Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 6.djvu/195

Rh "Although his excellency the governor-general in council refrains from the specific mention of the many recorded services which have placed Sir John Malcolm in the first rank of those officers of the Honourable Company's service, who have essentially contributed to the renown of the British arms and counsels in India, his lordship cannot omit this opportunity of declaring his unqualified approbation of the manner in which Sir John Malcolm has discharged the arduous and important functions of his high political and military station in Malwah. By a happy combination of qualities, which could not fail to earn the esteem and confidence, both of his own countrymen and of the native inhabitants of all classes, by the unremitting personal exertion and devotion of his time and leisure to the maintenance of the interests confided to his charge, and by an enviable talent for inspiring all who acted under his orders with his own energy and zeal, Sir John Malcolm has been enabled, in the successful performance of the duty assigned to him, in the Mulwah, to surmount difficulties of no ordinary stamp, and to lay the foundations of repose and prosperity in that extensive province, but recently reclaimed from a state of savage anarchy, and a prey to every species of rapine and devastation. The governor-general in council feels assured that the important services thus rendered to his country by Sir John Malcolm, at the close of an active and distinguished career, will be not less gratefully acknowledged by the authorities at home, than they are cordially applauded by those under whose immediate orders they have been performed."

Sir John returned to England in April, 1822, with the rank of major-general, and soon after he was presented by those who had acted under him in the war of 1818 and 1819, with a superb vase of the value of £1500. During this visit to England, Sir John received a proud testimony of the favour of the East India Company, and acknowledgment of the utility of his public career, in a grant, passed unanimously by a general court of proprietors, of a thousand pounds per annum, in consideration of his distinguished merits and services.

Sir John had quitted India with the determination to spend the evening of his life in his native country; but the solicitations of the court of directors, and of his majesty's ministers for India affairs, induced him again to embark in the service of his country, where experience had so fully qualified him to act with advantage. In July, 1827, he was appointed to the high and responsible situation of governor of Bombay, which post he continued to fill until 1831, when he finally returned to England, having effected, during the few years of his governorship, incalculable benefits both for this country, our Indian territories, and every class of the inhabitants there. Upon his leaving Bombay, the different bodies of the people seemed to vie with each other in giving proofs of the esteem and high consideration in which he was held. The principal European gentlemen of Bombay requested sir John to sit for his statue, afterwards executed by Chantrey, and erected in Bombay; the members of the Asiatic Society requested a bust of him, to be placed in their library; the native gentlemen of Bombay solicited his portrait, to be placed in their public room; the East India Amelioration Society voted him a service of plate ; the natives, both of the presidency and the provinces addressed him as their friend and benefactor; and the United Society of Missionaries, including English, Scottish, and Americans, acknowledged with gratitude the aids they had received from him in the prosecution of their pious labours, and their deep sense of his successful endeavours to promote the interests of truth and humanity, with the welfare and prosperity of his country and his countrymen. These were apt and gratifying incidents in the closing scene of his long and arduous services in our Indian empire. But, whether at home or abroad, all parties who knew any thing of his career concurred in awarding him the highest praises, both as a civil, mili-