56 Lord Curzon [Feb, 



His Excellency Baron Ccrzon of Kedleston, Patron of the 

 Society, spoke on the subject of 



ANCIENT MONUMENTS IN INDIA. 



I hope that there is nothing inappropriate in my addressing to this 

 Society a few observations upon the duty of Government in respect of 

 ancient buildings in India. The Asiatic Society of Bengal still, I trust, 

 even in these days when men are said to find no time for scholarship, and 

 when independent study or researcli seems to have faded out of Indian 

 fashion, retains that interest in archoBology which is so often testified to 

 in its earlier publications, and was promoted by so many of its most 

 illustrious names. Surely here, if anywhere, in this house which 

 enshrines the memorials, and has frequently listened to the wisdom of 

 great scholars and renowned students, it is permissible to recall the 

 recollection of the present generation to a subject that so deeply engaged 

 the attention of your early pioneers, and that must still, even in a breath- 

 less age, appeal to the interest of every thoughtful man. 



In the course of my recent tour, during which I visited some of the 

 most famous sites and beautiful or historic buildings in India, I more 

 than once remarked, in reply to Municipal addresses, that I regarded 

 the conservation of ancient monuments as one of the primary obligations 

 of Government. We have a duty to our forerunners, as well as to our 

 contemporaries and to our descendants, — nay our duty to the two latter 

 classes in itself demands the recognition of an obligation to the former, 

 since we are the custodians for our own age of that which has been 

 bequeathed to us by an earlier, and since posterity will rightly blame us 

 if, owing to our neglect, they fail to reap the same advantages that we 

 have been privileged to enjoy. Moreover, how can we expect at the 

 hands of futurity any consideration for the productions of our own time 

 — if indeed any are worthy of such — unless we have ourselves shown a 

 like respect to the handiwork of our predecessors ? This obligation, 

 which I assert and accept on behalf of Government, is one of an even 

 more binding chaiacter in India than in many European countries. 

 There abundant private wealth is available for the acquisition or the 

 conservation of that which is frequently private property. Corpora- 

 tions, societies, endowments, trusts provide a vast machinery that 

 relieves the Government of a large portion of its obligation. The 

 historic buildings, the magnificent temples, the inestimable works of art, 

 are invested with a publicity that to some extent saves tliem from the 

 risk of desecration or the encroachments of decay. Here all is different. 

 India is covered with the visible records of vanished dynasties, of for- 

 gotten monarchs, of persecuted and sometimes dishonoured creeds. 



