1-847.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Socieh/. 605 



[The following letter has been sent to the Editors of the Journal for 

 publication as a sequel to the proceedings for May.] 



To Dr. W. B- O'Shaughnessy, 

 Joint- Secretary of the Asiatic Society. 

 Dear Sir,— I had expected to have been present at the Society's meeting 

 last night, but was unavoidably prevented almost at the last moment ; it 

 becomes necessary, therefore, that I should trouble you with a few lines in 

 correction of such portion of your report of the Proceedings, published in 

 April, as refers to what you supposed me to have said on the subject of the 

 Burnes and Cantor drawings. You did me the favour to ask me to give you 

 a written report of the remarks I made, but other engagements prevented my 

 doing so ; any trivial inaccuracy, therefore, I should not have noticed ; but 

 you make me talk nonsense on a matter of figures, and, however apparent it 

 may be thought as a mistake, I desire to repudiate it. I could have wished 

 that you had thought what I said on the subject of the importance of keeping 

 accounts in a business-like way (with reference to the unsatisfactory abstract 

 before me) worthy a line or two, prefacing as it did that " categorical mode of 

 questioning" which you pronounced " uncalled for and unnecessary among a 

 society of gentlemen." I think it would have been better, when you repeated 

 this expression in type, to have mentioned the substance of my reply, which 

 was, that the money matters of even a Scientific Society were of serious 

 moment, and that peremptory questioning was called for by lavish expenditure 

 and unsatisfactory accounts, more especially when there were not funds to 

 meet its professed liabilities ; you may remember that I pointed out, inter alia, 

 that it was impossible for any member of the Society to say what sum, 

 between two and three thousand rupees, was debited to 14 of Dr. Cantor's 

 drawings. This brings me to the particular misconception of what I said 

 about these and the Burnes lithographs, to which I have above alluded. The 

 Report in the Society's Journal is as follows : — " The sets of Cantor's collec- 

 tion had cost Rs. 2561, being 183 Rs. each set — now he had much experience 

 in the expense of lithographs and would pledge himself to produce plates 

 infinitely superior to those now before the Society at the cost of from 5 to 10 

 Rupees per 100." How it could possibly have been supposed that I said one 

 hundred lithographed plates could be produced for any sum between these 

 limits, I am at a loss to imagine. I stated it was certain the 14 Cantor draw- 

 ings had cost Rs. 2,561, but the precise amount beyond was undiscovcrable, 

 from Chinese zoology being lumped with Mr. Thoby Prinsep's bust and 

 other matters, in an item of considerable amount. I said it was an exorbitant 

 charge ; that I had people in my employ who could lithograph much better^ 

 whose wages were Rs. 15 a month, and that each of them could certainly do 



