1838.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society, 569 



Oriental Publications. 

 The Secretary read the following letter from Government, with its seve- 

 ral enclosures, in reply to the Society's memorial of the 2nd September, 

 1835. 



To James Prinsep, Esq. 

 Sir, Secretary to the Asiatic Society. 



"With reference to your letter to this department dated the 21st September 1835, 

 and to the reply dated the 30th of the same month, 1 am directed by the Honorable 

 the Deputy Governor of Bengal to transmit for the information of the Society the 

 accompanying copy of a letter No. 8, of 1838, from the Honorable the Court of 

 Directors in the public department, dated the 28th March and of its enclosures ; and 

 to state that the sum of 500 Company's rupees per month has, from the 18th of 

 June, the date of the receipt of the despatch, been placed at the disposal of the 

 Asiatic Society for employment in the manner indicated by the Honorable Court. 

 The amount will be made payable monthly from the General Treasury on the bills 

 of the Secretary of the Society, countersigned by the President, and duly audited, 

 and at the close of each year an account must be rendered, shewing the manner 

 in which the amount has been expended. 



I am, &c. 



H. T. Prinsep, 



Fort William, the 20th June, 1838. Secretary to the Government of Bengal. 



Public Department. No. 8, of 1838. 

 Our Governor of the Presidency of Fort William in Bengal. 



Para. 1. We now reply to your letter in this department dated the 30th Sep- 

 tember, No. 28, of 1835, in which you forward a memorial from the Asiatic Society 

 of Calcutta, soliciting some pecuniary aid in the expense of publishing standard 

 and useful works in Oriental Literature, that Society having undertaken to complete 

 various works which remained unfinished when the system for the promotion of 

 native education in Bengal was altered. 



2. The Society have not applied for any specific sum, but we have received from 

 their agent in Europe, Professor H. H.Wilson two letters (copies of which are 

 herewith forwarded) in which he states that " 500 rupees a month will probably 

 suffice in addition to the Society's own funds and the returns which may be expected 

 from the sale of the books." 



3. Although the works formerly published may not always have been selected in 

 the most judicious manner, we are still of opinion that the publication of oriental 

 works, and works on instruction in the eastern languages, should not be abandoned ; 

 we therefore authorize you to devote a sum not exceeding five hundred rupees a month 

 to the preparation and publication of such works, either through the medium of the 

 Asiatic Society, or any equally appropriate channel, and we shall expect an annual 

 return of the works published and ten copies of each book for distribution in this 

 country. 



We also desire that twenty copies of all the works which have been or which may 

 be hereafter published by the Committee of Public Instruction, except the Fatawa 

 Alemgiri, of which forty copies have been received, be forwarded to us by the first 

 convenient opportunity. 



We are, &c. (Signed,) 



J. R. Carnac, J. L. Lushington, H. Lindsay, R. Miles, Jno. Master- 

 mann, John Cotton, P. Vans Agnew, J. Petty Muspratt, H. Shank, 

 Russell Ellice, Henry Willock, John G. Ravenshaw, George Lyall. 



London, 2Sth March, 1838. 



To J. C. Melvill, Esq. 



Financial Secretary to the Honorable the Court of Directors. 

 Sir, 



I have to request that you will submit to the Honorable the Court of Directors 

 the following representation which I beg most respectfully to lay before them on 

 the subject of the discontinuance of the assistance hitherto given by their Bengal 

 Government to the publication of works in the languages of the east. 



2. In thus offering myself to the notice of the Honorable Court, I trust I may 

 be allowed to plead in excuse the situation which I hold as Professor of one of the 

 principal languages affected by the measure ; my intimate relations when in India 

 with learned natives, my office as agent in Europe of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 



