progeny, some of whom had before settled on the Red Seas, peopled the whole Arabian peninsula, pressing closely on the nations of Syria and Phoenicia: and that

Lastly, From all the three families many adventurers were detached, who settled in distant isles or deserts and mountainous regions: that, on the whole, some colonies might have migrated before the death of Noah, but that states and empires could scarcely have assumed a regular form till fifteen or sixteen hundred years before the Christian epoch; and that for the first thousand years of that period we have no history unmixed with fable, except that of the turbulent and variable, but eminently distinguished nation descended from Abraham."

The tenth Discourse unfolds the particular advan tages to be expected from the concurrent researches of the Society in Asia; and among the foremost, ac tually attained, is justly noticed the strong confirmation of the Mosaic accounts of the Christian world.

The eleventh, and last, delivered only about two months before his death, is on the Philosophy of the Asiatics, and in it's termination is expressed a hope (never, alas! to be realised) that at the beginning of the following year he should close these general disquisitions with topics measureless in extent.'

Beside these ingenious and elaborate Discourses, and the Dissertation on Indian Chronology quoted above, he drew up a dissertation specifically on the Literature, and another on the Musical Modes of the Hindus. He also, in an Essay on the Antiquity of the Indian Zodiac, maintained that their division of that astronomical circle was not borrowed from the Greek, or the Arabs; and wrote upon many other curious and interesting Oriental subjects.

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He now divided the whole of his time between the laborious duties of his office, and the extension of his oriental knowledge; which he pursued with a degree of application * highly injurious to his health, but at the same time with a speed of progress so wonderful, that nothing but the most decisive proofs could render it credible.

The uniformity, which marked the remaining period of his allotted existence, admits of little variety of delineation. The largest portion of each year was devoted to his professional duties and studies; and all the time, that could be saved from these important avocations, was dedicated to the cultivation of science and literature. Some periods were chequered by

*«Various are the causes, he observes (in a letter dated October 5, 1786) which oblige me to be an indifferent and slow correspondent: first, illness, whieh has confined me three months to my couch; next, the discharge of an important duty, which falls peculiarly heavy on the Indian Judges, who are forced to act as justices of the peace in a populous country, where the police is deplorably bad; then the difficult study of Hindu and Mahommedan laws in two copious languages, Sanscrit and Arabic, which studies are inseparably connected with my public duty, and may tend to establish by degrees among ten millions of our black subjects that security of descendable property, a want of which has prevented the people of Asia from improving their agriculture and improvable arts; lastly, I may add (though rather an amusement, than a duty) my pursuit of general literature, which I have here an opportunity of doing from the fountain-head, an opportunity which, if once lost, may never be recovered."

+ Sept. 27, 1787. "I can only write in the long vacation, which I generally spend in a delightful cottage, about as far from Calcutta as Oxford is from London, and close to an ancient university of Brahmins, with whom I now converse familiarly in Sanscrit. You would be astonished at the resemblance between that language and both Greek and Latin. Sanscrit and Arabic will enable me to do this country more essential service than the 2 D

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illness, the consequence of intense application; and others were embittered by the frequent, and severe, indisposition of the partner of his cares and object of his affections.

He at this time meditated an epic poem, on the subject which he had chosen in his twenty second year, the Discovery of England by Brutus. He now, also, arranged the scheme of a great national work, more within the compass of his immediate pursuits and qualifications, a complete Digest of Hindu and Mahommedan Laws' (after the model of Justinian's Pandects) to be compiled by the most learned of the native lawyers, and accompanied by a literal version into English. A Prospectus of this he laid before Lord Cornwallis; upon whose warm approval, he undertook the amazing labour of superintendence and translation.*

introduction of arts (even if I should be able to introduce them) by procuring an accurate Digest of Hindu and Mahommedan Laws, which the natives hold sacred, and by which both justice and policy require they should be governed."

* Oct. 15, 1790. "If the whole legislature of Britain were to offer me a different station from that which I now fill, I should most gratefully and respectfully decline it. The character of an ambitious Judge is, in my opinion, very dangerous to public justice; and if I were a sole legislator, it should be enacted that every Judge, as well as every Bishop, should remain for life in the place which he first accepted. This is not the language of a cynic, but of a man who loves his friends, his country, and mankind; who knows the short duration of human life, recollects that he has lived four and forty years, and has learned to be contented. My private life is similar to that, which you remember: seven hours a day, on an average, are occupied by my duties as a magistrate, and one hour by the new Indian Digest; for one hour in the evening, I read aloud to Lady Jones."

Without the aid of such a work he foresaw, previously to his departure from Europe, the benevolent intentions of Great Britain, in leaving to a certain extent their Eastern dependencies in possession of their own laws, could not be completely fulfilled: and his experience, after a short residence in India, confirmed what his sagacity had anticipated; that, without principles to refer to in a language familiar to the Judges of the Courts, adjudications among the natives must too often be subject to uncertain and erroneous exposition, or to wilful misrepresentation. "Perpetual references to native lawyers," as he himself observed, "must always be inconvenient and precarious, since the solidity of their answers must depend on their integrity as well as their learning; and at best, if they be neither influenced nor ignorant, the court will not in truth hear and determine the cause, but merely pronounce judgement on the report of other men." Most tenderly solicitous, indeed, he was to preserve from violation the peculiar laws and the inveterate prejudices of the millions entrusted to his protection, with a view of at once conciliating their affections, and promoting their industry and happiness; and, for this purpose, most anxiously did he scrutinise the forms of adjuration held obligatory by the consciences of Hindu witnesses. His saltem accumulem donis.

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My own health (he states, in 1788) by God's blessing, is firm, but my eyes are weak; and I am so intent upon seeing the Digest of Indian Laws completed, that I devote my leisure almost entirely to that object. The Natives are much pleased with the work but it is only a preliminary to the security,

which I hope to see established among our Asiatic subjects."

Lady Jones, finding her constitution no longer able to endure the climate of India, embarked for England in December 1793. In a letter, written before her departure, he says, "I will follow Lady Jones as soon as I can; possibly at the beginning of 1795, but probably not, till the season after that: for although I shall have more than enough to supply all the wants of a man, who would rather have been Cincinnatus with his plough than Lucullus with all his wealth, yet I wish to complete the System of Indian Laws while I remain in India, because I wish to perform whatever I promise with the least possible imperfection; and in so difficult a work doubts might arise, which the Pundits alone could remove."

In the beginning of 1794, he published a work, in which he had been long engaged, A Translation of the Ordinances of Menu, comprising the Indian system of Duties, Religious and Civil.'*

Of his religious opinions, the following testimony,

*To the study of the works of Menu, reputed by the Hindus to be the oldest and the holiest of legislators, he had been led by a view to the completing of his Digest; and he found them to comprise a system of religious and civil duties, and of law in all it's branches, so comprehensive and minutely exact, that it might be considered as the Institutes of Hindu Jurisprudence. During the same period, deeming no labour excessive or superfluous that tended in any respect to promote the welfare or the happiness of mankind, he gave to the public an English version of the Arabic text of the Sira jiyah, or Mahommedan Law of Inheritance, with a Commentary. He had already published in England, in 1782, a translation of a tract on the same subject by another Mahommedan lawyer, containing (as his own words express) a lively and elegant epitome of the Law of Inheritance, according to Zaid.'