Page:Dictionary of National Biography. Sup. Vol I (1901).djvu/175

This page has been validated.
Balfour
113
Balfour

tween Baldwin and the reformers. Withdrawing from public life at the early age of forty-seven, Baldwin steadily resisted all persuasions to return. In 1854 he was made companion of the Bath. On 9 Dec. 1858 he died, as he had lived, a devoted churchman.

On the motion of (Sir) Francis Hincks a marble bust of him was placed in the assembly chamber; his portrait in oil hangs in Osgoode Hall, Toronto.

On 31 May 1827 Baldwin married his cousin, Augusta Elizabeth Sullivan, sister of Mr. Justice Sullivan; she died on 11 Jan. 1836.

[Taylor's Portr. of Brit. Amer. iii. 65–89; Dent's Can. Portr. Gall. i. 17–49; Dent's Last Forty Years, vol. i.; Gerin-Lajoie's Dix Ans au Can. 1840–50; Turcotte's Can. sous l'Union, pts. i. ii.; Morgan's Legal Directory, p. 35; Head's Narrative, pp. 50, 316, 361; Head's Lord Glenelg's Despatches, pp. 51–65; Ann. Reg. 1836, Pub. Doc. 288–300; Houston's Constit. Docs. pp. 292–304; J. E. Coté's Pol. Appmts. pp. 27, 36; Lord Durham's Report, January 1839; Buller's Reponsible Govt. (pamph.). 1840; Lindsey's Life of W. L. Mackenzie, ii. 64 and App.; Scrope's Life of Ld. Sydenham, pp. 229 et seq.; Kaye's Life of Ld. Metcalfe, ii. 343 et seq.; Kaye's Select. from papers of Lord Metcalfe, pp. 412–21; Wakefield's View of Sir C. Metcalfe's Govt. p. 17; Hincks's Reminiscences, pp. 15, 188–200; Hincks's Hist. of Can. 1840–50, p. 18; Grey's Colonial Policy, i. 206 et seq.; Report on Grievances, Upper Canada, 1835, p. 30; Ninety-two Resolutions, Lower Canada, 1834; Todd's Parlt. Govt. in the Brit. Col. p. 76; Hansard's Canada Debate (1837), 3rd ser. vols. xxxvi. xxxvii.; Colonial Policy (1850), 3rd ser. vol. cviii.; Pope's Mem. of Sir J. A. Macdonald, i. 85; David's L'Union des deux Canadas, ch. i.–vii.; Read's Rebellion of 1837, pp. 222–32; Hopkins's Canada: an Encyclopædia, 1898, iii. 28–31, 107–8; Ryerson's Story of my Life, pp. 318–41.]

T. B. B.

BALFOUR, EDWARD GREEN (1813–1889), surgeon-general and writer on India, the second son of Captain George Balfour and his wife, a sister of Joseph Hume, M.P., was born at Montrose in Forfarshire on 6 Sept. 1813. He received his early education at the Montrose academy, proceeded to Edinburgh University, and after studying surgery became, in 1833, a licentiate of the Royal College of Surgeons of that city. In 1834 he went to India and entered the medical department of the Indian army, and on 2 June 1836 he obtained a commission of assistant-surgeon. As executive officer he had, during various periods until 1862, medical charge of European and native artillery, and of native cavalry and infantry of both the Madras and Bombay armies, and was staff-surgeon at Ahmadnagar in the Deccan and at Bellary in the ceded districts. In 1850 he was acting government agent at Chepauk and paymaster of the Carnatic stipends. On 31 Dec. 1852 he attained the rank of full surgeon.

In 1845 Balfour published 'Statistical Data for forming Troops and maintaining them in Health in different Climates and Localities' (Madras?), and 'Observations on the Means of preserving the Health of Troops by selecting Healthy Localities for their Cantonments' (London), which brought him into some prominence as an authority on public health. In 1849 he received the thanks of the Madras government for his report 'On the Influence exercised by Trees on the Climate of a Country' (Madras Journal of Literature and Science, 1849; reprinted 1849 at Madras with similar reports). In the same year a treatise by him on 'Statistics of Cholera' was published at Madras. In 1850 he issued 'Remarks on the Causes for which Native Soldiers of the Madras Army were discharged the Service in the five Years from 1842-3 to 1846-7.'

During the early years of his service Balfour devoted much attention to the study of oriental languages, and became an expert scholar in Hindustani and Persian. In 1850 he published at Madras, under the title of 'Gul-Dastah, or the Bunch of Roses,' a lithographed series of extracts from Persian and Hindustani poets, and founded the Mohammedan Public Library at Madras, an institution containing books in English and oriental languages, open to all classes and creeds. This service to literature was, on his departure from India, gratefully acknowledged in an address in Persian which was presented to him at Madras by leading Mohammedans. From 1854 to 1861 he was often employed as Persian and Hindustani translator to the government.

In 1850 an offer made by Balfour to the government to form a museum in Madras was accepted, and the Government Central Museum was established with Balfour as its superintendent, an office which he undertook without remuneration, and filled till 1859. While holding this appointment he issued, besides several catalogues and general reports on the work of the museum, a number of publications relating to special branches of scientific study. These included a classified list of the Mollusca (Madras, 1855, fol.), a 'Report on the Iron Ores; the Manufacture of Iron and Steel; and the Coals of the Madras Presidency' (Madras, 1855, 8vo), and 'Remarks on the Gutta Percha of Southern India' (Madras, 1855,