"حياة ومراسلات اللواء السير جون مالكوم، قائد فرسان وسام الطُهر، المبعوث السابق إلى بلاد فارس وحاكم بومباي؛ من رسائل ومذكرات غير منشورة. في مجلّدين. المجلد II." [‎٥‎٠‎٢] (٦٥٤/٥١٩)

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the bombay government.
tiful place; nevertheless, I doubt much your making it your resi
dence. A house in the country without a wife and five children
to fill it, and without a passion for country sports, is a dull thing,
unless you fill it with friends; and then it requires a flourishing-
revenue.
If you are my heau-ideal of a good councillor, you content
yourself with reading what comes before you, and writing a full
minute now and then, when the subject merits it; and do not fret
yourself and perplex others by making much of small matters.
Supposing this to be the case, you must have leisure, and if I find
you have, I must now and then intrude upon it; but this I shall
not do unless I have occasion, and in cases where I cannot so sa
tisfactorily to myself apply to others.
I have been busy during the voyage with the Life of Lord
Clive—all his papers, public and private, having recently been
discovered and given to me. I have finished about one thousand
pages, and Elphinstone, who is fastidious enough about such
works, is quite delighted—not with my composition, but with the
admirable letters of Clive, whom he thinks I have managed to
make tell his own story in a way that is both instructive and en
tertaining. I may have to refer upon some points that may re
quire looking into old public records, or inquiries from natives.
Let me know whom you think the best person to correspond with
to obtain such information. It must be some one who has a
schocq for the thing; otherwise he will think me troublesome. . .
I am, most sincerely,
J ohn M alcolm.
There were, when Malcolm wrote this letter, still some
lingering hopes of the desiderated establishment of the
Lieutenant-Governorship of Central India; but as time
advanced, it became more and more doubtful whether
the scheme would become, in his time, anything more
than a scheme. The advantages of erecting the North-
Western Provinces of India into a separate Lieutenant-
Governorship might have been recognised, but the legis
lative tendencies of that day were towards centralisation
in the Supreme Government of India. There was no