1837] 



and Auxiliary -Royal Asiatc Society* 



327 



Read a letter from Henry Chamier, Esq. Chief Secretary to Govern- 

 ment, forwarding a copy of a letter, addressed by order of the Right Ho- 

 nourable the Governor in Council to the Board of Revenue, directing 

 that the Secretary to the Society, should have access to the Reports of 

 the Civil Engineers, with a view to a selection from the valuable matter 

 contained therein for publication in the Journal of the Society „ 



The Committee in the Asiatic Department, to whom this letter was 

 referred, will gladly avail themselves of this considerate and liberal 

 order of the Right Honourable the Governor in Council ; and their 

 cordial thanks, and the acknowledgments of this Meeting, are respect- 

 fully tendered for the privilege granted to the Society, 



Read the following extract from a letter from Lieutenant Newbold, 

 with reference to the Siamese MSS. which were laid on the table, pre- 

 sented to the Society by that gentleman : 



" I send for presentation to the Society two Siamese books printed at Batavia. 

 What they relate to I know not, having lost the catalogue raisonnee of books I 

 brought over from the Straits. These are intended as an avant courier of 10 vols, 

 of MSS. Siamese history, which are now on the road to Madras from the Straits, 

 and which I intend for the Society's library,as also a small volume of Siamese laws, 



" It would be a great piece of good fortune could the translation of these ancient 

 chronicles in the T 'hay language go on simultaneously with that of the history of 

 Lanca in the Cingalese, by the Hon. Mr. Tumour, and that of the Peninsula by 

 Mr. Taylor. 



" The Siamese are Buddhists of great antiquity. Their language is monosyllabic ; 

 its character you have an opportunity of j udging of. Leyden states that the Siamese 

 histories of the T'hay dynasty go back only for the space of 1,400 years; but observes 

 that the records of the T'hay J'hay dynasty are supposed still to exist, from which 

 ^ it may still be possible to glean a few grains of pure historic gold from the sands 

 which glitter in the long valleys of the Menam and Mekon" 



" At all events from the collation of the three histories of Peninsular India, Cey- 

 lon and Siam, much light would doubtless be thrown on the origin of Buddhism, and 

 perhaps on that of Indo Chinese nations in general. 



" Although the historical romances of the Siamese are said to bear little similarity 

 to those of the Brahmuns, still the introduction of Rama and the characters that 

 figure in the Ramayana evince a connexion with Peninsular India. Whether 

 this connexion is merely a literary one or not, remains to be cleared up. 



" The Siamese have many romances in common with the Javans, Malays and 

 Buggis, and probably with the Birmese and Peguers, 



" According to Hamilton the Buddhism of Siam appears to be identical with that 

 of Ceylon, differing from that professed in Tartary, Hindostan, China, Japan, and 

 Cochin China. The leading doctrine is the transmigration of the soul, and Ni-ri- 

 pun ( nirwana ) } or ultimate absorption into the essence of the deity. "The priests 

 " have neither rank, influence nor endowments , the sovereign being the real 

 " head of the church and himself an incarnation of the Buddha." 



Read extract of a letter from John Bell, Esq. Secretary to the Agri- 

 cultural and Horticultural Society of India, forwarding copies of the 2.1 

 and 3d volumes of the Transactions of that Society, and offering, on his 



