§42. Sir A. C. Lyall. II. Historians, Biographers and Political Orators. Vol. 14. The Victorian Age, Part Two. The Cambridge History of English and American Literature: An Encyclopedia in Eighteen Volumes. 1907

The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21).
Volume XIV. The Victorian Age, Part Two.

II. Historians, Biographers and Political Orators.

§ 42. Sir A. C. Lyall.

Of later writings, a penetrating insight into the course of Indian history, as a whole, distinguishes those of Sir Alfred Comyn Lyall, 52 whose imaginative, as well as philosophical, mind could not rest content with viewing such a subject as India, with which a long and distinguished official career had familiarised him, under its political, or under any one exclusive, aspect only. His Rise and Expansion of the British Dominion in India (1893) grew, as it passed through many editions, into an important work of research; he also wrote a short life of Warren Hastings, and a full biography of Lord Dufferin. His Asiatic Studies deals chiefly with Hindu religion in its successive phases.

Note 52. See, ante, Chap. 1. Earlier English historians of India had treated the subject from particular points of view. Orme’s military history belongs to the eighteenth century (cf., ante, Vol. X, p. 332); John Bruce, a political historian of note, who had formerly furnished Pitt’s government with reports on measures taken for the defence of the country from the days of the Spanish Armada downwards, and had then been appointed keeper of the State paper office and historiographer to the East India company, published the history of that company (1816). [ back ]