Page:On the education of the people of India (IA oneducationofpeo00trevrich).pdf/170

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156
on the education of

made in our Indian administration, which ought alone to excite us to corresponding exertions for the education of the natives. The system established by Lord Cornwallis was based upon the principle of doing every thing by European agency. Europeans are, no doubt, superior to the natives in some of the most important qualities of administrators; but the public revenue did not admit of the employment of a sufficient number of them. The wheels of Government therefore soon became clogged: more than half of the business of the country remained unperformed; and at last it became necessary to abandon a plan, which, after a fair trial, had completely broken down. The plan which Lord William Bentinck substituted for it was, to transact the public business by native agency, under European superintendence; and this change is now in progress in all the different branches of the administration. We have already native judges, collectors, and opium and salt agents; and it is now proposed to have native magistrates. The native collectors are often vested with the same powers as the European collectors; and it has been lately enacted, that all civil suits, of whatever amount, may be tried in the first instance by the native judges.

The success of this great measure depends en-