Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 30.djvu/437

 underwent instruction in Dublin in the method of teaching. Kennedy's plan was to have a second-class agricultural school, subordinate to the central school, in each of the four provinces, a third-class school in each county, a fourth-class school in each barony, and a fifth-class school connected with each elementary school. Unfortunately Kennedy's proposals were persistently thwarted by some members of the board, and the board itself, composed to a large extent of officials fully occupied with their special duties, did so little to advance the course of agricultural and other education that on 18 March 1839 Kennedy wrote a spirited protest, resigned his appointment, and returned to Lough Ash. Sir Charles Napier wrote a pamphlet entitled ‘Essay addressed to Irish Absentees on the State of Ireland,’ to show the value of Kennedy and of his plan. In January 1838 Kennedy had declined the governorship of Australia, that he might continue to promote his views on agricultural education in an appointment which he describes as neither lucrative nor brilliant.

In 1843 Kennedy was appointed secretary to the royal commission to inquire into the law and practice in respect to the occupation of land in Ireland, known as the Devon commission. The work was arduous, and the result, printed in five large folios, important and useful. In 1845 Sir Robert Peel appointed him secretary of the famine relief committee. In 1846 Kennedy was given the superintendence of all the relief works in the western division of co. Limerick under the board of works, an appointment which he relinquished on becoming agent for the extensive Devon estates in co. Limerick in September of that year. He was also a director of the Waterford and Limerick railway. In the spring of 1848, when excitement was great and a revolutionary outbreak in the streets of Dublin daily expected, Kennedy volunteered his assistance in organising measures for the preservation of peace and the protection of life and property. The city authorities accepted his offer, and gave him complete control over the volunteer arrangements. He divided the city into defence districts; maps were distributed showing the various points in each district, the defence of which would secure the whole. At this crisis the Orangemen of Dublin presented an address to the lord-lieutenant offering their services. Lord Clarendon declined to receive their assistance, as they had passed resolutions attributing to the government encouragement of popery, and demanding that Roman catholics should be put down; but Kennedy, thinking more of the safety of Dublin than of politics, enrolled them among his volunteers, and gave them 600l. to purchase arms. The transaction formed one of the grounds of an attack upon the government in the House of Lords on 18 Feb. 1850, when Lord Clarendon vindicated the government, and declared that Kennedy had generously provided the money for these arms out of his own pocket without the knowledge of the government, and with the laudable intention of keeping the Orangemen faithful to the government.

When in 1849 Sir Charles Napier was appointed commander-in-chief in India, he offered Kennedy the post of military secretary, and obtained permission for him to re-enter the army. Kennedy was accordingly reinstated in the army on 23 March 1849 as ensign in the 25th foot, and on 4 May he was appointed to a cornetcy in the 14th light dragoons, with the local rank of major while serving in the East Indies. He went to India with Napier, and accompanied the expedition to Peshawur to open the pass and relieve the fortress of Kohat in 1850.

Besides his duties as military secretary, Kennedy devoted his spare time to the construction of a great military road from the plains through Simla towards Thibet, and a company of sappers was placed at his disposal. The road bears his name. In November 1850 Kennedy was appointed consulting engineer to the government of India for railways, and went to Calcutta to take charge of the railway department. He was strongly opposed to any break of gauge, and laid down plans for the application of a system of railroads throughout India. His health, however, failed, and he resigned his appointment and returned to England in 1852. A minute of the governor-general, Lord Dalhousie, recorded that his departure was a public loss to the government. He was promoted lieutenant on 15 March 1853, exchanged into the 42nd foot on 24 June, was gazetted lieutenant-colonel in the East Indies, and was placed upon half-pay 11 Nov. 1853.

On his return to England he became one of the original founders and the managing director of the Bombay, Baroda, and Central Indian railway, and in September 1853 he returned to India, and carried out the survey of the line. He settled in England in 1854, and continued to take an active part in the board of direction during the remainder of his life, again visiting India in the interests of the company in 1863–4. In 1872 he promoted a company for building with concrete. He was elected a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers on 3 March 1868. He died on 28 June 1879 at his residence in St. George's Square, London. Kennedy was a