"Tr is well to be able to congratulate the local "branch of the Royal A Society on its ability, after a soemin, slamper, to again come before the public'under such promising auspices Inst Thureday's: meeting displayed. Phe want of a local habitation, and the necessary expenses in the way of rent, have for some three years pressed heavily on the finances of.the Society, and prevented it taking that position which it promised, on its resuscitation in 1864, to occupy. Want of funds prevented the proper and due publica-\ tion of its transactions, avd it is scarcely necessary to add, that delay in this pacticalar cut the Society off from the means of obtaining papers of.importance, Now however that the'Society has, by the liberality of the community and the British Government, been placed rent free in saituble quarters, we trast that all difficulty'on this score will end, and that we shall see papers as regularly presented xnd_pablished as in similar Societies at Home, The field is a large one, and though there are comparative. ly fow labourers as yet, the new posi tion which the Society will occupy will alford it, under intelligent counsel, the means of stimulating the zeal of those who desire to turn their knowledge to usefal acount, At pri a number of observers in Eh from a fear lest their peculiar field of research should not indiscriminately amuse a Shanghai audience, have hitherto held more or less aloof, Although it will be the inferent-of the Soviety to make its reunions 9s agreeable. as possible, it is by no means essential, or even desirable, that the more substartial record of facts und observations composi An honest record of should give way toa lighter style of
whut the writer has seen, and th clusions he has drawn there while the encouragement of discussion ut the close has often drawn to a pleasant conclusion. an evening otherwise dull, For both the abstract discussion of the paper or papers ofthe evening, and the after talk on matters more general, the present accommodation of the Society is sufficient, and we hope that both will be encouraged and taken advantage of. Ihe libraries of the Society and. of Mr, Wylie, now both placed under one roof, contain much that is valuable, as well as y rare books difficult to obtain a sight of elsewhere, On subjects connected with the east of Asia, they are both fairly filled many gaps still remain however to be filled up. Here and there, in not a fow libraries in Shanghai and throughout China, occur one or two books on local subjects, scarcely prized by the owner, who, in-the absence of a series, probably rates his old book as worth little. All works relating to China or the Far Eust, however little worth they have intrinsically, have a determinate value as members of a series, und any such weave sure would be gladly accepted to make the library complete, Still, with all this, there are many other topics on which an attempt should be made to render the library more fall. Books of reference and natural history; ethnological and_philological'. works, as well as works.on general statistics are all needed to make the library complete. The new arrangements, now almost brought to a close, will bring the Shanghai Library under the same roof, and the new interest which seems to have been effective in bringing some new blood into that institution, will, however, in some mea-sare supply this want; arrangements should be made between the two bodies to work harmoniously. In any case we hope that the influence of the now members of the Shanghai Library will be exerted towards increasing the list of works in class A which, for some time, has occupied a very inferior position in the library. Too much credit cannot be given to those by whose endeavours. the present building has been carried out, and who have moreover succeeded in bringing the two libraries under one roof; and to none more than to Mr. F. B. Forbes. whose exertions we were glad to seo remarked by his election to the post of vice-president for the present year. We have little doubt that the liberality of the ubseribers will be met by an increased interest on the part of contributors, and that we may look forward to a series of pleasant and instructive evenings in the new building in the Upper Yuen-ming-yuen Road.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.