i FRANCIS HAMILTON (ONCE BUCHANAN). xliii 
deprived of the drawings relating to natural history a few days before be sailed 
He was not, as the letter of 31st January 1815 shows, asked to give up esos 
except those drawings that dealt with animal and vegetable productions, and iiis x 
no indication that he did give up anything else. At all events his аа of Indian 
scenery, some of them of a quite spirited character, are still in safe keeping at Leny 
That Buchanan felt the deprivation we gather from his letter to Government нер" 
18th February 1815, on the occasion of his making over the collection to Quan n: 
and from a subsequent publie reference to the subjeet, made іп 1891, which from its 
bearing on ап incident that has given rise to some controversy i Erga to be 
quoted in full:—' | 
“While preparing for the journey I was deprived by the Marquis of Hastings of all the botani 
cal drawings which had been made under my inspection during my last stay in India; اف‎ 
they would have been deposited, with my other collections, in the library at the India Не В 
this ill-judged act of authority, unworthy of this nobleman’s character, the drawings will нб 
һә totally lost to the publie. То me as an individual they were of no value, as I preserve no 
collection, and as 1 have no occasion to convert them into money.” 
How far Buchanan’s criticism of the action of the Marquis of Hastings is justi- 
fied has been much disputed, some agreeing with Buchanan, indeed going far beyond 
what Buchanan has stated, since they accuse His Excellency of having deprived 
Buchanan of what was his private property. This latter accusation is perfectly 
groundless and is as unjust to Buchanan as it is to Lord Hastings. . 
"When, morever, this exercise of his authority is considered, it is necessary to 
recolect that the Marquis of Hastings was far from being indifferent to scientific 
studies and pursuits: he had, on the contrary, much sympathy with, and took great 
interest in, matters pertaining to science generally, as we learn from a contemporary 
allusion in a letter to Roxburgh from Jannet, then in charge of the Jardin de 
Reduit, dated October 20th, 1818 :— 
“A la requisition du Noble Lord Moira qui a visité ce Jardin en savant botaniste, eto." 
and as we know from the fact that the Marquis (then Earl of Moira) accepted the 
post of President as well as Patron of the Asiatic Society at Caleutta in 1815 and 
again in 1822. 
‘M’Clelland, who champions Buchanan’s cause во warmly that he allows himself 
to alter what Buchanan actually said,? nevertheless admits that— 
* In deciding that Buchanan’s papers should be retained in India, it may be presumed that the 
object was that they should here be rendered more useful to the country than they could be in 
England. It could scarcely have occurred to the Marquis of Hastings that these works would be 
consigned to oblivion and the author in consequence superseded by his successors.” . 
It is not necessary to do more than to remark that in the official correspondence - 
the question of Buchanan’s papers did not arise; the subject of discussion was such 
of his drawings as pertained to natural history generally and were moreover already 
the property of Government. Day, who deals soberly with what M'Clelland treats | 
Saec CN pe Poo 77 лы D алман есте - - 
1 Trans, Roy. Soc. Edinb. x. 186. 
1 Asiatic Researches six, 219; foot note. 
G2 
