A DISCOURSE 



READ AT A MEETING 



or THE 



ASIATIC SOCIETY 



or 



GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, 



ON THE IS* OF MARCH, 1823, 



BY 



H. T. COLEBROOKE, Esq. 



Called by the indulgence of this meeting to a chair, which I 

 could have wished to have seen more worthily filled, upon so 

 interesting an occasion, as the first general meeting of a Society, 

 instituted for the important purpose of the advancement of knou'- 

 ledge in relation to Asia, I shall, with your permission, detain 

 you a little from the special business of the day, while I draw 

 your more particular attention to the objects of the Institution, 

 for the furtherance of which we are now assembled. 



To those countries of Asia, in which civilization may be justly 

 considered to have had its origin, or to have attained its earliest 

 growth, the rest of the civilized world owes a large debt of grati- 

 tude, which it cannot but be solicitous to repay : and England, as 

 most advanced in refinement, is, for that very cause, the most 



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