His Anniversary-Discourses to the Batavian Society. 45 



meeting held on September the 11th, 1815, in celebration of the 

 fourth Anniversary of the British establishment in the Eastern 

 seas. This address is nearly thrice the length of the former, 

 which it also excels in style and arrangement ; and it indicates the 

 acquisition by the author of more appropriate and copious means 

 of expression than he had before possessed. Great warmth and 

 tenderness of affection for his deceased friends is shewn at the 

 commencement ; and the body of the discourse displays his cha- 

 racteristic extent and precision of thought. We proceed to an 

 analytical view of this composition : 



An affecting religious tribute of grateful feeling and deeply- 

 founded regard, to the memory of Lord Minto, the patron of the 

 Society, and the tenderly-attached friend of the speaker, who 

 had deceased in the interval since his former address, with 

 some allusions to an affliction he had himself sustained, marks 

 the beginning of this discourse. Having discharged this debt of 

 gratitude, he proceeds immediately to notice the enquiries set on 

 foot by the Society, and the objects that had received their at- 

 tention, since he last addressed the members. Dr. Horsfield 

 had by this time brought to a close his laborious exertions on 

 Banca, and Mr. Raffles announces the collection by that natu- 

 ralist, of the most complete information regarding the position, 

 constitution, and productions of that important island ; of which 

 he next gives, from the materials so obtained, a concise, but at 

 the same time comprehensive and satisfactory sketch. On dis- 

 missing this subject, he notices the additional knowledge which 

 had recently been acquired, respecting the dialects, native cha- 

 racter, and statistics of Borneo, as well as of its ancient extensive 

 intercourse with China and Japan, with the former of which coun- 

 tries alone it is now connected. Resuming, from his former ad- 

 dress, his observations on Celebes, he enters particularly into 

 its civil and military history, describing that singular feature of 

 the constitution of society among its inhabitants, perhaps with- 

 out parallel in Asia, of an elective monarchy ; limited by an 

 hereditary aristocracy, exercising feudal authority over the 

 lower classes and population, with whom they are at all times 

 prepared to open a campaign. 



