them to stages which the inventors themselves would hardly have hoped to attain. Others, so to speak, may have rough-hewn the marble; but he applied to it the refinement of the sculptor's art, imparting grace, force, animation, dignity. He did all this, though some of his measures were by himself originated. He strove for, and actually won efficiency according to the highest standard, and upon a scale so ample as to be magnificent. His labours were fraught with untold blessings to the generation living under his rule, which benefits have been continued to their immediate successors, and will be felt by future generations.
Without any disparagement of the other careers to which allusion has been made, which are, indeed, most valuable and important, which strike the senses, attract the sympathies, or appeal to the imagination of mankind, it may be said that his career was supremely useful. There may be patriotic pride or national rejoicing on the acquisition of an empire; but in its train there follow duty and responsibility. It is easy to acknowledge the sacred obligation; but it is always hard, sometimes almost insuperably difficult, to fulfil the same. No man in India ever came nearer to this fulfilment than James Thomason; and very few have come so near as he. When provinces have been conquered or annexed, their pacification effected, the civilizing system of British rule introduced among them — all which demands capacity, courage, fortitude on the part of rulers — there
