Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 06.djvu/36

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Bourke
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Bourn

companies with interest guaranteed by the state. A further economy under this head, for which Mayo's government was solely responsible, was effected by adopting a narrow gauge of three feet three inches for the new state railways. To public works generally Mayo devoted a considerable portion of his time. He took charge personally of the public works department of the government in addition to the foreign department. He effected large savings in the construction of barracks, and endeavoured to economise the expenditure on irrigation by enforcing provincial and local responsibility. The question of providing adequate defences for the principal Indian ports engaged his early and anxious attention. He took great interest in agricultural reform, constituting a new department of the secretariat for agriculture, revenue, and commerce. He passed a land-improvement act, and an act to facilitate by means of government loans works of public utility in towns. The decision that the permanent settlement of the land revenue upon the system established by Lord Cornwallis in Bengal should not be extended to other provinces was mainly due to him. While not opposed to a permanent settlement of the land revenue, he considered that it should be upon the basis, not of a fixed money payment, but of an assessment fixed with reference to the produce of the land. Although under the stress of financial difficulties he temporarily raised the income-tax in his first year of office, the result of his inquiries was that he discarded it as a tax unsuited to India. The equalisation of the salt duties throughout India, and the abolition of the inland preventive line, were measures which he had much at heart. He advocated the development of primary education, and suggested special measures for promoting the education of the Muhammadan population. During the three years of his viceroyalty he saw more of the territory under his rule than had been seen by any of his predecessors. The distances which he travelled over in his official capacity during this period exceeded 20,000 miles.

In the midst of these useful and devoted labours Lord Mayo was suddenly struck down by the hand of an assassin on the occasion of a visit of official inspection to the penal settlement of Port Blair on 8 Feb. 1872. The intelligence of his death was received with the deepest sorrow by all classes throughout India and in England. The queen bore testimony in language of touching sympathy to the extent of the calamity which had 'so suddenly deprived all classes of her subjects in India of the able, vigilant, and impartial rule of one who so faithfully represented her as viceroy of her Eastern empire.' The secretary of state, in an official despatch addressed to the government of India, described the late governor-general as a statesman whose exertions 'to promote the interests of her majesty's Indian subjects,' and to 'conduct with justice and consideration the relations of the queen's government with the native princes and states,' had been 'marked with great success,' and had not been surpassed by the most zealous labours of any of his most distinguished predecessors at the head of the government of India.' Lord Mayo had nearly completed his fiftieth year at the time of his death. He left a widow, four sons, and two daughters.

[Hunter's Life of the Earl of Mayo, London, 1875; a Minute by Sir John Strachey on the administration of the Earl of Mayo as Viceroy and Governor-general of India, dated 30 April 1872; Records of the India Office; The Finances and Public Works of India, 1869-81, by Sir J. Strachey, G..C.S.I., and Lieutenant-general R. Strachey, F.R.S., London, 1882; private papers; personal recollections.]

A. J. A.

BOURMAN, ROBERT. [See Boreman.]

BOURN, NICHOLAS. [See Burne.]

BOURN, SAMUEL, the elder (1648–1719), dissenting minister, was born in 1648 at Derby, where his father and grandfather, who were clothiers, had shown some public spirit in providing the town with a water supply. His mother's brother was Robert Seddon, who, having received presbyterian ordination on 14 June 1654, became minister at Gorton, Lancashire, and then at Langley, Derbyshire, where he was silenced in 1662. Seddon sent Bourn to Emmanuel College, which he left in 1672. His tutor was Samuel Richardson, who taught him that there is no distinction between grace and moral righteousness, and that salvation is dependent upon the moral state. It does not appear that he accepted this view; his theology was always Calvinistic, and he lamented the deflections from that system. in his time, though he was no heresy-hunter. Leaving Cambridge without a degree, being unwilling to subscribe, Bourn taught in a school at Derby. He then became chaplain to Lady Hatton. Going to live with an aunt Bourn in London, he was ordained there. In 1679 Dr. Samuel Annesley's influence gained him the pastoral charge of the presbyterian congregation at Calne, Wiltshire, which he held for sixteen years, declining overtures from Bath, Durham, and Lincoln. Seddon, who, after 1688, preached at Bolton,

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