mirable principles which formed the basis of his Lordship's judicial reforms. "In looking for a remedy to these evils, the moral and intellectual improvement of the natives will necessarily form a prominent feature of any plan which may arise from the above suggestions; and I have therefore not failed to turn my most solicitous attention to the important object of public education. As the public money would be ill appropriated in merely providing gratuitous access to that quantum of education which is already attainable, any intervention of Government, either by superintendance or by contribution, should be directed to the improvement of existing tuition, and to the diffusion of it to places and persons now out of its reach. In the infancy of the British administration in this country (India), it was perhaps a matter of necessity to confine our legislation to the primary principle of justice. The lapse of half a century, and the operation of that principle, have produced a new state of society, which calls for a more enlarged and liberal policy. The moral duties require encouragement; the arts which adorn and embellish life will follow in ordinary course. It is for the credit of the British name that this beneficial alteration should arise under British sway. To be the source of blessings to the immense population of India is an ambition worthy of our country. In proportion as we have found intellect sterile here, the obligation is the stronger on us to cultivate it."

Those who lament, with Sir Wm. Jones, the worthlessness of judicial testimony among the Hindoos, from that proneness to perjury among them which succeeding judges have so emphatically spoken of; and those who concur with Mr. Mill, the able historian of British India, in viewing their laws as indicating gross ignorance of the true principles of legislation, and as incapable of much saSir James Macintosh, Sir Edward H.East, &c.

lutary alteration, whilst "devotion is equal to the performance of all duties,"* will best appreciate the enlightened sentiments just recorded.

The inveterate attachment of the natives of Hindostan to their own forms of judicial administration, espepecially to the Punjayet Courts, existing in several parts of India,† is sufficiently known. But the preparatory measures of Lord Hastings begin already to be felt among the Indian community. In the second number of the Bengalee newspaper, entitled, Sungbaud Cowmuddy, is published, an humble address to Government, soliciting the extension of the boon of trial by jury to the Mofussil, Zillah, and Provincial Courts of Judicature.

From this subject we pass almost imperceptibly to the next head, the measures of his Lordship's government in regard to the encouragement of learning, and the promotion of moral and intellectual improvement among the natives of India. His own explicit statements furnish a key to understand his views on this important subject.

In one of his Lordship's visitation discourses to the College of Fort William, he thus expresses himself:

And ought the weal of a people once taken under our fostering care to be left to any extraneous contingency? Our spirit of benevolence should be disinterested, and we should stand above the pride of considering their freedom from oppression as dependent solely upon the strength of our arm. How, it will be asked, is any other security to be given them? By communicating to them that which is the source of such security in us. By imparting to them that knowledge which

*Hist. of Brit. India, cc. 4, 6. The above is one of the maxims of Menu.

+ Col. Wilks, in his Sketches of India, attributes high praise to the Courts of Punjayet, as singularly well adapted to the Hindoos. An account which appear to be the promptness of their de cisions, and the exclusion from them of Vakeels,

of the nature of these courts, the great merits of

or greedy native lawyers, may be found in Mal colm's Memoir of Central India, c. 10.

30th June, 1817.

furnishes at once the consciousness of human rights, and the disposition and the means to maintain them. This government never will be influenced by the erroneous, shall I not rather call it the designing position, that to spread information among men is to render them less tractable and less submissive to authority. If an abuse of authority be planned, men will be less tractable and submissive, in proportion as they have the capacity of comprehending the meditated injustice. But it would be treason against British sentiment to imagine, that it ever could be the principle of this Government to perpetuate ignorance, in order to ensure paltry and dishonest advantages over the blindness of the multitude."

The opinion of Lord Hastings respecting the mode in which the intervention of Government should be employed, with a view to the intellectual benefit of the Hindoos, has just been recorded, namely, by improving and extending the existing systems of tuition. Accordingly, one of the earliest acts of his government was the passing (1814) a vote of council for a sum of money to be applied to the erection of the schools round Chinsurah, under the care of the late Rev. Mr. May, a measure which was sanctioned by the Court of Directors. To enumerate all the colleges and schools established under the auspices of Lord Hastings would be tedious. It is stated, indeed, that "almost every institution now in existence in that country for the mental improvement of the natives commenced during his Lordship's administration."+

Besides the native college of Benares, founded by Mr. Duncan, several others are now established under the Presidency of Fort William, the funds for support of all which are in a considerable degree derived from Go

* These are now about twenty-five in number. + Friend of India, No. Vt1. Art. A view of the Administration of Marquess Hastings in reference to the intellectual and moral improve. ment of British India-an article well deserving perusal.

vernment. In 1815, the Hindoo College was founded by wealthy natives, stimulated thereto by the encouragement of the Governor-General. In 1816, the patronage of native schools upon the plan of the Serampore Institution, then first formed, became general, and they have been extended to remote parts of India. At the express instance of his Lordship, and by the aid of his munificent support, seminaries were established in Rajpootana, the whole expense of which, by order of the Governor-General in Council, in the year 1821, was directed to be in future defrayed by the Government. In the same year his Lordship appointed a committee, consisting of a member of the Board of Revenue, the Secretary to Government in the Judicial Department, and two gentlemen of eminent oriental acquirements, to digest a plan upon a comprehensive scale, for the foundation of a new Hindoo College in Calcutta. In forming the classes and system of instruction, the mysticaland extravagant works, containing matter highly exceptionable in the estimation of respectable Hindoos, are excluded. It is well known that the sources of investigation, as well as the stores of native learning, are closed to the mass of Hindoos, through ignorance of Sanscrit. There is however an institution, not only formed under Lord Hastings' administration, and supported by his patronage, but which in reality was originated by his illustrious consort, before her first return to England, the fruits of which are likely to be more rapidly and more extensively beneficial. This is the Calcutta School Book Society, instituted in 1817, for the purpose of preparing and supplying books adapted to improve and enlarge the minds of the native youth. So sincerely did the Marchioness co-operate in this benevolent design, that she herself prepared, and sent to press, several elementary works, for the use of one of the schools at Barrackpore. The funds

of this society were furnished by voluntary subscriptions of Europeans, Musulmans, and Hindoos; but in 1821, these funds failing, the Governor-General in Council contributed, in addition to a handsome donation, a monthly allowance of two hundred and fifty rupees in aid of the society. The announcement to the School Book Committee of this act of liberality was accompanied with the following encouraging intimation: "The pursuits in which you are engaged tend to fulfil an object of national solicitude; and by extricating the society from its pecuniary difficulties, the Government, to a certain degree, accomplishes its own views and wishes for the happiness of the people subjected to its rule."

The indigenous schools, under the patronage of this society, are eighty in number, distributed into four divisions, each superintended by a Bengalee gentleman in the district. The total number of boys educated in these schools is stated as two thousand eight hundred. The aggregate of schools in Calcutta is represented at a hundred and eighty-eight, at which upwards of four thousand children are educated.

These are a few of the sources of improvement devised or patronized by Lord Hastings. The impulse which these measures have communicated to the wealthy class of natives is remarkable. Not only are the funds of the institutions increased by their liberality, but they incite the students by their presence and countenance. "My countrymen begin to perceive the advantages arising from your disinterested exertions," was the remark of one of these wealthy visitors to an English missionary employed in examining his native pupils.

But a fact more important still is the success attending the efforts to dispel the slavish ignorance of the females. "There are in Hindostan," says Mr. Ward, to the ladies of Liverpool," seventy-five millions of your

At the last Examination, 27th Feb. 1823.
Asiatic Journ-No. 98.

sex who can neither read or write; and thirty millions of these are British subjects." Superstition seems, indeed, to have imprisoned, within almost impervious barriers, the understandings of this class of her votaries. By the Hindoo law, or more properly, according to the glosses upon the sacred text, women are forbidden to learn the alphabet; and the wrath of the offended gods is denounced against females who presume to read the Védas. Yet so far has prejudice relaxed its hold, that parents suffer their daughters to receive instruction of Europeans; and some hundreds of native females are now being educated, by a lady who has been sent from England for that purpose, under the auspices of the British and Foreign School Society. The happy consequences of this attempt may in future ages afford the Hindoo community just reason to reflect with joy and gratitude upon the government of Marquess Hastings.

*

The readiness with which the natives send their children to the schools established by us is adverted to by his Lordship, who adds, "This readiness is so distinct, that I now look with confidence to the rapid diffusion of moral instruction throughout a popu lation, in which for a long period it has been lamentably wanting."

Another feature of improvement justly attributable to the sagacity of his Lordship's fundamental system in regard to education, is the recent institution of a Hindoo Literary Society at

Calcutta ; for which purpose a meeting of natives (probably the first of the kind ever known in Hindostan}, was held at the Hindoo College, 16th February 1823. One of the objects of this society, we are told,† is "to comment on the immorality and inconsistency of the customs of the present day; and to point out habits and conduct more conducive to the well-being and happiness of mankind."

The rapid progress of intellectual

Reply to the Cal utta Address, Dec. 1882.
+ Calcutta Gov. Gaz. 27th March 1893.
VOL. XVII.
S

refinement has manifested itself in India, as it invariably does under a liberal government, through the medium of the press. Native authors* are found, not only attacking the abuses which have crept into the Hindoo ceremonial system, but combating the senseless and cruel maxims of their sacred writers. In fact, the finishing blow seems about to be given to the artfully constructed fabric of Eastern superstition, by the astonishing multiplication of native periodical works, expressly devoted to inquiry and discussion. In Calcutta, where fifty years ago no newspaper existed, either European or native, four or five have within the last two years been published, in Bengalee, Hindoostanee and Persian. Some of these productions are opposed to each other; and it is out of this very conflict of opinion (under due restraint and precaution) that the most salutary effects may be expected to arise. It is evident that the seeds planted by the wisdom of Lord Hastings, and nurtured by his fostering influence, are beginning to expand and ripen into fruit, from the views which the natives appear to entertain regarding the essential end of discussion, namely, the discovery of truth. At the Hindoo literary meeting before adverted to, one of the persons present, deeply imbued with ancient prejudices, declared that if the objects of the society were literary, he would interest himself in it; but if it countenanced any abusive exposure of their religion, he would have nothing to do with it. He was promptly answered by another, that should any work be published hostile to their religion, "a defence must be offered thereto :" and this remark was approved.

This branch of our inquiry might easily be extended; but, lest it should encroach too far upon the others, let

e.g. Bruja. Mohuna, lately deceased, the author of an excellent treatise against idolatry. He was a follower of the pure Vedanta doctrine.

it suffice to observe, that from the commencement to the conclusion of Lord Hastings' administration, the moral and intellectual improvement of the natives of India was an object nearest to his heart.

With regard to the fourth head, namely, the beneficial change in the condition of the population, by the introduction of orderly, industrious, and moral habits, among that portion of it especially to whom those habits, and the very idea of comfort, were unknown, it is impossible to furnish a faithful and adequate representation of his Lordship's services. To appreciate them, the scene of improvement should be contemplated with a full knowledge of its former aspect. A person so qualified to judge, would desire no further testimony of his talents in this most useful department of politics: Si quæris quis et qualis fuerit, circumspice.

Lord Hastings endeavoured to inspire all around him with his own zeal, and strove to impress upon all the servants of the Government, that the amelioration of the natives was not a mere gratuitous office, but a part of their duty towards their employers, whose interests were thereby effectually served. This was one of the topics inculcated by him in his admirable addresses to the students at the college of Fort William. “To improve and persuade those around you,” said he, in his speech of 1820, “will not be a gratuitous duty, superadded to the discharge of your immediate trust respecting your honourable employers. The simpler interests of the Company cannot be better advanced than by the moral melioration of the inhabitants; but, far beyond this, the Company have not, never could have, another object so much at heart, as the happiness of their native subjects, and the reputation of their own country."

A statement of his Lordship, of whom it has been justly said, that, like Cæsar, he is the best historian of his own actions, will exhibit a true though