attention which it merited, from the nobleman, who prefided in the government of India. Fully fenfible of the utility of a digeft of Hindu and Mohammedan law, in facilitating what he was ever anxious to promote, the due administration of justice to the native subjects of the British empire in Hinduftan, the Marquis Cornwallis confidered the accomplishment of the plan, as calculated to reflect the highest honour upon his adminiftration. The answer to Sir William Jones, written by his direction, expreffed this fentiment with a declaration, that his Lordship deemed it fingularly fortunate, that a perfon fo eminently qualified for the task, should, from principles of general benevolence and public fpirit, be induced to engage in an undertaking, as arduous as it was beneficial. With this fanction, Sir William Jones immediately entered upon the execution of the work, and having felected with the greatest care, from the most learned Hindus and Mọhammedans, a fufficient number of perfons duly qualified for the task of compilation, he

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traced the plan of the digeft, prescribed its arrangement, and pointed out the manufcripts from which it was to be formed.

From a series of letters addreffed to the compiler of thefe memoirs on the fubject of the digeft, a large felection might be made relating to it; but as they cannot be interesting to my readers in general, I fhall not interrupt the narrative by their introduction.

At the period when this work was undertaken by Sir William Jones, he had not refided in India more than four years and a half; during which time, he had not only acquired a thorough knowledge of the Sanfcrit language, but had extended his reading in it fo far, as to be qualified to form a judgment upon the merit and authority of the authors to be used in the compilation of his work; and although his labour was only applied to the difpofition of materials already formed, he was enabled by his previous ftudies to give them an arrangement fuperior to any exifting, and which the learned natives themselves approved and admired. In the

difpenfations of Providence, it may be remarked, as an occurrence of no ordinary nature, that the profeffors of the Braminical faith fhould fo far renounce their reserve and diftruft, as to fubmit to the direction of a native of Europe, for compiling a digest of their own laws.

I now present the reader with the correspondence of Sir William Jones, during the remainder of 1788 and the following year, without interruption.

The first letter refers to a subject, difcuffed in a conference between the executive government of Bengal and the judges, on the fubject of the police at Calcutta, which required great reformation. The establishment of the fupreme court of judicature had fuperfeded the former local jurifdictions at Fort-William, without making fufficient provifions for the police of the town; and the fubject difcuffed at the conference, was that of an application to the legislature of Great Britain for power to establish an efficient police. If the recollection of the writer of

thefe memoirs does not deceive him, Sir William mifunderstood the refult of the conference, and, under this impreffion, addressed to him the following letter, which strongly marks his attachment to the conftitution of his own country, and deferves on this account, as well as for other opinions expreffed in it, to be recorded. His fuggeftions were adopted in the application to parliament, and confirmed by its fanction.

Sir William Jones to J. Shore, Efq.

Feb. 7, 1788.

I avail myself of an hour's leifure, to throw upon paper, a few thoughts on the fubject of our late conference, concerning an application to the legislature, for a power of fummary conviction and punishment in Calcutta.

The concurrence or diffent of an indi

vidual, who is not a member of an executive government, ought to have fo little weight, that I would not have obtruded my opinion, if it had not been afked: but it would ill become me to concur in an application to par

liament, for a power, the granting of which, if I were myself in parliament, I should hold it my duty to oppose.

The difficulty of which we all feemed fenfible, arifes from a fuppofed neceffity of deviating from the spirit and form of English judicature in criminal cafes; yet the English form has been approved by the wisdom of a thousand years, and has been found effectual in the great cities of England, for the good order and government of the most highminded, active, and restless people that exists on earth.

I could easily demonftrate, that the criminal code of our nation, is fully fufficient to punish every temporal wrong, and redress every temporal evil, that can injure the public or individuals, and a British tribunal, for punishment of religious offences by Hindus or Muffulmans, would not only be an inquifition of the most extraordinary kind, but would, I am perfuaded, be offenfive in the beginning, and oppreffive in the end, to the natives of both religions,