The Sun.
London, England, 1860-06-05 00:00:00

MR. ARTHUR COTTON.

On Saturday last one of the most upright, able,
and disinterested men of whom India can boast,
embarked for England to recruit his health almost
completely broken by unremitting exertion. Arthur
Cotton, who without exaggeration may be called a
good and great man, has been compelled to quit, for
a time at least, a country which abounds in proofs
of his earnestness, activity, and genius. For forty
years he has laboured with a zeal and singleness of
purpose almost unprecedented, to bestow upon the
people of India the most substantial benefits.
While the timid have contented themselves with
carping at his projects, he has persevered in his
course through evil and good report, and while
others have been talking he has been doing what
will transmit his name to an admiring posterity.
He is still undecorated, and decorations, we trove,
are not much to his taste ; but does it become a
people who boast of their practical character to re-
serve all their honours for deeds of arms and con-
tent themselves with a half-hearted and post mortem
recognition of the merits of its Brunels, Stephen-
sons, and Cottons ? Unless the world is much de-
ceived in our great hydraulic engineer, it would be
more in accordance with his wish to pass through
the world doing what good he was able in the most
unostentatious manner possible, than to be encum-
bered with such distinctions as our great ones can
bestow ; but the country owes it to herself to mark
most unmistakeably her sense of the worth of such
men as he is. Men of genius, honesty, and zeal,
who throw themselves heart and soul into the
service of their country without a single thought
for their own personal aggrandisement, are by no
means so abundant that we can afford to lose the
advantages which would flow from some striking ex-
amples that the world's admiration tow-a-days is not
confined to those who are compelled by their call-
ing to bring suffering instead of happiness to their
fellow-creatures. All honour to the soldier who
fights and conquers in a righteous cause. War,
though an evil of huge proportions, is a necessary evil
nevertheless; but its triumphs, though more brilliant
and exciting, are often less valuable and always
more mixed with suffering than the noiseless but
important achievements of such men as Arthur
Cotton. Let distinctions and rewards be freely
given to those gallant men who imperil their lives
in defence of their country, but have we no dis-
tinction, no rewards, no admiration for the man
who is spared the necessity of crimsoning a country
with blood and whose skill and energy cover it with
verdure instead ? It does not speak much for the
wisdom or good feeling of our age that a man is
scarcely noticed if he have not something to recom-
mend him to public favour besides the highest mo-
ral excellence, the most inflexible uprightness, a
splendid genius, rare modesty, and unexampled
disinterestedness. All those merits, such as they
are, belong to Arthur Cotton, but he is plain
Arthur Cotton still, because he has only helped to
fill the pockets of the poor and the Treasury of the
empire without slaughtering his fellows, obtruding
himself upon the notice of the public, doing what
the world calls brilliant deeds, or making for him-
self a plethoric purse.-7 he lladras Daily Times
and ...Spectator, of April 16, 1860.