1856.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 239 



Curatorship, unharassed by conflicting pursuits, and by the cares 

 and anxieties inseparable from straitened means. 



The recommendation of the Council having been put to the vote 

 was agreed to. 



4th. — Submitting with reference to a resolution of the Society at 

 its last meeting the following memo, explanatory of the report of 

 the special Committee which was then read. 



Memoranda. 



"It was the opinion of the Committee that a very considerable 

 outlay is necessary on account of the Museum, no less to secure a 

 proper arrangement and maintenance of its existing collections, 

 than to make due provision for the ever increasing accumulations ; 

 and that, independently of the requirement of the Library, the Mu- 

 seum alone, if justice is done to the valuable collections it contains, 

 and adequate provision made for its extension, will absorb a far 

 larger sum than the present surplus income of Es. 2152 estimated 

 on its ordinary income and expenditure for the year 1855. 



At present the ordinary annual cost of the Museum is 



about, Es. 4190 



Out of which Government pays, 3600 



Leaving a charge on the Society's finances of, 590 



This insignificant sum is all that the Society has hitherto felt 

 itself in a condition to devote, as an ordinary yearly charge, to the 

 purposes of the Museum. 



The Committee after careful consideration came to the conclusion 

 that there was no prospect that the Society's finances would ever be 

 adequate to the pressing and increasing demands on this head, and, 

 feeling strongly the vast importance to science of a really efficient 

 Museum for reference in the Metropolis of India, they were led to 

 suggest that a proposal should be made to G-overment to take the 

 matter in hand, as the only probable means of accomplishing this 

 object effectually. On the question of reducing the subscriptions 

 therefore they were clearly of opinion that, so long as the Museum 

 has to be supported, no change can be effected, since there appear 

 to be no grounds for believing that a lower scale of subscription will 



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