70 MEMOIR OP 



the power, prosperity, and grandeur of one of the 

 principal and most respected states in Europe, ha* 

 been thus wrested from the short usurpation of the 

 French government, added to the dominion of the 

 British crown, and converted from a state of hostile 

 machination and commercial competition, into an 

 augmentation of British power and prosperity." 



The government of this new " empire" was be- 

 stowed with a feeling and confidence honourable 

 to the giver, and no less gratifying to the person 

 in whom such a high and noble trust was reposed. 

 His Lordship, says Lady Raffles in her Memoir, 

 " though partly pledged to another, declared he 

 could not conscientiously withhold it from him 

 who had won it; and, therefore, as an acknow- 

 ledgement of the services he had rendered, and 

 in consideration of his peculiar fitness for the 

 office, he immediately appointed Mr. Raffles to 

 it, under the title of Lieutenant-Governor of Java, 

 and its dependencies." 



Of his administration, and especially of his great 

 services to natural science during the four years he 

 held that office, we have already given some ac- 

 count ; the causes of his returning to England have 

 also been noticed ; as \vell as the employment of 

 his leisure time there in writing his History. His 

 great object in undertaking this laborious work, 

 says his widow, " was to record the information 

 which he had collected regarding Java. The island 

 had been transferred by the English government, in 



