Page:James Thomason (Temple).djvu/190

182 for yearly rectification according to personal changes. The constitution of those Village Communities, which he loved so well, had been vindicated and upheld. The spectacle of extending cultivation, of expanding trade, of growing population, of increasing domestic comfort in town and country, greeted his observation. The system of irrigation, by canals and other means, which he had persistently recommended to the Governor-General in Council, had been sanctioned, and was far advanced. The development of trunk-roads, the arrangements for the safety, convenience, and accommodation of the internal traffic, both of passengers and goods, had been carried out to his satisfaction. The countless works of provincial and local improvement, by which no locality in these broad regions was left untouched, had amazingly prospered under his immediate eye; and a potent impetus had been given to municipal life everywhere. Though fairly well pleased with the progress of superior and intermediate education, he felt that elementary education was still in its infancy; but a substantial foundation on broad lines had been laid, with a certainty of the super-structure being reared.

The opening of the Ganges Canal had been fixed for an early date in 1854, and he was to preside at that historic ceremony, as being the man who of all others had most ably advocated the principle of irrigation, had been the guiding genius of the scheme and the sustaining fulcrum to Sir Proby Cautley, the engineer and author of the project. Men naturally