elaborate course of study which they had gone through, they had little prospect of bettering their condition; that the indifference with which they were generally regarded by their countrymen left them no hope of assistance from them, and that they therefore trusted that the government, which had made them what they were, would not abandon them to destitution and neglect. The English classes which had been tacked on to this and other oriental colleges had entirely failed in their object. The boys had not time to go through an English, in addition to an oriental course, and the study which was secondary was naturally neglected. The translations into Arabic, also, appeared to have made as little impression upon the few who knew that language, as upon the mass of the people who were entirely unacquainted with it.
Under these circumstances a difference of opinion arose in the committee. One section of it was for following out the existing system, for continuing the Arabic translations[1], the profuse
- ↑ After all that had been expended on this object, there still remained 6,500l. assigned for the completion of Arabic translations of only six books; viz. 3,200l. for five medical works, and 3,300l. for the untranslated part of Hutton’s mathematics, “with something extra for diagrams.” These ruinous expenses absorbed all our disposable funds, and starved the only useful branch of our operations, which was also the only one for which there was any real demand.
