126 EARL DE GREY'S ADDRESS. [May 28, 1860. 



universal information, such as I have met with in no other man 

 similarly situated; and manners and conversation of the most 

 amiable and interesting character." 



A statue by Chantrey, a portrait by Lawrence, a service of plate, 

 and, above all, the establishment of an " Elphinstone College" 

 and two "Elphinstone Professorships," are the enduring monu- 

 ments of Mr. Elphinstone's government of Western India. On his 

 return home, shattered in health and exhausted by official labours, 

 he betook himself with ardour to the study of the classics of ancient 

 and modern Europe, to be added to the store of his already ripe 

 Oriental knowledge. In these studies, and in the preparation of 

 his * History of India,' he passed the first fourteen years of his 

 home residence. The research necessary for the History of the 

 Mogul rule in Hindustan was enormous ; and the style in which 

 that elaborate work is written marks the accomplished scholar. 



The last eighteen years of Mr. Elphinstone's life were spent in 

 literary retirement. On the 20th of November, and in the 81st year 

 of his age, the useful, blameless, and happy life of this eminent 

 man was brought to a close by a stroke of apoplexy. 



By the decease of William Eichard Hamilton, England has lost 

 one of her best public sei-vants, and a stedfast promoter of letters, 

 art, and science ; while this Society recognises in him one of its 

 earliest adherents, long one of the Council, and who, after filling 

 the offices of President and Vice-President, only retired from our 

 Trusteeship a year before his death. 



Born in 1777, Mr. Hamilton was educated at Harrow School and 

 at the University of Cambridge, where he acquired that thorough 

 classical knowledge which enabled him soon afterwards to prove 

 of signal service to his country. 



He began life in the diplomatic service as the attache and pri- 

 vate secretary of the late Lord Elgin, with whom he proceeded 

 on an embassy to Constantinople in the year 1799. In 1801, 

 being sent to Egypt (then rescued from French occupation by 

 the British arms), Mr. Hamilton, in company with Colonel Hil- 

 grove Turner, so ably negotiated the terms of peace as to pro- 

 cure the cession of many of those noble works of Egyptian art 

 which now adorn the British Museum. Among these was the 

 fixmous Trilingual Stone of Eosetta, which, from its comparatively 

 small size, had been hid away in a French transport, from which 

 Mr. Hamilton rescued it at the risk of his life, as the vessel 

 was infected with the plague. In the subsequent year Lord 



