Sept. i, 1893.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
whether Governor, civil servant, planter, mer- 
chant, or native. There could be no tampering 
with conscience in his case, and especially where 
his religious convictions were concerned, was he 
immoveable, so that of him at his best in his 
fullest powers, it were surely apposite to quote 
the Laureate's lines on one of England's greatest 
and most honest sons : — 
O good gray head which all men knew, 
O voice from which their omens all men drew, 
O iron nerve to true occasion true, 
O fall'n at length that tower of strength 
Which stood four square to all the winds that blew ! 
"Such was he whom we deplore." And yet 
great injustice would be done to a man of 
whom the public too often only saw the stern 
fighting side, if Ave did not dwell on the other 
and softer phase of his chaiacter. One of the 
kindest and most generous hearts that ever 
beat when one came to know it — full of fun 
and humoiir. A poor speaker, so that he could 
only stammer out halting sentences when we 
came to Ceylon, in the sixties, after his visits to 
Europe he developed into by far the readiest and 
happiest public speaker in the colony. Indeed, he 
appeared far too seldom in this capacity. Had he 
gone to planters' and other meetings after his 
retirement from active editorial work, he would 
have become better known to, and more apprecia- 
ted by, the younger generation of colonists. He 
especially made his mark in "Victoria as a 
speaker, and at the various Exhibition banquets 
it was declared again and again tliat the 
Commissioner for little Ceylon was the most 
notable man amongst them wlien on his legs. 
He was more than once asked to go into the 
Legislative Council, notably by Sir Arthur 
Gordon, but it was to take an " acting " appoint- 
ment, and having contended on principle that 
there should be no acting appointments, he was 
far too consistent to accept an offer whicli, in 
reality, would have led on to the permanent 
seat a few months later. He prided himself in 
the early days on being the means of securing 
cheap newspaper postage for Ceylon, of freeing 
printing paper from Customs duty and of 
securing the simplification of our tariff at a time 
when it was more cumbersome even than at 
present. His good work in connection with the 
Carrier Pigeon Service of the Observer will not be 
forgotten : it extended over seven years ; but no 
one welcomed telegraphs, railways or other modern 
improvements more heartily than he did. How 
he urged Harbour Works and Railway Extension 
for years is well-know-n. In respect of improved 
social and general legislation he did much by 
his writings, supporting the abolition of Polyandry, 
o])posing the loose Muliammadan Marriages 
Kegistration Bill, criticizing in a long State 
Paper for Sir Arthur Gordon's benefit, the 
Buddhist Temporalities measure ; while the con- 
sistent stand he took in opposing the Faddj- 
H7 
rents aljolition while retaining the Customs rice 
tax, is fresh in everybody's memory. But all 
this and much more belong to the record of a 
life which if written in detail could not fail to 
offer much of instruction to his brother Colonists. 
We had fain hoped that Mr. Ferguson would 
have been enabled to take a voyage to England 
— as a farewell visit — and for the first time to 
see America (and Chicago) during 1893 ; but it 
was fated otherwise : — 
God's finger touched him, and he slept. 
And yet, of course, with all our regret and the 
weak human thoughts of "what might have 
been," no one can call this an untimely death, 
or speak of it as a life cut short in its useful- 
ness. Rather it was prolonged and rounded off 
and filled with good useful work far beyond the 
common, especially in the experience of tropical 
colonists of British blood. The subject of this 
notice had surely fought the fight, finished 
the course and kept the faith, and in his case 
the promise we know has been made sure. 
The name of A. M. Ferguson, c.m.g., cannot 
fail to occupy a prominent place in the annals 
of Ceylon for a longer period than that of any 
of his contemporaries. He watched over the 
rise of the planting enterprise, and he saw it 
reach its high-water mark in coffee, in cinchona, 
and shall we say in tea? He lived to see the 
population well-nigh double what it was when 
he first arrived — an undeniable testimony to good 
government and easy taxation whatever critics 
may say — he watched the multiplying of roads 
and bridges, the rapid extension of railways and 
the multiplied establishment of dispensaries and 
hospitals, and the great spread of education. 
He helped on in every good work, and was a 
main force in some causes ; but the world moves 
on ; and if much has been done, much remains 
to be done — and one lesson to all of us is not 
to regard the vanities, the honours or temporal 
rewards, but to keep on in the straight line of 
Avork and duty, remembering, — 
The world will turn when we are earth- 
As though we had not come or gone ; 
There was no lack before our birtb. 
When we are gone, there wiU be none. 
But of Mr. A. M. Ferguson's career as a 
planting pioneer in Uva in the early "forties," 
and thirty years later in Upper Dimbula, we 
must offer some further remarks before closing. 
He did some rough work in cutting oat ex- 
tensive blocks of forest land above Badulla, 
afterwards formed into the well-known Wey- 
welliena, Gowrakella and Cannavarella planta- 
tions. He lived in a Kandyan Chief's house 
while engaged in this duty, and he frequent! j' 
referred to his experience in after years. We 
quote what he himself wrote on the subject in the 
"Planting Gazetteer" of 1859: — 
This is a District of which the compiler of this work, 
ought to know Bomethiug, seeing that he was on* of Cbt 
