1850.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 151 



Mr. Laidlay, about the time at which he would naturally have pre- 

 pared such a Report, was obliged suddenly on pressing private 

 business, to go into the Mofussil, where he has since been detained. 

 The Senior Secretary, owing to his absence from Calcutta and his 

 imperfect acquaintance with the affairs of the Society during many 

 months of the past year, the pressure of public duties, and other 

 causes, has found himself unable to supply the place of his Co-Secretary 

 and to draft such a Report. 



The Council have further, and to their great regret, to inform the 

 Society that Dr. O'Shaughnessy finds it impossible to continue to the 

 Society those services from which it has for several years derived so 

 much benefit. The Council has too much reason to apprehend that 

 the Society may also lose the valuable services of Mr. Laidlay, who, as 

 well as Dr. O'Shaughnessy, with every desire for the welfare of the 

 Society, finds that the management of its affairs demands far more 

 time and attention than he has to devote to them. 



The Council would, under any circumstances, have considered the 

 retirement of either gentleman, a matter to be regretted by the Society. 

 It is doubly so when the Council is unable to point to any gentleman 

 who is willing, as well as able, to succeed to the onerous oifice about to 

 be relinquished. 



The Council is decidedly of opinion that unless a considerable modi- 

 fication of the duties of the Secretaries takes place^-unless their labours 

 be materially lightened, it is unreasonable to expect that any gentleman 

 will undertake an office which, as at present constituted, is both labori- 

 ous and purely gratuitous, or recompensed only by occasional and 

 considerable annoyances. The editorship of the Journal alone involves 

 an amount of care and attention, which few men engaged in the active 

 business of life can bestow. 



The most obvious mode of lightening the labours of the Principal and 

 Honorary Secretaries is by the agency of a paid officer or Under-Secre- 

 tary, who would save them from mere duties of routine. 



Unfortunately the state of the Society's finances renders it impossible 

 to adopt such a measure, except upon the most mature consideration, 

 and with some modification of the existing establishment. 



Another measure which deserves immediate attention is the revisal 

 of the rules of the Society. At the annual meeting of January, 1848, 



