Siyar al-mutaʾakhkhirin 42.27.4

42.27.4

Here is the text, (the Printer has the manuscript; let it be produced): "Arrived at the Capital (Shudjah-ed-dowla) he expected a benefit from the very change of air; but his wound becoming worse and worse, and by this time affecting his health considerably, it was discovered now that it had degenerated into a Cancer, &c., &c. Whether these four lines be English in Idiom, you, as an Englishman, have a right to determine, although the opinion of even a semi-Englishman, who reads and scribbles these thirty years past, ought not altogether to go for nothing. I say you, as an Englishman, may possibly object that they are not English in idiom. Be it so; but I need no man's assistance to maintain that they are English in grammar, and syntax. Nevertheless, the printer thought them English of Bengal; and here is his English of Europe: — "Arrived at that Capital, he expected a benefit from the change of air; but his wound becoming worse and worse, and by this time had considerably affected his health, it was discovered that it had degenerated into a cancer." Shocked at such an enormous liberty, I wrote a note of complaint, backed it by a very angry one, called on the printer myself, spoke angrily, corrected again. It was five o'clock; this hour is not to be passed by.