1835.] Asiatic Society. 473 



works into those languages, a list of which is hereto also annexed, show- 

 ing what works have been completed, and what are still unfinished. 

 That this appropriation continued until the 7th of March, 1835, when, 

 by an order of the Supreme Government, a copy of which is annexed, 

 the whole of the works then in progress, and of which the particulars 

 are therein given, were suspended, and the funds before devoted there- 

 to, as well as those which should occur from the eventual reduction 

 of the Sanscrit and Arabic Colleges, ordered to be employed exclusively, 

 *' in imparting to the native population a knowledge of English literature 

 and science, through the medium of the English language." 



That the Asiatic Society, considering the public and complete with- 

 drawal of all support, from the funds of Government, to the revival of the 

 ancient literature of the country, as a measure fatal to the objects and 

 principles, the advancement of which they had so long been labouring to 

 promote, were induced, by the urgency of the occasion, to make a humble 

 representation to the Government upon the subject : but that their endea- 

 vours were ineffectual, as will appear by copy of the Memorial and answer 

 also annexed. 



That it is with regret and reluctance that your Memorialists are com- 

 pelled for once to step beyond the immediate objects of their institution, 

 and to become appellants to the liberality and justice of your Honorable 

 Court. 



That your Memorialists do not presume, for a moment, to question, 

 either the discretionary power of the Supreme Government to apportion 

 the Parliamentary grant in question, to such objects as to it shall appear 

 the most deserving, or the soundness of the construction it has put upon the 

 terms of the statute ; still less is it their wish or intention to obstruct or 

 depreciate the noble project of diffusing amongst the natives of India the 

 knowledge of the language of their rulers, and thus enabling them, by their 

 own efforts, to naturalize amongst themselves the arts and the sciences 

 and the literature of Europe. But inasmuch as the entire subversion of 

 the national language is a project neither contemplated nor possible, they 

 humbly submit, that the diffusion of the English language is manifestly 

 but one step towards the common end in view ; that the study and im- 

 provement of the languages of the country is a step of at least equal 

 importance, and that no means have been yet suggested so likely to for- 

 ward that study and improvement, as the revival of the ancient languages 

 and literature, the objects still of popular veneration — the source of all 

 that is intellectual or valuable in the mixed dialects now in use, and the 

 only model to recur to for their amendment or purification. 



That, so long as the laws of the Hindus and Muhammedans shall continue 

 to be the rule of judicial decision upon the rights of property, it is surely 

 essential to the due administration of justice, to render the repositories of 

 those laws generally accessible ; so long as their religious system shall not 

 be merely tolerated but protected, it is surely a matter of urgent conse- 

 quence to facilitate the access, not of the people only, but of their rulers 

 also, to the volumes that contain their tenets ; and if the advancement of 

 knowledge be regarded as the introduction to a purer faith, and higher 

 tone of moral feeling, your Memorialists would urge, that no measure can 

 be more effectual for the destruction of the sanctuaries of superstition, 

 than that of rending the veil of mystery and ignorance, that has hitherto 

 concealed its deformities. 



That if the Governments of India had never stretched out a helping 

 hand to foster and diffuse the knowledge of Asiatic literature, your 

 native subjects might have regretted the apathy of their rulers, yet could 

 not have complained, either of caprice or of abandonment. But thus to 

 withdraw the support which it had for at any period afforded, appears to 



