disposed of in your part of Middlesex, with pasture-ground for my cattle, and garden-ground enough for my amusement, have the goodness to inform me of it. I shall be happy in being your neighbour, and, though I write little now, will talk then as much as you please. I believe I shall send a box of inestimable manuscripts, Sanscrit and Arabic, to your friendly care. If I return to England, you will restore them to me; if I die in my voyage to China, or my journey through Persia, you will dispose of them as you please.* Wherever I may die, I shall be, while I live, my dear Sir, &c. Sir WILLIAM JONES to WARREN HASTINGS, Esq. MY DEAR SIR, Before you can receive this, you will, I doubt not, have obtained a complete triumph over your persecutors; and your character will have risen, not brighter indeed, but more conspicuously bright, from the furnace of their persecution. Happy should I be if I could congratulate you in person on your victory; but though I have a fortune in England, which might satisfy a man of letters, yet I have not enough to establish that absolute independence, which has been the chief end and aim of my life; and I must stay in this country a few years longer: Lady Jones has however promised me to take her passage for Europe in January 1793, and I will follow her when I can. She is pretty well, and presents her kindest remembrance to you and Mrs. Hastings, whom I thank most heartily for a very obliging and elegant letter. My *The MSS. here alluded to, after the demise of Sir William Jones, were presented, together with another large collection of Eastern MSS. to the Royal Society, by Lady Jones. A catalogue, compiled by Mr. Wilkins, is inserted in the 6th volume of Sir William Jones's works. own own health has by God's blessing been very firm, but my eyes are weak, and I have constantly employed them eight or nine hours a day. My principal amusement is botany, and the conversation of the pundits, with whom I talk fluently in the language of the Gods; and my business, besides the discharge of my public duties, is the translation of Menu, and of the digest which has been compiled at my instance. Our society still subsists, and the third volume of their Transactions is so far advanced, that it will certainly be published next season. Samuel Davis has translated the Surya Siddhanta, and is making discoveries in Indian astronomy; while Wilford is pursuing his geographical enquiries at Benares, and has found, or thinks he has found, an account of Africa and Europe, and even of Britain by name, in the Scanda Puran; he has sent us a chart of the Nile from Sanscrit authorities, and I expect soon to receive his proofs and illustrations. Of public affairs. in India, I say little, because I can say nothing with certainty: the seasons and elements have been adverse to us in Mysore. Farewell, my dear Sir, and believe me to be with unfeigned regard, Your faithful and obedient, WILLIAM JONES. Sir WILLIAM JONES to Sir JOSEPH BANKS. Calcutta, Nov. 19, 1791. Since I sent my letter to the packet of the Queen, I received the inclosed from a Hindu of my acquaintance, and I send his cusha flowers, which I have not eyes to examine, especially in a season of business. The leaves are very long, with a point excessively long and fine, their edges are rough downwards, in other respects smooth. As this plant is to my knowledge celebrated in the veda, I am very desirous of knowing its Linnæan name. I cannot find it in Van Rheede. The The frequent allusions in these letters to local or botanical subjects, may render them particularly interesting only to the friends and correspondents of Sir William Jones, but they describe his occupations and contain his mind, which I wish to display; they exhibit a warmth of affection for his friends, upright principles, a manly independence, and a desire of honourable distinction, combined with a contempt for all ambition incompatible with his public character. The frequent mention of the work which he had undertaken is equally a proof of his opinion of the importance of it, and of his solicitude to make it as perfect as possible. The manner in which he mentions the travels of Mr. Bruce shews, that he was not one of the sceptics who doubted of his veracity. In a paper which he presented to the society in Calcutta, he recites a conversation with a native of Abyssinia, who had seen and known Mr. Bruce at Gwender, and who spoke of him in very honourable terms. At the period of this conversation, the travels were not published; but it was too particular and descriptive to leave room for doubt, as to the identity of Mr. Bruce, and of his having passed some years in Abyssinia. Of the correspondence of Sir William Jones in 1792, if it were not altogether suspended by his more important studies and avocations, no part has been communicated to me. In March 1793, I returned to Bengal with a commission to succeed Marquis Cornwallis, in his station of Governor-General whenever he thought proper to relinquish it, and I had the satisfaction to find my friend, although somewhat debilitated by the climate, in a state of health which promised a longer duration of his life than it pleased Providence to assign to him. The ardour of his mind had suffered no abatement, and his application was unremitted. The completion of the work which he had undertaken, occupied the principal por tion. tion of his leisure; and the remainder of his time which could be spared, was as usual devoted to literary and scientific pursuits. Botanical researches occasionally diverted his hours of relaxation, but he found impediments to them from the weakness of his sight, and heat of the climate, The constitution of Lady Jones, which was naturally delicate, had suffered so much from repeated attacks of indisposition, that a change of climate had long been prescribed by the physicians, as the only means of preserving her life; but her affectionate attachment to her husband had hitherto induced her to remain in India, in opposition to this advice, though with the full conviction that the recovery of her health, in any considerable degree, was impossible. She knew that the obligation which he had voluntarily contracted, to translate the digest of Hindu and Mohammedan laws, was the only, though insuperable obstacle to his accompanying her, and his entreaties were necessary to gain her reluctant assent to undertake the voyage without his society. In the course of his correspondence, we trace his ardour to explore the new objects of investigation which increasing knowledge had discovered to him, and an intention to pursue the line of his researches through Persia or China, by a circuitous rout to his native country; and at an earlier period, when the extent of the field of investigation appeared boundless, he had declared his determination to remain in India until the close of the century, if it should please God to prolong his life. But affection set limits to his zeal for knowledge, and when it was finally settled that Lady Jones should return to England, he determined himself to follow her in the ensuing season, hoping by this period to have discharged his engagements with the government of India. She embarked in December 1793. In the beginning of 1794, Sir William Jones published a work, in which he had long been engaged,—a translation of the Ordinances of Menu, comprising the Indian system of duties religious and civil. This task was suggested by the same motives, which had induced him to undertake the compilation of the digest; to aid the benevolent intentions of the legislature of Great Britain, in securing to the natives of India the administration of justice, to a certain extent, by their own laws. Menu is esteemed by the Hindus the first of created beings, and not the oldest only, but the holiest, of legislators; and his system is so comprehensive and so minutely exact, that it may be considered as an institute of Hindu law, prefatory to the more copious digest. This work, to use the words of the translator, contains abundance of curious matter, extremely interesting both to speculative lawyers and antiquaries, with many beauties, which need not be pointed out, and with many blemishes, which cannot be justified or palliated. It is indeed a system of despotism and priestcraft, both limited by law, but artfully conspiring to give mutual support, though with mutual checks; it is filled with strange conceits in metaphysicks and natural philosophy, with idle superstitions, and with a scheme of theology most obscurely figurative, and conse quently liable to dangerous misconception; it abounds with minute and childish formalities, with ceremonies generally absurd, and often ridiculous; the punishments are partial and painful, for some crimes dreadfully cruel, for others reprehensibly slight and the very morals, though rigid enough on the whole, are in one or two instances (as in the case of light oaths and pious perjury) unaccountably relaxed; nevertheless, a spirit of sublime devotion, of benevolence to mankind, and of amiable tenderness to all creatures, pervades the whole work; the style of it has a certain austere majesty, that sounds like the language of legislation, and extorts a respectful awe; |