tivation continued to interest him to the latest period of his life. A Committee having been appointed to prepare a petition to Parliament, he was elected one of the agents deputed to present it. The thanks of the Committee were voted to him for his speech, and he afterwards appeared at the bar of the House of Commons with the petition; on which occasion his elder brother, who had been retained as counsel, spoke in support of it with a force of argument and eloquence which increased his reputation as one of the most accomplished advocates of the age. This display of kindred talents in defence of the same interests, by relatives so near in blood, was among the remarkable features of an era, alike distinguished by striking characters, and prolific in extraordinary events.

On arriving in England, Mr. Dallas found Mr. Hastings in a situation which engaged the sympathy of every generous mind, and appealed more earnestly to those who, like himself, were attached to that illustrious statesman by the ties of gratitude and affection. Anxious to counteract the false impressions which prevailed upon a subject at that time imperfectly understood, he published in 1789 a pamphlet in vindication of Mr. Hastings's character and services. His accurate knowledge of the political state of India eminently qualified him for the task he had undertaken; and, in this eloquent and instructive treatise, he traced with effect that splendid series of actions by which Mr. Hastings had consolidated in Asia the supremacy of the British fortunes. Between this period and the date of his next production, Mr. Dallas took a leading part in the debates at the India House, exhibiting on every question that came before the Court of Proprietors a masterly acquaintance with the principles of trade, and an extent of general information which gave him ever afterwards a decided influence in that assembly.

In 1793 he gave to the world "Thoughts upon our present Situation, with Remarks upon the Policy of a War with France;" a powerful appeal to the good sense and loyalty of the people, calling upon them by the most impressive arguments to oppose those fatal principles which the French Revolution

had engendered, and which were at that moment producing in the land where they originated their natural fruits of cruelty and injustice. The success of this work, which made a marked impression upon the public, and speedily went through several editions, was commensurate with the spirit of its execution. Its excellent tendency and the soundness of its reasoning excited the admiration of Mr. Pitt; and the perusal of it by all classes was thought by him so desirable an object, that it was reprinted at his suggestion in a form more accessible to the lower orders of the community. Animated by the same motives of patriotism and public spirit, he wrote, while on a visit to a relative in the north of Ireland, several treatises addressed to the inhabitants of that part of the kingdom, in which the signs of political convulsion were at the time unhappily apparent. To confirm the well-disposed in their allegiance, to point out to the disaffected the criminality of their conduct, and to unite the loyalty of Ireland in maintaining the ascendancy of the laws, was the aim of these valuable publications. From the clearness of their style, and energy of their language, they were well adapted to the purpose of their author; and, being widely circulated through the North of Ireland, were mainly instrumental in counteracting a seditious spirit which had sprung up in parts of Ulster, fostered by the arts of foreign emissaries, and disguising revolutionary projects with the plea of national independence. The first of these tracts was entitled "Observations upon the Oath of Allegiance, as prescribed by the Enrolling Act." Its more immediate object was to remove the scruples of many conscientious persons, who declined to take the oath of allegiance, under an impression that, besides binding them to the support of the Government, it abrogated their right to prosecute, by constitutional means, the repeal of any particular statute of which they might disapprove. Influenced by this feeling, great numbers had refused to join the armed associations which were formed for the protection of the country; and, as they assigned their objection to the oath as the cause of their refusal, this pamphlet was extremely

useful in explaining its real tendency and nature. It was followed by "A Letter from a Father to his Son, a united Irishman," in which the author, reasoning upon a single imaginary case, addressed, in fact, a conclusive argument against unlawful confederacies in general to a very numerous class of the population.

In the same year appeared the first of his powerful "Letters to Lord Moira, on the Political and Commercial State of Ireland,” which, at the particular request of Mr. Pitt, having been brought out by numbers in the "Anti-Jacobin," were afterwards embodied in a separate work, and obtained in each form a popularity proportioned to their merit. These papers, deservedly admired for their point and elegance, have been since republished in a volume, entitled "Beauties of the Anti-Jacobin," and containing the most remarkable selections from the pages of that celebrated work.

The success and acknowledged utility of his political writings induced him to print, in 1798, a further "Address to the People of Ireland, on the present Situation of Public Affairs." In that year, by patent, bearing date the 31st of July, he was raised to the dignity of a Baronet of Great Britain. He sent to the press, in 1799, "Considerations on the Impolicy of treating for Peace with the present Regicide Government of France," and soon after came into Parliament as representative of the Borough of Newport, in the Isle of Wight.

Sir George Dallas's parliamentary career, though not of long duration, was distinguished by several brilliant demonstrations of ability. Had his health permitted him to continue his legislative functions, he would doubtless have attained the highest honours of the Senate, being gifted by nature with great powers of elocution, and having, from the date of his first public appearance at Calcutta, sedulously cultivated the principles of an art for which he felt a decided predilection. His maiden speech was completely successful; and that which he delivered in defence of the treaty of El Arish made a forcible impression upon the House. On that occasion he

was warmly complimented by Mr. Canning, who requested to be personally introduced to him; and the Speaker having stopped him as he was passing the chair, congratulated him on the effect of a speech which he said was as eloquent as it was convincing. While in Parliament, Sir George Dallas published "A Letter to Sir William Pulteney, Bart., Member for Shrewsbury, on the Subject of the Trade between India and Europe." This letter, consisting of 100 quarto pages, is perhaps one of the most elaborate treatises that ever elucidated a commercial question. It was a profound analysis of the principles upon which a really profitable trade with India could be conducted; and took a detailed and comprehensive view of the resources of our Indian empire. It advocated the policy of admitting the free merchants of India to bring home in India-built ships the surplus produce of our possessions in which they were allowed to trade under the charter of the Company, and pointed out the benefits which would accrue to India from this partial relaxation of commercial restraint, as well as its inevitable tendency to increase the navigation of Great Britain. In recommending a more enlarged and liberal system of intercourse between this country and its Asiatic dependencies, Sir George Dallas was far from sharing that desire of general innovation, which has long been cherished by a portion of the public uninformed with respect to the nature and government of those invaluable possessions. No man upheld more strenuously the rights of the East India Company, or described with greater eloquence the blessings which it had been the instrument of conferring on the countries subject to its sway. Influenced, however, by a deep consideration of the benefits which would be conferred both on India and on Great Britain by granting the petition of the free merchants, he exerted, in the structure of this work, all the varied faculties of his mind. He had the gratification of receiving the highest eulogiums on its merit from the Chairman of the East India Company, from the Right Honourable Henry Dundas, Sir John M'Pherson, and other authorities, who, from long experience in the Company's affairs, were

most competent to pronounce upon a question in which such momentous interests were involved.

After the appearance of this publication, Sir George Dailas resigned his seat in Parliament, and passed some years in Devonshire, for the benefit of the climate. But, though comparatively retired from public life, he was a sagacious observer of political events, and availed himself of several opportunities which afforded scope for the exercise of his literary talents. His statesmanlike knowledge of the British interests in the East was shown in a defence, which he published in 1808, of the wars undertaken by the Marquis Wellesley in the Deccan and Hindostan. The policy of these wars had been severely arraigned, and represented, even by enlightened judges, as the fruit of an inordinate ambition, rashly sacrificing the resources of the empire in enterprises unproductive of advantage. The injustice of these opinions was fully demonstrated by Sir George Dallas; who, in a treatise fraught with the ablest deductions of political science, entered at large into the history of the Marratta states, proving that the wars which the Governor-General had terminated were in reality defensive measures; that they sprung from the hostile disposition of the confederate Marratta chiefs, and that, while they freed the Company's dominions from a state of immediate insecurity, they provided in their effects (the subsidiary treaties) a guarantee for the future tranquillity of India. Mr. Hastings was a warm admirer of this work; and his Royal Highness the Prince Regent expressed, in a manner highly flattering to Sir George's feelings, his satisfaction that a subject of so great an interest had been treated with such conspicuous ability.

Shortly before the discussions which took place, in 1813, on the renewal of the East India Company's charter, Sir George Dallas published a very interesting tract on the religious conversion of the Hindûs. It appeared anonymously, under the title of "A Letter from a Field Officer at Madras," and, detailing an imaginary dialogue between a Brahmin and a Missionary, eloquently stated the principal considerations which occur to an enlightened mind on the prospect of extending