In October of that year James Prinsep was compelled to tear himself away from all his numerous pursuits, and to make the voyage to Europe as the only hope left of recovery. He sailed for England in the Herefordshire; but the sea air and change of scene afforded no relief, and the affection of the brain, which proved to be a softening of its substance, destroying its sound working, and impairing all the faculties of the mind, gained strength. He arrived in England in a hopeless condition, lingering nearly a year, until relieved from his sufferings by death on the 22nd of April, 1840.

The intelligence of his decease was received with sorrow by the European and Native communities of India; and all united in the desire that some lasting testimonial of his worth, and of their esteem and admiration, should be placed in a prominent position, to manifest to future generations the feelings so universally entertained towards him. After some discussion, it was determined to give to this testimonial the form of a Ghát or landing-place, with a handsome building for the protection from sun and weather of passengers landing or waiting to embark; and this building, bearing his name, stands now below the fort of Calcutta, as a distinguished ornament of the city.

The character of James Prinsep as a public and as a literary man will be best appreciated by a reference to the public works and literary and scientific productions which we have recapitulated. These remain as memorials of his activity in mind and body, and of the untiring energy and exactitude with which he pursued each object of research. The unsparing pains with which he devoted himself to assist a fellow-labourer, and, without envy or self-seeking, to promote his wishes and his success, were universally felt and acknowledged. It was this quality especially which won for him every day new colleagues

in his literary and scientific labours, and left all with whom he became so associated, permanent and admiring friends.

To his family, who were proud of him from boyhood, and who watched with intense satisfaction and sympathy his entire career, glorying in the general recognition of his high qualities, and in the public esteem he won,—their early bereavement was a source of deep and abiding sorrow. They have still a mournful pleasure in recurring to many acts of his life, which displayed his extreme affection for all of them; and it is with unfeigned satisfaction that they bear this testimony to his many virtues, and seek to add a wreath to the many which have already been laid upon his honoured grave—tributes of private friendship and of public regard.

James Prinsep was married on the 25th April, 1835, to Harriet, eldest daughter of Colonel Aubert, of the Bengal Army, by whom he had a son, who died in infancy, and a daughter, who, with the widow, still survives.

[As a brother is seldom the best or most accredited eulogist, I append an able estimate of James Prinsep's merits, extracted from a notice of his life by Dr. Falconer, and published in the Colonial Magazine,' in December, 1840:-E. T.]

"Thus died James Prinsep, in the fortieth year of his age. That he was a great man, it would not perhaps be strictly correct to assert; but he possessed qualities of a very high order, such as are scarcely less admirable than greatness; and he has left abundant proofs behind him to establish that he was one of the most talented and useful men that England has yet given to India. Of his intellectual character, the most prominent feature was enthusiasm-one of the prime elements of genius; a burning, irrepressible enthusiasm, to which nothing could set bounds, and which communicated itself to whatever came before him. The very strength of his mental constitution, in this respect, was perhaps opposed to his attaining the excellence of a profound thinker; it led him to be carried away frequently by first impressions, and to apply his powers to a greater range of subjects than any human mind can master or excel in. To this enthusiasm was fortunately united a habitude of order, and power of generalization, which enabled him to grasp and comprehend the greatest variety of details. His powers of perception were impressed with genius-they were clear, vigorous, and instantaneous. The extent of his capacity was wonderful, and the number and variety of his acquirements no less remarkable.

"Himself the soul of enthusiasm, he transfused a portion of his spirit into every inquirer in India; he seduced men to observe and to write; they felt as if he observed and watched over them; and the mere pleasure of participating in his sympathies and communicating with him, was in itself a sufficient reward for the task of a laborious and painful investigation. Had he done nothing else, he would have deserved an immortal remembrance in India; but his own labours were the grand stay, the glory, and honour of the 'Journal.'

"It was in the conduct of this 'Journal' that the amiable and good qualities of the man were most apparent, and of most benefit to the public. His time, services, books, and apparatus were always at the command of whoever requested them; and the humblest correspondent in the remotest corner of India, could make certain of his aid, with a readiness and a good will which he would vainly have looked for in a paid agent. His purse, too, was freely opened where occasion required. No kind of inquiry, however foreign to his favourite pursuits, was carried on in India, with which he did not at once become identified; and the keen interest he appeared to take in the labours of others encouraged the inquirer to go on, or apply himself to something new. Never was there a mind more free from the paltry and mean jealousies which sometimes beset scientific men. The triumph of others seemed to give him as much pleasure as if achieved by himself; nor would he allow any burnings or jealousies to assail the harmony of the supporters of his journal: when he saw any prospect of such a contingency, he threw himself into the breach, took the blame on himself, and never allowed matters to come to a rupture. There was a charm, too, about his writings, which it is rare to meet with; he hunted after truth, and cared not how often or how notoriously he stumbled npon error in the pursuit. His ardour often led him astray, but he was the first frankly and fearlessly to confess it. He was utterly devoid of that intolerance of being found in error, and loathness to recant, which often beset meaner minds. The entire range of scientific literature does not perhaps contain a more striking illustration of this than one of the last papers which he wrote on Bactrian coins, where he shows in a fly-note, how the altered reading of a single Greek letter exposes the incorrectness of as fine-spun and erroneous a string of inferences of his own, as ever emanated from the pen of Wilford."

NUMISMATIC ESSAYS.

I.-ON THE ANCIENT ROMAN COINS IN THE CABINET OF THE ASIATIC SOCIETY.

[SEPTEMBER, 1832.]

HAVING been lately engaged in decyphering the inscription of an antique copper coin found at Kanouj, by Mr. E. V. Irwin, C.S., and presented to us by Capt. Sanders, Executive Engineer at Cawnpore, I was led into an examination of the contents of the Asiatic Society's small cabinet itself, which, although it boasts but a very insignificant collection of Roman coins, and those mostly without any record of the exact localities in which they were found, or of the parties who presented them, is entitled to some interest from the circumstance of the Indian origin of all that it contains. It was not until the year 1814, that the Society opened a museum, and publicly invited contributions to it of the natural productions, antiquities, coins, and other curious monuments of the country: it is the less surprising, therefore, that its collection

should not hitherto have attained any magnitude or consideration. Most private individuals, who have interested themselves in collecting medals and coins, have carried their spoil to England, where, indeed, they may be mortified in finding them swallowed up and lost among the immense profusion of similar objects in the public and private cabinets of European antiquarians; and they may, perhaps, regret that they did not leave them where, from their rarity, they would have been prized, and, from their presence, have promoted the acquisition of further stores for antiquarian research from the wide continent of India. The greater part of

the late Colonel Mackenzie's collection was thus consigned to the museum of the Honorable Company in Leadenhall-street. Doctor Robert Tytler also presented to the same museum a valuable cabinet, chiefly of Roman coins, procured by him with great industry while Civil Surgeon at Allahabad. Colonel T. Wilson, C.B., lately carried hence some curious coins; and many other private collections might be mentioned, without alluding to the extensive cabinet of Major Tod, which cannot be said to be lost to India, but rather to be returned to us more valuable than before, through the plates and notes in elucidation of them published in the Royal Asiatic Society's Transactions.

The publication of a catalogue raisonné of the contents of our drawers, although it may expose our present poverty, will, I doubt not, by a wholesome re-action, tend to our future enrichment, both by establishing a nucleus to which the antiquities henceforth discovered will be naturally attracted, and by affording to inquirers,