CONTENTS. Page Commencement of the British Intercourse with India; and the Circumstances of its progress, till the Establishment of the Com- pany on a durable Basis by the Act of the Sixth of Queen Anne.. From the Commencement of the Efforts to begin a Trade with India, till the Change of the Company from a regulated to a Joint- From the Change of the Company into a Joint-stock Company, in 1612, till the Formation of the third Joint-stock in 1631-2.... 30 From the Formation of the third Joint-stock, in 1632, till the Coalition of the Company with the Merchant Adventurers in 1657. 65 From the Project of forming a new and rival Company, till the Union of the two Companies by the Award of Godolphin, in the PREFACE OF THE EDITOR. In the Preface to the History of British India, Mr. Mill has claimed for himself the merits of patient and laborious investigation, and of original and independent judgment. The claim is substantiated by his work. His history is remarkable for extensive and diligent research, and for opinions which are peculiar either to the author, or to the school of which he was a distinguished disciple. Whilst, however, the historian of British India has derived the facts which he relates from numerous and diversified sources of information, and has investigated those sources with undeniable industry and unquestionable talent, it is not to be imagined that his labours have in every instance been rewarded with success, or that he has left nothing unexplored. He has himself taken pains to guard against such an expectation, He acknowledges that his opportunities of consulting published authorities were sometimes transient and precarious, that in some things, the unpublished documents of which he had need were not accessible to him; and that in the latter portion of his work, which may be regarded as almost contemporary history, he was in want of much personal information which he believed to exist, and which might have rendered his narrative richer, and perhaps more accurate in matters of detail. To supply in some degree the b VOL. I. omissions, and to correct the inaccuracies which have arisen from these causes, as far as additional materials supply the means, is one of the objects of the present publication. Many of the documents, and much of the personal information which Mr. Mill desiderated, have been given to the public since he wrote, and various valuable works, comprehending periods and transactions of which he treats, have furnished facilities for clearly understanding, and definitively appreciating much that was dark and doubtful at the date of his inquiries. Of these publications, it is sufficient here to specify the works of Sir John Malcolm, the biographies of Clive and Munro, and the Indian portion of the despatches of Marquis Wellesley and the Duke of Wellington. Besides the defects occasioned by incomplete materials, the History of British India presents inaccuracies both of fact and opinion, which have arisen from the author's imperfect knowledge of the country, and unacquaintance with any of the languages spoken in it. He has taken great pains to prove that these deficiencies are of no consideration, and that his never having been in India, and his possessing but a slight and elementary acquaintance with any of the languages of the East, are to be regarded rather as qualifications than disqualifications for the task which he had undertaken. His arguments are ingenious: they will carry conviction but to few. It is true that residence in a country, command of its dialects, conversancy with its literature, are but humble elements in the formation of the historical character; but they are elements, and cannot be discarded without injury to the consistency and com |