i6 MEMOm OF CAPTAIN LIGHT. 



duty well, as the local Chief, in saving the Government he 

 served from making what would have been a very serious 

 mistake. This was frankly admitted in paragraph 164 of 

 Lord Auckland's well-known minute of 1837. 



But this controversy belongs to a later chapter. The 

 Founder's work was done, and it did not "follow him." He 

 had been entirely successful in a kind of enterprise in which 

 disastrous failure has been so common. 



His "infant Port," once made a Presidency Government, lay 

 very snugly under the shelter, not only of Penang Hill but of 

 the ''Honourable Court" itself. What the Treaty of Holland 

 effected for the security of Singapore, the recognition given 

 in 1805 by this new Commission of Government effected for 

 Penang. Henceforth experiments could be tried without 

 risking the very life of the Settlement. Some of them suc- 

 ceeded — like that of receiving Indian convicts, and like the 

 "forward policy," which culminated in our occupying Java, 

 and afterwards Singapore. Some of them failed — like the 

 attempts to evacuate Malacca in 1808, and to federate with 

 Acheen in 1811-18. Most of the experiments encountered, 

 as usual, something both of failure and success. Among these 

 may count the rage for nutmeg-planting, in 1802-20, and the 

 Honourable Court's attempt to make Penang pay its way by 

 Customs duties and otherwise. 



No period of its history can better illustrate "the spirit of 

 " British rule even when imperfectly administered" than that 

 in which Captain LIGHT played his part alone. Those first 

 eight years form a truly successful record of what British 

 courage and perseverance, local experience amounting to 

 adroitness, and a large-minded sense of public duty can 

 achieve, even when almost unsupported. These qualities are 

 shewn by the public records. 



The inscription to his memory at St. George's Church by a 

 contemporary Penang resident — ROBERT ScOTT — adds to the 

 favourable impression made by the public records a warm 

 testimony to his worth: — 



