( 46 ) a8 from N. L. HALLENARD EsQ, M.A. Principal, Ravenshaw College, եւ Dated, Cuttack, the January oth, 1895. GENTLEMEN, I have received your Circular dated, Calcutta, January 5th 1895. I will briefly indicate my views as to the proposals therein contained. (1) The adoption of the first proposal would revolutionise the whole basis of University education, which has hitherto been founded on the study of English. It must be clearly recognised that this is the meaning of the step proposed to be taken. The abandonment of the teaching of History, Philosophy, Mathematics, and Science in English, for the F.A. and B.A. examinations also, would be the immediate logical outcome, and the practical relegation of English to the place of a foreign language would speedily follow. To say nothing of the difficulty that would arise in teaching advanced subjects of study in most of the vernaculars, owing to the poverty or absence in them of terms for the expression of scientific and philosophical notions, the literary character of University education would be destroyed by confining the study of English within such narrow limits. Moreover, the step would be a reactionary one from another point of view. The gradual unification of the Indian Races will be rendered, humanly speaking, impossible, if the study of English be so seriously discouraged and retarded. As it is, the knowledge of the English language is the chief medium of communication, which renders intercourse possible between the numerous jarring tongues, races and religions of lndia. The knowledge of this language is the key which opens for educated men an access to the accumulated stores of knowledge which western civilization has gradually amassed. Without it, they remain outside the pale of modern thought, outside the community of civilized nations. (2) The second proposal contains two alternative suggestions: (a) that papers be set on the vernacular languages in the F. A. and B. A. Examinations (b) that translations from the Oriental classics be made into the vernaculars, not into English, as at present. (a) None of the vernaculars has a literature of a high order while some vernaculars cannot be said to have any literature at all. Until a vernacular language has developed a worthy literature of its own, it cannot be an adequate medium of culture. In the not distant future we may hope that these languages will have created for themselves a not un;
