They have the further advantage of being closely and intimately connected with the professional pursuits and public duties of every Englishman who fills a civil office in this country-they form the very science of administration. One of the first requisites to the right administration of a district is the knowledge of its population, industry, and wealth. A magistrate ought to know the condition of the country which he superintends; a collector ought to understand its revenue; a commercial resident ought to be thoroughly acquainted with its commerce. We only desire that part of the knowledge which they ought to possess should be communicated to the world.

I will not pretend to affirm that no part of this knowledge ought to be confined to Government. I am not so intoxicated by philosophical prejudice as to maintain that the safety of a state is to be endangered for the gratification of scientific curiosity. Though I am far from thinking that this is the department in which secresy is most useful, yet I do not presume to exclude it. But let it be remembered, that whatever information is thus confined to a government may for all purposes of science be supposed not to exist. As long as the secresy is thought important, it is of course shut up from most of those who could turn it to best account; and when it ceases to be guarded with jealousy, it is as effectually secured from all useful examination by the mass of official lumber under which it is usually buried. For this reason, after a very short time it is as much lost to the Government itself as it is to the public. A transient curiosity, or the necessity of illustrating some temporary matter, may induce a public officer to dig for knowledge under the heaps of rubbish that encumber his office. But I have myself known intelligent public officers content themselves with the very inferior information contained in printed books, while their shelves groaned under the weight of MSS., which would be more instructive if they could be read. Further: it must be observed that publication is always the best security to a government that they are not deceived by the reports of their servants; and where these servants act at a distance, the importance of such a security for their veracity is very great. For

the truth of a manuscript report they never can have a better warrant than the honesty of one servant who prepares it, and of another who examines it. But for the truth of all long-uncontested narratives of important facts in printed accounts, published in countries where they may be contradicted, we have the silent testimony of every man who might be prompted by interest, prejudice, or humour, to dispute them if they were not true.

I have already said that all communications merely made to Government are lost to science; while on the other hand, perhaps, the knowledge communicated to the public is that of which a Government may most easily avail itself, and on which it may most securely rely. This loss to science is very great; for the principles of political œconomy have been investigated in Europe, and the application of them to such a country as India must be one of the most curious tests which could be contrived of their truth and universal operation. Every thing here is new: and if they are found here also to be the true principles of natural subsistence and wealth, it will be no longer possible to dispute that they are the general laws which every where govern this important part of the movements of the

social machine.

It has been lately observed, that "if the various states of Europe kept and published annually an exact account of their population, noting carefully in a second column the exact age at which the children die; this second column would show the relative merit of the governments and the comparative happiness of their subjects. A simple arithmetical statement would then perhaps be more conclusive than all the arguments which could be produced." I agree with the ingenious writers who have suggested this idea, and I think it must appear perfectly evident that the number of children reared to maturity must be among the tests of the happiness of a society; though the number of children born cannot be so considered, and is often the companion and one of the causes of public misery. It may be affirmed without the risk of exaggeration, that every accurate comparison of the state of different countries at the same time

or of the same country at different times, is an approach to that state of things in which the manifest palpable interest of every government will be the prosperity of its subjects, which never has been and which never will be advanced by any other means than those of humanity amd justice. The prevalence of justice would not indeed be universally ensured by such a conviction; for bad governments, as well as bad men, as often act against their own obvious interest as against that of others; but the chances of tyranny must be diminished when tyrants are compelled to see that it is folly. In the mean time the ascertainment of every new fact, the discovery of every new principle, and even the diffusion of principles known before, add to that great body of slowly and reasonably formed public opinion, which however weak at first, must at last with a gentle and scarcely sensible coercion compel every government to pursue its own real interest.

This knowledge is a controul on subordinate agents for Government, as well as a controul on Government for their subjects. And it is one of those which has not the slightest tendency to produce tumult or convulsion. On the contrary, nothing more clearly evinces the necessity of that firm protecting power by which alone order can be secured. The security of the governed cannot exist without the security of the governors.

Lastly, of all kinds of knowledge, political œconomy has the greatest tendency to promote quiet and safe improvement in the general condition of mankind; because it shows that improvement is the interest of the government, and that stability is the interest of the people. The extraordinary and unfortunate events of our times have indeed damped the sanguine hopes of good men, and filled them with doubt and fear. But in all possible cases the counsels of this science are at least safe. They are adapted to all forms of government; they require only a wise and just administration. They require, as the first principle of all prosperity, that perfect security of persons and property which can only exist where the supreme authority is stable.

xxiv On these principles, nothing can be a means of improvement which is not also a means of preservation. It is not only absurd but contradictory to speak of sacrificing the present generation for the sake of posterity. The moral order of the world is not so disposed. It is impossible to promote the interest of future generations by any measures injurious to the present; and he who labours industriously to promote the honour, the safety, and the prosperity of his own country, by innocent and lawful means, may be assured that he is contributing, probably as much as the order of nature will permit a private individual, towards the welfare of all mankind.

A DISCOURSE AT THE OPENING OF THE LITERARY SOCIETY OF BOMBAY.

These hopes of improvement have survived in my breast all the calamities of our European world, and are not extinguished by that general condition of national insecurity which is the most formidable enemy of improvement. Founded on such principles, they are at least perfectly innocent. They are such as, even if they were visionary, an admirer or cultivator of letters ought to be pardoned for cherishing. Without them, literature and philosophy can claim no more than the highest rank among the amusements and ornaments of human life. With these hopes, they assume the dignity of being part of that discipline under which the race of man is destined to proceed to the highest degree of civilization, virtue, and happiness, of which our nature is capable.

On a future occasion I may have the honour to lay before you my thoughts on the principal objects of inquiry in the geography ancient and modern, the languages, the literature, the necessary and elegant arts, the religion, the authentic history and the antiquities of India, and on the mode in which such inquiries appear to me most likely to be conducted with success.

THE

NOTE

ON

"PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE."

[See pages xix. xx.]

POPULATION OF BOMBAY.

HE public has hitherto received little authentic information respecting the population of tropical countries. The following documents may therefore be acceptable, as contributions towards our scanty stock of knowledge on a subject which is curious and not unimportant.

No. I. is an account of the deaths in the island of Bombay, from the year 1801 to the year 1808 inclusive, founded on returns made to the police office of the number of bodies buried or burnt in the island. These returns being made by native officers, subject to no very efficient check, may be considered as liable to considerable errors of negligence and incorrectness, though exempt from those of intentional falsehood.

The average deaths during the year would, by this account, be nine thousand; but the year 1804, in which the deaths are nearly trebled, was a season of famine throughout the neighbouring provinces on the continent of India. Great multitudes sought refuge from death at Bombay; but many of them arrived in too exhausted a state to be saved by the utmost exertions of humanity and skill. This calamity began to affect the mortality in 1803, and its effects are visible in the deaths of 1805.

No. II. is an account of the Mussulman population; distinguishing the sexes, and conveying some information respecting their age, occupation, and domestic condition. This document and that which follows are the more important, because we have only conjectural estimates of the whole population of the island, which vary from a hundred-and-sixty to a hundred-and-eighty thousand souls. By comparing the Mahometan deaths, on an average for the three years 1806, 1807, and 1808, as collected from No. I., with the whole number of Mahometans in this account, the deaths of the members of that sect appear to be to their whole numbers as 1 to 17.

d