( ix )
THE
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.
THE Importance of the Commerce of India, and the Advantages of a Territorial Eſtabliſhment in Bengal, have at length awakened the Attention of the Britiſh Legiſlature to every Circumſtance that may conciliate the Affections of the Natives, or enſure Stability to the Acquiſition. Nothing can ſo favourably conduce to theſe two Points as a well-timed Toleration in Matters of Religion, and an Adoption of ſuch original Inſtitutes of the Country, as do not immediately claſh witht the Laws or Intereſts of the Conquerors.
To a ſteady Purſuance of this great Maxim, much of the Succeſs of the Romans may be attributed, who not only allowed to their foreign Subjects the free Exerciſe of their own Religion, and the Adminiſtration of their own civil Juriſdiction, but ſometimes by a Po-
