158 JACK'S LETTERS TO WALLICH, 1819-1821. 



Governor of this Island; could I waste time and paper on details, 

 the picture would astonish you. The fact of the matter is he is 

 a weak man, with violence of temper sufficient to commit anv 

 folly or absurdity, and is entirely under the influence of one of the 

 members of council, an artful designing character, utterly devoid 

 of principle, who is the prime mover of all mischief, without ap- 

 pearing as a principal, and who does not care to what extremities 

 he urges the other while he himself remains secure from the 

 consequences. I wish I could convey to you some idea of the 

 reverse of this picture, and contrast the activity and comprehen- 

 siveness of Sir Stamford's mind, with the narrow contracted spirit 

 displayed in the other, which is almost too contemptible to be 

 ridiculous. Were it not painful to see a British Governor so un- 

 worthy of his situation, I could really be amused, the whole is so 

 perfect a burlesque upon politics. " Du sublime an ridicule n'est 

 qu'un pas " was one of Bonaparte's observations, and really the 

 only difference is often in the scale on which they are performed. 

 That in fast is all that distinguishes an Iliad from a Batra- 

 chomvomachia. When a horde of Pindarries commits a few de- 

 preciations and a Governor-General takes the held with the whole 

 armed force of Hindostan to suppress them, it is grand I 2 "' but if 

 a Governor of Penang endeavours to place a king on the throne 

 of Acheen, the trumpet of fame is silent, and yet neither of them 

 perhaps surpasses in foresight and contrivance a wily school boy 

 forming a scheme for the plunder of an orchard. Enough how- 

 ever upon this subject. I wish you had added to the list of names 

 of Malacca trees and plants, the scientific names of such as you 

 knew, it would rather have been an assistance. There are two or 

 three of the first' named, the Eambay and Dookoo 2 ' 5 for instance, 

 whose fruit I have met with, but not the flowers, and have not 

 therefore been able to determine yet. I shall add the Linnean 

 names as I discovered them. Have you in the garden the Bua. 



25. Jack, like another botanist, Francis Buchanan-Hamilton, felt no 

 strong attachment towards the Marquess of Hastings : and from the way 

 in which he writes to Wallich it appears as if his sentiments were shared; 

 but their cause does not transpire in these letters. Buchanan-Hamilton 

 had been treated at the close of his Indian career, as if he could shut up 

 his interests like a tedious novel, and on a minute by the Marquess of 

 Hastings the materials were clumsily withheld from him that he had 

 gathered together to take to the India House there to elaborate in re- 

 tirement. That years after, he still held himself unjustly treated is 

 evident from the advice which he gave to Wallich to keep control of his 

 collections. It may have been this: but is likely to have been something 

 complex, which caused the feelings held by Jack. 



Jack alludes here to the circumstance that Lord Hastings had called 

 out in 1817, 116,000 infantry and cavalry, with 300 guns, which as Marsh- 

 man remarks (History of India, ii. p. 327) was a force "out of all pro- 

 portion to the simple object of extinguishing bands of marauders who 

 never stood attack." But events justified Hastings; and Jack's remark 

 is that of a boy in politics. 



26. Baccaurea motleyana, Hook. f. and Lansium domesticum, Jack. 



Jour. Straits B ranch 



