1847.] WaUam Grijfiih, Esq., F, L. S, 



191 



It might have been supposed that the services of such a man would 

 not only have been eagerly employed by the Government he served, 

 but would have led to honor and emolument and to the enjoyment of 

 that leisure so necessary for the elaboration of philosophical specula- 

 tions. Such however was not the case. And this is the more extraor- 

 dinary as the latter years of Mr. Griffith's life were passed under the 

 auspices of a nobleman who more than any other Governor General 

 extended his patronage to scientific pursuits. Whether it be from pre- 

 judice or indifference or ignorance or from whatever other cause, certain 

 it is, that such avocations are considered to form the peculiar province 

 of foreigners and to be altogether unsuited to the EngHsh character. 

 While the rare merits of Mr. Griffith were overlooked and he was 

 painfully pm'suing his unaided researches on the pittance of an As- 

 sistant Surgeon's pay, a foreigner of infinitely inferior pretensions 

 was placed at the head of a scientific expedition to the Tenasserim 

 Provinces on a salary of 1,300 Rupees a month with every collateral 

 support and assistance. 



It is from the same cause that notwithstanding the unparalleled 

 faciUties aflEbrded by British domination in India, the harvest of dis- 

 covery has been so largely reaped by strangers whilst Englishmen 

 have been content to look supinely on. Hence the just celebrity at- 

 taching to the names of Sonnerat, Leschenault, Duvaucel, Diard, 

 Delessert, whose labors were promoted and encouraged by their own 

 Governments and by the learned societies to which they belonged. 

 While during the same period the indifference of scientific bodies 

 and public men among ourselves, overlooked the opportunities of 

 turning to account, the talents and exertions of a Buchanan, an 

 Anderson, a Jack, a Griffith, a Hodgson. 



The evidence borne to Mr. Griffith's merit since his death, has been 

 as general as the regret for his untimely loss has been sincere and 

 deep felt. His friend and fellow laborer Dr. M'Clelland at once an- 

 nounced the abandonment of the Calcutta Journal of Natural His- 

 tory on account of the loss of its most able supporter and proposed 

 to devote the unsold copies to the formation of a fund for the pub- 

 lication of his extensive Manuscripts. He was subsequently how- 

 ever prevailed on to continue the publication, and he soon afterwards 

 published the Memoir of his life, which couched in language of ge- 

 nerous enthusiasm, appeared in the IV. Volume of the Agri-Horti- 

 cultural Society's Journal. 



