ASIATIC JOURNAL

MONTHLY REGISTER

British India and its Dependencies :

CONTAINING

VOL. XXIII.

JANUARY TO JUNE, 1827.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR PARBURY, ALLEN, & CO.
BOOKSELLERS TO THE HONOURABLE EAST-INDIA COMPANY,

LEADENHALL STREET.

LONDON:

PRINTED BY J. L. COX, GREAT QUEEN STREET,

LINCOLN'S-INN FIELDS.

PREFACE

TO THE

TWENTY-THIRD VOLUME

OF

THE ASIATIC JOURNAL.

THE Commencement of a new year and a new volume affords a convenient opportunity for addressing a few prefatory observations to the readers of the Asiatic Journal.

Eleven years have now elapsed since the first appearance of this work, which, during the greater part of the eventful period, has been the only general popular record of political transactions in British India, of occurrences at home and abroad, connected with that interesting country, as well as of the progress of the various discoveries made respecting the geography, the history, the statistics, the moral and physical circumstances, of the extensive territories comprehended within, or in the vicinity of, the vast empire of Great Britain in the East. It has been, moreover, an essential part of its plan to arrest, as it were, the evanescent hues of opinion upon passing events, by condensing the contents of the various newspapers published in India.

This consideration alone imparts a value to the Asiatic Journal, thus constituted a receptacle of abundant materials for history: a value increasing, not diminishing, by the lapse of time. Its original contributions to science and literature are likewise already appreciated by writers of the present day, foreign as well as English, who have avowed their obligations to this Journal for much valuable information.

Possessed of such claims to public regard, the Asiatic Journal, by recent salutary changes in its constitution, has, in the opinion of competent judges, established new pretensions to patronage: these the

Asiatic Journ. Vol. XXIII. No. 133.

B

editor

editor and proprietors are sedulously endeavouring to corroborate, by adopting every practicable suggestion for improving the work, in each department; and they have, very lately, made a further addition to its dimensions.

Grateful for the support which the Journal experiences, they are unwilling to advert to the expense incurred in order to gain and secure that support as some subscribers, however, may not be aware of the extraordinary expenditure required for this work, they may be excused for stating, that the original cost and the postage of newspapers from every part of the East (files of each Indian paper being imported, for the purpose of obtaining the very earliest intelligence), the charge for rapid printing and cancellations (an inconvenience peculiar to such a work as this), and, lastly, the reporting and printing in full the Debates at the East-India House, constitute altogether a heavy tax superadded to the expenses incurred by monthly publications in general.

The editor takes occasion to assert that, in its political views and sentiments, the Asiatic Journal is entirely independent. It is, however, essentially a literary and scientific work; in this respect, its scope is as comprehensive as possible: history, geography, biography, literature in the largest sense of the term, every branch of philosophy, navigation, trade, and commerce,-all these subjects, and whatsoever is connected therewith, bearing any relation to the East, will find admission into the Asiatic Journal; and the editor will feel obliged by any communications upon those topics from contributors in Britain, the European continent, or India.