xcviii Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [Oct. 1844. 



Books exchanged' 



10. Annals and Magazine of Natural History, Vol. 14 ; Nos. 88 and 89, July and 

 August, 1844. 



11. The Athenaeum, Nos. 871 to 874, July 1844. 



Read the following Proceedings of the Committee of Papers : — 



At a Meeting of the Committee of Papers held on 13th September at half-past 

 10 a. M. 



Present. — The Honourable Sir J. P. Grant, the Honourable Sir H. Seton, Lieut. 

 Col. Forbes, C. Huffnagle, Esq., S. G. T. Heatly, Esq., and Rev. Dr. J. Haeberlin. 



Resolved, — That the Members of the Society be informed by Circular, that at 

 the next Meeting a President to the Society will be elected. 



2nd. That a deputation having been offered to wait upon the Hon'ble W. W. Bird, 

 and his occupations having interfered with his receiving it at the hour proposed, the 

 Secretary be instructed to draw up a suitable address to our late President, requesting 

 him to make choice of an artist of reputation in England, by whom his Portrait may 

 be taken of the Kit Cat size, to be placed in the Meeting Room of the Society, with 

 those of his predecessors in office. 



J. P. Grant, Chairman. 



And letters as follows: — 



To the Honorable W. W. Bird, Esq. late President of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. 



Honorable Sir, — I have been instructed to apprise you, that the letter of resig- 

 nation of your office of President, which I had the honour to submit at the last meet- 

 ing of the Society, was received with the expression of the regret of its members, at 

 the cessation of your connexion with a body to which you have belonged for more than 

 three and thirty years. 



The Society has, I am instructed to state, a lively sense of the value of the support 

 and assistance you have afforded it during the time that you have held the office of its 

 President. You, Sir, have by constant supervision of our Proceedings encouraged 

 and stimulated the work in which the Society has been engaged, and by a judicious 

 use of the opportunities available in your high official situation you have put the 

 Society in a position to diffuse the results of scientific enquiry conducted by the 

 Government, among its members, and the scientific world at large. 



Anxious to possess a memento of you, the Society instruct me to request, that you 

 will do them the favour of selecting an artist of good reputation in England, by whom 

 your Portrait may be painted in the Kit Cat size, for the purpose of its being placed in 

 the Meeting Room of the Society, together with those of your predecessors in the Chair 

 of President. 



The Society instruct me to beg, that you will take the further trouble of referring 

 the artist you may select to our Agents, Messrs. VV. H. Allen and Co. Leadenhail 

 Street. 



The Society, in conclusion, direct me to express their thanks and acknowledgments 

 for the kind urbanity with which you have at all times met them, for the lively interest 



