Upon a retrospect of all that happened before and since his time, we may pronounce that in the civil administration, on a vast stage during a period of peace, he has never been surpassed in the annals of the East, and was one of the most successful Englishmen that have ever borne sway in India.
This definition of his merit and success is carefully limited. In order to arrive at an exact understanding of what he was in his surroundings and circumstances, we may at the outset indicate what he was not, and what he never became — or rather what he had neither the chance nor the opportunity of becoming.
For example, some rulers of India have been as great in time of war as of peace, or even greater, have encountered fearful emergencies, and have directed the national forces with skill and energy. Some, though brought up to the civil profession, have in time of warlike trial shown that they would have been fortunate had their lot been cast in the profession of arms. Some have been confronted with troubles of special intensity — rebellion, pestilence, famine — and their successes have been centred on particular events. Some have had to deal with wild tribes or with newly-conquered races, and to organize administration with the strong right arm. Some, with inborn genius, have originated measures which after their time were carried into full effect by others, and so bore abundant fruit; their historic claims being bound up with these measures. Some,
