Excerpt from The Administration of the East India Company: A History of Indian Progress In dealing with a subject of such magnitude, the writer has the choice of two courses which lie before him. He may either so compress his materials into a narrow compass as to divest his fasciculus of facts of all living interest and external grace. Or he may select certain prominent topics of discourse, and illustrate them with that Oopiousness of detail which, by limiting its range of inquiry, necessarily subtracts from the encyclopaedic value of the work, but imparts a vitality to it which I cannot help thinking extends its utility by increasing its attractions. I have followed the latter course. I believe that the reading public is less instructed than it Should be on Indian subjects, because it has been less interested than it might have been, if writers had taken more pains to appeal to the common sym pathics of mankind. I am not insensible of the value of statistics, and, indeed, I have dealt somewhat largely in them; but it is principally by representing men in action that the writer on Indian affairs must hope to fix the attention of the public. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.