will be more conducive to the public interests; but, "in either case, you are desired to report the particu"lars of your reception and proceedings to this govern"ment, with any other information which you may "think it useful for them to know.

“I am, Sir,

"Your most obedient, humble servant,

"J. P. AURIOL, Sec."

"Fort William, May 29, 1783."

It would be unpardonable in me to let this occasion pass, without expressing the high sense I entertain of Mr. Hastings's politeness, and Sir John Macpherson's kindness and hospitality, during my stay at Calcutta. As to Mr. Hastings, in his public capacity, it would be presumptuous and injudicious to say much, as he now stands for the judgment of the highest tribunal in this country. My own observation leads me to consider him as a man of sound, acute, and brilliant talents, and of a vast and comprehensive mind-of manners sociable, amiable, meek and unaffected-and of a disposition truly benevolent. His superior knowledge of the political interests of Indostan, and particularly of the affairs of the East India company, has never been questioned; and, if the suffrage of the people of India may be allowed to decide, his conduct as Governor General, though, like every thing human, intermixed with error, was, on the whole, great and laudable-for I declare I scarcely ever heard a man in India, Native or European, censure him, although he was often the subject of conversation with all persons and in all companies of the East.

The social virtues of Sir John Macpherson are so well known, that it would be superfluous to notice them. The same friendship and hospitality I experienced in his house, has been shared by many, who are not backward in doing him ample justice on that head. But his conduct during his short administration can be known only, by those who make the political concerns of India a subject of studious attention. To enter into a detal of his various wise regulations for the restoration of the company's affairs, would be destructive of the end I propose,

which is, by a concise and simple summary of the whole, to render a fair picture of his administration so clear as to be understood by any person, however ignorant he may be of the politics of that country, and so brief as not to discourage the reading of it.

He

Sir John Macpherson took the reins of government into his hands on the first of February, 1785. found the company's revenues diminished, and their expenditure increased, by the continual claims of Proprietors, Directors, and Ministers, to a share in the patronage of Mr. Hastings-and a public debt accumulating to an enormous amount. He therefore saw the necessity of putting in practice every expedient possible, and trying every experiment that the state of the country suggested, as likely to promote an increase of the revenuc, a diminution of the public expenditure, and a liquidation of the debt. He, therefore, on the fourteenth day of his administration, commenced a reform, which he continued with indefatigable zeal and industry to introduce through the various departments of government -and, beginning with himself, discharged his body. guards. While he was thus employed in India, the Company and Parliament in England were unremittingly engaged in considering and molding into shape a system of reform also; and, extraordinary as it may appear, the fact is, that the sagacity of Mr. Macpherson had adopted by anticipation, and actually reduced to practice, the identical speculative reforms which the Parliament and Company were proceeding upon in England; and the general plan of reform which passed the court of directors on the eleventh of April, 1785, had been actually carried into execution by Sir John Macpherson in Bengal, in the months of February, March and April, 1785. He made arrangements for the diffusion of knowledge-establised the settlement of Pulo Penang, or Prince of Wales's Island--settled the bank of Calcutta on a firm basis-regulated the markets and, by a plan of his own conception, secured the Company from the accustomed fraudulent compositions with Zemindars, by bonding their balances, and making the bonds cancelable only by the court of Directors. In fine, he intro

duced and carried into effect a system of reform which had a most sudden and salutary effect on the British affairs in India; and in an administration of only eighteen months, he had the felicity to perceive the fruits of his wisdom and industry maturing-to receive that best of earthly rewards, the esteem and applause of his fellowcitizens and to be honored by the best of Sovereigns with the dignity of a Baronet.

While I was at Sir John Macpherson's house, I happened, in conversation one day with Mr. Macauly, Sir John's Secretary, to be talking over some part of my adventures; and found to my astonishment, that he had, in his route to India, accidentally hired the very servant whom I had lost at Trieste by sending him for letters to Venice; and Mr. Macauly assured me, that he found him possessed of all the good qualities I had expected to meet in him: but the poor fellow had died before my arrival at Calcutta, to my great mortification and disappointment.

As the season in which I was to leave Calcutta was very unfavorable for a voyage by sea, and the coast thereabouts is one of the most inhospitable in the world, I set off by land for Madras, and in my way had an opportunity of surveying that curious and grotesque monument of superstitious folly, called the Jagranaut Pagoda. It is an immense, barbarous structure, of a kind of pyramidal form, embellished with devices cut in stone-work, not more singular than disgusting. Christian idolators, in forming types and figures of divine beings, always endeavored to represent them with personal beauty, as proportionate to their divine nature as human skill can make it. Those Pagans, on the contrary, in forming their idols, cast out every vestige of beautyevery thing that, by the consent of mankind, is supposed to convey pleasing sensations; and, in their place, substitute the most extravagant, unnatural deformity, the most loathsome nastiness, the most disgusting obscenity. It is not in language to convey an adequate idea of their temples and idols; and if it was, no purpose could be answered by it, only the excitement of painful and abominable sensations. To keep pace with

the figures of their idols, a chief Bramin, by some accursed artificial means, (by herbs, I believe), has brought to a most unnatural form, and enormous dimensions, that which decency forbids me to mention; and the pure and spotless women, who from infancy have been shut up from the sight of men, even of their brothers, are bro't to kiss this disgusting and mishapen monster, under the preposterous belief that it promotes fecundity.

In this Pagoda stands the figure of Jagranaut, (their god under Brama); and a sightly figure it is truly!— nothing more than a black stone, in an irregular pyramidal form, having two rich diamonds in the top by way of eyes, and a nose and mouth painted red. For this god, five hundred priests are daily employed in boiling food, which, as he seldom eats it, they doubtless convert to their own use in the evening.

I stopped at Vizagapatnam for a few days with Mr. Russel, who was chief of that place. His style of living was so exactly similar to that of an elegant family residing at their country-house in England, that I felt myself more happy and comfortable than I had been since my arrival in India; and that happiness was much increased by meeting Mr. Maxton, who was married to Mr. Russel's daughter. This gentleman and I, when mere boys, had been shipmates on our first going out to India: a warm friendship took place between us, which has met with no interruption, but rather increased from lapse of time, and greater habits of intimacy. To see a man whom I so entirely esteemed, in possession of the most perfect domestic felicity, and surrounded by a number of amiable connections and friends, was to me a subject of the most pleasing contemplation.

LETTER LXIII.

LEAVING Vizagapatnam, I took my route along the coast, and arrived at Masulipatam, where I heard rumors of the unfortunate fate of General Mas

thews. This threw such a damp upon my spirits, that all the hospitality and kindness of Mr. Daniel, the chief, could scarcely raise me from despondence; and on my arrival at Madras, I found the whole amply confirmed.

As Hyat Sahib's affair yet remained unsettled, and I considered myself in a degree pledged to obtain him some satisfaction for his services in surrendering the province of Bidanore, and to fulfil my engagements with him and the Supreme Council, I determined to proceed to Bombay, notwithstanding the disaster of General Mathews, which had entirely crushed all my private prospects in that quarter, and to co-operate with Hyat Sahib in such measures as might yet remain to us for promoting the public good. I left Madras, therefore, and prosecuted my journey without any material interruption until I reached Palamcotah, where the chagrin arising from my various disappointments, co-operating with fatigue and climate, threw me into a fit of sickness, which confined me to my bed for five or six weeks. Upon recovering a little, I crawled on to Anjengo, where, at the house of Mr. Hutchinson, the Resident, (who treated me with cordial kindness), I waited for an opportunity of getting to Bombay, and during that time laid in a stock of strength and spirits: at length a Europe ship touched at Anjengo on her way to Bombay, I obtained a passage and proceeded.

At Bombay I found Hyat Sahib, it having been deemed expedient to send him away from Bidanore on the approach of Tippoo with his army, where I received from him a confirmation of what I have stated respecting General Mathews receiving only two lacks of rupees and a necklace. And now, as peace was negociating between us and Tippoo, and my remaining on the Malabar coast could be of little use, I determined to return to the Carnatic. And here I have an incident to add to the many disagreeable occurrences of my life, in which, with intentions the most innocent, I was made the subject of obloquy and unmerited scandal.

Just at the time I was leaving Bombay, a young lady, the daughter of a person formerly of high rank in India, and now a member of Parliament, but whose name it