The Sun.
London, England, 1824-01-02 00:00:00

THE HONOURABLE JOHN ADAMS.

As it is the duty, and must be the pleasure,
of every Public Journalist, to record the merits
of those who have distinguished themselves by
the ability, as well as by the purity, of their of-
ficial conduct in high and important situations,
we feel peculiarly gratified in the opportunity of
extracting the following article from the CAL-.
CUTTA NEWSPAPER of August 14, 1823, which
is not only a due tribute to a meritorious indivi-
dual, hut is characterized by a degree of im-
pressive eloquence, altogether, that may be truly
said to come

" Wann from the heart, and faithful to its fires."

NMETING AT TIIE TOWN-HALL, CALCUTTA.
To 'WILLIAM rti‘NAuoirrox, Esq. Sheriff of Calcutta,

We, the undersigned, request that you will convene a meet-
ing of the British inhabitants of Calcutta, for the purpose of
considering the best means of paying some suitable mark of
public respect and attachment to the Honourable John Adam,
on the occasion of his retirement from the office of Governor-
General :
August 6, 1823.
.T. Palmer Wm. Prinsep
T. Pattie John Smith
R. C. Ferguson Alexr. Colvin
T. Paton C. R. Lindsay
John Haynes W. Paton
J. P. Larkins T. Plowden
J. C. C. Sutherland H. Sargeant
G. Bellard R. Sanders
T. W. Hogg Geo. Kippell
T. Alsop R, C. Plowden
NV. Donn R. Robertson
C. Trower James Calvin
D. Clark Thos. E. M. Turton
"W. Ainslie James A tkinsons.

In consequence of the above requisition, the Sheriff' conven-
ed a meeting at the Town-hall, on Saturday, the 9th of Au-
gust. A great number of individuals assembled ; amongst
whom were many of the principal civil and military servants
of the Company, and a great portion of the merchants, and
other highly respectable inhabitants of Calcutta.

Mr. FERGUSON, having been called to the chair by acclama-
tion said he should address the Meeting only in a few words ;
for although Mr. Adam had retired from the office of Governor-
General, lie still filled an important station in the Government.
That they had not yet seen the close of his public life, so that
the time was not yet come to give a final opinion on it ; but for
those present to deal on such a meed of praise as they considered
him to deserve. Mr. Adam had passed the whole of his public
life among the people of Calcutta, so that none could be better
qualified to judge of it than they were. The Learned Chair-
man said, he had long known and been intimately acquainted
with Mr. Adam, and lie felt convinced that much of the present
prosperity of British India was owing to the close attention of
Mr. Adam to his arduous duties for so long a time. He would
say more than this, and would assert, that in no part of the
public life of Mr. Adam had he been actuated by any but the
purest motives, and the warmest desire for the interest of this
country. He believed that it was the lot of few individuals to
be loved like the excellent and amiable individual in question,
whose sound judgment, he believed, was surpassed by nothing
but the purity of his heart. The people of Calcutta on this oc-
casion, wished to pay Mr. Adam a mark of respect for his pub-
lic merits, and in such a case the plainer the resolutions the bet-
ter. He proceeded to read the first resolution, which in sub-
stance was, That the meeting was of opinion that a testimony
of the regard and esteem of the inhabitants of Calcutta should
be expressed of the Hon. John Adam. The Chairman therefore
proposed, that a full-length portrait of Mr. Adam should be
public edice in the city of Calcutta, where it
would placed in soeimn
ethe midst of the people, who had been witnesses
of the excellencies of his public character. He next proposed,
that Mr. Adam be requested to sit for his portrait, to be put up
as a permanent memorial of his virtues.
Mr. Ferguson then sat down amidst long and unanimous
applause.
Mr. J• W. Hoot; rose to second the motion. He did so,
because he was confident that it embodied the sentiments and
feelings of the people of India • and if the resolutions had been
sini
without the prefatory remarks of the eloquent
charrlyinan, read,
it must have been received. This he said, was no
place for contention with them on points of doubt. But when
they met to pay a tribute to worth, to unbounded benevolence,
and unshaken integrity, he could hardly brook the tedium of
debate, and wished at once ro come to the object of the Meet-
ing. He had known Mr. Adam for a long time, without being
intimate with him, and he had never known a more benevolent
man. The next pleasure to the possession of great talents, was
the paying a tribute to them. He felt honoured, and felt a
kind of artificial elevation, in paying a tribute to so good a man.
Ur. Adam had been long known to the Indian public, had ar-
rived in early life, almost in boyhood, had passed through the
several ranks of the profession to that which intrusted him with
the destinies of the people. On his conduct they were to pass
the resolutions, and if the painful duty of bidding adieu to Mr.
Adam should arrive, they would doubtless meet again, more
fully to express their sentiments. He said that on his first
landing in this country, he had heard the name of Mr. Adam
associated with all that was good and kind, and he had learned
to venerate him without knowing him. He concluded an elo-
quent speech by saying, that he entirely concurred in the pro-
posal, as the most appropriate mark of respect; and he believed
more unanimity and concord never prevailed on any occasion.
The Resolutions were then read, and it was proposed that
the gentlemen who signed the Requisition, with any other that
they might think proper to add, should be a Committee to carry
them into effect.

Agreed to unanimously.
On the 11th of August, the gentlemen who signed the re-
quisition, and several others, waited upon the Hon. John
Adam, to communicate to him the resolutions, when R. C. Fer.
guson, Esq. addressed him in the following manner:—
Mr. ADAM--.We have the honour to wait upon you, at the
desire and on the behalf of a very numerous meeting of the
British inhabitants of Calcutta, who have availed themselves
of the occasion which has presented itself, to record the sense
which they entertain of the merits of your long and efficient
public services. Tbey are desirous of obtaining and.preserv-
ing among them some lasting memorial of the virtues for
which, in public and private life, you are so eminently distin-
guished. Your presence, Sir, forbids me from dilating do
them in the manner in which, on a late occasion, 1 not un-
willingly indulged myself, though the attempt was difficult to
embody in any language of mine the sentiments of respect,
esteem, and affectionate attachment, with which the breast of
every man who heard me was animated towards you. I will
refrain from any such attempt now, and will content my-
self with reading the resolutions which were adopted at the
meeting.
111 r. FERGUSON read the Resolutions, and then pro-
ceeded :

If, Sir, the earnest solicitation of myself and others whom
you see around you. by whom I need not tell you how much
you are beloved, could add any thing to the force of the re-
quest conveyed from so large a body of your countrymen, that
solicitation would not be wanting. But we are assured that you
will feel no hesitation in complying with the wish which has
been publicly expressed, and that you will give effect to the
object in view, in the manner which has appeared to be the
most honourable and pure, and therefore the most suitable,
and which, it is believed, will be the most acceptable to you.—
If I were permitted, Sir, upon this occasion, to allude to any
thing which is personal to myself, I should not be disposed to
conceal how much I have felt gratified in being thought worthy,
of taking the part which has been allotted to me in these pro-
ceedings. You, Sir, are the oldest friend I have in India. I
have not forgotten the warm and cordial reception i met with
from you, on my first arrival in this country, but I was pre-
pared for that reception and all the kindness which followed it,
by what I had experienced from one, whom you, as I well
know, in no ordinary degree, lose and venerate. Your excel-
lent and much respected father extended to rue his countenance
in early life, and indeed I may say, that attachment to the
name of Adam had come to me as an inheritance from one,
now no more, whose memory 1 am bound to cherish, and
from whom, in my childhood, I had heard the expressions
of regard and esteem WhiCh he entertained for William
Adam. Need I say, Sir, that the interest of these proceed-
ings will not be confined to this country, or to those who have
taken a part in, or been witness to them. Of the feelings with

which these tidings must be received by your valued parent I
can in some degree judge, from knowing the affection_ which
he bOre towards you, and which' cannot surely have abated,
because in the fullness of your reputation, you have realised to =
the utmost the hopes which he had fondly cherished of you:—
The honours which are paid to .you are his, as much as yours.
I trust with my own lips not to communicate to him the ear-
liest intelligence of these proceedings but to be able to impart
to him something of the feeling which pervades my bosom, and
- the bosoms of all who on this occasion have sought to do jus-
tice to the merit of a son, so honoured and beloved. Allow '
me, Sir, in conclusion, to request that you will accept from
your friends who now surround you, wishes as ardent and sin-
cere as can have place in the human heart, for the happineso,
welfare, and prosperity of yourself and your family.
To this eloquent address, Mr. ADAM, deeply impressed with
those feelings which so truly honourable a- testimony of public
esteem could not fail to produce, returned a short but inipres- •
sive answer, complying with the request of the Committee, and
acknowledging in strong and emphatic language the gratifying..,
tribute of the British inhabitants of Calcutta. No language,
he said, that he could command would adequately convey the
deep sense he entertained of the distinguished honour conferrei3.
on him by the Resolutions which had just been read. That.
the British inhabitants of Calcutta, among whom nearly th 3
, whole course of his public service, and by far the greater por-
tion of his natural life, had been passed, should consider hint
worthy of such a distinction, rendered the present the proudest
moment of his life, and must be a source of exultation and pride
to the latest moment of his existence. He begged the Com-
mittee to assure those whom they represented of his profound :
and lasting gratitude for this mark of their regard, and of their
too partial estimate of his public conduct. To-the Gentlemen
present, among whom he numbered some of his oldest and most
attached personal friends, he expressed his warmest thanks, and
declared that the value of the compliment lie had received was
greatly enhanced in his estimation by receiving it through such
a channel, and by the gratifying and affecting terms in which •
it had been conveyed by their Chairman. •
A Sub-committee, to carry the resolutions into effect, con-
sisting of Mr. Hogg, Mr. Palmer, Mr. Shakespeare, and Mr.
Atkinson, was appointed.

(From the Calcutta Gazette.)
Ptrisr.ic IMPROVEMXNT.—It is in the contemplation of
Government to carry into speedy effect two measures, which,
in their operation and consequence, promises incalculable be-
nefit to the Indian population; one will be directed to the spread
of education and the gradual introduction of European arts
and sciences throughout the country, which, by augment-
ing the intellectual endowments of the natives, and • ad-
vancing them in the scale of civilization, must permanently
secure their temporal welfare and moral amelioration ; and the
other is the proposed application of town duties to the local im-
provement of the places where they are collected (on the princi-
ple under prosecution by the Lottery Committee in Calcutta),
which by increasing and extending the facilities ofintercommu-
nication between the provinces, must lead to an ample develope-
ment of the physical resources of the soil, and ofnative industry
and enterprize. The paternal solicitude of Governmen t thus inces-
santly directed to the happiness of the millions under its sway,
cannot fail to operate with grateful conviction on their minds,
and secure their attachment and loyalty on a basis never to be ,
shaken. The accomplishment of these important measures
are to be attributed to the liberal policy of 3lr. Adam. The
Hou. Mr. Adam proceeds to Bombay, for the benefit .of his,
health, on board the H. C. ship Investigator, Capt. D. Ross.
Marine Surveyor-General. The Investigator is expected to sail
about the 25th inst. (August.)