290 Asiatic Society. [May, 



to express with adequate force, that the cause of civilization and the 

 character of the British nation will alike sustain irreparable injury. 



12. — The Society, therefore, earnestly beseech the Honorablethe Governor 

 General in Council, that if,on full consideration, any reasonable doubt shall 

 be entertained by the Supreme Government of the right of the native lite- 

 rature to a fair proportion of the sum appropriated by Parliament, " for 

 the revival and improvement of literature, and for the encouragement 

 of learned natives of India," he will then be pleased either himself to 

 grant, or if necessary, to solicit from the Court of Directors, some spe- 

 cific pecuniary aid to be annually expended on these objects. And the So- 

 ciety will be happy to undertake the duty of superintending the expendi- 

 ture of this sum, under such checks as it may please the Government to 

 impose. 



13. — But whatever may be the determination of the Government on this 

 point, the Society respectfully intreat the Governor General in Council, 

 that he will be pleased to afford to them the assistance of the learned na- 

 tives hitherto employed in these literary undertakings, together with such 

 pecuniary aid as may be necessary, to complete the printing of the oriental 

 works, which has been interrupted by the resolution of Government to direct 

 the funds hitherto expended upon them to purposes of English education. 

 14. — Should Government be pleased to accede to this request, the Socie- 

 ty will furnish with as little delay as possible an estimate of the amount 

 which will be required for the attainment of this object. 



15. — The Society cannot doubt that the Governor General in Council will 

 support their appeal to the home authorities with his powerful advo- 

 cacy, nor that the earliest opportunity will be taken of bringing the 

 merits of the important and entirely national question it embraces, be- 

 fore the Honorable the Court of Directors, in all its bearings. This 

 address has been dictated solely by the desire of proffering to Go- 

 vernment the services of an appropriate organ, through which the pub- 

 lication of the oriental classics may be continued, and that further 

 patronage extended to oriental studies, which it cannot believe the Govern- 

 ment to have any intention of altogether abandoning. 



Edward Ryan, President. 

 Asiatic Society's Apartments, \ 

 June 3rd, 1835. J 



Upon the first five paragraphs one or two verbal alterations only were suggested. 

 On the 6th, which originally ended, " but they would deeply regret if, in the pursuit 

 of this favorite object, it were thought necessary or advisable to abandon, &c." 

 Mr. Colvin begged to propose the omission of the word " favorite," as ap- 

 plied in the above paragraph of the Address to the object of extending the means 

 of English education. It appeared to him to convey an unnecessary imputa. 

 tion, as if of prejudiced favoritism or partiality. He would here say (al- 

 luding to some remarks which had passed in conversation), that he enter- 

 tained as cordial a desire, as any one could do, to promote the literary pur- 

 poses, with a view to which the Society was formed. He, as a member of the So- 

 ciety, fully sympathized in the feeling which would seek to maintain the know- 

 ledge and cultivation of the oriental languages and literature, and he would rea- 

 dily join in an address to Government to obtain its patronage and pecuniary sup- 

 port for those studies; but he had hoped that the proceedings of the evening were 

 to be free from controversy. He had not been present at the meeting of the 

 previous month, but he had seen with great gratification, that the proposition 

 then adopted was for the preparation of a memorial, " which should avoid to the 

 utmost all controversial points." He feared from the observations which had 

 been made that he should be disappointed in this respect. He had, however, been 

 unintentionally led, by what had passed, into a digression; returning to the 

 object for which he had risen to speak, he proposed the omission of the word 

 " favorite" in the passage which had just been read. 



