122 Proceedings ofihe Asiatic Society. [June, 



letter from Mr. McLeod, stating that the delay originated in the first 

 translation of the address made being imperfect, and defective print- 

 ing arrangements. 



Major Lees said that he thought it would be travelling out of 

 our way to notice the subject from an educational stand-point. That 

 was a view of the question which, in his opinion, did not concern the 

 Society. The Government of India were responsible for the educa- 

 tion of the people of the country ; and no doubt they were fully com- 

 petent to deal with any points of difference that might arise in dis- 

 cussions regarding this important subject. They were undoubtedly 

 the best judges of what were the proper media, through which educa- 

 tion should be given to the natives of India, and whatever media they 

 should decide upon adopting, it was no business of this Society or its 

 members, to express any opinion on their suitability, or otherwise, for 

 the purposes of attaining the object in view. 



There was a point of view, however, in which he conceived that 

 the encouragement of oriental Shasters pre-eminently concerned 

 this Society — their bearing on historical, archaeological, and philolo- 

 gical enquiries ; to render which of value, required of the enquirer 

 an accurate and critical knowledge of the oriental classical languages. 

 It was to these enquiries that this Society owed its foundation ; it 

 was these enquiries that first created a desire for the knowledge of 

 oriental literature ; and it was in this Society, and within these 

 walls, that, when in 1835, the Government of India showed such 

 hostility to the cultivation of the languages and literature of the East, 

 as to direct that all support and encouragement should be withdrawn 

 from them, so noble a stand was made against their policy in this 

 respect, by Macnaghten, the two Prinseps, Sir E. Ryan, and 

 other of its most distinguished members. Nor were the Government 

 satisfied with legislating for the future. They went further, and 

 directed that the printing of the long list of oriental works, which 

 the Committee of Education had at the time in the Press, many of 

 which were half, and some almost entirely completed, should be 

 discontinued. He held in his hand a list of those works, thus 

 consigned to sudden destruction, a few of which he would read. The 

 first work on that list was the Mahdbhdrata, the Iliad of Indian 

 literature ; the second was the Bdjatarangini } that work to which per- 



