1834.] to the Orthography of Oriental Languages. 287 



too that from its use of the a for the short u would change the spelling 

 of every word and name from one end of India to the other. 



Let the Sir William Jones' system, his a and his i, i, and his long and 

 short u be reserved, like the Devanagree, for recondite science : there his 

 alphabet has its footing, and no one desires to eject it from its strong- 

 hold : but for business let us have our current Nagree, the short u and 

 the ee, and the oo, which have grown into use from their ready adapt- 

 ation to the ear, and from the preference secured for them by all the 

 associations of sound to letters, which we have been accustomed to 

 from our infancy. 



In the pages of the Journal there has appeared a notice laudatory of 

 Mr. Trevelyan's attempt to effect by a coup de main a change in all 

 the established methods of writing mofussil names. As this Journal 

 has won for itself so wide a circulation in the interior, it is necessary 

 that its pages should not be made to serve the party views of the advocates 

 of any one exclusive system, but that the merits of each in its particular 

 line should be fairly stated. The Sanscrit scholar will perhaps find his 

 advantage in following the alphabet of Sir William Jones, which is 

 that of the grammars and dictionaries, and of most of the translations 

 from that language ; but he that is content with the Persic, Oordoo, or 

 the familiar literature of Hindoostan, the man of business and of the 

 world, will find all the books, the dictionaries, and grammars, and 

 vocabularies, to which he is in the habit of referring, and all the records 

 and public documents that fall under his observation, written uniformly 

 in the character of Gilchrist. There is little fear that even the weight 

 of the Journal's recommendation will be successful in superseding what 

 is so established. If the world were not wide enough to hold both 

 systems — if the order had gone forth from (Lesar, that one only should 



stand, and the issue were, a helium ad internecionem between the two 



then might the Journal fitly advocate the cause of its scientific mode of 

 writing to save it from destruction and the sponge : but so long as 

 there is no attempt to encroach on the ground it occupies, or to inter- 

 fere with its peculiar province in literature ; while it is suffered to 

 luxuriate in the paradise of Sanscrit, without any attempt to foist in its 

 rival, even as an humble companion of its pleasures in that Eden of joy; 

 why should the votaries of this learned system strive to gain for it an 

 universal dominion, for which it has been found unfitted, and assume 

 the offensive against the system in use for business ? Let each retain 

 its own, and both abide together in peace and good will and harmony, 

 holding forth in the facilities they jointly offer an invitation to all 

 people to adopt either one or the other, accordingly as they find either 

 most convenient for their purpose, and under the assurance that the 



