general history of the malady of the situation of the Governors-General, I believe- that I can give:—First period—Dizziness, Incense-drunkenness, Self-conceit, Immoderate self-confidence, Disdain of others, above all of persons who have been long in India. Second period—Fatigue, Fear, Dejection, Inclination to Sleep and Rest, Immoderate confidence in the Council of India, Home-sickness and desire for a Dutch country-seat.
Between these two periods, and as a sort of transition, perhaps as cause of this transition, there is Dysentery.
I trust that many persons in India will thank me for this diagnosis.
The application is very useful, for it may be accepted as very certain, that the patient, who through over-exertion in the first period, would choke at a gnat, would later, after the dysentery, swallow without difficulty a camel;—or, to speak mare plainly, that a functionary who “accepts presents, not with the intention of enriching himself,”—for instance a bundle of pisang worth a few pence,—would, in the first period of the malady, be driven away with scorn and disgrace; but if that official has patience enough to wait for the second period, he may seize very calmly, and without any fear of punishment, the garden where the pisang grew, with the adjoining gardens, and the houses round, and what there may be in those houses, and other things. . . . ad libitum.
