May 1861.] 



Hindustani in Paris, 



47 



they may to a certain extent include so eminent an Orientalist as 

 M. de Tassy among the advocates of the Romanising system. It 

 is true that he at present only goes so far as to say that it cannot 

 fail to be useful to " beginners, and to those who content them- 

 selves with a superficial knowledge of the language;" but this 

 admission will, we conceive, be accepted by our Romanising 

 friends as an ample and plenary concession of the whole argu- 

 ment ; for all must be beginners, and all must attain a superficial 

 before they arrive at an erudite knowlege of a language ; and 

 if, as M. de Tassy grants, these preliminary steps can be 

 gained more easily, and more accurately, through the medium 

 of the Roman letters, how can it be shown that for the higher 

 steps, and for greater perfection as a linguist, the student 

 must resort to the puzzling and imperfect Arabic and Nagari 

 alphabets ? Idiomatic fluency and ' the colloquial command of 

 language, cannot be in the least advanced by acquiring 

 the greatest dexterity in deciphering " Shikastah" scribbling ; 

 and all that is required to give our Romanised students 

 the fullest and most extensive insight into the treasures of 

 Oriental literature, is the publication of all the standard works in 

 the Roman character. A very distant prospect, it is true, — but 

 something has been done, and if we could effect the full conver- 

 sion of M. Garcin de Tassy and a few more eminent scholars to 

 the true Roman faith, we should not despair of great progress 

 being made in a very few years. 



M. de Tassy himself observes that two Romanised editions of 

 the Bagh-o-bahar have recently been published, " One by the 

 indefatigable Duncan Forbes, and the other by Monier Williams, 

 the worthy successor of Wilson in the chair of Sanscrit at Oxford," 



He speaks in terms of high commendation of the Bible Society's 

 r ecently published edition of the New Testament in Hindustani, 

 prepared by the Translation Committee of Benares. " The style" 

 he says, " is pure Urdu, and ought to satisfy native critics. 

 However I must claim the right of disapproving of the use of the 

 barbarous words, Abiraham, Patras, Yarusalam, Surya, $g. x 

 instead of Ibrahim, Butros, Yurashalim, Sham, Sfc. t adopted 

 throughout Eastern Christendom to signify Abraham, Peter, Jeru- 

 salem, Syria, &c." 



