1868.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 107 



doubt, the legality of the Meeting, or of its decisions, if it were ' held in 

 accordance with the Bye-laws of the Society.' But this is precisely 

 what it confessedly was not. The opinion, therefore, given by the 

 Council, based, as it avowedly was, on this totally unsound premises, 

 is valueless. The process of reasoning by which the individual state- 

 ments of every Member present, that Rule 47 had not been complied 

 with, were converted into a collective assumption that the Meeting 

 was ' in accordance with the laws of the Society,' is to me unintelli- 

 gible. Nor can I admit the force of the argument, though I can 

 understand it, which preferred the ignoring of those laws to openly 

 eonfessing that a ' trivial informality' had occurred. 



" On matters of opinion, lam very willing to be guided by the better 

 judgment of others ; on matters of fact, I am compelled to form and 

 act on my own. Indeed the facts are undisputed, and no interpreta- 

 tion of them is needed. 



" The principle sought to be established, that where an error has 

 occurred, (for which the remedy is extremely simple) it is better to 

 gloss it over, and say nothing about it, than at once to declare the 

 neglect and rectify it, is one which may possibly be successfully acted 

 on by your Council, but which the experience of every other Society 

 in the world, I believe, has shown to be inevitably productive of 

 failure. 



" The duties of the President are defined by the Rules under which 

 he is appointed, and under which alone he can hold office, to be 

 (Rule 87) * * * 'to execute or see to the execution of the 

 Rules and Orders of the Society.' Yet the very first act requested 

 of me by the Council, is to see that one of those Rules affecting the 

 constitution of the Society be deliberately and knowingly violated ! 

 Gentlemen, I very respectfulty, but very decidedly, decline to do so. 



" No amount of opinions or glossing can alter this simple fact. I 

 cannot therefore adopt the views of the Meeting of yesterday in this 

 way. But in another way I am glad to be able to meet the wishes 

 of some of the Members. However intended, the resolution passed 

 yesterday was, under the circumstances, tantamount to the expression 

 of a desire that I should not be President. I am rejoiced to be able to 

 assure the Meeting and the Council generally that believing I was not 

 duly elected, I shall certainly not act as President ; unless the elective 



