PREFACE. 



We have the pleasure of closing this sixth volume of our 

 Journal with an unexpected announcement : — the last steam 

 packet has brought out instructions from the Honorable Court 

 of Directors to the Government of India to " subscribe in their 

 name for fokty copies of the Journal of the Asiatic Society 

 from the commencement of its publication !" We forbear to 

 comment upon an act of liberality by which we shall personally 

 be such a gainer, but which we have neither directly nor indi- 

 rectly solicited. We can easily imagine to whose friendly influ- 

 ence we are indebted for it, and we hope he will accept our ac- 

 knowledgments. Our principal difficulty will be how to meet 

 the wishes of the court ; for of our early volumes not a volume is 

 now to be procured ! We must seriously consider the expedi- 

 ency of a reprint, for we have even heard it whispered that an 

 American edition was in contemplation, and such a thing can- 

 not be deemed impossible when we find the Philadelphiana 

 undertaking to rival us of Calcutta in printing (and that with- 

 out government support) a Cochinchinese dictionary* ! 



Of local support we have lost nothing by the measure we re- 

 luctantly adopted at the beginning of the year, of raising the 

 price of the journal from one to one and a half rupee per num- 

 ber. Our list is fuller than ever, and our balance sheet of a 

 much more promising aspect. 



* M. P. St. Dc ponceau thus writes to M. Jacquet of Paris: " J'ai 

 maintenant le plaisir de vous informer que la Societe philosophique Ameri- 

 caine vient d'ordonner V impression a ses frais dex deux vocabulaires 

 donnes a Mr. White par le R. de Morrone, ils vont etre publies dans un 

 volume des memoires de son comite d' histoire et de literature, etant trop 

 volumineux pour faire partie de ses Transactions philosophiques. 



