604 



Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 



[No. 5, 



number of answers and comments were received, the majority being in 

 full accordance with the terms of the report. These were circulated to 

 the resident members of the Committee, and a meeting was then held 

 (on the 22nd August,) at which the whole Report was reconsidered, and 

 some slight alterations agreed upon. The Report thus completed was 

 sent up to the Council, and recorded at the meeting held on the 2nd 

 September ; but as it was thought desirable that a subject of so much 

 importance should receive the leisurely consideration of the Council, it 

 was ordered to be circulated to the Council, and to be reconsidered at the 

 following meeting. The chief alteration suggested by the Council was, 

 that that part of the Draft which provided for a Board of Meteorology 

 should be struck out, on the ground that the essential requirements of the 

 system were efficient administration, and that it would be undesirable to 

 divide the responsibility between an executive Secretary and a delibera- 

 tive Board. The report was therefore referred back to the Committee, 

 recirculated and considered at two meetings, and in its final revised form 

 is now submitted by the Council at this meeting of the Society. 



At the time when these lengthened deliberations were approaching 

 completion, viz., on the 19th October, a letter was received from the 

 Military Department, informing the Society, that " in consequence of a 

 further communication from the Right Hon'blethe Secretary of State, 

 transmitting some suggestions of the War Department, the Governor- 

 General in Council has decided to entrust the consideration of the ques- 

 tion to the Sanitary Commission, and does not therefore consider it neces- 

 sary to trouble the Society any further in the matter. His Excellency 

 desired, however, to convey the acknowledgments of Government to 

 the Asiatic Society for their original offer, and for the trouble they are 

 believed to have taken preparatory to carrying it out." On receipt of 

 this letter, it was decided that the Report be completed as originally 

 intended, and that its submission to the Society be deferred for a month, 

 in order that, should any further information be received respecting 

 this most unexpected communication, it might be submitted to the 

 meeting, together with the Report and the Government letter. 



No further communication has been received, and the Report is 

 therefore now submitted to the Society, together with all correspondence 

 relating thereto. 



The following letter was then read : — 



