WAITING FOR BETTER TIMES. 175 



Supreme Court would not interfere in a public 

 and official representation made to the Governor- 

 General and accepted by him. You could not 

 appeal to me.^ You might appeal to the Court 

 of Directors if you consider you have been unfairly 

 dealt with. In this country you cannot succeed, 

 and there is no use in your trying. To the Court 

 you can alone go ; but I do not say whether you 

 ought or not. I am sincerely glad to learn from 

 your extract what Major Taylor thinks of your 

 accounts. It is, indeed, a triumph for you, and 

 ought to go far in clearing you with your superiors. 

 You have passed through a severe ordeal, and I hope 

 better times are in store for you. I saw your 

 father's death in the papers, and can well believe 

 how much you feel his loss." 



The death from cholera of his father, the good 

 old Archdeacon of Stafford, had occurred some 

 weeks before at Riva, whither he had gone for 

 a month's rest and change of air. " The blow," he 

 wrote to his sister, " was overwhelming ; coming, 

 too, at a time of unprecedented suffering and trial, 

 it was hard to bear up against. What a year this 

 has been ! What asfes of trial and of sorrow seem 

 to have been crowded into a few short months ! 

 Our darling babe was taken from us on the day 

 my public misfortunes began, and death has robbed > 

 us of our father before their end. The brain- 

 pressure was almost too much for me, coming as 

 the tidings did at a time of peculiar distress. . . . 

 The whole, indeed, is so peculiarly sad that one's 

 heart seems chilled and dulled by the very horror 

 of the calamity." 



* Montgomery was then Judicial Commissioner for the Punjab. 



