That Sir James himself could read the riddle is proved by the
concluding words of a passage marked by a force and tenderness of
feeling unusual even in him: "His earthward affections,--active
and all--enduring as they were, could yet thrive without the
support of human sympathy, because they were sustained by so
abiding a sense of the divine presence, and so absolute a
submission to the divine will, as raised him habitually to that
higher region where the reproach of man could not reach, and the
praise of man might not presume to follow him."]

Mr. Macaulay was admirably adapted for the arduous and uninviting
task of planting a negro colony. His very deficiencies stood him
in good stead; for, in presence of the elements with which he had
to deal, it was well for him that nature had denied him any sense
of the ridiculous. Unconscious of what was absurd around him, and
incapable of being flurried, frightened, or fatigued, he stood as
a centre of order and authority amidst the seething chaos of
inexperience and insubordination. The staff was miserably
insufficient, and every officer of the Company had to do duty for
three in a climate such that a man is fortunate if he can find
health for the work of one during a continuous twelvemonth. The
Governor had to be in the counting-house, the law-court, the
school, and even the chapel. He was his own secretary, his own
paymaster, his own envoy. He posted ledgers, he decided causes,
he conducted correspondence with the Directors at home, and
visited neighbouring potentates on diplomatic missions which made
up in danger what they lacked in dignity. In the absence of
properly qualified clergymen, with whom he would have been the
last to put himself in competition, he preached sermons and
performed marriages;--a function which must have given honest