A great controversy is going on as to whether the
Italian language and literature ought or ought not to be included as one of the subjects in which candidates for the Indian Civil. Service may be examined. On the one side, it is said, truly enough, that ordinary schools and colleges do not teach Italian largely, and that it is desirable to get the Indian candidates from those who have been regularly educated in ordinary schools and colleges. On the other side, it is said, truly enough, that Italian literature means Dante, that there is no author who takes you so directly to the heart of the Middle Ages as Dante, and that it is barbarous to exclude such a subject from the option of candidates for the Indian Civil Service. On the whole, we think that Lord Cross and the Commissioners are wise in excluding it. Dante and mediaeval authors do not furnish the special literature that best qualifies for the study of India, and it is more important to get the men who have been sent to regular schools and colleges, than to get able amateurs who have taken up studies of their own, and not passed through the ordinary drill of an English education.
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