54 Announcement by the President. [May, 



and Natural History collections were handed over to the Museum in 

 1876. The Museum, however, liad to meet other needs and could not 

 accommodate the Society and its business; hepce the Government 

 gave the Society pecuniary compensation instead (Proedgs, 1876, pp.59 

 73-77). 



The Society therefore remained in this, its own house, and the 

 Home Collection remained here also ; but since the departure of its 

 own museum, these premises have ceased to be open to the public as 

 freely as before. At present it can hardly be said that the Home 

 Bequest is at all times open to public inspection ; and indeed the fine 

 picture of Warren Hastings is so little known, that in a recent life of 

 that great Governor a list of all known portraits of him is set out 

 and makes no mention of our picture. The intention of the donors 

 would certainly be carried out better, if the portraits already mentioned 

 belonging to the Home Bequest, be exhibited in the Victoria Memorial 

 Hall. 



The Council approved therefore of His Excellency's request ; 

 and learning also that the Trustees of the Memorial Hall would wel- 

 come other objects of interest, the Council proposed to offer some 

 other memorials from its collections for exhibition at the Hall, 

 namely — 



a fine MS. of the Gulistan (No. 114) j 



a fine MS. of the Badshah-nama (No. 118) ; 



three old copper-plate inscriptions (No. 126, found at Amgachi ; 

 No. 135, found in the Sambhalpur district ; and No 136 found, 

 at Augasi) ; 



a stone edict of King Asoka (No, 25) ; 



a portrait of Shah Ghazi-ud-din- Haidar, king of Oudh (No. 29) ; 



a portrait of James Grant DufE, who wrote the *' History of the 

 Mahrattas" (No. 51); 



a painting of the interview '^between the Governor-General and 

 the Raja of Kota (No. 107) ; and, 



a portrait of Nasarat Jang, Nawab of Dacca (No. 91). 



The last-mentioned portrait belongs to the " Home Bequest," and 

 all the rest are the Society's property. The MSS. and old inscriptions 

 are kept in safe custody, but the inscriptions have been deciphered and 

 published in the Journal. All these obje.cts will attract far more 

 public notice and interest if exhibited in the Memorial Hall ; while 

 their removal will not really impoverish the Society's rooms, for there is 

 not space enough at present for the effective display of all the Society's 

 painting and engravings. As regards the portrait of the Nawab of 



