ADDRESS 



&Y THE HON. MR. JUSTICE STARK, DELIVERED AT THE OPENING 

 OF THE GENERAL MEETING OF THE ASIATIC SOCIETY OF CEYLON. 

 THURSDAY, 1ST MAY, 1845, 



I have to congratulate you on this, which may be re- 

 garded as the first General Meeting of the Asiatic Society 

 of Ceylon — and, agreeably to the wish which was expressed 

 in the Committee, I will take this opportunity of explaining 

 the nature and object of the Society. 



Its general aim has been properly enough stated to be this, 

 namely, to do for Ceylcn what Societies known by the same 

 designation have already done for Bombay and Bengal. But 

 more particularly, the design of the Society is to institute 

 and promote enquiries into the history, religion, literature, 

 arts and social condition of the present and former inhabi- 

 tants of this Island, with its geology and mineralogy, its 

 climate and meteorology, its botany and zoology. 



Such an association is plainly calculated to effect much 

 good — it was wanted here — and in furthering its purposes all 

 may co-operate — the man of science and the man of business, 

 the statist, the antiquarian, the philanthropist. 



Let us attend for a little to the several objects of the So- 

 ciety in their order. And, first, the history of the Island. 

 What a field does not this present as we move up the stream 

 of time ? — its English, Dutch and Portuguese, with the in- 

 fluence of each respectively on the native population and on 

 the colony; its Malabars, and the Malabar line of rulers, 

 their origin and policy ; — the Singhalese, the character of 

 their invasion of the Island, and its connexion with Budha 

 and the Budhist faith, — for it is particularly noticed, that the 

 son of Singha landed here the day of Budha's death, and 



