The offer was eagerly accepted, and the Commission fell to work.  The results of that work did not show themselves quickly enough to satisfy the most practical, and, (to its credit be it spoken,) the most exacting of Governments; and Macaulay was under the necessity of explaining and excusing a procrastination, which was celerity itself as compared with any codifying that had been done since the days of Justinian.

“During the last rainy season,—­a season, I believe, peculiarly unhealthy,—­every member of the Commission, except myself, was wholly incapacitated for exertion.  Mr. Anderson has been twice under the necessity of leaving Calcutta, and has not, till very lately, been able to labour with his accustomed activity.  Mr. Macleod has been, till within the last week or ten days, in so feeble a state that the smallest effort seriously disordered him; and his health is so delicate that, admirably qualified as he is, by very rare talents, for the discharge of his functions, it would be imprudent, in forming any prospective calculation, to reckon on much service from him.  Mr. Cameron, of the importance of whose assistance I need not speak, has been, during more than four months, utterly unable to do any work, and has at length been compelled to ask leave of absence, in order to visit the Cape for the recovery of his health.  Thus, as the Governor-General has stated, Mr. Millett and myself have, during a considerable time, constituted the whole effective strength of the Commission.  Nor has Mr. Millett been able to devote to the business of the Commission his whole undivided attention.

“I must say that, even if no allowance be made for the untoward occurrences which have retarded our progress, that progress cannot be called slow.  People who have never considered the importance and difficulty of the task in which we are employed are surprised to find that a Code cannot be spoken of extempore, or written like an article in a magazine.  I am not ashamed to acknowledge that there are several chapters in the Code on which I have been employed for months; of which I have changed the whole plan ten or twelve times; which contain not a single word as it originally stood; and with which I am still very far indeed from being satisfied.  I certainly shall not hurry on my share of the work to gratify the childish impatience of the ignorant.  Their censure ought to be a matter of perfect indifference to men engaged in a task, on the right performance of which the welfare of millions may, during a long series of years, depend.  The cost of the Commission is as nothing when compared with the importance of such a work.  The time during which the Commission has sat is as nothing compared with the time during which that work will produce good, or evil, to India.