1901.] Annual Report. 21 



recognize the Government's proprietary right to the volumes in ques- 

 tion. 



On the 24th February, 1836, Mr. Secretary H. T. Prinsep wrote to 

 tlie Society to state " that the Governor of Bengal accepts the offer of 

 " the Asiatic Society to provide rooms for the accommodation of, and 

 " to hold accessible to the public, the oriental portion of the late 

 " Library of the College of Fort William, and has ordered the books 

 " to be made over on the following conditions: — The books are to be 

 " the property of the Government until the Honourable Court of Direc- 

 " tors shall decide whether they shall be made over absolutely or not, 

 " the Society to be ruled of course by their decision. The Government 

 " to allow the Asiatic Society a monthly sum of Rs. 78 (stated by the 

 " the Secretary of the College to be the minimum expense for custody 

 " of the books), in consideiation of tlie Society providing for estab- 

 *' lishmeut and keeping the books clean and in proper repair. All 

 " other charges to be provided by the Society. The above allowance to 

 " cease, in case of the property in the books being made over to the 

 " Society." 



Ariangements were made consequently for the reception of the 

 books by this Society, and our Secretary was requested to take measures 

 for receiving the books and granting I'eceipts for the same in the course 

 of their daily transfer, which took place during the month of March, 

 1836. On the 6th of April the Secretary of the Society announced 

 that he had received 1,130 Sanskrit and 2,676 Arabic and Persian 

 volumes from the Fort William College ; but the only catalogue then 

 in existence was that which had been prepared by the College officers, 

 and which, having been checked by the Secretary of the Society, was 

 returned to Captain Ouselay, Secretary to the College of Fort William, 

 with a covering letter, dated 18th April, 1836. The Secretary of Govern- 

 ment was informed of this transaction in a letter from the Secretary 

 of the Society, dated 4th June, 1836, which was acknowledged by 

 Government letter No. 836 of the 15th June, 1836. 



Subsequently the Court of Directois, through the Government, re- 

 quested the Society to send them the duplicates of the manuscript works 

 which were previously in the possession of the Society, and the Secre- 

 tary of the Society consequently selected and packed, for transmission 

 to the Court of Directors, the duplicates of the Sanskrit, Arabic and 

 Persian manuscripts transferred from the College Library. The Secre- 

 tary of the Society in advising the despatch of the three cases of these 

 manuscripts in a letter to the Secretary', Government of India, dated 

 7th April, 1837, transmitted also a catalogue of the duplicate manus- 

 cripts pointing out at the same time that the geneial catalogue of late 



