of one foreign language for another was not what was wanted; that as fewer natives would know English than Persian for some time to come, the
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the period and manner of effecting so great a change in the system of our internal economy; nor is such a pledge considered to be at all indispensable to the gradual and cautious fulfilment of our views. It is conceived that, assuming the existence of that disposition to acquire a knowledge of English, which is declared in the correspondence now before Government, and forms the ground-work of our present proceedings, a general assurance to the above effect, combined with the arrangements in train for providing the means of instruction, will ensure our obtaining at no distant period a certain, though limited, number of respectable native English scholars; and more effectual and decisive measures may be adopted hereafter, when a body of competent teachers shall have been provided in the Upper Provinces, and the superiority of an English education is more generally recognised and appreciated. “As intimated, however, by the Delhi Committee, the use of the English in our public correspondence with natives of distinction, more especially in that which is of a complimentary nature, would in itself be an important demonstration in favour of the new course of study, as serving to indicate pretty clearly the future intentions of Government; and there appears to be no objection to the immediate application of this incentive to a certain extent, and under the requisite limitations. The expediency, indeed, of revising the Governor General’s correspondence with the higher classes of natives on the above principles, has before, more than once, undergone discussion and consideration; and the Governor-general in Council, deems the present a suitable occasion for resolving to address the native chiefs and nobility of India in the English language, (especially those residing in our own provinces,) whenever there is reason to believe, either that they have themselves acquired a knowledge of it, or have about them persons possessing that knowledge, and generally in all instances where the adoption of the new medium of correspondence would be acceptable and agreeable.”
