1863. | Proceedings of the Asiatie Society. 35 
Hon’ble C. J. Eyskine. 
Dr. J. Fayrer. 
Captain W. N. Lees. 
HE. C. Bayley, Esq. 
Dr. T. Anderson. 
Babi Ramdanath Tagore. 
J. Obbard, Esq. 
Dr. T. C. Jerdon. 
T. Oldham, Esq. 
W.S. Atkinson, Hsq. 
HK. B. Cowell, Esq. 
Lieutenant-Colonel Thuillier, on assuming the President’s chair 
} Joint Secretaries. 
said he felt deeply the great honor that had been done him by the 
vote of the meeting, for which he expressed his warmest acknowledg- 
ments. Of the honorable members present none could have been 
taken more by surprise than he himself was, when he was first 
nominated by the Council, at which time he felt it his duty to urge 
as forcibly as he was able, the various good reasons against his being 
selected to fill such a post, for which he feared he possessed but very 
few qualifications. There were, he knew, other members of the 
Society who could and would render far better service than he ever 
could hope to do, and it was a matter of regret, therefore, that some 
one of greater influence and ability had not been selected on the 
present occasion. 
It was to be borne in mind that the cause of the vacancy in the 
Presidentship of the Society was the retirement of their respected and 
excellent friend Mr. Grote in consequence of a desire having been 
expressed by some members for a periodical change in the tenure of the 
office in accordance with the practice of learned Societies in Europe. 
In the desirability of introducing this principle into the Asiatic Society 
he fully concurred, and he would have been glad to see it carried out 
during the present year under ordinary circumstances, but when he 
reflected on the great difficulty there appeared to be in securing the 
services of a suitable person to fill the office, and when no better man 
than himself had been elected by the votes of the meeting, he sub- 
mitted that at such a moment it was not good to introduce the 
change, and he heartily wished that their late President could have been 
prevailed on under such circumstances to forego his determination to 
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