200 E. Abbot, Antiquity of the Sinaitic and Vatican MSS. conclusions in countless other places, . . . to review their method, and to remodel their text throughout" (p. 254). This seems indeed a sad prospect for Tischendorf and Tregelles and Westcott and Hort, who have so utterly mistaken the true principles of textual criticism; but a careful examination of Mr. Burgon's book will greatly relieve the anxiety of their friends. AMERICAN ORIENTAL SOCIETY. Prooceedings at Boston, May 17th, 1871. THE Annual meeting of the Society was held in Boston, at the Library of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in the Boston Athenæum, beginning at 10 o'clock a. M. The President being absent, the chair was taken alternately by Dr. R. Anderson and Prof. Salisbury, Vice-Presidents. The record of the meeting at New Haven in October last having been read, the Committee of Arrangements proposed that the Society take a recess at 1 o'clock, and meet again at 4 o'clock, at Hon. Edward S. Tobey's, 19 Chestnut St., adjourning the literary session at 8 o'clock for a social meeting. It was, upon motion, so ordered by the Society. The Treasurer reported the transactions of the year, as follows: The printing account of the year includes the expense of replacing Part 1 of the ninth volume of the Journal, destroyed by fire in the printing office in September, 1869; this expense was nearly two thirds covered by the insurance on the property destroyed. The Bradley fund for the purchase of Chinese type remains in the same condition as last year. The Librarian laid before the meeting the complete list of accessions to the Library since the last published report (which list is annexed to the Proceedings of this meeting), and mentioned the principal donors and donations. Prof. Fitz-Edward Hall had made, as last year, the most liberal gift of the year. The total number of titles of printed books is now 3045; of manuscripts, 128. The Committee of Publication reported that the ninth volume of the Journal had been recently completed, and was in process of distribution to the members and correspondents of the Society; and that there was reason to expect that another half-volume would be out by the next annual meeting. The Directors gave notice that they had appointed Prof. Hadley, with the Recording and Corresponding Secretaries, a Committee of Arrangements for the next meeting, which would be held in New Haven, and on Wednesday, October 11th, unless the Committee should see reason, as the time drew nigh, for fixing on some other day-which they were empowered to do, at their discretion. The following gentlemen were recommended to the Society for election to membership; namely, as Corporate Members, Rev. Jos. H. Allen, of Cambridge, Mass. Mr. Frank E. Anderson, of Cambridge, Mass. Mr. I. S. Diehl, of New York. Prof. J. N. Fradenburgh, of Fredonia, N. Y. Prof. C. H. Toy, of Greenville, S. C. Rev. Francis T. Washburn, of Milton, Mass. as Corresponding Members, Rev. Alonzo Bunker, missionary in Farther India. as Honorary Member, Prof. H. L. Fleischer, of Leipzig. The persons proposed were elected without dissent. Prof. Goodwin of Cambridge, Mr. Trumbull of Hartford, and Prof. Mead of Andover were designated by the chair a Committee to nominate a board of officers for the year 1871-72, and to them was referred a communication from Pres't Woolsey, positively declining a reëlection as President. After considerable deliberation, they laid before the meeting the following ticket, which was accepted and elected : President-Prof. JAMES HADLEY, LL.D., (Rev. RUFUS ANDERSON, D.D., of New Haven. Vice-Presidents Hon. PETER PARKER, M.D., New Haven. Secr. of Class. Sect.-Prof. W. W. GOODWIN, Ph.D., of Cambridge. Directors Mr. A. I. COTHEAL, Prof. W. H. GREEN, D.D., Pres. T. D. WOOLSEY, D.D., LL.D., "New Haven. "New Haven. "New York. "New York. "Princeton. The Corresponding Secretary directed the attention of the Society to the deaths among its members during the past year. It had lost three Corporate Members: the venerable John Tappan of Boston; Dr. S. H. Taylor of Andover, the universally known and esteemed classical scholar and educator; and Capt. Glynn of New Haven, whose services as an officer of the United States navy in the East had awakened his interest in Oriental studies;-also one Corresponding Member, Rev. W. Frederick Williams of Mardin; --and one Honorary Member, the aged and eminent Arabic scholar, Dr. G. Flügel of Dresden. Rev. Mr. Treat, of the A. B. C. F. M., paid a tribute of respect to the memory of Mr. Williams, extolling him as one of the ablest and most accomplished missionaries whom the Board had in its service. Prof. Mead, of Andover, sketched the life and character of Dr. Taylor, and described his services to the cause of learning; laying also before the meeting the address of Dr. E. A. Park, delivered at his funeral, Feb. 2, 1871. Higginson added a few words respecting Dr. Taylor. Col. The correspondence of the past half-year was next presented; extracts from it are the following: 1. Prof. Henry, of the Smithsonian Institution, under date of Dec. 22, 1870, encloses a letter to himself from Gen. Meigs, as follows: "The Comte de Gobineau, author of a History of Persia and of several works on ethnology (the "Inégalité des Races Humaines," "Arrowhead Inscriptions," etc.), long time ambassador of France in Persia, in Greece, and in Brazil, has written to me to put him in communication with some institution of learning, which would perhaps desire to purchase his collection of Oriental manuscripts and engraved stones. M. Gobineau has been a distinguished author, savant, and diplomatist; and these collections, made during his long sojourn in Asia and in Greece, with a special reference to the historical and antiquarian studies which have occupied him, are probably of great interest and value.". There are A brief synoptical catalogue of the collection accompanies the letter. said to be about one hundred manuscripts, some of them of great rarity, or even unique; many being also of such beauty, and so splendidly embellished, as to have value as works of art. The greater number of them are Persian. The collection of engraved stones numbers five hundred and thirty, from the first dawn of the art down to the most recent period. It is "the product of fourteen years of researches carried on in Asia, from India to the Mediterranean and Greece, in aid of the composition of my History of the Persians. It was made from the point of view of the study of manners and customs, of ideas, and of the arts, at different epochs." The value of the double collection is estimated by a Danish savant at from thirty-five to forty thousand dollars. It was remarked that no American institution was likely to have at its disposal the sum needed to secure so splendid a collection; but that possibly some wealthy. individual might feel tempted to bid for it The Comte's address is Château de Trye, near Beauvois, Oise, in France. 2. Dr. S. Wells Williams, Peking, Nov. 27, 1870: After speaking respecting a collection of Chinese works, now in the keeping of the American Legation at Peking, which he desires to see made over to the Society, Dr. Williams adds: "I send you, as a curiosity, one of the Peking bank notes, issued by the Wanyih Bank, and worth just three rials, or 374 cents. There are about three hundred banks in the city, and the trade is carried on with these and copper cash, neither of which are current at Tien-tsin, nor more than twenty miles beyond the city. Bullion is the basis, but that passes only by weight. "The people hereabouts have settled down into the full belief that there will be no war in consequence of the Tien-tsin riot and massacre, and I really hope their belief is well founded. Twenty men have been condemned to death, seventeen of them executed, twenty-five banished, and the criminal local officials made convicts in Tsitsihan; besides nearly $700,000 paid for losses by fire and donations to the families of the dead. In other countries, say Turkey or Persia, this would be considered reparation; but it is much the case in China that nothing which the people or government can do is regarded by the majority of foreigners as right. We live among this people in general safety, trade with them, and travel through their land; and yet it is a continual fault-finding, scolding spirit which seems to animate most foreigners, not one in twenty of whom cau talk any Chinese, but all of whom can blame the natives because they don't understand bad English." 3. Rev. Francis Mason, D.D., Toungoo, Feb. 8, 1871: Some years ago, when my Pali grammar left the press, I sent you a copy by Book Post, and hope it duly reached you. I have now the pleasure to send in the same manner a copy of The Pali Text of Kachchayano's Grammar, with English Annotations.' The whole edition, unlike the Pali Grammar, is under my own control. . . . "The Journal of the Society seems to be little known in Germany; for Weber, writing in 1865. represented Grimblot as the first (in 1862) to bring to notice the existence of Kachchayano's grammar, which had been supposed to be lost; although its existence was made known in your Journal in 1854 [Journ. Am. Or. Soc'y, iv.107. note]. Neither does it appear to be extensively known in England. Max Müller, writing in 1860 on Buddhism, gives an abstract of the life of Gaudama, but he compiles it exclusively from the Lalita- Vistara, as translated by M. Barthélemy St. Hilaire, which he well characterizes as a mixture of sense and nonsense. But the Lalita- Vistara is a Sanskrit work, of secondary authority, while a much more rational and complete life of Gaudama, derived from the original Pali through the Burmese, had been published in your Journal in 1857 [Journ. etc., iii. f], to which he makes no allusion whatever. Nor is the Journal any better known in India. In the fourth volume [pp. 277 ff.] is an article on the Talaing language, in which it is shown that the vocables have a radical affinity to the Hos, or Kole. Very recently, the same view has been advocated in the Asiatic Society of Bengal, and many of the words given in your Journal have been compared in the same manner, and the same inferences drawn. The theory of common origin was put forward with all the interest and freshness of a new discovery, and no one seemed to have the slightest idea that the thing had been anticipated, half a generation before. The American Oriental Society has a field peculiarly its own in Farther India, because the Protestant pioneers among the various tribes are all in the employ of the American missionary societies, and the ethnology and antiquities of this wide region, from Arracan to Saigon, are less known than any other in the East. "There is no doubt that the languages characterized by fully developed intonations will be found to be a family as well marked as any other. The Burmese and Talaing have intonations to a limited extent; but these appear to have been grafted on them; while the Karen and Tai, or Shan tribes, have them to as great an ex |