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dialect is unintelligible alike to a Roman and to a Venetian or Neapolitan, and vice-versâ?
4.
As most of the Chinese residents at Hongkong come from the neighbouring province of Canton, it has been hitherto the custom to send the Cadets for the Civil Service of this Colony to learn the Cantonese dialect.
But really this is almost as if the Attaches of the English Legation at Rome were sent to learn Italian at Turin or Naples.
* It will be recollected that Cavour as a Piedmontese found some difficulty, on the meeting of the first Italian Parliament, from his imperfect acquaintance with the official Italian language; and that even King Victor Emanuel always spoke Piedmontese in his own Family.
Our Cadets know only the colloquial dialect of the trading and working classes in this Colony, and are unable to understand or converse with the educated classes, with the Chinese Mandarins, and with the Chinese Naval and Military Officers who now frequently visit Hongkong.
As I have already observed, much inconvenience has already been felt, and will continue to be felt from this deficiency.
5.
Mr. Justice Russell, Mr. Stewart