1850.1 and Auxiliary Royal Asiatic Society. 



479 



not think any requisite, further than those I have already suggested, these 

 being : 



1. To replace the few specimens that have disappeared or been destroy- 

 ed by weathering and climate. 



2. To prepare 2,000 paste board boxes to hold the loose specimens. 



3. To make 20 new cases to hold all the specimens, and provide for 

 future supplies. 



4. To throw away worthless specimens. 



5. To send unnamed specimens to the Eev. Mr. Muzzy for him to name. 



6. To exchange duplicates with other Museums. 



7. To retain the collection in the College or send it to the High School. 



8. To prepare a new Catalogue and print it. 



If the above be done, nothing more seems to me to be required than that, 

 so long as we are responsible for it, one of ourselves be allowed to take 

 charge of the collection. If the Committee wish it, and Government 

 permit it, I have, not only, no objections to this charge but will willing- 

 ly undertake it, as it would give no trouble, but, on the contrary, be an 

 agreeable and pleasing recreation from other occupations. 



To execute the work, properly, however, I would require to have a 

 writer or clerk under my own orders, with power to indent either on the 

 Literary Society or on Government, for stationery, paste board boxes, 

 cases, &c. as required. If a clerk be sanctioned, I would suggest the em- 

 ployment of some well educated East Indian, or better still, a person of 

 European parents, with the object of educating some one who might, in 

 the course of a few years, fill the office of Curator or under Curator. At 

 first, his duties would be merely those of a clerk and his pay small, but 

 if he qualified himself, so as to be able to undertake the charge, the pay 

 could, in future, be increased. 



The entertainment of any party should be by a public examination 

 and the most successful of the candidates be employed, if nothing against 

 the character appeared. 



I have no other suggestion to make on the subject of the collection of 

 the College, but may add that in offering to take charge of it, / do not wish 

 any remuneration of any hind ; nor would I wish my offer to be considered 

 as in any way hampering the Government in any arrangements they may 

 in future wish to make. 



If the suggestions I have made be acted on, I think it advisable that, 

 on the completion of the changes, Government should invite contribu- 

 tions to the Museum, as I feel assured that thousands of very valuable 

 specimens might, by this means, be obtained from residents in India. 



It is also necessary to remind the Committee that there is lying out on 

 the green, in front of the College, a very valuable Collection of sculp- 

 tures which ought, immediately, to be placed under cover. The expo- 



