Welsh Journals

Callucas, verbally translated from the original Sanscrit" (1794). But even this was not sufficient to satiate his indomitable energy. There was scarcely any subject which did not excite his interest. Among pamphlets of various kinds which he left may be mentioned those "On the Indian game of chess," "On the musical modes of the Hindus," "On the antiquity of the Indian Zodiack," "On the Loris or slow-paced Lemur," as well as "A cata- logue of Indian plants, comprehending their San- scrit, and as many of their Linnaean Names as could, with any degree of Precision, be ascer- tained." In botany, indeed, he had always taken a keen interest. In December, 1793, Lady Jones, who had never been able to withstand the effects of the climate of India, was obliged to leave for Europe. Sir William had intended to follow her in 1795, tak- ing a circuitous route through China and Persia, but his untiring exertions had told upon his con- stitution and he died after a week's illness on April 27th, 1794, in the 47th year of his age. It would take too much space to give a list of all Sir William Jones's works, but among those not mentioned should be added a grammar of the Persian language written before his departure for India (1771), which reached a seventh edition in 1809; and during his residence in India a translation of the ancient Arabic poems known as the "Moallakiat"; "The Mahommedan Law of Succession to Property of Intestates"; "Al Sirájiyyah, or the Mohammedan Law of In- heritance, with a Commentary"; and "Sacon- tala or The Fatal Ring, an Indian Drama by Cdlidds,, translated from the Original Sanscrit and Pracrit." According to a paper in his own handwriting the following were the languages he had studied :—"Eight languages studied critic- ally English, Latin, French, Italian, Greek, Arabic, Persian, Sanscrit. Eight studied less perfectly, but all intelligible with a dictionary Spanish, Portuguese, German, Runick, Hebrew, Bengali, Hindi, Turkish. Twelve studied least perfectly, but all attainable: Tibetian, Pali, Phalavi, Deri, Russian, Syriac, Ethiopic, Coptic, Welsh, Swedish, Dutch, Chinese. Twenty- eight languages." The object of his linguistic studies was literary and not philological, but it may be remarked in passing that, at a period when so many wild theories were still held by lesser scholars, he was fully convinced of the fact now definitely established that Sanskrit, Per- sian, Greek, Latin and the Celtic Languages are derived! from a single primæval tongue. The mention of Welsh among the languages studied by him naturally leads to a few words about his relations with Wales. Judging from the few allusions to Wales in his letters he seems always to have cherished for the country of his origin an affectionate regard. While in London in 1768, we read in his biography that he took lessons on the Welsh harp "for which he had a national partiality" from a certain harpist named Evans; and in a letter to Lord Althorp, dated from Bath December 28th, 1777, he says, "Of music, I conclude, you have as much at Althorp as your heart can desire; I might here have more than my ears could bear, or my mind con- ceive, for we have with us La Molte, Fischer, Rauzzini; but as I live in the house of my old master, Evans, whom you remember, I am satis- fied with his harp, which I prefer to the Theban lyre, as much as I prefer Wales to ancient or modern Egypt." He paid a visit to Cardigan- shire in his early life and has left a poem to com- memorate the event, and paid another visit to Wales in the spring of 1781, presumably to St. Asaph. Besides this the only direct mention of Welsh matters in his biography occurs in a letter to Richard Morris dated Calcutta, October 30th, 1790, in which he says, "As one of the Cymro- dorians, I am warmly interested in British anti- quities and literature; but my honour is pledged for the completion of the new digest of Hindu laws, and I have not a moment to spare for any other study." The distinguishing feature in the character of Sir William Jones was gentleness, coupled with an abhorrence of anything that savoured of tyranny, cruelty or oppression in any form. He was particularly outspoken in his views on the American War and the Slave Trade, "the abominable traffic in the human species, from which a part of our countrymen dare to derive their most inauspicious wealth "-and that even at times when it might have been politic to conceal them. In 1780, shortly after receiving the in- timation that he might be appointed to the vacant seat on the Bench in India, he came forward as a candidate for a seat in Parliament as Member for the University of Oxford. But he soon found that his views would not be acceptable. "As to principles in politics," he writes on September 2nd of that year, withdrawing his candidature, "if my success at Oxford, at any future time, depend upon a change of them, my cause is hopeless. I cannot alter or conceal them with- out abandoning either my reason or integrity; the first of which is my only guide, and the second my chief comfort in this passage through life As to men I am certainly not hostile to ministers, from whom I have received obligations; but I cannot in conscience approve their measures." In 1782, he wrote "A dialogue between a Farmer and Country Gentleman on the Principles of Government," concerning which his biographer appends the following curious note from Dr. Towers' Tract on the Rights of Juries "After a Bill of Indictment had been found against the Dean of St. Asaph,* for the publication of the The Dean of St. Asaph was Sir William Jones's brother-in-law, William Davies Shipley..