CURIOUS DISCOVERY AT THE INDIA OFFICE.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4462, 8 July 1875, Page 3

CURIOUS DISCOVERY AT THE INDIA OFFICE.

An important discovery of old official records has been made at the India Office, While the museum was being transferred to South Kensington, a large number of documents turned up—we believe in a box supposed to contain nothing, or simply rubbish—and these actually proved to be papers of considerable value relating to the affairs of the East India Company in Hindostan, between the reigns of James I. and George 11. It is supposed that among the documents, which are numerous, several important fac similes, or even originals, of treaties with the principal Hindoo and Mahomedan dynasties of the time will be found, which will afford a good deal of information about the historical entanglements of the period. A detailed account of these documents will, we believe, shortly appear; in the meantime, the Daily News says the character of. several of the MSS may be mentioned. Many of thepapers are under the great seals of James 1,, Oliver Cromwell, Charles 11., James 11., William and Mary, Anne, and George 11. The MSS are on vellum, and in very good condition, with the huge seals attached to them rarely even in parts obliterated. The most interesting of the documents ’is a couple of feet broadband several hundreds of feet long—a thick compact roll of fine vellum stitched together so as to form a contiguous manuscript, and containing the names of persons advancing the famous loan of £2,000,000 sterling, which formed the original corpus of the East India Stock. The persons whose names appear in the list of subscribers have their subscriptions attached to their names, and the sums subscribed appear to range between £SOO and £20,000. Many of these signatures are of immense interest, as they are probably unique. The date of the document is 1698. The discovery is a curious one, and is attract"iilg considerable attention, especially amongst those who take a lively interest in Indian matters. —European Mail.