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Metcalfe the grand cross of the Bath, 14 March 1836. In the same month (the Agra government having been meanwhile abolished) he was appointed lieutenant-governor of the North-Western Provinces, the headquarters of which were fixed at Agra instead of Allahabad. In filling up the vacant governorship of Madras, Metcalfe was passed over by the directors, who had been greatly displeased by his giving legal sanction to the liberty of the press. In consequence of this slight, Metcalfe resigned his lieutenant-governorship on 1 Jan. 1838 and retired from the service. He reached England in May 1838, and took up his abode at Fern Hill, near Windsor. While making arrangements for contesting Glasgow in the radical interest, Metcalfe was appointed governor of Jamaica (11 July 1839). He was admitted a member of the privy council on 31 July, and on 26 Sept. following was sworn in as governor at Spanish Town. By his conciliatory conduct he speedily effected the reconciliation of the colony to the mother-country, and brought about a better feeling between the proprietors and the emancipated negroes. Having accomplished what he had been sent out to do, Metcalfe resigned his office and returned to England on 2 July

1842. In January 1843 he accepted the government of Canada, and on 30 March following took the oaths at Kingston as governor-general. Owing to the burning question of responsible government and the inflamed state of party spirit in the colony, Metcalfe's position was one of extreme difficulty. His attempts to conciliate all parties displeased the executive council, who were determined to reduce the governor-general to a mere passive instrument in their hands, and were supported in their endeavours by the majority of the representative assembly. In consequence of Metcalfe's refusal to admit their right to be consulted about official appointments, all the members of the council, with one exception, resigned in November 1843. For some time he was without a full council, but after the general election in November 1844, which resulted in a slight majority for the government, he was able to fill up all the vacant places with men of moderate views. Meanwhile, Metcalfe had for a long time been suffering from a malignant growth on his cheek, which at length deprived him of the sight of one eye. Unwilling to leave the government to his successor in a state of embarrassment, he still struggled on at his post. As a 'mark of the Queen's entire approbation and favour' he was created Baron Metcalfe of Fern Hill in the county of Berks on 25 Jan. 1845. Before the year was out he had become physically unfit for work, and having resigned his post he returned to England in December 1845 in a dying state. After patiently enduring still further agony, he died at Malshanger, near Basingstoke, Hampshire, on 5 Sept. 1846. He was buried in the family vault in the parish church of Winkfield, near Fern Hill, where there is a tablet to his memory; the inscription was written by Lord Macaulay.

Metcalfe was an able and sagacious administrator, of unimpeachable integrity and untiring industry. His self-reliance and imperturbable good humour were alike remarkable, though perhaps his undeviating straightforwardness was his most marked characteristic. Mefcalfe did not take his seat in the House of Lords. As he never married, the barony became extinct upon his death, while the baronetcy devolved upon his younger brother, Thomas Theophilus Metcalfe, whose grandson, Sir, is separately noticed. A portrait of Metcalfe by John James Masquerier is preserved at Eton College (see Catalogue of the Third Exhibition of National Portraits at South Kensington in 1868, No. 154). Another by Say, which has been engraved, hangs in the library of the Oriental Club, Hanover Square, London. A third portrait is in the Kingston town-hall, Jamaica. There is a bust by E. H. Baily, R.A., in the Metcalfe Hall, Calcutta, an engraving of which by J. C. Armytage forms the frontispiece to the first volume of Kaye's 'Life and Correspondence,' 1858, and there is a statue by the same sculptor in the Central Park, Kingston, Jamaica. A selection of Metcalfe's early papers, Indian council minutes, and colonial despatches has been edited by Sir J. W. Kaye (London, 1855, 8vo). Two of Metcalfe's speeches delivered in the Jamaica legislature have been separately published (London, 1840, 8vo). Metcalfe is said to have published in 1838 a pamphlet on the payment of the national debt, as well as an anonymous pamphlet entitled 'Friendly Advice to the Conservatives (Life, ii. 230). His essay 'On the best Means of acquiring a knowledge of the Manners and Customs of the Natives of India' is printed in the first volume of 'Essays by the Students of the College of Fort William in Bengal,' &c., Calcutta, 1802, 8vo, pp. 75-90.

[Sir J. W. Kaye's Life and Correspondence of Charles, Lord Metcalfe (new and revised ed. 1858); Sir J. W. Kaye's Lives of Indian Officers, 1889, i. 535-660; Marshman's History of India, 1867, vols. ii. and iii.; Gardner's History of Jamaica, 1873, pp. 405-18; MacMullen's History of Canada, 1868, pp. 499-501; E. G. Wakefield's View of Sir Charles Metcalfe's Government of