26 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [Jan. 



" the foundation of a Public Museum in Calcutta, which has been 

 " generally accepted as a duty of the Government, might be prac- 

 " tically realized." There were still many details of arrangement 

 to be gone into ; and in 18GG, an Act of the Indian Legislature was 

 passed, providing for the erection of a proper building, and formally 

 sanctioning tenns on which the Asiatic Society of Bengal should be 

 prepared to hand over to a Board of Trustees their collections, to be 

 held in trust for the Society. To the Society was also secured the 

 right of nominating, through its Council, four out of the whole 

 number of Trustees (13) and certain other privileges were also 

 granted. The vote of the Society at large, taken in November last, 

 confirmed the proposed transfer of the collections, which can now, 

 therefore, be formally carried out. 



I cannot but congratulate the Society most heartily on this highly 

 satisfactory termination of a long standing, and ever-increasing, diffi- 

 culty. They have secured the maintenance of a well-arranged and 

 extensive Museum in Calcutta ; they have obtained a public and 

 legislative guarantee for the support of this ; they have secured a 

 continuance of their interest in such collections, so that there is little 

 fear that the objects which the Society originally had in making these 

 collections shall be forgotten or neglected ; or if they are neglected, 

 it will be the fault of the Society itself ; and by doing this, they have 

 relieved the Society from a heavy and increasing demand on its 

 pecuniary resources. On the other hand, I think we must all gladly 

 acknowledge the obligations of the Society towards the Government 

 of this country, for the liberal support they have given to such objects, 

 and for the gracious and ready acknowledgment which their doing so 

 has expressed of the unflinching exertions which the Asiatic Society, 

 of Bengal, through good report and evil report, in times of plenty as 

 in times of difficulty, had, through the long lapse of half a century, 

 devoted to what they justly considered a necessary and essential ele- 

 ment in the satisfactory investigation of the history of this country, 

 and of its resources. 



There still remains another important change, contemplated in the 

 arrangements to which I have just alluded, which must be sanctioned 

 by the Society at large, before they can be terminated. That is, the 

 proposal that the Society should leave its present premises, and take up 



