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Letter II . 6 & , Baker-St . Portman-Sqr . S , r , Aug . A , 1823 . I have read the letter addressed to the Editor of the Monthly Repository , signed T . L . dated from Elthain ,
relating to Rammohun Roy , aud I have grea ? pleasure in offering you the following brief remarks on , the several points alluded to , giving you entire liberty to use my information or authority in any way that may seem to you most likely to be productive of benefit .
It certainly is not fact that the knowledge of Sanscrit is necessary to the caste of a Brahmin ; because that 13 a distinction which he derives from his birth , and is neither dependent on knowledge nor virtue , since idiots and
villains may be as pure Brahmins as the most learned or the most upright . But it is fact that a knowledge of Sanscrit is indispensable to the pro * fesston of a Brahmin , because all his priestly offices are performed and uttered in that tongue ; and although there are thousands of Brahmins born
that are ignorant of Sanscrit , there can be none of these in the profession as officiating Brahmins , ^— for tfrey would be unable to discharge the commonest portions of their duty . The Zlewan is th& chief native
officer in the collection of the revenue * although that title Is also sometimes , but not always , given to the stewards of private gentlemen—the titles for these last , being more frequently Banian and Sircar . I can -scarcely i
magine any one long resident in India to be so ignorant as to dispute this ; I- u great act <* thfi Mogul , by winch the Dewannee * or collection of the revenue , was granted to the Company , is aft familiar to all India read .
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ers , as the term Charter by which they ht > ld their monopoly of . that ^ country . I do not know what was tfae proficiency of Rammohun Roy in Engli&k in 1815 ; but I can declare that in
June 1818 , -the month of ray first arrival in Calcutta , I was introduced to Rammohun Roy , at' the house of Mr . Eneas Mackintosh , ( now in hon * don , ) and was surprised at the unparalleled accuracy of his language , never having before heard any-foreign *
er of Asiatic birth speak so well , and esteeming his fine choice of words 83 worthy the imitation even $ rf Englishmen . My first hour ' s conversation with him was in Arabic , that being the oriental language most familiar to me , and not knowing at first that he
spoke English with ease and fluency ; but accident changing our discourse to English , I was delighted and surprised at his perfection in this tongue . I know , moreover , that he is a profound scholar in Sunskrit ,
Bengallee-Arabic , Persian , and Hinduee , all of which he wrkes and speaks with facility . In English , he is competent to converse freely on the most abstruse subjects , and to argue more closely and coherently than most men that I know . His attention has also been
lately turned to Hebrew and Greek , for Hterary purposes , and to French for colloquial intercourse . To represent a roan with sack acquirements at the age of thirty * five ( for he cannot be much more ) as deficient in intellect , must either be the work of extreme ignorance , or malice , or both .
For myself , I have no hesitation in , declaring that I could not name twenty Englishmen in India , whose intelleclectual eadowuaents I thought even equal to his own , although I have eouae in contact with most of the distinguished men in the country . He is in short one of the wonders of the
present age , and requires only to be known , to excite admiration and esteem . It is barely possible that some of his earlier works might hfcve been revised by an English pen ; but I am convinced that if ever such revisions
were made , they must have been merely literal . The subject was ail his own . And as to hia later writings , hi * controversies with the Missionaries of Sarampore , I do not believo
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Correspondence with the Editor relating' to RemitieAun Roy . 441
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narive and that native was Rammohun v ? oy . ' and , lastly , if those who report these things to the people at large in this country , can , better than / has kuhortn been done , satisfy such as
mv relation , who oppose their own experience to their report , that what they allege is true ; and if you can do this or get it done , you will much oblige a constant reader , and perhaps enable him to turn such interesting facts to some useful account . T .
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VOL . XVIII . 3 r
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1823, page 441, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1787/page/9/
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