The East India House (Its History and Associations)

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Preface There are still some who like to saunter along the byways of history-paths that lead no- where in particular, yet have their own quiet attractions. To such the following pages may appeal. Topics of importance they do not pretend to touch, being in fact little more than gossip about the domestic side of the East India Company's long history. If excuse be needed for putting forth these gatherings- the result of a fairly intimate acquaintance, extending over forty years, with the Company's records-it may perhaps be found in the fact that they illustrate the working of a typical trading body in the City of London during two and a half centuries, and that is a subject on which comparatively little is at present known.

A few of the articles have already appeared, though they have since been considerably revised. The account of Lamb's official career was published in Macmillan's Magazine as long ago as 1897; the portion of the chapter on The Examiner's Department' relating to James Mill has appeared in The Scottish Historical Review, and the articles on John Hoole and the Royal East India Volunteers in the Westminster Review and the United Service Magazine respectively. I am indebted to the editors and proprietors of those periodicals for permission to utilize these portions afresh.

Several of the illustrations are taken, with permission, from pictures and plans in the India Office. For the two sketches that appear on pp. 53 and 134 I have to thank the proprietors of The Gentlewoman; while the view of Hoole's house is reproduced from The Daily Chronicle with the sanction of the editor and of the artist, Mr. Ernest Coffin, to whose skilful pencil is also due the illustration of the Du Bois monument. The portrait of James Mill is taken from one in Dr. Bain's biography of him, which Messrs. Longmans, Green & Co. have kindly allowed me to copy.