A. ( 72 ) Another injury to follow from an adoption of the scheme should not be lost sight of. Our students are even now dreadfully deficient in English ; and when their Sole chance of acquiring correct English will be limited to about one hundred pages of the English text, they will fare still worse. They will thus be “in both ways lost," having obtained neither a thorough mastery over their own vernacular nor a Solid grounding in English. I have, I hope, clearly exposed the injuriousness of the first proposal. It remains now with me to consider the second scheme adopted by the Select Committee, which runs thus:-"That it is desirable that for the F. A. and B. A. Examinations of the Calcutta University, Vernacular text-books be prescribed with those in the classical languages; or that in such Examinations composition in and translation to the vernaculars be made a part of the required test.' If accepted in this exact form, this would mean that Sanskrit and Bengalee are to compute as one subject and that candidates will be required to secure a minimum in the two subjects or papers put together. If so, it will be a serious blunder. It will be positively detrimental to the cause of Sanskrit, as many will devote their attention to Bengalee alone and thus make a shift of obtaining marks high enough in the Bengalee paper to secure a pass in the two papers. Or the scheme may defeat its own end, if the candidate may secure the minimum for both the papers in the Sanskrit paper alone. It will not do therefore to have the two subjects recognised as one for purposes of the awarding of marks, they must be treated as two distinct Branches. With this necessary safe-guard alone, I am ready to accept the first part of the Resolution. The second part of the same Resolution and indeed the whole of the Resolution (already dealt with) seem to be conceived in a spirit of compromise and conciliation. Now, this is an attitude that we fail to appreciate in the Parishad. As a collective body of men whose grand aim is to foster and encourage the study of the national literature (as also to help its growth), the Parishad must consider it to be their duty to urge upon the University the necessity of the adoption of Bengalee in its curriculum. The true recognition of the subject can only be secured by the inclusion of its literature as a subject of study. What else may be proposed must only be looked upon as miserable make-shifts and patch-work plans to keep of absolute justice. The true study of a language is always through its living literature and not merely by the grue-some process of getting up its grammar or by the supremely clever but grossly mechanical process of coposition in and translation to the
