Education was con

the resources of education. ducted in a way more adapted for the lecture-room of a German university, than for the enlightenment of benighted Asiatics. The friends of education, in performing the indispensable duty of recovering the sum which had been assigned by the state for their object, were very unwillingly placed in a state of apparent opposition to the interests of oriental research.

The more imme

Society, in strug

diate supporters of the Asiatic gling to retain the interest they had enjoyed in this sum, were marshalled against the cause of popular education. Since the separation has been effected, both parties have pursued their respective objects with much greater success than before. The Education Committee, uninfluenced by any foreign bias, has employed all its disposable funds in founding new seminaries. The Asiatic Society, forced at last to lean on its natural supporters, has been liberally assisted by private contributions; and will, it may be hoped, soon receive that aid from the public resources to which the public importance of its labours so justly entitle it.

It is much to be desired that this division of labour between the departments of general science and popular education should receive the sanction of the highest authority, and be carried into full

effect. The plan which appears to me best calculated to answer every purpose, is, for the Government to attach a Sanskrit professor, with several native assistants, to the establishment of the Asiatic Society. These persons, selected on account of their eminent attainments and known love of science, and undisturbed by any other pursuit, might devote themselves to the investigation of the history, antiquities, philosophy, and literature of the East, recording the result of their researches in the most lasting and available forms. India is undoubtedly at the threshold of a new era; and it seems to be no less incumbent on us at this period to gather up the recollections of the past, than to provide matter of national improvement for the future. The Hindu system of learning has formed the character of the people up to the present point; and it must still be studied, to account for daily occurring phenomena of habits and manners. Whatever mental cultivation, whatever taste for scientific and literary pursuits has survived among the Hindus, is owing to it: they were a literary people when we were barbarians; and, after centuries of revolution, and anarchy, and subjection to foreign rule, they are still a literary people, now that we have arrived at the highest existing point of civilisation. That the system

which has produced these effects should be carefully analysed and recorded in all its different parts, is no less required by the interests of science in general than by our particular interest as rulers of India. The pundits and students of the Sanskrit College, whose whole time is taken up in teaching and learning that language, are quite unequal to the task. The Asiatic Society, whose proper business it is, are also at present unequal to it; they have no machinery for its performance: the members of the society are principally public officers, overburdened with other duties; and they have as yet been obliged to confine their attention to the replenishment of their museum, and the collection of such scattered notices of the antiquities of the country as have been sent to them by amateur correspondents. The examining and laying open of the different branches of Hindu and Mahommedan literature, has been of necessity, almost entirely neglected; and unless some plan be adopted such as I have suggested, it is not easy to see how this object (the one for which the society was principally founded), can ever be accomplished. Such Arabic and Sanskrit works as are worthy of being preserved, might be printed under the superintendence of the professor and his native assistants; and the expense might be borne,

as hitherto, partly by subscription, and partly by the sale of the works themselves, without much assistance from Government. What the finances of the society are not equal to, is, the payment of salaries sufficient to secure the whole time of highly qualified persons to review and make researches into the ancient literature of the country.

Having made this provision for the preservation of Arabic and Sanskrit learning, and satisfied every reasonable wish which either national pride or scientific curiosity can suggest, we shall be able with more satisfaction to take the requisite steps for the introduction of new knowledge, and the creation of a new literature. Every object will have been secured, and all parties will pursue their respective ends without interfering, and will co-operate without misunderstanding.

CHAP. VII.

The Political Tendency of the different Systems of Education in use in India.

THERE can be no dispute as to what our duty as the rulers of India requires us to do. But it has been said, and may be said again, that whatever our duty may be, it is not our policy to enlighten the natives of India; that the sooner they grow to man's estate, the sooner they will be able to do without us; and that by giving them knowledge, we are giving them power, of which they will make the first use against ourselves.

If our interest and our duty were really opposed to each other, every good man, every honest Englishman, would know which to prefer. Our national experience has given us too deep a sense of the true ends of government, to allow us to think of carrying on the administration of India except for the benefit of the people of India. A nation which made so great a sacrifice to redeem a few hundred thousand negroes from slavery, would shudder at the idea of keeping a hundred millions of Indians in the bondage of ignorance, with all