Minutes on Education In India, Written in the Years 1835, 1836 and 1837/Unpublished Minutes
UNPUBLISHED MINUTES.
Mr. Macaulay formally gives his assent to the amended instructions issued to Mr. Adam, who was appointed by the Supreme Government to report on the state of Vernacular Education in Bengal. More than a quarter of a century has elapsed since Mr. Adam was instructed to prepare his reports, which he executed in so full and exhaustive a manner, that they continue to be the best sketches of the state of Vernacular Education that have been submitted to the public.
On the 24th March, 1835, Macaulay writes:—
“I agree with Mr. Sutherland in thinking that Mr. Adam cannot at present be more usefully employed than in digesting such information on the subject of Native Education, as may be contained in reports formerly made.”—[Book E. page 99.]
Mr. Adam in his third Report, p. 2, when reviewing the progress of his enquiry, says, “My appointment by the Governor General in Council is dated 22nd January, 1835, placing me under the orders of the General Committee of Public Instruction, whose instructions I received dated 7th March. On the 8th of April, I obtained the authority of the Committee before proceeding into the interior of the country, to report the amount of information in existing publications and official documents on the subject of Native Education in Bengal, and such a report was accordingly submitted to the Committee on the 1st of July following, and afterwards printed by order of Government.” On this first Report of Mr. Adam, Macaulay writes as follows—
“Though Mr. Adam has been directed to correspond with the General Committee, I do not conceive that it was the intention of the Government of India to throw on our funds any part of the expense of his inquiries. The printing of any reports which he may make, the cost of collecting any works which may illustrate the state of the vernacular literature, are matters quite extrinsic to the purposes to which our funds are devoted. Of course the Government which has ordered him to report, will give the necessary orders about his report. We have only to transmit it to the Secretary in the General Department with our opinion of its merits. I have not time at present to inspect it. But I have no doubt from what I know of Mr. Adam, that it deserves the eulogy of the Secretary.”—[Book E. page 128.] 13th July, 1835.
Second Report of Mr. Adam—We are much indebted to Mr. Sutherland for his excellent abstract of Mr. Adam’s Report, which those gentlemen who have not time to go through the original will find very useful.
I am surprised to see that in the district (Rajshahi) to which the report refers, a great majority of the people are Mahomedans. Surely this is an exception to the general state of things in Bengal. If so, it would seem desirable that Mr. Adam should next explore some district in which the Hindoo population decidedly predominates. But on this question I submit my judgment to that of gentlemen who possess more local experience.The report is excellent, and does great credit to Mr. Adam. I approve of all Mr. Sutherland’s propositions except the last. Every grant of money ought, in my opinion, to be postponed, until we know precisely the amount of the sum at our disposal. If we cannot afford 50 Rs. a month for the school at Subathoo, we certainly cannot afford 100 Rupees a month for that at Bauleah.—[Book J. page 47.] 7th January, 1830.
Mr. Adam’s second Report. Macaulay’s plan for promoting Vernacular Education.—I have read with much interest Mr. Shakespear’s minute on Mr. Adam’s valuable Report. I am a little inclined to doubt, however, whether we are at present ripe for any extensive practical measures which he recommends.
I do not see how we can either make the present teachers of elementary knowledge more competent, or supply their place as yet with fitter men. The evil is one which time only can remedy. Our schools are nurseries of School-masters for the next generation.
If we can raise up a class of educated Bengalees, they will naturally, and without any violent change, displace by degrees the present incompetent teachers. As to educating the School-masters who are already established, I quite agree with Mr. Shakespear in thinking that plan chimerical. As to sending others, at present we cannot do it if we would. I doubt whether we have the men, and I am sure that we have not the money.
What Mr. Shakespear recommends as to books I highly approve. But as to stipends I cannot agree with him. But I will not argue that question till some distinct proposition is made.
I would adopt Mr. Shakespear’s proposition about the Madrasa at Kusba Bagha. As to the endowments mentioned in the report, pages 43, 45, I do not think that it would be worth while to take any step respecting them. There is something so extravagantly absurd in hereditary professorships that we ought not to express any wish to have them revived. Of course if a man has a legal right to a professorship by inheritance, he ought to obtain it. But that is no business of ours. We can interfere only as a board of public instruction, and for purposes of public instruction, such professorships are evidently useless.
I am a little amused to observe that Mr. Adam who, in page 45, laments the discontinuance of four of these endowments and says that the revival of them would give “an important impulse to learning in the district," tells us in page 42 that two of these endowments are still continued. And what is “the impulse which they give to learning?" “The present holders" says he “are both mere grammarians, in no way distinguished among their brethren for talents and acquirements. It may be inferred that the endowments were made for the encouragement of learning only from the fact that the learned teachers are the incumbents.”
Here are six endowments of the same sort. Two are continued, and Mr. Adam acknowledges that they are mere jobs. But if the other four were revived, an immense impulse would be given to learning. I am forced to say that I do not very clearly see how Mr. Adam has arrived at this conclusion.
The important measures which Mr. Shakespear suggests at the close of his minute well deserve serious consideration. I am so much pressed for time at this moment, that I can only give my opinion very concisely. I look forward to a time when we may do all that Mr. Shakespear suggests and even more. But I greatly doubt whether at present, supposing all preliminary difficulties removed and a grant of 78,000 Rupees annum obtained from the Court of Directors in addition to our present funds, we could not employ that sum better than by setting up Thannah Schools. Several plans have occurred to me which perhaps persons acquainted with the country may at once pronounce absurd. It has occurred to me, though it is a little at variance with what I wrote a few pages before, that if we had the means of offering so small an addition as (2) two rupees a month to the present emoluments of a village School-master, in every case in which such a School-master should satisfy an examiner appointed by us of his fitness to teach elementary knowledge well and correctly as far as he went, we might induce three or four thousand village School-masters to take some pains to qualify themselves for their situation. I may be mistaken, but it seems to me that Thannah Schools such as Mr. Shakespear proposes would be no more than village Schools, that the School-masters would be no better than the village School-masters. It could not be expected I imagine that boys Would come any distance for such an education as the Thannah Schools would afford. In that case I would rather employ the money, if we could get it, in improving three or four thousand village Schools than in establishing six or seven hundred Thannah Schools.
At present, however, I think we might employ the money better than on either Village or Thannah Schools.
I shall be glad to see what gentlemen who know this country better than I do think on this question.—[Book J. page 127.] 28th September, 1836.
Study of the Mimansa and Sankhya Philosophers at Benares.—The only argument of the smallest force that, can be urged in favour of the encouragement given to the Oriental systems of science at our colleges, is this, that the people are wedded to those systems, and that by withdrawing our patronage from them, we should disgust our native subjects. Here is a study which nobody describes as useful in itself, “which every body acknowledges to be also unpopular” which has been abandoned by the native youth from mere disgust and weariness. And we, Englishmen, countrymen of Lord Bacon and Locke, are to step in and to do our best be revive it. It is very little to our credit that the natives should have become sick of learning this useless mysticism before we have become sick of teaching it. I would at once decide on adopting the suggestions contained in the 6th and 7th paragraphs of Captain Thoresby's letter. The question as to the disposal of the savings, may lie over for the present.—[Book F. page 57.] 2nd February, 1835.
The first opinion of Lord Macaulay in the Book marked E. is dated the 7th February, 1835. A proposal was made by Mr. Sutherland, the Secretary, to give away a large number of the Committee’s oriental publications to the chief Sanscrit and Arabic scholars in Europe. Macaulay only five days before had remarked in his great minute,
“The Committee contrive to get rid of some portion of their vast stock of oriental literature by giving books away. But they cannot give so fast as they print” On the present occasion he simply states “I approve of the proposition.”—[Book E. page 82.]
Benares College.—As at present advised I conceive that a sum much smaller than that which Captain Thoresby received would suffice for his successor. That successor ought to take a direct part in the instruction of the English classes. I should be glad to know whether there is now at Benares any gentleman possessed of the requisite attainments to whom 300 or 400 rupees a month would be an object. I say this on the supposition that instruction of a higher kind in English science and literature is at present required in our Benares School. If not, I do not see why we should not save the whole salary. For to pay 750 a month or a fifth part of that sum monthly for a superintendence such as that which Captain Thoresby appears to have exercised over the Sanscrit College seems to me mere waste.—[Book C. page 150.] 26th February, 1835.
Allahabad School.—The School seems to be going on in a very satisfactory manner. The evident anxiety of the natives to obtain instruction in the English language must be highly gratifying to those who, like me, look on that language as the great instrument for civilizing and benefiting India. The number of English students at Allahabad has doubled in seven months.
The merits of Mr. Cooke seem to be great, and as house-rent has risen at Allahabad, in consequence I suppose of the political importance which the place has lately acquired, I think that the addition of 30 rupees a month may fairly be made.—[Book F. page 54.] 26th March, 1835.
Use of Sub-Committees.—These propositions are important in themselves and very important as they may affect the opinion which the Government may entertain of our management. They ought to be fully considered. And this cannot be done so well as by a Sub-Committee. I propose that Mr, Shakespeare, Mr. Smith and Mr. Colvin be requested to examine Mr. Sutherland’s propositions and report on them. I hope this proposition will not be disagreeable to the gentlemen whom I have named.—[Book E. page 120.] 19th June, 1835.
Furruckabad Madrussa.—The whole project has evidently been a thorough take in. To give the 8,000 rupees which are now asked for would be, in my opinion, only to throw good money after bad.
I must say that the Committee ought not to have given 12,000 rupees away without making such stipulations as would have absolutely secured to us the reversionary control. It is quite clear that this large grant of public money, large I call it when compared with the whole sum employed for purposes of education, has been spent in enabling a cunning old Mussulman to acquire a high character for piety and munificence among his brethren at the cost of the state. The only use to which, as far as I can see, this institution can now be put is this, that it may serve as a warning to us in our future dealings with these liberal founders and endowers of colleges.—[Book F. page 77.] 29th May, 1835.
Furruckabad Madrussa.—If the case be as Mr. Smith states it, and certainly he seems to make it out very clearly, it is most extraordinary and most highly reprehensible conduct on the part of the local Committee to call on us to pay 8,000 rupees for what is already lawfully our own. I agree with Mr. Smith in thinking that we should at once assert and enforce our right, and that we should pay nothing more till that right is completely established.—[Book F. page 83.] 20th June, 1835.
Agra, College.—I do not very clearly understand on what point we can call on Government for a special reply. There is not, I conceive the smallest difficulty in applying to the particular case of the Agra College the general principles laid down by the Governor General in Council. I presume that Secretary has already communicated the orders of Government to the Agra Committee. I should propose that we should call on the Agra Committee to propose a plan for the management of the College in conformity with those orders.—[Book F. page 68.] 12th May, 1835.
Essentials of a School.—I will not oppose the wishes of the local Committee on a question which is not of very great importance. But I do not think that it is at all desirable to encourage a building, planting, and improving taste in the Agra College or in any similar institution. Plain school-rooms and good school-masters, an unadorned compound and a well-furnished library, are what, in the present state of our funds, I should most wish to see. As, however, the outlay is not great, and is made, not out of the public money, but out of the separate resources of the Agra College, I will not object.—[Book E. page 139.] 24th August, 1835.
Agra College.—The prospects at Agra seem to be highly encouraging, and much of what is proposed by the Local Committee appears to me very judicious. But we are not rich enough to do all that they wish, and, were we much richer, I should think that the establishing of Medical scholarships, at least in such numbers, would be a waste of money, and that the founding of Tehsildaree schools would be a premature measure.
The financial statement, if I understand it rightly, when cleared of all extraneous matter, may be exhibited thus—
| Income of the College, | 1800 | Rs. per mensem |
| Appropriated to oriental education and to stipends, | 989 | Ditto |
| Available immediately for purposes of English education, | 861 | Ditto |
To this sum of 861 Rs. per mensem, an addition will be constantly taking place by the falling in of stipends. The following establishment would I think be found efficient for the purpose of giving the students a liberal English education.
| A Principal, to be also a Teacher, | 450 0 0 |
| A Head Master, | 400 0 0 |
| A Second Ditto, | 150 0 0 |
| A Third Ditto, | 100 0 0 |
| 1200 0 0 |
The Principal should be Mr. Duncan, that gentleman already draws 300 Rs. as Secretary. This office is almost a sinecure. He is ready and desirous to take a more active part in superintending the College; and his fitness for the functions which I propose to assign to him is, I believe, admitted.
For Head Master I would propose Mr. Woollaston. He is desirous to quit his present situation. He is quite useless there. He has qualifications which would make him very useful elsewhere. Agra is the very place for him. I have already expressed my decided opinion that the English class in the Sanscrit College ought to be abolished. We can never have a better opportunity than this. It is only by taking this course that it will be in our power to assist the Agra College. We have not the means, I fear, of allowing 400 Rs. a month to that institution without making a reduction in some other quarter. By abolishing the English class in the Sanscrit College, we gain a good master; we gain money to pay him with; we give an excellent system of education to Agra; we deprive Calcutta of an institution, which appears, from all the evidence before us, to be not only useless, but mischievous.
I do not think it necessary to go, on every occasion, into the question whether we ought, besides furnishing the students with instruction, to pay them for receiving that instruction. If the sense of the Committee is, that the orders of Government on that point ought to be reconsidered, let us address Government on the subject.
If such a proposition should be made, I will state at length the reasons which lead me decidedly to approve of the Government orders. Until such a proposition is made, I think it sufficient to say that, if the general rule be bad, it ought to be altered, and that, if it be good, no reason is assigned for thinking that Agra ought to be made an exception more than Patna, Dacca, Allahabad, Meerut or Benares.—[Book E. page 157.] 7th November, 1835.
Agra College.—Mr. Sutherland's draft is altogether at variance with the determination to which I understand the Committee to have come. He says that we cannot appropriate any portion of our general fund in support of the Agra College. What I proposed, and what I understand the Committee to have resolved, is that the services of Mr. Woollaston shall be transferred to Agra, that the English class in the Sanscrit College shall be done away, and that the sum which we save by getting rid of an useless institution here, shall be employed to assist the Agra College. If this be done, there will be not the smallest difficulty in carrying the whole of my plan into immediate effect. A reference to Government will, I suppose, be necessary. I would suggest that it should be instantly made; and that, till an answer is received, we should make no communication to the Agra Committee.—[Book E. page 171.]
Since the above was written I have learned that Mr. Sutherland has drafted a letter to Government recommending that the English class in the Sanscrit College should be abolished, and that we should be at liberty to apply the sum which will then fall in to general purposes.
This is quite proper. But the plan which I proposed respecting Agra proceeds wholly on the supposition that Government will accede to this request. I still think therefore that, till the answer of Government arrives, a communication to the local Committee at Agra would be premature; and that a communication like that proposed, in which we hold out no hope whatever of any pecuniary assistance, would be objectionable.—[Book E. page 173.] 25th November, 1835.
Agra College.—The plan which I proposed was framed on the supposition that the income of the Agra College amounted to 1800 Rs. at which Mr. Sutherland estimated it in his former minute (page 152). However, even in the supposition that the income amounts only to 1682 Rs. it will soon be in our power to carry the whole plan into effect; and there is nothing to prevent us from beginning our operations immediately. I approve of the letter which Mr. Sutherland has drafted; and I hope that Mr. Woollaston will set off immediately. 30th December, 1836.
Travelling expenses.—I hardly know what to say to this application. Mr. Woollaston ought not to be either a loser or a gainer by his journey. His salary will run during the whole time that he is going up; and I can scarcely think that he will want more than that sum for travelling charges. At all events 1200 Rs. seems a very large grant. I wish that gentlemen better acquainted than I am with the cost of travelling in this country, would give their opinions before I finally make up my mind as to my vote.
There can be no objection I think to the advance. January, 1836.
Increase to Mr. Nicholls’ Salary at Benares.—I should like to understand a little more distinctly the nature of Mr. Nicholls’ claim. He says that he took his situation “with an understanding distinctly expressed,” (not a very distinct expression on his part) that his salary was to be raised: and the members of the Local Committee speak of the “expectations which were held out to him.” Mr. Sutherland’s minute contains no trace of any such engagement, nor is it said whether the expectations were held out by us or by the Local Committee. If by the latter, it seems to me very important that the Local Committees should understand that they have no authority to give out pledges in our name.
The application may be a very proper one. But I should like to be satisfied as to the preliminary question, whether we are free to take the expediency of compliance into consideration, or whether anything has passed which binds us.—[Book F. page 87.] 7th July, 1835.
Sanscrit College, Benares. Law Pundits.—I own that I do not very clearly see what we have to do with the law opinions which the Pundits may give to the Courts, and as to the proposition that we should, out of the education fund, pay them salaries which may raise them above the temptation of dealing corruptly in their capacity of law advisers, it seems to me most extravagant. It is not our business to look after the purity of the administration of justice. That is an object which the Government ought to provide for, and to provide for, if necessary, out of the general revenues of the state. We have nothing to do with these Pundits in any other capacity than as teachers. We must pay enough to have good teachers. If the Government wants their services in another capacity let the Government pay for their services. We have quite enough to do without undertaking the business of making the native law officers of the Company’s Courts honest.
I see no sufficient reason for altering the present arrangement. I agree with Mr. Sutherland in disapproving the proposed conclave of Pundits. They are the very people who want a visitor, and it would be poor policy to set them to visit themselves.—[Book F. page 90.] 7th July, 1835.
Benares Seminary.—I imagine that Mr. Nicholls mnst have organized his School on the Lancasterian plan. In no other way certainly can I conceive how one master and one assistant can teach so many boys (124 students).
I have for some time had it in contemplation to bring before the Committee, some propositions respecting the introduction of the system of mutual instruction into our Schools. Unless we adopt this principle, we shall never, I feel convinced, be able to supply the demands which the native population are making on us.
I wish that Mr. Sutherland would be so good as to ask Mr. Nicholls to explain to us in detail the arrangements which he has made. This mode of instruction, whether it be precisely the Lancasterian or not, must be well worth knowing, if it really produces so considerable an effect at so small a cost.—[Book F. page 128.] 6th October, 1835.
Mr. Nicholls seems to be going on very satisfactorily. But his letter and indeed every thing else that I see convinces me that the want of good English books is what at present chiefly keeps back our Schools. This deficiency, I trust, will very soon be supplied. [Book F. page 135.] . 13th November, 1835.Benares Local Committee.—I cannot agree with Mr. Sutherland. The conduct of Colonel * * * has, by his own acknowledgment, been indiscreet and improper. He owns that he had brought these Bengalees into a scrape. He owns that he has talked without due caution on the subject of their dispute with Mr. Nicholls. When the fullest allowance is made for the unguarded style of private correspondence, I cannot think that his letters hold out any great hopes that his introduction into the Local Committee would render the proceedings of that body more discreet or more harmonious. Of Mr. Nicholls, he says that, though a good man, he is no orientalist. Now, we did not send Mr. Nicholls to Benares as an orientalist, and if Colonel * * * thinks that we did, he is evidently unacquainted with the whole system, on which we are proceeding. I may be mistaken, but from the tone of the Colonel’s letters, it appears to me that he dislikes the principles on which we now propose to give education to the people of India, and that therefore, however, excellent his intentions may be, he is not a fit person to be a member of a body which is bound to act on those principles.
I dislike also what he says about the necessity of putting military men on the Committee as a check on the Civilians. Hitherto we have never, to the best of my belief, been troubled by any such idle jealousies. I would appoint the fittest men without caring to what branch of the service they belonged, or whether they belonged to the service at all.
I think it highly probable that Mr. Nicholls may be to blame, because I have seldom known a quarrel in which both parties were not to blame. But I see no evidence that he is so, except the assertion of the two Bengalees who are interested and hostile parties, and who have certainly put themselves in the wrong by the very irregular and disrespectful course which, under the guidance of Colonel * * *, they pursued. Nor do I see any evidence which tends to prove that Mr. Nicholls leads the local Committee by the nose. The Local Committee appear to have acted with perfect propriety; and I cannot consent to treat them in the manner recommended by Mr. Sutherland. It is plain that if we appoint Colonel * * * to be a member of their body, we shall in effect pass a most severe censure on their proceedings. I therefore most strongly dissent from this proposition.
At the same time I admit that the Committee is too small, and it is desirable to make an addition to it. But as I do not see that the present members have deserved at our hands any but the most respectful treatment, as they appear to understand our views, and as they must be far better acquainted than most of us can be with the society of Benares, I propose that we should request them to suggest the names of such persons as they conceive would be useful members. We shall of course exercise our own discretion as to what they may recommend.—[Book F. page 145,] 19th December, 1835.
Proposal to substitute English for Persian in the Bhaugulpore School for Hill Youths.—I think that we should be very much to blame if we were not to accept readily the very liberal offer of Captain Graham. The only doubt which I feel on the subject arises from his expressions respecting the Missionaries, expressions in themselves quite unobjectionable, but still such as suggest the necessity of caution.
I should propose that we should accede to Captain Graham’s proposal and thank him for his liberality, reminding him at the same time, with all delicacy, that direct religious instruction must not form a part of the plan of education at any of our Schools.—[Book F. page 43.] 26th February, 1835.
Bhaugulpore School for Hill people.—If the School cannot stand without our paying the students, it must fall. The orders of Government are express. We have not the power, and I have not the least inclination, to disobey them.
While the School exists, I should recommend that English should be substituted for Persian. I should hope that we might find that Major Graham’s prognostications are too gloomy.
I cannot find in Major Graham’s letters anything about the 20 Rs. a month referred to in Mr. Sutherland's minutes, I apprehend that there must be some mistake.—[Book F page 112.] 12th July, 1835.
Bhaugulpore School for Hill people.—I cannot understand what principle we can go back to Government without having made the trial which we were directed to make, and being only able to state the opinion of the local Committee, which we stated before. I am strongly opposed to the stipendiary system generally. If there are any political reasons for making an exception in the case of this School, the charge ought to be a political charge and not to come out of our small funds.
I am quite in favour of trying the experiment of amalgamating Mahomedans and Hindoos.—[Book F. page 142.]
Sasseram Madrussa.—Before we do anything more for this Seminary, I should like to know whether anything worth knowing be taught in it. We had better obtain full information as to its system and its efficiency before we decide.—[Book F. page 29.] 6th January, 1835.General Committee, Sasseram Madrussa.—I do not conceive that the resolution of Government prohibits the Committee from giving sums of money as prizes for conspicuous merit. I am strongly of opinion that pecuniary prizes should be given in the form of single sums, and not in the form of monthly stipends. It is not necessary, however, to go into that question at present.
The plan now under consideration, as far as I understand it, is not one which we ought to encourage by a grant of money. The place is not one of the first importance. It is not in a situation where we can reckon on European inspection and controul. The very inconvenient and precarious sort of superintendence proposed by Captain Thoresby would, I conceive, be of no use whatever. The scholarships are evidently of that kind which Adam Smith condemned more than fifty years ago, and which the late orders of Government positively forbid us to institute. The sum which we are called on to contribute, would suffice to establish a School on better principles, at a more important place, and under a more efficient controul. I therefore vote against the grant.—[Book H. page 6.] 24th March, 1885.
Demand for the refund of Nawab Fuzal Ali Khan’s benefaction of Rupees 1,70,000 to Delhi College.—Our duty is clear. We are to fulfil the injunctions of the late Nawab, and if the late Nawab has left no injunctions, we are to fulfil the injunctions of the Governor-General in Council.
The late Nawab does not appear, from any document that is before us to have made it a condition of his grant, that part of the grant should be applied to the support of students. Part of the grant has been so applied; but that was by order of the Government, and the Government has now revoked that order. If Mr. Sutherland can point out any evidence that the Nawab stipulated that part of the funds should be so employed, I shall give my assent, reluctantly indeed, to keeping the scholarships up. But I am not able to find any evidence to that effect. The letter from the Resident of Delhi to Mr. Sterling contains nothing of the kind. This being the case, I conceive that the general orders of Government must be carried into effect.—[Book H. page 58.] 8th June, 1835.
Nawab Fuzal Ali Khan’s benefaction to Delhi College.—The statement given by Mr. Sutherland is not complete. The Government want to know how much is expended on Arabic and Persian. Mr. Sutherland’s statement shews only what the teachers of Arabic and Persian receive, not what the learners receive. It is plain that they must receive at the very least 256 Rupees; which, added to the 285 Rupees paid to the teachers, makes the whole sum paid in encouraging Arabic and Persian amount to 541 Rupees, within 25 Rupees of the Nawab’s fund. This is the lowest calculation. Probably, what is paid for the promotion of Mahomedan literature exceeds 566 Rupees.
Whatever the facts may be, we ought to have them before us, and to state them fully to Government.
Unless I knew more of Nemid Ali Khan, I should not feel inclined to admit him to any share in the management of any part of the institution except that which is supported by his relative’s donation.—[Book H. page 161.] 23rd November, 1835.
Further Memorandum.—Then we spend on Arabic and Persian 200 Rupees a month more than the amount of the Nawab’s fund.—[Book H. page 196.] 6th January, 1836.
Petition against the abolition of stipends.—I am quite willing that the Government should see these petitions. Indeed I should particularly wish the petition of the Pundits to be generally known for that document seems to me quite sufficient by itself to decide the question, which lately divided the Committee. It states in the strongest and clearest language that nobody will learn Sanscrit for the sake of knowing Sanscrit. “If no stipends be given to the students for their attendance, we shall soon be deserted by our pupils.”
But though I am quite willing that the Government should see this petition, I do not think that we ought to send it up. The Pundits can petition the Governor-General in Council directly. Indeed a paper so closely resembling this, that I am not sure that they are not the same, was laid before Council only a week ago. But when we transmit to the Government a petition addressed to ourselves, we seem to indicate that we think the prayer deserving of consideration. We invite the Government to reconsider its orders. I altogether object to taking any step which can be so construed.
The question relating to the Hindoo College had better be referred to the Sub-Committee which will, I hope, shortly be appointed for the purpose of superintending that institution.—[Book H. page 16.] 16th April, 1835.
Stipends in the Medical Class of the Sanscrit College.—I agree, and I would go still further. I own that, in my opinion, these unfortunate people are entitled, in reason and justice to be treated as the other holders of stipends have been, and any proposition for recommending their case to Government shall have my support.—[Book H. page 24.] 22nd April, 1835.
Stipends.—I am decidedly opposed to the stipendiary system. I believe that it is in itself an evil, and I am sure that here, where the fund for the purposes of education is so small, would be in the highest degree pernicious to spend any part of it in hiring boys to come and learn what they are not desirous to know. I am truly glad, though not at all surprised, to find that the rule established by Government has produced no unfavorable effect on the number of students at the Delhi College.—[Book J. page 1.] 27th October, 1835.
Baboo Ramlochun Ghose, gift of Rupees 1,000 to the Dacca School—Thank the Baboo by all means, but do not let us pledge ourselves to employ his money as he suggests.[1]—[Book H. page 38.] 14th May, 1.835.
Dacca College.—I do not think the aspect of things at Dacca by any means discouraging, I should doubt, however, about the expediency of either building or buying a house. I should think that it would be the best course to hire premises for the present. If, as Mr. Lowis believes, and as there seems every reason to expect, scholars should come in fast, and the institution should thrive, we shall probably find before long that the school will, in a great measure, maintain itself. Then we may without imprudence build or buy a house. On this point, however, I feel by no means confident in my own judgment.
I do not quite understand what Mr. Sutherland means by his proposition about the study of Persian. I apprehend that the master whom we have sent to Dacca is not competent to teach that language. And I should certainly object to paying out of our funds any master for that purpose. Indeed under the orders of Government, we have no authority to pay such a master. But if the students at our School wish to learn Persian and are willing to pay a teacher of that language, or if the population of Dacca are disposed to subscribe for the purpose of supporting such a teacher, I have not the least objection to let him have the use of our School-house at all proper times, and every other facility and assistance which we can afford to him, without prejudice to what I consider as more important objects. But none of our students ought to be forced to study Persian as part of the regular course of his education.
Religious instruction is of course excluded.—[Book H. page 89.] 21st July, 1835.
Mr. Wilkinson’s request for a School at Sehore in Bhopal.—This application is one with which on many accounts I should be most happy to comply. But the expense would be great: and there is also a strong objection on principle to carrying our exertions at present beyond the frontier of the Company's territories. The district which we are requested to furnish with a School-master is not present a part of those territories. Should it ever be annexed to them, the application will come before us on different grounds.
I think, first, that our funds, unless they were much larger than they now are, or than they are likely soon to be, may be much more advantageously employed in those parts of India in which the British dominion is fully established, than in those states which still retain a partial independence.
I think, secondly, that, if we adopt a different principle, and determine to send School-masters, and School-masters, be it observed, of the highest rate of salary, to places beyond the British frontier, there are places of far more importance than Sehore to which we ought first to attend.
On these grounds, though with regret, I think that we cannot accede to Mr. Wilkinson’s request concerning the School-master. His application for books is not sufficiently definite to enable me to judge whether we can, with propriety, grant it.—[Book H. page 71.] 4th July, 1835.
Gift to the Bhopal School of Rupees 300 for books.—Though I think that some of the objections which may be made to our supporting Schools out of the Company’s territories apply to our giving books to such Schools, I feel so strongly that we ought not, except in case of absolute necessity, to discourage so zealous and valuable a friend as Mr. Wilkinson that I shall not object to the proposition.—[Book H. page 93.] 29th July, 1835.
School at Ghazipore.—We shall have, I hope and trust, enough money to enable us to accede to the applications from Ghazipore. But I agree with Mr. Colvin that we had better postpone the returning of any positive answer till we have taken a general view of all the applications of the same kind, which have been made, and till an exact statement of our funds is before us.—[Book H. page 33.] 30th April, 1835.
School-masters.—If our funds are in the state described by Mr. Trevelyan, I would much rather send four School-masters to four places now unprovided than supply the four head Masters with deputies.—[Book H. page 36.] 11th May, 1835.
Sub-committee for the selection of Masters.—The Sub-committee have, as I can vouch, discharged their duty with eminent industry and zeal, and quite in the spirit of their instructions, if not always according to the letter of them. I propose that their proceedings be approved and the contracts made by them ratified.—[Book H. page 56.] 8th June, 1835.
Remarks of the General Committee on the Madras Report.—The only passage in the proposed reply to which I object is, that in which we suggest the propriety of endowing a few scholarships at Madras. Such an arrangement would, in my opinion, be inexpedient: but be this as it may, it would be hardly proper in us to recommend it to Government after the strong manner in which Government has expressed its feeling on the subject.—[Book H. page 63.] 13th June, 1835.
The case of the corrector of the Sanscrit Press.—I feel great commiseration for this poor man, and if there be any small place which is really necessary, I should be glad if he could be put into it. But I do not like to create a place for him. I would rather give him a small pension, for a pension dies of course with the holder. But the place may last as long as the College. It has always been my earnest wish that no person might suffer at all in his pecuniary interest in consequence of the late changes. And I am quite prepared to concur in any reasonable proposition in favour of this petitioner.—[Book H. page 69.] 29th June, 1835.
Petition of Moulvie Gholam Makdoom, the corrector of the Arabic Press for remuneration, owing to the abolition of his appointment.—A certificate by all means, but it does not appear to me that the situation of corrector of the Press is one which can be considered as creating any claim whatever to extra remuneration. This person was paid while he served the Committee. He had no life-interest in his employment. He might have been dismissed any morning with or without a reason. I do not see that I am bound to give him remuneration any more than, when I leave India, I shall be bound to give my cook or my coachman any compensation for the loss of their places, after having paid them wages for their services.—[Book H. page 123.] 12th September, 1835.
Limit of age , inexpedient.—The only point about which I entertain a doubt is the proposed limitation with respect to age. The onus probandi always lies on those who propose a restriction; and I do not clearly see any sufficient reason for the restriction now proposed. Suppose that a young man of sixteen or seventeen, wishes to enter at the Madrassa and to attend the lectures, I cannot conceive why he should not be permitted to do so.—[Book E. page 126.]—1st July, 1835.
A limit of age in English Schools inexpedient.—I do not very clearly see the reason for establishing a limit as to age. The phenomena are exactly the same which have always been found to exist when a new mode of education has been rising into fashion. No man of fifty now learns Greek with boys. But in the sixteenth century it was not at all unusual to see old Doctors of Divinity attending lectures side by side with young students. I should be sorry to deny to any native of any age the facilities which our schools might afford for studying the English language.—[Book 3rd November, 1835.
Separation of Hindus and Mussulmans.—I do not at all like the plan of separating the Hindus from the Mahomedans. But I think it a less evil than the complete exclusion of the Hindus of Moorshedabad from the advantages of a liberal education. I would attempt to educate the two races together. If that attempt fails, I would educate them separately. But I certainly would not suffer either class to monopolize the benefits of public instruction.—[Book E. page 137.] 7th August, 1835.
Application for aid to the School at Futtehpore.—I am always unwilling to discourage efforts so useful as those which Mr. Madden is making. I fear, however, that we cannot with propriety give any money; and I do not observe that he asks for books. It will be our best course, I think, to return a very complimentary answer, expressing our regret that at present we are not rich enough to assist him, and begging him to let us hear from time to time how his School is going on.—[Book H. page 87.] 20th July, 1835.
Aid to a private School at Hooghly.—We had better wait for the answer of the Government about the Hooghly College. If a really good institution can be founded there at which all classes may receive education, it would be idle to set up a smaller School in the neighbourhood.— [Book H. page 153.] 13th November, 1835.
Benares Seminary.—I observe that the Local Committee are desirous to abolish the Persian class which they agree in considering as useless for every purpose, except that of training practitioners for the Courts. I do not quite understand whether they conceive that they are competent to adopt this measure by their own authority, or whether they mean to apply to us for permission. If our sanction be necessary, I vote for giving them, full liberty to act, in this respect, as they may think most advisable.—[Book J. page 10.] 3rd November, 1835.
Meerut School House.—If Mr. Harris’s claims had been earlier brought to our notice, something might have been done. As things stand, I should like to have the opinion of the gentlemen who were so useful to us in the selection of the School-masters. I cannot quite agree with the Secretary about the rent of the Custom House. The Military Board are justified in getting all that they can from us. The Secretary to the Meerut Committee owns that we must pay what they ask, if they insist on it. In insisting on it under such circumstances they only do their duty; and what we should do in their place. I should greatly doubt the success of such an application to Government.—[Book H. page 117.] 2nd September, 1835.
Meerut School House.—To ask the Government to let our Schools have houses for a rent lower than that which the Military Board demands, and which it is admitted that the Military Board can make the School pay, is to ask the Government for money. And what chance there is of success in such an application, any person who has paid attention to the late proceedings of Government, may easily judge.
The value of the house is not the question. It may be intrinsically worth very little. But if, on account of its situation or of the difficulty or procuring another building, it has at present an extraordinary price in the market, the Military Board do their duty in demanding that extraordinary price. If a mortality were to break out among the horses at Calcutta, any one of us whose horse might survive, would demand a price for him much higher than the original purchase money, in consequence of the state of the market.
I greatly doubt whether the Governor-General in Council would allow Mr. Sutherland’s illustration of an opposition coach to be quite correct. The Governor-General would probably say, “I am forced to give you a lac a year for purposes of education. In the present state of the finances, I will not give you an anna more. If I were free to decide, probably I should not give you so much. I will not suffer you by indirect means to obtain a larger share of the revenues of the state, than that which the law compels me to assign to you.”
I am against making the application, because I am not sure that it is proper, and because I am quite sure that it would be unavailing.— [Book H. page 120.] 11th September, 1835.
Meerut School House.—If Mr. Harris’s services are really wanted, I think that we might pay the 20 Rupees a month which are in dispute between the Military Board and the Local Committee at Meerut. It seems rather strange to me that the difference between 30 and 50 Rupees a month should be so much felt at so large an European station.— [Book H. page 127.] 6th October, 1835.
Patna School.—Mr. Trevelyan has received a letter from Mr. Clift, which I have requested him to send round with the papers which the Secretary has circulated. The difficulties appear to have been great. But the project is most encouraging. I observe that several gentlemen who have not been made members of the Local Committee appear to take an interest in the success of our plans. I should be glad if our Secretary would ascertain whether any of those gentlemen would like to be appointed.—[Book H. page 113.] 29th August, 1835.Appointment of Chaplains as members of Local Committees.—I am truly glad to see how well our School is going on at Dacca. To the appointment of Major Blackull there can be no objection. As to Mr. Shephard, I must own that, though I would by no means exclude Chaplains, as such, from the Local Committees, yet I do not think that the mere circumstance of being a Chaplain is a recommendation. In all such cases I should like to have some assurance that the individual is not a person likely to be hurried beyond the limits of discretion by feelings which, however laudable, we are not at liberty to indulge in our public capacity. But though I think that this ought to be our general rule, I will not object to the appointment of Mr. Shephard.—[Book H. page 99.] 15th August, 1835.
The system of mutual instruction.—The system of mutual instruction is not I conceive, by any means fitted for teaching the sciences. But whatever is mere matter of memory and does not require the exercise of the reasoning powers, such as the vocabulary of a language, may be taught by that system. I admit that you cannot with advantage teach the higher mathematics in that way. But the English language can be taught and taught very well and effectually, in that way. The English language, I conceive, is the great avenue by which the people of this country must arrive at all valuable knowledge. A native, without that language, can never have more than a smattering of science: and it is well if even that smattering be free from error. A native, with that language has ready access to full and accurate information on every subject, and will be able, if his natural talents are great, to make very considerable advances in knowledge, even without the aid of a teacher. By the system of mutual instruction, we shall be able to impart a knowledge of that language to a much greater number of pupils than by any other arrangement.
I earnestly hope that the Committee will try the experiment. Without some such arrangement, our means will not enable us to educate one-tenth of those who will apply to us for instruction.
The only proposition now before us is, that Mr. Trevelyan be, permitted to publish extracts from Mr. Clift’s letter. I can see no objection to his doing so.—[Book H. page 139.] 20th October, 1835.
Introduction of the Monitorial system in the Dacca School.—It seems very singular that the Local Committee should have forwarded Mr. Ridge’s application without expressing any opinion whatever, as to the expediency of what he proposes. The necessity for engaging an assistant, the qualifications of Mr. Gunn, and the propriety of hiring a house are matters about which it is particularly desirable that we should have the opinion of gentlemen who are on the spot. I propose that the Secretary should write forthwith on this subject. I should wish the Local Committee also to be requested to take into their consideration the expediency of establishing the monitorial system. It is quite plain that we have not funds which will enable us to supply every thirty boys with a master. If we do this at Dacca, we shall have similar calls from other places.
It is possible that Mr. Ridge may dislike the monitorial system. It is a system which requires considerable exertion on the part of the Head-master, and which may therefore be less agreeable to him than a system under which he is suffered to transfer a portion of his own responsibility to an assistant. But it is my decided opinion, that, on this point we must make no concession to the prejudices or to the indolence of those who are in our employment. The monitorial system, and that system alone, can succeed here. If the present masters are not disposed to carry it rigorously into effect, we must find masters who will, though we should have to send to England for them.—[Book H. page 155.] 18th November, 1835.
Change from Sicca Rupees to Company’s Rupees.—I am in considerable doubt as to the mode in which the Government order ought to be construed with respect to the forms employed by us, and after blotting a good deal of paper I can recommend nothing but a reference to the Governor-General in Council.—[Book H. page 150.] 3rd November, 1835.
Patna School. The Lancastrian system and prizes.—I agree with the Secretary in thinking that the Committee at Patna ask for more than we ought to give. I would let them have a good Moonshee for the purpose of giving instruction in the vernacular language. Such a Moonshee may be procured, I imagine, for 50 Rupees a month. If the number of pupils is too great for him to teach directly, the monitorial system must be used in that as in other departments. Whatever objections may be made to that system, as a mode of conveying instruction in the higher walks of literature and science, none can be made to it as a mode of teaching lads to read and write their mother tongue. The vernacular school at Patna will be exactly what one of Mr. Lancaster’s schools was in England.
As to the 400 Rupees which are asked for prizes, I think the sum large, and I cannot help fearing that it may be injudiciously laid out. I should wish the Local Committee to be asked how many prizes they propose to give, and how often. The practice of giving almost as many prizes as they are students is in the highest degree pernicious. It destroys all emulation. It is also a heavy expense to us. The most trifling honorary distinction, a copper medal, or a book worth two rupees, if given only to one highly distinguished student, will do more to excite industry than a thousand rupees laid out in making presents to the majority of the boys of the school. We have already come to a resolution on the subject. But from the amount requested by the Patna Committee and from some of the expressions which they have used, I fear that our views may not be correctly understood by them.—[Book H. page 169.] 2nd December, 1835.
It has been considered desirable to omit the minute which originally occupied this space.The change from Sicca to Company’s Rupees.—As the discretion is left to us, I would make no reduction. Some of the payments which we are bound to make are in the nature of debts; and we must pay them at the higher rate. Some are strictly salaries; but I do not think them higher than they ought to be. I would therefore convert the payments which we make in Bengal at the rate of 106½ Company’s Rupees to 100 Siccas.
The Schoolmasters who went into the provinces where the Furruckabad rupee is current, understood, if I am rightly informed, that their salaries were to be paid in that rupee. About them, of course, there will be no difficulty.—[Book H. page 167.] 2nd December, 1835.
Assam Schools.—I think that the correspondence should be submitted to Government. We have of course nothing to do with Moravian establishments, which are always proselyting establishments, nor can I agree with Captain Jenkins in thinking that it is only where the Brahminical religion is concerned that we ought to observe strict neutrality on theological points. As to the 100 Rupees per mensem, I am in the dark as to what we can, and what we cannot, afford; and until that matter is quite clear, I will express no opinion as to Captain Jenkins’ application.—[Book H. page 193.]
When the Secretary circulated the educational report for 1834, Macaulay writes:
“As this report relates to a time when I was not a member of the Committee and when a different system was in operation, I do not venture to give any opinion respecting it.”—[Book J. page 31.] 16th December, 1835.
Classification of the Students at the Annual Examination.—I cannot quite approve either of the old annual form or of that proposed by Mr. Trevelyan. A report of an examination is quite a different thing from a report of the general state of the School. I have not much experience in these matters. But as it seems to me, the best course would be to adopt Mr. Trevelyan's suggestion respecting quarterly reports, and to have the results of the annual examinations stated in some such perfectly simple form as this.
| English reading. | Arithmetic. | Mathematics. | English Composition. | Writing. |
| A | B | B | A | A |
| B | C | C | B | E |
| C | D | D | E | B |
| D | E | E | D | D |
| E | A | A | C | C |
Slow lapse of Stipends at Benares.—Mr. Nicholls seems to have taken sufficient care to prevent imposition. The time of studentship (12 years) seems to me absurdly long.[2] However, I do not see how, under the orders of Government, we can disturb the existing usage.—[Book K. page 72.] 1st June, 1836.
Reduction of Stipends at Agra College.—I would abolish the preparatory School. But I do not think that consistently with the orders of Government, we can make any reduction, however proper in itself such reduction may be, of the existing stipends.—[Book L. page 33.] 11th June, 1836.
Stipends at the Nizamut School.—I agree with Mr. Sutherland, except on one point. I would give no stipends to the Nizamut pupils. If stipends are given at all, they ought not to be confined to the Nizamut pupils. If they are, as I imagine, given to those pupils on account of the dignity of their family, they ought to be paid out of a different fund, and not to enter into the charges of a place of education.
I propose that we should tell the Local Committee that we very much regret the difficulty which there appears to be in putting the Nizamut students on the same footing with other pupils, that we trust that every thing in the power of the Local Committee will be done to efface distinctions so inconsistent with the spirit which ought to prevail at a place of education, that we generally object to the stipendiary system, and that all our objections to that system appear to be peculiarly applicable to stipends such as those which Mr. Melville recommends. It seems unnecessary to be offering salaries to one set of persons to come to the School, while we are at the same time forced to turn off others who are willing to learn gratis. The demand for instruction is such that the number of instructors is not sufficient. During the last three months no new pupil has been admitted. Mr. Melville proposes to reduce the present number. And yet, under the circumstances, he proposes to pay stipends and erect lodgings for a particular class of the students, distinguished from the rest only by rank and not by any peculiar proficiency in learning. I would therefore decline complying with what is proposed as to stipends. I am not sure that I would sanction any building on account of these Nizamut Students. I would also beg the Local Committee to consider whether it be impossible to make an addition to the number of instructors, so as to be able to admit more pupils. I cannot but feel uneasy when I find that the eagerness with which the people have been pressing to avail themselves of the advantages of education has been discouraged. And I certainly cannot consent to pay anybody to study until we have the means of furnishing instruction to all who are desirous to study without being paid.—[Book L. page 57.] 30th September, 1836.
Proposal for the increase of Stipends at the Sanscrit College—This has been decided already. The general practice has been to refuse such applications. This was not done in the Madrissa at first, only because the matter was not noticed. I would reject the proposition.—[Book K. page 103.] 30th November, 1836.
Stipends at Benares—I would agree to no increase. There are at the head of the list two students of twenty-two, who have been seven or eight years at College and have not learned their Grammar yet. I would desire the Local Committee to report which of the students have and which have not made respectable progress. Those who have not made such progress, I would deprive of their studentships. Twelve years is an unreasonably long term. I would recommend eight as the maximum.—[Book L. page 97.] 21st February, 1837.
Stipends to the Sanscrit College.—I am against the promotion. I think it contrary to the letter and to the spirit of the Government Orders, and also to sound reason.
We are now proceeding on the principle that stipends are bad things, which have been abolished as such, and that those which are spared for the present have been spared only from a regard for vested interest. The question whether the stipends be or be not bad things is no part of the question now before us. Those who differ from me on that subject can at any time raise the question and call on the Government to reconsider its decision. At present I take it for granted that we are only considering what justice to the existing holders requires.
Now I never heard that when an abuse was to be abolished, any person who had no vested interest in that abuse was held to have a claim to any compensation. An interest not in possession may be an interest for which compensation ought to be given. But then it must be a vested interest. A contingent interest not in possession is quite a different thing.
In 1833, parliament abolished prospectively half a dozen Irish bishoprics, the rights of the existing incumbents were respected; but, as the sees fell in, the revenues were devoted to other purposes. What would have, been said if clergymen who did not hold bishoprics had demanded compensation for the chance of being Bishops, which they had thus lost?
In 1817, parliament abolished the lucrative places of Teller of the Exchequer, Auditor of the Exchequer, Chief Justice in Eyre, Warden of the Cinque Ports, and many other similar sinecures. The rights of the existing holders were strictly respected; and if any of those places had been granted in reversion, which, I believe, was not the case, the rights of the persons in whom the reversion had vested, would doubtless have been recognized too. But there, of course, parliament stopped. Nobody ventured to say —“I am a public man. I stood very fair for a Tellership of the Exchequer. I had as good a chance as anybody of having it when it fell in. Therefore I have an interest in the continuance of these places, and I am injured if that interest be not protected.”
The interest of the holders of stipends in the stipends which they hold is a vested interest; and I would protect it. Their interest in any stipend beyond what they hold is not a vested interest, and I would pay no regard to it.
I never can admit that their hopes are to be the criterion. Many an Irish Curate might have hoped four years ago to be Bishop of some see which is now abolished. But that was no reason for keeping such a see when it was thought desirable to get rid of it. A young politician twenty years ago might have hoped to be Chief Justice in Eyre, South of Trent. But that was no reason for keeping up such a situation when it was found to be useless.
Nay this argument proves too much. For if the pupils who had small stipends hoped for larger stipends, so did the pupils who had no stipends hope for stipends; so did boys who were not yet pupils hope to be stipendiary pupils. Where is the distinction? “Let those who have anything, keep it,” is a plain rule. I know who they are: I can estimate the whole effect of such a principle. But “Let those who hope for anything, get it,” is quite a different rule. No reason can possibly be assigned for giving ten rupees now to a boy who had five rupees in 1833, which is not exactly as good a reason for giving five rupees now to a boy who had nothing in 1833. I say therefore, Stick to the plain principle. Protect vested interests, and as to the rest consider yourselves as perfectly free.—[Book K. page 126.] 16th February, 1837.
My opinion is unchanged. I am satisfied that the interest of the boys in stipends which they had not in possession was not a vested interest. I would ask Mr. Colvin this question. Suppose that it had been thought desirable for the interest of the school to diminish the number and increase the value of the stipends, or to increase their number and diminish their vulue, would any student have dreamed of complaining that he was deprived of a vested interest? or suppose that it had been determined to fix on a higher standard of proficiency as necessary to entitle a student to an increase, would this have been spoliation? Suppose that it had been determined to make a law that no student who was not able to read a particular book, or who had not attended a certain number of days, should be entitled to promotion, would this have been spoliation? I cannot think that anybody would answer these questions in the affirmative; and if not, then, I say, there was no vested right. For if there were a vested right, that right is as much invaded when it is made by an ex post facto law dependent on a new contingency as when it is wholly abolished. I vote against the promotion.—[Book K. page 142.] 5th April, 1837.
Prizes at the Hindu College.—The report is on the whole satisfactory and the essays respectable. We ought to thank Dr. Mill for his valuable services on this occasion.
If I understand rightly, the old practice with respect to prizes will be followed at the approaching distribution. I must again repeat that in my opinion it is worse than useless to bestow honorary distinctions on more than the two or three highest in each department of study. I hope that we shall soon introduce into the Hindoo College the same system which we have established elsewhere.
I shall be happy to attend, and still more happy if the Governor General would consent to be present. I am certain that he will be here, as he always was in England, a firm friend to education. But we must consider that his time is very much occupied and that he has already agreed to give a morning to the introductory lecture at the Medical College. Two mornings in a month are a good deal to ask from a Governor General.—[Book J. page 63.] 12th March, 1836.
Prizes at Benares (37 to 149 boys.)—Certainly too much. Our honorary rewards are quite depreciated by this sort of over-issue. The attention of the Local Committee must be called to the subject.—[Book K. page 84.] 28th July, 1836.
Good prizes for Essays.—I approve generally of Mr. Trevelyan's propositions. As the scholars in our Schools make advances in their studies, considerable modifications of these rules will become necessary. At present, I see no objection to adopting them as they stand.
I am not sure that it is desirable that one fixed sum of Rs. 50 should be the prize for the best Essay. Much must depend on the extent of the composition. At some Schools 20 Rs. would be enough. A hundred or two hundred would not be considerable at the Hindu College.—[Book K. page 90.] 5th September, 1836.
Moorshebad Prizes too numerous. Mr. Melville’s proposal for giving Stipends.—The prizes are too numerous. There are twenty-two prizes among sixty-seven boys. Here, by the bye, I may observe that our orders respecting prizes have been utterly neglected at the Hindoo College. At the late distribution, there were at least ten times as many as ought to have been given. I can vouch, from having examined the first class, that two prizes, at the utmost, would have been sufficient. But to this subject I shall feel it my duty to call the attention of the Committee as soon as I can find leisure, which at present I have not.
I am quite against the stipends. The case is indeed a special case, that is to say a specially bad case. These stipends are mere alms; the conditions for holding them are merely poverty and descent. If it be proper that the members of this family should be pensioned, let them be pensioned. But do not let us mix up these eleemosynary allowances with our system of education. Do not let us discourage the diligent and able student by giving to his fellow students, far inferior to him probably in merit, stipends from which he is excluded by the accident of birth.—[Book O. page 101.] 5th April, 1837.
Prize distribution at the Hindoo College.—I wish to call the attention of the Committee to what passed at the late distribution of prizes to the boys of the Hindoo College. I have several propositions to make respecting that cere mony. At present I only beg Mr. Sutherland to send in circulation our orders about the number of prizes, to inform us whether those orders were communicated to the Managers of the Hindoo College and at what date; and to circulate a statement of the number of prizes given at the late distribution.—[Book K. page 154.] 6th May, 1837.
Prizes given for subjects.—What is meant by a subject? some distinct rule ought to be laid down on that point. But I am quite certain that the number of prizes given at the last distribution was five or six times as great as it would have been if our rule, construed in any manner, had been observed. If I had been consulted I would have given an exceedingly handsome and valuable prize to the first student of the first class. I would have given him, for example, a well bound copy of the Encyclopædia Britannica. To the second I would have given some other valuable book, and I would have given no other prizes. I am satisfied that this course would excite great emulation. As the thing was managed eight or ten students were brought up together and received each a book without distinction. And this is called encouraging them to exertion: as if the sure way to discourage exertion were not to treat eminent merit and mediocrity alike.
I propose that no prizes shall henceforth be given at the Hindoo College without the previous sanction of the Committee. It is idle to pass resolutions if they are to be broken in this way.
The next subject to which I wish to call the attention of the Committee is the exhibition which follows the distribution of prizes. I, like Mr. Sutherland, have no partiality for such ceremonies. I think it a very questionable thing whether, even at home, public spouting and acting ought to form part of the system of a place of education. What can the acting of boys be? At the very best, it can only deserve indulgence. And of what use is that sort of talent to them, even if they should acquire a considerable degree of it? But I think that in this country, such exhibitions are peculiarly out of place. I can conceive nothing more grotesque than the scene from the Merchant of Venice, with Portia represented by a little black boy. Then too I think that the subjects of recitation were ill chosen and offensive to good taste. We are attempting to introduce a great nation to a knowledge of the richest and noblest literature in the world. The society of Calcutta assemble to see what progress we are making; and we produce as a sample a boy who repeats some blackguard doggrel of George Colman’s about a fat gentleman who was put to bed over an oven, and about a man-midwife who was called out of his bed by a drunken man at night. Our disciple tries to hiccup, and tumbles and staggers about in imitation of the tipsy English sailors whom he has seen at the punch houses. Really, if we can find nothing better worth reciting than this trash, we had better give up English instruction altogether.
This is strongly my opinion, and not mine only. The Governor General, the Bishop, and other persons whose favorable opinion is of the greatest importance to the success of all schemes of native education, have expressed similar feelings. I would have an entire reform. I propose that, in future, instead of these recitations, the author of the best Essay shall read that Essay aloud after the prizes have been distributed. If this be thought too great a change, I at least hope that the recitations will be of a different kind from what they have hitherto been, that nothing but what is really excellent and valuable as composition will be rehearsed, that vulgar oaths and buffoonery will be carefully excluded, and that the whole exhibition will be less theatrical.—[Book K. page 156.] 10th May, 1837.Prizes at Benares.—I do not object to what Mr. Sutherland proposes. Indeed I am not averse to giving the whole sum of 60 rupees annually in one prize to a deserving student after open competition.—[Book M. page 155.] 17th October, 1837.
Excessive number of Hindu and Mussulman holidays at Allahabad.—I think the letter a very proper one. As to the practice with respect to holidays, it is an abuse not to be tolerated; and I would use even stronger language about it than Mr. Sutherland has done.—[Book J. page 86.] 16th May, 1836.
Holidays.— This matter of holidays is more serious than I had expected. I would propose that the Secretary should call on the different Local Committees to state the number of days on which the Schools are closed. We must then consider of some general remedy for the evil.—[Book O. page 18.] 3rd June, 1836.
Native Holidays.—I would acquiesce in what the Benares Local Committee propose. As to the Saugor report, I am in the dark as to one very important question. Are the Sundays reckoned among the holidays? If they are, the number is reasonable. If not, the school is shut 126 days in every year, more than one day in three. This would be an abuse which, little as I am disposed to disturb the native usages, where I can avoid it, would call for correction.—[Book K. page 104.] 30th November, 1836.
Native Holidays.—If Mr. Trevelyan proposed to make an immediate and universal change I should altogether dissent from him. But I understand him to propose merely this, that we should tell the Local Committee what the arrangement is, which we think in itself most desirable, and which we would have them keep in view. We must of course pay the greatest respect to the tastes and opinions of the students; and we must allow a very large discretion indeed to the Local Committees. I think that this is sufficiently expressed in the letter drawn by Mr. Trevelyan,—If any gentleman can suggest any addition which would make it clearer, I shall have no objection to adopt that addition.—[Book K. page 113.] 27th December, 1837.
Holidays for Hindus and Mussulmans.—I am inclined to agree with Mr. Sutherland. I do not see how we can allow holidays to half the school boys and keep the rest at work.—[Book K. page 124.] 30th January, 1837.
Meerut School, Financial Statement.—I do not object to what the Local Committee propose. There must be some mistake in the heading of the Financial Statement. It ought surely to be April, 1836.
The appearance of this statement reminds me of a very important matter. We ought every quarter or every half year at least to receive from every institution at which stipends are given, a return of the number which have become extinct. I propose that instructions to this effect should be sent without delay.—[Book K. page 1.] 10th December, 1835.
State of the Educational Fund.—I am completely in the dark as to the state of our finances. I suppose that the word “disbursements” in Mr. Sutherland's minute is a slip of the pen, and that he means “income.” Now surely, if our expenditure in the year 1835-36 be less than our income by 7000 Rupees, 7000 Rupees may fairly be called “unappropriated excess;” and Mr. Sutherland himself seems to call it so in the 59th Clause of the proposed letter to Government.
No doubt there are building charges which will come upon us next year. But are those charges greater than the income of next year will meet? If not, will they absorb the whole of this excess of 7000 Rupees? Or how much of it will they absorb? I ask these questions in utter ignorance; and, until I am master of the subject, I shall hardly feel at ease in assenting to any new appropriation of money. We really do not know whether we are beforehand or behindhand with the world.
I should recommend the omission of the computation. I have not yet seen Mr. Trevelyan’s minute respecting a Sub-Committee of finance. But I feel every day more and more fully convinced that some such measure ought to be adopted. Without it we shall be in danger, on the one hand, of making engagements beyond our means, and, on the other, of rejecting as too expensive, schemes which are quite within our power.—[Book J. page 50.] 18th January, 1836.
Audit of Accounts.—I think that Mr. Sutherland should, as he proposes, submit to Government an explanation of the arrear, that he should at the same time explain the mode in which we now check the disbursements; and should state in the name of the Committee that we consider this check as sufficient, leaving it to the Government to adopt any measure which may be thought fit.—[Book O. page 56.] 11th October, 1836.
The Secretary suggested in his abstract of Mr. Adams’ Second Report that Government should be moved to direct the Revenue authorities to enquire whether certain assignments of the Rani Bhowani ought to be revived in favour of the heirs of the original grantees. On this Mr. Macaulay wrote.—
Province of the Committee.—“I doubt whether we are to consider ourselves as occupying a situation similar to that of the Commissioners for Charitable Endowments in England. I doubt whether it be part of out duty to examine into the manner in which funds bequeathed to private trustees for the support of Brahminical learning are employed. But if the Committee be of a different opinion, I have no objection to send the letter as it has been drafted.”—[Book J. page 54.] 11th February, 1835.
Petition for the revival of the English class in the Sanscrit College.—Sixty-three Rupees a month will never set up an efficient English class in the Sanscrit College. That sum would not suffice to pay a teacher of the mere elements of the language.
The spelling and style of the petition taken in connection with the age of the petitioners do not hold out much hope that they will ever become good English scholars. At the same time I cannot but think that it would have been better if the Hindoo College had been opened to them. There seems to be among many people here an objection to admitting grown up men to the advantages of education. On six or seven occasions I have objected to restrictions of this kind, and the Committee has agreed with me. I think that we might with propriety request the Sub-Committee of the Hindoo College to consider whether the rule of the operation of which the petitioners complain ought to be upheld in that institution.—[Book L. page 13.] 15th April, 1836.
Adoption of the Annual Report for 1835 drawn up by Mr. Trevelyan.—I have again gone through the report and read the notes on the margin. Those of Mr. Prinsep are written in an evident spirit of hostility to the principles on which the Committee has been directed by Government to proceed. Most of them, indeed many more than appear to me to require any answer, have been satisfactorily answered by Mr. Trevelyan. The changes which have been made meet almost all the just objections, which either Mr. Prinsep or Mr. Shakespear has urged. One additional change, however, ought, in my opinion, to be made. I doubt the expediency of again sending up to Government at this time a proposition for consolidating different items of account in the manner recommended by the Sub-Committee of finance. As the Government very lately declined sanctioning this proposition, and as nothing which can be supposed likely to have altered the views of the Government has since occurred, I think that we might be considered as importunate if we were to press, without any new grounds, for a reversal of so recent a decision. I am the less inclined to do this, because, though I think the proposed change perfectly unobjectionable, I am not aware that we can expect any advantage from it, except a greater simplicity in the form of keeping our accounts. I propose therefore to omit the two pages at the end of the report, along which I have drawn a line in ink. I have marked the beginning and the end of what I am inclined to leave out with two asterisks, A and B.
I perceive that Mr. Smith has suggested the appointment of a Sub-Committee for examining the Essays and Translations which may be sent to us from the Schools under our management. To a considerable extent I am inclined to agree with him. This, however, is hardly the proper place for going into that question.
I now give my vote for adopting the report with the amendments which Mr. Trevelyan has made, and with the additional amendment to which I have adverted above.
Mr. Prinsep or any other member is entitled, I conceive, as a matter of right, to demand that, any minute of dissent which he may enter in our books, shall be sent up to Government. Whether we shall recommend to Government the printing of such a minute is quite another question, and must depend on the contents of the minute. On that point therefore I cannot at present give an opinion.—[Book J. page 96.] 17th June, 1836.
Mr. H. T. Prinsep’s minute on the Annual Report.—I see no objection whatever to sending the minute up to Government. I do not think it necessary to answer any part of it; and I fear that, if we go on replying and rejoining on each other, we shall come to what the lawyers call a sur-rebutter before we finish. Some report we must make; and I do not believe that it will be easy, if we wait till Christmas, to frame any, which shall be less open to objection than that which the members of the Committee, with the exception of Mr. Prinsep, are inclined to adopt.—[Book J. page 106.] 7th July, 1836.
Hindoo College. Rule of Age.—I own that I am not at all satisfied about the propriety of the rule. But I would not insist upon its being rescinded in opposition to the sense of the managers. I think, however, that an exception ought to be made in favour of ex-students of the Sanscrit College. And I would request the manager to consent to that exception. Of course if these students misbehave themselves, the indulgence will be withdrawn.—[Book N. page 27.] 21st June, 1836.
Europeans and Natives to pay the same fees.—I quite agree with the Secretary. All who can afford to pay should pay. If at present nothing is received from natives who are in good circumstances I would make no distinction between them and Europeans.I would tell the Local Committee that we approve of the principle of requiring pay from those who can afford it; but that we cannot sanction a distinction between Europeans as such and natives as such.—[Book K. page 88.] 28th July 1836.
Dismissal of a Master for beating a boy.—I vote for dismissing Mr. * * * *. The tone of his letter shews that he is not in the least sensible of the gross impropriety of his conduct.—[Book L. page 22.] 9th May, 1836.
Inexpediency of excluding Clergymen from Local Committees.—I do not like general rules for excluding classes of people from our Local Committees. As the people at Dacca recommend Mr. Sheppard, I am disposed to comply, unless something can be urged against him, besides the fact of his being a clergyman.—[Book L. page 23.] 9th May, 1836.
Stipendiaries should pay for their School Books.—I cannot quite agree with Mr. Sutherland in thinking that to make the stipendiaries pay for books is the same thing with reducing their stipends. I would treat the stipends as property. We have determined that those who have the means shall buy their own books. Whether the means come from a stipend or from an estate, seems to me to be indifferent to the question. Nevertheless, if this matter strikes others differently, I would not commit what might be considered, though in my opinion erroneously, as a breach of faith. I quite agree with the Secretary in thinking that the Delhi indents ought to come to us for sanction.—[Book N. page 24.] 21st June, 1836.
Proposition that boys should buy their school books.—I approve of Mr. Sutherland's propositions. Of course the practice of taking books away must be prevented. The best way of preventing it would be to make the students buy their own books.—[Book M. page 97.] 17th. February, 1837.
The expediency of Masters residing in the School House.—I differ from Mr. Sutherland as to the expediency of lodging the Master in the School House. In a climate like this, it will probably make the difference of ten or twelve days’ attendance every year. A slight indisposition which would not prevent a person from doing business under his own roof, often renders it inconvenient and dangerous for him to go a mile from home. I am therefore for giving Mr. Nichol apartments in the School House.
The question of his allowances is distinct, and, though he seems to be a valuable teacher, I doubt whether the Local Committee is not too ready to favour him at the expense of our general funds. This will always be the tendency of Local Committees. They think of no School but their own; and when they have under their own eyes a deserving person, they think that cannot do too much for him. We, on the other hand, have to superintend many Schools; and cannot be generous in one quarter without depriving ourselves of the means of being just in another. I would leave Mr. Nichol only half his present allowance for house rent; and in doing so I think that I am erring, if at all, on the side of liberality.—[Book O. page 26th.] 12th July, 1836.
Mode of selecting Monitors.—Mr. Hamilton does not explain how the monitorial offices are to be given, or what is to be the test of the merit by which they are to be retained. I would make them depend on the yearly examinations.—[Book O. page 27th.] 13th July, 1836.
The essential importance of imparting instruction in the Vernacular languages at English Schools.—The teaching of Persian is out of the question. The teaching of Hindee is another matter. As I understand the orders of Government, they leave us perfectly at liberty to provide the pupils in our schools with the means of learning to read and write their own mother tongue. In fact their knowing how to read and write their own mother tongue will very greatly facilitate their English studies. Indeed I conceive that an order to give instruction in the English language is, by necessary implication, an order to give instruction, where that instruction is required, in the vernacular language. For what is meant by teaching a boy a foreign language? surely this, the teaching him what words in the foreign language correspond to certain words in his own vernacular language, the enabling him to translate from the foreign language into his own vernacular language and vice versâ. We learn one language—our mother tongue—by noticing the correspondence between words and things. But all the languages which we afterwards study, we learn by noticing the correspondence between the words in those languages and the words in our own mother tongue. The teaching the boys at Ajmere therefore to read and write Hindee seems to me to be bonâ fide a part of an English education. To teach them Persian, would be to set up a rival, and as I apprehend, a very unworthy rival, to the English language.
I vote for granting what is asked as to the Hindee. For the Persian I would do nothing.—[Book O. page 30.] 3rd July, 1836.
Ornamented certificates at Delhi.—I should like to see the plan before I decide. My own impression is strongly in favour of giving money. You may easily give honorary distinctions which cost nothing at all; and why you should sink money in giving such distinctions, when you may give them just gratis, I do not understand. A certificate on paper signed by the members of our Committee to the effect that a particular student has written a good Essay; is as honorable a distinction as a medal worth 100 Rupees. If you give the student the medal, he has nothing but the honor. If you give him a certificate and the price of the medal, he has the honor and the hundred rupees into the bargain. We ought to employ both money and honor to stimulate the students, and to lay out money in buying costly decorations which derive all their value from the honor which they confer, and would be just as valuable if they cost nothing, seems to me to be a waste of means.—[Book N. page 28.] 2nd July, 1836.
It has been considered desirable to omit the minute which originally occupied this space.Mistaken interference by Professor Wilson in the home sales of the Committee’s publications.—I really think this proceeding a most extraordinary one: that tradesmen should make over the property of one set of persons to another on no better authority than an article in a magazine, is inconceivable. I would do nothing till we hear from Messrs. Parbury and Allen, who will I suppose have something to say in explanation of their proceedings. As to sanctioning the sales which have taken place on the continuation of the new rates, how can we possibly do that till we know what the rates are? All that we know about the business as yet is, that a gentleman who is writing against us in the magazines at home, has been able to find leisure from that employment to take possession, without the slightest authority, of our property, and to prescribe the terms on which it shall be sold. I should propose that the Secretary should write immediately to Parbury and Allen to ask for a full explanation.—[Book O. page 49.] 24th September, 1836.
The Committee’s stock of books in London.—The London book-sellers have treated us in a most extraordinary way. I propose that we write to inform them that Professor Wilson is not our agent, and that we expect to hear directly from themselves what they have done with our property.—[Book M. page 143.] 2nd September, 1837.
Mr. Pereira, Head-Master of the Furruckabad School, proposes to exclude books on English Grammar from the School course. Macaulay concurs.—I certainly would not approve of Mr. Pereira’s suggestions respecting the exclusion of poor students, or the taking of recognizances from those who come to us for education. As to the question respecting Grammar, I would let him take his own way. I am no great believer myself in the advantages which are ordinarily attributed to a knowledge of the theory of Grammar. This indent may I think, be complied with.—[Book L. page 75.] 23rd November, 1836.
Encouragement of Vernacular Literature.—I do not believe that any language was ever refined or any literature ever created by any means resembling those which our Committee has at its disposal. Languages grow. They cannot be built. I should be glad to furnish these Schools with good Hindee books if there are any. But to create a Hindee literature is an undertaking far beyond our power.
We might send an extract from this letter to the School Book Society and ask if they have, or are likely to have, any books that would be of use.—[Book O. page 63.] 25th November, 1836.
The promotion of Vernacular Literature.—I am and always have been decidedly opposed to the plan to which Mr. Sutherland wishes us to return. We are now following in my opinion the slow but sure course on which alone we can depend for a supply of good books in the Yernacular languages of India. We are attempting to raise up a large class of enlightened natives. I hope that twenty years hence there will be hundreds, nay thousands, of natives familiar with the best models of composition, and well acquainted with western science. Among them some persons will be found who will have the inclination and the ability to exhibit European knowledge in the Vernacular dialects. This, I believe, to be the only way in which we can raise up a good Vernacular literature in this country. To hire four or five people to make a literature, is a course which never answered and never will answer in any part of the world. Such undertakings have every where a tendency to become jobs, and that tendency is peculiarly to be dreaded in the present instance. For one half of the Committee do not know a letter of the language in which the books are to be written; and the other half are too busy to pay any minute attention to the way in which the translators perform their task.—[Book M. page 140.] 30th August, 1837.
Pensions.—I really cannot agree to this proposal. I have a high opinion of Mr. Hare. But the practice of granting pensions for Englishmen residing in India and not engaged in the service of Government would be pregnant with all sorts of abuses. All that the Government could do would be to recommend Mr. Hare to the Court of Directors for a pension; and it is my firm belief that the Government will not so recommend him, and that, if they do, the Court of Directors will not attend to the recommendation.
I did not notice the passage in the Report which has led to this correspondence with Government, or I should have objected to it, as certain to place both ourselves and a very deserving man in a very awkward position. I shall be heartily glad if any gentleman can think of any proper mode in which we can mark our respect for Mr. Hare. At the present moment none occurs to me.—[Book J. page 121.] September, 1836.
Pension to the Family of Moulvie Soleyman of the Hooghly College.—I voted in the Sub-Committee and still vote, though with regret, against what the Secretary recommends. If we once begin to pension the families of our School-masters, I do not know where we shall stop. We shall give a distinct encouragement to every young Englishman and East Indian who takes service under us to marry without having the means of providing for a family, and to spend all his salary instead of laying by.If I could see any reason for being liberal in this case which would not be found in a very large number of cases, my opinion might be different.—[Book N. page 99.] 8th June, 1837.
Pension to the Family of Moulvie Soleyman of the Hooghly College.—I understood the Committee to have voted against the proposition in favour of Mahomed Soleyman’s family. What is now proposed is, except as a precedent, unobjectionable: and I will not, as several members seem very desirous to do something for these people, refuse to refer the question to Government.—[Book N. page 169.] 30th November, 1837.
Promotion in the Educational Department.—I would certainly hold out nothing like a promise. Whoever takes office under us ought to take it with the knowledge that we bind ourselves to nothing as to promotion.—[Book L. page 117.] 5th May, 1837.
Infant Schools.—I do not think that it would be expedient for us to employ any of our funds in the manner proposed. As to employing the Agency of the Infant School Society the fact that the Society gives religious instruction is alone sufficient to render such a course objectionable.
In England no person of the higher or middle classes—no person who is in a situation to give his children a liberal education, ever—to the best of my belief, sends a child to the Infant School. The use of such institutions is to provide a place where the children of the poor may be safe, cheerful, and harmlessly, if not profitably, employed while their parents are at work. What they learn, I imagine, is not much. But instead of being locked up in close rooms or abandoned to the society of all the idle boys in the street, they play, and pick up a little smattering of knowledge, under a very gentle discipline, which is yet sufficient to keep them out of harm’s way.
This is, I believe, a correct account of the Infant Schools of England. We do not at present aim at giving education directly to the lower classes of the people of this country. We have not funds for such an undertaking. We aim at raising up an educated class who will hereafter, as we hope, be the means, of diffusing among their countrymen some portion of the knowledge which we have imparted to them. I should consider it therefore as quite inconsistent with our whole plan to set up an Infant School resembling those of England, an Infant School for the children of coolies and tailors. And before I listen to any proposal for establishing an Infant School of a higher kind, I should be glad to know whether respectable Hindoo and Mahomedan parents would be inclined to send their young children just beginning to walk and talk from under their own roof. I am most friendly to Infant Schools in cases in which the mother is unable to look after her children. It is infinitely better that the little things should be romping innocently or learning A. B. C. under the eye of a respectable, good humoured master or mistress, than that they should be shut up all day alone in miserable garrets or be allowed to wander about the streets. But I cannot bring myself to think that where it is in the mother’s power to devote herself to the care of her family, very young children can be placed any where so fitly as under their mother’s care. The relation of parent and child is the foundation of all society. It is fit that where the parent is unable fully to perform the parental duties, the charity of individuals and perhaps in some circumstances the wisdom of the Government should supply what is wanting. But to break without necessity the closest of all ties, to substitute the School-master for the mother as the guardian of an infant hardly able to lisp; and that too, when the mother has the leisure and the means to perform what all over the world is considered as her sacred and peculiar duty, is not in my opinion a wise course.
I should be glad to know whether our native friends are of opinion that such an institution as that which is recommended would be favorably regarded by the most respectable of their countrymen.—[Book L. page 131.] 31st July, 1837.
Infant Schools.—My opinion is quite unaltered. If the very utmost for which Mr. Trevelyan and Captain Birch contend were admitted, I should still think that the establishing of Infant Schools is no business of ours. Captain Birch distinctly says that he would have us establish infant schools, if none but the poor were likely to frequent them. This is a complete departure from our whole plan. Our principle is to give a liberal education to persons in such a rank of life that they have leisure to receive it; and I never can consent to employ any part of the fund devoted to that purpose in keeping the infants of coolies out of harm’s way, while their parents are at work. The object may be good. The intentions of those who promote it, doubtless are so. But it is no object for us. The Fever Hospital is good and the District Society is good. But neither has the smallest claim on the funds appropriated for public instruction.
I altogether differ from Mr. Trevelyan in thinking that we ought to try whether the higher classes will, send their children to infant schools by setting up an infant school. I cannot admit that it is only in this way that the experiment can be tried. There is an Infant School Society. Let us ask them from what class of the population the children who frequent their schools come.As to the corrupting influence of the zenana, of which Mr. Trevelyan speaks, I may regret it. But I own that I cannot help thinking that the dissolution of the tie between parent and child is as great a moral evil as can be found in any zenana. In whatever degree then infant schools relax that tie, they do mischief. In whatever degree they leave the child to the care of its family, the corrupting influence of the zenana continues. There is a great deal of moral corruption which we pass by as quite harmless, because it does not shock our sense of decorum. For my own part I would rather hear a boy of three years old lisp all the bad words in the language than that he should have no feelings of family affection—that his character should be that which must be expected in one who has had the misfortune of having a school master in place of a mother.
In any case we cannot possibly adopt Mr. Trevelyan’s proposition without a reference to Government. Neither in the Act of Parliament, nor in any of the instructions which we have received from Government, is there any expression which can be twisted into a permission to set up schools of this sort. We might as well give our funds to a riding school.—[Book L. page 151.] 10th August, 1837.
Encouragement to the Vernacular Language in schools as it has been encouraged in the Courts.—I agree with the Secretary, except that I think that it would be premature to ground any circular on a draft which is only published for general information, and which may never be passed, or may be passed with modifications.—[Book L. page 179.] 15th September, 1837.
The amount of knowledge of the Vernacular language to be required from English Masters.—I agree. But I think that it is quite necessary to bear in mind that the accurate knowledge of the vernacular language, though desirable, is by no means an indispensible qualification for a teacher of English. Many of the Committee probably learned French, I did for one, from a master who had only just such a smattering of English as enabled him to call for what he wanted.—I should be glad if all our masters could pass Mr. Trevelyan’s examination. But the third point as to which he proposes that they should be examined seems to me the most important by far; and I am half inclined to recommend the omission of the second. Certainly I should not think it desirable that an English Master who can communicate with his scholars so as to be understood should spend much of his time in learning to write Bengali or Hindoostanee.
I think also that Mr. Trevelyan a little overrates the importance of accustoming pupils to explain every English word accurately in their own language. This is the way in which mere beginners proceed. But, after a certaip time, it is not a good way of proceeding. To think in the language which we learn is the great object. A good French scholar never translates in his mind, he thinks in French. And I have no doubt that our native pupils who speak and write English best think in English, and would often be utterly unable to turn into Bengali a sentence of Locke or Hume which they understand as well as we do. I have suggested a slight alteration in pencil.—[Book L. page 202.] 12th December, 1837.
The Supreme Government request advice as to the best means of promoting instruction in Civil Engineering.—I am rather inclined to think that the best course would be to establish a school of Engineering and Surveying at Calcutta. It might be formed on a plan somewhat similar to that of the Medical College; though at a smaller expense. I should think it pernicious to connect it with the Hindu College, because the Hindu College admits only Hindus and is closed against Mahomedans, East Indians, Europeans, Parsees, and other classes. I would follow as nearly as possible the pattern of the Medical College, except that I would give no stipends. Young men now study medicine at the Medical College, while their general education is still going on at the Hindu College. The first student at the Hindu College was a favorite pupil of Dr. Baily. In the same manner, young men may attend the school of Surveying and Civil Engineering while they are still studying at the Hindu College or at the Madrassa.
I would also institute a class of students of Surveying and Civil Engineering at the Hooghly College, as the funds will afford it. This is all that now occurs to me.—[Book O. page 113.] 19th May, 1837.
Surveying.— I have every disposition to encourage Surveying, but I cannot consent to make it obligatory on every student of the higher classes at the Hindu College that he shall qualify himself to be a Surveyor, I think that the right course is to give a good general education and to make it obligatory on the students to attend to those pursuits without which they cannot be good surveyors, good physicians or good judges. But I would no more require them all to learn surveying, than I would require them all to learn physic or to learn law. The best student at the Hindu College is also a distinguished student at the Medical College. Would it be reasonable to require him to study surveying as well as medicine?
A certain knowledge of mathematics is an essential part of a liberal education. But expertness in surveying land is of little use to a person who is to be a physician or a vakeel. And the only effect of our compelling a Medical student to practice surveying would probably be, that we should make him a very indifferent physician and a very indifferent surveyor.—[Book O. page 127.] 8th July, 1837.
Surveying.—I do not object to the proposed letter. My opinion is that if the Government will provide a good instructor or instructors, a proper apparatus and a place for meeting, a large surveying class will soon be formed. I think this a much better course than to connect the study of surveying with the existing schools. Such a general surveying class as I spoke of would include the Hindus, Mahomedans and Christians. If we form a surveying class at the Hindu College, that class will contain only Hindoos. If we form one at the Madrassa it will contain only Mahomedans. The expense of forming a really good surveying class at either of those institutions would probably be nearly as great as the expense of forming a class such as I propose, which would include students of all races and religions.—[Book O. page 131.] 21st July, 1837.
Application for a Mastership.—Mr. —————— seems indeed to be so little concerned about proselytising, that he does not even know how to spell the word, a circumstance which, if I did not suppose it to be a slip of the pen, I should think a more serious objection than the Reverend which formerly stood before his name. I am quite content with his assurances.—[Book M. page 144.] 2nd September, 1837.
School library available to the public.—I would allow strangers to take books under such regulations as may protect the interest of the school which is the first object, but I would in all such cases require a payment to be applied to the purpose of buying fresh books.—[Book O. page 186.] 8th August, 1837.
Proposed increase of the Secretary's Salary.—Mr. Sutherland states very correctly that of late his duties have increased, and no addition has been made to the salary of his office. But after considering the whole subject with a most sincere desire to do justice both to our Secretary and to the public, I cannot say that I should feel myself justified in proposing an increase. The question of course is to be considered not merely as it affects an existing incumbent, but generally. For it is much easier to keep a salary down than to cut it down when it has been increased. The real point to be determined is whether, in the existing state of the demand and supply of intellectual labour in India, 500 Rupees a month and a house, (for that I think is the present remuneration of our Secretary) be sufficient to procure good and efficient services.
It is to be remembered that the business of our Secretary by no means occupies the whole of the principal part of the time an industrious man is able to devote to business. Mr. Sutherland, as we all know finds it possible to unite the discharge of his duties as Secretary with other very laborious pursuits. I should imagine from what I see of the business that it would not require, on an average, two hours a day. And the business differs from the business of a public officer of a Court of law, in this very important circumstance, that it is business for which a man can chuse (sic) his time. Mr. Prinsep must be at Council at eleven on Wednesday. The Chief Justice must be in Court on a certain day at a certain hour. Mr. Trevelyan must attend the Board of Revenue regularly for a certain time. But the Secretary of the Education Committee can chuse his own day and hour for doing his work,—can, if he pleases transact it before breakfast, or keep it for the evening, clear it off day by day, or suffer it to accumulate during a few days, while he is engaged with other business and then clear it off by giving one uninterrupted morning to it.
Considering these things, and considering that the salary of our Secretary and the other advantages which he has amount very nearly to the pay of a Chaplain of the Company, I can hardly think that an increase is necessary. I am inclined to think that many qualified men both in the Civil and Military Services, would be heartily glad to obtain, such an addition to their incomes, and would find it possible to spare from their other avocations time sufficient for the proper performance of the duties.
I fully admit the value of Mr. Sutherland's services as an examiner; and I admit also that it is a description of work which requires skill and knowledge. But the salary, as now fixed, would be immoderately high, if it were paid for any but a very high description of labour. It is only because literary and scientific acquirements are required in our Secretary, that his remuneration is so large as it is. For if drafting letters of business and keeping our accounts were all that we require, we might certainly have those duties well performed for a smaller salary by a very inferior person.
If my colleagues differ from me, I shall have real pleasure in seeing myself out voted.
But, as at present advised, I shall not think myself justified in recommending any change.
I approve of what is proposed as to the establishment of new Schools.—[3][Book O. page 139.] 18th August, 1837.The Secretary’s duties.—I shall be truly glad to join with Sir Benjamin Malkin in doing any thing in my power which may serve to lighten the Secretary labours.—[Book O. page 153.] 18th August, 1837.
Masters of schools ought not to be the Secretaries of Local Committees.—I agree with Mr. Sutherland in thinking that the master ought not to be Secretary, if anybody else can be found.—[Book O. page 137.] 8th August, 1837.
Donations for prizes.—I think that it is always best, as the proverb says, not to look a gift horse in the mouth. I would let the donation be invested, and the interest expended in the manner proposed, subject always to our general rules as to the number of prizes; rules which, as they were framed not on grounds of economy, but with a view to the greater efficiency of our system of education, ought not to be infringed merely because our friends are willing to bear the expense of infringing them.—[Book P. page 36.] 4th August, 1837.
The employment of educated natives.—This is a most important question, and surrounded with difficulties on every side. I have thought much about it; and can come to no conclusion satisfactory to my own mind. I very much wish that Mr. Shakespeare, and other gentlemen practically acquainted with the working of the existing system would give their opinions first. My opinion, such as it is, is altogether founded on general reasonings, and on what I have seen in a state of society very different from that which exists in India.—[Book O. page 166.] 4th November, 1837.
The employment of educated natives.—I vote for Mr. Mangles’s proposal, as modified by Mr. Bird’s suggestion.
I should, I own, greatly dislike any plan which gave to our pupils a monopoly of public employments, or which tended to separate them from the body of their countrymen. The education which they receive necessarily has, to a considerable degree, this latter tendency; and this is a set off against the advantages of that education. We mean these youths to be conductors of knowledge to the people, and it is of no use to fill the conductors with knowledge at one end, if you separate them from the people at the other.
It is absolutely necessary that these young men, should, to a certain degree, be estranged from their countrymen by the mode in which they are brought up. It is impossible, but that this estrangement should produce the effects which Mr. Shakespeare points out, and which we all admit. We should I fear, increase the evil if on emerging from their schools they are regularly admitted into situations carefully reserved for them alone, into situations for which none of their countrymen are suffered even to be candidates. But it does not appear to me that Mr. Mangles’s proposition modified as Mr. Bird suggests, is open to this objection. I therefore am disposed to adopt it.
As to jobbing and favouritism, I defy any human being to shew any manner in which this system can possibly tend to increase jobbing or favouritism. The objections to it are of quite a different kind. It has no tendency whatever to enable men in power to promote unfit candidates for office. The danger is that it may prevent men in power from promoting people whom they know to be deserving, but who have not the prescribed diploma. It is a check on the freedom of the dispensers of patronage, and like all such checks, tends to render favouritism more difficult. It is in this respect analogous to the rules which limit the amount of salary to be drawn by young Civil Servants, and the number of officers who may be taken from duty with a regiment, for staff employment. These rules may be good or bad, but every body knows that they render it much more difficult than it would otherwise be for a Governor to gratify his favourites.
It is true that, under the proposed system, favouritism and jobbing may still be practised,—if there should be collusion between the dispensers of patronage and the examiners. But in the first place it is in the highest degree improbable that there will be such collusion. In the next place, if there should be such collusion in every case, we still shall be only where we now are. The worst that can happen will be that unfit men will be appointed after a pretended examination. Under the present system they may be appointed without any examination at all.
When I express my assent to Mr. Mangles’s proposition, I do not mean that I agree with him in thinking that lectures on Jurisprudence and Political Economy ought to he instituted at our great schools. It may be very true that elementary knowledge is better than no knowledge. But the danger is that what may be taught may be not elementary truth, but positive error. Elementary knowledge in reading may be taught by a very ignorant person. A and B, are written and pronounced in the same way by the most learned scholar and by the most foolish old woman. It is the same with the elements of Arithmetic. A very inferior man may be able to teach addition and multiplication as well as Sir Isaac Newton. But I do not see that there is any thing in such sciences as Political Economy and Jurisprudence which is analogous to the horn-book and the multiplication table. The greatest men who have written on those sciences are at variance about the very first principles. It is rather amusing and may be useful to observe that Mr. Mangles selects a particular proposition as an instance of the very important truths which Political Economy will teach. Colonel Young strongly seconds the proposal for teaching Political Economy, but declares, that, as soon as the boys understand Political Economy they will perceive the fallacy of the very proposition which, as Mr. Mangles thinks, is one of the most certain truths in Political Economy. Now it is clear that we are not at all likely to have at any out-station, or indeed at Calcutta, so good a teacher of Political Economy as either of our friends, one of whom must necessarily be in the wrong on a question admitted to be of the highest moment. It is therefore to be expected that any teachers whom we may employ will often teach wrong doctrines on questions of the highest moment. Is it desirable to employ teachers for this purpose? Would Mr. Mangles himself like to have thirty gentlemen preaching Colonel Young’s doctrines to our pupils? Or does he think that our School-masters are likely to be better teachers than Colonel Young? I might ask Colonel Young the same questions about Mr. Mangles. I am for leaving these subjects alone, not because I think ignorance better than a little knowledge, but because I think ignorance better than error.—[Book O. page 198.] 30th December, 1837.
[4]College Examinations.—I will examine. But I fear that I shall not be here long enough to see the essays, which will be sent in some time later. I should be glad to be spared till after Christmas day, as I am much employed in the mornings at present.
As to the examination at Hooghly, I should think Mr. Marshman perfectly qualified to examine, and the proposed remuneration seems reasonable.—[Book P. page 55.] 15th December, 1837.
Mr. Bird’s accession to the Committee.—Mr. Bird’s services would be valuable in any Sub-Committee. I had intended to propose him as a member of the Sub-Committee of finance. But I do not see why we might not add him to both. At present he belongs to none.—[Book L. page 190.] 23rd November, 1837.
Establishment of new schools.—Bareilly and Furruckabad would seem to be better entitled to attention than any of the other places which have applied. I would propose that schools should be established there and that the Sub-Committee for the choice of School-masters should be requested to select teachers. I think 300 Rupees each should be the maximum. I cannot depend much on my own judgment as to what remains to be done. But I doubt whether Sabathoo be a place of sufficient importance. I have made a proposition elsewhere about Sehore. On the whole I think that Rajshahai has as fair a claim as any district: I would propose that a school be established there, and that a master be selected by the Sub-committee. Two hundred and fifty rupees a month ought, I think, to be the maximum expense of this school.
We shall then have at least 650 Rs. left at our disposal, and I am inclined to think that we cannot employ this sum to more advantage than by founding a school at Ajmere. That is, I think, the most important place within the sphere of our operations for which nothing has yet been done.
A head master and an Assistant would be required at Ajmere. We might therefore authorize the Sub-Committee to go as far as 450 Rs. for both. It ought to be definitely understood that all contracts with us are to be in Company’s rupees.
The suggestions of the Sub-Committee seem to me to be generally deserving of adoption.—[Book K. page 32.] 26th February, 1836.
Exclusion of boys of low parentage at Bhaugulpore.—I do not understand why the number of pupils of low country parentage should be limited in the manner described in the 4th paragraph of the letter of the Local Committee. No such distinctions ought to be tolerated in any School supported by us.—[Book K. page 25.] 11th February, 1836.
Hill school at Bhagulpore.—The account may require time. But the estimate of what will be wanted for the future may surely be made at once. I should imagine that one English teacher of the lowest class that we employ and one teacher of the Vernacular language would suffice. A hundred and fifty rupees would I think be the maximum that we should ask.—[Book N. page 44.] 24th August, 1836.
Bhagulpore Hill school.—That this school is at present absolutely useless, and that we might as well throw our 300 Rs. a month into the Hooghly, seems clear.
Nothing but a thorough recasting of the whole can do any good; and I have some doubts as to our competency to make so extensive a change without a previous reference to the Government. I should recommend that we should apply to Government for authority to deal with this school in whatever manner may seem to us most likely to improve it. When we have obtained this permission, we may proceed to make now arrangements.—[Book M. page 83.] 30th December, 1836.Bhagulpore school for the Hill Tribes.—I see no reason for giving an opinion. Indeed my own opinion, if I were considering the question merely as a question of education, would be, that there were many places where schools might be more beneficially established. The Hill school is maintained on political grounds, of which we are not to judge. I would forward the application without comment.—[Book L. page 197.] 24th November, 1837.
The Master of Bhaugulpore English School resigns, because he cannot get a house.—This is exceedingly vexatious. I should be inclined to advise the building of a School-house with rooms for the master as speedily as possible. We determined to lay out 50,000 Rupees which lately came into our hands as a windfall in this way. And there can be no stronger case.—[Book N. page 95.] 24th May, 1837.
Bhaugulpore English School.—The questions raised by this minute of the Secretary are so closely connected with the statement which we may expect to receive immediately from the Sub-Committee of Finance, that it would perhaps be the most regular course to let the whole lie over, till we receive that statement. As, however, the discussion has been opened, I will give my opinion.
I must premise that we have at our disposal a monthly surplus of more than 900 Rupees.
I am very much disposed immediately to set up a school at Bhagulpore, and to desire Mr. Ridge to remain there. Mr. Brown should also be proposed to Government for the Local Committee. There are strong reasons for establishing schools by preference at stations where we can reckon on the cordial co-operation of important functionaries: and this seems to be the case at Bhagulpore.—[Book N. page 118.] 2nd August, 1837.
Delhi College.—I am as little disposed as Mr. Sutherland to expect much from the arrangements which have been made at Delhi. I have no confidence in Mr. Taylor’s co-operation, and should be glad to be rid of him altogether. But this is impossible. If he is to remain in our employment, and if his son is to be head master, I think that what has been proposed, and what I understood to be resolved upon, is as good an arrangement as we can make. At all events I think that Mr. Ridge will, at the present moment, be more useful at Bhagulpore than any where else; and Mr. Pereira can remain for the present at Futtyghur.
I am decidedly favorable to the proposition for establishing a school at Azimghur. The arrangements about the master properly belong to the Sub-Committee for School-masters.I am less eager about Arrah, though I cannot agree with Mr. Sutherland that we ought to do nothing at a place, because we find that the friends of education are already doing something there from their private means. As Mr. Dent says that Mr. Macleod the master, who appears from his letter to be a person of respectable qualifications, is well known to some members of our Committee, I should be glad to learn what they think of him.
I defer making any proposition about the disposal of the rest of our surplus, till the financial statement comes before us, which I hope will be very soon.—[Book N. page 118.] 2nd August, 1837.
Payment of the alleged arrears of the personal allowance of the Saugur School Pandit.—I cannot quite agree with Mr. Trevelyan. Whether the personal allowance made to Kessen Rao was too great or not, was a question to be considered when it was determined. To give it him,[5] to omit paying it, and then to tell him that we do not mean to pay arrears because the sum is so large, seems to me a very slovenly and not a very fair mode of proceeding. If his allowance is to be reduced, let it be reduced prospectively, not, as Mr. Trevelyan proposes, retrospectively. The arrears are a debt and cannot be withheld. What is to come may perhaps be under our control.
I agree with Mr. Trevelyan’s other propositions.—[Book K. page 22.] 30th January, 1836.
Saugur School.—If the Saugur fund will not pay the whole of Guru Churn Mitra’s salary, the deficiency must be made up out of our general fund. Any thing is better than to keep him at Benares doing nothing. If the Saugur Fund can afford him only 75 Rs. we shall have 50 Rs. a month to pay. And this is both a cheaper and better arrangement than to give him, as we now do, 100 Rs. a month without any equivalent.—[Book K. page 48.] 8th March, 1836.
Saugur School.—I do not very much like either Mr. Shore’s plan or Mr. Sutherland’s. If we are to lay out upwards of 400 Rupees a month at Saugur, I should think that our best course would be to send thither a master competent to give a really good English education, and to allow him 250 Rupees a month. This is the course which we have followed at Patna, Dacca, and other places: nor do I see why Saugur should be placed under a different system. We shall expend on that district a sum as large as would support one of our best Schools; and we shall, under either of the systems now proposed, give only a second rate or third rate education. For as to Kishen Rao, though a deserving man, he is quite incompetent to supply the place of such a person as Mr. Clift or Mr. Nicholls; and I am rather afraid that the notice taken of his exertions by Government, though honorable to Lord William Bentinck, and likely to produce indirectly many useful effects, has made him conceited and captious.
If it be determined to adopt one of the two plans before us, I am inclined to prefer Mr. Shore’s to Mr. Sutherland’s. I quite agree with Mr. Sutherland that we ought not to fritter away our means on feeble institutions. But the institution now proposed will be feeble, whichever plan we adopt. I think it better to have three feeble institutions than one, the cost being the same. I see no great reason to expect more good from the Saugur School, if organized on Mr. Sutherland’s plan at an expense of 418 Rupees, than if organized on Mr. Shore’s plan at an expense of 215 Rupees.—[Book M. page 16.] 8th April, 1836.
Masters for Saugur School.—I am willing to leave the masters for the present to the Local Committee. But I should direct them to be instructed to report how many hours the Deputy English master attends. A man who takes from us a small salary merely to eke out his income is very likely to make his place a sinecure.—[Book O. page 45.] 17th August, 1836.
Saugur School.—I will try to see Mr. Shore, and to learn what is the best course open to us respecting the Saugur School. In the meantime Mr. Singer can be asked whether lie will take the situation, if it should be offered him on the terms mentioned by Mr. Sutherland. Mr. Trevelyan tells me that he has seen Mr. Shore, who says that they are in great want of a master at Saugur. We had better therefore make the proposition at once to Mr. Singer.—[Book L. page 107.] 25th March, 1837.
Saugur School.—We have been long looking out for a master for this School, and have been unable to find one who would suit us. At last we have made a choice which seems to be unexceptionable: and I would abide by it. We shall not be able to get a tolerable teacher on a smaller salary.
I recommend that the arrangements about Mr. Rao should be hastened as much as possible. We have lost too much time already.—[Book M. page 114.] 8th May, 1837.
Saugur Local Committee.—I conceive that the appointment of Captain Murray requires our sanction, though we are not asked to give it. The matter is a trifle. But we must not relinquish our control over the Local Committee. We may bring this with all delicacy to the notice of Mr. Shore, and may at the same time approve of Captain Murray’s appointment. On second thoughts, I recollect that the sanction of the Governor-General in Council, as well as ours, is necessary to Captain Murray’s appointment. We had better apply for that sanction.—[Book M. page 50.] 8th July, 1836.
Local Subscriptions towards the salary of a Head Master.—I should prefer a different course. Suppose that we offer to pay half the salary of an English Master, if the other half can be raised by subscription in Sehore or the neighbourhood of it. I have the greatest respect for Mr. Wilkinson: but I am not sure that his opinions quite agree with those which we entertain respecting the mode of educating the natives: and I think therefore that we ought strictly to tie up whatever we may vote.—[Book J. page 57.] 25th February, 1836.
An English School in Bundelcund.—Bundelcund has considerable claims. But before we decide, we had better communicate with some person there,—Mr. Simon Fraser for instance. We might ask that gentleman whether a school for teaching both English and the Vernacular languages would be likely to succeed.—[Book N. page 26.] 21st June, 1836.
Jubbulpore School.—I tbink that at all events the rule about the exclusion from the English class of boys who cannot read the Vernacular language ought to have been submitted to us. What right the Hon’ble Agent, as the master calls him, had to give any such express order, I do not understand.—[Book N. page 72.] 18th March, 1837.
A Grant-in-Aid Subathoo School.—I would not return a positive refusal. Our funds will increase every six months by the falling in of stipends, and in a very short time, if not immediately, it will be in our power to do something for the school at Subathoo.—[Book K. page 6.] 26th December, 1835.
A diplomatic letter about Meerut School.—I hardly see what we can do more about Mr. Blunt. I shall be glad if Mr. Sutherland can frame a letter in the true diplomatic style, which shall mean very little, and shall appear to mean a great deal.
As to the school-house, I think that we may venture to ask Government to let us have the premises rent-free till they are wanted for the public service. At worst, we can only draw on ourselves a refusal.—[Book M. page 1.] 27th February, 1836.
Salaries at Meerut School.—I greatly doubt whether we can obtain a good master for 200 Rupees; and I should like to know more about Mr. Harris before I consent to secure his services by diminishing the salary of the person at the head of the school. I propose that the question should be referred to the Sub-Committee for the selection of School-masters, but that the Sub-Committee should be instructed to make no arrangement which may cause an increase of charge, without a reference to the General Committee.—[Book O. page 15.] 9th June, 1836.
Meerut School Examination.—Highly satisfactory. I see the Local Committee ask for a Master in the Vernacular language. I would allow them one, and let them chuse (sic) him. I should be obliged to any gentleman acquainted with that part of the country, who would suggest what he thinks would be a reasonable salary.—[Book K. page 121.] 30th January, 1837.
The Meerut Committee suspend Mr. Halford for causing two European boys to be punished.—I would instantly expel the offending boys. I must own that I think Mr. Halford’s conduct by no means inexcusable. If any power of correction at all be given to a master, this is one of the cases in which the exercise of that power seems to be justifiable. If the Local Committee think that the transaction is likely to make Mr. Halford’s services less useful at Meerut, I would find another situation for him. But I really do not think that what has passed, is morally discreditable to him: nay, I do not think that it ought to lead us to pronounce him an indiscreet person.—[Book N. page 91.] 15th May, 1837.
Transfer of Masters from one place to another.—I do not very strongly object to Mr. Sutherland’s proposition about this difficult matter. But I cannot help feeling that we are a little too indulgent to the whims of the people in our employ. We pay a large sum to send a master to an up-country station. He dislikes the place. The Collector is uncivil; the Surgeon quarrels with him: and he must be moved. The expenses of another journey have to be defrayed. Another man is to be transferred from a place where he is comfortable and useful. Thus we have a collection of rolling-stones which, as the proverb says, gather no moss. Our masters run from station to station at our cost, as vapourish ladies at home run about from spa to spa. It is desirable to make a stand. It does not much matter whether we make it on this occasion. But it must speedily be made. All situations have their discomforts: and there are times when we all wish that our lot had been cast in some other line of life or in some other place. But necessity forces people to make the best of what they have got; and they become contented because it is of no use to them to be otherwise. I fear that we encourage our masters to be capricious and fastidious; and I think that we should b8 wiser if we were a little more hard masters.
Now would Mr. Pereira like the change? His taste surely ought to be consulted as much as Mr. Halford’s.On the whole I am rather for leaving Mr. Halford where he is. As to the other points, I agree with the Secretary.—[Book M. page 134.] 29th August, 1837.
Furruckabad School. I would not give up the school; and, in order to give our experiment there a fair chance of success I would authorize the Local Committee to procure, if they can, another school-house. But I cannot consent to send an assistant to a school where there are only 34 pupils. As to salary to Dr. Tytler it is out of the question. But we may send him books as Mr. Sutherland suggests.—[Book M. page 157.] 17th October, 1837.
Dr. Login’s proposal to assist some schools in the Deccan.—I fear not. The schools, two of them at least, for I cannot make out the name of the third station, are out of the Company’s territories. It also appears that religious instruction is imparted: and whatever disposition we may feel to assist such efforts in our individual capacity, we cannot have any thing to do with them as agents for the Government.—[Book L. page 14.] 15th April, 1836.
Patna School expends money without sanction.—I do not think the explanation quite satisfactory. But as the Local Committee meant well,—as they have a good right to our confidence; as it would be inexpedient to discourage them, placed as they are in perhaps the most discouraging situation in Bengal,—and as there is little chance that the error will be committed again, I would not pass any censure on what has been done.—[Book L. page 50.] 5th August, 1836.
Promotion of Second Masters.—We must be on our guard against allowing second Masters to step as a matter of course into the situations of first Masters on vacancies. There is the more danger of this because the second Master, unless there is some strong objection to him, will generally be able to induce the Local Committee to recommend him from good nature. I would refer the question to the Sub-Committee for the choice of School-masters, who must know more than I do about Mr. Fowles. All that I know is that, last year, he was not thought qualified for one of the higher Masterships. He is not very likely to have improved himself much more, and Patna is a peculiarly delicate and important situation.—[Book K. page 97.] 30th October, 1836.
Chittagong School.—I would gladly pay a school-master at Chittagong. But it appears that we shall have also to build a school-house: and I doubt whether our finances are in a condition at this moment to support this additional expense. I would therefore answer Mr. Dampier as Mr. Sutherland proposes.Since I wrote the above, Mr. Smith has sent me a memorandum of the state of our finances, from which it appears, that we can afford something for Chittagong. l am disposed to allow 150 Rupees a month for a master there.—[Book L. page 54.] 9th September, 1836.
Chittagong School.—Mr. * * * seems to be a very weak, foolish person. I agree with Mr. Sutherland in thinking that his being a Baptist is no reason for discarding him. But his foolish and disrespectable way of living, the evident dislike with which the Local Committee regard him, and his inefficiency as a master, are I think reasons for parting with him. I should be glad to know the opinion of the gentlemen who selected him.
I think that there could be no impropriety in our writing to Government to recommend Mr. Dampier’s application to favorable consideration.—[Book N. page 73.] 18th March, 1837.
Chittagong School Endowment.—I am anxious that the sum should belong and should be known to belong to Chittagong School. In what mode it may most conveniently be brought to account is a question which I am incompetent to decide. But I see no advantage in remitting backwards and forwards.—[Book P. page 38.] 14th August, 1837.
Chittagong School.—Have we a good Bengalee teacher in Chittagong? How many pupils has he? Does he want assistance? I should be obliged to Mr. Sutherland to circulate the last information on these points. All that we can do is, as he justly says, to provide the means of instruction; but thus called upon, we shall be much to blame if we do not see that they are really provided.—[Book N. page 135.] 26th August, 1837.
Comillah School.—I vote for adopting this School, and for asking the gentlemen who form the present voluntary Committee to consent to our recommending them to Government as an official Local Committee. As the Board of Revenue has pressed on us the importance of teaching pure Bengali in Chittagong, I would ask the Local Committee whether the present teacher is competent to teach that language in its purity.—[Book P. page 42.] 25th August, 1837.
Arracan School.—To abolish the school at Furrackabad without a longer trial appears to me inexpedient. And if it were transferred to Cawnpore, we should save nothing. Such an arrangement would therefore not enable us to do anything for Arracan. I would certainly adopt Mr. Sutherland's last suggestion and forward the paper of Captain Boyle to Government. It is very interesting. But I hardly know how to reconcile what he says of the freedom of the Mughs from religious prejudices with the vast power which the priests seem to exercise over the education of the whole nation: and I strongly suspect that we shall find these meek holy Phoonjees rather formidable opponents.—[Book L. page 191.] 21st October, 1837.
Application to place Midnapore School under the Educational Department.—Before deciding on this point, I should like to know whether there is a school-house which we could have without paying for it, or whether we should be under the necessity of building or hiring one.
The books may be supplied.—[Book M. page 65.] 12th September, 1836.
Ghazipore School Report.—We ought to applaud the zeal and perseverance of the Ghazipore Committee and to assure them that we shall not be discouraged by the unfavorable appearances which they report.—[Book K. page 19.] 30th Jan. 1836.
Ghazipore Local Committee.—The Local Committee is remarkably zealous and active: and the prospects of the school seem to be brightening. The progress which the pupils have made is as rapid, I think, as there was any ground to expect.—[Book O. page 73.] 13th January, 1837.
Allahabad School, Rupees 60 as house-rent and free quarters both recommended for the head-master.—The Local Committee seem to deserve our confidence so well, Mr. Bird’s judgment is entitled to so much respect, and Allahabad is so important a place, that though there are some objections to this manner of making an addition to a salary, I am disposed to comply.—[Book N. page 52.] 22nd November, 1836.
Encouragement of Hindi at Allahabad.—I would not abolish the Persian class. Let it live till it dies a natural death. But let us by all means improve the Hindi school. I do not see why both the Hindi and Persian schools might not he transferred to the new English school-house, and I would willingly grant all the rent that is saved by this arrangement to the Hindi department.—[Book M. page 116.] 8th May, 1837.
Salary of Head Master of Gowhati School raised.—I would raise Mr. Singer’s salary to Rupees 200 a month, and I would approve of the payments that have been made for prizes. The statement is encouraging.—[Book K. page 29.] 25th February, 1836. Teaching Persian in Assam.—I quite agree with Mr. Sutherland. I would not suffer any portion of the hours for which we pay Mr. Singer to be employed in teaching Persian, nor would I send him any Persian books.
I am no judge about furniture. But it seems strange that it should be necessary to send to Calcutta.—[Book K. page 54.] 19th March, 1836.Gowhatti School. Economy in the use of paper.—As to the indent for paper, it seems to me very high. It is more than a quire for every pupil. I feel certain that the great majority of the boys may, for a long time to come, do very well with slates. At all events the paper which we send for boys to scrawl upon, should be the coarsest and cheapest.—[Book J. page 119.] 29th August, 1836.
Sasseram Madrussa.—I am in great doubt as to this matter. I feel the force of the considerations urged in the letter which Mr. Sutherland proposes. Yet I am very unwilling to refuse support to an English school at a place where the natives shew so much desire to study our language.
I am inclined to propose that before we return an answer to Government, a reference should be made to the Local Committee at Benares. Sasseram is not very far from Benares and lies on the high road. There is constant intercourse between the two places. The Benares Committee could probably tell us whether an English school would be likely to thrive at Sasseram, and whether it would be possible to provide for the occasional inspection of such a school by some English gentleman. Regular superintendence there cannot be. But as many persons of high character are often travelling to and from Benares through Saseeram, it strikes me as possible that we might make such arrangements as would enable us to receive from time to time reports of the state of the School from quarters in which we could confide.
All this I submit with great diffidence to the judgment of those who know more of this country.—[Book M. page 47,] 8th July, 1836.
Sasseram Madrussa.—Having perused Mr. Smith’s minutes, for which we are all much obliged to him, I vote for sending an answer to the Government to the effect, that we do not think an English school likely to thrive at Sasseram, and that we are unwilling to employ any part of our funds in such an undertaking.—[Book M. page 55.] 14th July, 1836.
Monitors at the Calcutta Madrussa.—We must take care not to revive the abuses of the old stipendiary system under another name. I do not object to paying monitors, provided it is distinctly understood that the monitorships be given on examination to the best scholars, and that they be hold only for a term which ought in no case to exceed a year, and that they be then again open to competition.—[Book N. page 2.] 15th April, 1836.
Increase of stipends in the Calcutta Madrussa.—Our practice must be uniform. My own opinion is expressed in the papers sent up from the Sub-Committee. I see no reason to change it as to the general principle. But in this particular case as the right may be said to have vested before the promulgation of the Government Orders, I would sanction the promotion.—[Book K. page 80.] 8th July, 1836.
Petition for money prizes instead of books at the Madrussa.—I hardly know what to say. If it be desirable to keep up this school at all, it seems to be desirable to reward merit in the way most acceptable to the students. I am rather disposed to grant their prayers.—[Book R page 3.] 24th February, 1837.
Unsatisfactory state of the rich Nizamut College at Moorshedabad.— Mr. Sutherland describes very correctly the inefficient state of the Moorshedabad school and the delay which has taken place. We must absolutely put an end to this unsatisfactory state of things. I trust that Captain Higgerson will send us his assistance for that purpose. I should wish to see an exact statement of the way in which the funds are now expended. I presume that such a statement can easily be procured within a few days; When we see what money we have at our command, we can frame a plan and carry it into effect instantly.—[Book L. page 6.]; 18th March, 1836.
Nizamut College.—I have suggested one slight alteration. I quite approve of the proposed letter generally. I entertain better hopes for the College than Mr. Sutherland, and am quite willing to pardon Mr. ——————’s prolixity in consideration of his zeal.—[Book L. page 41.] 30th June, 1836.
Moorshedabad Local Committee.—I agree with Mr. Sutherland in thinking that the Secretary must exercise a discretion as to re-circulating the books; and I think that he was right in re-circulating them on this occasion. The only thing that seems to me irregular is this,—that we resolved to consult Mr. Melville only as to the appointment of Mr. Elliot. We did not desire Mr. Melville to recommend anybody else. I therefore cannot agree with Mr. Prinsep in thinking that we are at all bound by the recommendation of the Local Committee.
I think that the best way out of the difficulty is to appoint both gentlemen, unless there be some objection to them. No such objection appears.—[Book O. page 99.] 5th April, 1837.
School house at Benares.—I think it very desirable that the Custom House at Benares should if possible be procured from Government for a school house. Perhaps some gentlemen acquainted with Benares can tell us whether the premises are the property of Government and whether they would answer our purpose. In the mean time I would stay all further proceedings.—[Book K. page 52.] 18th March, 1836. Benares School Essays.—I think the samples very respectable. Siva Suhagur’s seems to me to be the best. It is very creditable for a lad of fifteen, who has been admitted only five years. I propose that we should give him a prize of 50 Rupees and 25 Rs. to the other.—[Book K. page 24.] 11th February, 1836.
Benares School-house.—By all means, if by making this application we do not bind ourselves always to employ the executive officers. Sometimes, at Agra for example just now, we may find it convenient to contract with private parties.—[Book N. page 9.] 7th May, 1836.
Benares College Library.—This is discouraging. But I trust that we shall have means to supply the deficiency. We ought I think to consider the windfalls which come to us occasionally from a new-made Rajah and so forth as a peculiar fund for the purchase of books.—[Book K. page 71.] 1st June, 1836.
The Law Professorship of the Benares Sanscrit College.—I have no objection to what Mr. Sutherland proposes about the Benares Pundits, unless indeed there be in upper India any qualified person not among the candidates to whom the situation might be an object. I should have thought that there would be many such.—[Book N. page 167.] 25th November, 1837.
Division of the rich from the poor at the Benares College.—I am inclined to adopt the proposition of the Local Committee without the reservation proposed by Mr. Sutherland. The dividing of the pupils into two classes, the one consisting of the rich and the other of the poor, must be a difficult matter; and, if society in India be not altogether in a different state from that which exists in Europe, must produce great evils.—[Book L. page 207.] 28th December, 1837.
Agra College.—I am no judge of the price of building in this country. But 10,000 Rupees for two Bungalows seems to be high. I think that we had better authorize an outlay of Rupees 8,000 and direct the Local Committee not to exceed that sum without a reference to us.—[Book K. page 27.]
Estimate for Agra College Bungalows.—It seems to me that we should act most absurdly in sanctioning this estimate. The house would have cost only 11,000 rupees. The bungalows, if I remember rightly, were preferred to the house solely on the ground of economy; and we are now called upon to pay for them nearly 4000 Rupees more than were asked for the house.
I would not sanction this expenditure. It seems to me impossible that all those members of the Committee here who are well acquainted with the Mofussil, and all the members of the Local Committee should have been so egregiously mistaken in their estimate of the cost of running up bungalows.
I have had abundant opportunities of learning since I have been in this country that some of the executive engineers are very unreasonable in their charges, and I cannot help thinking that this must be the case with Captain T——————. I would rather allow house-rent than assent to the proposition of the Lcoal Committee.—[Book K. page 66.] 30th April, 1836.
Donation of Rupees 500 from the Agra Bank.—Yes, if they have no globes. It seems to me that we should not act wisely in throwing a present of this sort, not large in amount, yet very handsomely given, into the general fund and employing it to pay School-masters at Dacca or to buy stationery for Ghazipore. I think that it should be laid out in procuring something which, while it is of use, may also continue for a considerable time, to remind people of the liberal conduct of the Agra Bank. Two handsome globes for the Agra College would do exceedingly well. We might ask the Local Committee what we shall do with the surplus. Some scientific apparatus may perhaps be required.—[Book L. page 17.] 28th April, 1836.
Arabic Teachers at Agra College.—I do not understand from the letter that there are several classes. The Committee speak only of one. But we ought to be fully satisfied that there is not a demand for the services of an Arabic teacher before we recommend to Government the abolition of the office. It is not enough that the Local Committee think, as I think, that the money may be more usefully spent. What we have to ascertain, under the orders of Government is, whether the teacher will have a respectable number of pupils if we appoint him. I think that we should point this out to the Local Committee and call for fuller information.—[Book O. page 12]. 31st May, 1836.
At Agra College, boys of the same creed sit together.—I approve generally.—I quite disapprove of the exacting of payment from Christians as such. As to the separation which Mr. Woollaston has made between Christian and native pupils, I should wish for more information before I decide. We are in the habit of showing considerable indulgence to the prejudices, as we think them, of people whose religion differs from ours; and if the Christians who send their children to school at Agra wish them to sit together, and not to be mingled with the natives, I should be inclined to comply with their wish, just as I would comply with a similar wish on the part of Hindoos or Musalmans. The general rule, however, clearly ought to be that all classes should be treated alike and should be suffered to intermingle freely. I would call for explanation on this and I would inform the Local Committee that only very peculiar circumstances can, in our opinion, justify such a distinction as that which now exists.—[Book L. page 80.] 25th November, 1836.
Agra College. Mr. Duncan, the Secretary having become Principal is required to take his due share in the instruction of the pupils.—At present I think that we can do no more than call for a report setting forth the amount of duty which Mr. Duncan performs and the time which he devotes to it.—[Book L. page 37.] 26th December, 1836.
Meerut School. Head-master’s House.—I would let him have the advance for which he asks. But I see no reason for building him a bungalow. Still less would I repair a bungalow within the lines, from which we may be ejected any day.
Agra College.—Certainly I would not deprive the successful candidate of his prize because he is a Christian. That would be too much in the style of Diocletian who is reprehended very justly, though not very much apropos in Balmokund’s Essay. I would also give Balmokund a prize of 15 Rupees. We must not of course reverse the judgment of the Local Committees. But, as a matter of private taste, I think his Essay the better of the two.
If the Local Committee will mention the names of any natives who are qualified to be added to their body, we may recommend the measure to Government. I will not call such natives Assessors. Let them be members of the Committee if they are fit to be so.
I very generally agree with the propositions of the Secretary.—[Book M. page 107.] 31st March, 1837.
The Principal’s duties at Agra.—I do not see that we can produce much improvement by further interference. We ought to shew, from time to time, that our eyes are open and that we are not absolutely letting every body take his own way. For the rest we must trust to the Local Committees.
As it is intended to teach Chemistry, we had better supply the institution, if it has not yet been done, with copies of Dr. O’Shaughnessy’s work.—[Book M. page 132.] 21st August, 1837.
On the Delhi Committee proposing to re-appoint a Master on probation, Macaulay says:—
“I agree with the Secretary in thinking the course pursued by the Committee at Delhi rather singular. I would agree to what they propose, however. But I would desire them to report to us in a quarter of a year at latest, what measures they have taken for ascertaining Mr. Prest’s fitness for the place, what the result of their enquiries has been.”—[Book E. page 176.] 17th December, 1835.
Delhi College.—The report is highly satisfactory, I am glad to find that my opinion on the subject of stipends is borne out by the facts, I agree generally with Mr. Sutherland. But I am at a loss to understand why pupils should be turned out of the institution at the end of six years. I would propose the immediate abolition of this restriction. I do not mean that any pupil should keep his stipend longer than he is now entitled to keep it. That would be inconsistent with the principles on which we are acting. I mean only that no pupil who is willing, without being paid, to avail himself of the advantages of the education given at Delhi should be limited as to time.
I would give thirty rupees to the author of the best theme. It is a highly creditable performance, every thing considered.—[Book M. page 5.] 1st March, 1836.
Chairs instead of forms for boys of rank at Delhi.—I am not sufficiently acquainted with native usages to give a decided opinion about the chairs. But, unless there be some strong reason for allowing that distinction, of which I am uninformed, I most fully agree with Mr. Sutherland.
I am quite against allowing the stipends to be continued.—[Book N. page 7.] 7th May, 1836.
—————— College Principalship.—I never can agree to pay 1,100 Rupees a month for Mr. —————— services. I will venture to say that we might procure an excellent scholar, a man of considerable literature, from England for less money. Eight hundred rupees a month is the utmost extent to which I can conscientiously go; and considering that we have proposed only 600 for the Principal at the Hooghly College, I doubt whether this is not going too far.—[Book N. page 13.] 2nd June, 1836.
—————— College Committee.—I would give them a flap which should not be gentle, I would give Mr. —————— to understand that he will be dismissed if things go on in this way. He is one of the most expensive agents employed by us; and there is no excuse for this negligence.—[Book M. page 74.] 29th October, 1836,
The Abolition of the useless office of Secretary at Delhi College.—If Mr. —————— declines the office of Principal I would not suffer him to retain that of Secretary. This place of Secretary is a mere sinecure. When we propose to give him an efficient office with an augmentation of salary, he refuses it. I propose that we should intimate to the Local Committee at Delhi our determination on this subject, and suffer Mr. —————— to take his choice.I doubt about the expediency of sending up to Delhi Bengalees from the Hindu College. But if the Sub-committee of School-masters can suggest persons who are likely to be more acceptable at Delhi than Bengalees would be, and to be at the same time good teachers, I would appoint those persons to the situations which are now filled in a manner unsatisfactory to the Local Committee.—[Book O. page 65.]—26th November, 1836.
Delhi College.—I have again looked into this question; and I perceive that Mr. Thompson is among the teachers whose services are to be dispensed with. I do not well understand this. He was educated in Bengal. I have seen letters from him very well expressed, and it is not likely that any youth whom we may send up from Calcutta, will be better acquainted with the English language. I think that we should call on the Local Committee to state distinctly whom they propose to displace, and on what grounds. I am sorry to say that I do not see reason for reposing quite the same confidence in the judgment and temper of our friends at Delhi which I am generally willing to repose in our Local Committees.—[Book O. page 67.] 26th November, 1836.
Delhi College.—In my opinion Mr. Everest shews good grounds for the changes which are proposed among the under masters. I would do nothing till we receive an answer to all the points in the letter of the 12th of December. Such an answer cannot be long delayed. If it does not arrive in a few days, I would suggest that Mr. Sutherland should write again.—[Book M. page 95.] 17th February, 1837.
Delhi College.—I should be inclined to reserve this question till we know whether the arrangement which we proposed respecting Delhi is or is not to be carried into effect in all its parts. It is impossible for us to leave out of our consideration the fact that the father of this Mr. —————— has been for some time holding a sinecure place in the Delhi College. With the father for Secretary, and the son for Master, the College has been going down.
We have found it necessary to propose a new arrangement, which has not yet been acceded to by the father. Till that matter is disposed of, I would make no addition to the salary of the son.—[Book P. page 40.] 25th August, 1837.
Delhi College.—It would have been very desirable that Mr. Pereira should have been directed not to quit Furrackabad till he had been relieved. Ignorant as we are of the state of things at Delhi, I would let him stay, till we have a decisive answer to the question whether our plan is or is not adopted,—[Book N. page 139.] 8th September, 1837.Delhi College.—I really do not know what to propose about this matter. The only thing clear to me is that the Delhi Institution, one of the most important under our care, is going to ruin. We have not, as far as I know, received any answer from Mr. —————— stating whether he is, or is not, willing to accede to the plan proposed by us. And, from many circumstances, I am inclined to despair of any cordial co-operation on his part.
A thought has occurred to me which may possibly be of some service. Our colleague Mr. Colvin, is about to proceed up the country, and will probably pass some time at Delhi in the course of the next spring. He will, to be sure, have much to do. Yet I think that he might be able to find a few hours for the purpose of inquiring into the state of things. I would propose, if he has no objection, to give him visitatorial authority, and to request that he will report to us his opinion as to the arrangements which may be necessary. If I should then be in India, which is not very likely, I should be disposed to place implicit reliance on any opinion which he may form on the spot. At present, in any case, the question must lie over till we have Mr. ——————’s answer.—[Book N. page 146.] 22nd September, 1837.
Delhi College.—The page and book where the information is to be found are not mentioned. What I understood to be resolved was that Mr. —————— was to be principal of the Institution, and that no change whatever was at present to be made in his situation as respects the College: and this I think the best arrangement for the present. Mr. Colvin may be able on the spot to devise a better.—[Book N. page 154.] 1st October, 1837.
Delhi College.—I impute no blame to Mr. Sutherland; but my understanding as to what was determined was the same as Mr. Trevelyan’s. I understand it to be the sense of the Committee that Mr. —————— is, for the present, to give three hours a day to the business of tuition in the English College. I would have this arrangement instantly carried into effect. The rest must wait for Mr. Colvin’s report, which probably will not arrive during the next six months.—[Book N. page 161.] 20th October, 1837.
Dacca College.—I do not dispute Mr. Ridge’s claims. But I fear that we are spending money too fast. If we have stipulated to pay 500 rupees a month, I would make this increase. But if we merely mentioned 500 Rs. a month as a maximum which we did not mean to exceed, I should be inclined to hesitate. Perhaps the best course would be to refer the point to the Sub-Committee of Finance.—[Book M. page 26.] 19th May, 1836.
Increase of the Instructive staff at Dacca.—I would certainly refer this letter to the Local Committee. I think that it would be proper for us to direct all the Local Committees to let us know whenever the demand for instruction at any place exceeds the supply. But for this letter of Ramlochun Ghose, I should not have had the least notion that such was the case at Dacca.—[Book O. page 58.] 12th November, 1836.
Dacca Local Committee.—This seems to me an idle punctilio. If Ramlochun Ghose were in the employ of the Local Committee, there might be some ground for the objection. But he is under no obligation to tell us any thing and we may surely let him chuse his own way of serving us. Perhaps, as the Local Committee seem disposed to be captious, we had better drop the subject.—[Book O. page 71.] 9th January, 1837.
Dacca Local Committee.—An exceedingly satisfactory report. I approve of what Mr. Sutherland proposes. We may consult the Local Committee about the expediency of adding any natives to their body. I am not sanguine as to contributions.—[Book O. page 81.] 14th February, 1837.
The Secretary reports that there is no money available to establish a School at Dinagepore.—Is this so? I would send to the Sub-Committee of Finance to know whether all our funds are appropriated.—[Book N. page 164.] 9th November, 1837.
Funds not available for Dinagepore School.—I do not understand the decision of Government as Mr. Sutherland understands it. In substance our receipts all belong to a common fund. But in form we draw separately for different parts of our income. As to the rest I agree with the Secretary.—[Book N. page 170.] 8th December, 1837.
Proposal to purchase 150 copies of Playfair’s Euclid, Calcutta Edition.—I do not object. But it is a great pity that the diagrams are separated from the propositions. They are also most deplorably ill drawn. The squares are most whimsical trapeziums.—[Book G. page 4.] 10th February, 1835.
Oriental books for the Juanpore School.— I think that we should send such of the Persian and Arabic works applied for as we have in our depository. But I would not make any purchases of such works for the Juanpore School.—[Book G. page 5.] 21st February, 1835.
Oriental books for Benares.—As we have the books, we cannot do any thing better with them than to give them to these applicants.—[Book G. page 9.] 6th March, 1835.The importance of Geography as compared with a knowledge of the Stars.—I agree with Mr. Trevelyan that we should procure Globes from England. But I cannot agree with him in thinking that we should indent for an equal number of terrestrial and celestial Globes. The importance of Geography is very great indeed. I am not sure that it is not of all studies that which is most likely to open the mind of a native of India. But a knowledge of the precise positions of the fixed stars is by no means indispensable even to a very liberal European education. I know many most enlightened English gentlemen who do not know Aldebaran from Castor or Pollux. I would order only one or two celestial Globes and twenty terrestrial.—[Book G. page 17.] 25th March, 1835.
Proposal to purchase 100 copies of Wollaston’s Geography.—I will not object. But I think that we ought seriously to consider whether we are not taking a very expensive course in subscribing to new publications on the elements of science. In England works of great merit may be procured at a very small price, and sent hither to us at a very small additional charge. The price of one of the tracts published by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge is 6d. The same quantity of matter printed in this country, would probably cost two Rupees. It deserves to be considered whether we ought not to import more and to subscribe less.—[Book G. page 22.] 28th March, 1835.
Stoppage of the printing of Oriental books.—I should be most reluctant to affront a gentleman for whom I feel so much respect, as I most unfeignedly entertain for Dr. Mill. But we have positive orders from Government, and we surely offer no slight to Dr. Mill by obeying those orders.
I should be sorry to say any thing disrespectfully of that liberal and generous enthusiasm for Oriental literature which appears in Mr. Sutherland’s minute. But I own that I cannot think that we ought to be guided in the distribution of the small sum, which the Government has allotted for the purpose of education, by considerations which seem a little romantic. That the Saracens a thousand years ago cultivated Mathematical science is hardly, I think, a reason for our spending any money in translating English treatises on mathematics into Arabic. If our proceedings are to be influenced by historical association, it would be easy to refer to topics of a different kind. Mr. Sutherland would probably think it very strange, if we were to urge the destruction of the Alexandrian Library as a reason against patronizing Arabic Literature in the nineteenth century. We have, I think, a very plain duty to perform, which the instructions of the Government have, as we have resolved, marked out to us explicitly. The undertaking of Dr. Mill may be, as Mr. Sutherland conceives, a great national work. So is the breakwater at Madras. But under the orders which we have received from the Government, we have just as little to do with the one as with the other. The contracts which we have already made, must be fulfilled and the work of Dr. Mill must, like other works in hand, be stopped.—[Book G. page 27.] 9th April, 1835.
The demand for damages made by the Rev. W. H. Pearce on the stoppage of the printing of Oriental works.—With all respect for Mr. Pearce, I do not conceive that his opinion as to what is due to our national character, or as to the effect which the stopping of the printing may produce in either Europe or America is entitled to much weight in opposition to the positive orders of the Government which we serve. If the Committee have really given to Mr. Pearce such a pledge as he speaks of, they have, in my opinion, been guilty of a very great breach of their duty. But of this I fully acquit them. If there be any such express contract, let it be produced. I shall not easily be satisfied that there was any implied contract, for I never heard of such an implied contract in any similar transaction. If a man begins an expensive publication in many volumes, an Encyclopædia for example, and, finding that he has no encouragement from the public, determines to stop after the first two or three volumes, is he to be forced to pay his printer for the twenty volumes which were originally projected? A contract so grossly absurd ought surely to be proved by the strongest evidence. It is not the rule, but a rare and almost incredible exception; and never can be implied from such circumstances as those on which Mr. Pearce grounds his claim.
My opinion is that, since Mr. Pearce insists on his right, and gives us plainly to understand that he thinks that he has it in his power to obtain his demand in the shape of a forfeiture for non-performance of contract, we ought to enter into no compromise, and allow him no indulgence whatever. I do not think that he need entertain the smallest scruple about recovering this forfeiture “from the comparatively small sums now available for the education of the people of India.” For it is my firm conviction that what we pay Mr. Pearce for printing is as dead a loss to the cause of education, as what we may have to pay him for damages. But it is idle to talk about damages in such a case. I propose that Mr. Pearce be informed that the Committee altogether deny his claim both in law and in equity, and that they are not disposed to enter upon any of the other matters to which he refers till that claim is distinctly withdrawn.—[Book G. page 35.] 22nd April, 1835.Further minute on the same subject.—As the book has come back to me, I cannot help saying two or three words now about Mr. Pearce’s claim. I proceeded on the supposition, that there was no express contract, no bond, no papers; for this simple reason, that if there had been any such contract on paper, it is as certain as any thing in human nature can be, that Mr. Pearce would have referred to that contract. He has not referred to it. None of the gentlemen who have been longest in the Committee, who must have known of the existence of such a contract if it existed, who are most zealous for the printing of the Oriental works now in hand, has ventured to say that there is such a contract. I am entitled to take it for granted that there is none. The idea of an implied contract in such a case seems to me, as I have said, absurd. We pay for the work done, and for nothing more. As for the addition to the buildings which is stated to have been made on our account, it is certain that it was not made by our authority or with our privity. And it can therefore constitute no claim against us. I have not the smallest objection to the proposition to call for papers. I am quite sure that none will come.—[Book G. page 45.]
Macaulay’s opinion on Goldsmith’s Histories of Greece and Rome, and on Grammars of Rhetoric and Logic.—I must frankly own that I do not like the list of books. Grammars of Rhetoric and Grammars of Logic are among the most useless furniture of a shelf. Give a boy Robinson Crusoe. That is worth all the grammars of rhetoric and logic in the world. Goldsmith’s histories of Greece and Rome are miserable performances, and I do not at all like to lay out £50 on them, even after they have received all Mr. Pinnock’s improvements. The history of Greece published by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge is immeasurably superior in every respect to Goldsmith’s.
I think that we need not spend £25 on fifty of Priestly’s Charts of Biography. Ten would be amply sufficient. They are not articles of which many are required. We only want to hang one up in each of our principal schools.
I must own too that I think the order for globes and other instruments unnecessarily large. To lay out £324 at once in globes alone, useful as I acknowledge those articles to be, seems exceedingly profuse, when we have only about £3000 a year for all purposes of English education. One 12-inch or 18-inch globe for each school is quite enough; and we ought not, I think, to order 16 such globes when we are about to establish only seven schools. Useful as the telescopes, the theodolites, and the other scientific instruments mentioned in the indent undoubtedly are, we must consider that four or five such instruments run away with a year’s salary of a school master and that, if we purchase them, it will be necessary for us to defer the establishment of schools.
I would order nothing at present that is not absolutely necessary. When our means become larger, we may indulge in the purchase of beautiful and accurate instruments. But for a year or two, I would resolutely abstain. A twelve-inch globe for each schoolroom, and a few small globes for prizes ought to suffice at present. As to books, we ought to procure such as are likely to attract and delight children, such as are likely to give them a taste for the literature of the West; not books filled with idle distinctions and definitions, which every man who has learned them, makes haste to forget. Who ever reasoned better for having been taught the difference between a syllogism and an enthymeme? Who ever composed, with greater spirit and elegance because he could define an oxymoron or an aposiopesis? I am not joking, but writing quite seriously when I say that I would much rather order a hundred copies of Jack the Giant Killer for our schools than a hundred copies of any grammar of Rhetoric or Logic that ever was written. I therefore think that the indent requires to be re-cast: that part which relates to the books on account of the real worthlessness of many of the books which it is proposed to order; and that part which relates to instruments on account of the very heavy expense which it would lay upon us.—[Book G. page 53.] 6th May, 1835.
First books in English for native youths.—I do not object to the indent in its present form. But I think that we should early take into serious consideration the question. What books are most likely to be attractive to young native students of English? My own opinion is, that they ought to be taught our language by means of the most popular and agreeable narratives which it contains. From little fairy tales they may be led on to Robinson Crusoe and Gulliver’s Travels, and thence to Shakspeare and Milton.—[Book G. page 70.] 3rd June, 1835..
Further minute on Mr. Pearce’s claims.—I am of opinion that as the additions made by Mr. Pearce to his premises are not alleged to have been made by our direction, he has no claim whatever on that account. Nor do I think that he has any claim on account of the stock which he purchased unless it can be shewn that he paid more for it than it was fairly worth, as a bonus to induce the Committee to engage with him. If this can be shewn, I would consent to pay him back the excess. But I do not find that this is even pretended.
I shall continue to think that he has no claim whatever in law, justice or generosity, until it is made out by arguments and evidence of a very different kind from any that I have yet seen.—[Book G. page 63.] 22nd May, 1835.
The Bishop’s College bill for printing part of Dr. Mill’s Arabic translation of Bridge’s Algebra.—I see that, when the question respecting Dr. Mill’s work was last before us, I confined my observations to the question, whether we should go on with the printing or stop it. Indeed the fact that the estimate had been so enormously exceeded, was not distinctly brought under our notice in the Secretary’s minute, or, as far I can now remember, in any of the papers then circulated.
I should be sorry to act in a manner disagreeable to so distinguished a scholar and so highly respectable a gentleman as Dr. Mill. But I really cannot see that I have any choice. An estimate is sent in amounting to 828 rupees. This estimate is sanctioned. The bill comes in, only part of the work has been done; and we are called on to pay 3000 Rupees. This is not the way in which public money is to be squandered, even when the object in view is one of real utility. The object in this case is to have an Arabic version of an exceedingly bad English book. A translation which, nobody will read, of an original which nobody was ever the wiser for reading. Those gentlemen who, when the question was last before us, conceived that we were bound not merely to pay this bill, but to go on with the work, will now, I think, allow that, if there be any breach of contract in the matter, that breach has not been committed by us. I propose that we should acquaint Mr. Holmes, that the Government object to his bill as greatly exceeding the estimate, and that we should call upon him to explain, in the first place, why it so much exceeds the estimate, and, in the second place, why, when it was found impossible to finish the work for the sum originally contracted for, no communication to that effect was made to the Committee. I take it for granted that no such communication was made. Had there been any such document, it would of course have been circulated.—[Book G. page 76.] 29th June, 1835.
Further minute on the same subject.—At last we have an explanation which turns out to be no explanation at all. Both the Government and Dr. Mill have, I think, great reason to complain of the conduct of Mr. Holmes. That gentleman, by his own confession, never brought to Dr. Mill’s notice the fact that, while Dr. Mill was in England, an estimate was presented to the Government on the part of the College and was approved. He says, with a most extraordinary coolness, that the estimate was obsolete, and he assigns no other reason for pronouncing it obsolete except that be had himself forgotten it.I must say that my notions of public business and above all of public business where public money is concerned, differ very widely from the Rev. Bursar’s. Every man who contracts with the public ought to remember the terms of his contract; and, if he forgets those terms, he must suffer for his negligence. I may be sorry that any portion of the loss should fall on the college or on the Principal. But I am not their agent. I am an agent for the public. And as such I am to determine whether the public shall pay four times as much as it is bound to pay merely because a gentleman tells me that he forgot the terms of the contract. If we accept so ridiculous an excuse, I feel convinced that the Governor General in Council will not accept it. We shall only injure our own character with the Government by our laxity, we shall not serve Dr. Mill in the least.
I have a great respect for Dr. Mill’s character, both moral and intellectual; and I should gladly see the patronage of Government extended, in a proper manner, to so distinguished a scholar. But I cannot agree with Mr. Sutherland in thinking that all the rules established for the purpose of preventing jobbing and profusion are to be dispensed with in compliment to Dr. Mill’s learning and talents. What is the use of requiring estimates? Why should we go through so tedious a form, if, as Mr. Holmes says, we are, in spite of the terms of the estimate, bound in good faith to allow those whom we employ to dip as deep into the public purse as they chuse. (Sic.). If the estimate had been exceeded by a few hundred rupees, we might have shewn indulgence. But we are called on to pay for a part of the work nearly four times as much as we engaged to pay for the whole. I cannot conscientiously recommend the claim to the Government.—[Book G. page 89.] 6th August, 1835.
Decision concerning the Bishop’s College Press Bill.— Mr. Bushby takes a middle course, and votes for paying part of the excess, and not the whole. The votes therefore stand thus. On the question of paying for the second delivery there are 8 for paying, and 6 against it. On the question of paying for the third delivery we are 7 to 7.
The Government ought, I think, in a case in which such a difference of opinion exists to see all the papers.—[Book G. page 101.] 21st August, 1835.
[This question occasioned much discussion in the Committee, as the work was allowed to have been cheaply executed at the price demanded. In favor of payment for the second and third parts were,—The Hon’ble H. Shakespear, J. R. Colvin, C. Smith, R. J. H. Birch, Dr. Grant, S. Sutherland and Col. Young. Mr. Bushby voted for the payment of the second part and against the payment for the third part. H. W.]
Excess over estimates in printing Oriental books.—I would pay no more than we contracted for. Though it may be impossible to predetermine the exact number of pages which Oriental manuscripts will occupy, a mistake of very nearly a third is quite unpardonable.—[Book G. page 84.] 20th July, 1835.
The Committee’s system of making contracts.—This is the Bishop’s College case in miniature. We agree to an estimate. The estimate is exceeded, we object to paying the excess. The answer is, that we have been in the habit of doing business so carelessly that no body ever troubled himself about the terms of his contracts with us. Our facility has been carried so far that it would be dishonest in us to stand upon our rights. We have made a kind of implied contract with all the world that they are to cheat us and that we are to submit to be cheated. I am quite unable to comprehend this doctrine. As to the particular plea of the Moulvi that it is impossible accurately to calculate the number of pages which Oriental printing will occupy, I am quite ready to allow all that can be fairly claimed on this ground. The estimate was for 600 pages, the work occupies 774 pages. If Mr. Sutherland or any other eminent orientalist will assure us that it is impossible to calculate within one-fourth the number of pages which the printing of Oriental manuscript will occupy, I will withdraw my objections. But I cannot admit that, because we have never held people strictly to their engagements before, we commit a breach of faith if we begin to do so now.—[Book G. page 109.] 13th September, 1835.
Expensiveness of European Shops.—We must take care not to fall into such an error again. The difference in the prices of European and Native shops is so well known even to new comers like myself, that I can hardly understand how persons so well acquainted with India as Mr. Clift and Mr. Ridge can have made such a mistake.—[Book G. page 82.] 18th July, 1835.
Transfer of the Committee’s Oriental Publications to the Asiatic Society.—I am truly glad to find from Sir E. Ryan’s minute that the course proposed is likely to be gratifying to the Asiatic Society. In the hope that it may be so, I readily assent to what is proposed.—[Book G. page 104.] 27th August, 1835.
I think that Government meant that all the stock and all the good will, so to speak, of the Committee, in its publishing capacity are to be transferred to the Asiatic Society.—[Book G. page 105.] 3rd September, 1835.On the Selection of a series of class books.—I quite approve of Sir Edward’s proposition. Mr. Cameron will, I am sure, be kind enough to write early to the Archbishop of Dublin, who is better qualified than any other person to afford us information.—[Book G. page 119.] 21st September, 1835.
Delhi College indent for books.— It seems absolutely necessary to have the books. But I agree with Mr. Sutherland thinking that they might be procured cheaper than from Mr. ——————. The only objection to buying them at auction is, that we shall probably have to wait some months before we make up the collection required; and the wants of the school seem to be pressing. Perhaps our best course will be to authorize Mr. Sutherland to procure the books wherever he can procure them at the lowest price, during Mr. Taylor's stay,—[Book G. page 121.] 28th September, 1835.
Moulavi Abdul Majid’s application for English books.—I am heartily glad to find that so distinguished a native scholar is asking for English books for the use of his own children. I have no objection to grant what he requests.—[Book G. page 124.] 9th October, 1835.
Refusal to printing Moulavi Gholam Hossein’s works.—I agree with Mr. Sutherland that we can do nothing for Gholam Hossein here. When the question of the Hooghly College comes before us, I shall be glad to give every fair consideration to his claims.—[Book G. page 127.] 12th October, 1835.
New Criminal Code.—I do not distinctly recollect what passed respecting the work in question. But it appears to me that the orders of Government distinctly apply to it, and I cannot see any good reason for excepting it from the operation of the general rule.
If I understand Captain Ouseley's letter rightly, the portion of the work which remains relates to the criminal Courts and the Police. Now it is known to the Committee that the Law Commission are actually engaged under the orders of Government in framing a new Criminal Code, which, when framed, will supersede all the regulations in question. How soon the Commissioners will finish this task, I will not venture to say. When I am sanguine, I think that it may be completed in a year. But I think that two years or two years and half is the very utmost. Now it seems to me that it would be very absurd to pay 1,000 Rupees or thereabout for an abstract of regulations which will he rescinded within a few months after the publication of the abstract.
I have other objections, but I will not advert to them, because that which I have mentioned seems to be decisive.—[Book G. page 128.] 16th October, 1835.[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 and the treasures of Saadut Ali might have borne the expense of producing something better than a map in which Sicily is joined on the toe of Italy, and in which so important an eastern island as Java does not appear at all.—[Book G. page 160.] 8th March, 1836.
Persian Version of the Kamus.—I fear that we cannot properly comply with this application. We should, as far as I can judge, only be throwing good money after bad. Two thousand Rupees is far too much to lay down for the chance, a very poor chance too, it seems of having thirty copies of a Persain and Arabic Dictionary, which none of our schools can want, and which nobody would buy of us for half the money. In my opinion we ought to sit down content with our loss, and to rejoice that we have saved 4,000 Rupees.—[Book G. page 162.] 18th March, 1836.
Persian Version of the Kamus.—I cannot make out what the majority of the Committee has determined. I voted and, if the question were open, should still vote, against the proposed advance. If it is resolved to make the advance the precaution suggested by Mr. Sutherland seems proper. We certainly ought to apply to Government to levy our 1,000 Rupees from Kayem Ali’s pension. —[Book G. page 173.] 2nd June, 1836.
Persian Commentary on the Sayings of Mahomed.—I find it difficult to understand how, if the Hooghly College wants only two, the Madrassa can want forty. The book is expensive, and if, as Dr. Wise says, it is merely a book of reference, I would certainly not take the number proposed by our Secretary. Indeed Captain Ouseley’s expression is “thirty or forty.” I should think ten quite enough.—[Book L. page 173.] 28th December, 1837.
Ptolemaic system.—I feel great respect for Mr. Shakespear’s judgment: but my opinion remains unchanged. I do not think that this table would be of much use to us for purposes of education, and we have too little money to afford any merely for the purpose of paying compliments to grown up persons who find out that the sun does not go round the earth.—[Book K. page 102.] 30th November, 1836.
Subscription to the Alif Lyla.—I think that the subscription of the Government ought to dispense us from subscribing. I shall subscribe as an individual and shall have great pleasure in putting my copy at the disposal of the Committee.—[Book N. page 56.] 16th December, 1836.
The Kamus.—I was in a minority on this matter formerly. I will not oppose this advance, if the other members of the Committee think it reasonable.—[Book G. page 178.] 22nd December, 1836.Encouragement to the Summit Towarikh.—What is the book about? How is it executed? I should be obliged to some of our Orientalists to dip into it, and see whether we should do good or harm by distributing copies.—[Book N. page 69.] 8th March, 1837.
Proper Books for Prizes.—I agree with all that Sir B. Malkin has written. But I go even further than he. I own that I think the whole list a bad one. Not one book in ten is such as I should have selected. The mere circumstance that a gentleman is going to leave Hooghly, and is willing to sell us his library in the lump, seems to be no reason for our taking it. We can have no difficulty in making similar purchases every day. I am sure that not a week passes in which Messrs. Jenkins and Low do not sell collections at least as well chosen as this. I would decline altogether to purchase these standard books.
As to the list of prize books, I am not much better satisfied. It is absolutely unintelligible to me why Pope’s works and my old friend Moore’s Lalla Rookh should be selected from the whole mass of English poetry to be prize books. I will engage to frame, currente calamo a better list—Bacon’s Essays, Hume’s England, Gibbon’s Rome, Robertson’s Charles V., Robertson’s Scotland, Robertson’s America, Swift’s Gulliver, Robinson Crusoe, Shakspeare’s Works, Paradise Lost, Milton’s smaller poems, Arabian Nights, Parke’s Travels, Anson’s Voyage, The Vicar of Wakefield, Johnson’s Lives, Gil Blas, Voltaire’s Charles XII. Southey’s Nelson, Middleton’s life of Cicero.
This may serve as a specimen. These are books which will amuse and interest those who obtained them. To give a boy Abercrombie on the Intellectual Powers, Dick’s Moral Improvement, Young’s Intellectual Philosophy, Chalmers’s Poetical Economy!!! (in passing I may be allowed to ask what that means) is quite absurd. I would not give orders at random for books about which we know nothing. There are quite enough books which we know to be good. We are under no necessity of ordering any at haphazard. We know Robinson Crusoe and Gulliver and the Arabian Nights, and Anson’s Voyage, and many other delightful works which interest even the very young, and which do not lose their interest to the end of our lives. Why should we order blindfold such books as Markham’s New Children’s Friend, the Juvenile Scrap Book, The Child’s Own Book, Niggens’s Earth, Mudie’s Sea, and somebody else’s fire and air, books which, I will be bound for it, none of us ever opened.
The list in my opinion ought in all its parts to be thoroughly recast. If Sir B. Malkin will furnish a list of ten or twelve books of a scientific kind which he thinks would be suited for prizes, the task will not be difficult; and with his help I will gladly undertake it. When I say “suited for prizes,” I mean that prize books ought to be interesting and amusing. There is a marked distinction between a prize book and a school book. A prize book ought to be a book which a boy receives with pleasure and turns over and over, not as a task, but spontaneously. I have not forgotten my own schoolboy feelings on this subject. My pleasure at obtaining a prize was greatly enhanced by the knowledge that my little library would receive a very agreeable addition. I never was better pleased than when at fourteen I was master of Boswell's Life of Johnson which I had long been wishing to read. If my master had given me, instead of Boswell, a critical Pronouncing Dictionary, or a Geographical class book, I should have been much less gratified by my success. In the list before us, these considerations are utterly neglected. I therefore recommend that the whole list be at once rejected, and that we proceed to frame a new one.—[Page 94.] 21st December, 1836.
Sub-Committee of the Medical College.
Principal’s House.—I cannot agree to the proposition about Ramcomul Sen’s house. I do not see why we should pay 60 Rupees a month, when we can have accommodation for nothing. I should be most happy to afford any convenience to Dr. Bramley, but I cannot consent to do it out of our funds.—[Book E. page 109.] 19th April, 1835.
Chemical lectures as the Medical College.—I sent the box yesterday to Dr. Grant, as I felt some diffidence in my own judgment in a question of this kind. It may therefore seem rather strange that I do not acquiesce in Dr. Grant’s opinion. But I own that I am not quite satisfied by what he has said. I do not conceive that we ought to take into our consideration any question but this simple one. Would it be a good thing for the instruction of Medical science in this country that Dr. O’Shaughnessy should read lectures on chemistry to the Medical students? Whether Dr. Bramley was formerly convinced of the importance of chemical lectures or not, whether he changed his mind on the subject or not, whether he were a party to the existing plan or not, seem to me to be very unimportant questions. If he were a party to the plan, it is not on that account the less his duty to suggest amendments in it. On the contrary, the circumstance of his being a party to the plan, makes it peculiarly his duty to do all in his power to make the plan perfect. I do not find that Dr. Grant denied the expediency of having these chemical lectures. On the contrary, in that very able report which he has sent round with this book, he distinctly states that such lectures ought to be delivered. Nothing in his minute seems to indicate any change of opinion. He objects to Mr. Sutherland’s proposition solely, if I understand his reasoning, because Dr. Bramley cannot, without inconsistency, apply for the assistance of a chemical lecturer. I own that I feel much more desirous to establish a really useful and flourishing Medical institution than to hold Dr. Bramley to anything that he may have formerly proposed. Nor can I consent to punish the Indian people for that gentleman’s inconsistency.
I speak with great submission to the judgment of Dr. Grant on every professional subject. If Dr. Grant had declared his opinion that chemical lectures would be useless, or that Dr. O'Shaughnessy was incompetent to deliver them, I should have voted against the proposition. But as Dr. Grant evidently thinks the lectures essential to a good medical school, as he makes no objection to the proposed lecturer, and as the only reason which he assigns for not acceding to the application is, that the application cannot consistently come from Dr. Bramley, I cannot but vote for recommending the proposition to Government.—[Book I. page 25.] 11th July, 1835.
Stipends in the Medical College.—I have no hesitation in giving it as my opinion that the same reasons which have induced the Government to abolish the system of giving stipends in other departments of education apply, for the most part, to the Medical College. Indeed some of them apply with peculiar force to the case of the Medical College. To give a youth a good Medical education is to give him the means of supporting himself in comfort. And it seems unnecessary to pay him for leave to give him the means of supporting himself in comfort. I should at least recommend that the experiment should be tried of not filling up the scholarships as they fall vacant.—[Book I page 35.] 21st July, 1835.
Farther minute on stipends in the Medical College.—What I would propose is a middle course. Let us not at present recommend to Government to abolish the stipends. But let none that may become vacant be filled up till we have re-considered the question and satisfied ourselves that the state of the College absolutely requires a departure from what I think a most wholesome general rule.—[Book I. page 43.] 7th August, 1835.
Stipendiaries.—I hardly know what to say. These youths are already receiving stipends and I really think that we are entitled, in return for those stipends, to expect gratuitous service from them. At all events an addition to their stipends much smaller than 10 Rupees per mensem ought to suffice for the present, and when their stipends fall in, the next holders should be bound to perform their services without any extra pay.
The duties of Stipendholders.—I am for adopting the measures which the Sub-committee recommend. As to the proposition which they have submitted for our decision without offering any opinion upon it, I cannot agree to it in its present form. It seems to me that the sum proposed is large: and it seems to me also that while there are stipendiary pupils in the College, it would be quite proper to require those pupils, in return for their stipends, to render to the institution any services which are not of a menial kind: and the services required do not appear to be of a menial kind. Why should not one student be Curator of the museum, another Librarian, and so forth. But on this subject I should be glad to learn the opinions of the gentlemen who attended the meeting of the Sub-committee.—[Book I. page 46.] 7th December, 1835.
Further Minute on the same question.—The explanation is quite satisfactory, and what Dr. Bramley asks should be granted.—[Book I. page 50.] 28th December, 1835.
Dwarkanath Tagore’s offer to give Rupees 2000 yearly as prizes to the Medical College.—Dwarkanath Tagore deserves the highest praise. This liberality throws the king of Oude and his penny maps quite into the shade.—[Page 7.] 29th March, 1836.
Distribution of the Tagore prize.—I approve of the proposition, except that I do not understand why the fifth man should be equally rewarded with the fourth, when the fourth has only half as much as the third, and the sixth only half as much as the fifth. There is no particular likelihood that the fourth and fifth man will be near each other in merit. There may be a wider difference between them than between any other two prizemen. I would advise some alteration in this part of the plan.—[Page 12.] 20th April, 1835.
Medical College.—On the occasion of the gift by Baboo Ramgopal Ghose of fifteen valuable works on medical subjects to the library of the College, Macaulay terms the offer “a very gratifying circumstance,” and Sir Charles Trevelyan suggests that Baboo Ram Gopal “ought to have a handsome acknowledgment from our Committee; this would encourage others to do the same.”—[Page 9.]
Prizes.—I do not object to what is proposed provided always that no prize be given to any pupil who does not really deserve one by his positive merit. If there be not at present a sufficient number of really deserving students to take all the prizes, let us reserve a portion for next year.—[Page 15.] 6th May, 1836.
Clinical Examination.—I fear that an examination of this sort is a very defective test of the progress which the students may have made in a science where so much depends on quickness and accuracy of observation on natural phenomena. Still I do not know that we can devise a better test. I am not sufficiently informed on the subject to say whether, as the education of the pupils is conducted in a great measure by clinical lectures, it would be possible to test their proficiency by clinical examinations. I do not object to what is proposed.—[Page 19.] 28th July, 1836.
Private practice of the Professors.—I would put to Mr. Goodeve the question which our Secretary suggests, and if his answer be satisfactory, I would recommend that this request should be granted.
To put the salaries of the Professors on a different footing would at present be impossible. In time, the system under which the Medical and Surgical Schools of London flourish, may be introduced here. But in the infancy of the science, such an arrangement is out of the question.—[Page 43.]
Private practice of the Professors.—I quite agree. We may be certain of this that unless we pay our teachers as large a sum as they can obtain by practice, we must let them take practice or they will leave us.—[Page 48.] 4th November, 1836.
Dr. Helfer’s lectures on Natural History.—I would refer this to Dr. Bramley and the other gentlemen who are at the head of the Medical College. If they wish Dr. Helfer to lecture I can have no objection. If they tell us that such a course of lectures would not at present do any good, I would decline Dr. Helfer’s offer.—[Page 28.] 12th November, 1836.
Cost of each Pupil in the Medical College Rupees 36 a month in 1837.—I should be heartily glad if the number of pupils were three times as great as it is. But I see nothing discouraging in the aspect of things. We must remember that the work now in progress is no less than the introduction into a great empire of a science, the most important of all sciences to the well being of mankind. If the institution turns out twenty or even ten good native physicians or surgeons, I shall think the cost well bestowed[6].—[Book I. page 63.] 30th June, 1837.
Scholarships at the Medical College from Zillah Schools.—I am exceedingly favorable to the object which Mr. Walters has in view. But I own that I would make no addition to the 56 foundation pupils. I would apply to Government, and request that on the occurring of the next vacancy among those pupils, we may be permitted to give the situation to one of the most advanced Scholars at one of our principal institutions in the Mofussil; and that on every alternate vacancy we should be permitted to do the same. But we must bestow the greatest care, as our Secretary says, in seeing that these nominations do not become jobs. Indeed, I think that it would not be amiss to send examination papers from hence on such an occasion. These, however, are points of detail. I would make an application to Government immediately; and I would strongly represent the expediency of interesting all parts of the Presidency in this great object, and the fairness of giving to distant places a share of an advantage which is now too strictly confined to Calcutta.—[Book I. page 72,] 7th August, 1837.
Further minute on the same subject.—Pupils from all parts of India are eligible already. What I proposed and what I understand to be carried is, that the Government would allow us to elect them to the alternate vacancies.—[Book I., page 77.] 17th August, 1837.
Designation and salary of passed native Students.—The only point in dispute are the name and the salary.
As to the name I prefer that of Sub-assistant Surgeon to that of Doctor. But I like neither.
As to the salary I vote for the larger salary Rupees 60, on the grounds stated by Colonel Young.—[Book I. page 97.] 24th December, 1837.
Medical College.—The Medical College Council proposed to cut the pay of Mr. MacCosh, the clinical lecturer, for a month. The Secretary, Mr. Sutherland, recommended that Mr. MacCosh should have an opportunity of defending his claim. On this Macaulay says, “There can be no harm in calling on Mr. MacCosh for any reason that he may have to give against the retrenchment.
“As to the clinical lecture I, as an ignorant man, should think the course proposed by the college council the best. I should be glad to know Sir Edward Ryan’s opinion.”—[Page 51.] 4th January, 1838.
Sub-Committee for Selection of Masters.
The Selection of a Professor.—I understood it to be resolved, and I think that it would he proper, so important a person as Professor should be selected by the whole Committee. I think also that there may be some objection to advertising for such a person, and I understood that the resolution to which the Sub-Committee came was in accordance with these views. The matter, however, is not of much consequence.—[Page 1.] May 1st, 1836.
In the book of the Selection of Schoolmasters.—I greatly doubt whether we can obtain a good Master for 200 Rs.; and I should like to know more about Mr. Harris before I consent to secure his services by diminishing the salary of the person at the head of the School. I propose that the question should be referred to the Sub-Committee for the selection of School-Masters, but that the Sub-Committee should be instructed to make no arrangement, which may cause an increase of charge, without a reference to the General Committee.—[Book G. page 15,] 9th June, 1836.
Those who are at Calcutta had better attend. Of course we cannot expect people to come from a distance for a mere chance.
The Secretary bad better send the applications and testimonials in circulation round the Sub-Committee, that we may meet with some knowledge of the attainments and situations of the candidates, and be able to make enquiries. [Page 8.] June 27th, 1836.
Schoolmasters’ Salaries.—We shall never get such a man as Mr. Sutherland describes for 150 Rupees a month. I think it probable that the gentlemen who have taken the chief part in selecting schoolmasters may be able without again advertising to fix on a proper person.—[Page 17.] 30th August, 1836.
On the promotion of Masters.—I think that we cannot adopt this proposition. Mr. Fowles has at present, I think only 100 Rupees a month. To promote him to a salary of three times the amount seems extravagant. We have no proof that his merits are such as to entitle him to so great and rapid an increase of his pay, or that his capacity is such as to qualify him for the superintendence of a school which, on many accounts, must be considered as among the most important under our superintendence.
We ought to be always on our guard when we receive recommendations of this sort from local committees. The members of those committees naturally find it unpleasant to refuse to recommend a person who intreats them to favour his claims, and who has given them no cause of dissatisfaction. It is an ungracious thing to tell a man to his face that you will not propose him for promotion. If we do not take care we shall, whenever a head master retires, be requested by the local committee to promote the under master to the head of the school.
The best course would perhaps be to appoint the head master of the Ghazeepore school, who, I believe, is one of the best on our list:, and who now draws only 200 Rs. a month, to the Patna school, to send Mr. Fowles to Ghazeepore, which will be a promotion for him, and to send down to Patna some teacher to take Mr. Fowles’ place. [Page 24.] 23rd November, 1836.
Travelling Expenses.—I hardly know what to propose. I wish that some gentleman better acquainted with this country than I am, would make a calculation of the bona fide expense of a journey to Saugor performed in an economical manner. I cannot believe that three times the advance to which we have agreed would be necessary for that purpose.—[Page 30.] December 14th, 1836.
Who is the clergyman at the station? Is there a local Committee? Is the clergyman a member of it? If I recollect right, the late master was dismissed for proselytising. This does not look as if the clergyman had much influence in the management of the school.
I am not aware of a fit person: perhaps some other member of the Sub-Committee maybe able to suggest something.—[Page 35.] December 28th, 1836.
Selection of Masters.—The candidate gives a very good account of himself. I suppose that, as he has been employed in the public service at Chittagong, the local committee know, or can easily learn, whether he will suit. I approve of the proposition of the Secretary. [Page 46.]
I cannot say much for the gentleman. I vote against employing him.
I am glad that Mr. Sutherland has hit on so good a way of putting candidates to the test. [Page 52.]
I cannot say much for the show which the candidates make at these examinations. Instead of asking Mr. —————— questions in history, the best course would perhaps have been one which Dean Milner is said to have taken with a very ignorant man at Cambridge, to give him a little scrap of paper, and desire him to write all that he knew. Mr. —————— is better, however, than Mr. ——————; and, though very hesitatingly, I am inclined to accede to Mr. Sutherland’s proposition.—[Page 56.] June 28th, 1837.
I have nobody to propose. Certainly I would select no person whom the local Committee think unfit.—[Page 57.]
I should be very unwilling to set aside a candidate solely on account of his religious scruples about the Sunday. But the other objections mentioned by the local Committee seem to be decisive: and, even if they were not so, I think that we can expect little good from a school, of which the master is forced on the Local Committee, and is personally disagreeable to them.
I agree with Mr. Sutherland. But I should wish the examination not to be altogether confined to Arithmetic and Mathematics. A few simple questions in History and Geography should also be asked.
On looking again at what Mr. Sutherland proposed, I see that he intends to examine Mr. * * * in literature. This is quite proper.
Certainly, as Mr. Sutherland says, this is far from a great performance, yet I really think it above par. The young man seems to have a general notion of ancient and modern history; and as to his mistaking Argos for Corinth, and sending Orassus to Spain instead of Syria, I am afraid that we must wait long for masters, if we wait for gentlemen who will commit no such mistakes.
I should like to be satisfied that he can perform and teach the common operations of arithmetic, then I would certainly engage him.
Mr. B. perhaps is not quite equal to Mr. F. But I think that, in the present state of the market, he may pass muster.
Mr. ——————’s letter asking for re-examination.—Mr. Sutherland has some reason to complain. I would certainly not ask him to examine every rejected candidate a few days after rejection, 18th July, 1837.
When Mr. Sutherland was called on to examine men too frequently, he says—
“I submit, but without grumbling that the frequency of examinations would press hard on me.”
I agree with Mr. Sutherland, except that I am not quite clear about the expediency of sending Mr. Montague to Chittagong. Ajmere, I think, is not filled up. And I should imagine that to be the more important station. But others are better judges than I am on that subject.
Necessity of obtaining Masters from England.—We seem to be quite at a stand here. We must certainly not lose Mr. Montague. I do not see my way to any better arrangement than that which Mr. Sutherland proposes.
But I am every day more and more convinced that, as our operations extend, and as our schools multiply, it will become more and more necessary for us to take some course for procuring a regular supply of good masters from England. At present we are forced to put up with the leavings of every other trade and profession. A missionary who becomes tired of converting, a newspaper writer who has quarrelled with the editor, a shopkeeper who has failed, a clerk in a public office who has lost his place, are the sort of people whom we are forced to look to. Even of these the supply is so limited and uncertain, that we can hardly venture to reject any man who can read, write, and work a sum. And, even when our masters chance to be people of respectable attainments, it scarcely ever happens that they have had the smallest experience in teaching. Teaching is an art to be learned by practice. I have known people of the greatest genius and learning who could teach nothing; and we have scarcely appointed a single person of whom we knew that he was experienced in the art of teaching.
I am satisfied that it will soon be found necessary to import from England, or rather from Scotland, a regular supply of masters for the Government Schools. But this subject, though brought strongly to my mind by our present embarrassment is too important to be discussed in this parenthetical manner. 26th August.
In the present state of the supply of Schoolmasters, I think Mr. Melville a decided prize, and I would on no account let him slip. I agree to what Mr. Sutherland proposes.—8th September, 1837.
I like the gentleman’s performance little, and the temper which he shews still less. I have no objection however, in the great scarcity of masters, to the guarded answer which our Secretary proposes to return.—7th December, 1857.
I would give him no copies, and would have no more to say to him.
I should like to know something more about the newspaper which this person edits. What is its name? What character does it bear? and what are the general views which it takes of moral and political matters?—4th January, 1838.
Minutes of the Hooghly College. The dismissal of Wasib Ali’s claim for the curator ship of the Hooghly endowment.—There can be no objection to communicating the state of the case to Government. But, until the great questions about which the Committee is divided have been decided by authority, nothing can be settled I apprehend, as to the constitution of the future College.—[Book F. page 33.] 12th January, 1835.
Hooghly College.—It is to be observed that the letter received from the Government, though it directs that the Hooghly institution shall be essentially Mahomedan, declares at the same time that it was not the intention of the testator, and is not the intention of the Governor General in Council to exclude persons of other religious persuasions from the advantages which that institution may afford. No religious instruction ought, of course, to be given except according to Mahometan principles. But lectures on general literature and general science may, of course, be attended indiscriminately by all classes.
I think therefore that we ought to consult not only the persons whom Mr. Sutherland mentions, but others more likely to give us advice as to the best mode of imparting an useful and generous education to all classes. Dr. Wise who knows Hooghly well, and whose qualifications entitle him to the highest respect, ought, in particular, to be requested to give us his counsel in the subject.—[Book F. page 61.] 16th April.
Hooghly College.—I agree to most of Mr. Sutherland’s propositions, but I cannot help thinking that the plan admits of some improvement.
I have always disliked, both in England and here, the scholarship system. The Government has decided that, in those places of education which are to be completely under our direction, no such system shall exist. The Hooghly College is on a different footing, we must obey the directions of the founder, and pay due respect to his memory. But I conceive that we may do this without violating a principle which I think it of the highest importance to maintain.
I would propose that the 1,920 rupees a year which Mr. Sutherland proposes to expend in endowing ten scholarships should be employed in founding six annual prizes of 320 rupees each. Of these 320 rupees, 120 might be laid out in a gold medal bearing the founder’s name. The other 200 might be paid in money. Two of these prizes I would give to the two best Arabic scholars in the College, two to the two best English scholars, and two to the two best Mathematicians. As the examinations would recur annually, the best scholars would thus have a strong motive to maintain their places, and would never be able to relax their exertions with impunity. The effect of the system proposed by Mr. Sutherland, even under the best regulations, will be, that a young man will exert himself to obtain a scholarship, and will cease to exert himself as soon as he has obtained one.
I agree with Mr. Sutherland as to the architectural question. But I should be glad to be assured that the indulgence of our taste would not cost us too much.
I venture to propose as members of the Sub-Committee of the Hooghly College Sir E. Ryan, Mr. Shakspeare, Mr. Smith, Mr. Colvin and Mr. Young.—[Book F. page 100.] 11th July, 1835.
Hooghly College.— The books may of course be sent; nor can there be any harm in sending the globes. They will be useful hereafter, if not now; and the institution can well afford the expense.
It must be distinctly understood that any arrangement about teachers is merely provisional.—[Book J. page 80.] December 1st, 1835.
Sub-Committee for the Hooghly College.
The first Scheme proposed for the organization of the Hooghly College.—I now wish to state what appear to me to be the best arrangements for rendering the Hooghly fund as extensively useful as it can be made, compatibly with the direction of Government and with the intentions of the founder.
The Mahomedan department must of course be kept up in a liberal manner. Whatever encouragements, whatever facilities we give in this institution to the study of English, we are bound also to give to the study of Arabic. If we act otherwise we shall be guilty of a gross violation of the founder’s will; we shall give just cause of discontent to the Mahomedan population; and we shall discourage wealthy natives of all persuasions from making similar dispositions of their property.
I am not competent to frame a plan for the Mahomedan department of the College. I have therefore begged Mr. Shakespear to furnish a sketch of what he thinks desirable.
In the English College there ought, I think, to be two professors: a professor of English literature and a professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy. The professor of English literature ought to be a person competent to direct the studies of young men who are able to read our language with facility, to advise them as to the choice of books, “to correct their crude opinions, to accustom them to write English in a manly and unaffected style. The professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy ought to be, if possible, a person of extensive acquirements. At all events he ought to know accurately whatever he knows.
Under these two professors, there must be masters capable of teaching the elements of English, the common rules of arithmetic, and a little geography.
One of the two professors ought to be Principal of the College with a general power to superintend the discipline of the whole institution, Oriental as well as English. He would of course be subject to our control, and, if it should be thought advisable, we might appoint some of the English functionaries at Hooghly to visit the College as our deputies. I doubt, however, whether it would be expedient to delegate our power over an establishment situated so near to Calcutta; and at all events, I would give no authority over this College or over any of our Colleges to a Collector or a Judge merely because he is a Collector or a Judge. Such an officer may be incompetent; he may be indifferent; he may be adverse. When we repose such a confidence, we ought to repose it in the man, not in the office.
I think that each of the Professors should receive 500 Rs.[7] per mensem, and that they should also be lodged in the College. One master with 200 Rupees and three under masters with 100 Rs. each, would suffice for the English department.
It is hardly necessary to say that I would open this school to pupils of every nation and religion without distinction.
Dr. Wise is strongly of opinion that we ought to establish stipends, or, as he calls them, bursaries. I regret that I cannot agree with him on this point. I must own, however, that at Hooghly the stipendiary system is not so objectionable as it would be at Patna, at Dacca, or at any other place where there is a school supported by our general fund. We have for the education of the people of this vast empire a fixed sum, which is very small compared with what the object requires. If we pay students at one place, we must refuse to pay masters at some other place. The funds of the Hooghly College are not part of our general resources. We cannot with propriety lay them out in setting up schools in Assam or the Dooab. After paying professors and masters in the most liberal manner, a large sum will still remain at our disposal. If therefore it should appear that any advantage is likely to follow from establishing stipends, there is no counterbalancing consideration of economy to be set off against that advantage.
I am strongly opposed to the stipendiary system, not merely in the form in which it has existed in the Sanscrit College and the Madrussa, where indeed it wore its most offensive shape, but even in the modified form in which some of our body wish to see it introduced into our new schools. At the same time I should not at all object to giving several annual pecuniary prizes of such amount that they would enable the successful student who might gain them to subsist comfortably during the next year. If he continued to exert himself, he would probably again obtain the prize. If he became idle, others would wrest it from him at the next annual examination. This course would, as it appears to me, produce all the good and scarcely any of the harm which is the effect of the stipendiary system. It would excite the students to vigorous exertion. It would not tempt them to lie down in idleness after success. The best students would remain longest at the college and would be most thoroughly imbued with western literature and science.
I propose that we should annually give two prizes of 300 Rupees each, the one to the student who should distinguish himself most in English literature, the other to the best mathematician. I would give three inferior prizes of 200 Rupees in the literary department, and as many in the mathematical and scientific department.
The expense of the English College, on this plan would be as follows:—
| Professor of English literature, | 6,000 | Rs. | a year. |
| Professor of English Mathematics, &c. | 6,000 | Rs.„ | a year.„ |
| Master and Under masters, | 6,000 | Rs.„ | a year.„ |
| Prizes, | 1,800 | Rs.„ | a year.„ |
| 19,800 | Rs. | a year. |
Something must be allowed for books, stationery, &c. But the whole charge of this part of the establishment may be brought, I conceive, within 22,000 Rs. per annum. If we allow an equal sum for the Mahomedan College; the whole amount expended on the institution will be 44,000 Rs. per annum. And 10,000 Rs. per annum will be still at our disposal.
If what I now propose should be approved by the committee, I shall be prepared to suggest a mode of employing the surplus.
I omitted to say that it seems to me quite unnecessary to defer our operations till the college is built. I am assured that excellent accommodation may easily be procured at Hooghly, and I hope that our masters may be appointed and our schools opened in a very few months.—[Page 9.] 12th April.
Appointment of Dr. Wise as Principal on Rs. 600 a month.—I collect from the letter now circulated that Dr. Wise actually is Secretary with a kind of pledge that he shall hereafter have the superintendence of the Institution. He was appointed by Government on the recommendation of the Committee, and can only be removed by the Government.
I do not see how we can with propriety recommend that he should be deprived of his present office or of his present salary. We have no ground whatever of complaint against him, and his place has been no sinecure.
It seems to me therefore that, whether we make Dr. Wise Principal or not, he must still draw his present salary of 300 rupees a month. If we were to make him Principal allowing him to retain his practice we should obtain his services for 600 Rupees a month, that is to say, for 300 Rupees a month more than we now pay him. If on account of this difficulty about his practice, we take another Principal, we must pay that Principal 600 Rupees a month, and Dr. Wise’s 300 Rupees a month will still be charged to the Institution.
I doubt whether we are likely to find so good a Principal as Dr. Wise. At all events it is certain that we shall find none so cheap. The question then is—Does his medical practice require so much of his time that there is an insurmountable objection to his retaining it with a professorship? I own that I think not. The inconvenience will be slight. The saving will be large. Besides, there must be a medical man to attend the hospital attached to the institution. If we employ Dr. Wise as Principal, his services will of course be given gratuitously to the hospital; and, though, there may be no regular system of medical education, the Mahomedan youths, who all love to pick up a smattering of physic, will learn something which may at least keep them from poisoning, if it does not enable them to cure.
On the whole I would at once propose Dr. Wise to the General Committee as Principal without requiring him to give up his practice.—[Page 20.] 7th May, 1836.
“Mummeries of Heraldry”—I agree with Mr. Sutherland on almost every point. I could wish that means could be found to avert the necessity of closing the College against new applicants.
I think that we might with advantage insert after the 10th paragraph, some such paragraph as this,
“The attention of the Committee has lately been drawn to the extreme inconvenience which in several of the institutions under their care has arisen from the number of holidays. They are desirous to provide against this evil in the Hooghly College at first setting out, as it is one of those evils which it is far easier to prevent than to remedy. They therefore request that you will take this subject into immediate consideration, and submit to them as soon as possible what you have to propose.”
I quite agree with Mr. Sutherland about the arms. Indeed I do not see why the Mummeries of European heraldry should be introduced into any part of our Indian system. Heraldry is not a science which has any eternal rules. It is a system of arbitrary canons, originating in pure caprice. Nothing can be more absurd and grotesque than armorial bearings, considered in themselves. Certain recollections, certain associations make them interesting in many cases to an Englishman. But in those recollections and associations the natives of India do not participate. A lion rampart with a folio in his paw, with a man standing on each side of him, with a telescope over his head, and with a Persian motto under his feet must seem to them either very mysterious or very absurd.
I should have thought too that rigid Mahomedans would have entertained religious objections to the proposed device. But on this point other gentlemen are better qualified to judge.
I quite approve of the plan of going to Hooghly, though I will not promise to go myself. Will Sir Edward Ryan fix a day?—[Page 33.] 22nd August, 1836.
Holidays.—I see that the question of holidays has already been settled, and, as I think, in a proper manner. What I proposed on that subject is therefore unnecessary.—[Page 36.]
Stipendiary school boys of 30 years old.—If ever there was a place of education in which stipends were evidently useless, that place is the Hooghly College. We have a greater number of pupils thronging thither than we can find buildings to hold or masters to teach, and yet it is proposed that we should offer bounties to bring in others. As to those who are receiving stipends, I feel some doubt. That men of thirty and thirty-five should be supported in this way seems very absurd, and still more when we find that these have large families, which are subsisting on the funds designed for education. As to the plea of poverty, it will never be wanting under such a system. We make these people helpless beggars by our imprudent relief. Look at No. 10 for example. He has been living on a stipend eleven years. He is near thirty, and we are told that he will not have completed his education for four years to come. Moghal Jan, again (No. 1) is near thirty. He has been paid to learn something during twelve years, we are told that he is lazy and stupid. But there are hopes that in four years more he may have completed his course of study.
We have had quite enough of these lazy, stupid, school-boys of thirty. I would tell Dr. Wise that his proposal cannot be listened to. As to the existing students, I would at once strike off all but the four whom Dr. Wise proposes to retain; and those I would allow to remain on the list only as matter of charity. I would let No. 5 who is 30, draw his stipend for two years, and the others who are younger, but all above 20, for three years, and then I would have done with the stipendiary system for ever.—[Page 40.] 9th September, 1836.
Concerning the purchase of ground for building a College.—We are greatly obliged to our Secretary and to Mr. Trevelyan their exertions and for their interesting report. I quite approve of what they suggest as to the internal arrangement of the school and the providing of new masters. Masters should be selected with as little delay as possible.
There is little hope that we shall be able to obtain the barracks. We must therefore think of building, and here I would recommend that we should neither build nor clear any land for building, till we have purchased all the ground that we shall want. For if we begin to build before we have bought all the land, we shall find that the price will rise enormously, as the proprietors will know that they have us at their mercy; and I fear that the Hooghly College, being a private endowment, will not be considered by the Government as one of those public works for which individuals may be compelled to give up their land at a valuation.
I approve of what is suggested with respect to the visitation of the College, and I do not object to the proposed name.—[Page 44.] 16th September, 1836.
Persian writing master.—I shall not object if Mr. Shakespear and Mr. Smith think that this master is wanted and that the proposed remuneration is reasonable. I should not have thought that the scientific drawings of a native of this country were likely to be of any value.—[Page 48.]
Lodgings and food for students not to be given by the College.—I am against sanctioning the huts and against building dormitories for poor students. Dr. Wise does not in the least understand our views on these points. I would recommend that he should be distinctly informed that we mean to give instruction gratis, that every rupee laid out in building huts for students or giving food to students is a rupee withdrawn from more useful purposes, and that we desire that he will on no occasion depart from this rule without reference to us.—[Page 50.]
College libraries should be open to the public.—Dr. Wise’s rules seem to have been in the main judiciously framed on the principles laid down by us. With respect to the plan of making our College libraries, circulating libraries, there is much to be said on both sides. If a proper subscription is demanded from those who have access to these libraries, and if all that is raised by this subscription is laid out in adding to the libraries, the students will be no losers by the plan. I should think also that such a system would be beneficial, as it would connect our schools with the best part of the English society at the Mofussil stations. Our libraries, the best of them at least, would be better than any library which would be readily accessible at such a station; and I do not know why we should grudge a young officer the pleasure of reading our copy of Boswell’s Life of Johnson, or Marmontel’s Memoirs, if he is willing to pay a few rupees for the privilege.
I will not object to the principle of this part of Dr. Wise’s plan. But I do object to his proposal that these subscribers shall subscribe according to their circumstances. I would proceed on this principle, that the object for which the library is established is the good of the students, and that no person should be permitted to take any book thence unless the students receive from that person a compensation fully equal to the loss which they sustain by being temporarily deprived of that book. I would certainly not fix the subscription at less than 1 rupee a month for any body: and I think that every thing raised in this way should be expended in adding to the library.—[Page 54.] 29th October, 1836.
Maulvis’ place for prayer.—What are the objections to allowing the Maulvis to meet for prayer within the College? I think that we can hardly refuse both to suffer them to meet there and to supply them with another place where they may meet, the character of the institution considered. Mr. Sutherland’s remarks seem to me generally quite just, except that I do not attach so much importance as he appears to do to the projection of maps, an accomplishment which depends chiefly on manual dexterity, and without which a student may be an excellent geographer.—[Page 62.] 7th November, 1836.
I propose that we should strike off the list of stipendiary students all but the four whom Dr. Wise formerly wished should keep their present stipends for three years and no longer. At the expiration of that period the practice of giving stipends ought to cease altogether.—[Page 74.] 12th November, 1836.
Examiner for the Hooghly College.—Where is a competent person to be found? I shall be heartily glad if any gentleman can suggest one.—[Page 79.] 1st December, 1836.
Purchase of Perron’s House at Chinsurah.—Nay, I think that we never expected to obtain the house for less than 16,000 Rs. and if I am rightly informed we may, with perfect prudence, authorise Dr. Wise to go as far as 20,000.—[Page 83.] 27th December, 1836.
Suggestions by Mr. Walters and Mr. Samuels.—We are much obliged to Mr. Walters and Mr. Samuels for the trouble which they have taken and for the suggestions which they have offered. To the first proposition, the addition of 45 Rupees a month to the salary of the master of the infant school, I do not object. I am also quite for discharging the useless Pundits. The founder. of the college cannot be supposed to have had any particular bias in favour of Brahminical learning. We are therefore perfectly at liberty to deal with that part of the establishment in the manner which may appear to us most useful.
The second proposition (to buy Perron’s house) has already been adopted by the Committee.
I have great doubts about the third proposition, (to establish branch schools in the villages). The advantages of adopting it on a small scale are not very obvious: and we have not money sufficient to defray the expense of adopting it on the large scale recommended by Mr. Walters.
The fourth proposition (to establish stipends) has been repeatedly under our consideration. My opinion about it remains unchanged. I altogether dissent from Mr Walters’s proposition about religious books, I would not of course keep from the pupils a book which, on other grounds, they ought to read, merely because it contained information respecting the Christian religion. I would not keep Paradise Lost or Cowper's Task, or Robinson Crosoe’s Dialogues with his man Friday out of their hands. But I would not in any school give them books with the object of making converts of the students, and least of all would I do so in a school founded by a zealous Mahomedan, who assuredly would have taken good care to prevent any such use of his money being made, if he could have foreseen it.
As to the last suggestion of Mr. Walters, (to invite tenders for the supply of school books) if it ought to be adopted with respect to the Hooghly College, it ought also to be adopted with respect to all our institutions. Perhaps the whole question had better be referred to the Sub-Committee of school-books or the Sub-Committeo of Finance. The latter Sub-Committee, I think, is that to which it seems naturally to belong.—[Page 86.] 10th January, 1837.
What knowledge of the Vernacular is “absolutely requisite”—Mr. Sutherland seems to me to have a little misunderstood Dr. Wise. The Doctor does not say that a mere colloquial smattering of Bengali is all that is required. He says it is all that isabsolutely requisite: and goes on to add that instruction is given, composition practised, and prizes held out in order to induce the higher classes to acquire a critical knowledge of the Vernacular tongue. By “absolutely requisite” he seems evidently to mean requisite for purposes of common life, for the purpose of giving orders to the servants, of inquiring the way, of buying and selling in the bazaar, and so forth.
As to the library, I think that we may expect to receive the books which we ordered from England in the course of a very few months.The disbursements recommended may be sanctioned.—[Page 90.] 20th January, 1837.
Professors’ Duties.—I should think that in a very few months both Dr. Wise and Mr. Sutherland would find the number of advanced pupils quite sufficient to employ them during at least 4 hours in the day. I would rather wait a little, than propose at present the arrangement which our Secretary suggests. If it should be found that, at the end of another half year, Mr. Sutherland has no more to do than at present, I shall be dis¬ posed to make some addition to his duties.—[Page 99.] 20th January, 1837.
Offer of Rs. 30,000 for Perron’s house.—I cannot agree with Mr. Sutherland. I would give the 30,000 rupees at once, and obtain the house. If we should find that the house will do for our college, we shall save ten times 30,000 rupees, for we shall not build a new one for less than three lacs. If on the other hand, we should determine to build, we shall always be able to part with the house for a price not much smaller than that which is now asked for it; and we shall have the use of it rent-free while we are building.
This arrangement cannot be productive of loss to us. It may be productive of very great gain. I would therefore authorise Dr. Wise to offer the 30,000 rupees, and to declare that it is our last word, and that we will not give an anna more.—[Page 100.] 25th January, 1837.
The Library.—I quite approve of what Dr. Wise proposes. I do not think that we need be anxious about the cost. The funds of the Hooghly College will bear a much greater outlay than will be necessary for the procuring of these books. And the sooner the students have a tolerable library the better.—[Page 105.] 1st March, 1837.
Purchase of Perron’s House for Rupees 20,000.— I quite agree with Mr. Sutherland. I would close instantly with the offer.— [Page 108.] 21st March, 1837.
Sanction for Punkahs and Pankah Pullers.—I approve. I would make them physically as comfortable as possible while they are studying.—[Page 112.] 6th April, 1837.
Morning school during the hot months.—I agree with Mr. Sutherland in disliking the shifting of hours generally. But in this climate, the health and comfort of the students may render such a course necessary. Even in England school hours are generally earlier in summer than in winter. I am inclined to agree to Dr. Wise’s proposition.—[Page 113.] 6th April, 1837.
Good salaries for Teachers essential.—I would give the Rs. 120. It is desirable not merely to keep good masters, but to prevent them from being always on the look out for better situations. I would try to give them such salaries that they may settle down to their employment as one which is to be the business of their lives. Otherwise we shall have nothing but change. We shall lose every master as soon as he has acquired experience and established a character; and shall have a constant succession of teachers who will themselves be learners. At some of our institutions want of means prevents us from doing all that could be wished. But at Hooghly we are quite able to do all that is necessary to make the system of instruction efficient.—[Page 116.] 24th April, 1837.
Proposal that pupils should purchase their school-books.—The subject is full of difficulties. Nothing can be proposed which is not open to objection; and there seems to be as little objection to Mr. Sutherland’s proposal as to any other.—[Page 118.] 29th. April, 1837.
Purchase of Philosophical Apparatus.—I approve. I wish that some of our scientific members would look at the models before we buy them.—[Page 120.] 2nd May, 1837.
Periodicals in the College Library.—I do not see Dr. Wise’s letter. I am rather inclined to vote against the proposition as far as I at present understand it. How many boys at the Hooghly College will for a long time to come read the Edinburgh and Quarterly Reviews with any interest? The Principal and the Professor are probably the only persons in the Institution who would ever cut such works open. And we must never forget that we are forming libraries not for the English professors, but for the native students.—[Page 121.] 4th May, 1837.
A Pundit for the Judge’s Court at Hooghly.—I have no objection. But the office of recommending people who are to bear a part in the administration of justice is an important one. I think that some testimonials ought to be laid before us; and that we ought not to let the matter pass as one of mere form.—[Book M. page 119.] 19th May, 1837.
Proposal to grant a pension of Rs. 25 monthly to the family of Mahomud Soluman, late Principal of the Madrussa.—I really feel great doubts about this matter. The salary of the Maulvie would surely have enabled him to make some provision for his family; and I am certain that, if we provide for his wife and children, no other Maulvie in the College will think of laying by anything. And I should fear that the evil would spread to other institutions. I own that I cannot satisfy myself as to the propriety of acceding to this request.—[Page 131.] 26th May, 1837.
Family Pensions.—I would certainly rather give a donation than a pension. But, though it is exceedingly unpleasant to me to take the harsh side on such occasions, I really cannot see sufficient ground for what is proposed. Where are we to stop if once we begin? And what assurance have we that the greater part of our funds may not, if once the principle be recognized, be diverted from purposes of education and expended on the wives and children of our school masters.—[Page 134.] 5th June, 1837.
Proposal to establish ten pupil teacherships.—I am against what is proposed. The effect of adopting the proposition would be either to stop the progress of the best students, or to provide the lower classes with bad masters. If any but the very best are selected to teach, the business of teaching will be ill-performed. If the best are selected, their education is at an end. Just imagine what would be the effect in England of selecting all the best scholars of a public school, and at the time when they would be leaving school for the university making them ushers, and condemning them to pass their time in teaching “musa, musæ,” and “amo, amas, amat” to the boys of the lowest form. No system could be devised more certain to stunt the minds of boys at the very time of life at which their minds might be expected to develope themselves most rapidly.
If we were absolutely in want of funds, there might be some excuse for such a measure. But there will not be the smallest difficulty in providing additional teachers, if additional teachers are wanted. And surely it is much better to appoint such teachers, than to divert the attention of the most intelligent young men in the college from their own studies, and to employ them in the uninteresting drudgery of teaching the first elements to children.
I am a little inclined to think that this is an attempt to introduce into the college, under a disguise, that stipendiary system which the Government and the Committee have condemned, but to which Dr. Wise, like many other highly respectable persons, seems to cling with extraordinary fondness. Be this as it may, I vote against the proposition.—[Page 138.] 28th June, 1837.
The establishment of a Branch School at Hooghly supported by Mahomed Moshin’s endowment is desired by the people of Hooghly.—Then I would have such a school. We have ample funds; and as far as I properly can, I wish to comply with the inclinations of the people of Hooghly.—[Book N. page 106.] 18th July, 1837.
Commencement of the long discussions about the purchase of General Perron’s house at Chinsurah for the college of Mahomed Moshin.—Of course we must not run any risk. But I never saw an attorney’s letter which had more the look of being written in support of an idle vamped up claim. We had better ask the visitors whether they know anything about the business. In the mean time, of course, we must do nothing.—[Book L. page 139.] 2nd August, 1837.
About the purchase of General Perron’s house for the college of Mahomed Moshin.—I am very little acquainted with these matters. I should have thought that the conveyance ought to be to the Government, which is the representative of the founder, and from whose authority ours is derived. But I submit my judgment to that of more experienced people.—[Book L. page 154.] 11th August, 1837.
Russel’s Modern Europe.—Russel’s is one of those bad books which keep their ground for want of a better. I have no objection to what Mr. Sutherland proposes. What he says of the Poetical Miscellany reminds me of a proposition respecting a Prose Miscellany which I shall take an early opportunity of submitting to the Committee.—[Page 150.] 26th August, 1837.
Prankissen Seal’s house at Chinsurah.—Certainly against an opinion so well entitled to consideration as Mr. Sutherland’s, I cannot venture to recommend the purchase. I wish that we could procure a copy of the petition, and also that we could learn when the case is likely to be disposed of by the Sudder Dewany Adawlut.—[Page 159.] 4th October, 1837.
- ↑ The Baboo’s suggestion referred to another matter and not to this donation which was quite unrestircted— H. W.
- ↑ (The Secretary states that the age of five years is the “scriptural” age to begin letters.—H. W.)
- ↑ [Besides being Secretary to the Committee of Public Instruction, Mr. Sutherland was also Secretary to the Law Commission, which was his principal appointment.—H. W.]
- ↑ At, the end of the Session of 1837, the examiners of the Hindu College were C. E. Trevelyan, T. B. Macaulay, H. Shakespear, R. Mangles, Sir E. Ryan, and R. S. H. Birch,—H. W.
- ↑ Mr. Trevelyan explains that the increase of salary was promised on the condition that the Pundit should serve in the proposed English School. The English School was not opened so soon as it was expected, and therefore the increase was not earned.—H. W.
- ↑ The cost to Government, exclusive of the military pay and allowance of the covenanted Professors, for each one of the 199 students reported as the average attendance, during the year 1858-59 was Rs. 60-0-8. In this statement are included the Hindustani and Bengali classes, which receive an education far less expensive than the English classes. I estimate the cost of each student in the English classes at Rupees 150 a month, exclusive of the military pay of the Professors.—H. W.
- ↑ The Honorable H. Shakespear, Sir E. Ryan and Mr. Smith proposed that one of the professors should be Principal and receive Rs. 800 a month. Mr. C. Trevelyan and Col. Young proposed Rs. 600, and that the salaries of the English Staff should be increased. Free quarters were unanimously assigned to the Principal.