1856.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 427 



2. From Mr. Secretary Grey forwarding for the information and 

 guidance of the society extracts from a despatch No. 41, dated 

 18th May last, in reference to the proper application of the Govern- 

 ment grant for the publication of Oriental works, and adding on 

 behalf of the Lieut.-Governor that the Society's account of the 

 Oriental Publication Fund for 1855, exhibited a larger amount of 

 liabilities than that commented on by the Hon'ble Court. The 

 following is the Court's despatch. 



Public Department. 



No. 41 of 1856. 



Our Governor General of India in Council. 



Para. 1. — These accounts exhibit a balance in hand on the 28th 

 February, 1855, of Es. 5,546-6-7, bu fc 



Narrative dated ,13th July, with liabilities considerably exceeding 

 «*!£ ^oL^oi'k/l: th at amount or Es. 9,224-2. This will bo 

 penditure of the allowances partly met by the monthly grant dur- 

 granted to the Asiatic Society . , 



of Bengal for the publication m g th © current year, but it will involve 

 of works in the languages and the suspe nsion of many of the works in 

 literature of India for the years 

 1853.54. progress. The difference is more than 



ought to have been incurred, and we 

 expect that in future the annual outlay will be limited to the amount 

 of the annual receipts. 



2. — The increase of liability arises no doubt from the greater 

 activity given to the publication of the numbers of the Bibliotheca 

 Indica by the arrangement adopted by the Asiatic Society of pay- 

 ing the editors for work actually performed, thus giving them an 

 inducement to more diligent application. As, however, there is no 

 particular object to be gained by accelerating the publication of 

 the Bibliotheca Indica, and carefulness in editing is of more im- 

 portance than rapidity of publication, we are of opinion that some 

 restraint should be imposed upon the editors of works that are 

 likely to be voluminous or that are of minor interest, and that they 

 should be allowed to issue only a definite number of fascicules in 

 the course of any one year. 



3. — This augmented activity and enhanced expense arise espe- 

 cially from the great impulse given to publications in Mahommedau 

 literature and the Arabic language* Of the 38 Nos. of the Biblio- 



