DEDICATION. of all the dominions of the late Tippoo Suitan; and, consequently, the best medium of communication with the Inhabitants of a very large portion of the Indian Peninsula. Tippoo Sultan, although a Mahommedan, was well acquainted with this, the Hindu Language of his State ; and Hyder Ally, his Father and immediate Predecessor, was quite familiar with it. Both were men of stern and unrelenting dispositions, and little partial to their Hindu subjects ; but they knew mankind too well not to be aware, that unless those who govern, be acquainted with the Language of the governed, a set of middle men will arise, who will ultimately become the scourges of the Country. In the territories under the British sway in India, this evil is disappearing; and, should the Work now submitted to the World under Your Majesty's most gracious Digitized by Google
