1870,] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 41 



ciety during the past year. In brief, we felt that to be successful, the 

 Society must be useful ; and that to be useful, it must adopt very 

 much the same principles of action which alone are known to 

 succeed in other associations. Among the most important of these, 

 punctuality in all the arrangements of the Society appeared to 

 stand first. Punctuality in judgment, punctuality in accounts, 

 punctuality in publications. 



I need not here insist on the fact, that without a sufficient 

 income, no Society can carry out its operations. And when, as in 

 the Asiatic Society of Bengal, the sole source of such income is the 

 voluntary contributions of its members, it was of the very first 

 importance that these contributions should be promptly available 

 for the objects to which they were to be applied. Our first efforts 

 were, therefore, directed to endeavouring to bring in all outstanding 

 claims of this kind, and to establish a system of more regular, and 

 prompt collections, and payment. The result has been that your 

 Council are able to report to you, that we have during the year 

 1869, received of arrears of previous years on all accounts Rs. 

 2,681-5-0. But we must still point to the fact, that in a similar 

 way, on all accounts there was at the close of the year 1869, no 

 less than Us. 8,966, still due to the Society. 



More than two-thirds of this large sum is made up of the 

 admission fees, and annual contributions of members ! And I 

 cannot avoid again urging upon the members of the Society, that 

 it is not possible for the Council of the Society, to carry into 

 practice their ardent wishes to render the Society effective, and to 

 do this punctually and quickly, unless they are supported by the 

 members at large. The fact of their becoming members, I assume 

 to be sufficient proof of their appreciation of the advantages to be 

 gained from such association ; but if this membership brings with 

 it privileges, it also creates duties, and the obligation to fulfil their 

 part of the contract by paying regularly the contributions, which 

 as members they have agreed to pay, is not the least of these. 



During the year just passed, there have been elections of 51 mem- 

 bers. Against this we have lost from various causes, 36, leaving an 

 actual addition to the list of 15 members ; the total at close of 1869 

 being 442, as against 427, at close of 1868. But so far as income is 



