1859.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 401 



and exhibit them, an obligation up to which the Society will be 

 quite incapable of acting. 



In considering under these circumstances what measures to pro- 

 pose to the Society, the Committee must first think of what is pos- 

 sible. In the present state of the Society, and with its existing 

 income, to support a general Museum as a Scientific Institution is 

 clearly not possible, and it should not be attempted. The utmost 

 that can be hoped for is to be able to rescue from destruction the 

 existing collections aud to preserve them until some time more 

 propitious to Science may come. But before tamely accepting such 

 a result, the Committee would suggest to the Society that an appeal 

 should be made to the Government on this subject. 



The motives which have led the Governments of all other civilized 

 nations to establish Museums at their capitals apply with equal force 

 in the case of British India. 



Nor would arguments be wanting to show that the obligations on 

 the British Government to endow a Museum at Calcutta have even 

 more than usual cogency. For if such a patronage of Science is 

 fitting in a national Government like that of England which affects 

 no greater wisdom, no superior civilization, no larger liberality, than 

 the mass of the citizens, does it not become a paramount duty in this 

 country where the rulers are a handful of foreigners who claim for 

 themselves the ability, if not the will, of taking the lead in all 

 improvements. 



The enlightened views which the Government of India have 

 already displayed in the establishment of the University of Calcutta 

 and the Geological Museum, and the intentions which it is under-* 

 stood to have in respect to the formation of College Museums, give 

 reasonable grounds to hope that a proposition for the foundation of 

 a National Museum at Calcutta might be favourably received by the 

 Government at the present time ; and considering what has already 

 been said of the inability of the Society to maintain a Museum on 

 any really satisfactory footing, the Committee trusts that the Socie- 

 ty may be disposed to concur with them in the propriety of the 

 proposal which they have made. 



But they are strongly impressed with the conviction that in 



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