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 written about hardupishness, but the reality is not funny, for all that. It is not funny to have to haggle over pennies. It isn't funny to be thought mean and stingy. It isn't funny to be shabby, and to be ashamed of your address. No, there is nothing at all funny in poverty—to the poor. It is hell upon earth to a sensitive man; and many a brave gentleman, who would have faced the labours of Hercules, has had his heart broken by its petty miseries.

It is not the actual discomforts themselves that are hard to bear. Who would mind roughing it a bit, if that were all it meant? What cared Robinson Crusoe for a patch on his trousers?—Did he wear trousers? I forget; or did he go about like he does in the pantomimes? What did it matter to him if his toes did stick out of his boots? and what if his umbrella was a cotton one, so long as it kept the rain off. His shabbiness did not trouble him: there were none of his friends round about to sneer at him.

Being poor is a mere trifle. It is being known to be poor that is the sting. It is not cold that makes a man without a greatcoat hurry along so quickly. It is not all shame at telling lies—which he knows will not be believed—that makes him turn so red when he informs you that he considers greatcoats unhealthy, and never carries an umbrella on principle. It is easy enough to say that poverty is no crime. No; if it were men wouldn't be ashamed of it. It is a blunder


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 though, and is punished as such. A poor man is despised the whole world over; despised as much by a Christian as by a lord, as much by a demagogue as by a footman, and not all the copy-book maxims ever set for ink-stained youth will make him respected. Appearances are everything, so far as human opinion goes, and the man who will walk down Piccadilly arm in arm with the most notorious scamp in London, provided he is a well-dressed one, will slink up a back street to say a couple of words to a seedy-looking gentleman. And the seedy-looking gentleman knows this—no one better—and will go a mile round to avoid meeting an acquaintance. Those that knew him in his prosperity need never trouble themselves to look the other way. He is a thousand times more anxious that they should not see him than they can be; and as to their assistance, there is nothing he dreads more than the offer of it. All he wants is to be forgotten; and in this respect he is generally fortunate enough to get what he wants.

One becomes used to being hard up, like one becomes used to everything else, by the help of that wonderful old homeopathic doctor, Time. You can tell at a glance the difference between the old hand and the novice; between the case-hardened man who has been used to shift and struggle for years, and the poor devil of a beginner, striving to hide his misery, and in a constant agony of fear lest he should be found out. Nothing shows this difference more clearly than the

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 way in which each will pawn his watch. As the poet says somewhere: "True ease in pawning comes from art, not chance." The one goes into his "Uncle's" with as much composure as he would into his tailor's—very likely with more. The assistant is even civil and attends to him at once, to the great indignation of the lady in the next box, who, however, sarcastically observes that she don't mind being kept waiting "if it is a reg'lar customer." Why, from the pleasant and business-like manner in which the transaction is carried out, it might be a large purchase in the Three per Cents. Yet what a piece of work a man makes of his first "pop." A boy popping his first question is confidence itself compared with him. He hangs about outside the shop, until he has succeeded in attracting the attention of all the loafers in the neighbourhood, and has aroused strong suspicions in the mind of the policeman on the beat. At last, after a careful examination of the contents of the windows, made for the purpose of impressing the by-standers with the notion that he is going in to purchase a diamond bracelet or some such trifle, he enters, trying to do so with a careless swagger, and giving himself really the air of a member of the swell mob. When inside, he speaks in so low a voice as to be perfectly inaudible, and has to say it all over again. When, in the course of his rambling conversation about a "friend" of his, the word "lend" is reached, he is promptly told to go up


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 the court on the right, and take the first door round the corner. He comes out of the shop with a face that you could easily light a cigarette at, and firmly under the impression that the whole population of the district is watching him. When he does get to the right place he has forgotten his name and address, and is in a general condition of hopeless imbecility. Asked in a severe tone how he came by "this," he stammers and contradicts himself, and it is only a miracle if he does not confess to having stolen it that very day. He is thereupon informed that they don't want anything to do with his sort, and that he had better get out of this as quickly as possible, which he does, recollecting nothing more until he finds himself three miles off, without the slightest knowledge how he got there.

By the way, how awkward it is, though, having to depend on public-houses and churches for the time. The former are generally too fast, and the latter too slow. Besides which, your efforts to get a glimpse of the public-house clock from the outside, are attended with great difficulties. If you gently push the swing door ajar and peer in, you draw upon yourself the contemptuous looks of the barmaid, who at once puts you down in the same category with area sneaks and cadgers. You also create a certain amount of agitation among the married portion of the customers. You don't see the clock, because it is behind the door;


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 and, in trying to withdraw quietly, you jamb your head. The only other method is to jump up and down outside the window. After this latter proceeding, however, if you do not bring out a banjo and commence to sing, the youthful inhabitants of the neighbourhood, who have gathered round in expectation, become disappointed.

I should like to know, too, by what mysterious law of nature it is that, before you have left your watch "to be repaired" half-an-hour, some one is sure to stop you in the street and conspicuously ask you the time. Nobody even feels the slightest curiosity on the subject when you've got it on.

Dear old ladies and gentlemen, who know nothing about being hard up—and may they never, bless their grey old heads—look upon the pawnshop as the last stage of degradation; but those who know it better (and my readers have, no doubt, noticed this themselves), are often surprised, like the little boy who dreamed he went to Heaven, at meeting so many people there that they never expected to see. For my part, I think it a much more independent course than borrowing from friends, and I always try to impress this upon those of my acquaintance who incline towards "wanting a couple of pounds till the day after to-morrow." But they won't all see it. One of them once remarked that he objected to the principle of the thing. I fancy if he had said it was the interest that


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 he objected to he would have been nearer the truth: twenty-five per cent. certainly does come heavy.

There are degrees in being hard up. We are all hard up, more or less—most of us more. Some are hard up for a thousand pounds; some for a shilling. Just at this moment I am hard up myself for a fiver. I only want it for a day or two. I should be certain of paying it back within a week at the outside, and if any lady or gentleman among my readers would kindly lend it me, I should be very much obliged indeed. They could send it to me, under cover to Messrs Field and Tuer, only, in such case, please let the envelope be carefully sealed. I would give you my I.O.U. as security.


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enjoy feeling melancholy, and there is a good deal of satisfaction about being thoroughly miserable; but nobody likes a fit of the blues. Nevertheless, everybody has them; notwithstanding which, nobody can tell why. There is no accounting for them. You are just as likely to have one on the day after you have come into a large fortune as on the day after you have left your new silk umbrella in the train. Its effect upon you is somewhat similar to what would probably be produced by a combined attack of toothache, indigestion, and cold in the head. You become stupid, restless, and irritable; rude to strangers and dangerous toward your friends; clumsy, maudlin, and quarrelsome; a nuisance to yourself and everybody about you.

While it is on you can do nothing and think of nothing, though feeling at the time bound to do something. You can't sit still so put on your hat and go for a walk; but before you get to the corner of the street you wish you hadn't come out and you turn back. You open a book and try to read, but you find


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 trite and commonplace, Dickens is dull and prosy, Thackeray a bore, and Carlyle too sentimental. You throw the book aside and call the author names. Then you "shoo" the cat out of the room, and kick the door to after her. You think you will write your letters, but after sticking at "Dearest Auntie,—I find I have five minutes to spare, and so hasten to write to you," for a quarter of an hour, without being able to think of another sentence, you tumble the paper into the desk, fling the wet pen down upon the table-cloth, and start up with the resolution of going to see the Thompsons. While pulling on your gloves, however, it occurs to you that the Thompsons are idiots; that they never have supper; and that you will be expected to jump the baby. You curse the Thompsons, and decide not to go.

By this time you feel completely crushed. You bury your face in your hands, and think you would like to die and go to heaven. You picture to yourself your own sick-bed, with all your friends and relations standing round you weeping. You bless them all, especially the young and pretty ones. They will value you when you are gone, so you say to yourself, and learn too late what they have lost; and you bitterly contrast their presumed regard for you then with their decided want of veneration now.

These reflections make you feel a little more cheerful, but only for a brief period; for the next moment


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 you think what a fool you must be to imagine for an instant that anybody would be sorry at anything that might happen to you. Who would care two straws (whatever precise amount of care two straws may represent) whether you were blown up, or hung up, or married, or drowned. Nobody cares for you. You never have been properly appreciated, never met with your due deserts in any one particular. You review the whole of your past life, and it is painfully apparent that you have been ill-used from your cradle.

Half an hour's indulgence in these considerations works you up into a state of savage fury against everybody and everything, especially yourself, whom anatomical reasons alone prevent your kicking. Bed-time at last comes, to save you from doing something rash, and you spring upstairs, throw off your clothes, leaving them strewn all over the room, blow out the candle, and jump into bed as if you had backed yourself for a heavy wager to do the whole thing against time. There, you toss and tumble about for a couple of hours or so, varying the monotony by occasionally jerking the clothes off, and getting out and putting them on again. At length you drop into an uneasy and fitful slumber, have bad dreams, and wake up late the next morning.

At least, this is all we poor single men can do under the circumstances. Married men bully their wives,


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 grumble at the dinner, and insist on the children's going to bed. All of which, creating, as it does, a good deal of disturbance in the house, must be a great relief to the feelings of a man in the blues, rows being the only form of amusement in which he can take any interest.

The symptoms of the infirmity are much the same in every case, but the affliction itself is variously termed. The poet says that "a feeling of sadness comes o'er him." 'Arry refers to the heavings of his wayward heart by confiding to Jimee that he has "got the blooming hump." Your sister doesn't know what is the matter with her to-night. She feels out of sorts altogether, and hopes nothing is going to happen. The everyday-young-man is "so awfully glad to meet you, old fellow," for he does "feel so jolly miserable, this evening." As for myself, I generally say that "I have a strange, unsettled feeling to-night," and "think I'll go out."

By the way, it never does come except in the evening. In the sun-time, when the world is bounding forward full of life, we cannot stay to sigh and sulk. The roar of the working day drowns the voices of the elfin sprites that are ever singing their low-toned miserere in our ears. In the day we are angry, disappointed, or indignant, but never "in the blues," and never melancholy. When things go wrong at 10 o'clock in the morning, we—or rather you—swear and


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 board—no voices—and their sails of a colour as if they had been steeped in the early hues of the now vanished sunset, and yet in their folds so dark that they seem to be bringing with them the night as a cargo from those cloudy black woods in the south. Beyond the large curve of those woods the shining horn of the river reaches the unseen sea. The spirit of the sea comes up on the broad silent water.

The two small, solemn boats still glide in sleep; the others dream at the quay.

Southward, the dark wood sends out the narcotic night as a gift over the land, sowing the seeds of it from the wings of the slow sea birds, from the two incoming boats, silently; and now they have fallen upon good soil in the seven boats on the quay, in the masses of houses, in the arches of the bridge and in the hearts of men, and all things drink oblivion. As I turn away there is a sound of shrill, passionless voices that may be the souls of the oblivious travelling to content somewhere in the rich purple night.

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title: The Heart of England/Chapter 42


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is a simple world. On either hand the shore sweeps out in a long curve and ends in a perpendicular, ash-coloured cliff, carving the misty air as with a hatchet-stroke. The shore is of tawny, terraced sand, like hammered metal from the prints of the retreating waves; and here and there a group of wildly carved and tragic stones—unde homines nati, durum genus—such as must have been those stones from which Deucalion made the stony race of men to arise. Up over the sand, and among these stones the water slides in tracery like May blossom or silver mail. A little way out, the long wave lifts itself up laboriously into a shadowy cliff, nods proudly and crumbles, vain and swift, into a thousand sparks of foam. Far out the desolate, ridgy leagues vibrate and murmur with an unintelligible voice, not less intelligible than when one man says, "I believe," or another man, "I love," or another, "I am your friend." Almost at the horizon a sharp white sail sways, invisibly controlled. In a minute it does not move; in half-an-hour it has moved. It fascinates and becomes the image of the watcher's hopes, as when in some tranquil grief we wait, with faint curiosity and sad foretelling, to see how our plans will travel, smiling a little even when they stray or stop, because we have

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 at Rome, so early as in the eighth year of his age, no less than four thousand, five hundred, and sixty different theses, upon the most abstruse points of the most abstrute theology;—and to defend and maintain them in such sort, as to cramp and dumbfound his opponents.—What is that, cried my father, to what is told us of Aphonsus Tostatus, who, almost in his nurse's arms, learned all the sciences and liberal arts without being taught any one of them?—What shall we say of the great Piereskius?—That's the very man, cried my uncle Toby, I once told you of, brother Shandy, who walked a matter of five hundred miles, reckoning from Paris to Schevling, and from Schevling back again, merely to see Stevinus's flying chariot.—He was a very great man! added my uncle Toby; (meaning Stevinus)—He was so;


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 foretold it. Will the sail sink? Will it take wing into the sky? Will it go straight and far, and overcome and celebrate its success? But it only fades away, and presently another is there unasked, yet not surprising, and it also fades away, and the night has come, and still the sea speaks with tongues. In the moonlight one strange flower glistens, white as a campanula, like a sweet-pea in shape—the bleached thigh-bone of a rat—and we forget the rest.

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text: The Heart of England/Chapter 45

title: The Heart of England/Chapter 45


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1. method does not really concern itself with University studies, but there is no reason why we should not state our views and our wishes with regard to them. We have already expressed our opinion that the complete training in any of the sciences or faculties should be reserved for the University.

2. Our ideal scheme is as follows:

(i) The curriculum should be really universal, and provision should be made for the study of every branch of human knowledge.

(ii) The methods adopted should be easy and thorough, that all may receive a sound education.

(iii) Positions of honour should be given only to those who have completed their University course with success, and have shown themselves fit to be entrusted with the management of affairs.

We will briefly give some details on each of these points.

3. If its curriculum is to be universal, the University must possess (1) learned and able professors of all the sciences, arts, faculties, and languages, who can thus impart information to all the students on any subject; (2) a library of well-selected books for the common use of all.

4. The studies will progress with ease and success if, firstly, only select intellects, the flower of mankind, attempt them. The rest had better turn their attention to more


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 suitable occupations, such as agriculture, mechanics, or trade.

5. Secondly, if each student devote his undivided energies to that subject for which he is evidently suited by nature. For some men are more suited than others to be theologians, doctors, or lawyers, just as others have a natural aptitude for and excel in music, poetry, or oratory. This is a matter in which we are apt to make frequent mistakes, trying to carve statues out of every piece of wood, and disregarding the intention of nature. The result is that many enter on branches of study for which they have no vocation, produce no good results in them, and attain to greater success in their subsidiary pursuits than in those that they have chosen.

A public examination, therefore, should be held for the students who leave the Latin-School, and from its results the masters may decide which of them should be sent to the University, and which should enter on the other occupations of life. Those who are selected will pursue their studies, some choosing theology, some politics, and some medicine, in accordance with their natural inclination and with the needs of the Church and of the state.

6. Thirdly, those of quite exceptional talent should be urged to pursue all the branches of study, that there may always be some men whose knowledge is encyclopædic.

7. Care should be taken to admit to the University only those who are diligent and of moral character. False students, who waste their patrimony and their time in ease and luxury, and thus set a bad example to others, should not be tolerated. Thus, if there is no disease, there can be no infection, and all will be intent upon their work.

8. We said that every class of author should be read in the University. Now this would be a laborious task, but its use is great, and it is therefore to be hoped that men of learning, philologers, philosophers, theologians, physicians, etc., will render the same service to students as has been rendered to those who study geography by geo-


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Rh encouragement bestowed on them by Government, there would be, it is believed, a gradual extension of instruction to the people which, even within the limits of the native system, in proportion as it became general would give the people greater protection against the impositions and exactions to which their ignorance of letters often subjects them. Others may be of opinion, as I am, that it is desirable and practicable to instruct the body of the people in the useful arts adapted to their circumstances, in the moral and social duties of life, and in a knowledge of the leading facts and principles belonging to the physical constitution of the world and to the history and condition of their own and other countries; and for this purpose their instructors must, in the first place, be rendered qualified. Accordingly the second, third, and fourth volumes of the series of school-books being prepared in succession, those school-masters who have successfully passed through the first examination will receive a copy of the second volume of the series to be the subject of examination the second year; and the third and fourth volumes will, in like manner, be distributed to the successful candidates, respectively, of the second and third years until all the volumes to which it may be deemed advisable to extend the series are exhausted. Thus within a period of four years four different classes of native teachers might be, and probably would be, produced; for some would rest contented with the distinction acquired by proficiency in the first volume; others would stop at the second; a third class would be ambitious to study the succeeding volume; and a fourth class would complete the series; no one receiving the fourth volume who had not been satisfactorily examined on the third, nor the third who had not been examined on the second, nor the second who had not been examined on the first. All would have their names registered as respectively belonging to the first, second, third, and fourth classes of approved vernacular teachers; and there would thus probably continue to be four classes of native teachers with various qualifications and attainments corresponding to the wants of the different classes and conditions of native society.

All that has yet been proposed, if carried fully into operation, will only have the effect of communicating to the body of teachers a superior degree and kind of instruction to that which they now possess; but it will have no direct, and little indirect, effect in improving their capacity to convey that instruction to others. The capacity to acquire and the capacity to communicate knowledge do not necessarily co-exist in the same person and are often found separate. The discipline and management of native common schools are in general the worst that can be conceived, for they consist in the absence of almost all regular discipline and management whatsoever; and as a teacher is only half qualified for his duties who perfectly knows all that he is expected or required to


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280 teach, and who is ignorant of the most approved modes of conveying instruction to others, it is indispensable to devise means for communicating that description of qualification to native teachers.

There are three modes in which this object may be, less or more, perfectly attained, and three occasions on which each mode, respectively, may be usefully employed.

The first mode is by written directions verbally explained. Every school-book prepared and distributed under the orders of Government will contain well-digested practical directions, clearly and simply expressed, for the guidance of teachers in the use they are to make of it for the instruction of their scholars; and the directions will be minutely and verbally explained by the examiner when he puts the book in to their hands.

The second mode is by practical example. In the periodical examinations of teachers—and of their scholars too, according to a part of the plan yet to be developed—such an arrangement of details will be adopted as may present a fit example for the imitation of the whole body of native teachers. According to the plan, these examinations will probably occur once every month in the same district and twice a year in the same part of the district. It is, therefore, important that such arrangements should be made for these frequently recurring exhibitions as will afford a lesson of simplicity, order, quiet, promptitude, and general efficiency; and the attention of native teachers should be drawn to the mode of conducting them that they may derive any practical hints which good sense and experience may enable them to apply to their own institutions. The spirit of these examinations also—the superior importance attached to practical knowledge and moral excellence above mere form and routine, intellectual display, or metaphysical subtilty—may be reasonably expected to give some tone to the character and instructions of the native teachers.

The third mode is by precept and example combined in normal schools. I am satisfied that the two modes previously mentioned, although they may be partially beneficial, are inadequate, and that it is only by the third mode that teachers can be thoroughly qualified for their important functions. They have been suggested because no form or mode of useful influence directly attainable should be neglected, and because, without further experience, it may be feared that they are the only modes in which the majority of teachers will at present submit to be guided on such a subject. The attempt, however, should be made to employ the most efficient means, and with that view there should be a normal school for teachers in every district in which the plan now proposed is introduced. For this purpose, adhering to the principle of building on existing institutions, whether new or old, I propose to connect by friendly relations the long-established vernacular schools of the country with those which have been


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Rh recently formed and are every year increasing in number under the management of the General Committee of Public Instruction. For some years the plan of the committee has been to establish an English school at the head station of every district; and within the last two years, with the growing conviction of the importance of cultivating the language of the people, a vernacular department has been attached to each institution. The manner in which I would link the English school with the established vernacular schools will afterwards be shown. It is the vernacular department of the English school that I would propose gradually to form and mature into a normal school for native teachers, answering every purpose which that department now does, and at the same time affording both instruction and example to native teachers in the art of teaching. The qualifications of the teachers appointed to the vernacular department or normal school should be estimated and the whole discipline framed with a distinct view to this important purpose.

I am not prepared to speak with confidence of the extent to which the instruction offered in normal schools would be sought by native teachers. In every district there are certain months of the year—in different districts and in different years the months vary—when it would be more convenient to the teachers to attend than in other months. A general failure of the crops of any season would have the effect of closing many schools from the inability of parents to pay for their children’s schooling; and the failure of any particular crop in a district would have a local and temporary effect of the same kind. On such occasions many teachers would probably be glad to attend the normal school for regular practical instruction in their profession; while at other times when crops are abundant and parents able to pay, they would be unwilling to relinquish the profits, and we should not seek to draw them from the duties of their vocation. The normal school, therefore, should be open to native teachers throughout the year, and it should not surprise or disappoint us if for months in succession, or even for a whole year, none should appear to receive instruction. To stimulate their attendance, two expedients may be legitimately adopted. One is that all native teachers shall not be permitted indiscriminately to attend the normal school, but only those who have evinced such industry and devotion to their profession as shall have enabled them to pass successfully through at least one of the periodical examinations. It will thus be a favor, and therefore an object of desire, or rather a reward bestowed on merit, and therefore an object of ambition. It will probably have the double effect of stimulating a greater number of teachers to appear as candidates for examination and a greater number of successful candidates to seek the advantages of instruction in the normal school. In other words, it will both be a motive and an end, an auxiliary to success, and in itself the success which is sought. A


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 graphers. For these latter make maps of the provinces, kingdoms, and divisions of the world, and thus present to the eye huge tracts of sea and land on a small scale, so that they can be taken in at a glance. Painters, also, produce accurate and life-like representations of countries, cities, houses, and men, no matter of what size the originals may be. Why, therefore, should not Cicero, Livy, Plato, Aristotle, Plutarch, Tacitus, Gellius, Hippocrates, Galen, Celsus, Augustine, Jerome, etc., be treated in the same way and epitomised? By this we do not allude to the collections of extracts and flowers of rhetoric, that are often met with. These epitomes should contain the whole author, only somewhat reduced in bulk.

9. Epitomes of this kind will be of great use. In the first place it will be possible to obtain a general notion of an author when there is no time to read his works at length. Secondly, those who (following Seneca’s advice) wish to confine themselves to the works of one writer (for different writers suit different dispositions), will be able to take a rapid survey of all and to make their choice in accordance with their tastes. Thirdly, those who are going to read the authors in their entirety will find that these epitomes enable them to read with greater profit, just as a traveller is able to take in the details of his journey with greater ease, if he have first studied them on a map. Finally, these abstracts will be of great use to those who wish to make a rapid revision of the authors that they have read, as it will help them to remember the chief points, and to master them thoroughly.

10. Summaries of this kind may be issued both separately (for the use of poor students and those who are not in the position to read the complete works) and bound up with the complete works, that those who wish to read them may get an idea of the subject-matter before they begin.

11. As regards academic exercises, I imagine that public debates, on the model of a Gellian society, should be of great assistance. Whenever a professor delivers lectures on any subject, works which treat of that subject,


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282 second expedient is that those native teachers who attend the normal school shall be relieved from all anxiety respecting the means of subsistence during the period of attendance. That period I would limit to four successive years for each teacher and to three months in each year,—the month to be reckoned not by days or broken parts of months, but month by month, or entire months, in order that the instruction may, for some time at least, be continuous and systematic. The native teachers will receive travelling expenses at the rate of one to three annas per day, according to the price of grain in the district and according to the number of days’ journey in coming from and returning to their homes, and subsistence-money at the same rate during the period they remain in regular and diligent attendance at the normal school within the prescribed limits. The only object for which I recommend this allowance is to remove a probable objection against attendance at the normal school by giving the teacher who cannot afford the loss of his time and labor a bare subsistence during the period of his absence from home; but it is possible that the extreme poverty of many may cause it to operate as a direct inducement. Beyond these expedients I do not at present perceive that any others can be with advantage employed, however desirable and important to obtain the attendance of native teachers at a well-disciplined and well-instructed normal school.

Having gone thus far in the formation of a body of approved vernacular teachers, and having obtained results upon the whole satisfactory during a trial of four years, I would propose to take one step farther, with a view to connect those teachers permanently with the Government and the people, and to secure their usefulness and responsibility to both. It must be evident that the measures yet recommended are preparatory in their nature and will be uncertain and fluctuating in their effects. They will awaken increased attention to education among the natives, convince them of the desire of Government to promote it, and more or less elicit their co-operation. They will call into existence a better class of teachers and fit them for the discharge of their duty to the community. But the effect cannot be, and should not be expected to be, permanent. I have before expressed the opinion that, in the present torpid state of the national mind in this country, an education of stimulants is required; but the operation of stimulants is by their very nature temporary, and they gradually cease to produce the effects expected from them. Some means, therefore, must be sought to give a stable and enduring character to the system. What is to be desired is that, at the close of the course of public examinations and pedagogic instructions through which the teachers may be required to pass, we may be able to place before them some higher reward than any they have hitherto obtained, which will rouse them to further exertion, which when obtained will satisfy their ambition, and which will also be accompanied by such


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 and these the best that exist, should be given to the students for their private reading. Then the morning lecture of the professor should serve as the subject for an afternoon debate, in which the whole class may join. One student may ask a question about some point that he does not understand, and may point out that in the author which he has been studying he has found an opinion, backed by reasonable arguments and opposed to that of the professor. Any other student may then rise (some forms of order being observed), and may answer the question raised; while others may then decide if the point has been properly argued. Finally the professor, as president, may terminate the discussion. In this way, the private reading of each student will be of use to the whole class, and the subject will be so impressed on their minds that they will make real progress in the theory and practice of the sciences.

12. This practice of dissertation may be the means of fulfilling my third wish, that public posts of honour be given to none but the worthy. This result will be obtained if the appointment to these posts depend not on the decision of one man, but on the unanimous opinion of all. Once a year, therefore, the University should be visited by commissioners appointed by the king or by the state, just as the Latin-School is examined by its masters. The industry of the professors and students can thus be tested, and the most diligent of the latter should receive a public recognition of merit by having the degree of doctor or of master conferred upon them.

13. It is most important that everything be conducted with perfect fairness, and therefore, instead of allowing the academic degree to be won by a disputation, the following plan should be adopted. The candidate (or several at once) should be placed in the midst. Then men of the greatest knowledge and experience should question him and do all they can to find out what progress he has made, both in theory and in practice. For example, they may examine him on the text of the Scriptures, of Hippocrates,


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Rh checks and guards as will secure their continued zeal, activity, and usefulness. A small endowment of land to each village school-master will answer this description. Such an endowment will be far more earnestly desired than even an assignment on the land-revenue of Government, both because the latter is open to all manner of abuse, and because the former gives more consideration in native society. It will give the village school-master a resting-place and a permanent means of subsistence for life or during good behaviour, and will thus produce both contentment of mind and diligence in the discharge of duty. It will fix his obligations, his interests, and his pleasures in one locality, and thus surround him with the most salutary influences derived from those to whom he will be constantly responsible. It may be added that numerous authorities may be adduced to show, if it were necessary, that under the ancient Hindu village system this has been from time immemorial the mode of remunerating the village servants. On these grounds I propose that small endowments of land should be the means employed to give permanence to the system of vernacular schools, and I will now briefly mention the conditions under which they should be granted and indicate some of the sources from which they may be derived.

The school-masters entitled to claim this endowment shall be those only who have successfully passed through the public and periodical examinations in the four school-books of the series already described; who, during the period in which this has been accomplished, shall have instructed six scholars per annum in any one of those books in such a manner as to enable them to pass through the examinations hereinafter to be prescribed for scholars; who shall farther have passed through a course of instruction in the normal school of the district with approved characters and attainments; and who shall finally receive and produce the written testimony and recommendation of three-fourths of the landowners, tenants, and householders of the villages to which they belong, or in which they propose to settle, and in which the endowment is to be situated. A lower degree of qualification cannot be required with a view to their future efficiency; and so high a degree of qualification will, for some time, prevent any considerable number of candidates for this reward from making their appearance, although in prospect it will produce its effect even upon those who may never reach the object of their ambition.

The endowment is to consist of land belonging to the lands of the village in which the incumbent is to exercise his vocation, the quantity of land to be determined by the value per bigha, and the total value not to exceed one-half of the ascertained average annual income of a vernacular teacher in that district. Thus the mean rate of payment to such a teacher in the city and district of Moorshedabad, as shown at page 177, is rupees 4-12-9, or to allow for unascertained sources of profit, say, rupees 5 per month, or


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284 rupees 60 per annum. The proposed endowment in this case should be worth thirty rupees yearly; and it might consist of thirty bighas of land worth one rupee per bigha, or fifteen worth two rupees, or ten worth three rupees, or seven and a half worth four rupees, per bigha, or of any greater or less number of bighas of one quality or of different qualities of land, the entire value of which should not exceed thirty rupees per annum. The village school-master would thus have one-half of his income secured to him in a form that would in general admit of considerable improvement, and in a form, too, the most gratifying to his self-respect and the most conducive to the respect of the little community of which he is a part; while he would have to look to that community to supply the remaining moiety, either in fees or in perquisites, or in any other form which they might choose to adopt, as a mode of remunerating him for the instruction of their children.

No endowment should be created, no trust should be exercised without checks against mal-appropriation and mal-administration. I, therefore, propose that all those landowners, tenants, and house-holders who have petitioned for a school-endowment and nominated and recommended a candidate shall constitute a village-school association acting by a committee under known regulations for the inspection, superintendence, and control of the village-school, the committee to be chosen by the general body of village-constituents and reported to the district committee. When a vacancy occurs, three-fourths of those who constitute the village association shall have the power of nominating a successor, which nomination, accompanied by the necessary proofs of the amount of support it has received, shall be reported to the district committee, and through that committee confirmed by the general committee. The endowment will be held only for life or during good behaviour, and on deprivation or death it will revert to the educational fund of the State until the appointment of a successor. Deprivation will take place on complaint of not less than one-fourth of the landowners, tenants, and householders of the village, the sufficiency and validity of the complaint being ascertained by the actual investigation of an ameen or agent deputed by the district committee for the purpose, and his decision being confirmed by that committee after perusing the recorded evidence of both parties and the report of the ameen on the whole. To obtain the means of estimating the utility of every school compared with the actual wants of the village population, and to keep up a general control and superintendence over the village school association, and through that association over the village school and school-master, a list of children belonging to the village above five and below fourteen years of age should be required every year or every half year from the village association by the district committee and transmitted to the general committee, together with a list of daily attendance at the school to be signed by the master and


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Rh certified every month by the committee of the village association. It may, perhaps, be proper to mention that when I speak here of a village, I mean an Asli village with its attached Dakhili villages, together equivalent to an English parish or French commune. The Asli village, as the name imports, is the original one from which the others have sprang. The Dakhili villages, as the name also imports, are those sub-divisions of the village-lands which have been entered separately in the revenue records, although still belonging to the village and contained within its boundaries. The Dakhili villages or hamlets are called variously in different districts, para, chak, bhag, danga, dihi, dighi, digha, khali, bati, bari, ghat, ganj, kalpa, &c., with some other name prefixed. They are generally inhabited, but sometimes merely denote a proprietary distinction of lands. The Asli and Dakhili villages together usually contain from 1,000 to 1,500 inhabitants; and if, according to the calculation in page 229 founded on the population returns contained in Chapter I., Section XIII. of this Report, we take the average number of children between 14 and five to be about 20 per cent., it follows that in such a cluster of villages and hamlets there will be from two to three hundred children of the teachable age, affording ample scope and remuneration for the labors of one teacher. I hope also that it will appear to others, as it does to me, that the village-community, wherever it can be brought to act, is the proper authority for watching over the endowment and enforcing its conditions. I am, indeed, by no means sanguine that it will be easy to induce the villagers to combine and to act for such a purpose when and where we please, but every facility and encouragement to such associations should be given, and the attempt should be steadily and unweariedly prosecuted, for upon its success would depend an incalculable amount of good to the country. Such associations, originally formed for school-purposes and effectually contributing to their accomplishment, would gradually and almotalmost [sic] necessarily grow into nuclei of public spirit and organs for its expression in various ways and for various purposes; for the purposes of municipal government, village police, local improvement, and statistical knowledge. In time of danger from without, or difficulty from within, they would be chains of posts intersecting the country in all directions and affording ready and faithful instruments of communication and co-operation. At the present moment (April 2, 1838) in the absence of such instruments how helpless both the Government and the public feel themselves to be in their attempts to alleviate the frightful famine which afflicts the western provinces, or even to know the extent to which it exists in the interior parts of districts remote from the dwellings of public functionaries and European settlers!

Many of these details relating to the administration of village-school endowments will probably require to be modified in


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286 practice, but they are mentioned here that the various bearings of the question may be better understood. I shall now attempt briefly to indicate some of the principal sources from each of which, to a greater or less extent, the means of establishing the proposed endowments may be gradually derived.

The first source is the Khas Mahals of Government. In the two provinces of Bengal and Behar, in which the land-revenue is for the most part permanently settled and limited, there are in every district, or in almost every district, estates called by the above name belonging in full and entire propriety to Government, Government is the landlord, the sole and exclusive owner of those estates, just as much as any nobleman in England is of the estates which he has inherited free of debt or entail from his ancestors. The farmers and cultivators of those estates are Government tenants with varying periods and conditions of lease. The managers, who have to treat with the tenants, are Government servants specially appointed for the purpose. The entire net produce is the property of Government, and Government is consequently subject to all the liablilitiesliabilities [sic] and responsibilities attaching to a large and wealthy landed proprietor. It is not necessary to advert here to the modes in which Government has come to retain or assume this character in the settled provinces; nor does my information enable me to state the number and extent of the estates so held, although it is undoubted that they are considerable in both respects, and it is believed that they are not distinguished in any way from estates held by private proprietors for improved modes of management or cultivation, or for the superior character and comforts of the cultivators. All that is requisite to my present object is to bring distinctly into view the fact that such estates exist, and to suggest that here, if any where, a beginning may be made in the attempt to give a permanent character by means of small endowments to an improved system of village-schools. If the importance of the object is admitted, the community will naturally look to Government to afford proofs of its advantages on the Government estates and to set an example of liberality, I am not sufficiently acquainted with the mode in which those estates are managed to point out the way in which such an object may be most conveniently, economically, and efficiently attained, but many friends of native education are competent to furnish such information when it shall be required. The renewal of leases will afford an opportunity of setting apart for this purpose a few bighas of the lands of each village with a deduction so inconsiderable from the rent payable by the farmer as to be scarcely perceived, and to be hereafter more than compensated by the pecuniary as well as moral benefits which an improved system of instruction will bring in its train. Whatever the mode adopted of carrying it into effect, the principle I propose is that Government should make it legally obligatory on itself to establish


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Rh such endowment in the villages of Khas estates, subject to all the provisions, conditions, and limitations before described. This may be done not only with little cost to the State, but with great administrative facility in consequence of the existence of a distinct class of public officers who are charged with the management of those estates.

After setting such an example, it is worthy of consideration whether Government might, not only without difficulty or offence, but with honor and credit to itself, look to the endowed establishments of the country for similar arrangements on their estates, and enact that they shall be in like manner legally obligatory under the provisions aforesaid. The most important of these are religious establishments, with which no interference for religious purposes can be justified. To prevent misapprehension, therefore, and to guide to the adoption of views likely to obtain practical effect, I shall quote here the opinions which I find expressed by the Bengal Government and by the Court of Directors.

In a revenue letter from Bengal on the affairs of Cuttack, dated the 30th March 1821, and contained in the Revenue and Judicial Selections, Vol. III., pp. 68—90, the Bengal Government expresses its sentiments to the following effect:—“It appears to us to be doubtful whether it be advisable for the officers of Government to interfere to give effect to endowments purely of a religious nature; and we can scarcely consider it a matter of public interest to prevent the appropriation by individuals (Musulman or layman) of rents designed to support the servants of a Hindu temple or idol. The right of Government to do so is undoubted. In some cases where useful object are combined with purposes of religion, the exercise of the power may be a public duty; and if any class or community interested in maintaining an endowment shall complain of the misappropriation, it is, of course, our duty to see that the wrong done is redressed, though the ground of complaint may be founded on prejudice and superstition. Farther than this we are little disposed to go, for the misappropriations, though abusive, appear to us, in regard to most of the institutions in question to be of rather good than ill consequence to the public, and the nature of the instruction is such that it is always difficult for an European officer to touch without injuring them.”—p. 79, paragraphs 99—101.

The Court of Directors in a revenue letter to the Bengal Government, dated 10th December 1823, in reply to the preceding paragraphs, thus writes—“We concur in most of the sentiments which you have expressed upon this subject. When alienated by a competent authority, you doubt if they“ (lands held free for the support of religious institutions) “could be resumed for the purposes of Government, even though the revenue of them should be found to be misapplied. We think, however, that you may


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288 justly make an exception where forfeiture has been legally incurred by neglect of the condition on which the grant was made. In other cases we agree with you that it can scarcely be regarded as a matter of public interest to interfere. ‘The misappropriations,’ you say, ‘though abusive,’ appear to you, and we doubt not justly, ‘in regard to most of the institutions in question, to be rather of good than ill consequence to the public.’ One thing, however, in such cases is always worthy of attention, and that is, the inquiry whether to objects of little or no utility which thus may have an expenditure devoted to them, might not be annexed other objects really beneficial;, for example, might not be combined with the services performed to an idol, and even in some cases whether the useful objects might not quietly and without offence be substituted for the useless. It was highly proper that you should issue orders for an accurate account of the extent and nature of the lands thus appropriated. When that is before you (and we desire its communication to us), it will be more perfectly seen in what way any endeavour can be made to derive from such a fund some general advantage.”—Selections, Vol. III., p. 96, paragraphs 33, 34.

Again, the Court in a revenue letter to the Madras Government, dated 29th September 1824, after referring to various recorded proceedings of the Local Government relating to the temples of natives and the control exercised, or proper to be exercised, by Government, remarks—“The questions connected with this subject are both delicate and important; but we are sorry to perceive from the documents before us that so little of order has hitherto been established, and that the proceedings of Government have been so little regulated by any settled principle. The difficulty is how to interfere so as to prevent the misapplication of the funds to mischievous purposes, without exciting the religious jealousies of the people. But yet we doubt not that a line of conduct may be drawn, by which, without infringing on religious liberty, or interfering with the most jealous scruples of the people, not only evil where it exists may be avoided, but something useful, may be connected with the expenditure of the revenues, often very large, of the native temples.”—Selections, Vol, III, p. 596, para 7.

It is probable from these extracts that any measure which would have the effect of peaceably drawing forth the resources of these religious establishments, to however limited an extent, for the promotion of education, would receive the sanction of the Honorable Court. The Government and the people have strong claims upon them for strenuous co-operation in prosecuting such an object, provided always that nothing shall be mixed up with that object inconsistent with their character as religious institutions.


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Rh The wealthy religious communities, for example, at Kali Ghat in the neighbourhood of Calcutta, at Deoghur in Beerbhoom, at Gya and Bauddah Gya in South Behar, are bound as such, in return for the perfect religious freedom they enjoy, and even in some instances for the peculiar privileges they possess, to be follow-workers with Government in providing for the better instruction of the people—an object which is not only good in itself, but which is specially incumbent on them as religious communities for the maintenance and improvement of that social order under which they live, and of which religion, its institutions, and its ministers are the proper securities and guards. It matters not whether such an obligation would at first be admitted; if it exists, it belongs to Government to make it be heard, felt, and recognized. The voice of the Government in such a matter would be responded to by that of the people, whose claims on these religious bodies are no less strong. They have derived all their accumulated wealth from the offerings of the people, they profess to exist for the benefit of the people, from the depths of their poverty and ignorance, have a right to look to the spiritual guides whom they have enriched and raised above themselves for something more than empty forms and ceremonies, some practical knowledge, and moral instruction. Such an object, however, must be sought not only “without infringing on religious liberty,” but also without “interfering with the most jealous scruples of the people.” All fears on this head must be removed by the terms of the suggestion I have offered, according to which a requisition of three-fourths of the householders, &c., of a village is necessary to create the legal obligation on the proprietor of the estate to establish the proposed endowment of a village school-master. I have no means of ascertaining with accuracy the extent of landed property belonging to those religious establishments, but according to common report it is considerable. In Beerbhoom it was stated to me that the priesthood of Deoghur possess estates not only at Deoghur, Sarhaut, and Giddari in that district, but also in the districts of Bhaugulpore, Patna, Tirhoot, Moorshedabad, and Burdwan, and even in Nepal, a foreign country. I would apply the principle, not only to the landed estates of Hindu temples, but also to those of public endowed institutions wherever they are to be found, whether Hindu or Buddhist, Mohammadan, or Christian. The Mohammadan institution at Kusbeh Bagha in Rajshahi has 42 villages, in each of which a vernacular school might thus be established. The Calcutta Madrissa is reputed to possess landed property. At Bohar and Chaughariya in the Burdwan district, and at Durbhanga in Tirhoot, there are Mohammadan institutions largely endowed. Serampore College has an estate in the Sunderbuns; and there may be other endowed Christian institutions, Protestant, Catholic, Armenian, Greek, possessing similar property in the Mofussil. If any, then all without exception should be required by law under similar circumstances to aid


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290 Government in its endeavours to extend instruction to those classes whose labor gives value to the entire property of the country, and whose improvement will be its best safe-guard and protection.

Another source from which such endowments may be anticipated is the voluntary contributions of wealthy zemindars, whether called forth by a sincere desire to benefit their dependent country-men, or by the prospect of those honours and distinctions which Government can bestow, or by a combination of both motives. Who can doubt that when Government shall engage with earnestness and on a large scale in the work of instructing the people, the example will light up into a flame many a generous feeling which would otherwise be smouldering in its native seat, unseen and unknown, unblessing and unblest? I will not attempt to enumerate the benefactions that within my own recollection during the last twenty years have flowed from the liberty of native gentlemen. Roads have been constructed, bridges built, and other public works executed. They are at this moment joining heart and hand with the European community for the relief of the western provinces; they have established at their own expense and in some instances teach by their own labor English schools for the intellectual advancement of their countrymen; and they have from time to time placed large sums at the disposal of the Committee of Public Instruction for the objects of that body. No one can regret that their public spirit and philanthropy have taken these directions, but the greatest triumphs of native benevolence remain yet to be achieved in raising the body of their countrymen from the debasement of slaves and serfs to the knowledge, the self-respect, and the self-dependence of free men, and all that has been yet accomplished is only a pledge of what the native gentry can do, what they are ready to do, and what they will do, when the path is pointed out to them and the lead is taken by Government in the adoption of measures for the general education of the people. In the distribution of civil honors to those who deserve well of Government and of society, let special regard be had to all who shall make adequate provision for the education of the ryots on their estates, and a rich harvest of good to the country may be expected to spring up. I do not anticipate the want of endowments for school-masters so much as of qualified school-masters to take possession of the endowments which intelligent and wealthy zemindars will be found prepared to create for them.

There are numerous small landed tenures throughout the country, neither included in the Khas Mehals of Government, nor in the estates of endowed establishments, nor in the large zemindaries, but which constitute in the aggregate a very large proportion of the landed property of the country. They are, for the most part, owned by those who, in revenue language, are called


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Rh dependent and independent talookdars, i. e., small landed proprietors who pay the revenue due from them to Government dependently or through a large proprietor, and those who pay it independently or direct to the officers of Government without the intervention of any other party. Most of these small proprietors are probably unable without inconvenience to endow a school-master in each village at their own sole expense, but they would, in a majority of instances, be found both able and willing to contribute their aid towards such an object, and some means must be devised for drawing it forth, some channel formed through which it may flow. What is wanting on their part must be supplied by Government, and therefore some limit must be fixed to ascertain those who will be entitled to the assistance which it is proposed that Government should bestow. For the sake of illustration, without pretending to be able to judge what the precise limit ought to be, I will suppose that those only who pay less than Rupees 1,000 per annum of land revenue to Government will receive the advantage, while all above that standard will be held competent to provide for the instruction of their ryots from their own unaided resources. Having fixed this, or any other standard, it is proposed that any one talookdar, dependent or independent, paying revenue under the standard, or any number of talookdars, putneedars, &c., in Bengal, or of village zemindars, maliks, &c., in Behar, who shall establish a village-school endowment with the prescribed guarantees, shall be entitled to claim from Government a remission of one-half of the annual revenue due on account of the land so endowed, it being always understood that the net produce of the total quantity of land endowed shall be equivalent to one-half only of the average income of village-school-masters in the district in which the village is situated. Thus, if rupees 60 per annum is the average income, one-half of that sum will continue to be provided by fees and perquisites, and one-half will be provided by endowment. Of the latter, one moiety will consist of revenue remitted by Government to the extent of rupees 15 per annum, and the other moiety only will be contributed by the small proprietors. I am assured by intelligent natives that this remission of revenue would prove a powerful stimulus to the small proprietors, and would inspire them with confidence in the good intentions of the Government and affection from those who administer it. There are various modifications under which this arrangement may take effect, but it is not necessary to my present purpose to do more than indicate the general principle.

All these resources, even if they succeed to a great extent, may also fail in numerous instances from the apathy, the ignorance, and the poverty of those most interested; but there will still remain means at the command of Government which cannot be applied to a more legitimate purpose.


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292 First.—A sum of one hundred thousand rupees is by Act of the Imperial Parliament devoted to the encouragement of learning in British India, but I am not aware that any portion of this sum has hitherto been employed in the education of the poor through the medium of their own language. Can it be applied to a more needful or a fitter purpose? Half the amount would annually purchase 166 endowments for qualified village school-masters, each worth rupees 30 per annum and bought at 10 years’ purchase.

Second.—Considerable sums of money have, from time to time, been placed by wealthy natives at the disposal of Government for the general purposes of public improvement or of public instruction without any more specific appropriation; and there can be little doubt that similar sums Will continue to be bestowed. May it not be hoped that the sums which have been or may be received in this way will henceforth obtain, in whole or in part, a destination suited to the most urgent wants of the country and be applied to the instruction of the poor and ignorant, those who are too ignorant to understand the evils of ignorance, and too poor, even if they did, to be able to remove the cause that produces them?

Third.—Instructions have been issued to the officers engaged in the prosecution of the measures for the resumption of lakhiraj tenures liable to assessment to report every case that may come under their cognizance in which lands or money have been granted for purposes connected with education, whether falling under the operation of the resumption laws or not. What the effect ot these instructions which were issued in September 1836 may have been, or may yet be, I have not had the means of ascertaining except in one district, that of South Behar, where, according to a statement furnished by Mr. Reid, the Deputy Collector, under date the 30th January 1837, the number of endowments appear to be considerable granted for the joint benefit of fakeers, poor travellers, and scholars but now almost all alleged to be converted to the private uses of the heirs of the grantees or their assigns. The same state of things will probably be found to exist in other districts. In what instances or to what extent these endowments may now be deemed applicable to the purposes of village education it is not for me to judge; but, if found legitimately applicable, the benefit would be great. Seven tenures of this description, of which the details are contained in the statement above-mentioned, include an area of 4,539 bighas which, at the low average rate of one rupee per bigha, would afford the means of establishing in one district 151 such village-school endowments as I have proposed. A remark reported to me in that district as made by a person whose lakhiraj tenure had been assessed under the resumption laws may help to show the way in which the subject would be regarded by the people. He lamented the loss of property he had sustained, and added that even in this loss there would have been some remaining


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Rh ground of satisfaction, if the amount of assessment, instead of being absorbed into the general revenue of the country, had been devoted to the purposes of education to which, in part at least, it had been hitherto applied. I must add, however, that the education which this person had probably in view was not vernacular, but Persian and Arabic education.

Fourth.—If all other resources fail, there is still one left, the general revenue of the country on which the poor and the ignorant have a primary claim,—a claim which is second to no other whatsoever, for from whence is that revenue derived, but from the bones and the sinews, the toil and sweat of those whose cause I am pleading? Shall £10,000 continue to be the sole permanent appropriation from a revenue of more than twenty millions sterling for the education of nearly a hundred millions of people?

By these means, and from these sources, I propose to qualify a body of vernacular teachers, to raise their character and provide for their support, and to give a gradual, a permanent, and a general establishment to a system of common schools. Without competent instructors all efforts at educational improvement must be futile, and I have, therefore, directed my principal attention in all that has yet been advanced to the means of making and keeping them efficient. With this view, according to the plan now sketched, teachers will not only be taught, but provision will be made for their subsistence. They will feel that, to the extent of at least one-half of an average income, they are dependent during good behaviour on Government,—the common trustee of all the endowments that may be created for this purpose; and to the extent of the remaining half upon the degree of repute and acceptance they enjoy in the village communities to which they attach themselves. The recommendation of those communities will be essential to the enjoyment even of the former moiety, and their well-founded complaints should be sufficient to ensure deprivation. If, as I anticipate, the co-operation of the village communities in this object shall have the effect in time of eliciting public spirit and awakening and directing proper domestic and social feeling, the appointment and displacing of teachers should be vested in them, and ultimately the power of imposing a common rate upon all householders in substitution of unequal and uncertain school fees and perquisites. In finetime [sic], I look to these village communities, if wisely estimated and treated by Government, as the germs from which the real prosperity of the country must spring, local and municipal improvement and efficient district and provincial administration.

If I were to stop here, and to obtain the sanction of Government and the co-operation of the native community to accomplish the views now propounded, I should hope that a sure foundation would thus be laid for a national system of education. But something else may be done to facilitate the operation of the


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294 plan, to extend the improved instruction, and to stimulate and aid the teachers in the interval before they can become eligible to hold a village-school endowment. That interval will probably extend to a period of four years which will be occupied in acquiring a knowledge of the series of school-books, and in passing through a course of normal instruction. But the vernacular school-masters are poor men, and they must teach as well as learn, nor will they learn the less successfully because their circumstances compel them to make immediate use from year to year of the new knowledge they acquire. What is proposed, then, is to devise some means of assisting and encouraging them in the exercise of their profession,—some means not merely of improving their qualifications, but of extending the utility of the instruments thus obtained and fashioned.

For this purpose I must revert to the point at which it was assumed that, on the occasion of the first periodical examination, a body of native teachers had established their competency in the first book which had been put into their hands six months before, and had received the second volume of the series of school-books in which they were invited to qualify themselves still further. I have proposed also on the same occasion to give to each approved teacher on loan and for the use of his scholars from three to twelve copies of the first book of the series, with the engagement on his part to produce six months thereafter from three to twelve pupils, according to the number of copies, thoroughly instructed in its contents and capable of standing a searching examination similar to that through which the teacher himself has passed. The inducements to accept and employ these copies are various. First, they are offered on loan, not to the scholars, but to the teacher who may sell the use of the books, as well as his own instruction to the scholars or their parents, and thus increase his emoluments. Second, they will become the absolute property of the teacher for future similar use, only by producing an equal number of instructed scholars. Third the teacher will receive a corresponding number of copies of the second book of the series on loan and for the use of scholars, only if he shall be found to have made a proper use of those copies of the first received for the same purpose. Fourth, one of the qualifications for an endowment is that the teacher shall have instructed six scholars per annum in some one of the books of the series in such a manner as shall enable them to sustain an examination; and to strengthen this inducement and insure justice, the name, age, and caste of the teacher whose scholars have passed, their and his place of residence, the book in which they have qualified themselves and the date of their examination should be recorded. Fifth, a strong additional motive might be presented to the teacher by offering him one rupee for every instructed scholar produced not exceeding six or twelve; but, for the reasons already assigned, I would, if possible, avoid money-payments.


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Rh Sixth, the scholars will be attracted to the study of the book by the higher price which their parents will have to pay for their instruction, by the curiosity and pleasure which new and useful knowledge will inspire, and by the love of display which a public examination will gratify. An honorable ambition may be still further gratified by the formal registry of their names, designation, and places of residence, as those of approved students of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th class, according to the number of the series in which they have been examined; and, on grounds to be immediately explained, by making the 4th class eligible to a course of instruction in the English School of the district.

At the second periodical examination those teachers who had, in whole or in part, fulfilled the purpose for which the books were given would produce their pupils for examination. To give the examiner time, it may perhaps appear to be desirable that not more than six pupils of one teacher should be pronounced qualified; but if one or more of the six produced shall not stand the examination, he may be permitted to bring forward one or more to the extent of six to be substituted for them. By this means not more than twelve scholars of the same teacher can be examined at the same time, and not more than six of those twelve can be finally approved. If the number who shall successfulysuccessfully [sic] pass through the examination be less than six, for the actual number only should the teacher receive credit. If the number of the scholars and the competition of the teachers should be great, only the highest qualifications of the scholars should be recognized. If the number is small, and the competition feeble, a lower standard of qualification must be admitted; and, according to the discretion of the examiner, some consideration should be shown for those teachers who appear to have bestowed a great deal of labor upon their scholars without any very successful result.

At the next and subsequent examinations the same course will be pursued as at the former with such modifications as increasing experience will suggest and the nature of the text-book forming the subject of examination may require. If the plan should go into full operation there will ultimately be as many classes of teachers and as many classes of scholars to be examined at one time as there are kinds of books distributed, and in this state of things the examiners will enjoy no sinecure. But the number of teachers necessary in a district will soon be filled up, and gradually the class of teachers will come to be composed of those who have already, as scholars, passed through the requisite examinations, and whose claim on this ground to be recognized as approved teachers may be at once decided by a reference to the examiner’s own records. The old race of school-masters will thus gradually pass away, and be succeeded by a race trained from the beginning under the operation of the new system. It will thus


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296 happen that by the operation of the system itself the expenditure on account of it will be lessened, and its efficiency at the same time increased, leaving the whole of the funds to be applied to the extension and consolidation of the plan by carrying it into new districts or provinces, by increasing the number of scholars in the same districts or provinces, by enlarging generally the course of instruction, or by establishing more numerous or more ample endowments until the various classes and grades of native society shall know all that it is important to their own welfare and to the prosperity and good order of society that they should be taught.

The general effect of this training upon the face of society, if steadily pursued, will be to increase intelligence, enterprise, and morality, to make the people better acquainted with their own interests and with the legitimate means of protecting and promoting them, and I confidently believe and hope to attach them by gratitude and affection to the European rulers of the country as their real friends and benefactors. It is not, however, to be denied that such a system of popular instruction will, in the higher order of minds, excite more ambitious aspirations than it can gratify,—aspirations which, if not gratified, may ferment into discontent or degenerate into crime. To maximize the certain good and to minimize the possible evil, an opening must be made out of the narrow circle of a native education into the wider scope for talent and for ambition afforded by an English education. In the present circumstances of the country the knowledge of English is for the native aspirant the grand road to distinction; and its attainment opens to him the prospect of office, wealth, and influence. To draw, therefore, the best and noblest spirits into close and friendly communication with ourselves, and to employ them for the greatest good of the country, I propose that those scholars who shall successfully pass through an examination in the highest vernacular class book shall receive a special certificate declaring them entitled, whenever a vacancy may occur, to receive admission into the English school of the district. The first effect of this will be to improve the working of the native part of the system by stimulating the vernacular scholars to zeal and industry, since a course of native instruction must be completed before eligibility to the English school can be recognized. The second effect will be to improve the working of the English part of the system by furnishing a constant and abundant supply of candidates whose minds have at an early age been expanded by a liberal course of native instruction; whereas at present much of the attention of English teachers in district schools is frittered away in teaching the mere elements of the English language to children who are uninstructed in their own mother tongue.

In suggesting this plan of vernacular instruction, my chief hope is not to obtain an unqualified assent to my views and recommendations, but to rescue the subject from mere generalities


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Rh and to present something definite and tangible to Government and the public, either to approve or disapprove, to adopt, to alter, or to reject. I am far from supposing that the plan is liable to no objections, will be attended with no difficulties, and will require no modifications.

The grand and primary objection is one that would apply to all projects whatsoever of a similar tendency, viz., the dangerous consequence to our power in this country from imparting instruction to the natives. This objection cannot be better answered than in the words of Sir contained in his report on the revenue of the territory of Delhi, dated 4th September 1815. After describing and recommending a particular system of revenue settlements, which would have the effect of improving the condition of the village zemindars and conferring benefits on them not enjoyed by the cultivators living under former or present native Governments, he adds—“It is, perhaps, impossible to foresee all the remote effects of such a system, and there may be those who would argue that it is injudicious to establish such a system which, by exciting a free and independent character, may possibly lead, at a future period, to dangerous consequences. There does not appear to be sufficient reason to apprehend any evil consequences, even at a remote period, from the introduction of this system. It rather seems that the establishment of such advantages for the bulk of our subjects ought to attach them to the Government which confers the benefit. But even supposing the remote possibility of the evil consequences which may be apprehended, that would not be a sufficient reason for withholding any advantages from our subjects. Similar objections have been urged against our attempting to promote the education of our native subjects, but how unworthy it would be of a liberal Government to give weight to such objections! The world is governed by an irresistible power which giveth and taketh away dominion, and vain would be the impotent prudence of man against the operations of its Almighty influence. All that rulers can do is to merit dominion by promoting the happiness of those under them. If we perform our duty in this respect, the gratitude of India, and the admiration of the world, will accompany our name through all ages, whatever may be the revolutions of futurity; but if we withhold blessings from our subjects, from a selfish apprehension of possible danger at a remote period, we shall not deserve to keep our dominion, we shall merit that reverse which time has possibly in store for us, and shall fall with the mingled, hatred, and contempt, hisses and execrations of mankind. These remarks are offered in reply to objections which may be, and have been, urged against our conferring on our Indian subjects the blessings of independence and education. My own opinion is that the more blessings we confer on them, the better hold we shall have on their affections, and in consequence the greater strength and duration to our empire. It


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298 is for the wisdom of Government to decide whether this expectation is visionary or founded on reason.”

May these burning words produce their full effect until not an Englishman shall be found in India or out of India who will not be anxious to acknowledge that it is equally the duty and the interest of the British Government to improve and instruct its native subjects! The political power which rests on the affections of its subjects may be likened to the “wise man who built his house upon a rock, and the rain descended, and the streams came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded on a rock.” The political power which rests on the ignorance of its subjects may be likened to the “foolish man who built his house on the sand, and the rains descended, and the streams came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell, and the fail of it was great.”

The next objection may be held to apply to the expense of the plan and on this topic various considerations may be suggested. It would be very satisfactory to me if I could state within what precise limits the expense will be confined; but it must be evident that in a country so vast and populous, where so very little has been done, and where so much remains to be accomplished, where so much must be hoped; and so little may be obtained from the co-operation of the native community, any such estimate would be deceptive. One thing, however, is certain that, if this or any similar plan is adopted, Government must lay its account with incurring first a small, then a gradually increasing, and ultimately a considerable, expenditure for the purpose, since it is, in fact, the creation of a new department of administration to be in time extended over the whole country. Another thing next to certain is that, in proportion as the plan is extended, it will have a direct effect in advancing the prosperity of the country, and an indirect effect in lessening the expense of governing it. But although it is impossible to know at present the cost of the plan when it shall be in full operation, yet I find it equally impossible to conceive any plan that shall afford a reasonable prospect of effecting so much good with so small an expenditure of means; for in any given district, by means of an educational survey, the appointment of an examiner, and the distribution of a few books, it proposes to call forth and set at work an infinite complication of hopes and fears, desires, ambitions and activities on the part of parents, teachers, and scholars, all aiming at the same object and tending to the same end,—the giving and receiving of instruction. Let us endeavor, however, without pretending to strict accuracy, to ascertain the cost of the experiment continued in a single district during a period of four years, and for this purpose we must look at every item of expense separately.

The first item will consist of the examiner’s salary and allowances. I propose that for the first four years he shall have a salary


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Rh of 100 rupees per month, and an allowance of 50 rupees per month for establishment, stationery, and travelling expenses. This will be an expenditure of 1,800 rupees per annum.

The second item of expense will be occasioned by the survey of the district, to be conducted under the direction of the examiner. I will suppose that the district contains eighteen thanas; that a census both of the population and of schools is to be extended over the whole district; that five waqifkars will be requisite for each thana; that each waqifkars will receive ten rupees per month, including salary and allowances of every kind; and that the survey will occupy three months. The total expenditure will be 2,700 rupees, but as the benefit of the survey will be diffused over the whole period of four years, this is equivalent to an expenditure of 675 rupees per annum.

The third item of expense is that of books. I have no means of judging what the cost of preparation will be, and I can but conjecture what will be the cost of printing since the books are not yet written. In gross, however, let us suppose that the total cost to Government will be covered by two rupees per copy; and even this probably will be found in excess of the ultimate cost, if Government retain the copyright and stereotype the works. Suppose, further, that twenty-five teachers will appear as successful candidates in each thana, or four hundred and fifty in the whole district, and that each will receive one book for himself and six for his scholars in the year. That number will cost Government 6,300 rupees per annum.

A fourth item of expense may be found in the advantage of having an inspector for the number of districts included in a division to aid, advise, direct, and control the examiners, and to see generally that nothing is wanting to give efficiency to the plan. I would propose to give this officer a salary of 400 rupees per month, and 100 rupees per month for establishment, stationery, and travelling expenses. This will amount to 6,000 rupees per annum for a division, and assuming that the division contains five districts, it will be equivalent to 1,200 rupees per annum for each district.

The total expenditure for one district will thus be 9,975 rupees per annum, or 831 rupees per month, and for a division containing five districts 4,155 rupees per month, a sum less than many European servants of Government derive individually from the public revenue; and yet with this small sum—small in comparison of the good to be effected—might a foundation be laid for infusing fresh, moral, and intellectual life into seven or eight millions of an impoverished, debased, and neglected population.

Exclusive of fundamental objections to the principle, or the cost of the measure, practical difficulties may arise, some of which perhaps I do not now anticipate. Difficulty, for instance, may be experienced in consequence of the proposed exclusive employment


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300 of native agency which may convey the impression to the native community that the object is one in which Government feels little interested, and unless means are employed to counteract such an impression, it may paralyse every exertion that the inspector and examiners may make. One means that may be suggested would be the publication, in some authentic form, of the sentiments and intentions of Government and of its expectations of native co-operation, embodied in a resolution, declaration, or address which would receive general circulation in all the English and native newspapers. The names and appointments of the inspectors and examiners should be published in the Gazette, giving them an official status of respectability. The commissioner of the division and the magistrate of the district should be instructed to give them support and countenance in every legitimate way, as was before suggested; and, in like manner, the proposed publication in the Gazette of the results of the periodical examinations, would have a beneficial effect.

A practical danger to which the efficiency of the measure may be exposed will arise from the want of a vigilant, prompt, and efficient superintendence exercised over the examiners. To supply such a superintendence I have proposed the appointment of an inspector for all the districts of a division. His duty would be generally to give efficiency to the plan, to counsel and guide the examiners, to receive and transmit their reports with his own observations, and the instructions of the General Committee for their guidance, and further to aid collectors of khas mehals, zemindars on their estates, and talookdars, maliks, and ryots in villages in organizing the proposed village-institutions with the endowments for their permanent support. The inspectors and examiners will be placed under the authority of the General Committee of Public Instruction. As the mainspring of the whole machinery will be found in this body, I trust that my anxiety for the success of a measure from which, if adopted, much good may arise, will not be interpreted in a sense disrespectful to the Committee, through which this report is forwarded to Government, if I add that its constitution does not appear adapted to a purpose which was not contemplated when it was originally formed and since re-modelled. The number of individuals composing the Committee, the fact that, with the exception of the Secretary, their services are gratuitous and occasional, and that all the members without exception including the Secretary have other weighty duties to perform, must make it at least doubtful whether they can exercise a constant and systematic superintendence over an extended scheme of national instruction.

With the most cordial co-operation on the part of Government and its functionaries, and with the most vigorous superintendence by the General Committee of Public Instruction and by inspectors, much will depend upon the Selection of examiners. If well


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Rh qualified they will make up for many deficiencies elsewhere; but nothing will compensate for the absence of intelligence, energy, honesty, and discretion on their part. They should be competent to understand and appreciate the object of Government, and to engage in promoting it with zeal untainted by fanaticism and with calmness that shall not degenerate into apathy. They should be thoroughly instructed in the subject-matter of the series of school-books, and possessed of integrity and firmness to require, in resistance both to the reproaches and blandishments of unworthy candidates, the degree of qualification which shall alone entitle to reward and distinction. The emoluments of the office should be fixed at such an amount as will present an immediate object of ambition to the class from which the examiners will chiefly be drawn; and they should be so graduated as to afford the prospect of promotion, and thus stimulate to the discharge of duty and operate as a check upon misconduct or neglect. With these views I have proposed that the examiners should receive for the first four years of service a consolidated allowance of 150 rupees per month, and I now add that they should receive for the second four years a corresponding allowance of 200 rupees per month, and for the third four years 250 rupees per month, after which an examiner shall be eligible to be appointed an inspector of a division with a consolidated allowance of 500 rupees per month. Promotion from one grade to another should, of course, be made to depend on good conduct in the preceding grade; and it should always be given, if possible, in the same district and division. No arrangements will afford security in every case against the possibility of malversation, but those now proposed will, I should hope, in most instances command the honourable and industrious exertions of qualified natives.

Having noticed the objections to which the measure may be deemed liable, and the difficulties with which it may be attended, I must be permitted to advert to some of the advantages by which it is recommended.

The primary advantage is the coincidence of the plan with all existing institutions of education. It introduces the metropolitan organ of Government, the General Committee of Public Instruction, to new and higher duties than any which have yet engaged its attention, but to none inconsistent with those which it has hitherto discharged. The district English schools or colleges and the vernacular departments attached to them will be extended, their scholars multiplied, and their efficiency increased. The native schools will have a new life infused into them, the qualifications of school-masters and the attainments of scholars will be raised, and a more anxious desire will be produced amongst parents that their children should enjoy this improved instruction. The plan does not come into collision with indigenous elementary schools, or with the interests of the teachers. On the contrary, it