cate a relation of his travels*, he will prefer our society to that of London. I will pay my respects to you in the evening, and am concerned, from a selfish motive, that the place where I now write, will so soon lose one of its greatest advantages. Believe me to be, with unfeigned regard, dear Sir, Your faithful and obedient servant, To this public and private record of the merit of Mr. Hastings, in promoting and encouraging the pursuits of literature in Asia, the addition of any further testimony *This relation was published in 1800, under the title of " An Account of an Embassy to the Court of Teshoo "Lama in Tibet ;" &c., by Captain Samuel Turner. It is exceedingly curious and interesting. The author, whose amiable manners and good qualities had endeared him to his friends, was seized with an apoplexy as he was walking the streets of London, and died within two days. must must be superfluous; yet I cannot deny myself the satisfaction of stating briefly the grounds of his claims to that distinction, which excited the acknowledgments and prompted the solicitation of the society. Mr. Hastings entered into the service of the East-India company, with all the advantages of a regular classical education, and with a mind strongly impressed with the pleasures of literature. The common dialects of Bengal, after his arrival in that country, soon became familiar to him; and at a period when the use and importance of the Persian language were scarcely suspected, and when the want of that grammatical and philological assistance, which has facilitated the labours of succeeding students, rendered the attainment of it a task of peculiar difficulty, he acquired a proficiency in it. His success not only contributed to make known the advantages of the acquisition, but proved an induce ment ment to others to follow his example, and the general knowledge of the Persian language, which has been since attained by the servants of the East-India company, has conspired to produce political effects of the greatest national importance, by promoting and accelerating the improvements, which have taken place in the system of internal administration in Bengal. If Mr. Hastings cannot claim the merit of having himself explored the mine of Sanscrit literarure, he is eminently entitled to the praise of having invited and liberally encouraged the researches of others. But he has a claim to commendations of a higher nature; for a conduct no less favourable to the cause of literature, than to the advancement of the British influence in India, by removing that reserve and distrust in the professors of the Braminical Faith, which had taught them to view with suspicion all attempts to investigate their code, code, and to apprehend the infringement of its ordinances, in our political rule. The importance of his success will be readily acknowledged by those, whose observation qualifies them to form a due estimate of it; and to those who have not had the advantages of local experience, the communication of my own may not be unsatisfactory. The spirit of the Mohammedan religion is adverse to every appearance of idolatry, and the conquest of Hindustan by the Mussulmans, was prosecuted with the zeal of a religious crusade. The rage of proselytism was united with the ambition of dominion, and the subversion of the Hindu superstition was always considered a religious obligation, the discharge of which might indeed be suspended by political considerations, but could never be renounced: and, notwithstanding occasional marks of toleration in some of the em perors perors of Hindustan, or their viceroys, their Hindu subjects were ever beheld by them, in the contemptuous light of infidels and idolaters. They were of course naturally disposed to apprehend the effects of a similar bigotry and intolerance in their European governors, so widely discriminated from themselves in manners, language, and religion. The Bramins, too, (who had the feelings common to the bulk of the people,) deemed themselves precluded by laws, in their opinion of sacred and eternal obligation, from any development of their secret doctrines to a race of people, who could only be ranked in the lowest of the four classes of mankind, and to whom, with little exception, their secrecy and reserve had hitherto proved impenetrable. To surmount these obstacles, to subdue the jealousy and prejudices of the Bramins, and to diminish the apprehensions of the people at large, required a conduct regulated |