the Afghan people, their early history, form of government, social and religious state, manners and customs, agricultural and commercial resources, and associated tribes,-it presents us with a description which will ever be referred to as the first and successful attempt to bring them to the notice of the curiosity and intelligence of Europe. No subsequent accounts which we have received of this people have the fulness and precision of Mr. Elphinstone's book, which will long remain a standard work on the matters of which it treats. It is an honourable monument of the research and ability of the more distinguished men of the Indian Service in the generation which has just passed away, and of which Mr. Elphinstone himself was the last, and, all things considered, the best representative.

Mr. Elphinstone's public engagements at Puná after this work had been given to the public were entirely adverse to continued authorship. His principal occupation there was that of watching, and, if it had been practicable, preventing, the development of the treacherous plans of the Péshwa and of other unfaithful members of the Maráthá confederation. He was not taken by surprise when the crisis occurred in 1817. He narrowly escaped from the snares laid for his own destruction; and, though he had but a small force at his disposal, under Colonel Burr, he compelled the Péshwa to retire, and to commence those unmeaning movements in the Dakhan which soon led to the exhaustion of his forces and his own overthrow. The guiding mind of this short but decisive and final Maráthá war, though the supreme authority was in the hands of Lord Hastings, was that of Elphinstone. On him, too, devolved the settlement of the Maráthá Country after the war; and this he effected with unexampled judgment, consideration, and ability. Higher practical duties than those which he discharged have never, all things considered, and especially the influence of the Maráthá nation on the whole of India, fallen to the lot of an eastern statesman. Let his "Report on the Territories conquered from the Péshwa," submitted to the Supreme Gevernment of British India in 1819, and printed at Calcutta in 1821, and reprinted in Bombay in 1838, be the witness in this case. In this very valuable state paper, we have a general view of the geography of the Maráthá Country, a brief sketch of Maráthá history, and an able review of its revenue system, and of its police and criminal and civil justice, with valuable hints for the improvement of every branch of the Government administration. The peculiarities of his own rule,-for such it was, were liberality to the influential classes of society, caution in dealing with all classes of the people, and quiet endeavours to promote the amelioration of their condition. He

had a more favourable opinion at first of the indigenous means of native improvement than he was afterwards led to form. While he says, "I do not perceive anything that we can do to improve the morals of the people, except by improving their education," he adds, "I am not sure that our establishing free schools would alter this state of things, and it night create a suspicion of some concealed design on our part. It would be more practicable, and more useful, to give a direction to the reading of those who do learn, of which the press affords so easily the means." These early opinions of the party who afterwards. became the founder of Government education in the Bombay Presidency, and whose name is associated with all our subsequent advancement, are worthy of being specially marked. The judgments of Mr. Elphinstone varied with his information and experience to the end of his life. He had no stereotyped prejudices.

The appointment of Mr. Elphinstone to the Government of Bombay in 1819, was a strong testimony to the confidence reposed in him by the East India Company and the Ministry of the day, particularly Mr. Canning. Amongst the parties proposed with himself for the office, were Munro and Malcolm; but in this illustrious trio he was worthy of the precedence. The excellent spirit in which he conducted the administration of the West of India will never be forgotten in this locality.

Mr. Elphinstone was elected President of this Asiatic Society on the 29th November 1819, shortly after he assumed the Government; and he continued exactly eight years in office. During this time he conferred upon the Society many personal and public favours. In December 1819 he sanctioned the use of the South-West Ravelin, with its buildings, for an Observatory under its direction. On the 28th March of the following year, he presented it with a most valuable collection of books, containing 179 works in literature, history, and science, and comprising 280 volumes. It was through his influence, too, that the Society came into the possession of a great many of the most valuable of its Sanskrit manuscripts, from the collections of Dr. John Taylor and of Major Miles, which were presented to it by the Court of Directors of the East India Company on his solicitation.

Mr. Elphinstone retired from the presidentship of the Society in November 1827, when he was about to leave India for Britain. On this occasion, an address recognizing the obligations to him of the Society was delivered by the then Secretary, Major Vans Kennedy, from which, as it has never, so far as is now known, been given to the public, a few passages, irrespective of some digressions which it contains, may be here introduced.

"It must be admitted that, from a singularly diffident and retiring disposition, which is so often the accompaniment and ornament of real ability, neither our labours have been animated by those discourses, nor our Transactions enriched with those memoirs, which Mr. Elphinstone was so competent to compose. For if not a profound classical scholar, he was sufficiently master of the Greek and Latin languages to enable him to appreciate and enjoy the matchless works of antiquity; and with the modern literature of his own country, France, and Italy, he was intimately acquainted. His active life, however, and public duties, restricted his knowledge of the numerous languages of Asia, to a conversancy with Persian,* and prevented him from prosecuting even in that language the study of Oriental learning by applying to its original sources. But his information on all subjects connected with it, and particularly with the civil and political history of Persia and India, was most extensive. That cause, perhaps, united to the correct and elegant taste which he had derived from nature, but which he had improved and sedulously cultivated by the perusal of the best ancient and modern authors, rendered him a rather too severe critic of Oriental composition. He denied not indeed that its occasional beauties deserved every praise, but he was inclined to think that these could not compensate for its numerous imperfections. This opinion, however, applied merely to the critical merits of Eastern literature; for he evinced, by many enlightened acts, his firm conviction that the Government of this country could not be conducted efficiently and prosperously for many years without adapting it, as far as the real interests of the people would admit, to their long-established and deeply-rooted habits and prejudices; and hence it was that, in order to acquire an accurate knowledge of their customs, usages, and laws, he encouraged with the utmost munificence the study of the native languages and literature.

"But from his estimation of the native character, which he must have received in its most unfavourable light during his official intercourse with the late Peishwa, whose conduct and that of his Ministers during the last six years of his Government were so marked with duplicity and disregard of every principle of honour and rectitude, Mr. Elphinstone was persuaded that mental and moral improvement were indispensable for securing the real prosperity of this country, and for enabling the people to understand and appreciate that impartiality, integrity, and justice which distinguished the British Government. Education, there* To this the Hindustání should have been added, for his knowledge of which he was commended by the Duke of Wellington.

fore, appeared to his enlightened view the most safe and efficient means for improving the native mind, and rendering the people eventually qualified for a participation in the government of their own country; and Mr. Elphinstone therefore encouraged with the most liberal support the establishment and exertions of the Native Education Society, which promise to be attended with much beneficial results.

"I am induced to touch upon this point [the desirableness of the study of the Indian languages] because the expectation thus expressed is now more likely to be accomplished in consequence of the zeal to acquire a knowledge of the native languages and literature which the enlightened measures and discriminating patronage of Mr. Elphinstone have from the commencement of his Government excited amongst the gentlemen of the Civil Service, the beneficial effects of which have been already displayed by the publication of several important works; and though the selection of these has been directed by the laudable desire of ameliorating the administration of justice, still it may be confidently anticipated that the zeal which has been awakened will not be confined to one subject, and that the difference of dispositions will naturally lead to a difference of pursuits.

"It is not, however, by his public measures or private exertions alone that Mr. Elphinstone has thus successfully contributed to the promotion of literature. For his invaluable account of the Embassy to Cabul will ever remain a memorial, and I hope not the only memorial, of his eminent literary qualifications; and from the public applause which it has so justly received, it must also afford a most inciting assurance that neither an active life nor official business does necessarily prevent the prosecution of intellectual persuits.

It was there

fore to that instructive intercourse; to that courtesy with which Mr. Elphinstone listened to those with whom he conversed; to that unassuming and engaging manner with which he communicated the copious and diversified stores of his own knowledge, and to the bright example of his literary excellence, that is principally to be ascribed the more general diffusion of a literary taste throughout this Presidency. For it was impossible to be admitted into the society of so highly talented an individual without admiring his commanding abilities, and being sensible that literature most eminently contributed to adorn his richly cultivated mind."

A still more graceful tribute was given about the same time to Mr. Elphinstone by Bishop Heber in his Journal, which, though it did not appear till after the death of its amiable author, excited much interest at the time it was published in England, and which is still possessed of

much interest to those who seek for general information, communicated in a pleasing form, respecting this great and interesting country.

"I had enjoyed," says the Bishop, "in the unremitting kindness, the splendid hospitality, and agreeable conversation of Mr. Elphinstone, the greatest pleasure of the kind which I have ever enjoyed either in India or Europe.

"Mr. Elphinstone is, in every respect, an extraordinary man, possessing great activity of body and mind, remarkable talent for and application to public business, a love of literature, and a degree of almost universal information, such as I have met with in no other person similarly situated, and manners and conversation of the most amiable and interesting character. While he has seen more of India and the adjoining countries than any man now living, and has been engaged in active political, and sometimes military, duties since the age of eighteen, he has found time not only to cultivate the languages of Hindustan and Persia, but to preserve and extend his acquaintance with the Greek and Latin classics, with the French and Italian, with all the elder and more distinguished English writers, and with the current and popular literature of the day, both in poetry, history, politics, and political economy. With these remarkable accomplishments, and notwithstanding a temperance amounting to rigid abstinence, he is fond of society, and it is a common subject of surprise with his friends at what hours of the day or night he finds time for the acquisition of knowledge. His policy, so far as India is concerned, appeared to me peculiarly wise and liberal, and he is evidently attached to and thinks well of the country and its inhabitants. His public measures, in their general tendency, evince a steady wish to improve their present condition. No Government in India pays so much attention to schools and public institutions for education [as his]. In none are the taxes lighter; and in the administration of justice to the natives in their own languages, in the establishment of punchaets, in the degree in which he employs the natives in official situations, and the countenance and familiarity which he extends to all the natives of rank who approach him, he seems to have reduced to practice almost all the reform which had struck me as most required in the system of government pursued in those provinces of our Eastern empire which I had previously visited. His popularity (though to such a feeling there may be individual exceptions) appears little less remarkable than his talents and acquirements; and I was struck by the remark I once heard, that 'all other public men had their enemies and their friends, their admirers and their aspersers, but that of Mr. Elphinstone everybody spoke highly!' Of