Excerpt From Life Of Sir Stamford Raffles I

Excerpt From Life Of Sir Stamford Raffles - Clouds and Death

Raffles had never been physically a strong man, and the little strength he possessed had been so sapped by the sustained and indefatigable labours which he undertook in the course of his public duty, that it is not surprising to find that his health was bad, and a constant source of anxiety to his relatives after his final return in 1824. He had never complained at that time of the effect of that climate which proved fatal to his first wife, his children, and his best friends -- one after another; but, none the less, it told its tale on him. It was not merely in repeated attacks of illness that this was shown, but in the difficulty of writing. His hand became cramped, and he suffered from pains in the head. His active and comprehensive mind was full of great schemes, but he had not the physical strength to carry them out.

There is no doubt that Sir Stamford Raffles was a man of a delicate and sensitive mind, as well as of a precarious constitution.

The story of the last eighteen months of the life of Sir Stamford Raffles is a sad one; and there has seldom, if ever, been a case of a man, who had done so much for his country, passing away under such a cloud of varied misfortunes as befell him, without a contributory act of his own. His courage and eagle spirit would no doubt have enabled him to bear up under these trials, and to have triumphed, as he had done before, over all opponents; but successive attacks, premonitory of the malady that killed him, sapped his vigour, and exhausted, with each fresh effort, the remaining powers of his body.

The following extracts from his correspondence with Dr Raffles will show the reader how much he suffered during the last year of his life. On the 24th May 1825, he wrote: "Thank God I can return a tolerably satisfactory answer to your kind inquiry by saying, that though still rather weak and nervous, I am again getting about. My attack was sudden and unexpected, but fortunately was not apoplectic, as was at first feared. I was inanimate for about an hour, but on being bled, got better, and have had no return"; and again on 6th June, he wrote:"This last attack has so shaken my confidence and nerves, that I have hardly spirit at the present moment to enter upon public life, and prudence dictates the necessity of my keeping as quiet as I can until I completely re-establish my health." On the 10th Novemeber in the same year, he wrote:"I have been confined to my bed the whole of the day with one of my most violent headaches", and on the 7th February 1826 he said,"I have, upon the whole, very much improved in my general health than I have enjoyed since my return to England... I have, however, had, and still have, a good many annoyances and inquietudes, which have occasionally disturbed my peace of mind, owing to the misconduct and distresses of friends; but I hope these will soon be over."

The Gentleman's Magazine, for July 1826, gives the following particulars of Sir Stamford's death, which occurred early in the morning of the 5th of that month, the day before his forty-fifth birthday,"He had passed the preceding day in the bosom of his family, and excepting a bilious attack under which he had laboured for some days, there was ntohing in his appearance to create the least apprehension that the fatal hour was so near. Sir Stamford had retired to rest on the Tuesday evening (4th July) between ten and eleven o'clock, his usual hour when in the country. On the following morning at 5 0'clock, it being discovered that he had left his room before the time at which he generally rose, 6 0'clock, Lady Raffles immediately rose, and found him lying at the bottom of a flight of stairs in a state of complete insensibility. Medical aid was promptly procured, and every means resorted to, to restore animation, but the vital spark had fled. The body was opened, under the direction of Sir Everard Home, the same day, who pronounced his death to have been caused by an apoplectic attack, beyond the control of all human power. It was likewise apparent that the sufferings of the decesased must, for some time past, have been most intense." In the course of an appreciative notice the writer concludes as follows:" Considered as a whole, the character of the late Sir T. Stamford Raffles displays little, if anything, to censure, and much to applaud. His name will live in British History, not among warriors, but among the benefactors of mankind, as a philanthropist and statesman of the very first eminence."