Page:James Thomason (Temple).djvu/95

Rh the inventor, whose work Thomason took up, carried on to its conclusion, and rendered fully effective. Of Thomason, as of other eminent men, it may be said: —

Vixere fortes ante Agamemnona multi.

Among these the greatest, the fortissimus, was undoubtedly Bird; he was a born leader of men, and in his day there was no civil officer in northern India equal to him in reputation. By the students of social history in India he is known to have been one of the most capable workers that the East India Company's Service ever produced. One specific notice of him is forthcoming, written by a really competent witness, and it may well be quoted here.

'On Robert Merttins Bird devolved the task of directing, for many years, all revenue operations, especially those of the new Settlement. He indeed was a man of no common order.

'A mind, capable of dealing equally with minute details and general principles; stores of information collected by unusual powers of memory and observation; cheerful spirits and unfailing health; together with a robust energy, the "vigor animi, ingentibus negotiis par;" these were his qualifications for the great work which then lay before him. On that work he impressed his own stamp, and gave it all its form and feature. Discordant ideas and conflicting theories soon disappeared before the influence of one controlling intellect. Allowed to select his own instruments, he