Baker, Whilst Large-Minded In Great Matters, Was Extremely Conventional In
Small Ones, And Yule Must Sometimes Have Tried His Feelings In This
Respect.
The particulars of one such tragic occurrence have survived.
Yule, who was colour-blind,[46] and in early life
Whimsically obstinate in
maintaining his own view of colours, had selected some cloth for trousers
undeterred by his tailor's timid remonstrance of "Not quite your usual
taste, sir." The result was that the Under-Secretary to Government
startled official Calcutta by appearing in brilliant claret-coloured
raiment. Baker remonstrated: "Claret-colour! Nonsense, my trousers are
silver grey," said Yule, and entirely declined to be convinced. "I think I
did convince him at last," said Baker with some pride, when long after
telling the story to the present writer. "And then he gave them up?"
"Oh, no," said Sir William ruefully, "he wore those claret-coloured
trousers to the very end." That episode probably belonged to the Dalhousie
period.
When Yule resumed work in the Secretariat at Calcutta at the close of the
Mutiny, the inevitable arrears of work were enormous. This may be the
proper place to notice more fully his action with respect to the choice of
gauge for Indian railways already adverted to in brief. As we have seen,
his own convictions led to the adoption of the metre gauge over a great
part of India. This policy had great disadvantages not at first foreseen,
and has since been greatly modified. In justice to Yule, however, it
should be remembered that the conditions and requirements of India have
largely altered, alike through the extraordinary growth of the Indian
export, especially the grain, trade, and the development of new
necessities for Imperial defence. These new features, however, did but
accentuate defects inherent in the system, but which only prolonged
practical experience made fully apparent.
At the outset the supporters of the narrow gauge seemed to have the
stronger position, as they were able to show that the cost was much less,
the rails employed being only about 2/3rds the weight of those required by
the broad gauge, and many other subsidiary expenses also proportionally
less. On the other hand, as time passed and practical experience was
gained, its opponents were able to make an even stronger case against the
narrow gauge. The initial expenses were undoubtedly less, but the
durability was also less. Thus much of the original saving was lost in the
greater cost of maintenance, whilst the small carrying capacity of the
rolling stock and loss of time and labour in shifting goods at every break
of gauge, were further serious causes of waste, which the internal
commercial development of India daily made more apparent. Strategic needs
also were clamant against the dangers of the narrow gauge in any general
scheme of Indian defence. Yule's connection with the Public Works
Department had long ceased ere the question of the gauges reached its most
acute stage, but his interest and indirect participation in the conflict
survived. In this matter a certain parental tenderness for a scheme which
he had helped to originate, combined with his warm friendship for some of
the principal supporters of the narrow gauge, seem to have influenced his
views more than he himself was aware. Certainly his judgment in this
matter was not impartial, although, as always in his case, it was
absolutely sincere and not consciously biased.
In reference to Yule's services in the period following the Mutiny, Lord
Canning's subsequent Minute of 1862 may here be fitly quoted. In this the
Governor-General writes: "I have long ago recorded my opinion of the value
of his services in 1858 and 1859, when with a crippled and overtaxed staff
of Engineer officers, many of them young and inexperienced, the G.-G. had
to provide rapidly for the accommodation of a vast English army, often in
districts hitherto little known, and in which the authority of the
Government was barely established, and always under circumstances of
difficulty and urgency. I desire to repeat that the Queen's army in India
was then greatly indebted to Lieut.-Colonel Yule's judgment, earnestness,
and ability; and this to an extent very imperfectly understood by many of
the officers who held commands in that army.
"Of the manner in which the more usual duties of his office have been
discharged it is unnecessary for me to speak. It is, I believe, known and
appreciated as well by the Home Government as by the Governor-General in
Council."
In the spring of 1859 Yule felt the urgent need of a rest, and took the,
at that time, most unusual step of coming home on three months' leave,
which as the voyage then occupied a month each way, left him only one
month at home. He was accompanied by his elder brother George, who had not
been out of India for thirty years. The visit home of the two brothers was
as bright and pleasant as it was brief, but does not call for further
notice.
In 1860, Yule's health having again suffered, he took short leave to Java.
His journal of this tour is very interesting, but space does not admit of
quotation here. He embodied some of the results of his observations in a
lecture he delivered on his return to Calcutta.
During these latter years of his service in India, Yule owed much
happiness to the appreciative friendship of Lord Canning and the ready
sympathy of Lady Canning. If he shared their tours in an official
capacity, the intercourse was much more than official. The noble character
of Lady Canning won from Yule such wholehearted chivalrous devotion as,
probably, he felt for no other friend save, perhaps in after days, Sir
Bartle Frere. And when her health failed, it was to Yule's special care
that Lord Canning entrusted his wife during a tour in the Hills. Lady
Canning was known to be very homesick, and one day as the party came in
sight of some ilexes (the evergreen oak), Yule sought to cheer her by
calling out pleasantly:
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