Page:The despatch of 1854, on General education in India.djvu/13

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who may be better fitted for them; and that, in any case, the scale of their remuneration shall be so fixed as publicly to recognise the important duties they will have to perform.

22. We now proceed to sketch out the general scheme of the measures which we propose to adopt. We have endeavoured to avail ourselves of the knowledge which has been gained from the various experiments which have been made in different parts of India for the encouragement of education; and we hope, by the more general adoption of those plans which have been carried into successful execution in particular districts, as well as by the introduction of other measures which appear to be wanting, to establish such a system as will prove generally applicable throughout India, and thus to impart to the educational efforts of our different Presidencies a greater degree of uniformity and method than at present exists.

23. We are fully aware that no general scheme would be applicable in all its details to the present condition of all portions of our Indian territories, differing, so widely as they do, one from another, in many important particulars. It is difficult, moreover, for those who do not possess a recent and practical acquaintance with particular districts to appreciate the importance which should be attached to the feelings and influences which prevail in each; and we have, therefore, preferred confining ourselves to describing generally what we wish to see done, leaving it to you, in communication with the several local Governments, to modify particular measures so far as may be required, in order to adapt them to the different parts of India.

24. Some years ago, we declined to accede to a proposal made by the Council of Education, and transmitted to us, with the recommendation of your Government, for the institution of an university in Calcutta. The rapid spread of a liberal education among the natives of India since that time, the high attainments shown by the native candidates for Government scholarships, and by native students in private institutions, the success of the medical colleges, and the requirements of an increasing European and Anglo-Indian population, have led us to the conclusion that the time has now arrived for the establishment of universities in