PREFACE. 



The third volume of the Journal of the Asiatic Society 

 would not have required a preface, had not the observations 

 made by the Editor, on publishing the second volume, implied 

 that the subscribers and supporters of the work should be made 

 acquainted with its progress in a financial point of view, especially 

 after the diminution of support which the order regarding postage, 

 taking effect on the 1st June last, was calculated to produce. 

 The Editor is however happy to announce that his friends and 

 the public have not allowed this circumstance materially to affect 

 their support. The circulation is now nearly as great as it was, 

 not more than 30 names having been withdrawn in consequence 

 of the postage regulations ; while other names have been added 

 to the subscription list, probably from a feeling of interest, lest 

 the work should succumb to circumstances of discouragement. 

 Some reductions were liberally allowed in the printing charges 

 by the Press which has from the first been employed in publish- 

 ing the work (and in a manner highly creditable to the Baptist 

 Missionary Establishment), so that the expences this year, 

 notwithstanding the increase of the number of plates to thirty- 

 six, have not much exceeded the income. It is unnecessary to 

 enter into particulars, as the statement published last year will, 

 with the aid of the list of subscribers, furnish an near as estimate 

 as it is possible to give on the result of the year's operations. 



The Editor cannot refrain from making known to his corre- 

 spondents the great interest which has been excited in Europe by 

 many of the papers which they have done him the honor to 

 contribute. The letters he has received from Oxford, London, 

 and Paris would alone be sufficient to urge him to a continuance 

 of his Editorial labours, did he not feel, unconnected with praise 

 or censure, that the Journal was now become a necessary adjunct 

 of the Asiatic Society, and that it continues to receive an unin- 



