Report of the proceedings of the first annual general meeting of the subscribers of the Oriental Translation Fund with the prospectus, report of the committee, and regulations.

  • Oriental Translation Fund.
Date:
1829
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the proceedings of the first annual general meeting of the subscribers of the Oriental Translation Fund with the prospectus, report of the committee, and regulations. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Under these circumstances, connected with the fact that little more than four months have elapsed since the formation of the Committee, they are not able to report having made much progress. They feel anxious, however, to make the Subscribers acquainted with what they have done up to the present time, and with their future intentions, prospects, and hopes. The Committee have great satisfaction in stating that the most liberal support has been afforded to them by the Royal Asiatic Society, not only by their allowing the Committee’s business to be transacted in their house, but also by their handsome transfer to the Oriental Translation Fund of the Honourable East-India Company's munificent annual subscription of one hundred guineas. The English Universities have expressed their favourable disposition towards the undertaking, and received in the most friendly manner the hopes expressed by the Committee, of considerably dimi- nishing the expense of printing by the assistance of the University presses. Although essentially assisted by the enlightened views of the great literary bodies in England, the attention of the Committee has been directed to obtaining aid from distant quarters also; and they confidently hope that another annual meeting will not pass, without the communication of gratifying accounts from various parts of Asia and Africa. Considerably within a year, copies of the Prospectus will have been received at the capitals of Turkey, Persia, Egypt, and the Barbary States, and by the numerous Consuls and mercantile houses existing on the eastern and southern shores of the Mediterranean. The opportunity offered by the intimate connexion of this country with Asia has been eagerly embraced by the Committee, who have sought every means of communicating with Europeans residing even in its most inland countries. The Presidencies of India will be centres from which Prospectuses will be forwarded to every Indian court, and to the confines of the Punjab, Tibet, and China; every where, it is hoped, awakening among our distant countrymen a desire to become known to the learned in Europe, through the means offered by this Committee. Intimations of our object will also be forwarded to every mart and settlement of the Eastern ocean extending to the most distant havens of its Archipelago, and to the coasts of China and Japan. The various Missionary establishments, whether in India, Palestine, the Caucasus, or the Malayan peninsula, and the enlightened officers of the Russian Government, extending along the extensive southern frontier of the Russian empire to the furthest limits of Kamtschatka, will also be made acquainted with our existence and objects. The majority, however, of these communications has been addressed to natives of Britain; and it is from them the Committee principally expect co-operation and support, in the attainment of their truly national object. The principle of these appeals for literary and pecuniary assistance, in common with the rest of their proceedings, requires the sanction of the Subscribers; but the Committee have been obliged to anticipate the confirmation of their acts, to prevent their losing opportunities of communicating with India. They hope, however, that they will not be considered to have erred, as they have strictly conformed to the spirit of the Prospectus, the approval of which may be inferred from the patronage it has received. Letters have been addressed to the Governor-General of India, the Governors of Madras, Bombay, Ceylon, Prince of Wales’ Island, and Mauritius, and to the Presidents of the Literary Societies at the three Presidencies and Ceylon, proposing the formation of Corresponding Committees, to consist of the principal Oriental scholars residing in or near Calcutta, Madras, Bombay, Columbo, George Town, and Port Louis. The instructions for these Corresponding Committees, contained in letters of which a specimen is subjoined, although leaving them as uncontrolled as great distance and local differences necessarily require, will, it is hoped, be found to be strictly consonant with the general tenour of the Prospectus. Letter to the Governor-General of India. “ My Lord :—We trust that we may with confidence address your Lordship on the subject of the nccom- “ panying Prospectus, which has received general approbation in this country, and promises the most valuable “ results to Oriental literature. “ Although the Oriental Translation Committee confidently rely on the abilities and zeal of learned “ individuals in England, still they look to their highly gifted countrymen in the East lor great and efficient “ assistance. _ This expectation, we are convinced, will not be disappointed; and we address your Lordship, as Oovernor- “ General of India, to solicit your Lordship’s powerful aid, iu the promotion of the extensive and important “ objects that are stated in the Prospectus. “ Our views in this letter are directed to the formation of an efficient Corresponding Committee at Calcutta ; “ and we presume to request that, in concert with the President of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, your Lordship “ will make a selection of persons from among the Europeans and natives residing within your Lordship s “ Government, to constitute that Committee. . . . “ When the Committee is appointed, we shall feel grateful for your Lordship’s transmitting this ettcrt0 l'lem ’ “ and we request that they will guide themselves by the spirit of the Prospectus, ol which a considerable number “ is sent for distribution by them. 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