an English Liturgy has been introduced, and large English seminaries have been established. There are also institutions at which the youth of English and of mixed English and native descent receive as good a scientific and literary education as is consistent with the early period at which they enter into active life. Most of our schoolmasters have been drawn from this class; and, as they possess the trustworthiness and a great degree of the energy of the European character, combined with an intimate acquaintance with the native habits and language, they are no mean auxiliaries in the cause of native education.*

This harmony of effort, however, would be of little avail if it were not founded on a real desire on the part of the natives themselves to obtain the benefit of European instruction. The curiosity of the people is thoroughly roused, and the passion for English knowledge has penetrated the most obscure, and extended to the most remote parts of India. The steam boats, passing up and down the Ganges, are boarded by native boys, begging, not

* The institutions which have rendered most service in this way are, the Verulam Academy, the Parental Academic Institution, the High School, and the Military Orphan Asylum. Similar assistance may now be expected from the noble foundation of General Martin, and a large Proprietory School which has lately been established in the Himalaya Mountains.

for money, but for books. The chiefs of the Punjab, a country which has never been subdued by the British arms, made so many applications to the Political Agent on the frontier to procure an English education for their children, that the Government has found it necessary to attach a schoolmaster to his establishment. The tide of literature is even rolling back from India to Persia, and the Supreme Government lately sent a large supply of English books for the use of the King of Persia's military seminary, the students of which were reported to be actuated by a strong zeal for European learning. The extent to which the Pasha of Egypt is engaged in enlightening his subjects, through the medium of English and the other European languages, is too well known to

Some gentlemen coming to Calcutta were astonished at the eagerness with which they were pressed for books by a troop of boys, who boarded the steamer from an obscure place, called Comercolly. A Plato was lying on the table, and one of the party asked a boy whether that would serve his purpose. "Oh yes," he exclaimed, “ give me any book; all I want is a book." The gentleman at last hit upon the expedient of cutting up an old Quarterly Review, and distributing the articles among them. In the evening, when some of the party went ashore, the boys of the town flocked round them, expressing their regret that there was no English school in the place, and saying that they hoped that the Governor-general, to whom they had made an application on the subject when he passed on his way up the country, would establish one.

need any detail. The time has certainly arrived when the ancient debt of civilisation which Europe owes to Asia* is about to be repaid; and the sciences, cradled in the East and brought to maturity in the West, are now by a final effort about to overspread the world.+

*The early civilisation of Greece by settlers from Phoenicia and Egypt; the philosophical systems of Pythagoras and Plato; the knowledge of chemistry, medicine, and mathematics, which emanated in a later age from the Arabian schools of Cordova and Salerno, attest the obligations we are under to the Eastern world. The greatest boon of all, our admirable system of arithmetical notation, which has facilitated in an incalculable degree the improvement of the sciences and the transaction of every kind of business for which the use of numbers is requisite, is distinctly traceable through the Arabs to the Hindus: we call it the Arabian, the Arabs call it the Hindu system, and the Hindus attribute the invention of it to their gods. It has been practised in India from a period which precedes all written and traditionary memorials.

It may be as well to mention some of the probable causes of the existing state of native feeling on this subject. The first is the same which gave rise to the revival of learning, and the cultivation of the vernacular languages in Europe, or the increase in the number and importance of the middle class of society. External peace, internal security of property, arising from a regular administration of justice, increased facilities to trade, the permanent settlement of the land revenue of the Lower, and a long settlement of that of the Upper Provinces, have all contributed to raise up a class between the nabob and the ryot, which derives its consequence from the exercise findustry and enterprise, which is possessed of the leisure necessary for literary pursuits, and which, being a creation of our won, is naturally inclined to imitate us, and to adopt our views. Secondly, The people feeling themselves safe in their persons and

property, and being relieved from the harassing anxieties which daily attend those who live under a barbarous arbitrary government, enjoy that peace of mind, without which it is impossible that letters can be successfully cultivated. Thirdly, The natives cannot fail to be struck by our moral and intellectual superiority; and they are led, by the combined influence of curiosity and emulation, to search for the causes of it in our literature. This motive has led the Russians and Turks, and other entirely independent nations, to cultivate foreign literature; and it cannot, therefore, excite wonder that the Hindus, who stand in such a close relation to us, should have been influenced by it. Fourthly, A liberal English education is the surest road to promotion. It is by far the best education the natives can get; and the Government must always select the best instructed persons that are to be had, for the public service. Lastly, The Hindus have always been a literary people; but as the body of the nation were shut out by the Brahmins from all participation in their own learning, they eagerly avail themselves of what is now offered by us to their acceptance, recommended as it is by so many attractions.

CHAP. VI.

The Establishment of a Seminary at each Zillah Station, a necessary Preliminary to further Operations. The Preparation of Books in the Vernacular Languages. A Law of Copyright required. Native Education in the Madras and Bombay Presidencies. The Establishment of a comprehensive System of public Instruction for the whole of British India urgently required. The public Importance of a separate Provision being made for the Prosecution of Researches into ancient Asiatic Literature.

To proceed to practical details; all we have to do is, to follow out the plan which has been steadily pursued since March, 1835. Seminaries have been established at the head stations of about half the Zillahs in the Bengal and Agra presidencies ; and the first thing to be done is, to establish similar institutions in the remaining forty Zillahs. At the average rate of 250 rupees per mensem for each seminary, this would require an annual addition to the fund of 120,000 rupees, or about £12,000 a-year.*

* As the supply of educated persons increases, schoolmasters will be obtained at lower salaries; and the saving arising from this source, and from the falling in of stipends to students, may be applied to the improvement of the seminaries. This is inde