JOURNAL 



OF THE 



ASIATIC SOCIETY 



No. III.— 1854. 



Manuscripts of the late Sir H. Elliot, K. C. B. by Dr. A. Spren- 

 gker, Secretary, Asiatic Society. 



Lady Elliot having permitted me to examine the papers and 

 books of her late husband, Sir Henry E., I am enabled to give some 

 account — though in the whole not a very precise one, of the great 

 work — the Indian Historians, on which he was engaged several years 

 previous to his lamented death. 



He says in his preface to the first volume ; " A few months since 

 (this was in 1846) the compiler of this Catalogue was engaged in a 

 correspondence with the Principal of the College at Delhi (the writer 

 of these lines) on the subject of lithographing a uniform edition of 

 the Native Historians of India. On referring the matter to His 

 Honor, the Lieutenant-Governor N. W. P., it was replied that the 

 Education Funds at the disposal of the Grovernment, were not suffi- 

 cient to warrant the outlay of so large a sum as the scheme required, 

 and without which it would have been impossible to complete so ex- 

 pensive an undertaking. At the same time it was intimated, that, as 

 few people were acquainted with the particular works which would 

 be selected to form such a series, it would be very desirable ; that an 

 Index of them should be drawn up, in order that the manuscripts 

 might be sought for and deposited in one of our College Libraries, 

 to be printed or lithographed hereafter, should circumstances render 

 it expedient and should the public taste, at present lamentably 

 indifferent, show any inclination for greater familiarity with the 

 true sources of the Mohammedan History of India." 



No. LXVIL— New Series. Vol. XXIII. 2 h 



