Page:John Russell Colvin.djvu/213

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MR. E. A. READE
205

putably sound; but he erred in some respects in the choice o( means, though he used the means employed with marvellous ability.'

Referring to his administration before Mutiny days he adds: —

'He had not the inestimable advantage of his eminent predecessor (Thomason), in that practical knowledge of the people, which can only be obtained by some years of close personal intercourse and minute acquaintance with their feelings, habits, peculiarities, and traditions; and he did not in consequence avail himself of a strength which, judiciously managed, would have proved a powerful auxiliary. He pushed perhaps to an extreme, his theory that the cupola, not the pillars, should be the conspicuous feature of Government; but he set an example of insurpassable devotion to the public service. His clear intellect had put aside his prepossessions in favour of a mechanical system of administration to which he had been long inured, but not suited to these Provinces (sic). He was ardently seeking the development of their resources, and the welfare of their communities. The State has never had a more devoted public servant, the people, a more earnest and liberal ruler.'

Where our dead fall in India, they lie. They are buried by her rivers, in her forests, among her mountains, on her roadsides. Lucknow, Delhi, Ghazipur, Cawnpur — a score of cities, claim their dust. In the Agra Fort, where Mr. Colvin rests, a monument was raised over his remains by the pious care of a successor. His tomb stands in conspicuous solitude before the deserted Audience Hall of the Emperor Akbar. As we linger by it, our thoughts recur to the past. We hear