ASIATIC INTELLIGENCE.

Calcutta:

MISCELLANEOUS.

LORD AUCKLAND'S MINUTE ON NATIVE EDUCATION.

The interest which attaches to the opinions and intentions of Government, with respect to native education, has induced us (at the request of several readers) to publish those parts of Lord Auckland's minute, of which we gave only the substance in p. 1:

“I have not hitherto, since I assumed charge of the Government, recorded my sentiments at any length on the important questions which regard the best means of promoting education amongst the natives of India. The subject is one of the highest interest, and especially calls for calm consideration and for combined effort; but, unhappily, I have found violent differences existing upon it, and it was for a time (now, I trust, past, or fast passing away) a watchword for violent dissension, and in some measure of personal feeling. I judged it best, under those circumstances, to abstain from what might have led me into unprofitable controversy, and to allow time and experience to act, with their usual healing and enlightening influence, upon general opinion. I may earnestly hope that we are now not very far remote from arriving at some satisfactory result in respect to our education controversies, and I will approach the topic, with the hope of contributing in some degree to this end. I have first, however, to state my opinions on two specific references connected with the questions which are now before me from the President in Council-the one relating to the appropriation of funds heretofore assigned to particular institutions, and the other to Mr. Adam's scheme for the improvement of the indigenous schools in the Bengal and Behar districts.

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"Before entering on the details of the first of these subjects, I may observe that it may, in my opinion, be clearly admitted, and I am glad from the papers before me to see that this opinion is supported by the authority of Mr. Prinsep, that the insufficiency of the funds assigned by the State for the purposes of public instruction has been amongst the main causes of the violent disputes which have taken place upon the education question, and that if the funds previously appropriated to the cultivation of oriental literature had been spared, and other means placed at the disposal of the promoters of English education, they might have pursued their object, aided by the good wishes of all. In the Bengal presidency, with its immense territory and a revenue of above thirteen millions, the yearly expenditure of the Government on this account is little in excess of £24,000, or Rs.2,40,000 ;* and I need not say how, in a country like India, it is to the Government that the population must mainly look for facilities in the acquisition of improved learning. There is, I well know, the strongest desire on the part of the authorities, both in England and India, to support every well-arranged plan for the extension of education, and the despatches of the Hon. Court are full of the evidence of their anxiety on the subject. I may cite in particular the declaration of a despatch of the 18th February, 1824: In the meantime, we wish you to be fully apprized of our zeal for the progress and improvement of education among the natives of India,

and of our willingness to make considerable sacrifices to that important end, if proper means for the attainment of it could be pointed out to us.' Such, we may be assured, is the feeling by which the Court is, up to this time, guided; and the difficulty has been, not in any unwillingness to grant the money necessary to give effect to good plans, but in framing such plans on principles admitted to be satisfactory, and in finding fitting agents for the execution of them. The Hon. Court have made a separate grant for the publication of works of interest in the ancient literature of the country, to be disbursed through the appropriate channel of the Asiatic Society; and this measure is one which has been hailed with universal satisfaction.

"On the merits of the first of the two questions immediately referred to me, which I would consider in the spirit which I have here commended, I would at once say, on the position that the Government has given a pledge that the funds heretofore assigned to particular institutions shall continue to be so for ever appropriated, that I cannot hesitate to express my conviction that the acts or intentions of the Government will not justly bear this very exclusive and restrictive construction. I remember the discussion of April, 1836, and certainly I did not understand that the resolution to which the Government then came was intended to have the force of a perpetual guarantee of the expenditure, wholly within each institution (whatever might be the nature of the instruction to which they might be devoted), of the funds which might have been assigned to it. The plain meaning of the proceedings and the profession of the Government seems to me to have been, that stipends having been everywhere discontinued, it would do nothing towards the abolition of the ancient seminaries of Oriental learning, so long as the community might desire to take advantage of them, their preservation as Oriental seminaries being alone at that time within the contemplation of either party. Had it been intended to promise that, whether Arabic, Sanscrit, or English were taught, the particular institutions should at all events be retained, the meaning would surely have been expressed in much more distinct terms. My impression of the state of the case is briefly this—that the general committee, viewing the maintenance of the Oriental colleges, on the footing to which I have referred, as prescribed and secured, proposed to consolidate all separate grants into one general fund, the savings of which, after the Oriental colleges should have been thus provided for, should be held by them to be clearly applicable to their general purposes. The answer of the Government, on 13th April, 1836, after a discussion in which I, in the first instance, expressed a willingness to assent to the propositions of the committee, was in these guarded terms: 'Under existing circumstances, the Government in India thinks it will not be advisable to make the consolidation into one fund of all grants, made heretofore by Government, for purposes of education, as suggested by the sub-committee of finance; nor does his Lordship in Council imagine that the committee will be put to much inconvenience by drawing its fund separately, as heretofore, and crediting them, whether derived from a Government monthly grant, or from the interest of stock previously accumulated to the particular seminaries to which they have been assigned, leaving any excess available in any institution to be appropriated as may appear most equitable, with reference to the orders of Government, 7th March, 1835, and the pledges and assurances that may have been given to particular institutions.' The alteration of the word 'belong' to 'have been assigned,' as marked above, will shew the spirit of compromise amongst varying opinions in which the draft was agreed to. There was here no statement that the consolidation was a thing wholly out of the question. The diversion of funds from particular institutions was admitted as a measure which might or might not be proper, and (the circumstances of all institutions not being before the Government) there is a reservation for the pledges and assurances that may have been given' to some of them. Under such a reservation, if a specific promise in perpetuity of a particular sum to a particular institution could be shewn, such a promise would have, of course, to be respected; but otherwise, by these orders of April, 1836, things were left exactly as they stood before. Whilst, however, I am bound to declare that such is my distinct impression on the subject, and

whilst for one I would reject the strict principle of absolute and irreclaimable appropriation, I am yet strongly of opinion that it will be best on every account to dispose of the question on the principle of a liberal consideration to all wants and claims. I see no advantage to be gained in this case by a close contest for strict constructions, and having taken a review of money estimates and of local wants, I am satisfied that it will be best to abstract nothing from other useful objects; while I see, at the same time, nothing but good to be derived from the employment of the funds which have been assigned to each Oriental seminary, exclusively on instruction in, or in connection with, that seminary. I would also give a decided preference, within these institutions, to the promotion, in the first instance, of perfect efficiency in Oriental instruction; and only after that object shall have been properly secured, in proportion to the demand for it, would I assign the funds to the creation or support of English classes. At the same time, I would supply to the General Com. mittee of Public Instruction, from the revenues of the State, any deficiency that this resolution might cause in the general income at their disposal; and if they should already have partially used for other objects the savings arising from the seminaries supported by special funds, I would, in recalling such savings, protect the general committee from loss on that account. The statement in the margin will shew the contribution from the revenue which this final settlement of the subject will occasion. It will be perceived that, calculating from the amount of stipends as they existed untouched in the end of 1834, and deducting one-fourth as required at all events for the Oriental colleges under a scheme of scholarships such as I shall hereafter state that I would approve, the additional annual disbursement from the treasury will be about Rs. 25,000, and perhaps there may be Rs. 6,000 more per annum on account of the office, which has been abolished, of secretary to the Sanscrit College at Benares. I am well persuaded that the Hon. Court will approve of our having closed these controversies at this limited amount of increased expense. I would, upon this understanding, willingly join in the direction sent to the general committee, in the letter of Mr. Prinsep, on the 31st of July last, 'to avoid making any alienations (from the assigned funds of the Oriental institutions) without previously soliciting the sanction of Government.' They should, as I have said, be desired to appropriate the funds within the Oriental colleges, first to Oriental and then to English instruction. I would not, on any account, admit the extension of the system of scholarships within these colleges beyond the general proportion (which should be on a liberal scale) allowed elsewhere, for this would be an excessive and artificial encouragement which might be justly objected to; but I would secure the most eminent professors for the colleges. I would encourage the preparation, within the limits of the funds, of the most useful books of instruction, such as of the Siddhants and Sanscrit version of Euclid, which Mr. Wilkinson has urged upon us; and I would provide in some form, which the general committee should be required to take into early consideration, for an improved and effective superintendence of the Oriental colleges of the North-Western Provinces, where I know that such a supervision is very obviously required. Funds that might still remain available could be, doubtless to much advantage, devoted to European instruction, in union with those particular institutions, and I should look with very warm interest to an efficient scheme for imparting English education to Mohamedans at the Madrissa in Calcutta.

"The other reference made to me is with regard to Mr. Adam's plan for the improvement of indigenous schools and teachers. I would observe upon it, that it is impossible to read his valuable and intelligent report without being painfully impressed with the low state of instruction as it exists amongst the immense masses of the Indian population. Attempts to correct so lamentable an evil may well be eagerly embraced by benevolent minds. Yet I cannot but feel, with the President in Council, that the period has not yet arrived when the Government can join in these attempts with reasonable hope of practical good. When Mr. Adam enforces his views ' for the instruction of the poor and ignorant, those who are too ignorant to understand the evils of ignorance, and too poor, even if they did, to be able to remove them,' the inference irresistibly presents itself, that among these is not the field in which our efforts can at present be most successfully employed. The small stock of knowledge which can now be given in elementary schools will, of itself, do little for the advancement of a people. The first step must be to diffuse wider information and better sentiments amongst the upper and middle classes, for it seems, as may be gathered from the best authorities on the subject, that a scheme of general instruction can only be perfect as it comprehends a regular progressive provision for higher tuition. In the European states, where such systems have been recently extensively matured, this principle is, I believe, universally observed. There is a complete series of universities in great towns, of academies in provincial divisions, and of small local schools, all connected in a combined plan of instruction. The extension of the plan to the parish or village school has been the last stage, as must naturally have been the case in the national progress. Mr. Adam's plan contemplated such a rise of able pupils from the village to the zillah schools, but the suggestion could not immediately have effect. Here we are yet engaged on the formation and efficient direction of our upper institutions. When, indeed, the series of vernacular class of books for our single zillah schools, which is still a desideratum, and to which I shall subsequently refer, shall have been published, and their utility shall have been established by practice, Mr. Adam's recommendations may be taken up with some fairer prospect of advantage. For the present, I would confine our measures, in reference to his reports, to injunctions on the general committee, that they bear in mind his particular suggestions and objects in determining on the series of class-books referred to. I would submit the plan to the Hon. Court for the expression of their sentiments and wishes; and in the collection of information for an eventual decision, I would make use of the experience which the Bombay measures of village instruction, alluded to in the note annexed, will have afforded. For this purpose, I would communicate Mr. Adam's Report to the Government of Bombay, and ask how far the scheme which he describes is in accordance with that which is pursued in the provinces of that presidency, and what opinion may be formed from the result already obtained by their village schools, of the propriety of carrying out Mr. Adam's plans in their important parts. The encouragement to existing schoolmasters, which is the leading suggestion in Mr. Adam's plan, will probably have been largely tried at Bombay; and the extent to which those schoolmasters have reaped improvement under such encouragement will be a most interesting subject of inquiry. I learn, also, in the course of my inquiries regarding the previous progress of education in India, that a school society existed for some time in Calcutta, the operations of which were directed, with partial success, to the amendment of indigenous schools. Mr. Hare will probably be able to explain the history of this society, which drew a grant of Rs. 400 or Rs. 500 a month from Government, and to give also the causes of its extinction. I would ask this gentleman to favour Government with a report regarding that society. And I would conclude upon this subject by recording my opinion that, when such a scheme as that proposed by Mr. Adam comes to be tried, the arrangements for introducing it should be on a liberal and effective scale, and that it ought not to be undertaken at all until the Government is satisfied that it has at command a thoroughly zealous and qualified superintendence.

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'Having said thus much in answer to the references made to me by the President

in Council, I would proceed to record my observations upon the topics which seem to be most important in regard to our plans of education. I strongly feel that, in all that we can do, we must be prepared for much disappointment in our early efforts to satisfy the demands made upon us on this subject. By some it will be lamented that we do not at once perfect enlarged schemes for general education; by others it will be regretted that what we do for the best pupils of our few seminaries seems to produce so partial an effect. Feelings of this nature will attend us in whatever attempts we may engage in for the improvement of any branch of our Indian Government. Our governing and instructed class belongs to a highly civilized community. It is in active and increasing intercourse with the European world, where, in an advanced state of society, skill and enterprize are daily gaining new triumphs. It is naturally impatient for the introduction in India of every plan which has, though probably after repeated trials and failures, been adopted with success in European countries. And the spirit of free dissussion excites benevolent minds to bring forward the most extensive projects. On the other hand, we are dealing with a poor people, to a vast majority of whom the means of livelihood is a much more pressing object than facilities for any better description or wider range of study. Our hold over this people is very imperfect, and our power of offering motives to stimulate their zeal is but of confined extent. The agency which we can employ for reform is extremely narrow, and liable to constant derangement. Of those who are willing to devote their energies to the business of giving or superintending instruction, Oriental scholars are apt to be unduly prepossessed in favour of acquirements obtained by much labour, and to which they are indebted for their reputation; while mere European scholars are liable to be ignorant of and neglect national feeling, or are, at all events, incompetent to make a proper use of native means for the execution of their plans. Where even the mind of an able pupil has been very greatly informed and enlightened, the knowledge gained by him may seem to produce no adequately corresponding result in after-life. The student may stand alone in the family or society of which he forms a part. These can very generally have few feelings in common with him, and he may be unhappy and discontented in his peculiar position, or he may yield to the influences by which he is surrounded, and accommodate himself to the sentiments and practices which his reason had taught him to disapprove. Add to this, that if he finds that his knowledge opens to him the prospect of advancement, he will, under a restricted competition, be over-confident in his own powers, and unreasonable in his expectations; while, at the same time, he will be tempted to relax in the exertions necessary to maintain or carry forward the standard of proficiency at which he had arrived. These are circumstances, of the operation of which we must all, I think, in a greater or less degree, have had practical experience. I can only say upon them, that we must neither entertain sanguine or premature hopes of general success, nor yet allow ourselves to be seriously discouraged. We must be content to lay even the first rude foundations of good systems, and trust for the rest to time, to the increasing demand of the public and of individuals for the services of educated men, to the extension which must every year take place of the agency for instruction at the command of Government, and to the certain effects of the spread, however slow, of knowledge, and of the gradual growth of wealth and intelligence in the community.

"I would, in now offering my opinions and suggestions on the present practical directions of our plans, desire to consider the question of our educational policy as one of interest to every portion of the empire, without minute reference to merely local and temporary discussions. I am aware that we are yet in expectation of the orders of the Home Authorities on the subject of the changes in the scheme of education in Bengal, which were adopted by the Government in 1835. But I would not, on this account, longer withhold the explanation of my own sentiments on the course which should be adopted; and I do not anticipate that, in what I shall propose, I shall be found to have deviated in any material degree from the wishes of the Hon. Court.