ABSTRACT

Metcalfe was twenty-one when he was appointed Assistant to the Resident at Delhi. It gives the measure of the spacious grandeur that had fallen to the British, that his first biographer speaks of this post with scorn, as inadequate to a man of Metcalfe's qualities and experience. In Delhi, Resident and Assistant pulled together tolerably, but not unanimously. To the Emperor, who was meant to be nothing but a pageant and puppet, he showed such an exaggerated respect that it raised 'ideas of imperial power and sway, which ought to be put to sleep for ever'. After his successful mission, Metcalfe was specially summoned to the Governor-General. He reached Calcutta, June 1809, to find Lord Minto preoccupied with the Madras officers' mutiny, and about to sail for the southern Presidency. Metcalfe was told to accompany him as temporary Deputy-Secretary, and obtained a pleasant and prolonged holiday.