Page:Blackwood's Magazine volume 137.djvu/146

140 dency. The impression which he left of himself in the more important of these positions may be seen in a minute of the Bombay University on his leaving India in 1868, and in a letter of the same date from the Secretary of State for India to the Governor of the Presidency, commenting on his last report on public instruction in Bombay. The first speaks in language which might almost have been adopted verbatim sixteen years afterwards by the Senatus of the University of Edinburgh, of "his ability in administration"; of "his important suggestions and effective aid in the revision of the bye-laws of the University, especially as bearing on the extension, arrangement, and balance of the studies which it prescribes"; of "his temper and tact when discharging the duties of the chair," and "of his extensive influence with the public in the matter of endowments and beneficiaries." The latter recognised "the clearness and moderation of his report," "the solidity and reality of his administration"; it speaks of "the nerve required to strike off nearly 1700 from the number (on paper) of English-learning pupils, and of the just confidence entertained that this was done in the interests of real English education," and concludes with expressing "concurrence in the just remarks recorded by your Excellency in Council, relative to the very valuable services rendered by Sir A. Grant to the cause of Education in India." One phrase in the Duke of Argyll's despatch, "solidity and reality," admirably characterises one great quality in all Sir Alexander's work. He was a great master of detail, and capable of great industry in acquiring that mastery. But he had over and above that practical gift the larger imagination and enthusiasm which imparts a soul to the minutest details, by seeing how they minister to some noble and beneficent end. Like all the best and ablest men who have borne a prominent part in Indian affairs, he had a most loyal confidence in the justice and beneficence of the English rule in India. He believed it to be conducive both to the greatness of England and to the wellbeing of the Indian people. He had also a sanguine belief in the effect of high intellectual culture in making men reasonable. He hoped that the result of imparting Western ideas through Western culture to the ablest and most influential among our Eastern subjects, would be the strengthening of the bond which unites India to England. But if it should not be so, he had a magnanimous sympathy with the magnanimous words of a former Governor of Bombay, which he quotes in a lecture delivered by him in 1862: –

"General Briggs one day observing in the corner of Mr Elphinstone's tent a pile of printed Marathi books, asked him what they were meant for. 'To educate the natives,' said Mr Elphinstone, 'but it is our high-road back to Europe.' General Briggs replied, 'Then I wonder that you, as Governor of Bombay, have set it on foot.' Mr Elphinstone answered coolly, 'We are bound under all circumstances to do our duty by them.'"

It was this union of strong realism with elevated idealism which was the secret of Sir Alexander's success in practical affairs. Is it not the secret of greatness in every sphere of action?