14 Life of Sir Stamford Raffles — Introduction. 



ditions most favourable for the experiment, the method of in- 

 vestigating the figure of the earth by means of the Pendulum. 

 During the government of Sir Stamford Raifles in Sumatra, 

 a series of observations was made on the length of the pendulum 

 at the Equator, by a scientific expedition from the Observatory 

 at Madras, for the purpose of assisting in the determination of the 

 figure of the earth; and as the successful attainment of the 

 objects of this expedition, was owing, in great measure, to Sir 

 Stamford's counsel and protection, we must recur to the subject 

 in the course of this article. 



But the importance of Colonel Lambton's operations is not con- 

 fined to the improvement of physical astronomy ; for they were 

 extended eastward and westward of the arc itself, and the Coro- 

 mandel and Malabar coasts also connected by triangulation, in 

 numerous important points ; thus forming the basis of a complete 

 trigonometrical survey of the Peninsula. The present extremely 

 defective state of our knowledge, indeed, of the topography of 

 India, imperiously demands the speedy completion and publica- 

 tion of a correct general survey, without which much of the local 

 history already obtained, both natural and civil, must remain 

 nearly useless to inquirers in Europe, 



Next in order to the constitution of the earth as a planet, have 

 we to consider the history of the mass of elastic fluid, with which 

 it is invested, and which is indispensable to tlie existence of every 

 subject of organic nature, as well as to the preservation of the 

 surface of the globe in a fit condition for its support. The con- 

 tributions to Meteorological Science derived from researches in 

 the East, have, for obvious reasons, been very few. The investi- 

 gation of the seemingly most capricious and irregular, but in 

 reality all-harmonious and beautiful cycles of changes, to which 

 the atmosphere is perpetually subject, requires a train of laborious 

 exertions, uninteresting in themselves on account of their minute- 

 ness and apparent insignificance, continued, for a long period of 

 time, on the same spot. And to such exertions as these, neither 

 the leisure nor the health of many residents in India, or the 

 countries adjacent, can be adequate. Still, however, some points 



