PREFACE

TO THE SECOND EDITION.

THE important events which have occurred on the banks of the Sutledj since the appearance of the first Edition of this Work have added a new interest to every subject connected with the political condition of India; and cannot fail to excite public curiosity respecting the origin, and progress of the great Empire, raised by British power in Asia. Viscount Hardinge is a worthy successor of Clive, Hastings, and Wellesley :-he was trained up in the school of the Wellesleys; and it will be found, on examination, that his policy, with reference to the Punjab, has been guided by the same comprehensive principles on which Lord Wellesley governed India. Lord Gough has emulated the renown of General Lake and Sir David Baird: Sobraon will be as celebrated in history as Assaye or Laswaree.

For the favourable reception which this work has met with at the hands of the public, and of an influential portion of the public press, the author is

bound to express his grateful acknowledgments. In one or two instances only, had he occasion to complain that his views were misrepresented, or his objects misunderstood.

The Eclectic Review, in its very able and discriminating criticism on these volumes (No. VI., vol. xix.; June 1846), does the author an injustice, which had it proceeded from an organ of less authority, he would have allowed to pass without remark. He is censured for having "violated all rules of right feeling and good taste" in comparing Messrs. O'Connell and Shiel to Moses and Aaron! The author is fully sensible of the imperfections which may be found in a work of this bulk, and extensive range; but in the case referred to, he is certainly not liable to the charge advanced against him. On reference to page 298, Vol. III. it will be seen that he did not originate the obnoxious figure, but recorded a matter of fact. It is there stated: "He was hailed, in the poetic language of his enthusiastic followers, as a Moses about to lead his brethren forth from the bondage of Goshen." In a note were added two lines from some popular verses, to the following effect:

Ye bondsmen of Egypt! a Moses appears,

To lead your dark steps through this desert of tears!

It is not necessary now to discuss the propriety of the figure; but it is a fact that Mr. O'Connell was looked upon, by his Catholic brethren, as a man whose mission was similar in some respects to that of the son of Amram. How far the comparison may or

may not be consistent with the rules of right feeling

* Mr. O'Connell.

and good taste, Posterity, after all, perhaps will be the only proper tribunal to decide. The author merely submits that he has not stepped beyond the line of an historian's duty, in recording the fervid language addressed to this remarkable public character,-who, in innumerable poems, speeches, and addresses, even within the walls of Parliament, has been described as the "Deliverer of his countrymen."

The author is so fully aware of the value of the approbation, bestowed in such handsome terms on his labours, by the Eclectic Review, that he is anxious to relieve himself from the aspersion (in the instance pointed out at least), of having erred against the canons of "right feeling," and "good taste."

It has been objected that these Volumes afford few details of the private affairs of the late Marquess Wellesley. The author might fairly shelter himself under the apology of the greatest of English biographers, in somewhat similar circumstances:-" As the process of these narratives is now bringing me among my contemporaries, I begin to feel myself walking upon ashes under which the fire is not extinguished, and coming to the time of which it will be proper rather to say nothing that is false, than all that is true." The author proposed to delineate the public life of an eminent Statesman; to treat his subject historically; to present an accurate account of one of the most renowned of the remarkable families known in the annals of this kingdom; to trace the career of the Marquess Wellesley from Eton to the University, from the University to the Senate, from the Senate to the

Cabinet; to afford a full yet popular narrative of his splendid and unparalleled administration in India; and illustrate his policy, both in Asia and in Europe, by selections from the correspondence of Lord Wellesley, which, till the publication of these volumes, had not been accessible to the public. It was his object to bring into notice the wisdom and sagacity of the Marquess Wellesley's political views, the force and propriety of his maxims, the dignity of his oratory, the elegance of his scholarship, and the general success of his public measures; which were all liberal comprehensive, and grand, stamped with the characteristics of his own genius. It was no part of the author's plan to furnish materials for scandal, or to withdraw the veil from occurrences in which living persons were concerned, of which it would, perhaps, be difficult to speak without subjecting himself either to the reproach of sycophancy and servility on the one hand, or to the charge of censorious malevolence on the other.

A few corrections and alterations, suggested to the author, have been made in the body of the work.

DEC. 1846.

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

HENRY LORD BROUGHAM AND VAUX,

SOMETIME

LORD HIGH CHANCELLOR OF ENGLAND,

&c. &c. &c.

MY LORD,

THE following Memoirs of one of the most illustrious and most valued of your friends are, with the greatest respect, dedicated to your Lordship.

I have gratefully to acknowledge the honour conferred upon me by your Lordship's permission to inscribe these Volumes to you. To no person, my Lord, could such a work be so appropriately dedicated as to one who was for many years the associate of the great man whose public life is herein recorded, who for so long a period of time coöperated with him in advancing the happiness of mankind by the diffusion of principles of liberty, justice, and truth,— and to whom the Marquess Wellesley in terms of such beauty and emphasis inscribed his own Primitia et Reliquiæ.

I also humbly conceive that the life of the Founder of the College of Fort William at Calcutta-that "light amid the darkness of Asia"-cannot be more