he was now taking for advancing his fortunes, naturally suggested.

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Shefford, near Cambridge, 30th Dec. 1803.

"MY DEAR SIR,-Understanding by the public papers that you purpose soon to sail for India, I cannot refrain from troubling you with a line, to express my sincere and ardent wishes for you welfare. Though the course of events has directed us into very different paths, and destined me to obscurity and you to eminence, this circumstance has never, in the smallest degree, abated those sentiments of gratitude and esteem, which are indelibly impressed on my heart. You have ever shown me tokens of disinterested friendship; and the favourable manner in which you have spoken of my small publications, I have always imputed, in a great measure, to the partiality arising from early acquaintance. Accept my best thanks for the Trial of Peltier,' which I read, as far as your part in it is concerned, with the highest delight and instruction. I speak my sincere sentiments when I say, it is the most extraordinary assemblage of whatever is most refined in address, profound in moral and political speculation, and masterly in eloquence, it has ever been my lot to read in the English language. I am not surprised at the unbounded applause it met with, nor that the government should think it high time to turn their attention to its author; though, I confess, I am surprised that a great empire can furnish no scene of honour and rewards for men of genius (a race always sufficiently rare, and now almost extinct), without sending them to its remotest provinces. It seems to me to betray a narrowness of mind in the persons who compose the administration; as if, while they felt the necessity of rewarding, they were not fond of the vicinity of superior talent. May God Almighty, however, preserve and bless

you wherever you go, and make your way prosperous! You will have an opportunity of contemplating society under a totally different form from that which it wears here, and of tracing the nature and effects of institutions moral and religious, whose origin lies concealed in the remotest antiquity. Allow me to hope that you will tread in the steps of Sir William Jones, and employ talents which, in originality and vigour, are decidedly superior even to his, in tracing the vestiges of divine truth, and confirming the evidence of revelation. You will excuse me if I add, that the praise of great talents results from their use; that the more any one has received from the Lord of all, the greater is his responsibility; and that, as the interests of this world are momentary, it is our truest wisdom to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.

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May I take the liberty, before I close, of recommending to your attention a young gentleman of the name of Rich, who is going out in the same fleet with you, as a cadet *, to Bombay. He is of Bristol, where I had the pleasure lately of seeing him. He is a most extraordinary young man. With little or no assistance he has made himself acquainted with many languages, particularly with the languages of the East. Besides Latin, Greek, and many of the modern languages, he has made himself master of the Hebrew, Chaldee, Persian, Arabic, and is not without some knowledge of the Chinese, which he began to decipher when he was but fourteen. He is now

seventeen.

He has long had a most vehement desire to go to India, with the hope of being able to indulge his passion for eastern literature; and, after many difficulties,

* In consequence of the change from a military to a civil appointment, Mr. R. did not go to India at that time, but was ordered to join, as secretary, Mr. Lock, his Majesty's Consul-General in Egypt, then at Malta, on his way to his post.

has at length succeeded in being appointed to the situation of cadet. He is a young man of good family, and of most engaging person and address. His name, I believe I mentioned before, is Rich. If it is consistent with your views to honour him with your countenance, he will not, I am almost certain, give you any reason to repent of your kindness and condescension.

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May God take you, my dear sir, under his immediate care and keeping, preserve you long, and restore [you] in due time, to be an ornament and blessing to your native country, is the sincere prayer of,

"Your obliged friend and servant,

"R. HALL.

"P.S. Please to present my respectful compliments to Mrs. Mackintosh, wishing her and you every possible blessing, for time and eternity."

The wind, for some time adverse, having become fair, and the "Winchelsea," Captain Campbell, in which he was to sail, having come round from the river, on Sunday, February 13th, Sir James and his family embarked on board; and before the close of the following day the shores of England were fast fading from his view.

CHAPTER V.

VOYAGE-ARRIVAL AT BOMBAY-FIRST IMPRESSIONS-STATE OF SOCIETYLETTERS TO MR. SHARP-MR. JOHN ALLEN-FOUNDS A LITERARY SOCIETYJOURNAL LETTERS TO MR. SHARP, MR. HALL, MR. PHILIPS, PROFESSOR STEWART-DEATH OF THE MARQUIS CORNWALLIS-LETTER TO MR. FLAXMAN-STATE OF THE RECORDER'S COurt.

BESIDES Sir James's family, which consisted of himself, his wife, his five daughters, a governess and servants, the "Winchelsea" carried several officers and recruits, going to join their regiments in India, and a few cadets. The whole party were fortunate in the captain with whom they sailed. Captain Campbell was a brave and intelligent officer, of a manly independent character, who secured the affection of all under his care, by his unwearied attention to their feelings and their comfort. Sir James was fond of the sea, which always had a favourable effect on his health and spirits. Great as was the change from the tenor of his former life, his delightful flow of spirits never forsook him. His first care, next to his tender and assiduous attention to Lady Mackintosh, who suffered from illness during a part of the passage, was directed to the instruction of his children. He allowed no duty to interfere with this. Besides the more varied instructions which their mother took a pleasure in affording, he regularly read with them some book of English literature, particularly the poetical works of Milton, and the papers of the Spectator, written by Addison,―an author, of whose genius he was a warm admirer, and whom he placed for amenity of style, for easy polite humour, for his delineations of common life

and character, and for his popular disquisitions on taste and morals, at the head of all our English writers. He never intermitted his own readings, which were directed to most subjects of human curiosity, except the mathematical and the natural sciences. He had on board his excellent library, and he employed many hours daily in running over or studying the works he had recently added to it; but always intermingling some classical writers of ancient or modern times; a practice, from which, in no circumstances, did he ever deviate. In the course of the voyage he availed himself of the leisure which he possessed, and of the assistance of his daughters' governess, a young German lady, to study the German tongue, some acquaintance with which he had gained several years before. By vigorous application, he now became a proficient, not only in the poetical, but in the philosophical idiom of that opulent language, a circumstance of the greatest service to him in pursuing his subsequent metaphysical inquiries into the history of German philosophy. He also paid more attention to Italian literature than he ever before had leisure to do; a natural consequence of which was, that it rose considerably in his estimation.

In him, as in many others whose acquirements have been remarkable, was always observable a happy talent of turning conversation with others, upon topics upon which they are most familiar. Thus, by conversing with the officers of the ship during his hours of relaxation, he was observed to acquire a very correct acquaintance with the names and uses of the different parts of the ship and its tackle, as well as of the general principles of sailing and of seamanship. He took his share, with a goodnatured readiness, in all the duties allotted to him during the voyage. On Sundays, whenever the weather permitted, a church was rigged out upon the quarter-deck;