Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 14.djvu/63

 ment of the colony from May to December 1854, during which period parliamentary government was established in the colony (ib. 133, lxvi. 371). Some time before leaving the Cape, Darling was nominated governor-in-chief of Antigua and the Leeward Islands, but never took up the appointment, as on his return home he was sent to administer the government of Newfoundland, and to inaugurate the system of ‘responsible government’ which had been withheld from Newfoundland some time after it had been granted to other American dependencies. He was afterwards appointed governor and commander-in-chief of the colony, and there remained until Feb. 1857, when he was appointed captain-general and governor-in-chief of Jamaica, then including the government of Honduras and the Bay Islands, a post in which he was succeeded by Governor Eyre. On 11 Sept. 1863 Darling was appointed governor and commander-in-chief of Victoria; he had in 1862 been made K.C.B. in recognition of ‘his long and effective public services.’ His government of Victoria was not successful. He allowed the McCulloch administration to tack on a protectionist tariff to the Appropriation Bill, and the legislative council persisting in rejecting the bill a ‘deadlock’ ensued, the civil servants and others being paid by judgments given against the crown. The legislative council sent home a protest against this state of things to the secretary of state, and Darling, in his reply, reflected on the character and standing of certain members of the Victoria upper house in a manner which led to his recall in April 1866 by Mr. (afterwards Lord) Cardwell. A change of ministry having meanwhile occurred at home, the recall was confirmed by Lord Carnarvon, Mr. Cardwell's successor (Parl. Papers, Accts. and Papers, 1865, 1866, l. 585, 707, 721, 781; 1867, xlix. 533; 1867–8, xlviii. 625, 685, 693). On Darling's departure from Victoria a deputation of ten thousand sympathisers waited on him at the place of embarkation. The legislative assembly voted him a sum of 20,000l., which was rejected by the council. The same sum was then voted to Lady Darling, and again rejected.

Darling married first, in 1835, the daughter of Alexander Dalzell of Buttalls, in the island of Barbadoes—she died in 1837; secondly, in 1841, the eldest daughter of Joshua Billings Nurse, member of the legislative council of Barbadoes—she died in 1848; and thirdly, the only daughter of Christopher Salter of West End House, Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire, who survived him. Darling died at 7 Lansdowne Crescent, Cheltenham, on 25 Jan. 1870, in the sixty-first year of his age. On receiving intelligence of his death the government of Victoria voted the sum of 20,000l. to his widow.

[Colonial Office List, 1870; Correspondence of Sir Geo. Cathcart (London, 1856); Hatton and Harvey's Newfoundland (London, 1883); Heaton's Dict. Australian Biog.; Times, 31 Jan. 1870; Illustr. London News, 19 March 1870 (will).] 

DARLING, GEORGE (1782?–1862), physician, born at Stow, near Galashiels, was educated at the university of Edinburgh, and, having made two or three voyages as surgeon in the East India Company's service, settled in London in general practice. At the end of four years he began to practise as a physician, having become a licentiate of the London College. He had a considerable intimacy with artists, Wilkie, Haydon, Lawrence, and Chantrey being both his patients and his friends. In 1814 he published anonymously ‘An Essay on Medical Economy,’ which he dedicated to his friend and fellow-countryman Sir James Mackintosh. The title of this ably written book was not well chosen, for it enters into the whole question of medical reform, as regards the education, practice, and status of medical men, and anticipates many of the changes which have since taken place in the profession, such as the establishment of a university in London and the conjoint scheme of medical examination. Darling was of a singularly retiring disposition, and published this essay anonymously. At a later period he interested himself about the making of bread by the disengagement of carbonic acid by chemical means, and printed a pamphlet on the subject, ‘Instructions for Making Unfermented Bread.’ This, like the book just mentioned, was anonymously published. It first appeared in 1846, and the seventeenth edition is dated 1851. He died on 30 March 1862, in his eightieth year.

[Address of the President of the Medico-Chirurgical Society of London, 1863; but chiefly from private information.] 

DARLING, GRACE HORSLEY (1815–1842), heroine, born at Bamborough, Northumberland, 24 Nov. 1815, was the daughter, and seventh of nine children, of William Darling, by his wife Thomasin (Horsley). William Darling in 1815 succeeded his father as keeper of a lighthouse on the Farne Islands. He was a man of strong religious principles, who brought up his children carefully, objecting to light literature, and regarding cards as the devil's books, but who had tastes for music and natural history. On 7 Sept. 1838 the Forfarshire steamboat was 