newly-created office of deputy-speaker of the house of lords. Varicus opinions existed about the necessity of the office, but there was no diversity of opinion about the fitness of the man, and it was universally owned that he was selected for his fitness. The journals of parliament will attest the speed with which he removed the mass of undecided appeals, and the unanimous applause of Scotch lawyers is the best evidence of the wisdom, learning, and justice with which he accomplished that arduous task. Among the numerous body who have risen from the middle classes to the highest stations of the law, it will be hard to name any individual who owed his preferment more certainly to a belief of his merit than Lord Gifford, or who possessed more of those virtues which are most fitted to disarm the jealousy naturally attendant on great and sudden advancement." Sir Stamford Raffles. BORN A. D. 1781.-DIED A. D. 1826. SIR STAMFORD RAFFLES was born at sea, in the West Indies, in 1781. Having obtained a situation in early life in the India House, his good conduct recommended him to the notice of his superiors, and in 1805 he was sent out as assistant-secretary in the Pulo-Penang establishment. Ardent, laborious, and inquisitive, young Raffles soon acquired a more complete knowledge of the languages, customs, and feelings, of the Malay tribes than any other European possessed, and rendered invaluable service to Lord Minto in the reduction of Java in 1810. So great was the confidence which his lordship placed in Mr Raffles, that he appointed him lieutenant-governor of this immense island and its dependencies. "In order," says his amiable biographer, "to appreciate the difficulties of the situation in which Mr Raffles was placed, the extent of the changes which it was requisite to introduce, and the views which he formed of the principles of government, it will be necessary to advert very briefly to one or two leading principles of the Dutch rule. One of the chief sources of the Dutch revenue was the monopoly by government of the grain and other produce of the land, which the cultivators were required to deliver at an inadequate and arbitrary rate, which articles were afterwards dealt out to the consumer at a far higher price, so that, in fact, the whole body of the people depended on the government for their very subsistence. The principle of encouraging industry in the cultivation and improvement of the country, by creating an interest in the effort and fruits of that industry, was wholly unknown. The mode of collecting this revenue in kind remained with the regent of the district, leaving the cultivators no security beyond the claims of usage and custom; and although custom prescribed a certain portion only of the crop to be delivered, there were no positive means of preventing a greater levy. Thus, while the power and influence of authority could be successfully exerted to stifle complaints, the peasant, though suffering the greatest injustice, despairing of relief, would en dure almost any privation and suffering, rather than quit the land of his forefathers, to which he felt himself attached by the strongest ties of religion, of habit, and of affection. Feudal service was another of the grievances and oppressions under which the natives groaned. No means existed of affording a direct control on the demands for labour. The public officers of the Dutch government universally employed the services of the people without regular hire. Their demands were unlimited. The native chiefs followed the same system. No check existed; and thus the energies of the people were crushed, and their labour frittered away, becoming productive neither to themselves nor to the state. In short, they were reduced to the lowest state of vassalage and subjection. To this ruinous system was to be added the pressure arising from the failure of external commerce. The Dutch government, forced to look within itself for relief, discovered the embarrassments to be daily increasing. Under this exigency, the funds of public societies were appropriated to the government treasury; and the private property of individuals was forcibly borrowed in the same manner. An arbitrary increase of paper-currency was issued, to provide for the daily expenses of the state; and this being found inadequate, the government were compelled to deliver a proportion of colonial produce in payment of these establishments, or, in other words, to pawn the produce in store, to satisfy the current demands upon the public treasury. Such was the financial state of the country at the period when the English assumed the administration of Java. It would be endless to notice the difficulties and obstacles which occurred in the establishment of a pure and upright administration. Not only was the whole system, previously pursued by the Dutch, to be subverted, but an entire new one substituted, as pure and liberal as the old one was vicious and contracted; and this was to be accomplished and carried into effect by the very persons who had so long fattened on the vices of the former policy. Some few were sufficiently enlightened to perceive the advantages of the new system: two of these, Mr Cransen and Mr Muntinghe, on this account, were regarded by Mr Raffles with the highest esteem. Those who know how difficult it is to carry on a government, even where the choice of agents is great, where each well knows the duty which he has to perform, and where the state of society is such, that every man acts as a check upon his neighbour, will be able to appreciate the labour and the anxiety which devolved on Mr Raffles, when Lord Minto left him to arrange the details of that system of which they had together formed the outline. Buoyant in spirit and firm in courage, when once he had adopted a right principle of action, Mr Raffles was keenly alive to the difficult and arduous task which he had to perform; responsible for all, at a distance from any superior authority, without one individual with whose principles he was acquainted, and of whose abilities he had any experience; yet forced to set the wheel of government in motion, and to watch its progress with unceasing attention, whilst all the details of every department were to be formed by himself; nothing but the facility of arrangement which he possessed could have accomplished so much with so little assistance, and in so short a time. The manner and time of bringing about this change, however, required the most serious consideration; and before he took any decided step in the new organization, he instituted statistical inquiries in every district, and collected the most detailed information in every department; the result of which convinced him that a thorough change in system was not only advisable and practicable, but indispensable, no less for the interests and honour of the British government, than for the happiness and prosperity of the country at large. He examined minutely every department; drew up himself every detail and instruction for the agents which he employed, and with all the courage of a pure and ardent mind, commenced that thorough reform, which with unwearied assiduity he laboured to establish during the whole period of his administration." The success of Mr Raffles's administration could be only feebly judged of from the fact that he raised its revenue from half-a-million to four millions sterling. He effectually gained the good-will and confidence of the natives; he established a vigilant and effective magistracy; he disseminated the blessings of education throughout the island; he explored its natural history and resources; and he gave to the world an admirable natural and political history of this most important and interesting island. Our miserable negotiations at the close of the war deprived us of this most valuable acquisition, and replaced the Javanese under their brutal masters the Dutch. Sir Stamford who had been knighted while on a visit to England in 1817now addressed himself to the organization of a central station within the Archipelago, such as might secure a free passage to China through the straits of Malacca. With this view he fixed upon the island of Singapore, which soon became a valuable and flourishing settlement under his governorship. Sir Stamford returned to England in bad health in 1824, and died in 1826. Francis Rawdon-Hastings, Earl of Moira. BORN A. D. 1754.-DIED A. D. 1826. It is not certain THE house of Rawdon is of very great antiquity. whether it was settled in England before the Conquest, but the family possesses the title-deed of their estate, granted by William the Conqueror; a part of which estate the present earl still enjoys. The following lines, taken from the original deed, have been preserved by John Weever, in his Funeral Monuments:' I Wyllyam, king, the thurd yere of my reigne, Give to thee aulyn Roydon, Hope and Hopetowne, Wyth al the landes up and downe, From heven to yerth, from yerth to hel, For thee and thyne ther to dwel, As truly as thys kyng ryght is myne, For a crosse-bow and an arrow When I sal come to hunt on Yarrow: The family appears to have given name to a town in Yorkshire, about three miles from Leeds. Sir Marmaduke Rawdon, Knt., was a staunch royalist, and a most active and intrepid commander in the unfortunate |