the people of India are, for all purposes of improvement, a new, and more than a new, people. Their appetite for knowledge has been whetted by their long-compelled fast; and aware of the superiority of the new learning, they devour it more greedily than they ever would have done Sanskrit lore, even if that lore had not been withheld from them: they bring to the task, vacant minds and excited curiosity, absence of prejudice, and an inextinguishable thirst for information. They cannot return under the dominion of the Brahmins. The spell has been for ever broken. Hinduism is not a religion which will bear examination. It is so entirely destitute of any thing like evidence, and is identified with so many gross immoralities and physical absurdities, that it gives way at once before the light of European science. Mahommedanism is made of tougher materials; yet, even a Mahommedan youth who has received an English education is a very different person from one who has been taught according to the perfect manner of the law of his fathers. As this change advances, India will become quite another country: nothing more will be heard of excitable religious feelings: priestcraft will no longer be able to work by ignorance: knowledge and power will pass from a dominant caste to the

people themselves; the whole nation will co-operate with us in reforming institutions, the possibility of altering which could never have been contemplated if events had taken any other course; and many causes will concur to introduce a more wholesome state of morals, which, of all the changes that can take place, is the one in which the public welfare is most concerned.

There has been a time at which each of the other branches of the public service has particularly commanded attention. The commercial, the political, the judicial, the revenue departments, have in turn been the subject of special consideration; and decisive steps have been taken to put them on a satisfactory footing. My object will be sufficiently attained if I succeed in producing a conviction that the time has arrived for taking up the question of public instruction in the same spirit, and with the same determination to employ whatever means may be requisite for accomplishing the object in view. The absence of any sensible proof that increased taxation is attended with any proportionate benefit to India, has long been extremely disheartening both to the natives and to the European public officers serving in that country.* The entire abolition of the transit duties,

* A large proportion of the land in the Bengal and Agra Presidencies is held tax-free; but, although nothing can be more

and the establishment of an adequate system of public instruction, would furnish this proof, and would excite the warmest gratitude of every body who from any cause feels interested in the welfare of India. The interest of a single million sterling*, in addition to what is already expended, would be sufficient to answer every present purpose as far as education is concerned. Even on the narrow

est view of national interest, a million could not be better invested. It would ensure the moral and intellectual emancipation of the people of India, and would render them at once attached to our rule and worthy of our alliance.

unreasonable than that persons who benefit by the protection of the Government should contribute nothing to its support, and throw the whole burden on the rest, it is impossible at present to induce the natives to view the subject in this light. Their invariable answer is, that while it is certain that some will be worse off, they see no reason to suppose that they will themselves be better off if the exempted lands are brought under contribution.

* The Parliamentary assignment of ten thousand pounds a year still remains to be accounted for to the Committee of public instruction, from July 1813 to May 1821, with compound interest up to the date of payment.

APPENDIX.

Extract from the Report of the Committee appointed by the Indian Government to inquire into the State of Medical Education.

AGREEABLY to your Lordship's direction to that effect, we called upon Mr. Tytler to prepare a synopsis ofwhat he conceives the pupils at the Institution should be taught in the different branches of medical science. This document, according to our view of it, does not contain by any means such a comprehensive and improved scheme of education as the circumstances of the case indicate the absolute necessity of. Leaving it entirely out of the question, then, at present, we would very respectfully submit to your Lordship in council our serious opinion, that the best mode of fulfilling the great ends under consideration, is for the state to found a Medical College for the education of natives; in which the various branches of medical science cultivated in Europe should be taught, and as near as possible on the most approved European system; the basis of which system should be a reading and writing knowledge on the part of candidate pupils of the English language, and the like knowledge of Hindustanee or Bengallee, and a knowledge of arithmetic; inclusive, of course, of proper qualifications as to health, age, and respectability of conduct. The Government might select from the various young men, who should pass the final examination, the most distinguished and deserving, for filling up va