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Life of Sir George Grey: Governor, High commissioner, and Premier. An Historical Biography.

Against the Evidence

Against the Evidence.

Not a tittle of evidence supports this chain of assumptions. The officer in command only laughed at the mock orders he received from the Governor and continued his voyage to Singapore, as he had been instructed to do. There Lord Elgin received a despatch from Lord Canning, the Governor-General of India, informing him of the outbreak of the Mutiny and the critical situation of Central India. Then he rose from the table, where he sat at dinner, and paced the balcony for two or three hours, evidently deliberating what steps he should take in this grave emergency. "To his eternal honour," according to Lord Malmesbury, he decided to sacrifice the means of accomplishing the mission that had been entrusted to him, and divert to India the troops that had just arrived at Singapore, as had been arranged. Is it not plain that the transports did not steam straight from Capetown to Calcutta, as Grey had ordered they should, and as he professes to believe they really did, but simply pursued the course to Singapore, whither they had been sent? Lord Elgin, and he alone, diverted them to Calcutta; and Sir George Grey had no more to do with the diversion than the Man in the Moon. The facts, clearly stated and irresistibly argued, were placed before him in a New Zealand journal in 1890, by an officer who had been on board the transports when they touched at Capetown, but nothing could eradicate the deep-seated delusion. By deputy (for he was too proud to enter personally into controversy with any colonist), and that deputy (if I do not mistake) Mr. Rees, he maintained in the same journal his old contentions, as he had done for thirty-three years to all who would listen to him, and thus furnished convincing proof that megalomania had permanently disturbed the balance of his mind.

page 120

One more piece of evidence is available. When Mr. Rees's narrative was published, Sir Henry Loch, who had been Secretary to Lord Elgin, wrote to the Times, giving his statements a specific denial and scouting the claims made by, and on behalf of, Sir George Grey. Nothing more conclusive is ever likely to be produced.