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Proceedings of Societies. 



[July 



optics, and astronomy, there being a building erected upon the roof, in which 

 plane and spherical trigonometry were to be taught ; two orreries were to be erect* 

 ed, the one illustrating the Ptolemaic, the other the Copernican, system of the 

 universe, and lectures were to be given in Tamil, Telugu, Malay alam, and Cana* 

 rese, pointing out the superior utility of the Copernican over the Ptolemaic system* 

 aud the great practical utility to which the sciences of Europe might be applied in 

 every department of practical knowledge. Mr. Mackenzie, smntly after he had 

 finished this building for my father, was obliged to quit Madura on account of the 

 public service, and the plan of the college was, owing to his absence, not then car- 

 ried into effect. Mr. Mackenzie, some years afterwards, on passing through 

 Madura in 1796, on his way to superintend the siege of Colombo, had extensive 

 communications with several persons in the province of Madura, and in the other 

 southern provinces, as to the practicability of recovering all the ancient 

 histories of Madura, and of the other places in the south of the peninsula; and, 

 in consequence of the result of such communication, formed a regular plan, which 

 he studiously carried on for twenty-five years, for making the immense collection 

 of historical materials, which forms the present Mackenzie Collection. In 18! 6, 

 Colonel Mackenzie, finding his health rapidly declining, and anxious to leave 

 some account of his collection behind him, in case of his death, asked me, with 

 whom he had been acquainted from my earliest youth, to meet him at Madras, 

 •when he addressed a letter to me, which has been since published,* giving me a 

 general view of his researches iu India ; with a request, that I would, in case of 

 his dying before he had been able to arrange and publish a more detailed account 

 of his collection, have it printed and publisned in such a manner as I might think 

 proper. As I returned to England soon after, I mentioned the whole subject to 

 She late Mr. Charles Grant, who was then Chairman of the Court of Directors, and 

 he, in consequence of the circumstances which I mentioned to him, determined to 

 propose to the court, that Colonel Mackenzie should be permitted to come to Eng- 

 land, on his full pay and allowances, and remain in England three years, for the 

 purpose of arranging and publishing such an account of the materials he had col- 

 lected, as would enable some person to write from them an authentic history, 

 ancient and modern, of the southern peninsula of India. However, accounts of 

 Colonel Mackenzie's death having reached England some time after, no further 

 steps were taken upon the subject. I published the letter which Colonel Macken- 

 zie had addiessed to me, and wrote to Lord Hastings, the then Governor General 

 of British India, pointing out to him the great expense Colonel Mackenzie had 

 been at in making the collection, amounting to upwards of 15,000/., and expressing 

 my opinion of the great utility of which such a collection might be to the British 

 Government of India. Lord Hastings having ascertained upon the spot the value 

 and extent of this collection, with his usual liberality and feeling for all scientific 

 aud literary pursuits, purchased it from Colonel Mackenzie's widow for 10,000/. 

 A catalogue of it, in two volumes, has been made by Mr. Wilson, the Professor of 

 Sanskrit at Oxford ; one portion of the collection is in the Company's library in 

 England, the other portion is in India. On the enquiries which took place before 

 Parliament, two years ago, relative to British India, I was examined before a Com- 

 mittee of the House as to this collection ; and felt it to be my duty, not only to 

 express my opinion as to its value, but to point out the necessity of measures being 

 immediately taken by the British government for enabling the two Houses of Le- 

 gislature to avail themselves of the information contained in it, by employing our 



S:e Journal of the Koj a! Asiatic Society, vol. 1, p. 133, 



