Page:On the education of the people of India (IA oneducationofpeo00trevrich).pdf/162

148 influence of the subordinate native officers would be rather increased than diminished by the change; that if the European officers were able to get through their business without using the vernacular language, they would naturally neglect the study of it; and that, although the plan proposed would give an artificial stimulus to the study of English, it would condemn the vernacular languages, the increased cultivation of which was of still more importance, to continued exclusion and contempt. To these another argument has been added by the course of events; which is, that as by the late changes in the judicial system every civil case may be decided in the first instance by a native judge, the general introduction of English as the official language would be nearly impracticable.

Every body is now agreed in giving the preference to the vernacular language. It is a great point gained for the efficiency and popularity, and consequently for the permanence of our rule, that the European officers have now been placed in such a position that they must make themselves thoroughly acquainted with the language which the people themselves speak. All other media have