10 SEPTEMBER 1892, Page 3

We would call attention to the letter of our correspondent,

Protap Chunder Mozoomdar, as the best statement of the case for the educated Bengalee that we have yet seen. With all that he says of the superior intelligence of the Bengalee, we cor- dially concur ; and also with his plaint, that if the educated native is a bad product, we produce him. The statement that there is now insufficient employment in the profes- sions for educated Indians is also true, as it is beginning to be true in every country in the world. The only remedy for that evil is to quit the professions, and go into busi- ness, manufacturing, or agriculture. The weakness of the letter is in the craving for sympathy it betrays ; and its assumption throughout, express and implied, that the imitative character of modern Indian civilisation is a good thing. Our contention is that it is a bad thing, which weakens the Indian character without in the least making it British. A foreign veneer, especially a veneer of foreign opinions and modes of thought, can benefit nobody. Our correspondent would hardly, we fancy, advocate the adoption of European dress by Bengalees, and European education is just as hampering and incongruous. Why can- not men with his literary faculty use, and therefore improve, their own tongue, which suits them because they developed it, and which is as beautiful as Italian P