Always a Liberal in politics and wide in his sympathies, he during his tenure of office gave offence to the directors of the company by his action in removing the restrictions on the liberty of the press, and this led ultimately to his resignation from the company’s service. After a period of rest in England from official labours, he was in 1839 made governor of Jamaica, two former governors of which colony—Sir Alured Clarke and Sir George Nugent—he had incidentally met in India. He was made a privy councillor “as a mark of consideration for his past services and a tribute to the importance of the office he was about to assume.” The sending of an East Indian official as governor to the West Indies was then an unusual occurrence, but the undoubted success achieved by Metcalfe led to greater frequency in the custom. Somewhat tired of administrative work, a lover of a quiet life and with some parliamentary ambition, he only accepted the office because he knew that the affairs of the colony were in disorder, and he looked upon it as a duty to his country to be at the call of the Colonial Office. The few years that had elapsed since Emancipation had not proved sufficient in Jamaica to efface differences of opinion and produce harmony where conflicting interests were rife. The apprenticeship system had broken down the year before, and total abolition had come into effect. Trouble had arisen between the Assembly and the Home Government. The Assembly considered the passing of the West India Prisons bill an aggression on their rights, and declined to perform any legislative functions not absolutely necessary, until those rights were restored. The British Government retorted by threatening to suspend the constitution of Jamaica, and a measure was ultimately passed which increased the powers possessed by the governor. Metcalfe was selected as a possibly popular governor to tide over a critical period of great anxiety. On his arrival he saw that the existence of the stipendiary magistrates, which body had been formed with a view to counteracting the alleged lack of justice on the part of the local magistracy composed chiefly of the planters and their attorneys, was a means of keeping alive the ill-will between the planters and the emancipated slaves and their well-wishers; and he therefore decided to let the scheme gradually die out, by abstaining from filling up vacancies as they arose. In his work of conciliation Metcalfe did not hesitate to controvert the opinions of the Secretary of State for the Colonies, and to point out to him the error of his views in certain cases. He achieved the at that time difficult task of gaining the esteem alike of the white and the black population, and he did much to remove the mutual mistrust existing between them. The only sect in sympathy with whom he found it difficult to work was the Baptist community, who wished him to be hostile to the planters and were displeased by his absolute impartiality.