Page:Isvar Chandra Vidyasagar, a story of his life and work.djvu/638

Rh science, that is not a place for raising social questions on which it is notorious the natives are keenly and justly sensitive. The shoe question had one time assumed by no means a pleasant political character, and the highest authority in the land wisely decided that it should not be allowed to interfere with the social relations of the people with their rulers. It is said that Government order does not apply to native shoes. We do not understand what occult meaning is there in this distinction. If the leaving the shoes behind is a mark of respect, it matters little whether the shoes are of the European or the native pattern. But if there is a mark of respect attached to the leather, it is immaterial as to what form the leather may take. We hope the Council of the Asiatic Society and the trustees of the Museum will have the good sense not to make native gentlemen feel that to enter their rooms is to court insult."

About this time, he had some difference with Sir George Campbell, the then Lieutenant Governor of Bengal, with respect to the Smriti branch of the Sanskrit College. Campbell was a man of highly enthusiastic and revolutionary spirit and rather chary of expenditure on high education. He revolutionised almost every department of the government under him.