The Genesis of t lie United States National Mnseinn. 89 



The idea of a .subsich' from the General Government seems to have 

 been prominent in the minds of the founders of the Columbian Institute. 

 In the closing portion of the same addre.'^s Doctor Cutbusli naively 

 remarked as follows: 



I can not refrain from indulging in the pleasing hope that the members of our 

 National Government, to whom has been confided the guardianship of the District 

 of Columbia, will extend their fostering care to this establishment, and that a part 

 of the public grounds, reserved for national purposes, may be vested in the Colum- 

 bian Institute. I would also, with due deference, suggest that a small pecuniary 

 aid would enable the Institute at an earlier period to extend its benefits to all parts 

 of the United States, and to render an essential service to the nation by perpetuating 

 an establishment worthy of the metropolis bearing the name of our illustrious Wash- 

 ington, where at some future period the youth of our country w'ill repair to complete 

 their education at the national seminary, to which the Botanical Garden and Miner- 

 alogical Cabinet would be important appendages. 



prevails and the children and females are numerous, the death of the head of the 

 family, where no provision has been otherwise made, can not be well imagined. Mr. 

 Law, who held the government of a rich and populous province under the Bengal 

 administration, proposed what has been called the Mocurrery system, that is to 

 make the land personal property and not to revert to the sovereign. This plan, pur- 

 sued through several years of zeal and devotion to humanity, he accomplished. The 

 Norman conqiiest, the revolution in England in 1688, were great events, and they 

 mark epochs in history and are treated as such, while Mr. Law's revolution without 

 bloodshed eventually changed the whole moral and social condition of Hindostan, 

 settled estates in persons and as personal property, and put an end to all the calami- 

 ties which were consequent of the old system; yet the event is scarcely heard of; 

 perhaps there are not three men in this country who ever heard of it yet. ' ' 



In a letter w^ritten to Law by Marquis Cornwallis in 1796, he said: "We labored 

 together for the security of person and property to the subjects of the British Gov- 

 ernment in Asia," and referred to " that plan of which I shall ever with gratitude 

 acknoAvledge you as the founder. ' ' 



Another reform suggested by Mr. Law was in connection with the commercial 

 relations of India with England. Concerning this Mr. Law writes, in 1824: 



"The augmented wealth and prosperity of many of the natives of India since I 

 quitted Bengal is evinced by commercial events and improvements, some of which 

 have fulfilled my anticipations, when I proposed to the company, and was urgent 

 with them, to throw open and enlarge new branches of trade originally in India. 

 Cotton and sugar are now imported thence into England, and British manufactures 

 have been exported to pay for these new and rich Asiatic cargoes, and this to an 

 amount that in 1815 was estimated at ^870,177. Five years aftei-wards, in 1819, the 

 value of such manufactures ex])orted to India exceeded three millions sterling." 



One of the results of this Indian reform was doubtless the abolition at so early a 

 day of negro slavery in the British West Indies. 



Another of his reforms was that effected when at an early age he was governor of 

 Behar, and which was perhaps his chief popular title to the appellation of " Father 

 of the People. ' ' The capital of Behar is as much venerated by the Hindus as Mecca 

 by the Mohammedans. Pilgrims annually resort to it from all parts of India. These 

 pilgrims had been oppressed by heavy taxes ever since the establishment of the 

 Mohammedan Government — taxes imposed according to the apparent dignity of the 

 pilgrims, which was rated by the number of their animals, and tlie palanquins, horses, 

 or elephants M'hicli accompanied them. When Mr. Law became collector the exac- 

 tions were so onerous that many Hindus were deterred from fulfilling their religious 



