( xx ) 



already committed to writing has been put aside as useless, car- 

 ried away to other lands, or has perished by mischance or careless- 

 ness. Of one such case at least I know. Some papers which were 

 the result of the learning and experience of one of the most able 

 of the older residents, the Hon'ble Thomas Bbaddell, intended 

 for publication in Logan's " Journal of the Indian Archipelago," 

 were lost after the valuable publication ceased to exist. And ano- 

 ther series of papers from the same pen were entrusted to the edi- 

 tor of the short-lived " Journal of Eastern Asia," and met with the 

 same fate as their predecessors. 



The failure and the loss were due in both cases to the same 

 cause. The whole enterprise was on the shoulders of a single indivi- 

 dual, and a want of leisure, or of health, or of perseverance on his 

 part, brought the whole thing to an end. We have a hope, as I 

 said on the first occasion I had the honour of addressing this 

 Society, that we may escape the danger, by the fact that we are a 

 Society, and therefore that, when one man fails or drops away, ano- 

 ther will be found to fill up his place in the ranks, and the work 

 will go on. 



I do not propose to review in detail the articles contributed 

 to the pages of the Journal during the past year. I will only say 

 of them that they seem to shew no sign of falling off, either in 

 ability, or in permanent value. 



It is very satisfactory that a Library has been commenced. 

 The number of works in it is not large at present, and they consist, 

 perhaps too exclusively, of the transactions of Societies like our 

 own. But some progress has been made, and it has become re- 

 cognised that the formation of a collection of books bearing upon 

 our special subjects is one of the departments of the work we have 

 undertaken to do. 



No doubt one reason of the slow advance we have made in this 

 direction is to be found in the proximity of the Eaffies Library, 

 which has lately been enriched by the Logan collection. But the 

 list of scientific books upon the countries and the peoples of Mala- 

 ya now on the shelves of the Baffles Library is by no means complete, 

 and is perhaps unlikely to be made so, as a more popular style of 

 literature is much more in demand. I do not doubt that in the 

 future, the student of our special subjects will have to depend upon 

 our Society for most of the books he may want to refer to, which 

 are not already in the Bailies collection. 



