To uphold the weak, to put down lawless force,
to lighten the chain of the slave, to sustain the honour
of the British arms and British good faith; to promote
the arts, sciences, and literature, to establish humane
institutions, are duties of government which have been
most conspicuously performed during your Royal Highness’s
regency. For a period of nearly five years, in
which I have had the honour* as a servant of the East-
India Company, to preside over a mild and simple people,
it has been my pride and my ambition to make known
to them the justice and benevolence of my Prmee, whose
intentions towards them I could only fulfil by acting
up to the principles of the Authority which I represented,,
and by doing every thing in my power to make them happy»
To those who judge that the right to express their
sentiments requires no more than sincerity* or that their
praise is, of a value to overbalance the disrespect of offering
it, I shall leave the usual language of dedications.
Conscious
D E D I C A T I O N . vii
Conscious that the assurances of respect and of loyal
attachment can never be offered to your Royal Highness
by the humblest British subject, without meeting a
gracious reception,
I have the honour to be,
With profound veneration and respect,
S IR ,
Y O U R R O Y A L H IG H N E S S ’S
Most faithful and most dutiful servant,
THOMAS STAMFORD RAFFLES.