and their literatures, have been written from original materials, supplied, in part, by the now completed Statistical Survey. As many of the subjects dealt with in that article are still questions of historical or scholarly discussion, rather than ascertained facts, the author's views are offered on his own responsibility, and a personal tone has been adopted which is absent from the rest of the work.
But while the present edition has thus been enriched by fresh local enquiry, it has had to encounter a peril from which the original edition was exempt. The Government deemed it expedient that, in bringing out the first edition, the author should be placed in immediate contact with the printers in England. In regard to the present edition, it was not found possible to afford the same facility for the accurate execution of the work. The time necessarily occupied in transmission of printed materials from India to England and back has precluded the possibility, save in exceptional cases, of more than a single revision of the proof-sheets. It can scarcely be hoped that twelve volumes of figures and statistics, published under these conditions, will be free from blemishes and oversights. But the author begs the reader to believe that anxious effort has not been spared to secure the utmost accuracy attainable in the circumstances.
If the result should prove not unsatisfactory, it is due in no small measure to the admirable arrangements made by the printers, and to the circumstance that the corrections inserted in the proof-sheets in India have been checked in the final revise by Mr. J. S. Cotton in England. The author has also received the valuable assistance of Mr. Charles Dollman throughout the whole process of revision; and of Mr. F. Bancss (now deceased), Mr, Stanley Shaw, and Mr. D. Atkinson during stages in the progress of the work.
Special acknowledgments are due to Babu Jaikissen Mukharji for the use of his large and excellent library at Uttarpára in
