In 1843–45 he was governor-general of Canada, a post of extreme difficulty at that time, and held by him with considerable tact and firmness while he himself was practically dying. He displayed much patience under the greatest provocation. He had there the support of that empire-builder Wakefield, who said of him that God had made him greater than the Colonial Office. In 1845 he was created Baron Metcalfe. In the securing of this honour the valuable services which he rendered in connection with Jamaica played an important part. In fact it may fairly be said that had the Whigs and not the Tories been in power when he left that island the peerage would have been conferred on him then. He never took his seat in the House of Lords, and the title died with him the following year, the baronetcy going to his younger brother. During the latter part of his life he had borne great suffering with heroic patience. He was short in stature and somewhat homely in appearance; but he had an intelligent countenance and an habitually sweet smile. He was of a most lovable disposition. Though intensely hospitable he really disliked society and preferred the companionship of a few friends, but he lived continually in harness either social or official. He was at all times of his life a poor horseman; he had tried in vain to learn in India, and travelling in the hilly parts of Jamaica must have been a painful task for him. He writes: “I have got some steady horses and ponies which suit me pretty well. Any but steady ones would soon tumble me over a precipice.” Of his country residence, Highgate, to which he retreated from Spanish Town whenever the calls of office permitted, he wrote, “If climate were everything I should prefer living on this spot to any other that I know in the world.” Liberal and generous by disposition, he yet succeeded in saving from his official salaries and the interest of his investments a sufficient fortune to have maintained with credit the peerage which had been bestowed upon him. On his quitting Jamaica the Assembly voted £3000 for the statue, which for many years looked down King street, Kingston, to which spot it had been removed from Spanish Town, where it was originally erected on the site of the present court house, opposite Rodney’s statue. It was originally intended to have a temple and colonnade like Rodney’s, but the funds did not prove sufficient and the scheme was abandoned. In 1898 the statue was removed to make way for a statue of Queen Victoria, when it was placed at the foot of King street, on the pedestal which had for some years supported Bacon’s statue of Rodney during its temporary absence from Spanish Town.