where they have generally town houses and resident agents. The subordinate officers of government are selected and sent from thence to exercise their functions in the surrounding country. The European functionaries are present there to exercise a general superintendence over the seminaries, and to assist the teachers with their countenance and experience. By purifying the circulation through these vital organs, the whole system will be re-invigorated; the rich, the learned, the men of business, will first be gained; a new class of teachers will be trained; books in the vernacular language will be multiplied; and with these accumulated means we shall in due time proceed to extend our operations from town to country, from the few to the many, until every hamlet shall be provided with its elementary school. The poor man is not less the object of the committee's solicitude than the rich; but, while the means at their disposal were extremely limited, there were millions of all classes to be educated. It was absolutely necessary to make a selection, and they therefore selected the upper and middle classes as the first object of their attention, because, by educating them first, they would soonest be able to extend the same advantages to the rest of the people. They will be our school

masters, translators, authors; none of which functions the poor man, with his scanty stock of knowledge, is able to perform, They are the leaders of the people. By adopting them first into our system we shall be able to proceed a few years hence, with an abundant supply of proper books and instructors, and with all the wealth and influence of the country on our side, to establish a general system of education which shall afford to every person of every rank the means of acquiring that degree of knowledge which his leisure will permit.

CHAP. III.

The violent Opposition made by Oriental Scholars to the Resolution of the 7th March 1835. The whole Question rests upon Two Points; first, Whether English or Arabic and Sanskrit Literature is best calculated for the Improvement of the People of India; and secondly, Whether, supposing English Literature to be best adapted for that Purpose, the Natives are willing to cultivate it. These Points considered.

THE resolution of the 7th of March 1835 was passed in the face of the most keen and determined opposition on the part of several distinguished persons whose influence had not been usually exerted in vain; and their representations were seconded by a petition got up by the numerous class of persons whose subsistence was dependent on the oriental colleges, and on the printing and other operations of the committee connected with them. The Asiatic Society also took up the cause with great vehemence, and memorialised the local government, while the Court of Directors and the Board of Control were pressed by strong remonstrances from the Royal Asiatic Society. The spirit of orientalism was stirred up to its inmost depths,

and the cry of indignation of the Calcutta literati was re-echoed with more than its original bitterness from the colleges of France and Germany.

In order to understand these phenomena, it will be necessary to go back a few years in the history of India. When Lord Wellesley established the college of Fort William, he provided munificently for the encouragement of oriental learning. For a long time after, that learning was nearly the sole test of merit among the junior members of the civil service, and such military and medical officers as aspired to civil employment. A superior knowledge of Sanskrit and Arabic was sure to be rewarded by a good place. The reputations of many members of the government and of nearly all the secretaries had been founded on this basis. The literary circle of Calcutta was almost exclusively composed of orientalists. The education committee was formed when this state of things was at its height, and hence the decidedly oriental cast of its first proceedings.

By degrees the rage for orientalism subsided

among the Europeans, while the taste for European literature rose to a great height among the natives. A modification of the committee's proceedings suited to this altered state of things was called for; but the persons who had been trained under the

old system still occupied the strongholds of the administration, and motives were not wanting to dispose them to an obstinate defence. The habits of a long life were now for the first time broken in upon. They felt as if the world were given to understand that they had spent their strength for nought, and that their learning was altogether vanity.* The axe seemed to them to be laid at the root of their reputations. This was more than human nature could bear. Men who had been remarkable for self-restraint completely lost their temper, and those who had been accustomed to give free expression to their feelings showed unusual warmth on this occasion. It was a striking exhibition of character. It is true that the wellearned honours of mature life had rendered several of these distinguished persons independent

* Jacquemont makes the following remarks on this subject in one of his letters to his father, vol. i. p. 222-3: — "Le Sanskrit ne ménera à rien qu'au Sanskrit. Le méchanisme de ce langage est admirablement compliqué, et néanmoins, dit on, admirable. Mais c'est comme une de ces machines qui ne sortent pas de conservatoires et des muséums, plus ingenieuses qu'utiles. Elle n'a servi qu'à fabriquer de la théologie, de la métaphysique, de l'histoire mêlée de théologie, et autres billevésées du même genre: galimathias triple pour les faiseurs et pour les consommateurs, pour les consommateurs étrangers surtout, galimathias †, &c. &c. La mode du Sanskrit et de l'orientalisme littéraire en général durera cependant, parce que ceux qui auront passé ou perdu quinze ou vingt ans à apprendre l'Arabe ou le Sanskrit n'auront la candeur d'avouer qu'ils possèdent une science inutile.”