CHARLES THEOPHILUS, first and last Lord Metcalfe, was born in Calcutta on the 30th of January, 1785. His father, Major Metcalfe, realized a fortune, as "agent for military stores," returned to England when Charles was still young, and having bought a house in Portland Place, became soon after M.P. and an East India director.

There were other sons besides Charles, and after a brief schooling at Bromley, in Middlesex, the two eldest, Charles being then eleven years of age, were entered at Eton. As a schoolboy, it appears that he was quiet and retiring-was neither a cricketer nor a boater, but a great reader, and with a strong literary turn, sending anecdotes to the Naval Chronicle, and enlivening the Military Journal with his Etonian lucubrations.

that power which is destined to sway all some time or other in their lives.

at a ball in his father's house. After that event

It was arranged, therefore, that Theophilus should sail for China in the spring, and that Charles should embark for Calcutta in the summer. In the meanwhile the boys were to enjoy themselves as best they could. Charles, though of a retiring disposition, did not dislike society; and there were a few families, in the neighborhood of his father's house, to whom he was a frequent visitor. In one of these there was a young lady, a little older than himself, with whom he fell in love at first sight. He was first introduced to her, on the day after he left Eton, he frequently saw her, either at his own house or her mother's. The charms of the young lady, not merely those of external beauty and grace, made a deep and abiding impression on his mind; and he Major Metcalfe being an East India direct- was long afterwards of opinion, that this boyish at or, the career of his sons was chalked out tachment, pure and disinterested as it was, had a for them before they were almost old enough beneficial influence on his character. He correto know what to anticipate. A China writer-sponded with her for some time afterwards, and ship, Mr. Kaye remarks, was, in those days, They are almost the only part of his correspondher "sensible letters" heightened his admiration. the best bit of preferment in the world. It ence which has not survived him. The excepwas a certain fortune in a very few years. tion tells its own story. And accordingly, Theophilus, the eldest, was despatched to China, while Charles had his writership assigned to him iu Calcutta.

Charles was not at this time so young but that, before he left this country, he owned

*The Life and Correspondence of Charles, Lord Metcalfe, late Governor-General of India, Governor of Jamaica, and Governor-General of Canada. From Unpublished Letters and Journals preserved by himself, his family, and his friends. By JOHN WILLIAM KAYE. London: Richard Bentley. 1854.

The circumstance was, however-notwithstanding the kindly view the "fervent biographer" has taken of it-much, to be regretted in a youth placed as Charles Metcalfe was, and it led to subsequent discontent and yearning for home, when, with the best prospects in the world, there was nothing but progress to be looked to.

The ideas associated with a writership in India are a close adhesion to the desk, a

commander-in-chief as a political assistant. | On the 13th, having been joined by his guns, he He started in good spirits, and under happy took up his position before the fortress, and comauspices; but he did not proceed far without menced an attack upon the outworks. meeting with an adventure.

Lake was then on the banks of the Jumna, Holkar was hanging on his rear, and in the full indulgence of the predatory habits of his tribe. When Charles Metcalfe arrived at head-quarters, he was received with all courtesy and kindness, but, unfortunately, he was also regarded with some mistrust. He was a civilian in the midst of a community of soldiers. He was called a clerk, and sneered at as a non-combatant. But Charles Metcalfe, though he wore neither the King's nor the Company's uniform, had as much of the true spirit of the soldier in him as any officer in camp, and an opportunity of showing this was not long in presenting itself.

The fortress of Deeg, distant some forty-five miles from Agra, was garrisoned by the allied troops of our enemies, Holkar and the Rajah of Bhurtpore. In the month of December, General Lake, who had determined upon the reduction of the place, encamped within sight of it, and awaited the arrival of his battering-train from Agra.

17th the breaching battery was ready for action; but such was the strength of the walls, that it was not until the 23d that the breach was reported practicable, and dispositions made for the assault on the following day.

The storming party was told off, and Metcalfe volunteered to accompany it. He was one of the first who entered the breach. There are soldiers now living who remember that memorable Christmas-eve, and delight to speak of the gallantry of the young civilian. The "clerk" fairly won his spurs, and shared with the most distinguished of his comrades the honors no less than the dangers of one of the most brilliant achievements of the In the commander-in-chief's despatch, the name of Metcalfe was honorably mentioned. "Before I conclude this despatch," wrote Lord Lake, "I cannot help mentioning the spirited conduct of Mr. Metcalfe, a civil servant, who volunteered his services with the storming party, and, as I am informed, was one of the first in the breach." Afterwards, the fine old soldier called him his "little stormer."

to the court of Persia, Mountstuart Elphinstone to Cabul, and Charles Metcalfe to the court of Runjeet Singh. He thus, at twentythree, became the pioneer of that great scheme of diplomacy by which Persia, Af

remain at the scene of action. At this time, Lord Lake's army was cantoned among the ruined mausolea and decaying palaces of Muttra, Agra, and Secundra. The still unsettled state of the north-west provinces gave the "politicals" constant work and uneasi-ganistan, and the Punjab were to be erected ness, and young Metcalfe was soon called into friendly barriers against Russo - Gallic upon to render the same services to General invasion. Dowdeswell's division in the Doab which he had rendered in the spring of the year to General Smith. Sir Theophilus Metcalfe used to call this kind of employment "nursing king's officers;" but these "nurses" have since come to be called "politicals," and Charles Metcalfe was almost the first of the

race.

The Maharajah received Metcalfe with outward demonstrations of good-will, but his want of good faith soon led to difficulties and misunderstandings. Runjeet was zealous and suspicious of the British government, and it required all the tact and perseverance of the young diplomatist to do any thing with him. Great difficulty was experienced at the very outset to get the Rajah even to receive the propositions of the British government. When this was got over, it led to nothing but a series of consultations, each less conclusive than the other. The difficulties which the young diplomatist had to contend with were indeed many and great. He soon perceived that in Runjeet Singh he had to deal with a man inordinately ambitious himself, and out of measure suspicious of the designs of others. This distrust of the British mission was not

Charles Metcalfe was now only in his twenty second year, but he had passed nearly six of these in the public service, and was already a ripe diplomatist. By all who knew him-by his principal friends and official associates he was held in such estimation that not one of them hesitated to predict his speedy attainment of the highest honors of his profession. He had not, therefore, long to wait before he received an appointment as first assistant to the Resident at Delhi. Time was when he would have re-long in assuming the form of open discour garded this appointment with some contempt; but, as his biographer justly remarks, the political service was not then what it once had been in the palmy days of the "glorious little man" who had set Charles Metcalfe on the high-road which leads to fame and fortune. Mr. Seton had lately succeeded Colonel Ochterlony as Resident at Delhi, and he held young Metcalfe in the greatest possible

esteem.

Our young diplomatist was thus for a time fairly and comfortably settled at Delhi-the imperial city of the Great Mogul. The necessity, however, of building a house on a city of ruins, caused an increase of expenditure which led to some temporary embarrassments, but which prudence and resolution soon enabled him to recover from. Disliking, as he did, the combination of revenue and judicial employments with political, still he was obliged to work actively at all three, till, on the accession of Lord Minto to office, he was sent on a special misson to Lahore. This was at a time when all Europe was bound in a league against Great Britain, and the shadow of a gigantic enemy advancing from those vast tracts of country which lie beyond the Sutlej and the Indus to the conquest of India, already haunted the imaginations of British statesmen. To meet the emergency of the case, Sir John Malcolm was despatched

tesy. The native bankers were afraid to cash the envoy's bills, and supplies were refused

to the mission. All intercourse between the camp and the Sikhs was especially interdicted. But Metcalfe had certain great ends to accomplish, and he would not be arrested or turned aside by any obstructions but those of the greatest national import and significance.

But that which most embarrassed him at this time, was the unscrupulous course of territorial aggrandizement which Runjeet was determined on pursuing in the face of the British mission. On the 25th of September, he, without any previous notice, broke up his camp at Kussoor, and prepared to cross the Sutlej, his object being to capture the fortress and surrounding territory of Fureed-Kotea tract of country in the domain of the Rajah of Puttealah, one of the chief of the group of the Cis-Sutlej states, and at that time in

the hands of rebels.

But while Metcalfe was thus being dragged about in the suite of the predatory Sikh, Lord Minto decided that this aggressiveness on his part should be stemmed, and that the lesser chiefs between the Sutlej and Jumna should be supported. A division was or dered for service on the banks of the Sutlej, under Colonel Ochterlony, and after the usual amount of delay, dissimulation, and tergiver

1854.]

sation, Runjeet was induced to sign a treaty | to him that one of these princes had murdered a which, during a subsequent reign of thirty years, was never violated.

Metcalfe, on his return to Delhi, was summoned to Calcutta, and appointed Deputy Secretary to the Governor, at that time about to depart for Madras, where disturbances had broken out among the British troops. Nothing particular occurred in this mission, and on his return he was appointed Resident

at the court of Scindiah. But this second residence at the same Court was not destined to be of long continuance: at the commencement of the following year, 1811, he was translated to the Delhi Residency.

It was at this period of his life, when he had just completed his twenty-fifth year,

that Metcalfe laid the foundation of a fortune which would have creditably sustained the peerage he ultimately won, by not only making a resolution to lay by 800 rupees (1007.) out of 2000 he received per month, but by having the firmness and constancy to carry it into practice. With all this prudence it is but just to observe, that Metcalfe was throughout life a liberal, a generous, and a charitable man; indeed, it is only your prudent men who can afford to be either.

It is needless to enter into the details of diplomatic and administrative labors at Delhi. Stripped of his externals, the burra sahib, or great lord of the imperial city, says his biographer, was but a solitary exile, continually disquieted by thoughts of home. But he lived with the harness on his back, and iucessant occupation preserved him from despondency or oppression.

Among the troubles of the Residency, not the least were those which arose out of the folly of the Mogul, Akbar Shah, who had succeeded to the old blind emperor, Shah Allum, and the wickedness of his family and dependents.

There were things done in the palace, and duly reported to the Resident, in violation of all laws human and divine. The crimes which were thus committed, sometimes behind the sanctity of the purdah, greatly disquieted Metcalfe, for it was difficult either to prevent their commission, or to deal with them when they were committed. One day it was reported to him by the officer in command of the palace-guard, whose duty it was to take cognisance of all that passed within the limits of the imperial residence, that two of the young princes had been playing the parts of common robbers-oiling their naked persons, then rushing with drawn swords among the startled inmates of the zenana, and forcibly carrying off their property. Another time it was announced

woman in the palace, either by beating her to death or compelling her to swallow opium. Again tidings came to him that one of the ladies of the emperor's establishment had murdered a female infant. Then it was reported to the Resident that the imperial quarters had been rendered a general receptacle for stolen goods and sequestered property. Then a knotty question arose as to whether the slave-trade, having been prohibited in the city of Delhi, should be allowed to survive in the palace. Then it appeared that the emperor himself, after sundry intrigues at Calcutta, was intriguing with the Newab Wuzeer of Oude, through the agency of his favorite son, the Prince Jehanguire, who, on the pretext of attending a marriage festival, had gone to Lucknow, from Allahabad, where he was a state prisoner, to beseech the Newab to intercede with the British government for the augmentation of his father's stipend.

The

Noth withstanding Metcalfe's prudence in money matters, his liberality and hospitality involved him in a rather unpleasant position at Delhi. Misconduct on the part of the Bhurtpore Rajah, and other symptoms of general inquietude, also came to disturb the routine of general political duties. greater part of the long administration with which this narrative occupies itself, is indeed, like the rest of the modern annals of Indian rule, marked by continual hostilities with neighboring states. Such are the inevitable penalties of the juxta-position of civilization and barbarity. Among the first of these was the war with Nepal-the events of which are not connected with the biography of Charles Metcalfe by any other link than that of the correspondence which he carried on with many of the chief actors in it.

Metcalfe's views upon the settlement of Central India were of a rather arbitrary character; they were to the effect that, with regard to all the great military states and predatory powers, it was clearly our interest to annihilate them, or to reduce them to a state of weakness, subjection, and dependence. And with regard to the weak, and harmless, and well-disposed petty states, though it was not so indispensably necessary for our vital interests that we should support them, yet it was a just and proper object of wise and liberal policy. These plans, however, adopted by Lord Hastings, were not approved of by the home authorities.

At length, in October, 1818, Metcalfe's residence in Central India was brought to a close by his appointment to the conjoined situation of Private and Political Secretary to the Governor-General. ness, however, even in this elevated position. There is, indeed, it is well known, no perfect,

There was irksome