The Sun.
London, England, 1846-09-09 00:00:00

DEATH OF LORD METCALFE.

We regret to announce the decease of the above
nobleman. His Lordship, whose sufferings during the
past few months, from the effects of cancer in the face,
have been very great, expired on Saturday last, at Mal-
shanger House, near Basingstoke, whither he removed
from town about three months since.

It is with unfeigned regret we refer to the above an-
nouncement: That illustrious public servant has closed
a long career of honour and usefulness, and, in this age
of shifty statesmanship, we have all too much reason to
deplore his loss.
Singularly courageous and resolute in the assertion of
principles in whose value he confided, acute, self-com-
posed, and undaunted by difficulties,.he contrasted strik-
ingly with the public men to whom for so long our des-
tinies have been confided. It is, indeed, noticeable that
a Cabinet that sustained him in his bold and honest
course in dealing with the seditious Radicals of Canada
should also have approved the debih... and faultering
policy of Sir Charles Begot.
It was the fortune of Lord Metcalfe to have been
trained in the school of Lord Wellesley. It was therein
he learnt of how much worth nerve is to a statesman. It
was therein he was taught that the first duties of a
public servant are to the.public, and that the obligation
might often devolve upon him of postponing all personal
considerations to considerations of a public character.
Those who knew Lord Metcalfe the best are conscious
that not the least of his merits was a deep and abiding
sense-of.duty, and a preference of its claims to all other
reclamations.

His career in India was brilliant. He entered upon
public life, having scarce passed the years of boyhood,
as assistant to the Resident at the Court of the bold
Mahratta, Scindiah, the then Resident being Mr. Henry
Wellesley, now Lord Cowley:• He accompanied Lord
Lake during the war against Holka, and is understood,
on one occasion, to have headed an assaulting party
with a walking stick! Subsequently he was variously
employed, and always acquitted himself with credit,
until his appointment to the Residency of Delhi,
where the lass remnant of Mahomedan sovereignty
still dwelt—nonzinis umbra. His conduct during the
time he filled this important and responsible post
obtained for him the respect and attachment of the
natives and the confidence of his own Government. His
unvarying good temper, his perfect self-possession, and
his affable and courteous •manners, enabled him with
singular success to thwart the intrigues of the Durbar
without involving the necessity of collisions that might
have been fruitful of confusion, if not of bloodshed. '

His qualities so tested, he was promoted to the Secre-
taryship of the Supreme Government., from whence he
was sent to Hyderabad, where the Nizam's affairs were
involved to an alarming extent. It is not to be con-
cealed that, in the adjustment of these affairs, Mr. Met-
calfe was resisted by those from whom he ought to have
received succour and support. Still the firmness which
the petulance of Jamaica patriots, and the bullying of
Canada demagogues could not subdue, was proof against
the solicitations of the Esplanade of Calcutta. Indeed,
we should be glad, on many accounts, if, in the Deccan,
the interests of England were now as vigorously asserted
as they were by Mr. Metcalfe from 1819 to 1825.
As Lieutenant-Governer of Agra, as Acting• Gover-
nor-General of India, Sir Charles Metcalfe made him-
self eminent by the wisdom of his counsels and the liber-
ality of his measures. The Metcalfe Hall, now a chief
pride of the " Ditchers," is a standing testimonial both
to his merits and their appreciation of the same.
It was an evil day when he,relinquished the trust of
this mighty province—an evil day when his independent
and heroic spirit surrendered the happiness of the vast
and mixed population of Hindostan to the feeble and
trembling hands of Lord Auckland. Perhaps one of
the worst features of the polity which Whig sagacity
bestowed upon our Indian empire was the regulation
which forbade Lord Metcalfe permanently resuming the
rule of a country with whose requirements he had shown
himself so perfectly acquainted.
In his administration of Jamaica, Lord Metcalfe sus-
tained the high eharacter he had previously acquired.
A disturbed population—a divided Assembly—a
passionate Governor, had rendered Jamaica a source of
anxiety and perplexity to the authorities, whose dwell-
ing is at the bottom of Downing-street. Your West
Indian climate is not the most favourable in the world
to equanimity of temper, and Jamaica formed no ex•
ceptien to the rule. Lord Metcalfe, however, dis-
covered himself equal to the exigency. He triumphed
over every difficulty that opposed him, and the sub-
sequent prosperity of Jamaica attested the wisdom of
his policy.
Summoned to undertake the government of Canada,
at that time beset with perils of no ordinary magnitude,
Lord Metcalfe did not shrink from exposing his failing
health to fresh trials. A constitution that had become
enfeebled on the banks of the Ganges had to endure
the climate that marks the shores of the St. Lawrence.
Probably the time has not yet come when we ca❑
estimate justly the full value of Lord Metcalfe's Cana-
dian policy. It is enough to say it was like himself,
firm, intelligible, and national. If the principles of re-
sponsible government, which crochetty Lord Durham
had made•—as became him—so silly a fuss about, had
been worked out in their integrity, under no one could
they- have been safer worked out than under Lord Met-
calfe. The " ribbons" would have been safe in his hands.
Unquestionably his success throughout life was mainly
due to his conciliatory qualities. Even those who op-
posed, respected and liked him. Against him the shafts
of malice were not barbed. He had hardly one personal
enemy. Possessed of great wealth, he used it nobly.
Poverty found him a ready sympathiser. His purse
was never closed against the claims of indigence.
Sprung from the people, he has left behind him a
name men will not willingly let die; And through many a
country and in many an uncouth tongue will long be heard
the merited and honestly purchased praises of Charles
Lord Metcalfe !
His Lordship was the second son of Thomas Theophi-
Ins Metcalfe, Esq., of Fern Hill, a Director of the East
India Company, who was created a bafonet in 1802.
Sir Thomas married in 1782, Susannah Sophia Selina,
daughter of John Debonnaire, Esq., and widow of Major
Smith. He died in 1813, leaving issue four sons and two
daughters, the second son being the subject of the pre-
sent memoir.

---
The deceased Lord was called to the Peerage in 1845

(while Captain-General and Governor-in-Chief of all
her Majesty's North American provinces) by the title
of Baron Metcalfe, of Fern Hill, in the county of Berks.
—Post.

NARROW ESCAPE FROM COLLISION ON THE MID
LAND RAILWAY.—The lives of passengers on this line
of railway are being placed in extreme jeopardy, from
the possibility of a collision between two trains that pass
on the same line every day, in opposite directions, and
within so short a space of time of each other, that the
slightest variation from delay arising from any cause is
certain to produce a most frightful accident. The trains
alluded to are the sh. P.M. train from Nottingham to
Derby, and the express train, sh. sm. P.M. from Derby
to London. The departure line from Derby till the sh.
sm. train arrives at the turn to the, unction at Red Hill,
is the same line as the sh. P.M. train from Nottingham
to Derby passes upon, after reaching the turn nearest
Derby to the junction. On Tuesday last the trains left
the stations as usual, and, on' the Nottingham train
getting to the turn, the express train had only passed off
the line a few minutes before, nay, it was thought a
minute had scarcely elapsed, as the two trains were so
near each other ; had the express train been two minutes
later, or the Nottingham train the same time earlier, a col-
lision must unavoidably have occurred. The passengers
in the Nottingluns and Derby train, seeing, the narrow
escape they had just had, expressed themselves very
strongly, and avowed they would not travel by the sh.
r.m. train again, till an alteration was made in the time
either of that or of the express train, starting from the
station, as they feel quite convinced a fearful disaster
will inevitably take place. The directors ought imme-
diately to pay attention to this subject.
On Wednesday the Rev. W. Harrison, one of the
canons of Winchester Cathedral, expired at his house
in the Close, without any apparent previous illness. The
Rev. Gentleman who was in his seventy-eighth year,
went to bed in his usual health, and finding himself ill
the next morning, got out of bed, and dropped dead a
few moments after leaving it. Besides his canonry, he
had, we believe, the livings of Fareham and Overton.
The death of the Rev. W. Harrison does not occasion a
vacancy in the Church preferment appertaining to the
cathedral, as, under the provisions of the Church Tem-
poralities Bill, the canonry held by him will he abolished.
—Hants Independent.
Prince Frederick of Baden arrived on the 3d inst.
at Strasburg, on a visit to the Prince of Montpensier. A
grand review was held in honour of his arrival. Prince
Frederick conferred the Order of Fidelity of Baden on
the Duke de Montpen.sier, who presented to hiin in the
name of the King of the French the grand cordon of the
Legion of Honour. In the evening a brilliant ball was
, given, by the inhtlbitslita in honour of the Prince.