Page:Isvar Chandra Vidyasagar, a story of his life and work.djvu/635

588. This was what the Hindoo Patriot of the 26th July, 1874, said on the subject:—

"The great shoe question has turned up in quite an unexpected quarter—we mean in the rooms of the Asiatic Society. We have much pleasure in transcribing the following from the Englishman on the subject:—

'We understand that the great shoe question has again come to the front and is occupying the attention of no less distinguished a body than the Council of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. Pundit Ishwur Chunder Vidyasagar, a native gentleman of learning, modesty and merits, who has rendered inestimable services to his fellow countrymen and whose reputation extends far beyond the bounds of Asia, complains that he is not allowed to enter the rooms of the Asiatic Society with his shoes—native shoes—on, and the Council does not know precisely how to act in the matter. We can see but one course sufficiently dignified for the successors of Jones and Colebrooke—viz. to abstain from laying down, or in the remotest degree countenancing, a petty regulation which will fetter the usefulness of the Society, discourage the resort to it of eminent persons of the Pundit's stamp, render it the laughing stock of Europe. A learned Society is the last body in the world that should revive obsolete caste distinctions and if, as in duty bound, it seeks to counterbalance an oppressive rule on one side by making an oppressive rule on the