Page:James Thomason (Temple).djvu/199

Rh Government of Asia, and while rendering it strong to the point of despotism, retained the affection of the people who obeyed it.

'While carrying out a plan for the irrigation of an immense territory, reforming the prison discipline, or debating the possibility of constructing railways by the State, he never forgot that the success of a centralized government depends upon smaller arrangements. He would walk into the record room of a collectorate, take down a bundle of vernacular proceedings, detect at a glance if they had been properly arranged, and remark upon the orders passed by the collector. He would enter a medical dispensary, examine the book of cases, gladden the heart of the Native surgeon by a few pertinent remarks, and perhaps set him thinking on the properties of a drug, procurable in the bazaar, and relied upon by the Native physicians, but unknown to English physicians. He would question a Native revenue officer about the condition of his villages, and remark upon the effect of a hail-storm which had lately occurred in some village under his control. Every officer was aware that with him generalities were of no avail, that the Governor knew more of his district than he did himself, and that his own best policy was to point out deficiencies.'

Among surviving witnesses is Mr. Robert Needham Cust, late of the Civil Service. His remembrance has been recorded thus: —

'I made the acquaintance of Mr. James Thomason when he was Secretary to the Government of India in the Foreign Department in 1843. I was his guest at Agra in Government House in June, 1844, and there I became aware of his remarkable character, and conceived that love and respect for him, which exist to this day. I was struck by his holy demeanour, his teachings on revenue matters, his conversation about