Ir would be an injustice to themselves as well as getfulness of the numerous and highly respectable which has favoured the conductors of the Asiatic patronage, were they to omit the opportunity afford of another volume, of expressing their gratitude for lication has already obtained at this early stage o and the desire they feel for the extension of its influ After more than half a century had elapsed, sinc tain became ascendant in the East, a periodical to convey information respecting an Empire claimi princes and nations, and whose influence is felt thr any thing but premature and unrequired. If we consider the magnitude and importance o with India, the progress of affairs must certai cient importance to require a regular, auth communication to the public. If we consi these regions in whatever is interesting to sity, the mines of ancient knowledge, the fields o rieties of human circumstances and character obse pear less a desideratum that those who are int branches of Oriental knowledge should have th sort of literary intercourse which the pages of How 'very desirable, also, a commercial and domes 20 appear, if we consider of what vital influence upon national prosperity the India trade has always been regarded, a general conviction evinced by the perpetual struggles of individuals and communities to obtain a participation of it; and if we consider the closeness of the ties which, multiplying with the diffusion of commerce, and the extension of our establishments, turn the anxieties of an increasing number of British families to news from the East. Impressed with the conviction that a periodical intelligencer, calculated to meet such a state of the public mind, cannot fail of success, the projectors of the Asiatic Journal are actuated by a most earnest desire to promote its utility in every point of view, political, scientific, and domestic. THE ASIATIC JOURNAL FOR JANUARY 1817. A BRIEF MEMOIR OF THE LIFE OF THE LATE EARL OF BUCKINGHAMSHIRE. ROBERT, late Earl of Buckinghamshire, and President of the Board of Commissioners for the Affairs of India, was the son of George, Earl of Buckinghamshire, Baron Hobart of Blickling; he was born the 6th of May 1760. It is well known that his lordship was attached to the administration of Mr. Pitt, to whose line of politics he invariably adhered during the whole course of his life. His lord ship received the appointment of Governor of Madras in 1794, and at the same time was nominated successor as Governor General of India in the event of the removal of Sir John Shore. A detailed recapitulation of the successive acts of his lordship's government we do not think necessary; it would be equally improper, however, were we not to remind the public of some of those measures in the discharge of his exalted functions for the service of his country, which, perhaps, may be regarded as characteristic of his government. The Court of Directors having, in October 1797, superseded the above successional nomination, by the appointment of the Earl of Mornington to the supreme government, and of General Harris to the government of Madras, Lord Hobart conceived that these measures indicated the expediency of his re Asiatic Journ.-No. 13. turn to Europe, and accordingly resigned his charge in February 1798. We do not think that we can describe the character of his lordship's measures and usefulness, better than by a citation of his own words used on the occasion of his retiring from the Government*. "Having always met, and explicitly stated, the pecuniary embarrassments under which this government, from various and unavoidable causes, has laboured, I shall not be silent upon that subI can confidently assert, that ject at present: at the same time amongst those causes, neither a strict regard to economy, nor a minute attention to so essential an object, has been wanting on my part. External conquests cannot be made without extraordinary expense; and the increase of the military establishment, with an extended investment, will be found to have occasioned that pressure have had to contend. The records upon the Treasury against which I will bear testimony to the perseverance and diligence with which the revenues have been attended to. In some instances they have considerably, and, I trust, permanently, increased: in others, where there may have been a tem * Vide Parliamentary Papers. porary failure, the cause of it has been sufficiently manifest to shew that it has arisen from circumstances not within the power of this government to control. "The complete subjection to which the tributaries of the Company have been reduced may, I think, be adverted to as a prominent feature of my government; and some particular notice may perhaps be due to the proceedings respecting the Vizianagram Zemindary, "When I arrived at Madras, that Zemindary was in a state of serious commotion. Although Vizeram Rauze had fallen, the power of the Zemindar remained formidable; and it was not till after a severe struggle, and the surmounting of difficulties that rendered perseverance in our plan sometimes questionable, that a settlement was made, by which the inordinate and dangerous power of the Pushputy family was brought within reasonable bounds, the rights of the inferior Zemin dars (in which is included the restoration of the heir of the unfortunate Bhupali Raja) established, and the Company's authority rendered decidedly permanent throughout that extensive and vaJuable country. "The investment has been inereased to an unexampled extent; and although the heavy expenses of the war, and the existing scarcity of specie, have rendered it advisable to curtail it for the present, the Company may derive great future advantage from the knowledge they have acquired of the extent to which it may be carried. "Having every reason to believe that the regulations which have been established during my government, with a view to a complete system of check and control In the military department, will be steadily followed up, I am confident that their operation will be "If the very proud and advantageous situation in which the British Empire in India is now placed be attributable to the exertions of this government, I may be permitted to congratulate those with whom I have had the honour to act, upon a circumstance so creditable to our administration. "It would ill become me, when upon this subject, to be unmindful of those services and of that coment has so repeatedly had occaoperation, for which this governRainier, whose zeal for the public sion to be grateful to Admiral good has been as conspicuous as his integrity in avoiding all Durbar intrigue has been demonstrative of the disinterestedness of his character. "If the resistance I have made to the destructive system of lendusurious loans, and particularly to ing money to the natives upon the Nabob of the Carnatic and the Raja of Tanjore, has laid the foundation of abolishing a practice so injurious to the government and to the people, I shall never regret any personal enmity it may have provoked against me: it was an enmity I always foresaw, and which I should not have been so imprudent as to have h zarded, had I not been impelled to it by a deep sense of the magnitude of the evil, "I should wish to pass entirely unnoticed (if consistency would permit it) the differences that have taken place between the Supreme Government and me. I trust, however, it must be evident, that they were differences into which I was led by the necessary defence of my own measures. The princi |