Ixx A SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF 
this duty, the intimate acquaintance and friendship ‘which was established between us enabled me 
to appreciate the integrity, independence, and frankness of your character, and the manly spirit of 
truth and honor which animated your intercourse with all persons in power. | 
These advantages furnish me with the certain means, not only of anticipating the high suocess 
which must attend your work, but of estimating the benefit which must accrue to my reputation from 
your publie declaration of our mutual esteem. 
Be assured that I take a strong interest іп your happiness and welfare, and rejoice in the ease 
and comfort of your situation. 
If you should approach London, I hope to see you at this place, where you will always find 
the most friendly reception from, dear Sir, your most faithful and obliged servant." 
It is often said that the Court of Directors suppressed Hamilton's journals and 
reports relating to the survey of Bengal. It certainly is unfortunate, as the editorial 
preface to the attempt to publish them from the Calcutta copy іп 1833 says— 
"that those valuable documents were not given to the public when stamped with the interest 
of originality and immediate applicability to the actual circumstances of the districts, and when they 
would have proved of great utility. to the publie officers of Government." | : 
This one immediately admits, and one is constrained further to regret that the 
publie interest in the reports proved to be so slight that it was not considered advisable 
by the Government of Bengal and the Caleutta Editors to continue the series beyond 
the first, or Dinajpur, report. 
The Court of Directors perhaps only anticipated what the Caleutta editors themselves 
experienced; at any rate the accusation that the reports were suppressed either because 
they were deemed of no value or because they contained matter which it would 
be dangerous to publish? may be dismissed at once. The only danger that could 
conceivably arise must have been with regard to transfrontier information; yet the bulk 
of this Hamilton was, as a matter of fact, allowed to publish in his accounts of 
Nepal and Assam, That the Court did not depreciate the value of the documents is 
clear; even аб the time when Hamilton complains of the arrogance and contempt 
. Shown towards his collections there is no suggestion that this feeling was exhibited 
towards his reports. On the contrary we find that the Court gave full permission to 
Walter Hamilton to consult the whole, and to incorporate as much of the topographical 
and statistical information that they contained as was necessary for his purpose іп. 
his work on Hindustan ;° this information is there always fully acknowledged. We 
find too that the Court gave full permission to Colebrooke to publish any extracts 
he might care to edit for the Royal Asiatic Society's Transactions, That anything 
sinister, or indeed that anything careless, underlay the long suppression of these manu- 
scripta is therefore not only unproven but improbable. In ali likelihood the question was 
mainly a financial one, and while one may regret the circumstance, there is little 
doubt that the Court deemed it impossible ut the time to vote the funds 
to meet their publication. It will be noticed th required , 
at when in 18:0 Hamilton was 
' Account of Dinajpur, Editorial preface. 
* Higginbotham; Меп India has known, р. 41, 
* Walter Hamilton: A Geographical, Statistical and Historical descrip 
countries, In two volumes. 3 vols, 4. London: 1820, 
author cites freely Hamilton's Mysore journal, 
À tion of Hindustan aia the adjacent 
In his East India Gazetteer published in 1315 this 
