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jjo^9L^5TJST^l JJj5^]__ THE LEADER. 847
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I N D IA. __
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the progress of India to be promoted. Th...
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ORIENTAL IJSTLANT) STEAM COMPANY. The Pu...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Jjo^9l^5tjst^L Jjj5^]__ The Leader. 847
jjo ^ 9 L ^ 5 TJST ^ l JJj 5 ^] THE LEADER . 847
I N D Ia. __
I N D IA . __
The Progress Of India To Be Promoted. Th...
the progress of India to be promoted . The spread of education is wholly English , and the provision of the jneans of education is . not aboriginal but of English introduction . Lithography and type printing are doing wonders for the diffusion of knowledge in India , -which otherwise would still be left to the manuscript copyist . Type printing lias been encouraged by the Government , and is creating in every presidency a native literature of * very different character from the old ritual literature , fositive knowledge is replacing mythological inventions , and India is moving by rapid steps from the age « F Hesiod and the Edda to that of Bacon and . Newton ; knowledge , after all , -which must long be little more than lip knowledge , because the habits and discipline of intellectual advancement are not to be c ommunicated in a < Iay . ¦ ' ¦ ' ' ¦ ' . ¦; ¦ . .. . . - ;
THE PEESS AND TYPE IN INDIA . Accordiko to some of those dear friends of the natives , -who are bow so alarmed at India being taken under national government and exposed to the horrors of contact with free Englishmen , the late progress of India io civilisation has been self-developed , but according to more impartial judges thi 3 progress has been entirely owing to English exertion , to the efforts of Englishmen , « itber officials or non-officials , and by the like e xertioa is
This spread of knowledge , promoted by some of the ablest-administrators of India , continues to be watched Tvith an eager desire to promote its results by the most Effectual measures . The matter of the educational trorks lias received great attention , and many of the works of the Educational Board of India-will compare trith those of the Irish Board , and-with the best home models , of which thej-are ia fact the application . The manner has .- unfortunately received less care than the matter , and a most important means of improvement is thereby delayed . Sir Chas . E , Trevelyan , who , having begun a brilliant administrative career in India , has continued it la England , but has never abated in bis regard for the welfare of India , has among other plans taken great interest in the introduction of the Roman alphabet in India , bat hitherto with small success .
: This appears a very trivial matter , but if ; we apply to it our home experience we shall soon find that it is one of importance to India and . to our own citizens .- Let us , however , first look at the working of the question at home . In the reign of Elizabeth—but the system was in vigour later—the hooks to which the public had access were in Roman type and in black letter , arid the scholar had , in addition to the application of these types to various languages , to deal with Greek books printed £ n contracted scrip . The impediment to education , was a considerable one , for the reader of black letter found a trouble in reading Roman , and vice versa , both alphabets had to be taught , and the evil was not limited to
printing , for there was a great variety of handwritings founded on the various scrips , and the reader was further puzzled in manuscript . As to any law writing it was incomprehensible by the multitude , requiring a special interpreter . Happily the nations of the "West settled down to the adoption of tho Roman type , and we with them . Tho result is , that one type and , one scrip for writing alone exist Among us , an d every newspaper and manuscript of the United States , the Cape , or Australia , is common to us . Thus the printer ' s fount has been brought down to very small proportions , tho stock of the small master reduced , and the labour of the compositor abridged , while the smaller types of ltoman can be more conveniently worked than tho types of black letter .
This reform extending throughout tho West , all printing and all manuscript are of one class for the various languages , English , Welsh , Erse , Manx , Netherlandish and Flemish , Frisian , Danish , Swedish , Icelandic , French , Uasquo , Spanish , Portuguese , Italian , Maltese , and this extends to Magyar and Polish , and to the reprints of Anglo-Saxon . Over all this glossological range , Irish alone is printed in a separate variety of old Anglo-Saxon , and Unit is now being abandoned . Danish , too , is still sometimes printed in black letter . Of course tikis reform includes the whole of America , from the north to the south of which Roman typo alone is used , and it lias reached in tho west to Hnwnian , Tahitian , and Maori , and embraces some printed Literature in Africa .
In Germany the black letter typo and a separate scrip have till lately prevailed , nnd in tho east of Europe are great varieties of type , Greek , Turkish , and Illyrian . Of late years tlio Roman typo lias inado great progress in Germany . Tlio consequences of the scparuto type and scrip are bettor shown by their effect on the Germans than on ourselves . We l ' cel tho impediment in tlio Btudy of German nnd in carrying on German correspondence , wo fcjtil it in learning Greek , a few in learning Hebrew , and nil those who study tho Oriental tongues ; but tlie grout mass of our community fuol the Impediment very little , for it may bo said tho literature « f the world is not closed to them so fur as tlio alphabet Stands in tho way . Tho Gorman is frco so far an High Dutch print ia concerned , and letters in his own
language ; but for English , in -which he has great intercourse , for French , for the Netherlandish , for studying the literature of the great nations and for carrying on correspondence with them , the Roman type must be acquired . In a German counting-house the annoyance of the two handwritings is very great , and the German feels more and more the inconvenience of that chance choice , -which has left him stranded with the use of black letter , and separated him from the nations of the "West . A great movement has , therefore , gone on in Germany for the introduction of the Roman type , and in every counting-house the Roman scrip is superseding the High Dutch . If German evidence is to be taken , the question in favour of Roman scrip will soon be decided . The-isolation of Russia is greatly to be attributed to the retention of a special type .
We now come to India , and there we have great varieties of type and scrip founded on systems having relations much more distant than Roman and black letter , and which we may briefly designate as abundant varieties of Sanskrit , Persian , and Roman . Till lately there was only a limited manuscript literature in each of the several languages and dialects , and the correspondence was limited previous to the reform of the postal system . India , instead of being divided between two allied types , has one or two types and more scrips for each dialect * and thus artificial barriers to communication are
maintained . Now , as an educational system is being extended in substitution of the barbarous village schools , as a printed literature is superseding' the ritual manuscripts , as English is fast becoming a means of intercourse and instruction , and as cheap postage by stamps has been established throughout India , the opportunity exists for carrying out Sir Charles Trevelyan ' s plan , and establishing tho Roman alphabet in India . The Roman alphabet will be in the first place the means of cheapening native books , because the Roman fount is more convenient for printing than-the native
founts ; in the next place it will enable the natives to correspond more freely , as it will supply them with an easier and uniform scrip ; in the third place it will enables them to learn English more readily , and to have access . to those stores of knowledge on the exact and other sciences , which must be the means of supplying them -with knowledge for many years before a native literature can . be adequately built up ; and in the fourth place it will promote intercourse between the English and the natives by enabling the Indian languages to be more readily studied .
The advantages are great , and the mode of doing so effective , and we will not now enter upon the phonetic plans of Sir Charles Trevelyan , Professor Newman , or Mr . Hyde Clarke , but content ourselves with pointing out that the Government lias ample means of carrying out the improvement , and which will soon compensate for the embarrassment which must be created for two or three years till the new system has superseded the old one . We do not consider it needful for the Government to settle a uniform phonetic plan at once , but let each authority , or board , adopt its own , provided only that it adopt the Roman type . Let no educational books he printed unless in Roman , let no Government documents be printed unless in Roman , let a priority be given to letters addressed in Roman , and , above all , let no presses be supplied by the Government except to work Roman founts .
The number of Government presses in'India and of Government papers is very great , and they are being constantly increased , because the Government of Iiulia , like the Government of Chile , is obliged to furnish such instruments of civilisation for its subjects . Thus , in Madras , many of the Government presses , as that of Masulipatam , for instance , are enrning inore than their expenses , and the Government has allowed that surplus funds may be applied in additions to the printing and bookbinding stock . Thus , in Guntoor , at late dates , the district Gazette being found to confer many advantages , it was proposed that a copy should be sent to each village moonsiff or cu ' rnum free of cost . Tlie
Government , however , considering tlmt in each collcctorate there is an average of 1549 villages , aud in all Madras 30 , 084 , shrank from adopting tuiti proposition , but have approved of the freer circulation of portions of tho Gazette , in tlie shape of proclamations and notifications , which aro to bo supplied to tho village officers . From Bellory , this year , an application was made for further presses , but as the Government allowance to collcctorates is only one iron and ono woodon press , the Government only allowed one more wooden press and more typo . At Cuddapah , however , tho collector complains that tho presses and furniture supplied to him aro very old . In Tunjorc a press fund lias been proposed , by savings from the suppression of certain offices .
To show what may be done we may observe that in tho Madura printing-oftice , for instance , tho last su pply demanded was about equal quantities of English or Roman typo and of Tamil type , and thus founts of both types have to bo kept to tho great disadvantage of tho establishment , instead of one fount alone being wanted . Lord Stanley , in the government of India , has many opportunities of distinction , but one of tho 11 rat stops ho can usefully take , and -which of itself will always make Ilia namo gratefully remembered , i » a minute recommending or directing tho use of English typo iu India .
Oriental Ijstlant) Steam Company. The Pu...
ORIENTAL IJSTLANT ) STEAM COMPANY . The Punjaub and Scinde are not the least forward of the regions of India in the administration of Government and in the share of Government patronage , and well have these provinces repaid the care bestowed -upon them by the large resources they contributed towards the repression of the mutiny . Although so newly annexed they have been endowed by the Government with two railways and two steamnavigation companies . For the system of the Indus , the Indus Steam Flotilla and the
Oriental Inland Steam . Navigation Company may be said to be organised , for though the latter company contemplates more extended operations in India , its first enterprise is directed towards the Indus . The project o > f extending navigation in India by applying vessels of light draft on the numerous rivers which intersect India in ¦ wide and shallow streams , is one of the greatest importance , and not only well deserves the encouragement of Government , but it is deeply to be regretted that this encouragement was not sooner given , so that the period of experiment may be passed over .
At the present moment the company are only engaged in the establishment of two steam trains on the Indus , whereas the Gogra and other branches of the Ganges require a like provision , and the rivers of the Deccan are unoccupied . The Government has felt too late the necessity of having a larger supply of steamers , for it proposed to the Oriental Inland Company to place four steam trains on the Indus instead of two , doubling the subsidy , but reducing the term from ten years for two trains , to five years for four trains , In this , we think , the Government were scarcely liberal , fox though on taking four steam trains instead of two they might expect a reduction in the term of subsidy , yet the diminution to one half gave no
correspondent advantages . It is not surprising that the directors , notwithstanding their eagerness to push on a new company , have declined these terms , for undoubtedly a subsidy or guarantee for ten years is better than one for five ; and yet , had the Government proposed an increased subsidy for eight years , the directors might very possibly have acceded to it . "We trust , however , that the result of these two trains , now subsidised , may be so successful that no further subsidy for the Indus may be required . Existing River companies in India have for some time past divided a dividend of from forty to fifty per cent ., and as these trains will carry each six hundred tons , or six times more than can be carried by the vessels now in use , a handsome profit must be ensured to the proprietors .
It will be remembered that the subsidy offered by the Government is 5000 ? . a year for the supply of two steam trains , each consisting of six vessels . This the company are already in a position to receive , as they have despatched to India vessels enough for two trains . They have likewise sent out the staff to put them together and to maintain a dockyard at Kurrachee , which in its career of prosperity has the good fortune to receive this addition to its resources . The number of -workmen sent out is sixty , who are said to have been carefully selected for their capacity , sobriety , and good conduct . " Unfortunately the greatest care in . choosing workmen hero is no
guarantee for their good conduct abroad , as many very good men , removed from the responsibility of the home circle , show a total disregard of the obligations they have undertaken , and aro thankless to the officers who have sent thorn out , and tlie company they serve . The Oriental Company are , however , likely to get on fairly with their men , as , in tho first place , they can readily discharge them and ship them off at Kurraobee , and they have tho means of employing the wandering and disaffected on board tho steam trains moving about ia the riverd , and on the whole engiuomen get on bettor abroad thau any other class of workmen .
These mea will fit together the steam train , and they are provided with tho requisite tools and machine tools , so as to have a complete ivorksliop , a measure essential for economy at such a distance , whore the breakage or loss of a pairt of tho machinery may cause great delay , and whorj accidents muat be at once met and repairs provided . Along with the stores , storehouses , we presume of corrugateu iron , have been sent out . Such buildings stand very well in Peru nnd Bolivia . To land the heavy goods at Kurrachee a largo iron lighter has been provided , and their aro propor shears , blocks , and purchases for lifting heavy weights . Among the buildings supplied is , a barrack for the use of tho workmen ; and , indeed , it may generally bo said , that every measure that experience could point out , or forethought furnish , haa been adopted for the first outfi t of tho concern .
Tho company will , by its iutorcourso on the river , have the . means of convoying tho workmen whom the climate does not suit to tho hills , and -we hope a provision will be made for this . Many of tho workmen will find that Kurracbee , or rivor work , docs not agree witb . them , and will in time sottlo in tlio hills , so that tho colony of sixty mechanics will bo tho inoaua eventually of establishing
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 21, 1858, page 847, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/ldr_21081858/page/23/
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