Government may be justly proud of the good which it shows to have been effected for the people of India in the course of a brief period; and I am glad that you have for this period been a member of it.

There is much in the Report to interest the general reader, but much of what is inserted would, of course, have been left out by any one who had to consult the wishes of such readers only.
At this time last year I had not the slightest hope of ever being able to lay such a Report before Government; for I never expected to find leisure in my present office, and could not carry the requisite records with me, if driven away by sickness, to where I might find it.

The papers lay mouldering in an old box, to which I had consigned them in 1840, when I withdrew them from the press, under the impression that Lord Auckland thought that the exposition of the terrible evil ought not to appear till more progress had been made in its suppression; as G.Thompson and other itinerant orators would be glad to get hold of them to abuse the Government.

The Report is infinitely more interesting and complete than it could have been then, and may bid defiance to all such orators.
If printed, it will take from 400 to 450 pages, such as those of the late Report on the Indian Penal Code, and be a neat and useful volume for reference.

I began it in the rains last year, but was stopped short by a fever, and unable to continue it till I set out on my tour.