re-employment for a time in a military capacity. Although he had been employed for a good many years upon civil duties, his military ability, as evinced in the earlier part of his Indian career, was well known and fully recognised by the highest military authorities, and before the war began he had been placed in military as well as civil command of certain districts recently ceded to the Peshwa. As soon as hostilities commenced he was invested with the rank of brigadier-general and with the command of the reserve division, formed to reduce the southern Mahratta country and to oppose the forces of the Peshwa, who, after his unsuccessful attack upon the Poona residency, had moved southwards. The campaign which followed, conducted with an extremely small force and attended with brilliant success, at once established Munro's capacity as a military commander, and subsequently drew forth from Mr. Canning the panegyric that ‘Europe had never produced a more accomplished statesman, nor India, so fertile in heroes, a more skilful soldier.’
On the termination of the war Munro, whose eyesight had suffered from the work and exposure he had gone through, returned to England. But shortly after his arrival he was nominated to succeed Mr. Elliot as governor of Madras, and re-embarked for India in the latter part of 1819. He had previously been created a knight commander of the Bath. Munro's government of Madras, which lasted seven years, more than maintained the reputation which he had previously achieved. His thorough knowledge of Indian district administration, and his command of the native languages, were great advantages. He made frequent tours throughout the country, travelling by short stages, and making himself thoroughly accessible to the people. At the end of each tour he embodied the results of his observations in a minute, which formed the basis of the orders subsequently issued. With his colleagues in council he was always on the best of terms, treating them with invariable frankness; and, while there never was an Indian government in which there was less friction between the governor and the council, it may be affirmed that there never was a government which was more essentially the government of the governor than the Madras government was while Munro presided over it. His minutes on the tenure of land, on the assessment of the revenue, on the condition of the people, on the training of civil servants, on the advancement of the natives in the public service, on the military system, on the press, are state papers which are still often referred to as containing lucid expositions of the true principles of administration. He entertained and expressed very strong opinions in favour of the policy of more largely utilising native agency, and of fitting the natives of India by education for situations of trust and emolument in the public service. But on this, as on all other subjects, his views were eminently practical. He was entirely opposed to any measures which might endanger British supremacy in India. He was altogether opposed to the establishment of a free press in that country, and was responsible for the famous dictum that ‘the tenure with which we hold our power never has been and never can be the liberties of the people.’ The first war with Burmah occurred while Munro was governor of Madras, and, although the operations were carried on under the direct orders of the governor-general, Lord Amherst [see Amherst, William Pitt, Earl Amherst of Arracan], the success of the war was much facilitated by the assistance rendered by Munro, who was created a baronet for his services in connection with it. Munro died of cholera on 6 July 1827, when making a farewell tour through the ceded districts on the eve of his retirement from the government. His death was mourned as a public calamity by all classes of the community. By the English members of the civil and military services, as well as by non-official Englishmen in India, he was regarded as a man who by his great and commanding talents, by the force of his character, by his extraordinary capacity for work, and by the justness and liberality of his views, had done more than any man in India to raise the reputation of the East India Company's service. By the natives he was venerated as the protector of their rights, familiar with their customs, and tolerant of their prejudices, ever ready to redress their grievances, but firm in maintaining order and obedience to the law. In a gazette extraordinary issued by his colleagues, on the receipt of the intelligence of his death, testimony was borne in language of more than ordinary eulogy to his public services and personal character, and to the universal regret which was felt at his death. An equestrian statue by Chantrey stands in a conspicuous position on the road from Fort St. George to Government House, and an excellent portrait by Sir Martin Archer Shee is in the Madras Banqueting Hall; another by Sir Henry Raeburn was in the third loan collection of national portraits, the property of Campbell Munro, esq.
