tance that the Governor-General himself accompanied the expedition.
Raffles' information was found to be so accurate, and his suggestions so
valuable, that after the capitulation of General Jansens on September
18, 1811, Lord Minto entrusted the island to his charge. Up to the
present, Raffles had been acting first as agent and afterwards as chief
secretary to the Governor-General; he was now appointed
Lieutenant-Governor of Java and its dependencies.

I have already written of the principles upon which Raffles based his
measures during the five years of his administration, and of the
criticism which was directed against them. The whole of Raffles' public
acts as a servant of the company were reviewed by the Court of Directors
in 1826. The verdict of this very competent authority, with reference to
the financial expedients and the general reforms which he adopted in his
administration of the island, was entirely favourable, if we except what
refers to the sale of lands, which it characterized as a "questionable
proceeding." It is worthy of note, however, that this "questionable
proceeding" had been pronounced by the Governor-General to be "an able
expedient in a moment of great emergency." Raffles was bitterly
disappointed when the news reached him that, under the settlement
effected by the Treaty of London, the British Government had consented
to restore Java to the Dutch. For a moment the announcement of
Napoleon's escape from Elba seemed to bring a chance of a reprieve. But
this transient gleam of hope was soon dispelled, and in March, 1816,
Raffles relinquished the government to the imperial officer appointed to
carry out the transference of the island. Lord Minto had secured for him
the residency of Bencoolen, a settlement on the western coast of
Sumatra; but his state of health was so unsatisfactory that it became
necessary for him to proceed to England without delay.

After a stay of only fifteen months' duration, during which he received
the honour of knighthood from the king, Raffles again set sail for India
in October, 1817. He was appointed to the government of Bencoolen, with
the title of Lieutenant-Governor of Fort Marlborough, and it is in this
capacity that he signed his Singapore proclamations. It appears,
however, that he was in some way commissioned by the Home Government to
exercise a general supervision over British interests in the further
East. In a letter written in 1820 he says that he "had separ