as Addiscombe, and everything is changed. Classics, English literature, have no attractions; the student knows his destination in life; he cannot be lieve the advantages to that career of cultivated powers and tastes; he crams enough to scramble through the examinations, but nothing that is not strictly necessary gains an abiding place in his memory. The remedy here is tolerably obvious. Raise the age of admission to nineteen or twenty, and exact from candidates a liberal education, and some vigour of conception and expression. Once admitted, let their training be strictly and exclusively professional. A year would be quite sufficient for line officers; and from the most successful and promising students a selection should be made of officers for the scientific corps, who should go through an advanced technical course of study, and practice before proceeding to India. Students who failed in passing a tolerably high standard of examination at the close of their first year, should, except under very special circumstances, be dismissed without remorse. If their want of preparation arose from indolence, they would have no shadow of excuse; if from sickness, men of feeble constitution are unfit for India. We would not even place any great restrictions on the conduct of the military students, or hold out any stronger inducements for study than the prizes for proficiency, and penalty of remissness at the end of their course of instruction. Study, diligence, and self-command amid temptations, cannot be looked for at fifteen or sixteen; at twenty they should not be wanting -and if wanting, that circumstance alone is sufficient to disqualify a man for service in India. In that country a young man is freed from nearly all checks on his conduct, except such as hisown honour and conscience impose. We cannot, it is true, by such means determine with accuracy what a man's future character will be, but we can at least weed the service of those whose presence and example would prove a source of injury. If our Indian Army was thus officered with intelligent and energetic men, those officers might safely be entrusted with a real and efficient control over their Sepoys, which cannot reasonably be confided to raw boys of seventeen; or to those whom age has hardened in their self

conceit and obstinacy. We shall not pursue this branch of the subject further; but it should occupy a prominent place in the deliberations of those to whom the future destinies of Hindostan may be confided. The importance of personal character and influence in our government of India, cannot be over-estimated. It may assist us to the conception of the truth, to remember that for a thousand years the Hindoo has practically had no law superior to the caprice of his immediate ruler. The habit of dependence, and cringing to servility, thus produced, may in itself be anything but the spirit which wise and generous rulers should foster; but the evil exists; it is useless to ignore its presence and influence; and, until long teaching have expelled it, our duty and our policy is to make it as far as possible work for good.

The remarks we have ventured will, perhaps, call forth the denunciations of some portion of the Indian press. They will be condemned as a jaundiced view of military society; as a cold, ungrateful return for unflinching gallantry and heroic sacrifices, which the late deplorable events have exhibited in Bengal officers. To the former reproach, we can only reply, that our remarks convey literally the impressions received from actual observation; and appeal to the experience of candid witnesses. The latter reproach would be a severe one, indeed, if of any force; but it is to be understood that it is the system of which we complain. Bravery and generosity have never been wanting in the British character; and the recent disasters have but brought them into prominence. Our only question was, whether a different system might not give those noble qualities a better chance of development. We would leave the cadet some four or five years longer in the bracing atmosphere of home, ere yet submitting him to the unholy influences and debilitating climate of India.

IX. Along with other prejudices of the past, none is held more tenaciously than the doctrine that the native character is radically bad; and that education imparted to natives will invariably be made use of for ill purposes. The advocates of this view point triumphantly to Nana Sahib, as a case in point; and clamour for the instant closing of all places of education sup

ported by Government. We venture, though with much diffidence, to differ from these gentlemen. One portion of the question we have already touched upon; and we would now repeat emphatically, that hand in hand with all other measures for the regeneration of India must go a reformation of our social policy in reference to the natives of that country. If we refuse to recognise worth and talent in a native, still we cannot prevent that worth gaining him influence amongst his own countrymen; nor that ability from being used against us. As regards Nana Sahib himself: the fact that he could so completely imitate the English social characteristics, should lead us to reflect how much of corruption and villany may be compatible with the outward bearing of a "gentleman," on which model that miscreant doubtless shaped himself. But we see in his acts the conduct of a man playing a desperate game; committed against the English, yet suspected by the mutinous soldiery on account of his former connections, and therefore cementing his league with his new companions by atrocities worse than their own. To prove that he was not lukewarm or treacherous to his allies, he had to outrun the excesses of a bloody fanaticism; but his new enthusiasm was just as factitious as his former assumption of English habits and liberality. A "Century in India" of our institutions and example has, it seems, left the native mind in such a condition, that Nana Sahib could hope for sympathy and admiration amongst his countrymen, while perpetrating horrors that made all Europe shudder. It must be urged in our exculpation, however, that for the greater portion of that century our rule was confined within comparatively narrow limits, and that till the close of the Punjab campaigns, we were never free from external perils. It must be remembered, too, that the acts in question have not met with general sympathy, except from an infuriated soldiery; to whom, if to any men applies the maxim, "Quosdeus vult perdere, prius dementat." But, taking the fact as it stands, how damning is its testimony as to the native standards of conduct! The possession of absolute power, which is yet subjected in its exercise to the control of reason and principle,

is the thing of all others most difficult of conception to the mind of a native. With him power means tyranny, which may be carried to its worst excesses by its holder, without exciting complaint or surprise in any one but the immediate sufferers. Ages of such oppression, in addition to other vices, have engendered a selfishness and apathy which are unmoved by the most harrowing scenes; and, in contests for empire especially, torture and death have been so universally the portion of the vanquished, that mercy is never ascribed to any higher motive than fear.

Slavery is only one of the evils that have been in action in Hindostan from times beyond memory. To elevate the millions of that country will require long-continued and energetic exertions. But the very hideousness of the case should be an additional motive to those exertions. As Christians we must not, as governors we dare not, leave untouched a state of feeling, and a stage of barbarism, which already have so nearly proved our ruin. We cannot prevent the existence of ruffians such as Nana Sahib, nor can we deprive them of those energies and bad accomplishments which exercise such a fascination over the minds of weak and half civilized men. It remains, then, to strengthen the understandings, and improve the moral tone, of the society which renders such monsters possible. It is literally true that human nature revolts at his excesses. It is only human nature brutalized with oppression, that could look upon them with apathy; only human nature drunk with fanaticism, or maddened with despair, that could regard them with exulting admiration.

X. But whence is to come this improvement among the Indian community? Where shall we find a lever powerful enough, or the hands to work it, which shall overcome the inertia of so vasta mass of ignorance, increased from age to age by fresh accretions of falsehood and superstition? The lever to be applied is European thought; the hands that wield it must be those of Governors conscious of their power; the fulcrum must be found in those common sympathies which extend throughout the human family, and those remnants of our nobler nature, wrecks of man before his fall, which

indicate at once how much we have deteriorated, and to what we may attain.

To bring this great engine to bear, will require a general cultivation of the English language. We say English; because there is no other European language which we, as rulers, can diffuse and cultivate to perfection. We are far from joining in the cry that if the British abandoned India to-morrow, they would leave no other traces than some empty bottles to mark their former empire. Such a statement exhibits an ignorance of what has been done. It involves also an unfair oblivion of how it has been done. The great civilizers who performed in the ancient world, the function assigned to us in modern times, have left no nobler monuments behind them than their roads and viaducts. The splendid edifices, built with exactions wrung by tyrannic proconsuls from the oppressed provincials, should rather recall the grinding selfishness that marked the Roman domination, than the refinement of their manners, and the pattern of civilization which they presented to their subjects. Now, in India, great roads have been laid down; noble canals of irrigation, partially at least, carried out; and every work that promises to advance, even in a slight degree, the physical well-being of the people, is taken in hand with a promptitude and vigour that put to shame many of the governments of Europe. And all this is accomplished without harshness or oppression; the governed have enjoyed the inestimable blessing of security against their governors; and beyond a fixed and most moderate assessment upon their land, need pay no tax and render no service. That they are at once penurious and poor is true, but it is owing to distinct causes which we cannot here discuss. But if poor, their wants, being few and simple, are quite as well provided for by their small incomes, as those of European peasants by theirs. Absolute starvation is almost unknown. But great as are the blessings which the ryot enjoys under the British rule, in all that appertains to his external condition, it must be confessed that the higher labour, the civilization of his mind, has hardly commenced; and if our rule were overthrown, he must, void as he is of any

knowledge and working principles within, and deprived of the support of our laws and executive without, rapidly relapse into his former state. Municipal institutions may be almost forced, as they have been in many cases, upon Indian towns; but they are a mere form, lifeless and therefore useless, without a municipal spirit to animate them.

In this, as in other things, we have forgotten that lesson which history so constantly inculcates that the institutions of one country cannot become vital and efficient in another of different language and different traditions. We have plainly begun at the wrong end; and our first task should be to assimilate, in some degree, the natives of India in language, and manners, and opinion, to ourselves, ere we attempt to build up a political structure which presupposes these things as its basis.

Examples are not wanting to illustrate the course we ought to follow. Greek civilization, Roman refinement, spread only where their language became the ordinary medium of intercourse. Our own early literature and laws were nurtured at a Roman breast; and still the nature of the nursingmother is vitally inherent in the vigourous offspring. All over Europe it may be said that a Latin civilization gained permanent footing, only as the Latin language, and with it Latin reflections, arguments, and forms of thought became familiar to the nations. Such we should make the English language in India-a difficult task, no doubt; but not invincible to the energy, wisdom, and courage which constitute the safest vindication, and can form the only secure basis, of our empire. No time could, in all probability, be chosen more favourable to the attempt than the Era of Reconstruction which is about to commence. Justly exasperated, as we have been, our duty, as rulers of India, is still to promote the welfare of its people. In the day of our might, let our aim be beneficence.

XI. The first difficulty that presents itself to the diffusion of the English language in India, is that which comes from the scarcity of Europeans. Scattered, a few thousand among many millions, it is impossible that they should come into frequent contact with the individual natives; and when

they do come into contact with them, it is, generally, either as magistrates to try them for offences, or as collectors to discover frauds in their accounts. Such occupations, pursued for many years, have a tendency to render the European official distrustful of the natives. He learns to consider that nothing but abject fear keeps his subordinates moderately honest. Long possession of power may have rendered him somewhat unreasonable and choleric. The native official regards him as a man whom it is ruin to incense, excusable to outwit. The existence of such feelings is an effectual bar to any intercommunication of thoughts and opinions between them. The European, in point of fact, asks questions and dictates orders connected with his duties, and beyond this his intercourse with the natives does not, in general, extend. Should he, however, be biassed with a philanthropy which triumphs over the many trials to which he is exposed, and endeavour to combat native prejudices by reason instead of authority, he finds an almost invincible obstacle in the character of the natives themselves. He is armed with administrative powers; the people cannot sever the law from the man, or believe when he expresses an opinion or wish that he will not exercise all the power with which he is invested to enforce it. He can, in general, find no one to converse with who is not in some way dependent upon him for employment or promotion, and such a man will not venture to question any opinion or argument of the Sahib. He believes that if he did so his prospects would be irretrievably ruined. His course, therefore, is first to sound astutely the real opinions of the European, and then, after a faint show of opposition, profess himself overcome by the Sahib's arguments not very convincing, perhaps, in themselves, but of which he, at all events, has, in all probability, only the possible conception. Such men cannot really teach or learn from each other. A different class of men, or else books, are the necessary channels for conveying the stream of European thought to the barren waste of the Hindoo mind.

We would propose the employment of both. It would not be difficult to find, in the state schools of Britain, many young men possessing a competent knowledge of their own lan

guage, and versed in a sound system of instruction, who would be willing to proceed to India on a very moderate stipend. The acquisition of a native languge would be the work of a few months; and they would then be prepared to enter on their duties. Promising boys, who would probably themselves become good teachers, should alone be placed under the instruction of these masters; and a vigilant superintendence should be exercised by properly qualified inspectors. As native pupils attained proficiency, they should be distributed through the country as teachers

without, however, ceasing to import a number of Europeans to cooperate with them. Such men would become much more really intimate with the natives than those of higher rank.

The

Such are the roughest outlines of one attempt we should wish to see made for educating India. We believe that if such an effort were carried out with earnest purpose, it would be successful; and if successful, attended with momentous and happy consequences. When our language once becomes familiar, books will flow in. Books speak to all; they force themselves on none. native, not assenting to their opinions from mere complaisance, would be the more likely to weigh and be influenced by them. New regions of thought would open to his mind; and finding himself addressed in language as elevated as that intended for European readers, he would be in a manner forced up to a European level of intelligence. The very ignorance on the part of European writers of his native character and superstitions, would, in some sort, be an advantage; since, without repelling perusal by open attacks on his prejudices, they would gradually justify ideas, and arouse a spirit of inquiry incompatible with their continuance.

Universities have recently been founded at the presidency towns; and the legislative acts for embodying them appear in ludicrous contrast in the Government gazette, side by side with offers of reward for the person of Nana Sahib, and acts for the summary trial of suspected mutireers. The establishment of universities in India at all is questionable

policy. Their establishment at this moment is only another instance of the absurdities into which the Government has been drawn by popular pressure, or a wish to gain applause at home. Here, if any where, we have begun at the wrong end; and many lacs of rupees will be squandered on costly establishments, which, if expended on the more humble, but more practical object of affording the rudiments of education-an English education to the millions who will never even hear of the university, might prove of incalculable benefit. We speak the conviction of all thoughtful men in India, when we say that under the present circumstances of that country, universities will for ages to come be practically a dead letter-mere schools of medicine, in fact-without influence and without attraction beyond the precincts of the capitals. Without those limits, there is neither wealth nor education to fit aspirants for a university career; and long years must elapse before a class arises possessing either the means or the desire to avail themselves of the new institutions.

But the law is made, and it now

only remains to consider by what means it can be rendered most beneficial to the country; for the presidency towns, with their large English population, and with every European appliance at command, may well be left to take care of themselves in the matter. An obvious adjunct of the universities is a system of schools such as we have hinted at.

If we hope for success, we must condescend to an humble task. Before we relax the discipline of our armies, we must have native soldiers who can comprehend some higher principle of obedience than pure fear; before we grant municipal institutions, we should have some indications of corporate feeling; before universities, we should establish village schools. The able men who carry on the work of government in India may feel inclined to smile at the scheme we have projected as Utopian, if only on the account of the great results it promises: but they would none the less, if the command were issued, set themselves honestly and zealously to carry it into execution.

1853.

1855.