73S 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1804. 



sir William Jones had declared his 

 determination to remain in India 

 until the close of the century, if it 

 sliould please God to prolong his 

 life. But atVcction set limits to his 

 zeal for knowledge, and when it 

 ■was finally settled that lady Jones 

 should return to England, he de- 

 termined himself to follow the en- 

 suing spring, hoping by thit, period 

 to have discharged his engagements 

 ■with the government of India. Slie 

 embarked in December 1793. 



I now turn to the last scene of the 

 life of sir VVilliam Jones. The few 

 months allotted to his existence af- 

 ter the departure of lady Jones, 

 "were devoted to his usual occujia- 

 tion*', and more particularly to the 

 discharge of that duty which alone 

 detained him in India, — the com- 

 pletion of the digest of the Hindoo 

 and Mahomcduri law. But neither 

 the consciousness of acquitting him- 

 self of an obligation which he had 

 •Tfoluntarily contra(Tted,norhls inces- 

 sant assiduity, could till the vacuity 

 occasioned by the absence of her, 

 ivhose society had sweetened the 

 toil of application, and ciieercd his 

 hours of relaxation. After her 

 departure he mixed more in promis- 

 cuous society; but his afi'ct'tions 

 "were transported with her to his 

 native country. 



On the evening of the 20th of 

 April, or nearly about that date, 

 after prolona;inir his walk to a late 

 hour, during which he had im- 

 prudently remained in conversation 

 in an unwholesome situation, he 

 called upon lord Tcignmouth, and 

 complained of agucisli symptoms, 

 mentioning his intention to take 

 some Eiedicine, and rcj)eaiing joeu- 

 !nrly an old proverb, thai ' an ag^ie 

 ip. tl'.e spring is medicine for a kins.' 

 He hud no suspicion at the time of 



the real nature of his indispositioftj 

 which provt^d, in fac^t, to be a com- 

 plaint common in Bengal, an inflam- 

 mation in the liver. 'J'he disorder 

 was, however, soon discovered by 

 the penetration of the physician, 

 m!io after two or three days Avas 

 called in to his assistance ; but it 

 had then advanced too far to yield 

 to (he elTicacy of the medicines usu- 

 ally prescribed, and they were ad- 

 ministered in vain. The progress 

 of the complaint was uncommonly 

 rapid, and terminated faiaily on the 

 27th of April, 1794. "Onthemorn- 

 ijig of that day, his attendants, 

 alarmed at the evident symptoms of 

 approaching dissolution, came pre., 

 cipitately to call the friend who has 

 now the melancholy task of record- 

 ing the mournful event : not a mo- 

 ment was lost in repairing to his 

 house. — He was lying on his bed 

 in a posture of meditation, and the 

 only symj)tom of remaining life w as 

 a small degree of motion in the 

 heart, which after a few seconds 

 ceased, and he expired without a 

 pang or groan. His bodily sulTer- 

 ings, from the complacency of his 

 features, and the case of his atti- 

 tude, could not have been severe ; 

 and his mind must have derived con- 

 solation from those sources where 

 he had been in the habit of seeking 

 it, and where alone,^ in our last 

 moments, it can ever be found." 



An anecdote of sir William Jones, 

 upon what authority we know not, 

 has been recorded that immediately 

 before his dissolution he retired to 

 his closet, and expired in the aft of 

 adoration to his Creator. Such a 

 circumstance would have been con- 

 formable to his prevailing habits of 

 thinking and relleftion, but it is 

 not founded on fat^. 



The funeral ceremony was per- 

 formed 



