[The Criminal Code here mentioned was not passed till 1860. It hung on hand not for one or two years but for a quarter of a century.—H. W.]
Price of a pair of 18 inch Globes, Rupees 260.—The price seems high. But if it be the ordinary price, we had better buy the articles here than send for them to London. I should be glad if Mr. Sutherland would state the cost of the globes for which we have indented. Surely it was much smaller than what the School Book Society are now asking. 19th October, 1835.
Maps of the Society for the diffusion of useful knowledge.—I do not understand why we should employ the agency of the School Book Society at all. At any rate the terms are extremely high: and I would insist on their being lowered. The Maps are excellent, and Sir Benjamin Malkin’s paper is well worth reading.—[Book G. page 139.] 13th November, 1835.
Proposal to request Government to compliment the King of Oude on his liberal encouragement of learning.—I wish to see native Princes encouraged to bestow on science and literature some portion of what they now waste on dancing girls and gimcracks; but I cannot approve of Captain Paton’s suggestion. In the first place, what the king of Oude has done is quite contemptible, when the amount of his revenue is considered. Many of the native gentlemen who contributed to the Hindu College have from their private means expended more on education than this prince, the richest, I imagine, in India, has furnished from his immense treasures. We make our compliments cheap, if we bestow them on a king who, out of a revenue exceeding a crore, has spared a few hundred Rupees for purposes of education.
This is my first objection. My second is this. All the world knows that the relations between Oude and the Company’s Government are of a very delicate kind; and that a complimentary letter from Government extolling the liberal and enlightened patronage extended by the king to science and learning, could not, at the present time, be by any means an unimportant communication. In saying this I say only what is known to every body who reads the newspapers.
Our reports will shew to the Government what the king of Oude has done. They may if they think his lithographic prints worthy of such a compliment, praise his munificent and liberal spirit. But I am against sending up any such recommendation as is proposed.—[Book G. page 148.] 12th January, 1836.
Acceptance of the offer of 200 copies of the King of Oude’s Maps.—By all means, though to be sure more detestable maps were never seen. One would think that the revenues of Oude
