1869.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 27 



its abode in rooms to be set apart for it in the general building devoted 

 to the Indian Museum. Under this proposal, the Society is to retain its 

 property in the present house : — another and a very marked instance of 

 the liberal view which the Government of the country have taken of the 

 labours of the Society. There can be no question, that immediate ad- 

 vantage in a pecuniary point of view would result to the Society from 

 such a move, as we should, in addition to our income from subscrip- 

 tions, receive whatever rent would be realized for the house we now 

 occupy. And yet I confess that, individually, I look forward to such 

 a move, if carried out, with anticipations of nothing but mischief. 

 The house we now meet in has been the abode of the Asiatic Society 

 since long before any of its present members can remember. All our 

 memories, all our associations, are with it. It has afforded accommo- 

 dation to the Society for two generations and more. If the Museum 

 be removed, which now occupies more than three-fourths of the 

 whole house, there will be ample, and more than ample, accommo- 

 dation for the Society's property, and for any extension of its Library 

 which can be contemplated or accomplished for the next century. 

 We would therefore abandon at much cost and risk to our books, maps, 

 paintings, &c. in removal, a house most admirably situated, and in 

 which we have had a long, successful, and independent existence, in 

 order to take up our abode in rooms which, necessarily designed as 

 a part of a building intended for a general Museum, are not, and cannot 

 be so well adapted for the purposes of a Society like ours, as our 

 present rooms are. By doing so, we would I think, cease to have 

 that independence of existence, which is so desirable. "We would 

 become but the smallest and least influential part of a great whole, 

 and I cannot but consider it a certainty that in the unavoidable exten- 

 sion of the Museum, and of its demands for space, the Asiatic Society 

 would simply be screwed out again, and be compelled to return to 

 its present abode, or seek a domicile elsewhere ; or what is just as 

 likely, would be absorbed in the general extension. 



I have always felt, and I know that this feeling is shared by other 

 members of the Society also, that if once the Society comes to occupy 

 rooms forming a small portion of a large public building, the natural con- 

 sequence will be a conviction that it also has become a part of a Govern- 

 ment establishment, and is supported by Government. And the result 



