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ating the condition of the people of India, both materially and morally. The problem that has taxed the minds of all Rulers of India, how best to promote morality and to find the teaching of morality a place in any scheme of general education for the people, also presented itself to his mind; and he looked at the subject from the point of view of a philosopher. While realizing that morality must finally rest upon the sanctions of religion, he also realized how impossible it was for a British Government to be otherwise than neutral in the sphere of religion. His own idea of how the problem might possibly be solved is given in an extract from one of his Minutes on Education: It would be better to call the prejudices of the Hindus to our aid in reforming them, and to control their vices by the ties of religion, which are stronger than those of law. By maintaining and purifying their present tenets, at the same time that we enlighten their understandings, we shall bring them nearer to that standard of perfection at which all concur in desiring that they should arrive.' He suggested the printing and cheap distributing of Hindu tales. inculcating sound morals, and also religious books tending more directly to the same end. It will be seen that he had Hindus only in his mind; the reason is not far to seek. Muhammadans, who have a recognized Canon of Scripture, have always cared for the education of their children in the religious tenets of their fathers. Hindus, who have no such recognized Canon, have not been in times past so careful in this direction. It is of interest, therefore, to note that in more recent years there has been a decided movement amongst them for having their sons at school taught the faith of their fathers. Textbooks, such as Elphinstone recommended, have been prepared, some on orthodox lines, others on theosophical lines, and are in use in not a few schools in different parts of India. At the same time, it must not be forgotten that morality has always been taught indirectly in Hindu families. The traditions and tales interspersed in their great epics, the Mahabharata and Ramayana, with which the minds and imaginations of children are stirred from their infancy, all inculcate a high ethical standard, and practically form the basis of their moral education,

After an unbroken service of thirty years, Elphinstone felt that his work was done in 1826, therefore, he resigned office. Of the addresses that poured in, as usual with a departing Governor, the one that Elphinstone most valued was the Indian address announcing the foundation of the Elphinstone Institution in his honour. This address concluded with these words: Having beheld with admiration for so long a period the affable and encouraging manners, the freedom from prejudice, the consideration at all times evinced for the interests and welfare of the people of this country, the regard shown to their ancient customs and laws, the constant endeavours to extend amongst them the inestimable advantages of intellectual and moral improvement, the commanding abilities applied to ensure permanent amelioration in the condition of all classes, and to promote their prosperity on the soundest principles, by which your private and public conduct has been so pre-eminently distinguished, we are led to consider the influence of the British Government as the most important and desirable blessing which the Superior Being could have bestowed upon our native land.'

With this recognition of the benign rule of the British Government, due to a highly-gifted and exceptional man having made himself the personal embodiment of that benign rule, this sketch now concludes.

CHAPTER VI

THE LIBERATOR OF THE INDIAN PRESS

SIR CHARLES METCALFE, 1785-1846.

CHARLES METCALFE was the son of a Major Metcalfe who had made a fortune in India during the early days of the Company's rule. He had returned to England, and became a director of the East India Company, and was afterwards created a baronet. Charles was born in Calcutta, but was sent to England to be educated at Eton. His tastes at school ran in a literary direction rather than towards athletics. The ordinary school curriculum of Latin and Greek failed to satisfy his ambition, and as there were many vacant hours in the Eton of those days, he utilized them by studying modern languages, and acquired sufficient proficiency in French and Italian to be able to read books in those languages.

In the early days of British rule in India, men went out to India young. Metcalfe was no exception to this rule. He was only fifteen when his father obtained a writership in Bengal for him. He did not like leaving Eton, but he acceded to his father's wish, and duly proceeded to India, and arrived in that country early in 1801, being then only sixteen. The Marquis Wellesley, who was GovernorGeneral at the time, realized the dangers and temptations surrounding the youngsters who were being sent out to India fresh from the wholesome discipline of school into an atmosphere so entirely different, and into a society whose tone was not always of the highest at this period of Anglo-Indian history. It was on their behalf, therefore, that he conceived the plan of a residential college, with the view of giving them a good start in their new careers. 'The college was to be,' he wrote,' a place where the writers on their first arrival in India, should be subjected for a period of two or three years to rules and discipline, and where the languages and laws of the country might be

studied, and habits of activity, regularity, and decency might be formed, instead of those of sloth, indolence, low debauchery, and vulgarity, which were too apt to grow on those young men who have been sent at an early age into the interior of the country, and have laid the foundation of their life and manners among the coarse vices and indulgence of those countries.' The Marquis was a man of high ideals and his influence was potent for good on those young civilians who had the good fortune to come within the sphere of that influence, and so many of whom afterwards became distinguished public servants. The college had a short career, as the directors did not sanction its up-keep: short as that career was, some distinguished names appeared on its rolls, and first amongst these was that of Charles Metcalfe. The conception of the Marquis Wellesley had given the directors a hint: they also began to realize that there was much to seek' in the education of young civilians, and Haileybury College was the out come of their deliberations. As the hot weather came on, young Metcalfe, like many a man destined to achieve fame in India, before and after him, began to grow weary of the country, and he wrote to his father begging to be allowed to return home and to be put into any place, however small, in some public office. His mother, fortunately for Metcalfe, appears to have been a woman of no ordinary common sense, and it is recorded that her only reply to his letter was the dispatch of a box of pills, she realized that he was suffering from a temporary depression of spirits, with the pills she also gave him some excellent advice': 'You will probably laugh,' she wrote to him, 'at my sending you the pills, but I think you are bilious, and they will be of great service: you study too much : you should dissipate a little. On account of your health you should relax. Ride on horseback. When intense thinking is joined with the want of exercise, the consequences must be bad.' Similarly it is recorded that his father, who knew what the Indian climate was, wrote and told him of his own experiences, how one morning in a fit of bile, he waited upon his commanding officer with an intention of resigning the service, and returning to England, but that, fortunately for him, the conversation

at breakfast took a pleasant turn, and a hearty fit of laughter got the better of his blue devils, and he returned to his quarters with a determination to persevere.' Want of occupation had doubtless had much to do with this temporary depression: it had all passed off before the end of the year when the first summons came to him to enter the arena of active employment. The Marquis, who was a good judge of character, had noted the latent capacity of the youngster, and gave him the appointment of assistant to the Resident at the court of Scindia.

The Governor-General had recently left Calcutta for a tour up country, and Metcalfe obtained permission, after proceeding some distance on his way, to join his camp, and accompany it as far as Lucknow. He had doubtless, in his boyhood, dreamt, as many another boy has done, of the romance and splendour of the gorgeous East', and it is recorded that in the court of the King of Oudh at Lucknow, he found that the reality even exceeded the romance of his dreams, everything recalled to his imagination the Arabian Nights'. He had not yet had time to see behind the scenes. He did not remain long at the court of Scindia: he resigned his post there as he was unable to hit it off with his chief, the Resident, who, from the sobriquet he had earned of King Collins', must have been what in Indian parlance is known as a bit of a Bahadur'. Given an hereditary tendency this way, a long career in the East, unbroken by an occasional wholesome visit to the old country, will tend to intensify such a domineering disposition: this wholesome break in the continuity of a life under Oriental conditions, was not always possible at this period of British rule in India. Metcalfe left Scindia's court, and returned to Calcutta again.

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In returning to Calcutta, Metcalfe was fortunate enough to get a place, in what was styled' Lord Wellesley's Office', among a number of other young civilians he was thus brought directly within the sphere of influence of that distinguished man and the experience he thus gained was to stand him in good stead. ~He was engaged in this pleasant duty for some two years. Apart from his recognition of his young assistant's abilities, the Governor