an opinion which, if avowed long ago by others, when thus decidedly maintained by a clergyman of his rank and known moderation, obtained a degree of credit never given to it before. In the preceding year, there had already been formed the Auxiliary Church Missionary Society, and the Bengal Auxiliary Missionary Society; and in April 1818, a third society of this nature was established under the name of the Calcutta Baptist Missionary Society. In 1820, the foundation stone was laid of Bishop's College, the design of which was to provide a body of clergy trained up in sacred knowledge, sound learning, and the principal languages of India, that they might be qualified to preach among the heathen. In July 1823, it was determined by the Governor in Council, to constitute a General Committee of Public Instruction, for the purpose of ascertaining the state of public education in Bengal, and of the public institutions designed for its promotion. The Governor also announced his resolution to appropriate to the object of public education, the sum of one lac of rupees per annum. These spirited and beneficent measures have been followed up by the formation of a Christian School Society, a Female Orphan Asylum, the Parental Academic Institution, an Episcopal Grammar School, the Ladies' Native Female Education Society+, the Apprenticing Society, a Religious

A liberal native gentleman, Baboo Kasicant Ghosaul, placed 20,000 rupees at the disposal of this Committee; his example was followed by a second, who presented 22,000 rupees; and a third, Budinath Roy, gave 50,000. These sums were vested in public securities, and the interest is to be appropriated in endowing scholarships in the Anglo-Indian College.

To this interesting institution, Budinath Roy, the individual mentioned in the preceding note, presented 20,000 rupees; a benefaction which was the more valuable as sanctioning the extension of education to female Hindoos. In 1827, the number of female native schools in Bengal amounted to 114; the scholars to 2216. Previously to the institution of these schools, there was no

Tract Society, and a Prayer-book and Homily Society. The reproach of degenerate supineness and selfish apathy, so long attaching to the British in India, has thus been completely wiped away; and should the continued subjection of the country prove to be, according to the sinister predictions of some politicians, incompatible with its civilization, "when our power is gone, our name will be revered; for we shall leave,' use the words of Sir John Malcolm, " a moral monument more noble and imperishable than the hand of man ever constructed."*

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It is in Calcutta chiefly, that the effect of the intercourse between Europeans and natives is distinctly visible in a separate class, forming "an indistinct link between the rulers and the people." "The lowest and the poorest Europeans and the native-born Christians and Portuguese," Hamilton says, I do in some degree mix with the natives in their ordinary concerns and amusements, just sufficient to produce a very inconsiderable change in their manners and character." Of this increasingly numerous and important class of the community, no correct census appears ever to have been taken. Their numbers at present, Sir John Malcolm says, are not considerable, (that is, in reference

known instance of an Indian female having been instructed in reading, writing, or sewing; and those who knew most of the country, regarded the attempt as visionary. At the commencement of the experiment, Mrs. Wilson, the estimable foundress of these schools, thought herself fortunate in obtaining the attendance of six or seven children. Many of the Brahmins now appear to approve of the plan, and attend the examination of the scholars. "There is not," says Bishop Heber, " even a semblance of opposition to the efforts which we are now making to enlighten the Hindoos." Heber, vol. i. pp. 55, 6.

* Malcolm, C. I., vol. ii. p. 304. See, for a full account of the Educational Institutions in Bengal, Lushington's History of Religious Institutions, &c., Calcutta, 1825. Friend of India, Nos. vii. and xii. Miss. Register, Feb, 1828.;

to the country at large,) and many causes combine to prevent their rapid increase. "A great proportion being illegitimate, they seldom possess much property; and this circumstance, with the difficulty they have in providing for their children, prevents their early marriages.* The male part rarely marry with European women; and their connexions with their own class, or with the native females of India, produce a race still darker than themselves. Many of these, when the parents are poor, mix with the lower orders of the native Christian population (descendants of the Portuguese and native converts), and lose in the next generation all trace of the distinctive body from which they sprang; while, on the other hand, the children of females of this class who have intermarried with Europeans, from being fairer, and belonging to another society, become, in one or two generations, altogether separated from that race of natives from whom they are maternally descended. With the exception of a few, who have acquired fame and fortune as military adventurers, the superior as well as the most industrious branches of this community are found at the capitals of the three Presidencies, and at the principal civil and military stations; and they may be said almost to monopolize the situations of clerks and accountants in the offices of Government, as well as in those of public servants and private European merchants. The whole of this class speak English, as well as the provincial dialect of the country in which they were born. With a few distinguished exceptions, however, they have no political influence with the natives. It has not hitherto been their interest to

This moral check can, it is obvious, operate only upon those who occupy, or are ambitious of occupying, a respectable rank in society; it cannot apply to the poorer class.

attain such influence, and many obstacles would oppose their success, if they made it their object. . The date at which this part of our Indian population can arrive at any numerical strength as a separate body, is very remote; but they are almost all well educated,* and have from this, a consequence beyond what they derive from their numbers.... Though placed under circumstances of depression and discouragement, this body of men have lost few opportunities of becoming useful and respected in the different walks of life to which their pursuits have been directed...The real consequence of the Anglo-Indians, in the eyes of the natives and their own, arises chiefly from their connexion with Europeans. They cling to an origin which seems to exalt them, and are driven only by the rebuffs of slight or contempt, to take measures by themselves as a detached body with separate and opposite interests. The very pride they have in placing themselves in the rank of Europeans, while it makes them feel with peculiar sensibility every instance of scornful repulse, which, from their anomalous situation, they must often be doomed to experience, affords the means of making

*If this be correct, it can only be of late years. Bishop Heber says: "A very numerous population of nominal Christians is rising round us, the children of European fathers and native women, who have been, till lately, shamefully neglected, but who shew a readiness to receive instruction, and a zeal, generally speaking, for the faith of the Church establishment of the parent country, which should make that country blush for the scanty aids which she has hitherto afforded them. From these, a considerable proportion of my congregations are made up." Heber, vol. iii. pp. 284, 5. Yet, elsewhere, the Bishop remarks, that he "never met with any public man connected with India, who did not lament the increase of the half-caste population, as a great source of present mischief and future danger to the tranquillity of the colony;" and he asks, "Why forbid the introduction of a class of women," (referring to English female servants,) "who would furnish white wives to the white Colonists!?," lb. vol. i. p. 42.

them useful allies. The policy of extending every consideration we can to this class, is greatly increased by their recognised rights of holding lands and of sitting upon juries; which latter has been given them recently. These privileges must gradually augment the influence of this class, and, by giving them importance with the English community and themselves, will tend to improve their condition, and confirm their attachment to the state to which they owe allegiance."*

The half-caste ladies in Bengal are called cheechees, from a Hindostanee word much used by them in Calcutta, equivalent to fie! fie! Many of them, Mr. Wallace 66 says, are most amiable companions, possess an affectionate heart, and perform all the duties of good wives with tenderness and alacrity; but very few of them can enjoy European society'; for a consciousness of being so different in appearance impresses them with a feeling of inferiority, under which they are ill at ease with our fair countrywomen: hence they shun their acquaintance, and, it is said, envy them. Their real happiness would consist in being connected by marriage with persons of the same caste; but it is a strange truth, that these girls look upon the young men of their own colour as beneath them; and at all the schools in Calcutta where these charming nymphs are exhibited, their admirers are generally youthful

* Malcolm, P. H., vol. ii. pp. 260-265. The Author of "Fifteen Years of India" thus speaks of the half-castes. "Many of them are of dark complexions, but of most excellent capacity, with very generous dispositions and affectionate hearts. It is to be regretted, that some plan has not been devised to employ them for the advantage of the country, as they labour at present under illiberal exclusion from the army, the navy, and the civil service, which makes them discontented subjects. There are many very worthy men in that large body of subjects that now come under the name of half-castes; and the number and respectability of the whole entitle them to very great consideration."—p. 253,