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THE

MONTHLY REVIEW.

APRIL, 1830.

ART. I.-Memoir of the Life and Public Services of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, F.R.S., &c., particularly in the Government of Java, 1811-1816, and of Bencoolen and its Dependencies, 1817-1824; with Details of the Commerce and Resources of the Eastern Archipelago, and selections from his Correspondence. By his Widow. 4to. pp. 823. London: Murray. 1830.

SIR Thomas Munro, the memoirs of whose life we noticed in our last number, might be said to have served as a prototype in many things for Sir Stamford Raffles. Each rose by the force of his talents and industry, in the service of the East India Company, from an obscure to a considerably exalted station; both were men of exceedingly energetic minds, fitted by nature for the organization and government of uncivilised communities, and so independent in their thoughts and modes of action, that it was with difficulty they even yielded to superior authority. Sir Thomas Munro, with some of that tact or pliancy which is supposed to characterise Scotchmen in general, contrived, however, to stand well with those who had the direction of his destiny, at the same time that he preserved his opinions. The Englishman had the misfortune to forget sometimes that he was a servant at all, and during the greater part of his career was looked upon with jealousy, if not distrust, by those who found it necessary to employ him. In Java, he sold the lands of the Company without consulting them, or any of their officers; he introduced reforms, and adopted measures, on a scale that was suited only to the permanent possession of that island by British power. His political measures in Sumatra drew down upon him the censure of the Court, particularly his emancipation of the Company's slaves, as also his establishment of a station for the suppression of the slave trade, both of which acts were not only unauthorised, but in direct opposition to the Company's interests. He was, in fact, too sanguine a man, too enthusiastic in his theories of public good; he had too benevo

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lent a heart, and too strong a head, to be a thorough subaltern any where, but especially in a sphere fifteen thousand miles distant from the seat of control.

In their attachment to literature and science, Sir Thomas and Sir Stamford also, in some measure, resembled each other. Here, however, the latter greatly outshines the former. The "History of Java," and the publication of Mr. Finlayson's account of the Mission to Siam, connect Sir Stamford's name with our literary annals; whereas Sir Thomas Munro has left nothing behind him but a mass of official documents, luminously framed indeed, and well expressed, but destined only for the lumber room. The fondness of the Governor of Madras for science, was limited to chemistry, in which he made no figure; while, to the Governor of Bencoolen's pursuit of zoology, we are chiefly indebted for the formation of one of the greatest ornaments of this metropolis, the gardens in the Regent's Park, which may be said already to rival the Jardin des Plantes, the great boast of Paris.

Considering that this Memoir is edited by Lady Raffles, we should wish to speak of it, in a critical point of view, with the greatest possible indulgence. We must, at the same time, observe, that she has not been well advised as to the plan which she has followed on this occasion. The paragraphs which are scattered through the work for the purpose of connecting the correspondence with which it is filled, are too few to deserve the title of a Memoir; the letters introduced are many of them mere repetitions of the same topics, addressed to different persons; and the pervading fault of the whole is, that they relate to possessions, the most important of which are no longer British, and all of which are at so great a distance from England, that they excite amongst us scarcely the slightest interest. When to these objections we add that all these letters are collected in a thick quarto volume, of more than eight hundred pages, costing two guineas and a half, at a period when we may literally purchase a cabinet library for that sum, we hope we may be allowed to say, that Lady Raffles' literary advisers did not much understand what they were about. The facts connected with Sir Stamford's life, which are found in this volume, might have been detached from the letters, and wrought into a highly interesting memoir; and if such a work had been well executed, and comprised in a single octavo, as it easily might have been, we have no doubt that it would have been popular; whereas in the form in which his life is now published, it will necessarily be confined to a very limited circulation.

Though we have spoken of Sir Stamford Raffles as an Englishman, yet, in point of fact, he was rather a West Indian, having been born on board the ship Ann, off the harbour of Port Morant, in the Island of Jamaica, on the 5th of July, 1781. His paternal grandfather held for a long time, with unblemished character, a situation in the Prerogative Office, Doctor's Commons; and his

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