the college in the Court of Proprietors founded in truth? or are they capable of a distinct refutation, by an appeal to facts? The work itself is accordingly divided into seven sections, in which the above questions are, respectively considered. The first section consists wholly of a quotation from the "Minute in Council" of the Marquis Wellesley, dated August 18, 1800, containing the reasons which in duced him to found a collegiate institution at Fort William. We shall insert only the concluding paragraph of this extract, which exhibits a masterly view of the duties to be discharged by the civil servants of the Company, in the present state of India, and is quite decisive with regard to the qualifications required for that service. "The civil servants of the East-India Company, therefore, can no longer be considered as the agents of a commercial concern: they are, in fact, the ministers and officers of a powerful sovereign: they must now be viewed in that capacity with a reference not to their nominal, but to their real occupations. They are required to discharge the functions of magistrates, judges, ambassadors, and governors of provinces, in all the complicated and extensive relations of those sacred trusts and exalted stations, and under peculiar circumstances, which greatly enhance the solemnity of every public obligation, and the difficulty of every public charge. Their duties are those of statesmen in every other part of the world; with no other characteristic differences than the obstacles opposed by an unfavourable climate, a foreign language, the peculiar usages and laws of India, and the manners of its inhabitants." The second section contains further copious extracts from the same minute of August 18th, 1800. The result is stated in the following decisive language of the Marquis Wellesley:— "It must be admitted that the great body of the civil servants in Bengal is not at present sufficiently qualified to discharge the duties of the several arduous stations in the administration of this empire; and that it is particularly deficient in the judicial, fiscal, financial, and political branches of the government. "The state of the civil services of Madras and Bombay is still more defective than that of Bengal." The same en The above statement is powerfully confirmed by Mr. Edmonstone, who in his speech at the public disputation held at the College of Fort William on the 27th July 1815, strongly notices the former defects in the education of the civil servants. lightened person likewise adverts favour of the sufficiency of the old in his address, to the argument in system, founded on the progressive power and prosperity of the British dominion in India: an argument the value of which he remarks will be greatly diminished by taking into calculation the advantages which have probably been lost by the defective qualifications of the Company's servants under that former system. P. 20, 21. To these statements and inferences, another consideration of the greatest importance and truth is added by Mr. Malthus himself; viz: that although circumstances rarely fail to generate the qualifications requisite for the purposes of military acquisition, and for the very highest departments of government, they never can be expected to produce a full and reguz lar supply of such functionaries as are necessary for the internal good government of an immense population. Nothing but an improved system of education can provide, in adequate abundance, the acquired knowledge, the cultivated intellect, the habit of industry and application demanded for these great purposes :— -Such an éducation therefore, was by no means an imaginary and theoretical, but a real and practical want; a want which, in some way or other required unquestionably to be supplied." P. 23. In the third section is discussed the question whether an approprieducation of the civil servants, ate seminary is required for the and whether it should be in the nature of a school or a college? As these are points on which the public opinion has been much divided, it will be proper that Mr. M. should be heard somewhat at length on this part of the inquiry. In the first place it is obvious that neither our public schools or universities could provide the requisite instruction in the Asiatic languages. The specific wants of the service, therefore, evidently pointed to some appropriate institution: and if so, Mr. Malthus contends most powerfully for the propriety of its assuming a collegiate form. At the time that the establishment in Hertfordshire was founded, the plan of general education projected by the Marquis Wellesley at the college in Calcutta had been given up, and the lectures were confined exclusively to the oriental languages. It was necessary, therefore, with a view to the qualifications acknowledged to be required in the service, to commence a plan of more general study in England; and for this purpose a school was unfit. At a school which the boys would leave at an early age, little more could be learnt with advantage than at the usual seminaries of the country. If the age of proceeding to Iudia was in general not later than sixteen, there would certainly be ample time for the acquisition of the oriental languages in that country before a writer could be employed, or at least, before he ought to be employed, in any official situation beyond that of copying clerk; and the advantage which he would gain by commencing the oriental languages at school would be so trifling as not nearly to counterbalance the time employed on them. It will hardly be contended, that boys under the age of sixteen are fit to commence that course of general reading which may be considered as appropriate to their future destination; and an attempt to introduce such a system would inevitably occasion the complete sacrifice of classical studies, with scarcely a possibility of substituting any thing in their stead but that mercantile education, so strongly reprobated by Lord Wellesley. With regard to conduct, the strict dis cipline and constant superintendence of a school would be but a bad preparation for the entire independence, and complete freedom from all restraint, which would await them on their arrival at Calcutta ; and as long as they continue to proceed to India at the age of school-boys, whether they are taken from an appropriate esta blishment, or from the common schools of the country, nothing is done towards removing or mitigating the dangers arising from this cause. If to these considerations be added the objectious which have been made to an appropriate establishment for India, as tending to generate something like an Indian caste (objections which might have some weight if the exclusive education commenced as early as twelve or thirteen), it may safely be concluded that any expenditure of the Company in an appropriate but would probably be the means of giving school would not only be entirely wasted, them servants of less powerful minds, and inferior general abilities, than if they had been taken promiscuously from the comhon schools of the country. To accomplish the particular object proposed some institution was required, which was adapted to form the understandings of persons above the age of mere boys, where a more liberal system of discipline might be introduced; and where, instead of being kept to their studies solely by the fear of immediate observation and punishment, they might learn to be influenced by the higher motives of the love of distinction and the fear of disgrace, and to depend for success upon their own diligence and selfcontrol; upon the power of regulating their own time and attention; and on habits of systematic and persevering application, when out of the presence of their teachers. Nothing but an institution approaching in some degree to a college, and possessing some degree of college liberty, could either generate such habits, or properly develop the different characters of the young persons educated in it; and mark with sufficient precision the industrious and the indolent, the able and the deficient, the well-disposed and the turbulent. Nothing, in short, but an institution at which the students would remain till eighteen or nineteen, could be expected properly to prepare them for the acquisition of those high qualifications, which had been stated from the best au thority to be necessary for a very large portion of the civil servants of the Company, in order to enable them to discharge their various and important duties with credit to themselves and advantage to the service. It was to be expected that the jealousy of patronage, and the dread of expense, would greatly weaken the effect of these obvious and forcible considerations, and would determine many to prefer a school to a college, if it were necessary to chuse between the two evils. The early conclusion of a scholastic education, and the early commencement of the career in India, would remove much of the objection on the score of expense, and parents would presume that the terrors of the birch would enforce such discipline, that there would be but little danger of the loss of an appointment."In this however" (Mr. M. observes) "they would probably find themselves mistaken." "fewer difficulties with regard to Birch supports discipline, only because it is itself supported by the fear of expulsion: remove this fear, and the effect of the rod will soon cease. In almost a cases, the physical force is on the side of the governed; and few youths of sixteen would submit to be flogged if they did not know that immediate expulsion would be the consequence of their refusal. If the East-Ind a Company had an establishment for the education of boys from thirteen to sixteen, there is great reason to believe that without the usual gradation of ages from nine and ten upwards, and with any hesitation in resorting to the punishment of expulsion on all the usual occasions, it would scarcely be possible to enforce proper obedience; and the rod itself would probably be one of the principal causes of resistance and rebellion. A school therefore, besides excluding at once the great object in view-an education fitted for the higher offices of the government-seemed to present no one intelligible advantage over a college, but that of diminishing, in a smaller degree, the patronage of the directors. This advantage, to the honour of the court, was not regarded, in comparison of the advantages which their Indian territories might derive from the improved education of their civil servants; and a college was determined upon. Our limits will not allow us to follow Mr. M. through the inquiry, which he has conducted with such consummate ability, in the fourth section. It appears to us, how ever, that he has succeeded most fully in demonstrating, that, on the whole the present system of education in the two establishments, at Hertford and at Calcutta, compared with a regular university course in India, is "much 66 more economical, much more "efficient with regard to general "knowledge, and exposed to much discipline, and to personal dis"sipation and extravagance."P. 45. The 5th section exhibits in de tail the whole system of discipline and instruction at the existing college in England. We should most gladly present the whole of it to for insertion. With regard to the the public if it were not too long instruction, it appears that the lectures are SO conducted as and to encourage to require previous preparation, most effectually, habits of industry and application. They embrace the subjects of Classical Literature, the Oriental Languages, the Elements of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, the Laws of England, General History, and Political Economy. Public examinations take place twice a year in all these departments, at which emulation and industry are excited by the award of medals, prizes, and honorary distinctions. The result of these arrangements may be fairly estimated by the following declaration of Mr. M. which we presume nothing would have induced him to hazard but the fullest confidence of its accuracy. There are four or five of the professors thoroughly conversant with university examinations, who can take upon themselves to affirm that they have never witnessed a greater proportion of various and successful exertion in the course of their academical experience than has appeared at some of the examinations at the EastIndia college. However, as the college has been established ten years, it will naturally be asked, have the beneficial effects of it been practically perceived and acknowledged in India? On this point the most unexceptionable testimony is produced relative to the conduct, character, and attainments of those whom the college has sent forth. The following is the language of Lord Minto, who, in 1810, after noticing particularly some students who had greatly distinguished the students, proceeds to observe, themselves, adds, It is with peculiar pleasure that I do a further justice to the Hertford college, by remarking, that the official reports and returns of our college will shew the students who have been translated from Hertford to Fort Willlam to staud honourably distinguished for regular attendance,- for obedience to the statutes and discipline of the college, - for orderly and decorous demeanour, for moderation in expense, and consequently in the amount of their debt and, in a word, for those decencies of conduct which denote men well born, and characters well trained. I make this observation with the more satisfaction, as I entertain an earnest wish to find it proved that the preliminary tuition and general instruction afforded to the succeeding generations of the Company's servants at Hertford will be found of more extensive (I should be disposed to say, more valuable) influence even for India, than a greater or smaller degree of proficiency in a language or two of the East can prove at that early period." In 1812 the following passage occurs in a letter from the college council of Fort William to the Governor General in Council, dated December 29. "We take the liberty of repeating in this place the observations made by the right honourable the visitor, in his speech, pronounced at the disputation, holden 22d September, 1810, that the improvement (a very great and general one) which we have thought ourselves warranted in asserting, has been very conspicuous in the conduct of the students who have passed through the college at Hertford. We trust and believe that this is no accidental circumstance; but at all events, the fact is, in our opinion, certain, that, due regard being paid to numbers, no similar institution can afford a greater proportion of young men more distinguished by the manners of gentlemen, and general correctness and propriety of deportment, than the present students of the College of Fort William." A similar testimony is contained in a letter from Captain Roebuck to the College Council of Fort William, Nov. 10, 1812. At the public disputation, 1815, Mr. Edmonstone, then acting as visitor, after adverting to a change for the better in the conduct of 66 "this gratifying improvement may perhaps be traced to sources beyond this establishment," evidently alluding to the acknowledged effects of the institution in England.-P. 55. These public testimonies from the college at Calcutta are confirmed by the accounts of individuals who have returned from India within the last six or seven years, who agree in stating that what has been sometimes called the New School of Writers at Calcutta is very superior indeed, both in conduct and attainments, to those who were sent out upon the old system. We cannot insert the various testimonies which are produced by Mr. M. to prove the efficacy of the English college in abridging the period of Oriental study in India. The public, however, should be cautioned against the idea that the design of the college embraced a very deep or extended cultivation of the Asiatic tongues in England. And, accordingly, Lord Minto, at the public disputation of 1813, after speaking of the limited knowledge of Oriental languages acquired at the Hertford college, observes, "It is not to be concluded from thence that the time allotted to attendance on that institution has been unprofitably. spent ; because most wisely, in my opinion, the preliminary education of the Company's young servants is not confined to studies merely Oriental; but, together with the classical instruction of the West (without which no English gentleman is on a level with his fellows), I understand that a foundation of polite literature is laid, and that the door is opened at least, and the pu pil's mind attracted, to the elements of useful science; the seeds of which being sown, a taste for intellectual exercise and enjoyment is implanted, which seldom fails to develop and mature these first germs of knowledge at the appointed season.” If, then, an elementary know. ledge of the Asiatic languages, with the foundations of a sound and liberal European education, and the acquisition of habits of selfmanagement suited to an early introduction into the world, if these are the great objects for which the college was founded, it would seem that these are testimonies as satisfactory as the short period of its existence will allow, to shew that it is accomplishing the purposes of its establishment. The discipline of the college, Mr. M. allows, (in sect. 6.) has not been so successful as its literature: but he protests against the idea that indecorum or disorder is the usual condition of the college. He even asserts, on his personal knowledge and experience, that, on the contrary, in ordinary times it exhibits a scene of exemplary propriety and regularity. He proceeds in this section, however, to consider the causes of its partial failure in point of discipline. Some of these he admits, may to a certain extent be inherent in the constitution of the establishment." 1. In the first place, the age of residence at the college, viz. from fifteen or sixteen to eighteen or nineteen, is notoriously the most difficult to govern; and a system of collegiate education must be attended with considerable embarrassments in its application to that period of life.-P. 65. 2. A second permanent difficulty may arise from the probable disinclination of some of the students to the East-India service.-P. 66. 3. The third cause of weakness is one which at first sight might appear to be a source of strength, namely, the great interest which every student has at stake, and the consequent severity of the punishment of expulsion; a severity so great that it never can be resorted to without extreme hesitation and reluctance. This unwillingness is, of course, readily perceived by the students themselves, and operates as a powerful encouragement to disobedience. h It is obvious that these natural disadvantages demand every possible support and assistance to counteract them, and to secure a system of such steadiness, uni formity, decision, promptness, and impartiality, as are essential to the administration of all discipline. It would appear from Mr. Malthus': account of the early history of the college, that such a system was not followed from the beginning. In the original foundation of the college, it was not thought expedient by its founders to intrust the power of expulsion to the collegiate authorities. As expulsion involved the loss of a very valuable appointment, the directors wished to reserve it in their own hands; and, in all cases of great importance, the principal and professors were directed to report to the committee of college, and to wait their decision. It was in consequence believed by many students, that, unless the offence was peculiarly flagrant, they would run little risk of losing their appointments, and that their powerful friends in the India-House would make common cause with them in defeating the decisions of the have commenced early, and to have difcollege council. This opinion seems to fused itself pretty generally; and there is little doubt that it contributed to facilitate the rise of that spirit of insubordination which began to manifest itself in the third year after the college was established. It must be obvious that no steady system of discipline could be maintained while the principal and professors were, on every important occasion, to appeal with uncerdent hoped that his personal interest would tain effect to another body, where the stu prevent any serious inconvenience. Yet this continued to be the constitution of the college for a period of six years, during which there were three considerable disturbances. On these occasions, of course, the directors were called in; and although the more enlightened and disinterested portion of them, who saw the necessity of an improved education for their servants in India, were, unquestionably, disposed to do every thing that was proper to support the discipline; yet, the proceedings respecting the college were marked by an extraordinary want of energy, promptness, and decision, and inditurbing effects of private and contending cated in the most striking manner the disinterests. On occasion of the last of these disturbances in particular (that of 1812), the management of which the court took entirely into their own hands, they detained a large body of students in town for above a month; and after entering into the most minute details, and subjecting all the parties to repeated examinations at the India-House, came to no final decision. The case was then referred back again to the college council, who were desired to select for expulsion a cer |