420 RACING CAREER OF SIR W. H. GREGORY. 



It has often been remarked that the best Colonial 

 Governors come from the Emerald Isle ; and of 

 those who have served her Majesty within my 

 recollection, none was ever more successful than Sir 

 William Gregory. A Crown Colony like Ceylon 

 gives many chances to its Governor, if he has tact, 

 capacity, and originality enough to seize and work 

 them aright. It would be easy to write a volume 

 on Sir William's five years in Ceylon. At this 

 moment I have before me printed materials from 

 which pages upon pages in approbation of his 

 energy, foresight, breadth of view, and sagacity 

 as an imperial administrator might be compiled. 

 Upon one point I wish for a moment to dwell. 

 No one who studies Sir William's policy in Ceylon 

 can doubt that his nice discrimination of character, 

 displayed both in England and in the East, was 

 due to his long, critical, and painful experience 

 upon the British Turf. Perhaps the most instruc- 

 tive book on Sir William's administration between 

 1872 and 1877, is Mr John Ferguson's 'Ceylon in 

 the Jubilee Year/ published in 1887. From it I 

 extract the following passages : 



" To Sir William Gregory belongs the distinction 

 of having spent more revenue on reproductive pub- 

 lic works than any other Governor of Ceylon. The 

 roads in the north and east of the island, which 

 were chiefly sand-tracks, were completed by him 

 in a permanent form, and nearly every river was 



