Item 2 - Letter from Alexander Johnston of the Royal Asiatic Society to Brian Houghton Hodgson

1 letter

To Brian H. Hodgson Esq
Political Resident in Nepal

From The Royal Asiatic Society London

My dear Sir,

London 6th July 1836

I have to return you my thanks for your very interesting letter of 28th June 1835. As soon as I received it I called upon Sir James R. Garnac, the then Deputy and the present Chairman of the East India Company. I also called upon Colonel Sykes. I shewed your letter to them, to the first with a view of pointing out to him and through him to the Court of Directors, the value and importance of your intended publication; to the second with the view of ascertaining from him in what manner the Royal Asiatic Society could most effectively forward your object. Sir J.R. Carnac assured me that he was fully aware of the [utiIity?] of such a publication; and that he would give it every encouragement in his power. Colonel Sykes explained to me the nature and extent of the support which you may expect to receive in London. I likewise consulted with your relative the Dean of Carlisle and with Mr. Bennett the secretary of the Zoological Society, and I called the attention of Sir William Jardine, of Jardine Hall in the county of Dumfries to the subject. Sir William who is equally distinguished by the knowledge he possesses of Natural History and by the zeal with which he himself cooperates with others in promoting its ability study, enters very warmly into your views, and has, at my request, as he tells me, written to you explaining the course which he would advise you to pursue. I am convinced that no person in this country is more capable than he is of affording you valuable assistance; and I am therefore extremely happy to find that he has opened a communication directly with you. I shall as soon as you let me know the details of the plan which you have adopted, be most ready to lay them before the Royal Asiatic Society, the Board of Control, and the Court of Directors, and to urge each of these powerful bodies to afford such aid as they may respectively be enabled to do. I shall, in a short time, send out to Lord Auckland a resolution of the Committee of Correspondence, expressive of their sense of the great advantages which the peoples of England and the Natives of India must derive from your exertions, and of their hope that Lord Auckland wiIl both publicly and privately, patronize your researches to the utmost of his power. Allow me to add that all my friends in this country entertain the greatest admiration for the activity which you shew in promoting science and literature and will feel the greatest pleasure in taking every opportunity to make the public aware of the debt of gratitude which all those who have an interest in the improvement of the native of British India ought to acknowledge to you for the able manner in which you have directed your researches to the investigation of questions which are so intimately connected with their happiness and prosperity . I think it of so much importance that your views as to the Natural History of India should be generally known on the continent of Europe and in America that I shall have your letter to me upon this subject published in the next number of the Quarterly Journal of the R.A. Society, a work which has I understand a very extensive circulation. I send you a copy of the Proceedings of the last Anniversary meeting of the R.A.S. By this you will be able to see that I alluded to your
plan in my Report as Chairman of the Committee of Correspondence.

I remain etc etc
(Signed)
Alexander Johnston