Page:The Earl of Auckland.djvu/19

Rh province was raised for the moment into a separate Presidency. In March, 1836, after Lord Auckland's arrival in Calcutta, Metcalfe consented to go to Agra on the lower level of Lieutenant-Governor, until some higher appointment fell in. But his eyes were presently opened to the change which his recent policy had wrought in the temper of his 'honourable masters.' When the Governorship of Madras fell vacant, his obvious claims to the succession were ignored by the same body which had once fought so hard for the right to make him a Governor-General. The Court of Directors turned a deaf ear even to the pleadings of Lord William Bentinck, who fared no better with the Premier himself.

Metcalfe's letter to the India House touching the reports he had heard of the Court's displeasure drew forth a dilatory and curt reply: — 'The continuance in you provisionally,' they said, 'of the highest office which it is in the power of the Court to confer, might have satisfied you that their confidence had not been withdrawn.' The answer received in August, 1837, to a letter written about a year before failed to satisfy Metcalfe, who forthwith tendered his resignation to Lord Auckland, and prepared to quit the country where his thirty-eight years of unbroken, able, and conspicuous service seemed to have been wiped out by an alleged insult to the dignity and the prejudices of the East India Board.

A kindly letter from Lord Auckland expressed his