APPENDIX No. II.

Tabular Statement showing the Amount of Fees received, from the 1st of January 1850 to the 31st of March 1851, from the Elphinstone Institution and Government Vernacular Schools at the Presidency, and from the English and Vernacular Schools in the Districts.

The fees from the Institution, from all the English schools, and from the vernacular schools at the Presidency, are carried to the General Fund on account of education.

The fees from the vernacular schools in the districts are disposed of differently. One half is given to the masters of the different schools, provided the annual examination is satisfactory; the remainder is disposed of in repairing school-houses, in providing books for the school libraries, in gratuities to masters and monitors, or in any other way which the School Committee and Superintendent may consider more desirable.

To

APPENDIX No. IV.

(Circular.)

No. 647 of 1850.

Board of Education, Bombay, 20th November 1850.

SIR,-I am directed to forward the accompanying copy of an Address by the Board of Education to the Committee of the Elphinstone Institution, and to request the favor of your meeting the Board at their Office on the day mentioned, viz. Saturday, the 30th instant, at 3 P. M.

I have the honor to be, Sir,

Your most obedient Servant,

M. STOVELL,

Secretary.

ADDRESS BY THE BOARD OF EDUCATION

TO THE COMMITTEE OF THE ELPHINSTONE INSTITUTION. The Board of Education are disposed to think that the present is a favorable opportunity for attempting to extend their operations in the Island of Bombay. They have funds available for the purpose, and they are desirous to employ them by affording to the poorer classes of the community an opportunity of grappling with the evils of ignorance. But they have always been. sensible that the mere institution of schools at an outlay of public money produces but insignificant results, unless the sympathies of the benevolent, and the co-operation of the powerful and intelligent, are engaged in their support.

English schools give the Board but little trouble, and only

occupy a small portion of their time. When presided over by competent masters they work themselves, and the advantages obtained in them are so obvious and immediate that they attract native youth in crowds to their walls. But vernacular schools require much artificial fostering, and although conducted by able masters, as in the Presidency, are but too often found to languish. Yet the advantages to be derived even from elementary education, in awakening the faculties, in enforcing discipline, attention, cleanliness, respect to elders and teachers, and regard to the broad line which distinguishes right from wrong, are so great (although not so instantly perceptible as the more worldly benefits of superior education) as to make it the duty of the leaders of the community to hold forth a friendly hand to the poor and ignorant, and to bring them into contact with these blessings. For what is the spectacle which is now presenting itself in Bombay? On the one hand a great city is rising amongst us; wealth and commerce are diffusing themselves; roads, docks, magnificent establishments of all kinds, are coming into existence every day. But side by side with these indications of splendor and prosperity, the same sad phenomenon as in Europe is witnessed, of a dense population growing up distinguished by vices and crimes comparatively unheard of in a simple agricultural community. That drunkenness, gambling, perjury, and conspiracy, followed at no long interval by the more heinous crimes of robbery and murder, are increasing year by year, is unfortunately made too plain by our criminal records. But these same records tell us this most remarkable fact, that three-fourths of the criminals who receive the penalty of their crimes at the hands of justice, are steeped to the very lips in ignorance. The information collected under orders of the Judges by the Marshal of the Gaol demonstrates, that out of 536 prisoners, who were brought up for trial during the four years ending 1849, only 140 were able to read, and many of these only in the most imperfect manner.

Now, what is the remedy which human wisdom has devised as a check to these awful evils in the train of civilization and progress? The hangman has been proved insufficient, and the answer which issues from every reflecting breast is-—Education.

The duty of the Government, and the interest of the community, combine therefore to seek out every possible means for diffusing

useful moral education. A large fund of zeal is well known to the Board to exist amongst numerous individuals of our community for the promotion of knowledge, and various symptoms may be discerned around us of a deeply-seated desire to better the condition of our poorer fellow-citizens.

Sir Jamsetjee's princely donations in various directions are worthily imitated in spirit by the zeal displayed by his son Sorabjee, still a youth, in lending his own personal service to diffuse information amongst his countrymen. The exertions of our esteemed colleague, Mahomed Ibrahim Mukba, for many years past, to maintain at his own charge Hindustani schools amongst Mahomedans, have set an admirable example to the rising generation of Hindu and Parsi youths, who have so successfully established schools for female education. We thus see youth and age engaged in generous rivalry in the prosecution of one common object. But there are other large classes in Bombay from whom little or no co-operation has as yet been obtained, and yet there are none amongst whom the spirit of benevolence is more largely developed. The Board are alluding to the mercantile classes of Gujerat and the North, to whose ranks belong the merchant princes of Ahmedabad, Himabái, Hutty Singh, and Maganbái Karamchand, the latter of whom has lately called down upon himself the distinctions of Government for his generous endowment of female schools in that city.

It is the object of desire with the Board to give free scope to all these individual efforts, and to combine them with the exertions of Government in diffusing sound practical education. The Board are satisfied that if they but know how to strike the proper chord, these exertions will not be in vain.

The principle they venture to lay down for the Island of Bombay, though they do not flatter themselves it can be fully carried out for years to come, is that the elements of good moral education should be made available to all classes of the community.

In some countries of Europe this principle has been most happily put in practice by the authority of the law. It remains to be seen whether it may not also be successfully established in India by the spontaneous efforts of society under the guiding influence of Government.

The means proposed by the Board are to map out all the in