The Government of India has acted with prudence and magnanimity
in the Bangabasi case. The jury, it will be re- membered, disagreed, andthe defendant, who had been accused of seditious writing, was not convicted, but the conductors of the paper, in view of a new trial, admitted that the incrimi- nated articles, though not intended to be seditious, were intemperate and unjustifiable. The Government, therefore, reflecting that the Judge had laid down the law in their favour, and satisfied with the apology, have abandoned the prosecution. As we argued a fortnight since, that is the wiser .course. It is most important not to limit the fair freedom of the vernacular Press so much as to make its writing restrained and unnatural. All that is wanted is more accuracy and greater temperance of expression, and the trial, not being pushed to the bitter end, will act as a counsel of caution. The unwritten laws, both of literature and society, which in England restrain the language of serious journals, take time to develop, especially among a people who, from time imme- morial, have ignored all restraint upon words.
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