College at Benares, where he found a professor lecturing on astronomy according to the system of Ptolemy and Albunazar, while one of the boys cast his horoscope, and the majority were toiling at the Sanskrit grammar, went over another college in the same city, founded by a wealthy Hindú banker, and managed by the Church Missionary Society, in which, besides possessing a sufficient knowledge of Hindustani, Persian and Arabic, the elder boys passed a good examination in English grammar, Hume's History of England, Joyce's Scientific Dialogues, the use of the globes, and the Gospels, whilst most of them wrote beautifully in Persian, and many tolerably in English characters, and were exceedingly sharp and quick in their arithmetic.

Everywhere arose a cry for European education; but the Committee failed to respond; and it was not till the

year 1835 that any decided steps were taken.

The fact was, the Committee was so evenly divided between the Orientalists and Europeans, that no decision which was arrived at was effective, since it was liable to be reversed at the next meeting.

We shall endeavour succinctly to place the question before the reader, and to point out the arguments by which each side supported its opinions, before we show how it was eventually decided, and how the Oriental party was at length compelled to yield to the European.

On the part then of the Orientalists, it was urged that the annual grant of a lac of rupees from the Company's revenues voted by Parliament at the renewal of its charter in 1813, was voted for the encouragement of native literature only, and that in expending any part of the grant in fostering the literature of Europe, the Committee would be acting contrary to the expressed intentions of the British legislature. This objection was ably answered by the late Lord Macaulay, the substance of whose arguments was as

follows: That the act of 1813 contained nothing about the particular languages or sciences to be studied; that the sum was set apart " for the revival and promotion of literature, and the encouragement of the learned natives of India, and for the introduction and promotion of a knowledge of the sciences among the inhabitants of the British territories."

Now should we not rather deem a native more "learned" who was familiar with the poetry of Milton, the Metaphysics of Locke, and the Physics of Newton, than one who had studied in the sacred books of the Hindús all the uses of Cusa grass, and was acquainted with the whole mystery of absorption into the deity? The Orientalists laid great stress upon the words "revival and promotion of literature," but should we not lay equal stress upon the words "introduction and promotion of a knowledge of the sciences, &c." which can only bear one meaning, and that, the teaching to the natives of India of sciences which were new to them? This at least was the light in which this portion of the act was viewed by the Indian government in 1823, when in its instructions to the Committee of Education it expressly stated that the objects for which that Committee was formed were, "The better instruction of the people, the introduction of useful knowledge, including the arts and sciences of Europe, and the improvement of their moral character," which, by the way, could scarcely be effected by reviving the study of the Koran and the Shasters. The Court of Directors, too, took the same view of the subject in their despatch to the Bengal government, when they said, "The great end should not have been to teach Hindú learning, or Mahomedan learning, but useful learning," and that in establishing seminaries for the spread of Eastern literature the Indian government had bound itself to teach "A great deal of what was frivolous, not a

little of what was purely mischievous, and a small remainder indeed in which utility was in any way concerned."

In fact, argued Lord Macaulay, to put a parallel case, to suppose that the grant must be spent solely in encouraging native literature, was much as if, a sum having been set apart, say by the Pacha of Egypt, for reviving and promoting literature, and encouraging learned natives of Egypt, it were inferred that he meant them to prosecute the study of hieroglyphics, to search the doctrines disguised under the fable of Osiris, and to make themselves accurately acquainted with the ritual whereby cats and onions were adored, and not to learn French and English, and the sciences to which those languages were a key.

This objection refuted, by the application of a little common sense, the Orientalists raised another, and declared that it was nothing less than absolute spoliation to alter the appropriation of the funds which had been previously spent in encouraging the study of Arabic and Sanskrit. To this Macaulay replied, that grants from the public purse for literature do not differ from grants from the same source for other purposes. We should have no scruple in altering the disposition where the money was obviously misapplied, in the one case, why then should we in the other? For example, suppose that a sum of money had been voted for the establishment of a sanatorium on a spot believed to be healthy, would it follow that we should be pledged to keep the sanatorium in that place, if on further inquiry it was found to be unhealthy? Those, said he, who impart to abuses the sanctity of property are, in truth, imparting to the institution of property the unpopularity and fragility of abuses. To give yet another example. Had government pledged itself years ago to inoculate all its subjects for the small-pox, must it therefore, on the

strength of its pledge, have continued the practice after the discovery of vaccination by Jenner?

Private rights should be respected, and private endowments maintained, and in these matters the Indian Government had acted with the most conscientious fidelity. To maintain abuses by public grant, they were not called upon to do.

It was then objected that the abolition of stipends formerly given to students would exclude the sons of learned men in indigent circumstances, as well as persons at a distance from the Government Colleges, from advantages which would be confined to the capital and one or two great towns.

The answer to this was, that far from the means of education being removed from the would-be students, they were, in fact, brought nearer to them than they ever had been that more than forty institutions were already at that very time scattered through the country, and those in places where there previously had been none, as Assam, Arracan, &c. Moreover it was replied that poverty was by no means a great hindrance to the education of the native youth; difficulty of travelling, and want of mutual confidence, formed far greater barriers. The native is very loath to entrust his son into the hands of a strange schoolmaster1, and when he possibly can, he will educate him at home. When it was proposed to bring the public wards to Calcutta, that they might be instructed together and better taught, their relatives objected sa strongly that the scheme was relinquished..

The money system was abandoned. on two grounds,

1 This distrust only exists when the native is asked to place his son with a strange schoolmaster. That the native teachers have been in all ages regarded by the Hindús with veneration, the passage quoted in the last chapter from Sir Alex. Johnston goes to prove,

In the first place, the native gentry had a great dislike to the receiving of stipends, and would not send their sons to the old colleges; which they regarded in the light of charitable institutions. In the second, the system was intrinsically bad; if the student comes without money we know what he comes for, but if he receives pay there is no knowing whether he comes for the love of knowledge or the love of money.

Refuted on these points, the Orientalists now asserted that the results of the efforts of the Committee in the encouragement of English literature would only be to extend a smattering of English throughout India, and that the question lay between a profound knowledge of Sanskrit and Arabic, on the one hand, and a superficial knowledge of English on the other.

This, which was purely an assumption, was proved not to be borne out by the facts. Medical pupils, who had acquired their knowledge of their profession solely from English books, had passed a very creditable examination, although they were not picked boys, but were taken, some from a preparatory school, some from the second and third classes of the Hindú College; and the report of the Committee published in 1831, speaking of the Hindú College, observed, "the consequence has surpassed expectation; a command of the English language, and a familiarity with its literature and science, have been acquired to an extent rarely equalled in any schools in Europe!" If this was the case then, how much greater proficiency was likely to be obtained now when the means of learning the language had been so greatly extended! Moreover, on the score of time, everything was in favour of the English. Mr Adam computed that the Sanskrit Grammar, to be learnt thoroughly, required seven years, lexicology two, literature ten, law ten, logic thirteen, and mythology four, in all, forty-six,