, 
 and other miscellaneous matters; but some of these would 
 require careful consideration. 
 
 " If, by-and-by, at some convenient moment, you should feel 
 disposed to consult the Deputy and other leading members of 
 the Court, and there should be a feeling in favor of the project 
 which I have sketched, I will be prepared to commence my 
 work early in the spring, so that it may not interfere with my 
 other duties, should I be spared to return to the Court. 
 " Believe me, most sincerely yours, 
 
 " H. ST.G. TUCKER." 
 
602 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKEH. 
 
 The design here contemplated was never carried 
 out it remained an unaccomplished purpose until 
 after his death. Perhaps, he, or some of his colleagues, 
 may have had official misgivings. His health, too, 
 was failing again. As the year wore on to a close, 
 he was visited by a severe neuralgic affection, which 
 caused him at intervals acute pain. The disorder, 
 which was known as " neuralgic rheumatism," 
 seemed to baffle the skill of his medical attendants. 
 Very little was it that they could do, all through the 
 winter, to alleviate his sufferings, which were great. 
 
 But as spring approached, the hopes of Mr. 
 Tucker's family began greatly to revive. The 
 acuteness of the neuralgic pains was considerably 
 mitigated ; the patient seemed altogether to be 
 gathering health and strength. His medical ad- 
 visers said that the month of March, with its cut- 
 ting winds, once passed, there was every reason to 
 be hopeful for the future. March came and March 
 went ; and still the patient continued to improve. 
 
 The year of Mr. Tucker's rotatory exclusion from 
 the Court of Directors was now Dearly at an end. 
 The day of his return to the active duties of his 
 office was close at hand. They who had been pro- 
 fessionally watching the state of his health believed 
 that his restoration to office would have a benignant 
 effect. They thought that moderate occupation and 
 gentle excitement would invigorate and refresh him ; 
 and they looked forward, therefore, with pleasure 
 and confidence, to his return to the Court. 
 
 So Mr. Tucker, who had now completed his 
 
LETTER TO HIS CONSTITUENTS. 603 
 
 eightieth year, again took part in the councils of 
 our Eastern Empire. It must be said that he did 
 so, not without some misgivings. Personally, he 
 was unwilling to quit his post. He used to quote 
 the case of Lord Cornwallis, and seemed to cling to 
 the idea of dying with the harness on his back. But 
 on the other hand, although there was no per- 
 ceptible decay of the mental powers, and he felt 
 that he was capable of efficiently performing the 
 duties of his office, when not prevented by any 
 physical ailment from taking his seat at the India 
 House, he doubted whether it would not become 
 him better, sensible as he was of the inroads of 
 constitutional decay, to resign his place to some 
 younger incumbent. He had been cordially wel- 
 comed back to the Court by his colleagues ; and he 
 had resumed his old duties without suffering from 
 the exertion. But he still reflected upon the subject 
 of retirement, and, never doubting for a moment 
 that he ought to be an efficient Director or no 
 Director at all, at last came to the determination 
 of addressing his constituents and resigning his 
 seat. And, in accordance with this intention, he 
 drew up the following announcement to tlie Pro- 
 prietors of India Stock : 
 
 ' ; I beg to tender my cordial and respectful acknowledg- 
 ments for the honor which you have been pleased to confer 
 upon me, by again appointing me to a seat in the Direction of 
 your affairs; and I had indulged a hope that, for some short 
 space, I might have continued to serve without prejudice to the 
 public interests. 
 
604 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 11 But the infirmities of age have been so greatly aggravated 
 by a long and severe illness, with which I was afflicted during 
 the last year, that I feel it would be impossible for me to 
 render efficient service in the responsible situation of a Director 
 of your affairs. I must, therefore, replace in your hands the 
 appointment of a successor. 
 
 " I have now served the East India Company in different 
 situations, abroad and at home, for about sixty years ; and I 
 trust that I may be allowed to add that I have served with dili- 
 gence, fidelity, and zeal. In retiring from public life, I will 
 only express my earnest hope that the vast empire which has 
 been committed to British rule may long continue to flourish, 
 and be rendered conducive to the prosperity of the mother 
 country, and to the well-being and happiness of our Asiatic 
 subjects." 
 
 It is impossible not to admire the conscientious- 
 ness out of which this determination arose. The 
 intended resignation of his seat at the India House 
 was a mere precautionary measure. He did not 
 purpose to retire from the Direction because he felt 
 that he was incompetent to the efficient discharge of 
 his duties, but because he felt that at his advanced 
 age he might become incapable of discharging them 
 with the energy of his younger days. But his 
 friends were of opinion, that whilst he was yet able 
 to take part in the councils of the India House, and 
 render his knowledge and experience ancillary to the 
 general efficiency of the administration, it was in 
 no sense his duty to anticipate a Future, which 
 might yet be some years distant, by a voluntary 
 relinquishnient of his post. Upon public grounds 
 such a withdrawal from office was not to be desired. 
 Mr. Tucker had proved that his veteran hand had 
 
QUESTION OF RETIREMENT. 605 
 
 lost none of its old nerve and vigor. During a con- 
 nexion of a quarter of a century with the Court of 
 Directors, he had written few more masterly papers 
 than one which, at the age of seventy-eight, he drew 
 up with reference to the future destiny of the Reign- 
 ing Family of Delhi. And now, in the middle of May, 
 1851, a minute which he had written on a very dif- 
 ferent subject the Porto Nuovo Iron- works was so 
 full in its information and so sound in its argument, 
 that some of the most influential of his colleagues ex- 
 pressed a wish to attach their names to it, moulded 
 into a Dissent. There were, therefore, no public rea- 
 sons for Mr. Tucker's retirement ; and there were 
 strong private reasons against it. It was apprehended 
 that there might be danger in the sudden removal 
 of one of those props and supports upon which he 
 had rested for so many years. Business, indeed, had 
 become almost necessary to him ; and the dispiriting 
 and relaxing effects of a suspension of his old duties 
 a change in his old habits was dreaded by his 
 family and friends. 
 
 But, as the year advanced, the neuralgic pains 
 which had so much afflicted him did not abate. 
 Change of air was recommended by his medical at- 
 tendants, and, in accordance with their advice, on 
 the 22nd of May, accompanied by Mrs. Tucker and 
 his youngest daughter, he journeyed down to 
 Brighton. The fatigue of travelling did not distress 
 him, and he was so well, and in such good spirits on 
 his arrival, that he expressed a desire to take the air 
 out of doors. The change seemed to invigorate him, 
 
606 LIEE OP H. ST.GL TUCKER. 
 
 and although the pains which racked him returned 
 at intervals, his beloved companions were filled with 
 hopes of his restoration to health ; and for a time 
 they were very happy. The weather was mild, and 
 the invalid would sit in an easy-chair, by the bay- 
 window, watching the white sails of the fishing- 
 boats on the opposite sea, enjoying the music of the 
 street-bands, listening to the reading of the news- 
 papers from town, or dictating letters to his daugh- 
 ter. He had lost none of his old powers of com- 
 position, and his diction was as clear and forcible as 
 it had been at any period of his life. 
 
 But the end was approaching. On the last day 
 of May, the little party returned to town. In the 
 following week unfavorable symptoms presented 
 themselves, and recourse was again had to the 
 best medical aid. On the 5th of June the sufferer 
 seemed to rally, and for some days there was a 
 marked improvement. On the 8th, indeed, he was 
 sufficiently well to receive the visits of two brother- 
 Directors ; and on the 10th, he felt so far recovered 
 he was in possession of so much strength that 
 he talked of going to the India House on the fol- 
 lowing day, to take part in the Wednesday's council. 
 His medical advisers, however, recommended that he 
 should postpone, for a day or two, his return to his 
 official duties; and as there was to be a Mower 
 Show in the Botanic Gardens on the same day, he 
 asked his children, in his old cheerful way, whether 
 he should go to the City or to see the flowers. There 
 could be no doubt of the reply. So he wrote a note 
 
HIS DEATH. 607 
 
 to his friend the Chairman of the Court, explaining 
 the cause of his intended absence from the India 
 House, and promised his children that they should 
 take him to the Gardens. 
 
 On that Tuesday night Mr. Tucker slept better 
 than he had slept for many months. On the follow- 
 ing morning he seemed to be in high spirits, antici- 
 pating with much pleasure his visit to the Flower 
 Show. The weather was favorable ; he went there 
 in his carriage ; walked about the Gardens for a 
 little space, enjoying the bright sunshine, and ex- 
 amining with a smile of pleasure the beautiful 
 specimens of Nature's works around him. The 
 exertion did not distress him, and during the two 
 following days he appeared to be in better health 
 and spirits, taking a lively interest in all that was 
 going on around him, and listening with attention 
 to the evening reading. On the Friday night there 
 were no unfavorable symptoms of any kind, but 
 when he kissed his children on retiring, and blessed 
 them with his wonted tenderness, it was for the 
 last time. 
 
 He never returned again to the room which had 
 been for so many years lighted up by his beloved 
 presence. 'That night mortal sickness fell upon 
 him. ; and before the morrow's sun had reached the 
 meridian he had rendered back his soul to his 
 Maker. 
 
 He fell asleep on the 14th of June, 1851, in the 
 eighty-first year of his age. In the Cemetery at 
 Kensal Green, an obelisk of white marble, in the 
 
608 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 summer-season bordered with many a flower, marks 
 the spot where rest his remains. It bears this in- 
 scription upon it :* 
 
 SACRED 
 
 To the beloved and revered memory of 
 HENRY ST.GEORGE TUCKER, ESQ., 
 
 Of Upper~ Portland-place, 
 Director of the Honorable East India Company, 
 
 Who departed this life, 
 
 Trusting in the merits of his Redeemer, 
 
 June 14th, 1851, in the 81st year of his age. 
 
 " When the ear heard him, then it blessed him ; and when the eye saw 
 him, it gave witness to him. 
 
 " Because he delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and him 
 that had none to help him." Job xxix. 11, 12. 
 
 His life and death formed a rare mirror : 
 
 The one showing how a Christian ought to live; 
 
 The other how he may hope to die. 
 
 If the biographer of Henry St. George Tucker has 
 not set forth his character in this volume better 
 than any description can illustrate it, he has written 
 in vain. Yet something, too, may be said, in this place, 
 about those many fine qualities which, with rare 
 harmony and consistency, spoke out from the actions 
 of his life. Eoremost among these qualities and, 
 indeed, comprehending many others was the man- 
 liness of his nature. He was pre-eminently a man 
 among men. He had a disposition into which 
 nothing mean, or cowardly, or sordid, ever entered. 
 There was altogether a genuineness about him, that 
 made all shams and pretences shrink and cower in 
 his presence. "Whatsoever he said, he said truth- 
 
 * A monumental tablet in the church of Crayford, in Kent, with an in- 
 scription somewhat similar to the above, and a painted window in Trinity 
 Church, have also been consecrated to his memory. 
 
HIS CHARACTER. 609 
 
 fully, earnestly, from the full heart. Whatsoever 
 lie did, he did thoroughly, conscientiously, and with 
 an energy that could seldom be resisted. He had 
 nothing to do with half-truths, compromises, or 
 reservations. He did not form his resolutions 
 hastily, hut, once formed, no adamant was more in- 
 flexible. A sustaining conviction of right upheld 
 him; and he went on bravely to the end with a 
 constancy which no fear of consequences could 
 shake, and no hope of advantage could unsettle. 
 In all the circumstances of life, his independence of 
 mind was, indeed, conspicuous. He had been 
 habituated to self-reliance from his very boyhood ; 
 but there was nothing presumptuous or domineering 
 in his reception of the opinions of others, or un- 
 candid in the construction of their motives. He did 
 not deny to others what he claimed for himself the 
 right of free judgment and independent action and 
 although he deplored the opposition which he some- 
 times encountered, he never resented it. It was 
 Tiot, indeed, in his nature to speak bitterly or slight- 
 ingly of his opponents. 
 
 His mental activity was great and enduring. His 
 intellect was of the robustest kind. It seldom 
 happens that early development is not followed by 
 early decay. But it is not too much to say of Henry 
 St. George Tucker, that he was a statesman at 
 eighteen and a statesman at eighty. There are few 
 instances on record of men who, at the two extremes 
 of so long a chain of years, have been endowed with 
 so much intellectual strength, and been capable of 
 
 2R 
 
610 LIFE OF H. ST.G-. TUCKER. 
 
 such sustained efforts. There is a period in the lives 
 of most men who have attained to an advanced age, 
 from which a perceptible decline of mental power is 
 to be traced. But following the career of Mr. 
 Tucker over a space of more than half a century, 
 I find it difficult to fix the point at which there was 
 any increase or any diminution of his power to 
 grapple with great questions, or to set forth his 
 arguments in language distinguished alike by the 
 strength and the transparency of crystal. Years, 
 indeed, passed lightly over him. His remarkable 
 memory was unclouded to the last. There was 
 never any confusion in the arrangement of his ideas, 
 or any obscurity in his diction. In the lasting 
 qualities of his mind he was, perhaps, unsurpassed 
 by any example upon record. 
 
 His reputation in early life was first established 
 by the consummate skill with which he handled 
 intricate questions of Indian Finance. He was un- 
 questionably the most eminent Financier that ever 
 presided over the Indian Exchequer. But although, 
 in this capacity, he rendered great services to his 
 country, for which he has never yet been assigned 
 his due place in History, it was by no means his 
 only claim to be placed in the front ranks of Indian 
 statesmen. Both in matters of domestic and foreign 
 policy his foresight and sagacity were conspicuous. 
 In respect of those questions of internal adminis- 
 tration which necessarily engage so large a share 
 of the time and attention both of the local and the 
 home Governments, he belonged to what is now 
 
HIS CHARACTER. 611 
 
 called an old school a school in which Shore, Bar- 
 low, and Edmonstone taught, and of which Corn- 
 wallis and Wellesley were the patrons. It has now 
 ceased to be popular ; but there was at the bottom 
 of the policy which it encouraged a respect for indi- 
 vidual rights which we look for in vain in the tenets 
 of the new school which is fast supplanting it. 
 To the sovereignty of Justice Mr. Tucker was ever 
 loyal. He had no toleration for those politicians 
 with whom Resumption and Annexation are house- 
 hold words, and who sit loosely to the obliga- 
 tions of all sorts of covenants and treaties. The 
 same leading principles which regulated his dealings 
 with the people of our own territories, spoke out 
 also from all that he said and did in relation to the 
 rights of native Princes and foreign nations. He 
 had never any eagerness to confiscate the princi- 
 palities of our dependents, or to absorb the king- 
 doms of our enemies. He was the champion of 
 the weak ; the shelter of the prostrate ; and he was 
 never more earnest in his utterances than when he 
 was inculcating lessons of mercy and forbearance. 
 
 There was a generosity, indeed, in his character 
 as a statesman, which had something chivalrous and 
 romantic about it. He was continually in an atti- 
 tude of defence and protection, with a stretched-out 
 arm to shield the oppressed. He may have some- 
 times invested the objects of his compassion with 
 qualities which did not rightfully belong to them, 
 for it is in the very nature of a generous disposition 
 to be confiding and unsuspicious ; and if he erred in 
 
612 LIFE OF H. ST.G. TTJCKEU. 
 
 this, the error is one only of noble minds, to be re- 
 corded and dwelt upon with pleasure. But his 
 generosity and judgment were not often at variance. 
 The veil of glittering sophistry which injustice draws 
 before its acts the mist through which national 
 vanity and national prejudice go blindly groping 
 never obscured the truth from his eyes. He judged 
 the case of others as he would his own, and called 
 things by the names that rightfully belonged to 
 them. He was as genuine a lover of his country as 
 any of his cotemporaries ; but he did not conceive 
 it to be the truest patriotism to varnish her mis- 
 deeds, and to encourage her in acts of injustice and 
 oppression. 
 
 There was a noticeable peculiarity in the consti- 
 tution of his inind to which some of these results 
 may be traced. With a mathematical exactness 
 and precision, which ensured correctness of state- 
 ment and soundness of argument in all his writings 
 and speeches, he combined much of the enthusiasm 
 and imaginativeness of the poetical temperament. 
 The dry studies of Finance, in which, during all 
 the earlier years of his adult life, he was continually 
 engaged, never deadened the liveliness of his fancy 
 or blunted the acuteness of his sensibilities. He 
 was a great reader of polite literature ; and espe- 
 cially delighted in the works of the great masters of 
 British song. He delighted, too, in the recreation 
 of verse, and had a taste for dramatic composition, 
 which, if it had been decreed that he should lead a 
 life of literary leisure, he would probably have less 
 
HIS CHARACTER. 613 
 
 sparingly indulged.* To the charms of Music, too, 
 he was peculiarly alive, and the fineness of his ear, 
 which is to he discerned also in the nicely-balanced 
 structure of his literary compositions, rendered him 
 as a critic fastidiously correct. Upon his puhlic 
 demonstrations these lighter accomplishments were 
 not wholly without an effect, for he was wont fre- 
 quently to introduce hoth into his speeches and his 
 writings brief illustrative quotations from the great 
 dramatists, or snatches of stirring national songs. 
 It was his fortune to be a financier ; but it was his 
 delight to breathe an atmosphere of Poetry and 
 Romance. 
 
 But it is only by associating those qualities, 
 which illustrated his public career as a statesman, 
 with those which graced and beautified his domestic 
 life, that the character of the man is to be fitly por- 
 trayed. There was in Henry St. George Tucker a 
 rare union of masculine firmness and courage, with 
 a kindliness so winning and a tenderness so en- 
 gaging, that all who dwelt beneath his roof were 
 drawn to him by feelings of the most hallowed af- 
 fection. The nearer you were to him, the more you 
 loved and the more you honored him. Coldness 
 and harshness were alike foreign to his nature. He 
 invited confidence by his own openness and unre- 
 serve ; and he so tempered reproof with mildness, 
 that his lessons made a lasting impression on his 
 
 * He wrote and printed two tragedies " Harold" and " Caraoens" of 
 which mention should have been made in the course of the narrative. They 
 abound in noble sentiments vigorously expressed. 
 
614 LIFE OP H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 children, but never left a sting behind them. In 
 his own home he was not only the loving husband 
 and the indulgent parent, but the most cheerful of 
 companions the life and soul of the family party 
 youthful among the youthful, and among the 
 sportive ever full of sport. Whatever may have 
 happened to vex or to distress him abroad, he car- 
 ried home to the domestic circle the same evenness 
 of temper, the same undisturbed serenity of mind. 
 No disappointment ever embittered him; sickness 
 and pain never made him querulous. As years ad- 
 vanced, all his fine qualities seemed to ripen under 
 the sun of time ; and he was never more loveable 
 than when he was summoned from the scenes, which 
 he had so long gladdened by his presence. 
 
 Of the liberality of his nature I have already 
 spoken. He had an open hand and an open heart ; 
 but he was not a thoughtless giver. His generosity 
 was controlled and tempered- by prudence. It was 
 prompt, but considerate ; quick, but not hasty. And 
 it was utterly free from every taint of ostentation. 
 His bounty was, for the most part, exercised in 
 secret. It was never talked of; it was little known. 
 He gave when he had little to give ; and he gave 
 when Providence had increased his store. It may 
 be truly said of Henry St. George Tucker, as it was 
 said of William Penn, that " some of the best pages 
 of his history were written in his private cash-book." 
 
 And as he was pitiful in the extreme to all who 
 needed his assistance, so was he uniformly courteous 
 to all men with whom he was brought into public 
 
HIS CHARACTER. 615 
 
 or private intercourse. He used to say that he had 
 many friends and many enemies ; but although the 
 friendship was not all on one side, the enmity was ; 
 for he never harboured a vindictive or malignant 
 feeling, and was grieved when he heard others speak- 
 ing evil of those who had done him wrong. He 
 lived, indeed, as a Christian ought to live in 
 Charity with all men ; and he walked humbly with 
 his God. Humbly, but most hopefully, he walked ; 
 approaching the great hour of eternal change in all 
 the serenity of a quiet conscience, grateful for the 
 Past, expectant of the Future, only regretting his 
 translation to another world for the sake of those 
 who would remain to feel the great void that was 
 left by the removal of HENRY ST.GEORGE TUCKER. 
 
ERRATA. 
 
 Page 2, line 8, dele inverted commas after post. 
 Page 49, last line, for " devolve," read " devolves" 
 Page 377, line 5, for " point," read "points." 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 [A. Page 292.] 
 
 EXTRACT PUBLIC LETTER PROM BENGAL. 
 
 Dated 20th October, 1812. 
 
 Par. 83. The grounds which led us to appoint a separate 
 Secretary in the Colonial and Financial Departments, are 
 stated in the minute of the Right Honorable the Governor- 
 General, dated 8th of August. 
 
 84. The Governor-General remarks that the return of Mr. 
 Tucker, from England, to this country, naturally suggested a 
 strong desire, founded on a knowledge, and, indeed, a long ex- 
 perience, both in the present and former administrations, of his 
 distinguished talents and qualifications, to render his services 
 available at the shortest possible delay. 
 
 85. No situation, under the existing establishment of Go- 
 vernment, adequate to his rank and consideration in the service, 
 was vacant, and there was no immediate or any definite pros- 
 pect of a suitable opening. 
 
 86. These services revived, in the mind of the Governor- 
 General, the consideration of a question, very lately under de- 
 liberation, for the establishment of a separate Colonial Depart- 
 ment, to be placed under the charge of an additional Secretary 
 
618 APPENDIX. 
 
 to Government. The great accession to business, thrown both 
 upon the members and officers of this Government, by the re- 
 cent conquests, including those of the French Islands, and in 
 the Eastern Seas, had already been found so oppressive upon 
 the several departments, as to induce an inquiry into the most 
 convenient way of transacting those affairs. A reference was, 
 therefore, made to the Secretaries of Government, whom we 
 requested to report their sentiments upon that subject. Their 
 opinion was unanimous, that a distinct department, for that 
 branch of the public business, was nearly indispensable, and 
 that opinion was supported by a statement of facts, connected 
 with the present overburdened state of the administration in all 
 the departments, which it was impossible not to acknowledge, 
 and, by reasons drawn from that view of the subject, equally 
 difficult to controvert. 
 
 87. The Governor- General was prevented from giving his 
 immediate assent to the proposed measure, by motives of public 
 economy alone, and by a reluctance to make so considerable an 
 augmentation of establishment, until its necessity should be as- 
 certained by a somewhat longer trial. The reports of the Secre- 
 taries to Government are recorded with the minute, and every 
 week's experience has justified the sentiments they submitted to 
 the Board. 
 
 88. The Governor- General was the more strongly induced 
 to reconsider the question, by a sense of the advantage which 
 Government would derive, not only in affording relief to the 
 other departments, but in acquiring the more essential assist- 
 ance, which the peculiar qualifications possessed by Mr. Tucker, 
 for most of the principal points of public deliberation and 
 business, connected with the Colonies, would afford, by that de- 
 partment being committed to his charge. 
 
 89. Upon this proposition, the Governor-General grafted the 
 further modifications of the present arrangements, of placing 
 the Financial Department also under the charge of Mr. Tucker. 
 Government had already experienced his eminent knowledge 
 of that science, and his distinguished talents in that peculiar 
 branch of administration, by the success of the important and 
 
APPENDIX. 619 
 
 beneficial operations of Finance, which were commenced, and 
 brought nearly to their accomplishment, while he administered 
 that department previous to his departure to Europe. 
 
 90. We persuade ourselves that under the present pressure 
 of the Colonial business, upon all the superior officers of Go- 
 vernment, and under the considerations above stated, your 
 Honorable Court will be well inclined to sanction and approve 
 the appointment of Mr. Tucker to the office of Colonial 
 and Financial Secretary to Government, with the allowances 
 now enjoyed by the other principal Secretaries to Govern- 
 ment. 
 
 [B. Page 349.] 
 
 LETTER TO SIR HENRY STRACHEY, BART. 
 
 Friern Lodge, Whetstone, 13th April, 1821. 
 
 DEAR SIR HENRY, As you appeared the other day to 
 take an interest in a question in which I am deeply interested, 
 perhaps you will take the trouble to peruse the accompanying 
 notes. It is necessary to hold in mind that the Government 
 had two objects in view in the Financial arrangements which 
 were undertaken in 1810. First to deprive the Debt of the 
 privilege of being convertible at any time into a Bill of Ex- 
 change on the Court of Directors. Secondly to effect a re- 
 duction in the charge of interest. 
 
 The first object was accomplished by placing the old Debt in 
 course of payment, and opening a new eight-per-cent. loan, 
 divested of the privilege of remittance, for receiving transfers 
 from the former, or subscriptions in money, which should be 
 applied to the discharge of the former. This has been oppro- 
 briously designated "the Decoy Loan;" and it is only neces- 
 sary to mention that a large proportion of the old Debt was 
 transferred to it. 
 
 The next proceeding was to effect a reduction in the rate of 
 interest, by placing the new (or Decoy) eight-per-cent. loan in 
 course of payment, and opening a six-per-cent. loan for receiv- 
 
620 APPENDIX. 
 
 ing transfers and subscriptions; and this measure also suc- 
 ceeded. 
 
 It is very certain that both objects might have been at- 
 tempted at the same time, and by one single operation that is, 
 by opening a six-per-cent. loan at once, divested of the privilege 
 of remittance; but this measure, after a great deal of discussion, 
 was judged to be too bold and hazardous. Perhaps it was; 
 and certainly, if it had miscarried, the Public Debt of India 
 would have been ten millions greater than it is at present, even 
 if we had escaped absolute insolvency. But those who accuse 
 me of being the author of the project, do me, perhaps, more 
 justice than they intend or than I deserve; while, in ascribing 
 to me the particular means which were adopted, they un- 
 doubtedly pass judgment in utter ignorance of the circum- 
 stances. It was the chief aim of my public life, while I was 
 employed in the administration of the Finances, to effect a re- 
 duction in the charge of interest; but this merit I claim only in 
 common with others it was not exclusively mine. With re- 
 spect to the means to be employed for accomplishing this great 
 end, I may state to you in confidence, as a confidential officer 
 of the Government, what I never can explain to the Public 
 my own opinion was in favor of the more direct proceeding; 
 but it was considered, in a quarter which I was bound to re- 
 spect, of so hazardous a character, as to preclude all idea of its 
 .adoption. It was apprehended, in fact, that a large proportion 
 of the Debt, amounting to about thirty millions, would imme- 
 diately have been transferred to England, where there were no 
 funds forthcoming for its discharge that the Court of Direc- 
 tors would have been compelled to send back the bills under 
 some most burdensome compromise with their creditors and 
 that, thus, the only opportunity ever likely to offer of giving the 
 Debt a local character, and of reducing the annual charge of 
 interest, would, in all probability, have been lost for ever. All 
 this might have happened, no doubt, and the evil would have 
 been most serious if it had happened ; but the prudence and 
 foresight which adopted the safer course of proceeding, consti- 
 tuted no part of my merits. 
 
APPENDIX. 621 
 
 You will perceive how awkwardly I am placed ; but as I can 
 truly say, that throughout my public life I have been anxious 
 only to do my duty to the best of my judgment, I am content 
 to leave my conduct to be judged by the Public, and to stand 
 or fall by the decision which may be pronounced upon it. In 
 offering myself as a candidate for the Direction, my chief object 
 is to obtain occupation public and honorable employment; 
 but if any individual can believe that I ever counselled a measure 
 involving a breach of faith to the Public, that individual will 
 do right to exclude me for ever from all public trust. He will 
 not, however, do right to pass judgment in ignorance, in this, 
 or any other case. For the rest, I can only say that, whether 
 right or wrong, I shall continue to act always on the principles 
 on which I ever have acted; and those must not trust me for 
 the Future who have reason to disapprove of the Past. 
 
 Believe me, 
 
 Sincerely yours, 
 
 H. ST.G. TUCKER. 
 
 [0. Page 458.] 
 
 The passage in Mr. Mills 5 speech at the India House, on the 
 15th of July, 1835, relative to the recall of Lord Heytesbury, 
 to which allusion is made at page 458, is thus printed in the 
 Asiatic Journal: 
 
 " He might be permitted to observe that, in vacating the 
 appointment of Lord Heytesbury, after it had been so delibe- 
 rately made, the Right Honorable Baronet, Sir John Hobhouse, 
 had done an act which decidedly militated against the good 
 government of India. Beyond that, he would admit that the 
 Right Honorable Baronet had met the question most manfully 
 in the House of Commons, and also in his communications with 
 the Directors. He had stated that he thought it better that the 
 interests of India should suffer, than that the Minister of the 
 day, whoever he might be, should be defeated." 
 
 I have referred to the speech of Sir John Hobhouse, in the 
 
622 APPENDIX. 
 
 House of Commons, in reply to Mr. Praed's motion for papers, 
 thinking I should probably find in it the declaration alluded to 
 by Mr. Mills. In this speech the President of the India Board 
 is reported (in the Mirror of Parliament) to have said that he 
 scorned " the miserable pretence of consulting measures not 
 men' " and that it was " better that the authority of the East 
 India Company should receive a shock in India, than that a 
 cordial sympathy should not exist between his Majesty's Minis- 
 ters and the Governor-General." This may not have been the 
 passage referred to in the India House debate, but the declara- 
 tion is tantamount to that to which allusion has been made. It 
 should, however, be added, that it is at least doubtful whether 
 Sir John Hobhouse was really the prime agent of Lord 
 Heytesbury's recall. I know at least that Sir Robert Peel told 
 a near relative of his Lordship, that he believed Sir John would 
 have suffered the appointment to take effect but that it was 
 necessary to conciliate Mr. Hume and the Radicals who were 
 eager to see it cancelled. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 C. WHITING, BEAUFORT HOUSE, STKAXD. 
 
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