1868.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 11 



PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



Gentlemen, — While I yet have the privilege of being President 

 of this Society, and before resigning the chair to my successor, I will, 

 with your permission, briefly review our proceedings during the past 

 year. I would not weary you with details, but I think it well that 

 the inauguration of a new year in the Society's history should be 

 noted by a retrospect on the part of the retiring President, of the 

 events which have rendered his period of office interesting, and by 

 an outline of the actual condition in which he makes over to his 

 successor the responsible office with which he has been entrust- 

 ed. At the last annual Meeting, I alluded to the approaching 

 transfer of the Society's collections to the Indian Museum. That 

 transfer has now been almost virtually (though not formally) completed, 

 and the Society may congratulate itself on being relieved of the charge 

 of treasures which it was no longer in a position to maintain as they 

 merited. We still retain our interest in these collections, and are largely 

 represented in the Board of Trustees of the Museum in which they are 

 deposited, and we have the satisfaction of knowing that they have 

 passed under the immediate care of a Naturalist who will do them 

 full justice, render them of service in the interests of science, and add 

 to the nucleus we have placed in his possession. 



The past year, though unmarked by any striking occurrence, has 

 not been altogether an uneventful one. Progress has been made and 

 activity has been predominant, as I think is apparent from the 

 different subjects that have engaged the Society's attention. 



I have always considered that the Asiatic Society should be regarded 

 from that catholic point of view, which its founder contemplated, 

 when he said : "It will flourish if Naturalists, Chemists, Antiqua- 

 rians, Philologers and men of Science, in different parts of Asia, will 

 commit their observations to writing, and send them to the Asiatic 

 Society at Calcutta ; it will languish if such communications shall be 

 long interrupted, and it will die away, if they should entirely cease." 

 I am glad to think that during the past year, the spirit of Sir W. Jones' 



