Page:Ramtanu Lahiri, Brahman and Reformer - A History of the Renaissance in Bengal.djvu/154

 spirit in the people became evident. Mr Derozio’s pupils, who had in the preceding year called a meeting with the purpose of petitioning Government for the privilege, were transported with joy at the new power that the public voice gained, and the new opportunity they thus had for ventilating their political opinions freely was used by them in different directions — viz. introduction of trial by jury, removal of the grievances of coolies working in Mauritius, and the supersession of Persian by English in the pleadings in Mufasal courts.

To show what a valuable acquisition the liberty of the Press was to the people of the country we deem it necessary to dwell on the indignities to which journalists before the passing of the Act had been subjected, and the steady and fruitless contest that Rammohan Roy and Dwarkanath Tagore had carried on against the policy of the Government. The first English newspaper published was Hickey’s Gazette, started in 1780. Then followed The Bengal Journal. The editors criticised each other in the strongest language. On one occasion Mr Dane, editor of The Bengal Journal, was so vulgar, that the authorities sent him to England under arrest. Then, when the East India Company became involved in war with Tipu Sultan, and the English in India were divided into factions. Lord Wellesley, to exercise proper control on the journals of the day, made it a law that every article before being published must be approved by the censor, or the officer appointed to sanction or disallow any publication, before its appearance in print. This rule was made still more stringent in 1813. But in 1818 it was in a manner set aside by the Marquis of Hastings; and the result was that several journals made their appearance, of which The Calcutta Journal, with Mr Buckingham as editor and Mr Arnot as sub-editor, was one. When, on the departure of