Page:History, Design and Present State of the Religious, Benevolent and Charitable Institutions.djvu/163

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government chinsurah schools.
151

continuance of judicious management, the want of means would oppose the only obstacle to its unlimited dissemination. On this occasion, and when the first allowance in support of the Schools was granted, the Government expressly enjoined the most scrupulous adherence to the long avowed and indispensible condition of not interfering with the religious opinions of the Natives, an injunction which was pointedly and wisely reiterated by the Court of Directors, when they sanctioned the pecuniary aid in question.

In August 1818, Mr. May’s course of usefulness was arrested by death: but this excellent man was not removed from the scene of his labors, until he had witnessed how complete was their present beneficial operation, to which satisfaction he might have added, had his modest and unassuming nature admitted of it, the anticipation that future generations would be indebted to his care, for their redemption from ignorance and degradation. At the time of his decease, the existence of 36 Schools attended by above 3,000 Natives, both Hindoos and Mohomedans, attested his zeal, his prudence and be-