1834.] Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society. 360 



hundred pages of letter press ; with such illustrations as may be ne- 

 cessary, and two of such numbers to form a volume. The contents 

 of the quarterly part are intended to comprise, first, original essays 

 or papers like those inserted in the quarto Transactions of the Socie- 

 ty ; secondly, abstracts of such papers as it may not be deemed ne- 

 cessary to print entire ; thirdly, analyses of works connected with 

 the objects of the Society, which, from their scarcity, or other causes, 

 it may be deemed proper to make more generally known ; fourthly, 

 notices of the proceedings of the Royal Asiatic Society, its Branch 

 and Auxiliary Societies, of the Oriental Translation Committee, and 

 other institutions, either British or Foreign, of the same nature, as 

 far as they may be attainable ; and, lastly, a record of miscellaneous 

 information on any subject of literature, philosophy, science and 

 art, having reference, to the East. Lists of the members ; donati- 

 ons to the society, the Oriental Translation Fund, &c. will be given 

 from to time as an appendix to the volumes. The publication of the 

 work has been undertaken by a highly respectable bookseller for 

 the society, but the entire management, control and superintendence 

 remains with the Council as before, and will be governed by the 

 same rules as those under which the Transactions of the society have 

 hitherto been published, viz. Arts. LXII, LXIll, LXIV, and LXV 

 of the printed Regulations of the Society, a copy of which is enclos- 

 ed. 



3. I shall now briefly indicate the advantages which it is pre- 

 sumed the new system of publishing will possess over that which 

 has been followed up to the present time. It is assumed in the first 

 place that the proposed plan will enable the Council to produce pa- 

 pers of a lighter and more diversified character than those which 

 have appeared in the Transactions : the periods of publication also, 

 being definite and frequent, will afford the means of rendering avail- 

 able many valuable contributions on matters of local or temporary, 

 but nevertheless, of considerable importance, which have hitherto 

 been entirely lost to the society for the want of some such channel 

 to make them known ; with respect to original communications 

 therefore, it will be seen that much will be done in this way to remedy 

 the inconveniences attendant on the former method of publication. 

 The remaining divisions of the proposed arrangement are entirely 

 new, and it is conceived that they will render the Society's Journal 

 a repository for whatever of value or interest may require to be pro- 

 mulgated in connexion with the views of the Society. The research- 

 es of the learned into the history and customs of the nations of the 



