Major-General Sir Thomas Munro, Governor of Madras

famines, on the press, and, in fact, on most of the important questions which then, as now, engaged the attention and taxed the powers of the rulers of India. The compilation includes a valuable series of Minutes on the first war with Burma, the successful prosecution of which was mainly due to Munro's active and cordial co-operation, as Governor of Madras, with the Governor-General, Lord Amherst.

For the benefit of those who may not have an opportunity of studying Mr. Gleig's work, I have thought it advisable to prefix to the Minutes an introductory Memoir, embodying in a compendious form a narrative of Munro's military and administrative career, and of the principal events in the history of British India, between 1780 and 1827, with which it was connected. In this Memoir I have drawn largely upon the private letters, published by Mr. Gleig, and forming on some points a most valuable supplement to the official Minutes. Indeed, on the great political and military questions with which, in the time of Lord Cornwallis, Lord Wellesley, and Lord Hastings, the Government of India had to deal, the Minutes, without the aid of the private letters, would furnish a very inadequate account of Munro's opinions, or of the extent to which he influenced the views of his official superiors; for up to 1820, when he became Governor of Madras, his situation

The references made in the footnotes of the Memoir to Gleig's Life of Munro are to the second edition of

that work, in two volumes, published by Colburn and Bentley in 1831.

was a comparatively subordinate one, and it was only by means of private correspondence that he was in a position to urge his views on matters beyond the scope of his official duties. Under this category must be included everything that he wrote on the policy to be pursued towards Tippoo and the Mahrattas, on the question of subsidiary forces, and generally on the political prospects and requirements of British rule in India up to the date of its consolidation by the war with the Mahrattas in 1817 and 1818.

The Memoir also contains some explanatory observations on questions connected with the revenue and judicial administration which are discussed in the Minutes, and which, involving as they do allusions to facts and circumstances unfamiliar to those who have not gone through an Indian training, appear to require some explanation.

One word as to the spelling of the native names. The plan which I have generally followed has been to adopt the system of spelling which was introduced by Sir William Jones, and which is generally observed by continental writers on India, except in the case of names such as Madras, Bombay, Hyderabad, Trichinopoly, Hyder, Tippoo, etc., etc., which by long usage have become stereotyped according to the mode of spelling adopted by the English at an early period of British Indian history. This is the plan which has lately been sanctioned by the Government of India for

official use, and it is upon this plan that the spelling of native names is regulated in the district and provincial Gazetteers now in course of preparation. But in one or two cases, owing to the fact that a portion of the Minutes was printed before the question of the transliteration of native names had been finally settled by the Government of India, there has been a deviation from the plan now laid down. For instance, the principal town in one of the districts commonly known as the Ceded Districts, has been spelt Ballári, whereas Bellary, the spelling long recognized by established usage, is that which has been prescribed by the Government of India. Here, however, I may mention that Ballári was the spelling invariably adopted by Munro. Another deviation from the established plan occurs in the printing of the native names mentioned in the letters of the late Duke of Wellington, which are given as footnotes to the Memoir on pages lxviii.-lxx. It appeared to me that it would be more interesting to most readers if these letters were printed without any sort of alteration, especially as two of them do not appear to have been published on any previous occasion. The originals are in the manuscript library of the British Museum, and were brought to my notice by Mr. R. Garnett, the present Superintendent of the Reading Room. My acknowledgments are due to Mr. Garnett for his kind assistance in this and in other matters, and also

to several of the officials at the India Office, including Mr. Pedder, the Revenue Secretary, Mr. Charles Prinsep, Mr. Peters (now retired), Dr. Rost, the Librarian, and Mr. Waterfield, the Assistant Librarian, who have aided me in my researches in the Record Room and Library of that office. Nor must I omit to mention that in connection with some of the notes appended to the Minutes I have received valuable aid from my old friend and former colleague in the Legislative Council at Madras, the Honourable Vembákam Rámiengár, one of the ablest native officials in India, whose honourable and useful career may justly be cited as one of the many instances which the history of British Indian administration has supplied of the soundness of Munro's view, that we should not be 'satisfied with merely securing our power and pro'tecting the inhabitants of India; but that we should ' endeavour to raise their character and to render 'them worthy of filling higher situations in the man'agement of their country, and of devising plans for 'its improvement.'

A. J. ARBUTHNOT.