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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 March 2011
page xxix note 1 The building on Shooter's Hill, called Severn-droog, was erected by Commodore James, in honour of that event.
page xxix note 2 The collection of 118 charts, published by order of the East India Company, chiefly from surveys performed by the officers of the Indian Navy, show the value of the services executed by this able body of men.
page xxxi note 3 Lord Auckland has, recently, it ia understood, in consequence of the suggestions offered to him by the Committee before his departure from this country, taken the subject into his consideration, and appointed Mr. Taylor, who has lately published some of the papers relative to Madura collected by the late Colonel Mackenzie, to assist the Hindú Literary Society at Madras, in arranging such of the papers of the Mackenzie collection as are now at Madras.
page xxxi note 4 Sir Alexander Johnston has, at different times, read most of these Reports, and is, therefore, fully aware of the very valuable information which they contain relative to the laws, customs, and usages of the Hindus. A few of them are printed in the four volumes of the Judicial and Revenue Selections, but many are still in manuscript, and are highly deserving of being published, as they do the greatest honour to the talents and zeal of those public servants by whom they are drawn up.
page xxxi note 5 These opinions may be collected from the translations which have been made from Sanskrit into English of several Sanskrit works by the late Sir Charles Wilkins, the late Mr. Colebrooke, and Professor Wilson. It is advisable to make such a collection at the present moment, when the Society can have the assistance of its present Director, Professor Wilson, who is allowed to be one of the most distinguished, if not the most distinguished, Sanskrit scholar of the present day; and when it is anxious, in consequence of the recent death of those two distinguished Oriental scholars, Sir Charles Wilkins and Mr. Colebrooke, to show every respect to their memory, and to enable the British public to appreciate the real value of their acquirements, and their literary labours.
page xxxii note 6 The Committee have already obtained much valuable information upon the statistics of British India from the Bengal and Madras Governments; and are daily expecting to receive more from the Bombay Government, in answer to the queries which were drawn up by Mr. M'Culloch, at the request of Sir Alexander Johnston, and sent out by him to the Governors of those Presidencies.
page xxxii note 7 It is of great importance to those Europeans who may wish to acquire lands in British India, to be acquainted with the nature of the different tenures upon which lands are held in that country, particularly with the nature of the permanent settlement, about which so much difference of opinion has prevailed for many years.
page xxxii note 8 As it is extremely useful for the manufacturers of Great Britain to have a detailed account published of the different processes observed by the natives of every part of Asia in their different manufactories, Sir Alexander Johnston is endeavouring to procure such accounts from every part of India: tMr. Lord lately sent him some particulars relative to the cutting and polishing of agate, cornelians, &c., which was published in the third Volume of the Society's Journal; and Mr. Wilkinson lately prepared for him the paper which is above alluded to, upon the manufacture of steel. It appears, by some papers collected by Sir Alexander Johnston, that his uncle, the late Hon. Colonel George Napier, when in the Ordnance, inquired very particularly into the manufacture of gunpowder in different parts of Asia; and ascertained that the proportions of charcoal, sulphur, and saltpetre, used in China, from the most ancient periods, in the manufacture of gunpowder, are the same as are used in this country, to produce the strongest and best gunpowder.
page xxxii note 9 With a view of acquiring a knowledge of the agriculture and statistics of British India, the Committee of Correspondence, on the suggestion of Mr. Holt Mackenzie and Dr. Royle, some time ago recommended to the Council the formation of an Agricultural Committee, composed of the Members of this Society. Sir A. Johnston having himself at the same time communicated with the Members for Glasgow and Liverpool, and with some of the leading men of Manchester, upon the subject, and having found from them that they all agreed as to the utility of such a Committee; and one having been recently formed, it is only necessary to state that the Chairman of that Committee is Sir Charles Forbes, and that the two leading Members of the Committee are Mr. Holt Mackenzie and Dr. Royle, in order to convince the public of its efficiency, and of the advantages which Great Britain and India are likely to derive from its establishment.
page xxxiii note 10 In consequence of the influence which was exercised by this College for seven centuries over the Hindus in the Southern Peninsula of India, the celebrated Jesuit Missionary, Robertus di Nobilibus, who resided at Madura in the 17th century, and the equally celebrated Jesuit Missionary Beschi, who resided at Trichinopoly in the 18th century, both formed plans for reviving it; but, owing to the dissensions in their order, were unable to carry them into effect. The father of Sir Alexander Johnston, and the late Colonel Mackenzie, who resided at Madura in 1783, having procured an account of the ancient College, and copies of the plans of Robertus di Nobilibus and Beschi, in that year formed a plan of their own for the revival of this College; and Colonel Mackenzie, who was an officer of the Engineers, and who was then superintending the building of the house for Mr. Johnston, which is known at Madura by the name of Johnston House, and which is now the property of Sir Alexander Johnston, at the request of Mr. Johnston, laid out this house in such a manner as to enable Mr. Johnston, whenever an opportunity might offer, to convert it into the Hindu College which he had planned. No such opportunity, however, occurred during the lives of Colonel Mackenzie and Mr. Johnston; but as the house is still the property of Sir Alexander Johnston, he has offered to make over all right which he has to it, according to the original plan of his father, to any individual or society who may agree to carry that plan into effect; and he is now in communication with a Society abroad, who have the intention of sending out to Madura six men eminently distinguished in different branches of science, for the purpose of establishing themselves at Madura, and educating the Hindus of that part of India, and circulating amongst them the arts and sciences of Europe.
page xxxiii note 11 Sangermano, in his “Description of the Burmese Empire,” translated by Dr. Tandy, and published by the Oriental Translation Fund, shows the value and the extent of the information which the Jesuit Missionaries acquired of each of the countries in Asia in which they resided. The Annales des Propaganda also show that the Catholic Missionaries who are at present in different parts of Asia, are not less active than their predecessors were in obtaining useful information relative to that part of the world.
page xxxiv note 12 In No. 1050 of the Literary Gazette, there is a very interesting account of a young Chinese gentleman who was educated at that College, and who is believed to have had considerable influence, by the knowledge he obtained at that College, in altering the opinions of the Chinese Government with respect to the trade of their country with foreign nations.
page xxxiv note 13 This enlightened and zealous Protestant missionary is indefatigable in his endeavours to acquire a thorough knowledge of China and its inhabitants, as appears from his analysis of the Yih-She, published in the third, and his paper on the Practice of Medicine by the Chinese, published in the fourth Volume of the Society's Journal; and to circulate amongst them a knowledge of the history, literature, arts and sciences of Great Britain, as appears by his translation into Chinese of an abridgment of the History of England; and his Geographical and Astronomical tracts printed in that language, at Canton, with portraits, maps, and diagrams. Sir Alexander Johnston, having submitted his paper on the Practice of Medicine by the Chinese to Sir Henry Halford, who, notwithstanding his extensive practice, devotes much of his attention to inquiries in every part of the world, connected with the knowledge of his profession, has forwarded from him to the Rev. Mr. Gutzlaff, a set of queries, which are calculated to elicit from the Chinese medical men, such further information as may tie interesting to the medical men of this country.
page xxxiv note 14 He has recently sent to Sir Alexander Johnston, a vocabulary of the idioms of the language spoken by the Japanese who inhabit the coasts of Japan, which he compiled from the information he received from four Japan mariners, who, after having been wrecked in the Chinese Seas, were brought to Macao, and resided with him at that place for some time.
page xxxiv note 15 It is believed that the Government of the United States are fully aware of the commercial importance of the local situation of this island. The plan which they, and the Government of France have adopted, of sending their ships of war on frequent cruises through the Eastern Archipelago and the Chinese Seas for the purpose of making the inhabitants of these seas aware of their maritime power, and for that of acquiring local information respecting all the islands in those seas, and all the coasts of China bordering on them, has enabled those two governments, particularly the former, to acquire such a knowledge of these seas as may be of the greatest importance to them in a political and commercial point of view.
page xxxv note 16 Sir Alexander Johnston, while President of His Majesty's Council in Ceylon, had most of these documents, and most of the Dutch works upon the same subject, translated from the Dutch into the English language for his own information; and he is at present collecting them in order that he may present them to the Society.
page xxxv note 17 This gentleman, some time ago, wrote, at the request of Sir Alexander Johnston, the papers relative to Borneo whioh have been published in the Society's Journal; and it is to be hoped that he will be employed in some situation in whioh he will have an opportunity of oarrying on, with facility, those researches respecting the islands in the Eastern Archipelago, and the utility of establishing an English Colony on the Northern part of Australasia, for which he is so peculiarly well calculated, by his acquirements, his character, and his zeal.
page xxxv note 18 Captain Mackenzie, a very intelligent corresponding member of the Society, who recently came through Egypt from Calcutta to England, had an interview while at Alexandria with the Pasha, and was received by him with the greatest attention.
page xxxv note 19 It is understood that the inhabitants of Bombay have determined to erect a monument at Alia, the place near that part of the Euphrates where the steam boat, the Tigris, was overset, to the memory of the officers and men who were lost on that occasion; and that the inhabitants of Alia, so far from being averse to this measure, are ready to assist in erecting the monument.
page xxxvi note 20 The circumstances which led to the first extension by Act of Parliament to the natives of British India of the right of sitting upon Juries, and of being appointed Justices of the Peace, have made the natives of the highest distinction at Bombay anxious to have the honour of holding this responsible office. Sir Alexander Johnston, in 1810, when President of His Majesty's Council in Ceylon, conceiving that the surest way of improving the education, and raising the character and the situation of the natives of India, was by giving them an ample share in the government of their country, obtained for the natives of Ceylon a charter, under the great seal of England, imparting to them trial by jury, the right of being appointed Justices of the Peace, and all the other most important rights of British-born subjects. Mr. Wynn, in 1826, then President of the Board of Control, thinking, from the moral and political effect which had been produced on the people of Ceylon by this measure, that it would be advisable to adopt a similar measure with respect to the natives of British India, introduced the Act by which the right of sitting upon Juries was extended to the natives of Bombay, Madras, and Calcutta; and Lord Glenelg, Mr. Wynn's successor, subsequently, upon the petition of the natives of Bombay, also extended to the natives of those three places the right of being appointed Justices of the Peace. This right is highly valued, as none but those natives who are the most distinguished by their character and their talents are appointed to the situation.
page xxxvi note 21 The following is a list of Indian Newspapers and Periodicals, made out in the year 1836:—
page xxxviii note 22 Rammohun Roy, when in England, was examined by the Committee appointed by the House of Commons to take evidence relative to India, before the passing of the last Act which was made for the government of that country, and thereby had a public opportunity given him of stating his opinions as to the privileges and rights which ought to be granted to his countrymen, and as to the alterations which ought to be made in the British government of India. This circumstance alone, shows the very great protection, and the very great advantage, which must be derived by the natives of India, from having countrymen of their own, of high character and great talents, residing in this country.
page xxxviii note 23 This prince, after visiting different parts of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and obtaining a knowledge of the agriculture, manufactures, and statistics of the country, has become a proprietor of East India Stock, and thereby acquired a right of exercising his influence by his vote, over the British government of India, The history of this prince's family, shows the great fclianges which have taken place in India within the last fifty years. Hyder AH, the grandfather of the prince, was once so powerful a chief, that in the years 1781 and 1782 some of his troops were so near Madras, as to render it unsafe to reside in any of the garden-houses near Fort St. George, and Lord Macartney, the then Governor, and his private Secretary, the present Sir George Staunton's father, derived great credit from being able to get him to conclude, in 1783, that treaty, in allusion to which, the portrait of Lord Macartney, and Sir George's father, now in the present Sir George Staunton's possession, was painted. Scarcely twenty years afterwards, the British army succeeded in annihilating altogether, under his son Tipoo, Hyder's dynasty, and Prince Jamh-ud-dín, the son of Tipoo, and a pensioner of the British Government, is now in England, and qualified to exercise, as a Proprietor of East India Stock, a greater influence over the British government in India, than his grandfather, in the plenitude of bis power, had ever exercised.