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lished " The Pleas of the Crown," which has been considered a text- 

 book on the Criminal Law of England. These literary professional 

 labours materially interfered with Mr. East's Bar-life on the Western 

 Circuit, and at the Exeter Quarter Sessions ; and he was obliged to 

 confine himself to particular cases. In the important constitutional 

 case of the corporation of Helleston he successfully distinguished 

 himself ; also before an Election Committee of the House of Com- 

 mons on Captain Preston's petition respecting the election for Ci- 

 rencester. At the period of the beginning of the French Revolution 

 Mr. East accepted a seat in Parliament for Great Bedwin, Wilts, 

 of which the Earl of Aylesbury was patron. Partaking in the ge- 

 neral enthusiasm of the country, which occasioned the volunteer 

 armament, he entered as a private in the London Light Horse Vo- 

 lunteers ; but about a year after, his neighbours in Bloomsbury 

 Square associated themselves in an independent company, of which 

 he was elected the commandant, and he bore the king's commission 

 for several years. In the House of Commons he carried through a 

 bill against considerable opposition, having the just and humane 

 object of preventing the arbitrary removals of the poor from parishes ; 

 and of this bill the late Sir Samuel Romilly said, he would rather 

 have been its author, than the author of any other act in George 

 the Third's reign. 



In 1800, impaired health induced Mr. East to resign his seat. In 

 1812, he applied for and obtained from Mr. Percival the office of 

 Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in Calcutta. Mr. Percival's 

 atrocious assassination, however, retarded the completion of the 

 patent ; but the appointment was confirmed by Lord Liverpool in 

 February 1813, and Mr. East was knighted. He continued in India 

 eight years ; and the friendly relations he maintained with the Go- 

 vernor-General advanced the public interests. He early mixed with 

 the native gentry, particularly the Hindoos, and finding a strong 

 desire among them for European knowledge, he projected a plan of 

 secular education ; and to work it ou^ a meeting of the native 

 gentry was convened at his own house in 1806, the Government not 

 taking any direct part in the institution of the project. A sub- 

 scription was opened, and' liberal contributions made, for securing 

 a building, the provision of instructors, &c. As various castes of 

 scholars were to meet under the same roof, a considerable innova- 

 tion would be effected on ancient prejudices. The European gentry 

 soon gave their aid, and the result was the Hindoo College, the pre- 

 cursor of the many noble educational institutions which the govern- 

 ments of India have established in the different Presidencies. 



Sir Edward East resigned his office ia January 1822, and re- 

 turned to England. Previously to his departure the native gentry 

 of Calcutta expressed their gratitude to him, in an address, for his 

 able and upright administration of the law, and particularly for the 

 stimulus he had given to native education by promoting the foun- 

 dation of the Hindoo College ; and in testimony of the sincerity of 

 their assurances, they had a statue of Sir Edward executed by the 

 hands of Chantry, and placed in the Grand Jury Room of Calcutta. 



