APPENDIX. xxix 



REP ORT 



OP THE 



ORIENTAL TRANSLATION COMMITTEE 



TO 



THE SUBSCRIBERS TO THE ORIENTAL TRANSLATION FUND. 



The Members of the Oriental Translation Committee, in meeting the Members of 

 the Royal Family, the Nobility, and Gentlemen who have subscribed funds for the 

 translation and printing of interesting Oriental works, indulge the hope that their pre- 

 liminary proceedings, and the regulations they will have tiie honour to submit for consi- 

 deration, will receive the approbation of this Meeting. 



It is their particular wish that the statement they now present to the Subscribers may 

 be received as an account of the proceedings of an institution still in its infancy, and 

 not less requiring time than fostering care to bring it to maturity. 



The Members of the Committee being individually interested in Oriental pursuits, and 

 being also highly gratified by the liberal support their plan has received, have a double 

 incentive to exertion, and hope, by their collective endeavoursj to add considerably to 

 the stock of information respecting Asia which Europe now possesses. 



They feel assured that time alone is required to prove that the generous support of 

 the Subscribers will lead to important results, and that the confidence reposed in their 

 zeal has not been misplaced. 



Their arrangements, however, cannot be considered complete, until corresponding 

 Committees have been established in various parts of Asia, and are actively engaged in 

 the execution of tiie plan developed in the Prospectus. 



Under these circumstances, connected with the fact that little more than four months 

 have elapsed since the formation of the Committee, they are not able to report having 

 made much progress They feel anxious, however, to make the Subscribers acquainted 

 with what they have done up to the present time, and with their future intentions, 

 prospects, and hopes. 



The Committee have great satisfaction in stating that the most liberal support has 

 been afforded to them by the Royal Asiatic Society, not only by their allowing the 

 Committee's business to be transacted in their house, but also by their handsome transfer 

 to the Oriental Translation Fund of the Honourable East-India Company's munificent 

 annual subscription of one hundred guineas. 



The English Universities have expressed their favourable disposition towards the 

 undertaking, and received in the most friendly manner the hopes expressed by the Com- 

 mittee, of considerably diminishing the expense of printing by the assistance of the 

 University presses. 



Although essentially assisted by the enlightened views of the great literary bodies in 

 England, the attention of the Committee has been directed to obtaining aid from distant 

 cjuarters also ; and they confidently hope that another annual meeting will not pass, 

 without the communication of gratifying accounts from various parts of Asia and Atrica. 



Considerably within a year, copies of the Prospectus will have been received at the 

 capitals of Turkey, Persia, Egypt, and the Harbary States, and by the numerous Consuls 

 and mercantile firms existing on the eastern and southern siiores of the Mediterranean. 



The opportunity offered by the hitiraate connexion of this country with Asia has been 



