go Life of Sir Stamford Raffles. 



liberty to the mind as well as to the body — which are the pride 

 and glory of the British character. 



But it will not be consistent with the design of the present 

 memoir, to enter into any details regarding the political conduct 

 of Sir Stamford Raffles ; we are alone concerned, in this place, 

 with the actions of his life as a patron and a votary of knowledge ; 

 and the political transactions in which he was engaged will be 

 noticed in the following pages, no further than may be requisite, 

 in order to convey a satisfactory view of the various stations he 

 occupied, and impart to the whole the unity of a connected nar- 

 rative. His exertions in the cause of general knowledge, of sci- 

 ence, and of literature, with outlines of the philosophical investi- 

 gations which he either pursued himself, or encouraged and ena- 

 bled others to prosecute, will form the chief subjects of the article ; 

 whilst his contributions to that department of Natural History to 

 which the pages of the Zoological Journal are especially devoted, 

 will receive the particular attention they of right demand. 



We now proceed to the biography of this eminent individual : 

 His father, Benjamin Raffles, was one of the oldest captains in the 

 West India merchant-service, belonging to the port of London ; 

 and his uncle, a solicitor of eminence in the city, but recently 

 deceased, was the father of the Rev. Thomas Raffles, LL.D., 

 celebrated from an early age as an eloquent preacher in the Inde- 

 pendant dissenting connexion, and who is at present the minister 

 of a congregation at Liverpool, belonging to that denomination. 

 The subject of this memoir, Thomas Stamford Raffles, by what 

 might be regarded as a remarkable coincidence with the events of 

 his future life, as passed in distant lands, and as connected with 

 maritime adventures, was born at sea, on board the ship Anne, off 

 the harbour of Port Morant in Jamaica, on the sixth of July, in 

 the year 1781. He received his education, principally, at a 

 respectable academy at Hammersmith, conducted by Dr. Ander- 

 son ; and entered public life at a very early age, in the Home 

 Establishment of the Honourable East India Company, as a junior 

 clerk in the Secretary's Office. In this situation he became dis- 

 tinguished, in a short time, as the most efficient clerk in the 

 office, where he continued for several years. But he was soon to 

 commeace those labours in an Eastern clime on which his sub- 



