Page:Future of England - Peel.djvu/200

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188
THE FUTURE OF ENGLAND
CH.

Among the remaining 10 per cent, we are endeavouring to foster commercial prosperity, not without some result already. Indeed, at the present moment, there are some 2500 factories in India, run by mechanical power and employing nearly a million persons. Or again, though fourfifths of the exports of India consist of raw materials and food-stuffs, this proportion is being modified, and the recent rise in the export of manufactures is more than twice as great as the rise in the export of raw materials. Although it might be thought that we should have made it our first duty to provide the best commercial education, this has not been the case. Thus, in the words of an Indian economist, "the supreme need of to-day is managers of firms, pioneers, and entrepreneurs. The highest intellect of the nation should be educated for industries; our new ventures are run by amateur managers, and for this reason many of our new joint-stock companies have failed."

Or again, it may be recalled that, at the start of things, Lord William Bentinck, the Viceroy, decided that we should devote ourselves to teaching "English literature and science." Of this programme indubitably the scientific half would have been valuable, as the Indian mind is unscientific. Yet from the first, science was dropped out of our curriculum.

Later, in 1854, the Indian government issued what is usually called their educational "charter."