SELECTIONS FROM CALCUTTA GAZETTES OF THE YEARS 1784, 1785, 1786, 1787, AND 1788, SHOWING THE POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CONDITION OF THE EIGHTY YEARS AGO. BY W. S. SETON-KARR, C. S., PRESIDENT OF THE RECORD COMMISSION. Published under the sanction of the Government of India. CALCUTTA: O. T. CUTTER, MILITARY ORPHAN PRESS. 1864. PREFACE. The extracts of which this book is made up have been taken from certain volumes of a weekly paper designated "the Calcutta Gazette and Oriental Advertiser." These volumes were discovered by the President of the Record Commission, in the pursuance of the objects for which the Commission was constituted, amongst the Records of the Home Department. The first volume commences in the spring of the year 1784, or in the last year of the administration of Warren Hastings, and the series continues down to the present century, with two gaps, in the years 1789 and 1792, for both of which the volumes of the Gazette are unfortunately missing. Some observations seem necessary to explain the nature and origin of these Gazettes, as well as the plan which has been pursued in making the present extracts. The first number of the Calcutta Gazette and Oriental Advertiser appears to have been published on the 4th of March 1784, and on the 11th ditto, or in the next issue of the paper, it is stated that the Governor General and Council had permitted Mr. F. Gladwin to publish a Gazette under their sanction and authority. Heads of Offices were therefore required to issue all such advertisements or publications as might be ordered on the part of the Hon'ble Company, through the channel of this paper. From subsequent issues, and from the general tenor of the paper, it would appear that the official department was kept quite |
