Sir Henry Barldy. 23 



SIR HENRY BARKLY, 1815-1898. 



SIR HENRY BARKLY, born 1815, was the son of Aeneas Barkly, of 

 Monteag-le, Ross-shire, a West India merchant, vho ruined by the Par- 

 liamentary legislation of 1888, left his family, on his death, in a finan- 

 cially embarrassed position. This led to young Barkly's going out to 

 Demerara, for the purpose of improving his property. On this occasion 

 he made a journey through British and Dutch Guiana, following the 

 track of Sir Robert Schomburgk, and laying in stores of useful informa- 

 tion on the resources of the colonies, which were the foundations of his 

 love of science and of his future career as a public servant. On his 

 return to England he, in 1845, entered Parliament as a Liberal Conser- 

 vative for the borough of Leominster, and as a supporter of Sir R. 

 Peel's Free Trade policy. 



The sugar question was then, as now, a burning one, and Mr. 

 Barkly at once made his mark in Parliament by his able speeches, dis- 

 playing his profound knowledge of the subject. This led to his 

 appointment by Earl Grey as Governor and Commander-in-Chief of 

 British Guiana. His success as administrator of the affairs of that 

 depressed colony secured his promotion, in 1853, to the Governorship 

 of Jamaica, and successively to those of Victoria in 1856, Mauritius 

 in 1863, and South Africa in 1871, to which was added the post of 

 High Commissioner for settling the affairs of the eastern frontier of the 

 latter colony. 



In none of these colonies was his task a light one. In Jamaica he 

 was confronted with grave financial problems, the successful solution 

 of which demanded all his experience of the West Indies, his tact and 

 his judgment. In Victoria, which was in the throes of its first trial of a 

 responsible Government, matters were approaching a dead-lock when by 

 his skill as an administrator and the charm of his manner, he reconciled 

 all conflicting interests, and in less than a year restored complete 

 harmony. The riots in the Ballarat Goldfields, then at the height of 

 their prosperity, he quelled, after a tour of inspection, by inducing the 

 legislature to substitute an export duty on gold for the monthly 

 licences to search. In Mauritius he found the railway question 

 beset with difficulties, which were no sooner adjusted than that out- 

 break of malarial fever, which for its virulence has become historic, 

 commenced its decimation of the inhabitants, upwards of 30,000 of 

 whom perished in Port Louis alone. The supply of quinine was ex- 

 hausted at once and the last ounce has been reported to have 

 fetched the perhaps fabulous, but credible, sum of 30. Steamers 



