private tuition, but he eventually grew up tall and strong. He 'studied at King's College, and afterwards at the College of Edinburgh. His classical training was carefully attended to, but his favourite studies were botany, chemistry, and geology. 'His mind made a great advance during the winter of 1822-3, when he studied moral philosophy at Edinburgh under the cele'brated John Wilson; whose lectures or rather orations reverently listened to by day, were discussed in the evening with his tutor, the Rev. Dr. George Tulloch, who informs the editor of 'this memoir that upon these occasions he was catechised, puzzled, cross questioned, and debated with as he never had the pleasure of being questioned and worked by a pupil before or since. Dr. Tulloch adds he unconsciously showed great ability: his talents and capacity were far superior to those of his contemporaries : and I count it a great honour to have aided slightly in developing his reasoning powers, and his love of doing good for its ' own sake without the least alloy of vanity or self.'

From Edinburgh the young Macpherson passed to Trinity College, Cambridge. If his surviving tutor writes of him with honest pride while at Edinburgh, the testimony of a contemporary friend and companion at Cambridge is no less honorable.

He

had a quiet dignity of appearance which was very striking. His 'intellectual powers were of a high order, but he was disabled 'from cultivating them in the manner prescribed by the uni'versity authorities, by the increasing delicacy of his eyes, which rendered him unfit for prolonged study. Had it not been for this, there was nothing which seemed beyond his grasp. The result was, that he formed a habit of independent and somewhat desultory reading, chiefly works upon scienti'fic and abstract subjects, which added largely to the vast 'mass of miscellaneons information which he possessed. He was honest, upright, and true,-too honest, perhaps, and too plain for his interests. His vigour of character and firmness of purpose were remarkable. He was social and joyous, and at the college symposia he was the life and soul of the party; yet he had entire self-control, and never carried festivity to ( excess. Kind and wholly unselfish he commanded the esteem as well as the love of a small knot of attached friends by whom 'he was surrounded.'

From Cambridge after two years' study, Macpherson returned to Edinburgh to prepare for the Scottish bar, and there pursued the studies of political economy and civil law, with such eagerness, that failing sight warned him that he must seek another profession, and at the age of nearly twenty-one he accepted a cadetship in the service of the East India Company, and,

early in 1827, was on his voyage to assume the post of junior ensign of the Madras army. Seldom has such preparation been made for holding this honourable post, and we should think that the first introduction of Ensign Macpherson to his brother officers of the 8th regiment M. N. I. in the mess-room at Julnah, must have been in strange contrast to the usual scenes on those trying occasions, when the youthful griffin meets for the first time the associates of his after life. The ripe scholar of the university and the courts of law, who had almost reached his majority amid the bustle and competition of English life, must have been a strange contrast to the youthful griffin of sixteen whom the adjutant of the regiment or a kind-hearted commanding officer has generally the pleasure of introducing to his brother officers. We can imagine the contrast to have been as great as is that between the letters of the new ensign on his first march to join his corps, published in this memoir, and those which full of pluck and bad spelling,' usually gladdened the fire-sides which the departure of our young cadets had saddened, before competitive examinations had been invented. The letters of Macpherson are admirable, and bear witness to the thorough enjoyment which a first march in India is calculated to yield to one who, besides entering with zest into the field-sport of his companions, was competent to study with intelligence the physical formation and the political history of the country through which he passed. Macpherson's marches were long and frequent. After being a short time with his regiment, ill-health compelled a visit first to the sea coast, and afterwards to the newly discovered Neilgherry hills; and after re-joining his corps at Kaludgha a second visit to the hills became necessary, so that at the end of three years he was able to write: 'I assure you that as a matter of taste or of advantage, 'I could not have passed my three first years in India more agreeably or more profitably than I have done, having travelled nearly 4,000 miles with my eyes (such as they are) open, and nothing lacking saving an old friend, new books, and now and then a 'rupee.'

It may easily be supposed that the discharge of ordinary regimental duties, even though combined with literary and scientfic pursuits, was not the career to which Macpherson looked forward. His hope was to obtain staff employment, and his resolution was, that if this was once obtained he would not see England till he had done such service as should ensure him against a return to the common routine of his profession. The summer of 1831 brought with it the grade of lieutenant, and also by the good offices of friends and the assent of the Governor (who

waived on this occasion the objections which he was alleged 'to entertain to the employment of Scotchmen in general, and 'of Macs in particular) a staff appointment as Assistant Sur'veyor General ;'-being nominated, as he wrote to his relations at home within a week of the time, when from his standing in the service it was first possible for him to be removed from regimental duty. The letters of this period bespeak the animation with which Lieutenant Macpherson entered on his new duties, and how in discharging them he was preparing himself for still higher responsibilities. You will observe on the map the fine 'extent of the Hyderabad country, over which I shall move 'quite unfettered and unquestioned. It approaches the western 'sea within a hundred, and the eastern within fifty, miles. It 'contains the two rivers of India next in importance to the "Ganges (not including the Indus), and in its limits 500 miles ' in length, and 500 in breadth, presents as many and as varied objects of moral and physical interest, as are bounded by 'similar lines in any portion of Hindoostan. The six fine months in the year I shall pass in the country with the Survey Establishment in my tents, the remaining portion given. to rain and heat I spend in Hyderabad with the best 'society, and the best library that Southern India affords.' Again I have out with me the whole body of evidence taken on the renewal of the Charter for quiet digestion, and I daily reap knowledge in these village fields, which is not to be obtained from books, from the farmers, who 'give me in the gloamings the history of their leases and advantages and exactions; the story of their maize crop and sugar crop and tobacco crop; and true and anxious statements of 'their cattle, including those which died in the drought, and 'those which have since had calves, and those best for the plough, and those whose feet are too tender for stony ground-I obtain the most curious insight into the manners ' and condition of the men of this part of India.'

The absence of the head officer under whom Macpherson was placed, at once gave him the direction of the survey party to which he was attached, and his scientific knowledge now came into full use. In 1832, he was able to write, 'My 'immediate superior of the Upper Provinces writes as highly ' gratified with my geological works, which he enjoins our whole establishment to combine in enabling me to extend, says that I have now many claims upon his attention, and promises to have me removed to Bengal, to afford him my 'immediate aid in the execution of one grand and delicate work, the measurement of a base when it shall next be required

in the great survey.' Advancement soon followed. One of the three Madras surveys becoming vacant, Macpherson was appointed to it, making him, as he himself wrote, in his department (as in his regiment), very fortunate,' as since he entered it, he had only served de facto as a subordinate for a few months.

His new ground was in the Company's country, in the Vellore district, and a fresh field of observation was thus opened to him. From the scene of his renewed labours he wrote,—' no 'two tracts of country can exhibit a greater contrast in their superficial characters than this and the Hyderabad country. Here we have a vast littoral plain lying betwixt a long line ' of mountains and the sea; many rivers flow down from the hills forming in some cases deltas, in others giving rise to estuaries; they are vast torrents, and when these have subsided, broad 'sand beds with here and there a pool connected by barely living rills, here and there low granite crusts, spring up. There are huge forests of pallengra and cocoanut trees, and most 'villages are adorned by groves; but the whole is flat, stale and,-profitable only in rice fields, and in a fine breed of cattle which overspreads the land.'

Such is a brief outline of the various steps by which Lieutenant Macpherson approached the scene of those labours with which his name will be hereafter associated. With a cultivated mind, a fluent Hindoostani scholar, and not ignorant of Persian,' used to familiar and easy intercourse with the people of India of all ranks, deeply interested in their history and habits, and warmly desirous of their welfare; not without a yearning for distinction, but desiring that distinction among the benefactors of his race, Macpherson was brought into connextion with the hill tribes of Orissa, and face to face with that dark page in human history which it was to be his life's task to blot out.

Macpherson was called away from his labours in the survey to join his regiment engaged in the military operations then carrying on against the rajah or zumindar of Goomsur. The rajah, easily driven from the lower portion of his dominions, had taken refuge among the highland clans of the Malliahs, or hill districts over whom he exercised a sort of feudal sovereignty, and where the laws of hospitality, the warlike habits of the tribes, and the climate deadly to all strangers, afforded him an almost impenetrable retreat. In the prolonged operations necessary to overcome these difficulties, Macpherson took a part, and his skill as a surveyor was called into exercise in aid of the movement of the troops, and the action of the civil authorities. The region into which the troops advanced

was entirely unexplored; 'of the Khond people we knew nothing save the name. We were ignorant of the nature of the connexions which subsisted between them and Goomsur or 'the neighbouring zumindaries. We knew nothing of their 'social organization, of their feelings towards the late ' zumindar, or towards ourselves, of their numbers, their 'language, or their manners.' After a prolonged contest with the deadly climate, the object of the war was obtained, the zumindar died in his mountain retreat, the country was overrun by our troops, and the chiefs of the rebellious tribes were taken and executed. Peace was restored, and the ordinary civil authorities resumed their survey. The first act of Mr. Stevenson, the collector of Ganjam, was to ask Macpherson to undertake a mission of survey and inquiry into the unexplored country, with respect to which it was of the last consequence that correct informatiou should be obtained,-saying that he thought him alone capable of this service.

The unhealthy season had set in, but Macpherson accepted the duty with feelings which he must himself describe. The 'day of my departure into that country was among the happiest of my life. I succeeded in my objects beyond expectation, but was struck down by fever and blindness, for I was worn out by the hard exertions of the three preceding months. But the idea that I had at length achieved some small amount of good, that I had made the first step towards the redemption of my time, and the first blessed step towards home, made 'suffering lighter than I had known in any pleasures. I thought I had accomplished what the Government in the common course of things could not overlook, and I expected such recognition of my hard, dangerous, and difficult service, as would lead to employment on which I might raise so much character as would 'bear me home; for my view since I left England had been this :'that I had no right to return thither until I could say that I had done something, until I had done what would secure 'my employment out of the ranks of a regiment on my return. For the attainment of this object I did not hesitate to risk 'health, nor did I grudge it when it was gone.'

This appointment enabled Lieutenant Macpherson to complete his enquiries into the habits and customs of the mountain tribes, and especially of the Khonds, and to draw up a paper for the information of Government, giving a full account of those cruel rites, the existence of which had only lately come to light, by which on British territory hundreds of human victims were yearly slaughtered. The Meriah sacrifice in all its horrors was made known, and the extensive prevalence of the practice,