College had been opened in Calcutta in 1817, and thanks to the leaven of English culture amongst the native patrons, Western knowledge formed a large element in the training. But on the whole it must be said that the facilities afforded did not attract. In the Benares College rigid orientalism was the rule. Under Lord Amherst colleges were founded at Agra and Delhi; and in many places colleges and schools maintained by missionaries were already giving that sound European education, as to the comparative expediency of which there was doubt and wrangling among the great officials. The controversy, as we know, was decided some years after in favour of Western learning. But the affection of the more learned servants of the Company for the literature and the language, to the study of which they had devoted themselves with so much zeal, is at least intelligible. Yet already the process of anglicization had set in. The Nawáb of Mursbidábád amused his leisure with English literature and politics. The King of Oudh patronized European art as well as Oriental philology.
In Calcutta the wealthy natives loved to have their houses decorated with Corinthian pillars, and filled with English furniture. They drove in English carriages with well-groomed horses; many spoke English fluently. In some families the children wore jackets and trowsers. 'In the Bengalí newspapers,' says Bishop Heber, of which there are two or three, 'politics are canvassed, the balance, as I am
