78 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. []vj a ^ 



3. The rules to which these observations apply, are the second 

 fifth, tenth and thirteenth. 



4. The second defines the number and mode of election of the 

 governing body of the proposed Government museum, and would 

 as it is now worded, leave the nomination of the Vice-President and 

 of one-half of the Council with the Society. I am directed to point 

 out, that as the museum will hereafter be wholly public and supported 

 at the expense of the State, it seems to be inconsistent with its char- 

 acter to reserve so large a share in its management to a private 

 Society. The President in Council is, therefore, of opinion that no 

 more than one- third, instead of one-half, of the trustees should be 

 named by the Asiatic Society. 



5. For the same reasons, the President in Council dissents from 

 the fifth rule, which would secure separate and distinct privileges to 

 members of the Asiatic Society. When the museum has become the 

 property of the public, the public ought to enjoy as free a use of its 

 contents as is consistent with their due preservation. It by no means 

 necessarily follows that the terms on which this use is granted to the 

 public should be more limited than those on which the members of 

 the Asiatic Society now enjoy the use of their own collection, or that 

 the privileges of the members should be in any way restricted by the 

 transfer. 



6. Similarly, the President in Council would suggest that the 

 reservation as to the library and manuscripts contained in the tenth 

 and thirteenth Rules, should be omitted. It seems almost unavoid- 

 able that the proposed museum should possess the adjunct of at least 

 a library of reference, such as the library of the Society would, with 

 some additions, form ; and there seems to be no good reason why two 

 similar libraries should co-exist under the same roof. If the library 

 and manuscripts were transferred with the other collections, it is not 

 probable that the conditions attached to their use would be less liberal 

 than those of the Asiatic Society, so that the members of that Society 

 need not in any degree, as has been already said with respect to the 

 other collections, suffer any abridgment of their privileges by the 

 transfer, 



I have, &c. 



(S&) E. C. Batlet, 



Secy, to the Govt, of India. 



■■iXgr-^rvjt^. 



