Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 2.djvu/39

 of that regiment he served in the Crimean war, 1854-5. He took part in the battle of Alma and was wounded at Inkerman on 5 Nov. 1854. On that day three of his brother officers were killed and five others wounded in the numerous encounters which the 1st division sustained, under George, duke of Cambridge. Close to him on the field of battle fell his friend and neighbour in Scotland, Colonel James Hunter Blair ( Crimea, vol. vi. chap. 6). At the dying man's suggestion, the electors chose Fergusson to take Blair's place in parliament as conservative member for Ayrshire, but he remained with the forces before Sevastopol until May 1855, when Lord Raglan advised him to enter upon his parliamentary duties. On his return home he received his medal from Queen Victoria, and retired from the army on 9 Aug. 1859. Although his active military career was thus brought to an early close, he remained an officer of the Royal Company of Archers, was colonel commanding the Ayr and Wigtown militia from 1858 to 1868, and also served in his county regiment of yeomanry.

In 1857 he lost his seat for Ayrshire, but recovered it in 1859, holding it until 1868. While attending to county business and the duties of a landlord, he devoted himself to his parliamentary work, and was appointed under-secretary of India under Lord Cranborne [see, Suppl. II] in the Derby government of 1866. A year later he was transferred in a similar capacity to the home office, where there was need for efficient aid to Gathorne Hardy (afterwards Lord Cranbrook) [q. v. Suppl. II]. The public mind was agitated by trades union outrages, the Fenian movement, and the reform bill. After Disraeli succeeded Lord Derby as prime minister in February 1868 Fergusson was made a privy councillor and governor of South Australia, where he arrived on 16 Feb. 1869. Until 1885 (save for the period 1875-80) his career was identified with the oversea dominions.

In South Australia, which was prosperous and peaceful, the working of responsible government made small demands upon the governor. But Fergusson gave material assistance to his ministers in organising the telegraph system. In 1873 he left South Australia for New Zealand, but after Disraeli became premier (Feb. 1874) Fergusson resigned his post there in 1875, being made K.C.M.G. On his return to England he tried to resume his parliamentary career. His attempts to capture Frome in 1876 and Greenock in 1878 were unsuccessful. But he engaged actively in county affairs, and on 10 March 1880, on the eve of Lord Beaconsfield's fall from power, he accepted the post of governor of Bombay in succession to Sir Richard Temple [q. v. Suppl. II]. When the new governor was installed on 28 April 1880 Lord Lytton had tendered his resignation, Abdur Rahman was discussing terms with Sir Donald Stewart [q. v. Suppl. I] near Kabul, and Ayub Khan was meditating the attack upon Kandahar, which he successfully delivered at Maiwand on 27 July. Thus Fergusson's immediate duty was to push forward supplies and reinforcements through Sind. But his main duties were of an essentially civil character and connected with revenue administration. Before his arrival Sir Theodore Hope had carried through the supreme legislature the Dekhan Agriculturist Relief Act to enable the peasantry to shake off their indebtedness and meet the moneylender on more equal terms. The introduction of so novel an experiment met with opposition from the powerful lending classes and also from lawyers, who considered contracts sacred and the letter of bonds inviolable. New rules of registration were required, fresh courts instituted, and the system of conciliation organised. Fergusson, as a proprietor himself, threw his experience and heart into the work. The Act, which has been since amended, has abundantly vindicated its promoters. In another direction he sought the welfare of the Dekhan peasantry. Temple, while immensely increasing the area of forest reserves, had severely curtailed forest privileges long enjoyed by the cultivating classes in the uplands of the Ghat districts. Fergusson removed some part of the burden of forest conservancy which Temple had thrown on the people. He moreover inculcated moderation in assessing the land revenue and liberality in granting remissions in times of scarcity. To enable the state to deal more readily with famine, he gave attention to the alignment of the new Southern Maratha railway, mainly devised to carry food stuffs into districts liable to failure of the rains. In the same spirit he created the first agricultural department, and inaugurated experimental farms. In other departments he turned to account his experience at the home office. In the face of violent agitation he refused to exercise the clemency of the crown in favour of the high priest of the Vaishnava sect. This holy man had been convicted of complicity in postal robberies, and his religious followers regarded his punishment