250 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [Nov. 



for all costs of the management of such Museum. All the collections 

 of the Society as well as additions, are to be marked with a distinctive 

 mark, so that if, unfortunately, any severance of the Society and of 

 the Museum should be necessary, the Society could reclaim all such 

 collections of its own as were then existent. To the Society also has 

 been granted the right of nominating four Trustees out of thirteen, thus 

 giving to this body a very powerful interest in the management of the 

 Trust. In this way, the Council have been able to secure the permanent 

 maintenance in this city of a Museum, in some degree worthy of the 

 name, of which the collections of the Asiatic Society form the most 

 important nucleus : they have secured these most valuable collections 

 from the destruction which from the want of proper room or sufficient 

 funds for their maintenance was rapidly seizing hold of them ; and 

 the Society has at the same time been relieved from all or any expendi- 

 ture for this purpose. 



Further, the Society retain their valuable library intact ; their collec- 

 tions of coins, of manuscripts, engravings, maps, &c, and the paintings 

 and busts which ornament their rooms. Such is the agreement. In 

 full confidence that they would, under the circumstances, meet the 

 ready support of the Society at large, they have further provisionally 

 handed over the collection to the charge of the Trustees nominated 

 under the Act. It was impossible to do this formally, at once, be- 

 cause the Act required that careful lists of all the specimens should 

 be prepared, and that one copy of such lists or inventories should be 

 kept by the Council of the Asiatic Society, and another should be 

 kept by the Trustees of the Indian Museum. These inventories or 

 Catalogues, have lately been completed with much zeal and great 

 personal exertion by Dr. Stoliczka and Mr. V. Ball, both members of 

 the Society, who have also lately been acting as Curators of the 

 Museum. And the Council have therefore now demanded of the 

 members at large, that this transfer should be formally sanctioned. 



The necessary voting papers were issued to the Mofussil members 

 on the 22nd August, 137 were sent out, 61 replies have been re- 

 ceived. Of these, one only votes against this transfer. 



I will now propose on the part of the Council, ' That the Council be 

 authorized formally to transfer the Society's collections of Natural 

 History, Antiquities and Miscellaneous objects, to the Trustees of the 



