No. 44.— 1893.] PROCEEDINGS. 



5 



Members. 



The Society now counts on its roll 6 Honorary Members, 15 Life 

 Members, and 234 Ordinary Members, making in all a total of 253 

 Members. 



There have been elected since the last Annual Meeting 11 

 Resident Members, viz. : — Messrs. R. W. Lee, CCS., H. P. Perera, 

 J. W. F. G-ore, A. H. Monaresinghe, R. O. S. Morgan, S. Moonasinghe, 

 T. B. Yatawara, K. A. J. Pohath, Mudianse, J. A. Henderson, J. A. 

 Casinader, and the Hon. J. A. Swettenham, c.m.g. 



The following Members have resigned during the year : — Mr. M. S. 

 Crawford, Dr. MacDonald, Messrs. G-. D. Miller, A. G. Perman, 

 W. R. B. Sanders, G. J. A. Skeen, J. F. Tillekeratne, Mudaliyar, 

 W. van Langenberg, and W. H. Wright. 



The Council have with regret to record the death of four of the 

 Members of the Society since the last Annual General Meeting, viz. :— 

 The Hon. Sir J. S. Grenier, Messrs. A. M. Ferguson, c.m.g., H. 

 Pedro Perera, and T. M. Twigg, c.c.s. 



In Sir Samuel Grenier, Attorney- General, the Island has lost a public 

 man of the utmost integrity and uprightness, whose place it will be 

 difficult to fill. Sir Samuel joined the Society in 1866 ; but his onerous 

 professional and official duties prevented his taking an active part in 

 our work. 



By the death of Mr. A. M. Ferguson, c.m.g., this Branch of the 

 Royal Asiatic Society has been deprived of one of its oldest and most 

 valued Members, and the Island in general has lost one of the best 

 informed of its colonists : a man of prodigious memory and encyclo- 

 paedic information, who had an intimate acquaintance with the people 

 and the country. Mr. Ferguson was a Member of the Council for 

 many years. In addition to the many other services rendered to the 

 Society, he contributed an interesting Paper to the Society's Proceed- 

 ings of 1885, entitled " Plumbago with special reference to the position 

 occupied by the Mineral in the Commerce of Ceylon, and the Question 

 discussed of the alleged existence in the Island of the allied substance, 

 Anthracite.' 1 Mr. Ferguson also, at a conversazione held under the 

 auspices of this Society in 1887, delivered an address on the " Pearl 

 Fishery, Tank Regions, and Buried Cities of Ceylon." 



The following is a list of his principal writings, taken from " Writers 

 on Ceylon " : — 



Ferguson, A. M., c.m.g. — Co-editor of the Colombo Observer, 1846 ; 

 editor and proprietor, 1859. Suggested starting of Overland Observer 

 (monthly), 1840 ; afterwards made fortnightly in 1853 and weekly in 

 1875. Various fugitive prose and verse contributions to the British 

 and Ceylon Press, 1834-46. The Genius of Lanka, in Ceylon Maga- 

 zine for 18 — . The Aged Tamarind Tree at Point Pedro. Account of 

 the Landing of the Sacred Bo Tree, &c. Statistics of Coffee Planting 

 in Ceylon, first in Colombo Observer of July 11, 1857, next in 

 E. T. 11, pp. 238-43. Papers on Reform of Ceylon Legislative 

 Council. Papers on Trade and Revenue of Ceylon in successive 

 " Common-place Books." Ceylon Common-place Books and Direc- 

 tory, with Gazetteer of Planting Districts, 1859. Summary of 

 Information regarding Ceylon, 8vo. pamphlet, Colombo, 1866. Sou- 

 venirs of Ceylon, 1 vol. oblong, illustrated, London, 1868. The Solar 

 Eclipse of December 12, 1871, 1 vol. 12mo., Colombo, 1872. British 

 Administration in Ceylon, 1796-1878, 1 vol. 8vo., Colombo, 1878. The 



