Royal Society. 137 



fertile in the production of great men *. He was one of a family of 

 seventeen children, which enjoyed the singular distinction of having 

 three of its members created Knights of the Bath in the same year. 

 At the early age of thirteen he was sent to India as a Cadet, and 

 learnt his first lessons of military service in the celebrated wars of 

 the Mysore ; and during an almost uninterrupted residence of nearly 

 forty years, he was employed both in civil and military duties, fre- 

 quently of great importance and difficulty, in almost every part of 

 Central India ; and it was chiefly owing to the opportunities afforded 

 by this long intercourse with the natives of all classes and nations, 

 aided by the system of carefully recording his observations of their 

 manners and customs, and by his perfect knowledge of their lan- 

 guages, that he was enabled to acquire the most intimate acquaint- 

 ance with their habits, their feelings and their prejudices, at the 

 same time that he secured, in a very uncommon degree, their confi- 

 dence and respect by his strict impartiality, and by his considerate 

 attention to their wants and their interests. 



He was twice sent as Ambassador to Persia, where he con- 

 ducted negotiations of great delicacy and difficulty in such a man- 

 ner as to maintain the honour, at the same time that he secured 

 the interests of the Government which he represented : he was, 

 in fact, eminently qualified for the discharge of such a duty by his 

 profound knowledge of the Persian language and literature, and by 

 the conformity of his own manners with those of that lively and 

 polished nation. Nor were the fruits of his mission political merely, 

 inasmuch as they led to the production of his History of Persia, 

 a work of great research and of standard value ; to his Persian, 

 Sketches, so remarkable for their wit and vivacity, and, I believe, 

 likewise for the truth of the pictures of manners which they furnish ; 

 and also to a volume of Poems, which display no inconsiderable 

 powers of versification. 



Sir John Malcolm was a voluminous writer, and amongst other 

 works may be particularly mentioned his Political History of the 

 Government of India, from the year 1784 to the Present Time; his 

 very interesting Sketch of the Sihks, and his History of Central In- 

 dia. In all his writings he has shown himself to be the friend of the 

 native population, and the zealous advocate of a system of govern- 

 ment such as would reconcile the interests of the governed with 

 those of the governors : and though he has very clearly demon- 

 strated that our Indian Empire must be progressive in order to be 

 permanent, and that external attacks upon it must not only be re- 

 pelled, but the means of renewing them either greatly weakened or 

 altogether removed, yet he stigmatizes with just reprobation the 

 commencement or continuance of wars of conquest merely, which 

 are not rendered necessary by previous and adequate provocation. 

 Upon all such subjects Sir John Malcolm was eminently entitled to 

 pronounce an authoritative opinion, from his great experience, both 

 military and civil, and from his almost unequalled knowledge of the 



* NapoK'im, Wellington! Cuvicr, fee. 

 Third Series. Vol. 4. No. 20. Feb. 1834. I 



