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    / Jj To. 439, AttotstJSI, 1858.] TH E.LE...

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    I N DJ A.

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    THE PEESS AND TYPE IN IjSTDIA. According...

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    ORIENTAL INLAND STEAM COMPANY. The Punja...

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  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

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    / Jj To. 439, Attotstjsi, 1858.] Th E.Le...

    / Jj To . 439 , AttotstJSI , 1858 . ] TH E . LEADEB , 84 * 7

    I N Dj A.

    I N DJ A .

    The Peess And Type In Ijstdia. According...

    THE PEESS AND TYPE IN IjSTDIA . According to some of those dear frimds of the natives vlio are now so alarmed at India "being taken under -national government and exposed to the horrors of contact with free Englishmen , the late progress of India an civilisation has been self-developed , but according to more impartial judges this progress lias been entirely owing to English exertion , to the efforts of Englishmen , either officials or non-officials , and by the like exertion is

    tho progress of India to be promoted . The spread of education is wholly English , and the provision of the means of education is not aboriginal but of English introduction . Lithography and type printing are doing wonders for the diffusion of knowledge in India , which otherwise would still be left to the manuscript copyist . Type printing lias been encouraged by the Government , and is creating ; in every presidency a native literature of A very different character from the oil ritual literature , positive knowledge is replacing mythological inventions , and India is moving by rapid steps from the age of Hesiod and the Edda to that of Bacon and Newton knowledge , after all , which must long l > e little more than lip knowledge , because the habits and discipline of intellectual advancement are not to be communicated in a ¦ day .

    This spread of knowledge , promoted by some of the Ablest administrators of India , continues to be watched with an eager desire to promote its results ly the most effectual measures . The matter of the educational works has received great attention , and many of the Tvorks of the Educational Board of India -will compare with those of the Irish Board , and vith the best home Models , of which they are in fact the application . The manner has unfortunately received less care than the matter , and a most important means of improvement is thereby delayed . Sir Chas . E ; Trevelyan , irfid , having fceguu . a brilliant administrative career in India , has continued it in England , but has never abated in his re-. gard for the -welfare . of India , has among other plans taken great interest in the introduction of the Roman alphabet in India , but hitherto with small success . :

    _ . ; This appears a very trivial matter , but if we apply to it our home experience we shall soon find that it is one ¦ of importance to India and to our cvrn citizens . Let us , however , first look at the working of the question at home . -In . the reign of Elizabeth—but the system was ia vigour l £ ter—the books to which tlie public had access were in Roman type and . in black letter , and the scholar had , in addition to the application of these types to various languages , to deal with Greek hooks printed in contracted scrip . The impediment to education was a considerable one , for the reader of black letter found a trouble in reading Roman , and vice versa , both alphabets had to be taught , and the evil was not limited to

    printing , for there was a great variety of handwritings founded on tlie various scrips , and tlie reader was further puzzled in manuscript . As to any law writing it was incomprehensible by the multitude , requiring a special interpreter . Happily the nations of the West settled down to the adoption of the Koman type T and we with them . The result ia , that one type and one scrip for Writing alone exist among us , and every newspaper and manuscript of the United States , the Cape , or Australia , is common to us . Thus the printer's fount has been brought down to very small proportions , the stock of the small master reduced , and the labour of the compositor abridged , while the smuller types of Roman can be more conveniently worked than the types of black letter .

    lliis reform extending throughout tlie West , all printing and all manuscript are of one clnss for tho various languages ; English , Welsh , lirse , Manx , Netherlandish and Flemish , Frisian , Danish , Swedish , Icelandic , French , Basque , Spanish , Portuguese , Italian , Maltese , and this extends to Magyar and Polish , mid to tlie reprints of Anglo-Saxon . Over all this glossological range , Irish alone is printed in a separate variety of old Anglo Saxon , and that is now being abandoned . Danish , too , is still sometimes printed in black letter . Of course this reform includes the whole of America , from the north to tlie south of which Roman typo alone is used , and it has reached in the west to Huwiuun , Tahitian , and Maori , and embraces some printed literature in Africa .

    In Germany tho black letter type and a separate « crip have till lately prevailed , and in the east of Europe are great varieties of type , Greek , Turkish , and Illyrian . Of late years tho Roman typo has made groat progress in Germany . The consequences of the sepamtc typo and ecrip are better shown by their eftect on the Germans than on ourselves . AVo feel tho impediment in the study of German and in carrying on Gorman correspondence , we feel it in learning Greek , a few in learning Hebrew , and all those who study tho Oriental tongues ; but tho grout niusa of our coin muni ty fuel the impediment very little , for it may bo said the literature of the world is not closed to them so fur as the alphabet flt * nds in the way . Tho German is free so far as High Dutch print ia concerned , and letters in his own

    language ; but for English , in which , he has great intercourse , for French , for the Netherlandish , for studying the literature of the great nations and for carrying on correspondence with them , the Roman type must be acquired . In a German counting-house the annoyance of the two handwritings is very great , and the German feels more and more the inconvenience of that chance choice , which has left him stranded with the use of black letter , and separated him from the nations of the West . A great movement has , therefore , gone on in Germany for the introduction of the Roman type , and in every counting-house the Roman scrip is superseding the High Dutch . If German evidence is to be taken , the question in favour of Roman scrip will soon be decided . The isolation of Russia is greatly to be attributed to the retention of a special type .

    We no-w come to India , and there - we have great varieties of type and scrip founded on systems having relations much more distant than Roman and black letter , and which we may briefly designate as abundant varieties of Sanskrit , Persian , and Roman . Till lately there was only a limited manuscript literature in each of the several languages and dialects , and the correspondence was limited previous to the reform of the postal system . India , instead of Being divided bet-ween two allied types ,

    has one or two types and more scrips for each dialect , and thus artificial barriers to communication are maintained . Now , as an educational system is being extended in substitution of the barbarous village schools , a 3 a printed literature is superseding the ritual manuscripts ,, as English is fast becoming a means of intercourse and instruction , and as cheap postage by stamps has been established throughout India , the opportunity exists for carrying out Sir Charles Ttevelyan ' s plan , and establishing the Roman alphabet in India .

    The Roman alphabet will be in the first place the means of cheapening native books , because the Roman fount is more convenient for printing than the native founts ; in the next place it will enable the natives to correspond more freely , as it will supply them with an easier and uniform scrip ; in the third place it will enable them to learn English more readily , and to have access to those stores of knowledge on . the exact and other sciences , which must be the means of supplying them with , knowledge for many years before a native 1 iterature can be adequately built up ; and in the fourth place it will promote intercourse between the English and the natives by enabling the Indian languages to be more readily studied .

    The advantages are great , and the mode of doing so effective , and we will not now . eiiter upon the phonetic plans of Sir Charles Trevelyan , Professor Newman , or Mr . Hyde Clarke , but content ourselves with pointing out that the Government has ample means of carrying out the improvement , and which will soon compensate far the embarrassment which must be created for two or three years till the new system has superseded the old one . We do hot consider it needful for the Government to settle a uniform phonetic plan at once , but let each authority , or bo > ard , adopt . its own , provided only that it adopt the Roman type . Let no educational books be printed unless in Roman , let no Government documents be printed unless in Roman , let a priority be given to letters addressed in Roman , and , above all , let no presses be supplied by the Government except to work Roman founts .

    The number of Government presses in India and of Government papers is very great , and they are being constantly increased , because the Government of India , like the Government of Chile , is obliged to furnish such instruments of civilisation for its subjects . Thus , in Madras , many of the Government presses , as that of Masulipatam , for instance , are enrning moro than their expenses , and the Government has allowed that surplus funds may be applied in additions to the printing and bookbinding stuck . Thus , in Guntoor , at late dates , the district Gazette being found to confer many advantages , it was pro-posed that a copy should be sent to each village moonsiii" or curuum free of cost . Tlie

    Government , liowever , considering thut in . each collcctorate there is nil average of 15-19 villages , and in all Madras 30 , 984 , shrank from adopting this proposition , but have approved of the freer circulation of portions of tlie Gazette , in the abapo of proclamations and notifications , which arc to be supplied to tho village officers .. From Bellary , this year , an application was made for further presses , but as the Goverment allowance to collectoratcs is only one iron and one wooden press , the Government only allowed ono more wooden press and more type . At Cuddapuh , however , the collector compluins that tho presses , and furniture supplied to him are very old . In Tanjoro a press fund has been proposed , by savings from the suppression of certain offices .

    To show what may ho done we may observe thnt in tho Madura printing-ofuco , for instance , the . lust supply demanded was about equal quantities of English or Koman typo and of Tamil type , and thus founts of both types linvo to bo kept to tho great disadvantage of tho OBtablislinient , insteud of one fount ulono being wanted . Lord Stanley , in tho government of India , baa many opportunities of dibtiuction , but one of tho fir « t steps ho cun usefully take , and which of itself will always make his name gratefully remembered , ia a minute recommending or dircctiuij tho use of English typo iu India .

    Oriental Inland Steam Company. The Punja...

    ORIENTAL INLAND STEAM COMPANY . The Punjaub and Scinde are not the least forward of the regions of India in the administration of Government and in the share of Government patronage , and well have these provinces repaid the care bestowed upon them by the large resources they contributed towards the repression of the mutiny . Although so newly annexed they have been endowed by the Government -with . two railways and two steam navigation companies . For the system of the Indus , the Indus Steam Flotilla and the Oriental Inland Steam Navigation Company may be said to be organised , for though the latter company contemplates more extended operations in India , its first enterprise is directed towards the Indus . The project of extending navigation in India by applying vessels of light draft on the numerous rivers which intersect India in

    wide and shallow streams , is one o » f ibo greatest importance , and not only -well deserves the encouragement of Government , but it is deeply to be regretted that this encouragement was not sooner given , so that the period of experiment may he passed over-At the present moment the company are only engaged in the establisftnent of two steam trains on the Indus , whereas the Gogra and other branches of the Ganges require a like provision , and the rivers of the Deccan are unoccupied . The Government has felt too late the

    necessity of having a larger supply of steamers , for it proposed to the Oriental Inland Company to place four steam trains on the Indus instead of two , doubling the subsidy , bu-t reducing the term from tea years Sat two trains , to five years for four trains . In this , we think , the Government -were scarcely liberal , for though on taking four steam trains instead of two they might expect a reduction in the terra of subsidy , yet the diminutioa to one half gave no correspondent advantages . It is not surprising that the directors , notwithstanding their eagerness to push on a neyr company , have declined these terms , for undoubtedly

    a subsidy or guarantee for ten years is tetter than one for five ; and yet , lad the Government proposed an increased subsidy for eight years , tlie directors might very possibly have acceded to ik We trust , however , that the result of these two trains , now subsidised , may be so successful that no further subsidy for the Indus may be required . Existing Kiver companies in India have for some time past divided a dividend of from forty to fifty per cent ., and as these trains will carry each six hundred tons , or six . times more than can be carried by the vessels now ia use , a handsome profit must be ensured to the proprietors .

    It will be remembered that the subsidy offered by the Government is 5000 / , a year for the supply of two steam trains , each consisting of six vessels . This the company are already iu a position to receive , as they have despatched to India vessels enougli for two trains .. They have likewise sent out the staff to put them together and to maintain a dockyard at Kurracbee , which in its career of prosperity has the good fortune to receive this addition to its resources . The number of workmen sent out is sixty , who are said to have been carefully selected for their capacity , sobriety , and good conduct . Unfortunately the greatest care in choosing workmen hero is no

    guarantee for their good conduct abroad , as many very good men , removed from the responsibility of the home circle , show a total disregard of the obligations they have undertaken , and are thankless to the officers who have sent them out , and the company they serve . The Oriental Company are , however , likely to get oil fairly with their men , as , in the first place , they can readily discharge tlicin and ship them off at Kurrachee , and they have tho means of employing the wandering and disaffected on board tho steam trains moving about ia tho rivers , and on the whole en ^ ineinen get on bettor abroud than any other class of workmen ,

    These men will lit together tbe steam train , and they are provided with the requisite tools and . machine tools , so > as to have a complete worksliop , a measure essential for economy at such a distance , whore the breakage or loss of a part of the machinery may cause great delay , and whoro accidents must be ut once met and repairs provided . Along with the stores , storehouses , we presume of corrugated iron , have been sent out . Such buildings stand very well in Peru and Bolivia . To laud the heavy goods at Kurrachee a largo iron lighter has boon provided , and their are proper shears , blocks , and purchases for lifting heavy weights . Among tho buildings supplied iu , a barrack fur the use of tho workmen . ; and , indeed , it may generally bo suid , that every measure that experience could point out , or forethought furnish , lias been adopted fox the first outfit of tho concern .

    Tho company will , by its intercourse on tho river , have tho means of convoying tho workmen -whom tlie climate does not suit to tliu bills , and vc hope a provision will bo made for this . Many of tl » o workmen will find that Kurracbeo , or river work , docs not agree with them , and ¦ will in time uottle in tho hills , so that tlie colony of sixty mechanics will to tho means eventually oC oatublwhiug

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 21, 1858, page 23, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_21081858/page/23/