CHARACTERS. 



759 



quitted his post, and tliat was in 

 1769, when he returned to Eng- 

 land on business of the highest 

 importance to the future security 

 and prosperity of tlie colonies in- 

 trusted to his care; and notwith- 

 standing the numberless difficulties 

 he had to surmount, in a govern- 

 ment so extensive and so compli- 

 cated, he had the satisfaction to 

 see that his administration was 

 duly appreciated, and gave very 

 general satisfaction. Some par- 

 tial complaints by a few disap- 

 pointed individuals, brought against 

 him while in London, but directed 

 in fact rather against the king's 

 council in Grenada than against 

 the governor himself, were found 

 to be utterly frivolous, and were 

 of course deservedly disregarded 

 by the king and council at home. 

 As to any charges of peculation, 

 the most common subject of com- 

 plaint against persons in his situa- 

 tion, nothing of that sort was ever 

 even insinuated against general 

 M. ; on the contrary, it was well 

 known at home, as well as abroad, 

 that with opportunities of amass- 

 ing wealth, in the sole settlement 

 and administration of so many 

 newly-acquired colonies, such as 

 had never fallen to the lot of any 

 foreign governor, general M. re- 

 Bisted the frequent and pressing 

 offers made to him by speculators, 

 to enter into their schemes of ac- 

 quisition, in which he might, with 

 perfect propriety, have embarked ; 

 and that practising an honest and 

 honourable abstinence, he retired 

 from his government much poorer 

 than many of the adventurers in 

 it, who had realized their acquisi- 

 tions, without any original pro- 

 perty, on mere speculation and 

 credit. 



It is but justice to add, that al- 

 though general M.'s salary from 

 home, as governor of so many 

 islands, hardly exceeded 1,000Z. per 

 annum, yet he not only refused to 

 accept of the offered and usual sa- 

 laries from each colony, but gave 

 up many official fees, where he con- 

 ceived such a step might tend to 

 the advantage of the new colonists. 

 The duties of a major-general, 

 throughout the several islands un- 

 der his command, he also punctu- 

 ally discharged, without any allow- 

 ance or charge whatever on the 

 public on that account. Even in 

 the small purchases of land he 

 chose to make, in some of the 

 islands under his command, gene- 

 ral M. was swayed much more by 

 considerations of public advantage 

 than of private emolument. For 

 Tobago, almost a desert, and Do- 

 minica situated between and with- 

 in view of the two great French 

 islands, Martinique and Guada- 

 loupe, presented so few attractions 

 to new colonists, that, unless the 

 governor, by selecting plantations 

 in them, had evinced his confidence 

 in their security as British posses- 

 sions few, or no adventurers would 

 have hazarded their property in 

 either of those unpromising colo- 

 nies. 



From the period when he re- 

 tired from his government, gene- 

 ral M. adhering to his favourite 

 maxim of taking nothing for doing 

 nothing, never solicited, nor even 

 wished, for any pension, salary, or 

 other emolument whatever, from 

 the public purse, although his emi- 

 nent services, and his ill health, 

 and total loss of sight, originally 

 contracted in the discharge of his 

 public duties, might well have en- 

 couraged him to proffer claims so 



com- 



