258 Substitution of the Roman [No. 8, new seeies. 



lates to the use of accents and diacritical points in cursive writing. 

 Such devices may succeed very well in printed books, but are they 

 equally suitable for manuscripts ? or can a system be invented 

 which shall equally suit both purposes ? The cursive character must 

 run, or else it is not " cursive," but running will be precluded, if 

 people are obliged to stop too frequently to add on accents and dots. 

 There is some danger lest the only thing that is considered is what 

 is suitable for printing. For this reason Prof. Monier Williams' 

 plan (see his Sanskrit Grammar) of distinguishing the nasal of the 

 guttural row (our English ng) by n with a dot on one side of it, ap- 

 pears to be inadmissible. (3.) The Germans seem to claim a na- 

 tional right to transliterate the Indian y by J, in consequence of 

 which they are driven to represent the sound of j by g. In like 

 manner, being accustomed to give a sound of their own to ch, they 

 transliterate the Indian palatal ch by k. Seeing, however, that the 

 English have a special interest in the matter, and that we are con- 

 sulting not for ourselves only but for the Hindus, to whom English 

 is the language of civilisation, we may at once, I think, determine 

 to keep to our own usage in these points. We must yield up to 

 the Germans and the rest of the world (indeed we have already 

 yielded) our peculiar English mode of pronouncing the vowels ; but 

 the consonants stand on a different footing. 



With respect to these and similar matters, down to the minutest 

 points of detail, we must see that every thing is duly considered 

 before a commencement is made. Uniformity of plan is a neces- 

 sary condition of success, and this uniformity can be secured by the 

 action of Government alone. Considering that there are so many 

 different languages and characters in India, so many different races 

 and communities, and so many presidencies and protected states, it 

 appears to me that in this matter, as in the introduction of the 

 English numerals, Government must take the initiative. 



c. It has been objected that the Roman characters are greatly in- 

 ferior to the Indian in precision, seeing that each Indian character re- 

 presents only one sound, ivhereas each Roman character represents 

 many. It is admitted in reply, that there is a considerable differ- 

 ence in European tongues, particularly in the English and the 

 French, between the spelling of words and their pronunciation* 



