acters, Asiatic and European, an assembly is convened,
in which no word of our native tongue is spoken, but public discourse
is maintained on interesting subjects in the languages of Asia. The
colloquial Hindostani, the classic Persian, the commercial Bengali, the
learned Arabic, and the primaeval Sanskrit are spoken fluently, after
having been studied grammatically, by English youth. Did ever any
university in Europe, or any literary institution in any other age or
country, exhibit a scene so interesting as this? And what are the
circumstances of these youth? They are not students who prosecute a
dead language with uncertain purpose, impelled only by natural genius
or love of fame. But having been appointed to the important offices of
administering the government of the country in which these languages
are spoken, they apply their acquisitions immediately to useful
purpose; in distributing justice to the inhabitants; in transacting the
business of the state, revenual and commercial; and in maintaining
official intercourse with the people, in their own tongue, and not, as
hitherto, by an interpreter. The acquisitions of our students may be
appreciated by their affording to the suppliant native immediate access
to his principal; and by their elucidating the spirit of the
regulations of our Government by oral communication, and by written
explanations, varied according to the circumstances and capacities of
the people.

"The acquisitions of our students are appreciated at this moment by
those learned Asiatics now present in this assembly, some of them
strangers from distant provinces; who wonder every man to hear in his
own tongue important subjects discussed, and new and noble principles
asserted, by the youth of a foreign land. The literary proceedings of
this day amply repay all the solicitude, labour, and expense that have
been bestowed on this institution. If the expense had been a thousand
times greater, it would not have equalled the immensity of the
advantage, moral and political, that will ensue.

"I, now an old man, have lived for a long series of years among the
Hindoos. I have been in the habit of preaching to multitudes daily, of
discoursing with the Brahmans on every subject, and of superintending
schools for the instruction of the Hindoo youth. Their language is
nearly as familiar to me as my own. This close intercourse with the
natives for so long a period, and in different parts of our empire, h