1872. President's Address. 21 



President's Address, 



During the past twelve months my official duties outside the Societ}^, have 

 been of an unusually pressing nature, and have left me little or no time at 

 my own disposal. The leisure, too, which I had expected to find in the 

 autumn vacation of the High Court, I was deprived of by illness. For these 

 reasons I am now, I regret to say, totally unprepared to make to you such 

 an address, as should be in any degree worthy of the occasion. I venture, 

 therefore, to ask your mdulgence, and to beg that you will, on the grounds 

 I have mentioned, hold me excused of that apparent inattention on my part to 

 the last function of a retiring President, which the meagreness of my present 

 communication to you, if unexplained, would naturally seem to indicate. 



You will find all the material details of the administration of the So- 

 ciety's affairs during 1871 in the Report of the Council, and I do not know 

 that there is any particular therein to which I need call your especial atten- 

 tion. Accidental circumstances caused the amount of subscriptions collected 

 within the year to be less than it might have been ; and to this extent the 

 apparent income of the Society has been diminished. But a portion of the 

 subscription thus outstanding has, I believe, already been collected in the 

 current year, and I trust that more will be so. In spite of serious losses by 

 death and resignation, the total number of the members of the Society has in- 

 creased from 414 to 446 ; although, I am sorry to say, the number of resi- 

 dent members as compared with that of last year, has considerably diminish- 

 ed ; and I am afraid we must expect it still to diminish as long as our accommo- 

 dation is so straitened as it now is. The Honorary Secretaries, Dr. Stoliczka, 

 Mr. Blochmann, and Col. Tennant, and also the Assistant Secretary, Babu 

 Pratapa Chunder Ghose, have zealously worked in the interests of the Society, 

 and deserve your best thanks for their services. 



We are bound also to especially thank Babu Rajendralala Mitra, Mr. 

 Blochmann, and the several pundits and maulawis, who have devoted much 

 valuable time and labour to the important work of the Society's Oriental publi- 

 cations. "With regard to the quality and quantity of the work so done, inas- 

 much as it has been impeached elsewhere, I shall say a few words presently. 



Unfortunately the endeavours of the officers of the Society to promote 

 its interests, and to enlarge the scope of its activity are gravely hindered, so 

 long as the obligations towards us which Act XVII of 1866 imposed upon the 

 Government of India, remain unfulfilled. At our last anniversary meeting, 

 as you will probably remember, I remarked upon the attitude relative to the 

 Society, which the Government presented in this matter, and the situation of 



