private libraries. Competent scholars have been appointed to the task, and the result of their labours, so far as they have hitherto extended, has been published.
Simultaneously, an Archaeological survey has been ably conducted under the superintendance of Major-General A. Cunningham, and we have most interesting results published and distributed by the Indian Governments in the shape of four large volumes, filled with illustrations, the last issued being the Report for the year 1871-72.
An Ethnological survey has also been set on foot in Bengal, and a magnificent volume with portraits from photographs of numerous aboriginal tribes, called Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal, by Colonel Dalton, was published at Calcutta in 1872. This was preceded by a valuable guide to the Ethnology of India, written by Sir George Campbell.
Even an Industrial survey has been partially carried out under the able direction of Dr. Forbes Watson, who proposes that a new Museum and Indian Institute shall be built and attached to the India Office.
Moreover, Sir George Campbell caused to be prepared, printed, and published, during his recent administration in Bengal, comparative tables of specimens of all the languages of India—Aryan, Dravidian, and aboriginal—the practical benefit of which requires no demonstration on my part.
But there are other official publications still more accessible to every Englishman who will take the trouble of applying to the proper authorities.
Those whose horizon of Eastern knowledge has hitherto been hopelessly clouded, so as to shut out every country beyond the Holy Land, have now a clear prospect opened out towards India. They have only to study the Report of the Moral and Material Progress and Condition of India during 1872-73, published by the India Office, and edited by Mr. C. R. Markham. At the risk of being thought impertinent, I must crave permission to
