could not be
expected to be his accomplice or screener in the cynical waste of the
public funds. Here, then, is the personal rectitude of a ruler
operating as a safeguard to the people's interests; and we gladly
confess our entire agreement with [60] Mr. Froude on the subject of the
essential qualifications of a Crown Governor. Mr. Froude contends, and
we heartily coincide with him, that a ruler of high training and noble
purposes would, as the embodiment of the administrative authority, be
the very best provision for the government of Colonies constituted as
ours are. But he has also pointed out, and that in no equivocal terms,
that the above are far from having been indispensable qualifications
for the patronage of Downing Street. He has shown that the Colonial
Office is, more often than otherwise, swayed in the appointment of
Colonial Governors by considerations among which the special fitness of
the man appointed holds but a secondary place. On this point we have
much gratification in giving Mr. Froude's own words (p. 91):--"Among
the public servants of Great Britain there are persons always to be
found fit and willing for posts of honour and difficulty if a sincere
effort be made to find them. Alas! in times past we have sent persons
to rule our Baratarias to whom Sancho Panza was a sage--troublesome
members of Parliament, younger brothers of powerful families,
impecunious peers; favourites, [61] with backstairs influence, for whom
a provision was to be found; colonial clerks bred in the office who had
been obsequious and useful!" Now then, applying these facts to the
political history of Trinidad, with which we are more particularly
concerned at present, what do we find? We find that in the person of
Sir A. H. Gordon (1867-1870) that Colony at length chanced upon a ruler
both competent and eager to advance her interests, not only materially,
but in the nobler respects that give dignity to the existence of a
community. Of course, he was opposed--ably, strenuously, violently,
virulently--but the metal of which the man was composed was only fused
into greater firmness by being subjected to such fiery tests. On
leaving Trinidad, this eminent ruler left as legacies to the Colony he
had loved and worked for so heartily, laws that placed the persons and
belongings of the inhabitants beyond the reach of wanton aggression;
the means by which honest and laborious industry could, through
agriculture, benefit both it