1866.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 15 



has failed me, and my address, which would I fear under any circum- 

 stances have been a very imperfect one, is fortunately the less necessary, 

 in consequence of the fullness of the Council's report which has just 

 been read to you. 



" There is cause, I think for congratulating the Society on the progress 

 of its labours described in that report, and on the success which has 

 marked its efforts for extending the influence of its Journal, and for 

 improving the condition of the Museum. For the change in the form 

 of the Journal we are indebted to our able and assiduous Secretary, 

 Mr. Blanford ; it was at his suggestion that the Council adopted the 

 present double publication, a form which at once adapts the Journal 

 for wider circulation, and leaves our members free to call only for that 

 Part of it in which they take an interest. For the improvements so 

 conspicuous in the Museum, the Society has mainly to thank the 

 Curator of the new Indian Museum, Dr. J. Anderson, who by permis- 

 sion of Government, is in charge of the Society's collections. The 

 Council have done all in their power to give Dr. Anderson the means of 

 making these improvements, and they trust with the assistance of Go- 

 vernment to enable him to push them further, pending the construc- 

 tion of the new building, to which the collections are eventually to be 

 transferred. 



" The Philological Committee has, perhaps, on the whole, been more 

 active during the year than the other Committees of the Council. 

 The loss of our late able Secretary, Mr. Cowell, has, however, been much 

 felt by that Committee as well as by the Council. Now that Mr. 

 Cowell has finally determined on not rejoining his Indian appointment, 

 I take this opportunity of laying before the Meeting the sense enter- 

 tained by the Council of the great services rendered to the Society by 

 that eminent scholar during his incumbency. His qualifications are 

 likely to be more especially missed shortly, if, as proposed by the Phi- 

 lological Committee, the Society carry out the undertaking of pub- 

 lishing a revised edition of the Ayin-i-Akbari. 



" The report has noticed the progress made in the publication of the 

 series of Persian historians. I see that exception has been taken by 

 an oriental scholar at home to the omission, by the editors of the 

 works published, of the general histories with which the historians 

 always commence. I doubt whether such objections will be shared 



