Page:John Russell Colvin.djvu/212

204 North-Western Provinces in days of peace and prosperity — as virtually their dictator in the hours of darkness and distress which followed, and which are but now passing away, he supported or originated many measures which were most freely and warmly canvassed. No man more than he spurned the spurious popularity which seeks to catch the fleeting suffrages of the multitude; yet no man ever came out of so trying an ordeal with his personal honour more unsullied, with his personal character less assailed. When he died, he died lamented and respected by all; and by none more than by those by whom one of the last acts of his public life had been most strongly, and, as many of us think — for we would scorn to flatter even the dead — most justly opposed.' (The reference is to the Proclamation of May 25.) 'In him the loyal natives of this country, the Government and the Civil Service, have sustained a great and lasting loss; and among the many distinguished men whom that service has produced, though some may have surpassed him, in this or that element of distinction, no name will stand higher for unfailing constancy in the discharge of duty, for unswerving integrity and desire to do right, for the bright example which he set in the land, of a high-minded, upright, Christian English gentleman, pious but unbigotted, zealous but tolerant, firm but kind, just but merciful.'

Mr. Reade, whose narrative has been quoted, had known Mr. Colvin chiefly since the latter became Lieutenant-Governor. He writes of him thus in his narrative: —

'On September 9 he sank under the weight of anxieties and toil that can be hardly appreciated. Probably no public officer in our Indian annals was ever placed in a more trying conjuncture. The principle of the policy he maintained, of resolute defiance at the seat of Government, was indis-