Page:Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Vol 60.djvu/576

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of the Foreign Fellowship of the above Société, accompanied by the award of a gold medal, inscribed " Au fondateur de la véritable Etude du Budhisme par les textes et les monuments." This was followed, in 1838, by the Cross of the Legion of Honour, and, in 1844, by his election as a Correspondent of the Institute of France. Meanwhile his contributions to his own Government lay unheeded in the cellars of the old India House in Leadenhall Street; and there they remained till their transference to the present India Office, where the Kaghyur and Stangyur* occupy an apartment to themselves, accessible to all.

Scarcely less valuable and as extensive were Hodgson's contribu- tion to zoology, especially ornithology, which rival his Buddhistica l attainments. Throughout his residence in the Himalaya he was himself an assiduous collector, besides keeping a staff of shooters who penetrated even into Tibet, and of stuffers and artists at the Residency. He described systematically and minutely almost every species which he procured, accompanying the descriptions with anatomical details, and observations on their habits, nidification (if of birds), and geographical distribution. He published 127 zoological papers, chiefly in the 'Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal.' In 1843 and 1858 he placed 9512 specimens of Himalayan birds, 9037 of mammals, and 84 of reptiles at the disposal of the British Museum, together with 1853 drawings. Of the above the duplicates were distributed to the chief museums of Europe and America.

Very early in his career, Hodgson commenced a study of the Non- Aryan Races of India, their origin, customs, their unwritten langnages, which he reduced to writing, their religions and geographical distribution. The results are embodied in twenty-seven papers contributed (with one exception) to the 'Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal.' These, in the opinion of Latham and other scholars, are of the highest value and rank as his chief services to literature.

Mr. Hodgson was a zealous advocate of the employment of the vernacular for instrnction in the primary schools of Iudia. In this his great opponents were Macaulay, Sir L. Trevelyau, and H. H. Wilson, who advocated English or a classical Oriental tongue. In 1835 he published two letters on the state of Education in India, which first "lifted the subject out of the arena of public controversy." For twenty years he persisted in his efforts, which were not erowned with success til 1854, when the Court of Directors adopted his views, which were further confirmed by the Education Commission of 1882.

But diplomacy was Hodgson's earliest and abiding ambition, and For a very imperfect copy of these works the Russian Govermment lately paid £2000.