SIR JOHN PETER GRANT.
TF gratitude for public services were to be gauged by newspaper paragraphs, the English people would have to be pronounced the most ungrateful on the face of the earth, for again and again some man who has done for the State work of the very highest quality is allowed to pass away well nigh without a word of recognition. A notable instance has just occurred. A fortnight ago there died at Norwood, in his eighty-sixth year, a public servant whose record, not merely for the faithful discharge of his duties, but for success in the great and important tasks com- mitted to his care, was unassailable. The public servant to whom we allude was Sir John Peter Grant, who, as Member of Council during the Mutiny as re.. organiser of the North-West Provinces after the flood of rebellion had subsided, leaving the fabric of our rule a ruin ; as Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal ; and finally, as Governor of Jamaica, after the recall of Governor Eyre, did work for his countrymen deserving of the highest praise. We do not, of course, mean to infer that the absence of laudatory notices really shows any ingratitude or neglect. Those competent to form an opinion on Sir John Peter Grant's achievements, fully admit their importance ; and no man's memory can want a better monument than this. Still, it is not a little curious how often the governing men of the Empire are invisible to a public which is, in many ways, so quick to catch at great personalities, and, on the whole, judges so well in matters of character. Mountstuart Elphinstone—himself one of the greatest of undiscovered Englishmen—early recog- nised Sir John Peter Grant's power and ability, and said of him that he was a man who would certainly have been a great statesman had his career been Englit h rather than Indian. Unquestionably he was right, for Sir John Peter Grant had certain qualities of mind and character which, when they are once recognised as belonging to a public man, never fail to win him the confidence of his countrymen. Sir John Peter Grant had the gift of looking at all sides of the question before him without having his power of action sterilised. Looking at things from every point of view, did not leackwith him to uncertainty or in- decision, but to strong opinions and firm resolves. He combined, that is, the judicial attitude of mind with vigour and purpose. But all history shows that it is the men of this temper who command in the highest degree the respect of the Anglo-Saxon race, just as in France it is "the men of ideas" who win the national regard. Pym and Cromwell, Walpole and. Peel, Washington and Lincoln, all had this gift of "level-headedness," combined with vigour of will, and most of our other statesmen who have attained high rank have shared it in some degree. Hence, the possession of this quality by Sir John Peter Grant might have been expected to have won him a larger share of personal recognition. Possibly it would have won it, if he had not happened to live at a time when India -was producing a crowd of military and civil heroes ; and it is perhaps, therefore, fairest to say of him, as Emerson said so well of the unrecognised men in great movements, "for the press of knights not every brow can receive the laurel."
To prove that we are not exaggerating Sir John Peter Grant's claims to be regarded as one of the great English- men who have helped England beyond sea, it is only necessary to call to remembrance one circumstance in his career. When things are going well, it is easy enough for the general public to overlook their strong men. There is no special need for their services, and as they seldom have the gift of self-advertisement, nothing much is heard of them. The ruling statesmen in a, country like England, with a hundred possessions which may catch fire and burst into a blaze in an instant, have, how- ever, to keep in their minds a certain number of men on whom they can rely to go anywhere and do anything at a moment's notice,—men who, when called upon, will stand in the gap and face any odds or try any impossibilities. An emergency of this kind took place in 1866, when the revolt in Jamaica and the cruelties of the Governor and of the panic-stricken Whites threw the island into a condition of virtual anarchy. It was necessary to send out a man who could restore law, as well as order ; who would favour neither the Whites nor the Blacks ; and who could repair and rebuild the whole fabric of Government grown utterly rotten in two hundred years of planter-rule. The person the Cabinet pitched upon was Sir John Peter Grant, for the men at head-quarters knew that he was an ideal man for the post, and that if any one could "pull the Island round," it was he. And they proved right. Sir John Peter Grant, without stirring up any special antagonism, politically reconstructed Jamaica. Read the historical sketch in the official "Handbook of Jamaica," and under every heading dealing with the Administration, it will be found that what now exists was the work of .Sir John Peter Grant. He it was who introduced a regular revenue system into the island ; who established an adequate medical service and an efficient police force ; who regu- lated the introduction of Indian coolies, and set up a school system ; who instituted a survey of Government lands, and provided irrigation works ; and, finally, who, with the consent of all reasonable men, did away with the Church Establishment in Jamaica, and arranged for its future continuance "on the voluntary principle." But though the appointment of Sir John Peter Grant to Jamaica and his work there afford proof that we have not exag- gerated rated his ability, they are by no means his only or his most important claims to notice. He did good work in Jamaica, but what he had already done in India was of still greater moment. He was a Member of Council during Lord Dalhousie's Administration, and it is said that he took a not unimportant share in the policy which led to the annexation of Oudh. The fast, too, that as Member of Council he fully concurred in Lord Canning's attitude during the Mutiny, must not be forgotten, since it qualifies him to share the honour won by the Governor-General, who, if ever man showed moral courage, showed it in 1857. On the fall of Delhi, Sir John Peter Grant was sent to reorganise what had been the North-West Provinces, but what was then a country with all its social and political hedges and fences level to the ground. That he was the man chosen to bring order out of chaos, shows what the Supreme- Government thought of his capacity for governing. As Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, "John Peter "—to give him the name used by his Anglo-Indian contemporaries— was called upon to do several difficult things, and he managed to do them supremely well. The land question presented itself to him in its most aggravated form, for he had to settle the relations between the indigo-planters and the ryots. The net result of his legislative and administra- tive action was to prevent the planters imposing the culti- vation of indigo on the ryots against their will, and though this proved unpopular with the planters, his policy was finally approved at home. His tenure of the office of Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal completed Sir John Peter Grant's Indian service.
We cannot give a better general description of Sir - John Peter Grant as he appeared to his contemporaries- than by quoting the words of one who served_ under him in India,—words written some years ago, but which the writer declared were inadequate for a man who deserved "the record of the best pen that ever was dipped in ink :"—" He had a wonderful power of breaking up the most intricate questions, and then spreading them out in detail ; he argued with extraordinary perspicuity on all such points as deserved his notice. He never considered any labour lost which he spent in mastering what was before him. He never slurred over anything, and always- sought to do justice to the opinions of others, however- much they might be opposed to his own. Though naturally gifted with much power of expression, he bestowed the utmost pains on the choice of his words, so as to give his opinions the fullest clearness and force. He never dealt in commonplace phrases, and was not very tolerant of those who did so, generally remarking that if there was nothing to say, nothing should be said, though he himself generally found that there was something to be said which was both.
original and practical, on every report which came under his review. He was not naturally energetic, but when once he took up a subject, he threw himself into it with extra- ordinary vigour, and allowed nothing to interfere with it until it was completed and as perfect as only he could make it." What the writer we have quoted says as to Sir John Peter Grant's style deserves special notice. His despatches to the Colonial Office won the praise of Herman Merivale, himself a writer of clear and nervous English, and an excellent literary critic. The Permanent Secretary, accustomed to the slip-shod style- of the ordinary Colonial Governor, was astonished to have a correspondent whose English, as he said, "was as good as Addison's." Most of his admirable minutes and State papers unfortunately lie hidden under that mountain of documents which is for ever accumulating at Calcutta ; and that is, we fear, an oblivion absolutely complete. Should it be possible, however, to rescue any of these, they would form a fitting monument to the memory of the man who refounded one of the oldest of our Colonial possessions.
Previous page
