Page:History of India Vol 8.djvu/445

ENGLISH THE OFFICIAL LANGUAGE 393 months before his term of office expired, the resolution which finally decreed that English should be the official language of India. This important state paper is based on Macaulay's famous minute, in which he utterly routed the party that still held to the system of pro- moting learning and literature in India through the LORD WILLIAM BENTINCK. medium of Oriental languages. The controversy arose out of a question as to the distribution of educational grants from the public purse; and Macaulay argued victoriously in favour of English as the language which gives the key to all true knowledge, and as the only proper means of pursuing the higher studies. Lord William Bentinck thereupon issued orders, in accord- ance with Macaulay's view, that were received with some doubt and demur on their arrival in England.