256 



Substitution of the Roman [No. 8, new sebies. 



Here, then, is an instance, in point, of a substitution of one cha- 

 racter for many, such as is here advocated, having actually taken 

 place : and if we have succeeded in introducing our ten numeral 

 characters into general use, is it quite clearly an impracticable 

 task, even at this late period, to aim at obtaining similar currency 

 for our 26 alphabetical characters ? It may fairly be argued that 

 it will take a considerably longer time, but surely we should cease 

 to be told that the thing is impracticable. 



h. It is objected, that if the Roman character were introduced, 

 there would be many different systems of applying it to the Indian lan- 

 guages, the result of which ivould be confusion worse confounded. It 

 would be necessary to make use of accents and diacritical points 

 for the purpose of distinguishing long vowels from short ones, and 

 denoting certain peculiar Indian consonants. Every person, it is 

 said, would have a diacritical system of his own, and in the end it 

 would be found, that documents could be deciphered only by the 

 person who wrote them. 



I admit the existence of this danger, though not its alleged 

 amount ; but a danger which, when foreseen, may be guarded 

 against by a little consideration, is a very different thing from an 

 insuperable obstacle. It is often necessary even at present to re- 

 piesent Indian words by means of English characters. Passages 

 from the poets, dicta from the law books, peculiar Native expres- 

 sions on which some dispute hinges, require sometimes to be trans- 

 literated, and not merely translated. It is still more frequently 

 necessary to write in Roman characters the names of persons, places, 

 books, &c, together with revenue and administrative terms. As 

 the propriety of adhering to a system is not at present practically 

 felt, and as some of the details of the Roman system are still un- 

 settled, persons who find it necessary to transliterate Indian words 

 are generally accustomed to do so according to their own taste and 

 fancy. Thus, in the last Report of the Madras Bible Society one 

 writer calls the sacred books of the Hindus Vedas, another Va- 

 thems. In a catalogue of books sold at the Government Book 

 Depots which has just been published, the Sanscrit word for 

 " morals" is written in one place neethi, in another niti. But the 

 most extraordinary specimens of optional spelling which I have 



