THORNTON, Edward.

£2,500 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

India, its State and Prospects. First edition, presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the half-title, "Sir Alexr Dickson KCB, With the compliments of the Author." A highly decorated artilleryman who was talent-spotted by Wellington, Dickson was an early member of the Royal Geographical Society and Public Examiner at the East India Company Military Seminary, 1824-40.Thornton (1799-1875), an experienced East India Company official, composed this work in the immediate wake of the Government of India Act, which ended the company's commercial monopoly and turned it into an organ for the administration of British India. In detailed chapters, he profiles India's economy, governance, judicial system, and culture, suggesting that future allocation of British entrepreneurial capital promises great returns. Like Dickson (1777-1840), the author was "a most industrious and methodical collector of data" (ODNB). Having joined the company in 1814, he was made head of the statistical department in 1846 and held the position until 1857. Today, he is considered a pioneer in the systematic collection and publication of Indian statistics. His A Gazetteer of the Territories under the Government of the East-India Company, and of the Native States on the Continent of India (1854) is an invaluable reference.

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