"حياة ومراسلات اللواء السير جون مالكوم، قائد فرسان وسام الطُهر، المبعوث السابق إلى بلاد فارس وحاكم بومباي؛ من رسائل ومذكرات غير منشورة. في مجلّدين. المجلد II." [‎١‎٣‎٩] (٦٥٤/١٥٦)

CONTEMPLATED EETURN TO INDIA.
139
tlie "off-reckoning fund," and go again to India or not,
at some future time, as suited his purpose. It was little
likely, however, that a man of his high character would
be very long in India without obtaining one of those
great diplomatic offices in which he had made his reputa
tion. He might, indeed, add greatly to the claims which
he had already established. He was in the full vigor of
his years. He was younger than are most men at forty-
six. He believed that he might yet render essential
service to his country. So, after much thought with
himself and much consultation with others, he deter
mined, for a third time, to repair to India.
It cost hi in much to make the resolution. He was
tenderly attached to his wife and children; but it was
necessary that he should go alone. It is one of the dire
penalties of the Indian services that separation, from all
that he most dearly loves, is to the married member of
either of them almost a condition of his existence. To
have taken those young children to the enervating and
destroying climate of the East would have been cruel;
to separate them from their mother little less cruel.
Malcolm felt as hundreds have felt in a like situation;
he determined to make the sacrifice, and go to India
alone.
He received many kind letters, when his determination
was made known—none kinder than the following,
which Sir James Mackintosh wrote to him. It is
curious in itself, for it shows that the writer would not
have been sorry to return to a country, in which people
seem to think that he was miserably out of place :
sir james mackintosh to sir john malcolm.
Weedou Lodge 3 Monday.
M y dear S ir J ohn ,—I learned very lately, with surprise as
well as concern, the singular event at the India House, which has