1835.] Biographical sketch of Col. Mackejizie. 263 



measures for authenticating and completing the collec- 

 tion^ in all its different departments of science and lite- 

 rature. 



As this subject was also referred to at the anniversary 

 meeting of the Royal Asiatic Society, held in May last,* 

 it may be proper to state, that the Council transmitted 

 an appKcation, through the Right Hon. the President 

 of the Society, to the Hon. Court of Directors of the 

 East India Company, soliciting it to avail itself of the 

 ready means now in its power, of laying open and bring- 

 ing into use the whole of this valuable collection.] 

 My dear Sill Alexander, 



1. No one can have a fairer claim than yourself to ex- 

 pect some account, however concise, of the nature of 

 those inquiries in which, you are aware, my curiosity, 

 if not my attachment to useful research, has induced me 

 to embark, for a great part of the term of a residence in 

 India which has now extended to several years. The 

 chief predisposing causes of a course so foreign to the 

 general habits of military men, and so little prepared for 

 by early instruction, it were unnecessary to enlarge up- 

 on on the present occasion ; I must, however, attribute 

 some part of them to the early seeds of passion for dis- 

 covery and acquisition of knowledge, and to ideas first 

 implanted in my native isle ; to these I may add a fur- 

 ther stimulus, in the contemplation of the opportunities 

 too often neglected or passed over in doubt, for want 

 of a conviction of the utility of those efforts, that, if 

 steadily directed, could, in many instances, acquire and 

 preserve a body of information, available for those more 

 regular processes of investigation which may be con- 

 ducted on more permanent principles. 



2. That in the midst of camps and the bustle of war, 

 and of travel and voyages, the human mind may be 



* See Journal of the Royal Asiatic Socicly, No. I. p. loo. 



