sent publication. To have specified all, would have swelled the annotations to a disproportionate and inconvenient bulk. A local knowledge of India on the part of its historian, would have obviated the necessity of most of these animadversions.

It

Acquaintance with the languages and literature of India would have preserved Mr. Mill from some other mistaken conclusions. He states it as his conviction, that even when he wrote, a sufficient stock of information had been collected in the languages of Europe to enable an inquirer to ascertain every important point in the history of India. As far as this assertion may be considered applicable to the European part of Indian history, it is inconsistent with the deficiences which he has himself indicated. is still more incorrect when applied to the history of the Hindus and the Mohammedans of Hindustan. Many very important accessions have been acquired in both these respects since the publication of the history of British India, but many more remain to be supplied, before it can be asserted with truth, that every important point in the history of India has been ascertained. In the Journals of the several Asiatic Societies, and the publications of various Hindu scholars, information almost entirely new, and of exceeding interest, has been obtained within the last few years, relating to the religion, philosophy, and ancient history of the Hindus, whilst their later fortunes have been richly illustrated by the history of the Marhattas, and the Annals of Rajasthan: until, however, some of the Puránas, and the chief portion of the Vedas, shall have been translated, it is not safe to speculate upon the scope and character of the

primitive institutions of the Hindus, and for more recent periods, it is still essential to extend investigation into those chronicles of the native states which are known to have existence. The whole of the Mohammedan history of India, when Mr. Mill wrote, was restricted to a single compilation, loosely if not incorrectly translated, and to a few fragmentary notices snatched from oblivion by the industrious curiosity of European orientalists. We have now a more trustworthy translation of Ferishta, and in the autobiography of Baber, and in other publications, much more copious and serviceable contributions to our knowledge of the transactions of the Mohammedans in India: but every epoch of their rule abounds with original authorities, many of which are of great merit, and the principal of these must be translated or consulted before we can venture to affirm that we have, in the languages of Europe, materials sufficient for the determination of every important point in the Mohammedan history of India.

From these remarks it will be apparent, that with regard to the facts of his history, the sources of his information were more scanty and less pure than the historian suspected. Exceptions even more comprehensive may be taken to his opinions. In many instances, the intensity of his prejudices has dimmed the clearness of his perception, and blunted the acuteness of his intelligence. However unconscious of deserving the imputation, he is liable to the censure which he has pronounced upon one class of candidates for popular approbation. He is a zealot for a party; he panegyrizes its leader; he places its principles in the fairest light; he labours to bring odium

upon the principles and practices of his opponents; he advocates, in a word, the theoretical views of Mr. Bentham, and tries all measures and all institutions by a scale constructed according to the notions of that writer upon law and government. As long as the opinions thus prompted, are put forth as abstract propositions, or affect conclusions irrelevant to the main subject of the composition, it has not been thought necessary to controvert them, but when they are employed as standards by which to try the conduct of the East India Company and of their servants, either in their commercial or political connexion with India, it has been occasionally attempted to demonstrate their unsoundness, their inapplicability, or their injustice.

Of the proofs which may be discovered in Mr. Mill's history of the operation of preconceived opinions, in confining a vigorous and active understanding to a partial and one-sided view of a great question, no instance is more remarkable than the unrelenting pertinacity with which he labours to establish the barbarism of the Hindus. Indignant at the exalted, and it may be granted, sometimes exaggerated descriptions of their advance in civilization, of their learning, their sciences, their talents, their virtues, which emanated from the amiable enthusiasm of Sir William Jones, Mr. Mill has entered the lists against him with equal enthusiasm, but a less commendable purpose, and has sought to reduce them as far below their proper level, as their encomiasts may have formerly elevated them above it. With very imperfect knowledge, with materials exceedingly defective, with an implicit faith in all testimony hostile

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to Hindu pretensions, he has elaborated a portrait of the Hindus which has no resemblance whatever to the original, and which almost outrages humanity. As he represents them, the Hindus are not only on with the least civilized nations of the Old and New World, but they are plunged almost without exception in the lowest depths of immorality and crime. Considered merely in a literary capacity, the description of the Hindus, in the History of British India, is open to censure for its obvious unfairness and injustice; but in the effects which it is likely to exercise upon the connexion between the people of England and the people of India, it is chargeable with more than literary demerit its tendency is evil; it is calculated to destroy all sympathy between the rulers and the ruled; to preoccupy the minds of those who issue annually from Great Britain, to monopolize the posts of honour and power in Hindustan, with an unfounded aversion towards those over whom they exercise that power, and from whom they enforce that honour; and to substitute for those generous and benevolent feelings, which the situation of the younger servants of the Company in India naturally suggests, sentiments of disdain, suspicion, and dislike, uncongenial to their age and character, and wholly incompatible with the full and faithful discharge of their obligations to Government and to the people. There is reason to fear that these consequences are not imaginary, and that a harsh and illiberal spirit has of late years prevailed in the conduct and councils of the rising service in India, which owes its origin to impressions imbibed in early life from the

History of Mr. Mill. It is understood, that had he lived to revise the work, he would probably have modified some of the most exceptionable passages in this part of it, and it has been an especial object of the present edition, to show that the unfavourable views which Mr. Mill exhibits of the civilization and character of the Hindus, are always extreme, and are not unfrequently erroneous and unjust.

It may be thought inconsistent with the unfavourable opinions thus avowed of the History of British India in such important particulars, to have engaged in preparing a new edition of it for the public; but, notwithstanding the imputations which have been urged to its disadvantage, the editor regards the history of Mr. Mill as the most valuable work upon the subject which has yet been published. It is a composition of great industry, of extensive information, of much accuracy on many points, of unrelaxing vigour on all; and even where the reader may not feel disposed to adopt the views it advocates, he will rarely fail to reap advantage from the contemplation of them, as they are advanced to illustrate the relations between India and Great Britain. The vast importance of that connexion is never lost sight of, and in describing the steps by which it was formed, or speculating on the means by which it may be perpetuated, a lofty tone of moral and political principle is maintained; which, even when we may think that the principles are unfairly applied, is entitled to our respect, which in a great number of instances commands unhesitating acquiescence, and which is well worthy of imitation by all to whom the interests of our Indian empire are matters, either