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 "His reputation," says the record, "had preceded his arrival, which was anxiously expected, and he had the happiness to find that his appointment had diffused a general satisfaction, which his presence now rendered complete. The students of the Oriental languages were eager to welcome a scholar, whose erudition in that branch of literature was unrivalled, and whose labours and genius had assisted their progress; while the public rejoiced in the possession of a magistrate whose probity and independence were no less acknowledged than his abilities."

One of Sir William Jones's earliest acts in India was the founding of the Asiatic Society, and, for ten years, he laboured with indefatigable zeal and stupendous learning, carrying out his duties on the Bench with care and dignity, studying Sanskrit, writing voluminously, translating learnedly, and attending the weekly meetings of the Society he had founded, and to which he contributed many valuable papers, notably his discourses as president. In one of these, the seventh, it is curious to note that, according to a writer in the Calcutta Review for September, 1846, he, after discussing the Chinese and their origin, as a people who are mentioned in Manu as a race of outcast Hindus, "noticed Japan, the Britain of the East, colonized by Hindus