1827. Returning from his sojourn in England with restored health, he became Secretary to Government in 1830, and remained in that position, enviable as it was for a comparatively young officer of under ten years' standing, till 1832. Then he took the decisive step in his official life, for reasons honourable to him and practical in their nature. He obtained the appointment of Magistrate and Collector of Azamgarh in the Upper Provinces. This change governed the remainder of his career. When he left the Secretariat the President of the Council, Sir Charles Metcalfe, afterwards the celebrated Lord Metcalfe, communicated to him publicly the thanks of the Government.
The transfer might not at first sight appear advantageous to him. He was to relinquish a dignified and lucrative position at the capital, in contact with the official chiefs and political leaders of the day, in the centre of every social interest which the headquarters of a great country could afford,with every attractive advantage that his family could enjoy. All this he was to exchange for hard work and severe routine in a remote district of the interior, as a collector of revenue, as a director of police, as a sitting magistrate, and this too without any gain in emolument. But the reasons which actuated him were years afterwards expressed thus by an excellent authority[1]: —
'It is not in the Secretarial bureau alone, or in the private study, that administrative capacity is to be gained. The
- ↑ Mr. (afterwards Sir William) Muir, Calcutta Review, December, 1853, vol. xxi.
