XXV 



of the Foreign Fellowship of the above Societe, accompanied by the 

 award of a gold medal, inscribed " An fondateur de la veritable fitude 

 du Budhisme par les textes et les monuments." This was followed, in 

 1838, by the Cross of the Legion of Honour, and, in 1844, by his 

 election as a Correspondent of the Institute of France. Meanwhile 

 his contributions to his own Government lay unheeded in the cellars 

 of the old India House in Leadenhall Street ; and there they remained 

 till their transference to the present India Office, where the Kaghyur 

 and Stangyur* occupy an apartment to themselves, accessible to all. 



Scarcely less valuable and as extensive were Hodgson's contribu- 

 tion to zoology, especially ornithology, which rival his Buddhistical 

 attainments. Throughout his residence in the Himalaya he was 

 himself an assiduous collector, besides keeping a staff of shooters 

 who penetrated even into Tibet, and oi stuffers and artists at the 

 Residency. He described systematically and minutely almost every 

 species which he procured, accompanying the descriptions with 

 anatomical details, and observations on their habits, nidification 

 (if of birds), and geographical distribution. He published 127 

 zoological papers, chiefly in the 'Journal of the Asiatic Society of 

 Bengal.' In 1843 and 1858 he placed 9512 specimens of Himalayan 

 birds, 9037 of mammals, and 84 of reptiles at the disposal of the 

 British Museum, together with 1853 drawings. Of the above the 

 duplicates were distributed to the chief museums of Europe and 

 America. 



Very early in his career, Hodgson commenced a study of the ISTon- 

 Aryan Races of India, their origin, customs, their unwritten 

 languages, which he reduced to writing, their religions and geo- 

 graphical distribution. The results are embodied in twenty-seven 

 papers contributed (with one exception) to the 'Journal of the 

 Asiatic Society of Bengal.' These, in the opinion of Latham and 

 other scholars, are of the highest value and rank as his chief services 

 to literature. 



Mr. Hodgson was a zealous advocate of the employment of the 

 vernacular for instruction in the primary schools of India. In this 

 his great opponents were Macaulay, Sir L. Trevelyan, and H. H. 

 Wilson, who advocated English or a classical Oriental tongue. In 

 1835 he published two letters on the state of Education in India, 

 which first " lifted the subject out of the arena of public contro- 

 versy." For twenty years he persisted in his efforts, which were not 

 crowned with success till 1854, when the Court of Directors adopted 

 his views, which were further confirmed by the Education Commis- 

 sion of 1882. 



But diplomacy was Hodgson's earliest and abiding ambition, and 



* For a very imperfect copy of these works the Eussian Government lately paid 

 .2000. 



