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due allowance for human frailty, would find more to lament than 

 to blame, in such defects. But when it is considered that almost 

 all these deaths occur in the first four or five days after admission, 

 and that scarcely any disease has been observed among the patients 

 but the direct effects of famine, we shall probably view the mor- 

 tality as a proof of the deplorable state of the patients, rather than 

 of any defects in the hospital; and instead of making the hospi- 

 tal answerable for the deaths, we shall deem it entitled to credit for 

 the life of every single survivor. 



" Those who know me, will need no assurances that I have 

 not made these observations from a motive so unworthy of my 

 station and my character, as that of paying court to any govern- 

 ment. I am actuated by far other motives. I believe that know- 

 ledge on subjects so important cannot be too widely promulgated. 

 I believe, if every government on earth were bound to give an 

 annual account, before an audience whom they respected, and 

 who knew the facts, of what they had done during the year for 

 improving the condition of their subjects, that this single and ap- 

 parently slight circumstance would better the situation of all man- 

 kind; and I am desirous, if any British government in India, 

 should ever, in similar calamitous circumstances, forget its most 

 important and sacred duties, that this example should be recorded 

 for their reproach and disgrace. 



" Upon the whole, I am sure that I considerably understate 

 the fact in saying, that the British government in this island has 

 sat ' the lives of one hundred thousand persons; and, what 

 is more important, that it has prevented the greater part of the 



