xxiv Annual Address. [February, 1914. 



since 1897. The second type of address dealt with some branch 

 of knowledge, in which the President himself was an expert. 

 Our late President, the Hon'ble Colonel Harris, addressed us 

 last year on the progress of medical science, and men like Dr. 

 Hoernle and Sir Herbert Risley contributed addresses which 

 will always remain in the Society's archives as monuments of 

 learning. The third type of address is a review of the work of 

 the Society during the year. I wish it were possible for me to 

 address you on that branch of science in which I am myself 

 most interested, but my public duties have rendered it impos- 

 sible for me to give the time necessary to the preparation of 

 anything of the kind. I must, therefore, in this my first presi- 

 dential address, fall back upon the third type, and merely 

 review shortly the work of the Society during the past year. 



Before I begin, however, I should like to thank the mem- 

 bers for the honour they have done me in electing me to the 

 proud position of the President of the premier Scientific So- 

 ciety in India— a Society, the work of whose members has 

 been known and appreciated since the days of Sir William 

 Jones, not only in India, but throughout the world. The num- 

 ber of members during 1913 is not so large as it was previous- 

 ly : we have now 499 members, compared with 517 last year. 

 1 trust that during the next year there will be a considerable 

 accession to the membership, especially amongst the younger 

 generation in the mofussil. In my tours throughout the pro- 

 vince during the past two years, 1 have been interested to find 

 how many of the younger generation, both officials and non- 

 officials, are genuinely interested, especially in archaeological 

 matters. The membership of the Society, I believe, would do 

 much to encourage and to guide these younger members in 

 their researches. I was specially interested to find a genuine 

 keenness for research work in the centres at Dacca, at Raj- 

 shah] and at Rangpur. In Dacca and in Rajshahi archaeo- 

 logical museums have already been started, and when I visited 

 Rangpur I was invited to view an excellent exhibition by the 

 local Sahitya Parisad. These facts, 1 think, show an increas- 

 ing interest in such matters— an interest, which if cultivated 

 and properly directed, would help much in increasing our know- 

 ledge, especially of the ancient history of Northern and Eas- 

 tern Bengal. 



uring 



Sir Asu- 



tosh Mukharji, and I am told that the financial position of the 

 Society is sound ; but the useful work of the Society could be 

 much extended if more funds were available. The annual 

 allotment for the library, for example, is necessarily small, 

 though a Society of this kind ought to be able to keep its magnifi- 

 cent library up to date. The Society also could assist scholars 

 to a very much larger extent by publishing important oriental 

 manuscripts, were larger funds for this purpose at its disposal. 



