1868.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 109 



elected me, did I not under the circumstances sink my own opinion 

 on this point, and endeavour to justify the confidence placed in me, by 

 devoting my best efforts for the benefit of the Society. 



" I should therefore, have accepted the office of President with just 

 pride ; but that, as 1 believe, the meeting of the 15th January 1868, was 

 held in direct contravention of the Bye-laws of the Society (Bye-law 

 No. 47*), that its proceedings are at any moment open to question, and 

 that I have, therefore, as in consequence of that supposed election, no 

 right whatever to assume the office. 



" No one can be more fully alive than I am to the likelihood, I might 

 say, to the certainty, of oversights occurring in conducting the business 

 of such a Society ; and of occasional apparent disregard of the laws 

 resulting from such oversights. And from the conviction that it 

 might have been an oversight, I took no objection on a former 

 occasion when a similar case occurred. But in the present instance 

 there was no oversight, there was warning beforehand, and abundant 

 knowledge of the requirements of the laws. Any neglect to comply 

 with them was therefore knowingly committed. The wishes of those 

 Who selected me have been thus frustrated, and I am compelled to 

 decline accepting the honor intended to be conferred on me. 



" It may be an inconvenient opinion, but it is a deliberate one con- 

 firmed by experience in the working of other Societies as Member, 

 Secretary or President, that success in the conducting of such a body 

 is impossible, excepting the laws established for its constitution, and 

 to which every Member on admission declares his adhesion, be acted 

 up to. Those laws may be unnecessary, inexpedient, or even simply 

 inconvenient, and if so, the sooner the needless, inexpedient, or incon- 

 venient provisions be altered the better. But as the only claim which 

 the executive of any such Society has even to ask for the subscriptions 

 of its Members (without which the Society cannot work), is a strict 

 adherence to the constitution of the Society, every knowing violation 

 of the laws of such constitution is only a misleading of the Members. 

 And certainly, the constitutional right of every Member to take part, 

 if he chooses, in the election of Officers, and to see that all or any 

 undue influence be prevented by that election being carried on only 



* u 47. Notice of the annual meeting shall be inserted in two or more News- 

 papers one week at least before the day of meeting." 



