MISCELLANEOUS NOTICES.

I.-Annual Reports of the Hindu College, Patshalah, and Branch School, the Sanskrit College, Madrissa, and Russapaglah School, for 1848-49. Calcutta. Military Orphan Press.

So much has been written about these reports, that we must not let them pass altogether without notice. They invite us to a full discussion of the Government Education system: but that opens questions too large for consideration at present, and too important for a light and cursory notice, such as is suitable for the concluding critical articles of this periodical.

The

The first thing that struck us, on opening the work before us, was the list of the Managing Committee of the Hindu College. only Europeans, who are now members of it, are Mr. Bethune, Mr. Beadon, and Dr. Mouat; of these, certainly, the two last have sufficiently numerous and onerous duties, independently of those which attach to their positions on this Committee. That a decided European influence should predominate in the management of all great Educational Institutions in this country, none can doubt, who have ever personally experienced the advantages of European education. Native gentlemen, like some of those whose names appear in the list of this Managing Committee, would, we feel confident, be among the first to appreciate the zeal, and the practical assistance of men, who have lately come from home with the fresh recollection of College studies and College companions, who have tasted the benefits of the new modes of education, and who share the new spirit, that has sprung up in our old English academic halls.

On turning to the list of the "Establishment," we find, at page 2, the following notice; "there has been no change in the instructive Establishment in the past session; but, during the vacation, after the close of the session, Captain D. L. Richardson having resigned the post of Principal, Mr. Lodge has been appointed Principal in succession to him. Mr. Montague, the Assistant Professor of Literature, has been removed from the college, and Mr. D. Foggo appointed in his place." We own that we looked with some anxiety for this passage.

Our readers, who are resident in Bengal, know well enough that Captain Richardson has ceased to be Principal:-for no event, that we remember, except the election of the Secretary of the Agricultural Society in 1842, when two editors of rival newspapers were rival candidates, ever attracted more attention from the Calcutta press. From the day, when Captain Richardson's retirement was announced, the public were favoured with large variety of information, grave

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and gay, about the Council of Education. That Mr. Bethune was a tyrant, and an oppressor; that he danced; that a person of light character had included him in the number of persons, to whom she had the impudence to send impudent letters; that his edition of Goldsmith's Essays (of the demerits of which the public had previously been left in blissful ignorance) was an egregious failure; that Captain Richardson himself was a man of high character, great professional ability, and remarkably popular;-this, and much more than this, was reiterated in prose and verse, with astonishing zeal and diligence, for a period of about three months; and even now the dying echoes of these valuable truths sound occasionally in our ears. In vain did the public wonder, why such an excellent Principal should ever have had to retire, and why such a President as Mr. Bethune was allowed to remain in the Council of Education. Not one word of explanation was ever vouchsafed to the marvelling readers of the Calcutta journals and when at last Mr. Bethune, in a speech at the Town Hall, entered into something about the facts of the matter, the terrible threat of a prosecution for libel was employed by the gallant Principal to prevent the publication of the offensive parts of the oration; and the newspapers, with an unanimity, and a respect for the law, which were most edifying, consented to publish the speech-with abundant omissions. When the newspapers at other places took the liberty of expressing their curiosity, and declared (naturally enough) that such silence was unsatisfactory, and, that, while the real cause was concealed, they were tempted to dream of all sorts of false ones-they were met by the provoking explanation, that there was a lady in the case; that Captain Richardson's offence was simply, that "he was suspected of being suspicious;" and, that all should be made known, by and by, in an action against Mr. Bethune for his false accusations at the Town Hall. But here we are now in the hot weather, and we hear nothing of this action. We learn only that Captain Richardson is employing his great abilities in some joint-stock native school, called, we believe, the Metropolitan Academy; and that Mr. Bethune still remains President of the Council of Education. We do not even hear that the Hindu College is falling off.

There certainly is something highly mysterious in the suspense which we endure. Blue Books in profusion are published, in which even the off-hand minutes of the Governor General are exposed to public view; but in vain do we wait for the explanation of those unrevealed occurrences, which have formed the subject of so many articles, letters, epigrams, dialogues, and songs in the pages of our contemporaries. Not the Black Act itself has given more employment to the printers. For a considerable time the literary warfare against all, who were supposed to have been instrumental in depriving the Hindu College of the late Principal's services, was only suspended at these intervals, when all the little Pedlington gossip of this our Vanity fair was arrested by the arrival of the Overland

Mails. But, immediately after we had satisfied ourselves with a glance at the affairs of Europe, and speculated for a moment on Free Trade, Foreign Politics, and Californian gold, colonies in discontent, Ireland's problems, and the disputed death of half a century our attention was again recalled, by the stern determination of the rulers of our Calcutta press, to the inexhaustible theme of Captain Richardson's retirement, and the newly discovered errors and omissions in the edition of Goldsmith's Essays-to the Novum Organum, the Historical papers at a recent examination, and the manifested defects of those, who presume now to carry on the system of Government Education without his valuable aid.

We hope that now, when the first ebullition of indignation is past and gone, and the subject of Captain Richardson's retirement no longer fills up the columns of our contemporaries, we may be allowed calmly to advert to the course which has been pursued, and the aspect in which his retirement appears to us. We wish to speak in a friendly spirit of the newspaper press. We know some of the gentlemen, who are connected with it; and their intelligence, ability, and public spirit, it is impossible not to recognize.

We are far from being of the number of those, who, because they disapprove of the course of a newspaper on a particular subject, think that they ought pettishly to show their disapprobation by ceasing to subscribe to it. Amidst the various claims on their attention, editors have an arduous task to perform. They cannot always rely on their information; they are not infallible guides of public opinion; they cannot always resist the influence of private friendships, and prejudices, or the temptation to say something witty in the place of something wise. But their labours are ceaseless, and their duties are most important. In a large number of cases they do the state good service; and, in nearly every call of private or public distress, they are foremost as the advocates of catholic benevolence. If, in the course of recent events in Calcutta, they lent their powerful aid to create and foster misunderstanding, to advocate a cause that was indefensible, and to assail men who had done no wrong, we attribute the error only to the influence of misapprehensions in their own minds, combined with warm sympathy for a well-known and song.

*

* Let us illustrate this by a case in point. It happens to be known to us, that not very long ago, a misunderstanding, regarding certain matters of a private character, took place between Mr. Kerr, the Principal of the Húghly College, and his predecessor; and they parted, mutually dissatisfied.

FIVE YEARS before this time, Mr. Kerr had edited a translation of Bacon's Novum Organum, with much credit to himself, and very general acceptance. Suddenly the public were amazed by a long, and a very bitter criticism on this work in the editorial columns of the Hurkaru. We have too much respect for the editor of that journal to believe, that, consciously, he is capable of lending its columns to be the instruments of a private animosity: but, unless this elaborate criticism literally dropped from the clouds, where it had been suspended for the last five years, the sequence of these two phenomena is abundantly suspicious, and not a little damaging to the character of our local press, which Mr. Dickens lauds so highly.

known companion. We can speak of them without malice, and we wish to speak without exaggeration.

assailants.

His

In like manner we wish to speak freely, and we are able to speak disinterestedly, of Mr. Bethune. We have never received, or sought a favor at his hands. We are not, and never were reckoned in his list of friends. We regret exceedingly the colour, which his indiscretion, and an unbecoming levity have afforded to the petty slanders of his We believe that he himself is his own worst enemy. If (as is reported) he so far forgot his position, and his personal dignity as to sing an improper song on a public occasion, we have not one word of palliation or excuse for an act so unworthy. But while we condemn what is reprehensible; surely it is as fair, and far more noble, to do justice to what is good. Mr. Bethune is undoubtedly a man of zeal, philanthropy, and great liberality. His object in coming to India was to do good, not to save money. qualities as a legislative member of council are very high. He has had the advantage of associating in England for many years with some of the most distinguished characters of the age. He has considerable enlargement of mind, and not less moral courage; and he has taken part in effecting several very important legislative reforms in the English constitution. We must be permitted to say therefore, that we think he has been unjustly assailed here in India. We do not refer to the Black Acts, and the attacks on him as their supposed author; but to such long continued and unwarrantable attacks, as the poems filled with double entendres, to which the papers gave insertion, connecting his name with the name of a person of light-fame, on no other ground than her own presumption in having sent to him, in common with many others, familiar letters. We need scarcely say, that it is very well known that the whole of the elaborate slanders, the jests, and satires, of which his name was day after day the object, had no other foundation whatever. In this way it is evident that any one might be robbed of his character, and made a butt for the feeble wit of the poetasters, who employed their time so laboriously in defaming Mr. Bethune.

But it is not only thus that we regard him as unfairly treated. He occupied an important position as President of the Council of Education, and confessedly was exerting himself very energetically to stimulate education throughout the country. No former President, we believe, ever did so much real work in his office. During the whole time of his incumbency, up to the hour when Captain Richardson's retirement was announced, no fault (that we remember) was found with his proceedings in any of the public journals. From that hour, nothing was said in his favor. Now, in all seriousness we ask, what were the facts? There were certain rumours abroad about Captain Richardson's mode of life, and the irregularities of his attendance. They had followed him from Húghly, where he was Principal, to Calcutta, when he assumed charge

of the Hindu College. They were of such a nature, that many persons were surprised that they had not long ago become matters of official enquiry. Mr. Bethune, following public opinion rather than exciting it, wrote to Captain Richardson, asking for explanation on the two subjects, which the rumours embraced. Explanation was declined; and a tender was made of resignation. The explanation, we believe, was again asked for: and the answer was a resignation, which was accepted by the Council. There followed, in nearly all the papers, a series of articles, in prose and verse, against Mr. Bethune, and almost every one associated with him in the Council of Education, and in the instructive establishments. But all the time the simple facts, that Captain Richardson had not been capriciously and unfairly dismissed, and that he had retired, rather than give explanation, on points, on which it was the unquestionable duty of Mr. Bethune to demand explanation, were studiously concealed. This we must

be allowed to say was not fair. In vain have we endeavoured to ascertain how blame can justly be imputed to the Council of Education in the matter. The mode of life of the Principal of a great national College cannot be a matter of indifference: and, even if it were, irregularities in the attendance of a well-paid Principal are not a trifling fault. For aught we know, there may not be a syllable of truth in the reports, to which Mr. Bethune, in his correspondence with Captain Richardson, adverted. But, be that as it may, the reports were not invented by Mr. Bethune; they were heard before he arrived in India, and heard by all the members of the Council of Education, and by many others. How, then, they could be disregarded, or why explanation should be refused, and a resignation tendered in lieu of it, we cannot divine. Of Mr. Montague's removal we need not say anything. We confine ourselves to Captain Richardson's case; and we regret that the press made itself a party to a systematic attack on Mr. Bethune, as if he were personally and solely (or at least in conjunction only with Dr. Mouat) the cause of Captain Richardson's resignation;—as if he, and not the Council generally, had accepted that resignation; as if a pure simple act of tyranny and caprice had been committed, of which a perfectly innocent man, against whom there was no charge, had been the victim.

Considering the sacred trust committed to them, we think that the Council of Education might have been excused, if it had been more than ordinarily jealous of the character of its Instructors, so as to secure that they should be, not only above reproach, but also above suspicion. As members of the Calcutta press, we regret exceedingly the course, which it has (too generally) pursued in this matter. No possible quantity of dust thrown up can blind the eyes of impartial men to the fact, that Captain Richardson held in his own hand his own reputation, and that of the party, whose name is unhappily associated with his; and that he voluntarily retired, without one word of denial, or explanation. Under these