1864.] 



Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 



449 



acquisition of English. But when are the Khonds likely to want 

 English ? Certainly not before the Ooriahs want it ; and the know- 

 ledge of the Ooriah alphabets would be practically useful to them 

 every day. They will seldom see Europeans. The very work of the 

 mission, and of teaching, will be carried on mainly by Ooriah minis- 

 ters and catechists ; and the business of daily life, the buying and 

 selling, is altogether conducted by Ooriahs. It is clear that in this 

 case the advantages of the Ooriah alphabet outweighed those of the 

 English, and it would probably be found the same, on the most super- 

 ficial view, in other similar cases. Broadly, it appeared that the 

 civilization of these scattered and insignificant tribes would be better 

 attained by bringing them up to the level of civilization enjoyed by 

 surrounding districts, than by attempting anything higher ; what we 

 wanted was not to Europeanize parts of India, but to weld the whole 

 into a compact mass, to give it that homogeneity, the absence of 

 which so much weakens all exertions either of the teacher or legislator 

 for the benefit of the people. If a common alphabet could effect this 

 to any extent, that alphabet must be the one which the indoles of the 

 natives of the country had worked out for itself, and which could 

 more easily be learnt than any other, besides being in itself true, 

 perfect, and better than any alphabet we could give them. Mr. 

 Heeley concluded by appealing to Captain. Lees for corroboration of 

 the views expressed by him with regard to the non- development of 

 an indigenous alphabet among the Scythian races. 



Captain Lees said he was glad the Bishop had favoured the meeting 

 with an expression of his opinion on this question, in which it was 

 known he took a deep interest. He had listened with great interest 

 to his Lordship's remarks, and while he concurred in much that he had 

 said, he thought that much in which he could not concur might be 

 reconciled with the views enunciated in the paper just read. The 

 object his Lordship and those who were of his opinion had in view 

 was universality, and now he thought that sufficient consideration had 

 not been given to the widely-spread area over which the Hindustani 

 language was used, a range of country extending from Peshawur on the 

 north to Cape Comorin on the south. If we applied the Eoman 

 alphabet to this one language, no doubt it would familiarize a very 

 large portion of the people of India with these characters. But to 

 do even that, would be a magnum opus. It would, moreover, at the 



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