352 



Application of the Roman Alphabet. 



[No. 4, 



may be considered as good as the other. That the old alphabet then 

 retains its hold on the Germans, furnishes us, in my opinion, with a 

 strong proof of the very great tenacity with which a people will cling 

 to an alphabet, when it has been so widely adopted as to have become 

 familiar to their whole nation. Indeed, if experience is a guide, it 

 would appear easier to change a language, than to change an alphabet. 

 These difficulties, however, it may be urged are, more or less, con- 

 nected with the weaknesses of human nature, and may be traced to 

 bigotry, vanity, prejudice, force of habit, false ideas of nationality, 

 &c, all of which might be overcome by a ruling power occupying the 

 position of the English in India ; and this is in a great measure true ; 

 but admitting its truth, the most important part of the enquiry — 

 indeed, I may say, the whole of the enquiry, will still remain, viz. the 

 suitability of the characters of the Eoman alphabet, to represent the 

 sounds to be expressed in all the languages, both living and dead, 

 which are in use in India. I have read a great deal that has been 

 written on the subject, and I must confess that I have never seen this 

 portion of it thoroughly well investigated. Indeed it is far more often 

 settled in a very summary and off-hand manner, by a reference to 

 some system which has already been adopted, and which has been 

 used, it is advanced, with great success. Yet it is of the essence of 

 the enquiry, and until it is satisfactorily disposed of, it is quite need- 

 less to refer to the many advantages that would result from the adop- 

 tion of a universal alphabet, a point which I assume nobody will care 

 to deny. Nor does the fact of a certain currency being obtained for 

 books printed in a particular t\ T pe prove what is wanting. Many 

 people thought that putting pantaloons on Hindustanis would make 

 English soldiers of sepoys ; but it did not do so, a fact which the 

 English discovered to their cost in 1857, After wearing them, father, 

 son, and grandson for a whole century, on the very first favourable 

 opportunity, they tore them off, and cast them away. And why, may 

 I ask, did they do so ? Because they found them not so suitable to 

 their habits and customs, and the climate of their country, as the 

 dhotis they had been in the habit of wearing for ages. The educated 

 Bengalis have for a quarter of a century been familiar not only with 

 the alphabet we use, but with the language we speak. They speak it 

 and write it infinitely better than they do their own language, yet we 

 do not find that when they write Bengali; they use this or any other 



