the division of the Bengal Presidency is twenty-five. In all matters connected with the doctrine and eccelesiastical discipline, they are under the direction of their Diocesan, but their position in our local institutions is that of military Chaplains. A senior Chaplain ranks as a Major, a junior takes rank with a Captain, and their retiring allowances are regulated by this military distinction. The Court of Directors have invariably refused to recognize them as standing in the relation of an incumbent to a parish at home. The allotment of their stations, therefore, rests exclusively with the political authorities of the country, who have the same power to transfer a Chaplain from one station to another, as they have to send a Colonel from one Regiment to another.

There are also two Presbyterian Clergymen on the public establishment, of whom the senior receives 13,513 Rupees, and the junior 9,600 Rupees a year.

It only remains to bring into one point of view the receipts and disbursements of the various departments into which the Government of Bengal is divided; and thus to present the reader with a comprehensive survey of its finances. For these items, we are indebted to the labors of the Financial Committee appointed by Lord Ellenborough, consisting of Mr. Millett, Mr. Davidson, and Mr. Dorin. Their report is equally remarkable for its elaborate details, its just discrimination, and its minute accuracy, and is unquestionably the most useful and important financial document ever presented to Government. It furnishes the model for all future reports on this subject, and thus abridges the labors of all future Committees. From their report we extract the following particulars of the income and expenditure of the year 1841-42, the last year embraced by their researches:

This statement does not include the Establishments in Assam, Arracan, Tenasserim, and Cachar; but these provinces afford no surplus revenue; the income is barely sufficient, for the maintenance of internal peace, and external security. Neither does it include the Ecclesiastical and Post office departments, the pensions and charitable allowances, the expense of the

various schools of learning, or the miscellaneous general civil expenditure at home or in India; nor the receipts and charges connected with the Supreme Court, the Court of Requests, or the Police of Calcutta. Unfortunately these minor departments of expense were not included within the circle of research prescribed for the Finance Committee; and as that body has been dissolved, there is no hope of obtaining for them the same patient and careful investigation which has been so happily bestowed on the larger branches of the public expenditure. We are left therefore to conjecture their amount; and we think we fall within the mark, by stating that fifty lacs of Rupees will cover the charges incurred in all these departments. Adding this sum to the expenditure acknowledged by the Committee, we have 3,04,28,638 Rupees, or a little more than three millions sterling, to deduct from the rent Roll of the state, amounting to Rs. 8,36,48,074, and we have therefore a surplus revenue of five millions sterling to meet the political and military charges of Government.

This is a highly satisfactory result of our administration. In the most palmy days of the Musulman government, at the beginning of the last century, under the enlightened rule of the great Moorshed Kooly Khan, when the largest amount of revenue was obtained with the least oppression of the people, the income of Bengal and Behar did not exceed two millions and a quarter sterling, The same provinces now yield the British Government more than eight millions sterling. If this augmentation of the public revenue had been accompanied with the encreased depression of the country; if the upper classes had become more impoverished, and the lower classes more wretched in proportion as the public exchequer had been replenished, the survey we have now taken of the finances would supply matter for humiliation and regret, instead of matter of exultation. But there is nothing in the apparent condition of native Society in our day as compared with any history-or tradition of its state under the ablest Mahomedan rulers, which could lead us to conclude that the country has been injured by our taxation. The salt-tax presses more heavily on the comfort of the poor than under the previous dynasty; and that which is a necessary of life has, in too many instances, become a costly, and almost unattainable luxury; but, with this exception, there is every reason to believe that the encreased revenue now obtained from the country is raised with less of general or individual inconvenience than the smaller revenue of Moorshed Kooly Khan, even though the burden of taxation has been encreased to the rate of three shillings and sixpence a head.

THE

CALCUTTA REVIEW.

[SECOND EDITION.]

ART. I.-1. Miscellaneous East India Papers, ordered by the House of Commons, 1813.

2. Report from the Select Committee of the House of Commons on the affairs of the East India Company, with Appendices, 1832. 3. Holwell's Historical Events, Parts II and III.

4. The Despatches, &c. of the Marquess Wellesley, Vol. II. 1837. 5. Institutes of Manu, translated by Sir William Jones. New Edition.

THE subject of native education is one, which, from its preeminent importance, it is our purpose successively to discuss in varied bearings and relationships. The present series of papers may, therefore, be considered as altogether of a preparatory character. When the philanthropist casts his eye over the vast realm now subjected to British sway, he cannot but be deeply affected at the degraded and prostrate condition of its teeming inhabitants. As various measures for their amelioration present themselves to his view, he cannot but reflect, that, as intelligence and virtue have ever proved the grandconservative principles of society, so must the impartation of superior intelligence and moral virtue alone be fraught with restorative energy, in the case of a society that has practically slidden away from the dominion of both. Good Government and good laws will doubtless ever prove most powerful, if not indispensable, auxiliaries. But, what can such Government and laws avail, when the great masses of the people, from lack of intelligence, are unable to appreciate their excellence, and from a destitution of virtue, are equally disinclined to a willing and cheerful obedience? Education, therefore, a sound, wholesome, and well-regulated education-as the mightiest instrument of intelligence and virtue,-soon forces itself on the meditative spirit, as a power of the first magnitude, and challenges unto itself a foremost position in the clustering series of ameliorative

measures.

In further pondering on this theme, and with special reference to the adoption of plans of practical usefulness, the ques

A

tion naturally suggests itself, What, in this respect, have the natives done for themselves? In other words, what is the actually existing condition of indigenous education? To this important question we endeavoured, in a former number,* to furnish a satisfactory reply. From data of incontrovertible accuracy, the entire subject of native instruction was reviewed, both in regard to its quantity and quality, its extent and distribution. To that article we now refer the reader for the amplest details, exhibitive of the execrable nature of the quality of indigenous instruction, throughout every department, whether elementary or learned. The entire system, both as to subjectmatter and discipline, was shewn to be singularly fitted, not to invigorate but to paralyse the mental powers-not to purify and regulate but to deprave and misdirect the moral energies. Moreover, it was fully shewn, that, had the system been as unexceptionable in its character and tendencies as it is notoriously the reverse, it is fearfully inadequate in its extent and distribution. By a process of fair and legitimate induction, it was shewn that in "the most highly cultured district visited by the Government commissioner, only 16 per cent. of the teachable or schoolgoing population do actually receive any kind or degree of instruction at all; and in the least cultured district visited, only 2 per cent. receive any kind or degree of instruction;—while the aggregate average for all the districts is no more than 73 per cent.-leaving 92 of every 100 children of the teachable age, wholly destitute of all kinds and degrees of instruction whatsoever!" By a similar process, it was also fully shewn, with respect to the adult population, that "the aggregate average for all the districts is no more than 5 per cent.-leaving 94 of every 100 adults wholly destitute of all kinds and degrees of instruction whatsoever?" The conclusion, then, appeared inevitable, that the aggregate amount of educational destitution in this land is utterly appalling.

Omitting, for the present, all notice of the operations of Missionary and other Charitable Societies, the next question which naturally presents itself to the anxious mind, is, What has the British Government, with its unrivalled power and ample revenues, achieved for the educational improvement of the people? To the answer of this question, as preliminary to more general discussions, we now apply ourselves-beginning with the early or exclusively oriental + period of Government education.

*See No. IV. Art. 1.

+ By the term "oriental," as employed in these dissertations, is to be understood learned orientalism," as contradistinguished from vernacular teaching. The abbreviated form of "oriental" is generally used, simply to prevent circumlocution.

The first institution for Native Education, established by the British Government in the presidency of Bengal, was the MADRISSA OF MUHAMMADAN COLLEGE of Calcutta, in the year 1781. The request of several Muhammadans of distinction originated the idea of such an undertaking; to Warren Hastings, the Governor-General, belonged the whole credit or discredit of its accomplishment. With a munificence characteristic of the man, he provided for the intended College a building at his own expense. The sum, however, amounting to about six thousand pounds, was subsequently refunded to him by the Company. At his earnest recommendation also, lands were assigned by the Government, for the support of the institution, of the estimated value of about three thousand pounds annually.

What then, it may be asked, were the specific ends proposed by the Governor-General, in founding such an institution ?-to introduce an improved literature and science, and thereby gradually rectify the errors, assuage the bigotry and improve the character of the Mussalman population? Nothing of the kind. The only languages to be taught were the Arabic and Persian languages. The only subjects to be studied were those already contained in Arabic and Persian works. Natural philosophy; theology; law; astronomy; geometry; arithmetic; logic; rhetoric; oratory; grammar;-all these were to be inculcated, not as re-cast and re-created in European moulds, but as elaborated in the mint of an antiquated and effete orientalism while it was especially provided that every Sunday should be set apart for purifications and religious worship. By the adoption of such a course, the Governor, actuated merely by views of secular or political expediency, hoped, by gratifying their national tastes and predilections, to conciliate the haughty and obdurate followers of the prophet-mitigate their prejudices against those who had supplanted them in the sovereignty of these Indian realms-and contribute to the more successful administration of public affairs, by training up a superiorly quali fied class of native officers, more especially, for the courts of justice.

In order to humour, if not flatter the pride of the Mussalmen, a member of their own community, Mahomed Moiz-u-din, was appointed superior and guardian of the institution. In this officer was "vested the immediate management of all the affairs of the Madrissa and administration of its revenues. He was directed to deliver into the Committee of Revenue, monthly statements of the number of students actually maintained on the establishment, with their names and salaries. A member of the Committee of Revenue was authorized and