38 Annual Address. [Feb. 



of our finances is that our income just about balances our expenditure. 

 The deficit has been due to two co-operating causes : a decrease in our 

 receipts and an increase in our expenditure. The main cause of the 

 former is the reduction of Rs. 744 under the head of subscriptions from 

 members. Only sixteen new members joined the Society during the past 

 year. It seems to me a cause of much regret that the Society does not 

 receive as much suppoct as it deserves, especially from some of the 

 scientific departments. I would earnestly impress upon our members 

 the necessity of increasing the resources of the Society by inducing 

 larger accessions to our numbers. The main cause of the increase 

 in our expenditure has been the extraordinary cost of publishing 

 our Journal Parts I. and II. In Part I. eight numbers (including 

 Extras) have been issued instead of the usual four, and in Part II. one 

 number, an important one, was unusually large. From one point of 

 view, of course, this activity is very satisfactory ; but it caused the 

 budget allowance to be exceeded by nearly Rs. 3,000. I trust that our 

 Secretaries, who so ably edit our Journals, will see the necessity of 

 endeavouring in the ensuing year to keep within the limits of their 

 allowances. There is a very special reason for the practice of economy. 

 In company with the rest of Calcutta our Society suffered heavily in 

 the late earthquake. Our premises were severely damaged, and we had 

 to incur a heavy bill for repairs done by Messrs. Macintosh Burn & Co. 

 This bill, amounting to upwards of Rs. 5,500, will have to be paid in the 

 course of the year, and a strong effort must be made to meet it without 

 crippling the resources of the Society. As one means of doing so I 

 would suggest the advisability of selling some of our oil-paintings. 

 The^'e are among them, I understand, a few of considerable value, 

 one, for example, of a rural scene by the younger Morland. Such 

 a disposal of them, I venture to think, would be not only in the 

 interests of the Society, but also of the pictures themselves, the proper 

 preservation of which, in the Calcutta climate, is a matter of great 

 difficulty. 



The other point concerns a duty which it gives me very great 

 pleasure to discharge. It is to remind you of the valuable services of our 

 officers given by them to the Society voluntarily and at the sacrifice of 

 their private time and leisure. Mr. C. R. Wilson was our G-eneral 

 Secretary till the middle of April, when he was succeeded first by 

 Dr. A R. S. Anderson and afterwards by Dr. A. W. Alcock. Dr. 

 Ranking acted as our Philological Secretary till June, when he left 

 Calcutta on leave, and Dr. Bloch was appointed. Mahamahopadhyaya 

 Hara Prasad Shastri carried on the duties of Joint-Philological Secretary 

 'throughout the year ; so did Mr. F. Finn and Mr. L. de Niceville those 



