1st. THE Committee which is attached to the Royal Asiatic Society, for the purpose of selecting and superintending the translation and printing of Oriental works, is to be called the “Oriental Translation Committee.”
2d. The object of the Committee is to publish, free of expense to the authors, translations of the whole or parts of works in the Oriental languages, accompanied occasionally by the original texts, and such illustrations as may be considered necessary. These translations are to be generally printed in English, but in peculiar cases may be printed in Latin or French.
3d. The Committee is empowered to add to its number, to purchase Oriental MSS. or printed books, to present copies of the works printed at the expense of the Oriental Translation Fund to Learned Societies and individuals, and to adopt all the means that it may consider to be necessary for promoting the objects for which it was appointed. No payment, however, exceeding twenty-five pounds, is to be made, until approved at two successive Meetings of the Committee.
4th. The Meetings of the Committee will be held as often as the Chairman or Secretary, or any two other Members of it, signing a requisition for that purpose, deem it necessary. All the Members of the Committee, resident within one hundred miles of London, are to be summoned to attend each of its Meetings; and five Members, including the Chairman or a Deputy Chairman, and the Secretary, are to constitute a quorum.
5th. The Secretary is charged generally with the business of the Committee, and is to record all the votes of the Committee in a Minute-Book, which every Subscriber has the right of inspecting, on application to him.
6th. For the purpose of directing the attention of scholars to the literature of the East, and encouraging translations, the Committee is empowered to give annually, for such works as it may consider deserving of distinction, four rewards in money, in sums not exceeding £100 each, and four gold medals, of the value of twenty guineas each, inscribed with the names of the individuals to whom, and the titles of the translations for which, they are presented. Any Member of the Committee who sends a translation for approval, whether to obtain a reward or medal, or merely to have it printed at the expense of the Oriental Translation Fund, is to cease to act on the Committee until the adoption or rejection of his work is decided on.
7th. No work, although prepared for the press at the expense of the Oriental Translation Fund, is to be printed, until the imprimatur of the Chairman or a Deputy Chairman, and at least eight Members of the Committee, is obtained. The Translators of such works as are printed by the Committee are entitled to twenty-five copies of their Translations for presentation.
8th. Every individual or institution subscribing ten guineas or upwards, annually, to the Oriental Translation Fund, will be entitled to one fine paper copy of every work printed by the Committee, with the name of the individual or institution subscribing printed on an ornamental title-page. Individuals or institutions subscribing five guineas annually, will be entitled to common paper copies of any of the works published by the Committee, to the amount of their subscriptions, at half the price paid for them by Non-Subscribers.
9th. A General Meeting, to which every Subscriber and Member of the Committee, resident in the United Kingdom, shall be summoned, will be held annually some time in the month of June. At that meeting Regulations may be proposed or rescinded; the Auditor will report the receipts and disbursements of the past year; and the Secretary report the progress made in the works that have been commenced, and give an account of those that are proposed for publication in the following year. A copy of each of these Reports will be sent to every Subscriber.—A Special General Meeting shall be convened by the Secretary at any time it is required in writing by nine Subscribers, the requisition stating the subject that is to be proposed for consideration.