Preface. xi 



India, may be restored in health before long to the country to 

 which his best years have been devoted, to renew his useful la- 

 bours there, and to gather fresh laurels in the field of its Science 

 and antiquarian Research. 



It is now 19 years since Mr. James Prinsep arrived 

 amongst us, a boy in age, wanting perhaps the finish of classic 

 scholarship which is conferred at the public schools and univer- 

 sities of England, but well grounded in Chemistry, Mechanics,and 

 all useful sciences. He came to India as Assistant to Dr. Wilson, 

 in the Assay Office at Calcutta ; but, after a residence of little 

 more than a year, was removed to Benares to take indepen- 

 dent charge of the same department in the mint of that city. At 

 Benares he remained for nearly 10 years, during the better 

 part of which he superintended also works of improvement in 

 the city, with many of which, as of more than common inge- 

 nuity and usefulness, his name is still associated; but his memo- 

 ry survives yet more in the recollection of the many estimable 

 qualities, which endeared him to ail classes of the population. 



Upon the Mint of Benares being abolished in 1830, he resum- 

 ed his post in Calcutta, and was soon after employed in complet- 

 ing the canal and locks to connect the Hoogly river with the 

 Salt Water Lake and Sundurbuns, which had been commenced 

 by a brother, who was attached to the Bengal Engineers, 

 but who met a sudden and violent death by a fall from his 

 horse. The work being completed with skill, he was present- 

 ed with a handsome and quite unexpected gratuity by the thrif- 

 ty Government of Lord Wm. Bentinck. Soon after this, Mr. 

 Wilson returning to Europe, Mr. James Prinsep found it 

 necessary to confine himself to the duties of the Assay Office, 

 which superadded to the laborious scientific pursuits and re- 

 searches in which he was engaged, afforded full employment for 

 his time. A change of currency, to which his advice conduced, 

 brought an accession of official duty in the Assay Department, 

 while at the same time the success which attended his re- 

 searches in the depths of science, and his attempts to illustrate 

 the antiquities of the country to which he was devoted, stimu- 

 lated him to exertions in that line also, under which his consti- 

 tution at length sank. After righting fruitlessly against the 

 approaches of disease for a couple of months, he was at last 



