rged with the development of a gigantic scheme of penal discipline,
founded on erroneous data, and imperfectly sustained by material
resources, he was involved in the discredit of its failure. The
opposition of the colony to his measures he too readily resented as
disrespectful to himself, and thus a long and useful public life was
closed in sadness.

Sir Eardley Wilmot received his appointment from Lord Stanley, whose
political leadership he followed in his secession from the whigs,
occasioned by the reduction of the Irish church. During successive
parliaments he represented Warwickshire, and for twenty years was
chairman of the quarter sessions of that county,--in England a post of
some consequence. He inclined rather to the liberal than the tory
section of the house, and supported most measures favorable to civil and
religious freedom. On the question of negro slavery he was a coadjutor
of the decided abolitionists, and on his motion apprenticeship, a milder
form of slavery, was finally terminated. He contributed papers on prison
discipline, and initiated a bill for the summary trial of juvenile
offenders. Thus he appeared not unqualified to preside in a colony where
penal institutions constituted the main business of government, and
where many religious opinions divide the population.

The gazette which announced his appointment contained the nomination of
Sir Charles Metcalf to the governorship of Canada, vacated by Sir George
Arthur. An article in the London _Times_ attacked Sir E. Wilmot with
uncommon acrimony, attributed by himself to the influence of private
spleen. He was described as a mere joking justice, accustomed in his
judicial office to "poke fun" at prisoners, destitute alike of talents
and dignity, and his character a contrast with that of the new Canadian
governor. This bitter diatribe was published in the colonies, and was
not forgotten in the strife of factions. Metcalf was indeed a governor
with whom the widest comparison would scarcely find an equal. Every
Capital he ruled is adorned with his statue, and when he descended to
the dust his tomb was wet with the tears of nations. He consulted the
ministers with the independence of a patriot, and governed the people as
one of themselves.

Wilmot landed at a distance from Hobart Town, and delayed his entrance
on office to afford time for a removal of Franklin's household. When he
was sworn in the town illuminated, and the usual excitement of novelty