vi Preface. 



tor professing, like his predecessor, to have Ho desire to make 

 money by the publication, but being determined, and to this day 

 he has adhered to the determination, to devote the entire 

 proceeds of an increasing circulation, to the extension of its 

 utility, by improvements in the getting up, and additions to the 

 quantity of matter circulated through its means. 



The Periodical received for some years much encouragement 

 through an arrangement made with the Government of Bengal^ 

 by which it was exempted from postage, under the condition of 

 publishing each month one sheet of Dr. Buchanan's Statistical 

 Reports of this Presidency. The arrangement continued till 

 June 1834, when Dr. Buchanan's Report upon the district of 

 Dinajpur being completed, the indulgence of free circulation 

 in the interior was withdrawn, and the further publication of 

 these statistical reports as an Appendix to the Journal was stop- 

 ped. 



There is no doubt that the arrangement was an unusual one 

 for a Government to make* and as it proved embarrassing in 

 the precedent it established, and in the claims to which it 

 gave rise in other Publications professing religious and other 

 praise-worthy objects, the withdrawal has never been a subject 

 of complaint. 



The Periodical had, however, while this privilege lasted, ob- 

 tained its advantage in making its existence known throughout 

 India, and thus in inviting the scientific and the speculative to 

 avail themselves of its pages for the publication of the results of 

 their studies. We gratefully acknowledge that the success of 

 the Journal has been mainly owing to the manner in which 

 this invitation has been responded to. 



The burthen of postage under the Post-office Rules, which 

 existed before the Act for equalizing them throughout India 

 was passed in 1837, bore very heavily on distant subscribers : 

 nevertheless the loss of the indulgence of free transmission occa- 

 sioned no diminution of the subscription list of the Journal, nor 

 was this affected by the further change of an increased sub- 

 scription, which became indispensable consequently upon a 

 large augmentation of the number of pages and plates. On 

 the contrary it has been found necessary to add continu- 

 ally to the number of impressions ordered from the printer, 



