The Sun.
London, England, 1857-04-27 00:00:00

DEATH OF MR. JOHN M`G.REGO.R.

We have to record the death of Mr. John
M'Gregor, at Boulogne, on Thursday, the 23d
inst. He bad bee.i for some months pest declining
in health—oppressed by pecuniary difficulties, and
painfully involved in the fall of the Royal British
Bank, of which he had been the original " go-
vernor." He had resigned that office three years
previous to its recent bankruptcy, but the late dis-
closures as to the mismanagement of the institution,
and his own considerable and unsecured debt to the
unfortunate shareholders, overwhelmed a shattered
body and a wounded spirit. A bilious fever and
paralytic affection, we believe, terminated his
physical and mental sufferings. Our respected Con-
sul, Mr. Hamilton, kindly afforded Mr. M'Gregor
every necessary domestic and medical attention,
and for the previous week his brother watched over
his deathbed.
Notwithstanding the later clouds on Mr.
M'Gregor's reputation, and his errors and foibles,
be was an intellipiat, amiable man, of no common
mind, of extraordinary powers of application, and
his active public life and his numerous pubiisbed
works justly entit'e him to notice in our columns.
Mr. Jphn M'Gregor was a Scetchman by birth,
parentage, and education. He was born at Stor-
noway, Ross-shire, in 1797. ,We believe that
at an early age, enjoying only au ordinary scLool
teaching, be was placed in a mercantile establish-
ment in the Canadls, where he continued several
years. During that period, and afterwards when
in business on his own account, be visited; and be-
came intimately acquainted with the colonies of
North America on the Atlantic and within the
Gulf of the St. Lawrence. He was afterwards in
business in Liverpool. His mercantile specula-
tions were there unfortunate, and, indeed, rarely
at any period of life successful. He first became
known as an author by the publication, in 1832, of
two octavo volumes, entitled " British America,"
published by Blackwood and Cadell. This work
reached a second and improved edition in the fol-
lowing year. It was not only at the period highly
interesting, but it abounded in facts and statistics,
and it displayed a large comprehension of our
future colonial interests. It may even now be con-
sulted with advantage.
On Mr. M Gl.regor's enforced retirement from

business, his object in life seems to have been some
employment in the public service. Accord ing!y,
during Lord Melbourne's Ministry we find him

engaielon commercial missions to Germany, Aus-
tria, Paris, and Naples. We need not particu-
larise his multifarious reports, or comment on their
indisputable merits or shortcomings. It wilL be
sufficient to state that his missions were generally-
well peiformed—that they advanced sound princi-
ples of political economy, and that on the whole
the product was worth the cost to the public Ex-
chequer. In 1835 he published "My Note Book,"
dedicated to his friend Sismondi. This work was
chiefly. a personal narrative of his tours on the con-
tinent. It was an amusing con'ribution to the
stock of our circulating libraries, interspeved with
some instructive no. ices of the social habits of our
continental neighbours. Curiously, a note in the
:ant volume details the ruin of the old bank of
Amsterdam, instituted in 1689 as a bank of deposit
—" broken by an inconvenient mode of transfer-
ring sums from the account of one individual to
another," and by the directors secretly lending and
"locking up" 10,000,000 florins to the ppivinces
of Holland and Friesland,, notwithstanding its
original constitution bound the directors to have
'illion in their coffers equal to the amount of its
liabilities. This old story might hive saved our
author from much misconduct of the Royal British
Bank. But theory and practice are diff,-rent
affairs.

These literary labours and occasional - public
commissions ultimately led to Mr. M`Gregor's
appointment to a permanent place in the Board
of Trade, and he became one of the:two joint
secretaries of that important public department
in January, 1840. Thus instilled. in Whitehall,
he lost no time in agitatinc, tor Free Trade.
We believe that, with the late' James Deacon
Hume and George Richardson Porter, he chiefly
induced Mr. Joseph Hume to force upon the
House , of Commons the appointment of the
celebrated Select ,Committee on the Import Duties
of the United Kingdom : the report of which, aft r
only 10 days' sitting, sealed the fate of our super-
annuated tariff. The " power to send for pPr,ons,
papers, and records " ransacked the Board of Ti ade
and let loose the tongues of the joint-secretaries.
Mr. M'Gregor was, of course, the first witness sum-
moned. His examination exclusively occui.ied the
entire first two days, and portions of tbe third and
fourth days. It has been the-fashion to say that he
"lied through his testimony." The imputation is
untrue. His dogmatic confidence of opinion, with
an occasional reckless statement, gains indeed a
colour to this accusation, but the only resource of
his opponents was unfairly to discredit his im-
portant evidence ; and, the Protectionists not pr
,-
ducing any counter-evidence, thisslander was their
only alternative. But any dispassionate reader
will now give credit to the general and valu able
evidence of Mr. M‘Gregor. Further, he was con-
firmed by the more reliable evidence of Deacon
HUMS and Porter, to say nothing of the corrobora-
tive testimony of some of our most eminent city
and provincial merchants and manufacturers.
The elation of Mr. ' M‘Gregor thenceforwards
knew' no bounds. He was exalted inhis own imagi-
nation to fie fifth heaven. Vanity was one of
,tbe
passions which poor John M‘Gregor, from an
unf)rtunate 'nature and habit, could not control;
and the abuse of it was, iu truth, his worldly ruin.
It made him often the laughing-stock even of his
intimate friends; and in later years he perambu-
lated the Clubs, unconscious of the general ridicule
of his vain gloriousness. This inordinate self-
valuation involved him in the firm persuasion that
from his secondary office in the Board of Trade he
should at (ince vault to a seat in Lord John Rus-
sell's new Cabinet. He intimated this certain con-
viction to alt his fri,,tidi and acquaint3nces. In
this dream ho r s'gned his office of 1,5001. per an-
num, and having pre arrangel his plans he became
a candidate for th 4 city of Glasgow in July, 1847,
op:',Dsi!ig the old Liberal members, Mr. Oswald and
Mr. John Dennistoun. Unfortunately for himself
he headed the poll. We 'iced not enlarge on the
utter failure t,f his absurd aspirations, or on the
bore and j,,sts of his o;:cas'onal exhibitions in the
House cf Commons.
He did not appear to discover his failure, much
less to feel its tium,liation ; nor, to do him jus-
tice, did he relax in his statistical and in-
tellectual pursuits. In 1847 he had produced
two hinge crown octavo volumes, historical and
stati-tical, on "The Progress of America from the
Discovery by Columbus to the Year 1846," com-
prising 3,000 pa':es. '1 his work was no sooner off
his anvil than h., published four large volumes of
similar size, entitled "Commercial Statistics.
These volumes, in bulk upwards of 4,000 pages, all
rapidly appeared tetween the years 1848 and 1850.
In 1852 he published two octavo volumes, entitled
"The History of the British Empire from the Ac-
nessiorr of Jamea I." Nor were these voluminous
works at alt the largest product of his active mind.
Earlier in life, in the Canadas, he had prepared
reports on North American emigration, on the New-
foundland fisheries, and on similar Transatlantic
subjec's ; and we have to add to his home produc
tions 22 "Reports cm Foreigo Tariffs and Trade,"
presented to Parliament by Royal command. To be
added to this summary of his labours are numerous
pamphlets on subjects of the day, and an extent of
private political and statistical correspondence at
home and abroad almost incredible.
On the subject of the Royal British Bank, whieh
he est ib ished, Mr. M'Gregor would take no coun-
sel, or if he promised to abide by any friendly
advice he was sure to relapse to his own opinion i,f
his entire self-sufficiency. The end is but too well
known.

Such is the melancbo!y history of a man of high
intellectual "tower:, energy, and industry, who
might have sccured for himself weAith, honour, and
old-age. We almost reluctantly thus portray his
full cuaracter, but such a narrative was due to so-
ciety, and Mr. M`Grogor was a public man. He had
not a single qualificstion fur the governorship of a
bank, as he confessed in the singular letter in which
be promised to make a future explanation of his
administration of its affairs. We bclieve that lie
was m,re a nominal than an active mana...-er in the
chair. No friend would attempt to excuse his
assumpti,n of duties which be c mid not or would
not d!schsrgs
; ncr can there be offered any ext enus-
t'" of 1111 approptiation of the assets represented
by hit own private debt—now a dead. la.s to the
fi aroholl.7-3. T:m4.3

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GOITER/OMT EMIcItATION TO. AIISTRALIA.—SOUTTI-
, cannot but .aspect the Government of this country AMPTuN, April 25.—TLS Talbot, of 347 tons, belonging
steadier fcr the last 30 years, anfl : t., frie:or,.. TeLopt.riey, is fitting in the docks to convey
would have been .
if minorities. had
jigs eseillatious It vio!ent, enjoyed i. Gover!imunt emigrants to Geelong, and is to be ready on
--. ititermittent and moue rnc:ogni:led influence. : the 14th of May. 11,e Emigration Commissioners have
+:viers will 01f.',71-0 Vat we are more upon eliartere.l the Washngton Irving to sail from Southamp-
..l 4.11;44 (.1,:,;;,2,-., 1.n.1 ad.-, therefore, Wo tun for ;Sydney on the 15th of June; rate-161. lie. 6d.

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