am to the Queen resigning
his office, with a request that his successor might be immediately
appointed.

'With this exception, public affairs seem to have faded from his mind. "I
must resign myself to doing no work. I have not sufficient control over my
thoughts. I have washed my hands of it all." But it was remarkable that, as
the end drew nearer, the keen sense of public duty once more flashed up
within him. It was on the 19th that he could not help expressing his wonder
what was meant by his long lingering; and once, half wandering, he
whispered, "If I did not die, I might get to Lahore, and carry out the
original programme." Later on in the day he sent for Mr. Thurlow, and
desired that a message should be sent, through Sir Charles Wood, expressive
of his love and devotion to the Queen, and of his determination to do his
work to the last possible moment. His voice, faint and inaudible at first,
gained strength with the earnestness of the words which came forth as if
direct from his heart, and which, as soon as pronounced, left him prostrate
with the exertion. He begged, at the same time, that his "best blessing"
might be sent to the Secretaries of the Indian Government, and also a
private message to Sir Charles Wood in England.

'These were his last public acts. A few words and looks of intense
affection for his wife and child were all that escaped him afterwards. One
more night of agonized restlessness, followed by an almost sudden close of
the long struggle, and a few moments of perfect calm, and his spirit was
released.

'His death was on the 20th of November, and on the 21st he was privately
buried, at his own request, on the spot selected beforehand.'

* * * * *

He was cut off, as those felt most keenly who were most capable of judging,
'just at the moment when his best qualities were about to show themselves;'
just when the information and experience which he had accumulated were
beginning to ripen into confidence in his knowledge of the country; and to
the historian his figure must remain as an unfinished _torso_ in the
gallery of our Indian rulers. But those who have read the foregoing pages,
more especially the fragments which they contain of his own words and
writings, will have derived from them some impression of the varied
ability, the steady conscientious industry, the genial temper, the
'combination of fertility of resource with simplicity of aim,' of firmness
with