Proceedings of the Seventeenth Anniversary Meeting of the Society, held on the 9th of May, 1840 : the Right Hon. C.W. Williams Wynn, M.P., President, in the chair.

  • Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland.
Date:
[1840]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Proceedings of the Seventeenth Anniversary Meeting of the Society, held on the 9th of May, 1840 : the Right Hon. C.W. Williams Wynn, M.P., President, in the chair. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    1840.] and especially for his attendance on the present occasion. He felt and lamented with the Council that all hopes of obtaining immediate assistance or patronage from the Government had failed ; but he felt also that the failure did not arise from any want of exertion on the part of the President or of the Council. They had repeatedly endeavoured to draw the attention of Government to their case, both in a national and political point of view. They had obtained from Her Majesty the most gratifying expression of the interest she took in their prosperity. He felt it would be invidious to enter particularly into the causes why nothing practical had hitherto resulted from Her Majesty’s gracious disposition to the Society. He would confine himself, therefore, to offering his congratulations to the Society, that not- withstanding this disappointment, they had been able, though entirely un- assisted, to do so much towards the promotion of the various great and use- ful objects for which it was instituted. He was confident that they would continue to render important benefits to India, and greatly improve our knowledge of its resources, and extend our communication with it, so that, in the end, the national importance of the Society would be better appreciated. Sir George Staunton begged, before he sat down, to draw the attention of the Meeting to an important Memoir on the subject of our intercourse with China, by Mr. Ball, a Member of the Council, which had been just published by the Society. Mr. Ball had resided above twenty years in China, and had peculiarly devoted his attention, throughout that period, to the cultivation and manufacture of tea, and the best mode of supplying this country with that most important article of our Chinese commerce. About the period of Lord Amherst's embassy Mr. Ball reduced the results of his inquiries upon this interesting subject to the shape of a Memoir for the information and assistance of our Ambassador in his negotiation, especially with respect to the Ports of China at which that trade might be most advantageously carried on for the interests of both countries. This Memoir was privately printed, but only two or three copies of the original impression at present exist; and the Council considered that they would be rendering an important public service by reprinting in their Journal a document, which, though it was unhappily not available for any useful purpose at the time it was written, was become of peculiar importance at the present period, when the whole of our relations with China were evidently undergoing re- vision, and about to be placed on a new footing through negociations sup- ported by competent force from India and this country. Sir George concluded by proposing that the thanks of the Society should be voted to the Right Hon. the President. Sir Jeremiah Bryant, in seconding the motion, said that he was one of those who had cordially welcomed the President, when, at the first institution of the Society, he took the chair which Sir Jeremiah rejoiced to see him still filling, so much to the advantage of the Institution and its interests. The vote was put, and carried unanimously.