Page:On the education of the people of India (IA oneducationofpeo00trevrich).pdf/166

152 condemned. They have been erected into the medium for transacting nearly the whole of the public business of the country. It will be an object to all both to those who look forward to be employed in any situation under Government, and to those whose concerns bring them into connection with any public court or office to have a competent knowledge of these languages. Those who receive any education will learn to read them. To write them with precision and elegance will be an attainment coveted by the most highly educated persons.

The changes which are taking place in the legal system of the country is another cause of the movement in native society. Buried under the obscurity of Sanskrit and Arabic erudition, mixed up with the dogmas of religion, and belonging to two concurrent systems made up of the dicta of sages of different ages and schools, the laws are at present in the highest degree uncertain, redundant, and contradictory. To obtain a moderate acquaintance with either Mahommedan or Hindu law is the work of a whole life, and is therefore the business of a separate profession, with which the bar and bench have nothing in common. The expositors of the law are the muftis and pundits; men, who deeply imbued with the spirit of the ancient