1836.] 



Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. 



443 



2. — Address read before the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, on 

 the 27th January, 1836. By the Rev. John Wilson, President. 



This Society has now been in existence for upwards of thirty years; and it may 

 not be improper for us, in our present circumstances, briefly to advert to its past 

 proceedings, and to some of the various subjects of inquiry, and especially those 

 connected with our situation in western India, which still invite our attention. 



In the discourse delivered at the formation of the institution, by its first Presi- 

 dent Sir James Mackintosh, that great man declared himself " ambitious of no 

 higher office than that of conveying to India the desires and wants of the learned 

 at home." A more worthy " representative of the curiosity of Europe," could 

 not have presented himself in this country. It must be admitted, however, that, 

 powerful as was his influence, and remarkable as has been the zeal and success of 

 the members in prosecuting some of the objects proper for investigation by an 

 Asiatic Societj^, their contributions on the topics to which he more particularly 

 directed attention, have not been so numerous and extensive as might have been 

 reasonably expected. 



On Natural History, on which he dwells at greatest length, there are in our 

 Transactions only a few distinct contributions, while the subject is only partially 

 adverted to in the papers descriptive of particular districts of the country. This 

 is undoubtedly a matter of regret, for the study, directly conversant as it is with 

 the works of God, and with the intimations which they give of His wisdom, 

 power, and goodness, is, in all circumstances, possessed of the highest interest, 

 and conduces both to intellectual gratification and to moral improvement ; and 

 in such a country as India, so vast in its extent, and so grand and multifarious 

 in its productions, it is possessed of peculiar charms. It is a study, in many 

 of its branches, so intimately connected with national resources, and the use- 

 ful arts, and the means of humane amelioration, that it is powerfully recommended 

 to every economist and philanthropist. It is a study in which most who have 

 received a liberal education may engage, and to advance which, all who give it 

 an ordinary share of attention, may considerably contribute. The sojourners in 

 Bombay have, in the mountains, forests, and islands, in the neighbourhood, innu- 

 merable objects, connected especially with Geology, Botany, and Zoology, which 

 both from their comparative novelty, and intrinsic interest invite attention. The 

 Society cannot do better than encourage their investigation, and imitate in refer- 

 ence to them, the laudable procedure of the sister institution in Bengal, with 

 regard to those of a similar nature more particularly connected with that province, 

 and among whose highest honours must ever be, its having numbered among its 

 members such men as Roxburgh and Wallich, and fostered their earliest 

 attempts to unfold the beauties and mysteries of creation. The report of ob- 

 servation and discovery connected with them, if given in this place, would form 

 an agreeable entertainment even to those who may be most ardent and persever- 

 ing in their researches into the other important objects of the Society's inves- 

 tigation. That a studious attention to both of them, by individuals, is not im- 

 practicable, is well evinced in the cases of Jones, and Colebrooke, and Carey, 

 and others, who have been distinguished in India both for their science and 

 literature ; and who have been not less remarkable for their knowledge and 

 expositions of the thought and feeling of man, as connected with the objects of 



