THE HISTORY OF

BRITISH INDIA.

FROM 1805 TO 1835.

BY HORACE HAYMAN WILSON, M.A. F.R.S.

MEMBER OF THE ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY AND OF THE ASIATIC SOCIETIES OF PARIS AND
CALCUTTA; OF THE IMPERIAL SOCIETY OF NATURALISTS OF MOSCOW;

OF THE ROYAL ACADEMIES OF BERLIN AND MUNICH, ETC. ETC.;

AND BODEN PROFESSOR OF SANSCRIT IN THE
UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD.

VOLUME I.

LONDON:

JAMES MADDEN AND CO.,

SUCCESSORS TO PARBURY & CO. 8, LEADENHALL STREET.

M.DCCC.XLV.

226. a. 159.

LONDON:

Printed by S. & J. BENTLEY, WILSON, and FLEY,

Bangor House, Shoe Lane.

ADVERTISEMENT.

WHEN I Consented to carry a new edition of Mill's History of British India through the press, I engaged to continue the History to the date at which the East India Company's charter was last renewed. The engagement was somewhat ill-considered. It was acceded to under an anticipation that the task could be accomplished with comparative facility, as a residence in Bengal during nearly the entire interval had made me familiar with the general course of the events which had occurred, and some of which I had at various times attempted to record. It was soon evident that I had much miscalculated.

However lively the impression which had been made by the interesting and important character of the transactions I had witnessed, I felt it to be my duty, before undertaking to narrate them, to consult all the available authorities of an original and authentic description in which they were to be traced. Foremost among these were the valuable but volumi

nous Records at the India House; an unreserved access to which was readily granted by Sir John Hobhouse, the President of the Board of Controul, and W. B. Bayley, Esq., then Chairman of the Court of Directors. The obligation of making use of this privilege, however imperfectly, has caused an amount of labour and expenditure of time far exceeding my expectations.

Beside the manuscript volumes, to which the great bulk of the Records is necessarily confined, very extensive portions of them have been occasionally printed by order of Parliament, or under the authority of the Court of Directors. To these, also, it was necessary to refer, and the reference was not effected without incurring additional trouble and delay.

The third and last class of authorities to which extensive application has been made, consists of the published accounts of persons engaged or interested in the occurrences which they have related. There is a great body of contemporary evidence of this description, varying in merit and in weight, but exacting attention from all who wish to obtain an accurate knowledge of the origin and progress of events. The perusal in more or less detail of as many publications of this class as I could meet with, has contributed to retard the completion of my task beyond the limits within which I had trusted that it would have been concluded.