should also be continued. They should parse daily three or four lines of their reading lesson, and be required to correct bad spelling and grammar. They should be minutely questioned upon every particular in the history they read, and occasionally be called upon to give written answers to the questions proposed. This subject should never be read without a map. The more advanced pupils may be required thrice a week to write essays and letters on various subjects, which should be valued not for their length, but for their grammatical and orthographical correctness, and for their closeness to the matter proposed." * Fees, and Remuneration of Teachers.

The school fee was fixed at one anna a month for each pupil. School books were to be purchased by the scholars. The income from fees was to be given to the teachers "either in whole or in part as a reward for the diligent and successful discharge of their duties. Incidental expenses were in general to be defrayed from the intake from fees, for Government did not hold itself liable for any charges beyond the fixed salaries of the teachers.

The Hardinge Schools were not successful Institutions.

The Hardinge Schools, however, were doomed to failure. In the first place, Government was not prepared with school books, or teachers, or superintending agents. At the end of ten years in all only 26 out of the 101 schools that had been established survived, and of them the Council of Education gave an unsatisfactory account in their final Report for the years 1852 to 1855. † 1852 to 1855. † Earlier Reports had referred to their unpopularity. For instance, the Report for 1846 stated "The motives of Government have certainly not been appreciated anywhere, and in Behar and some parts of Cuttack they are mistrusted. In Patna, Tirhoot and Faridpore it has been found impossible to establish any schools, and in all other Districts those that

* The outline of the studies in the Hardinge Schools has been stated somewhat fully, so that the scope and method of vernacular education in them may be compared with the more modern and ambitious aims of present-day Vernacular Schools,

† See page 167,

have been established are, with few exceptions, ill attended." The Report for 1848 gave a still more gloomy account :-"From the observations of the local officers, and from the results of the experiments hitherto made, the fate of the vernacular schools must, the Board think, be regarded as sealed. Success is quite hopeless, in their opinion, when all those entrusted with the extension of a scheme of this nature entertain such opinions as they have expressed, not only respecting its success, but also its claims to success. Nevertheless, the Board are not disposed to abandon the plan so long as any vitality remains."

Why the Hardinge Schools were unpopular.

In truth a variety of causes contributed to the failure of the Hardinge schools. Some of them had been established where there was no general desire for such vernacular instruction as Government was prepared to supply. The inhabitants usually subscribed nothing for the erection of school-houses, and their omission to do so was commonly made good by one or two wealthy zemindars, who were actuated by a desire to please the local Government officials. Again, the means of obtaining vernacular education already existed in the private schools that abounded in the Districts. The Reports of the Council of Education-for the schools were eventually put under its management-contain such observations as the following:"Elementary education is to be had in numerous private schools. There are few large villages in which elementary vernacular instruction cannot be obtained at little or no expense." Another cause of the unsuccess of the schools was the demand of a schooling fee, at a time when such levies were viewed with general disfavour, and when the same elementary instruction offered by the Hardinge schools could be had for nothing, or almost nothing, in the many private schools that dotted the country. But perhaps the chief cause was that the schools were too purely vernacular for the tastes of the people. Some of

the local officers reported that the cry for instruction in English was universal, and that the boys at school thrust their vernacular books into the hands of the teachers, and insisted upon being taught English.

Funds in 1848-49.

In 1845 Lord Hardinge added a sum of nearly 1 lakhs to the 3% lakhs of rupees that remained to Bengal on the transfer of 2 lakhs to the North-West Provinces for Education. In 1848-49 the receipts of the Government of Bengal for Education stood thus:

From the time that the Council of Education had assumed control of Education it had endeavoured to systematize and consolidate the existing schemes for instructing the people. In 1844 an Inspector of Schools had been appointed in the person of Mr. J. Ireland, at one time Principal of Dacca College. He had died before he had fairly entered upon his duties. He was succeeded by Mr. E. Lodge, whose appointment had to be terminated in 1848 because the funds at the disposal of the Council fell short of the normal expenditure. In the meantime Mr. Thomason's plans for the spread of elementary education in the North-West Provinces attracted attention in Bengal. In the new province the introduction of Mr. Adam's proposals was bearing fruit.

Dr. Mouat submits a Report after observing the Plan
of Elementary Education in the N.-W. Provinces.

In 1853 Dr. Mouat, the Secretary of the Bengal Council of Education, was (as has already been mentioned) deputed personally to acquaint himself with the means being adopted in the sister Province for the promotion of the instruction of the masses. On his return to Bengal, he

submitted a Report from which the following extract is taken :

"From having witnessed the utter failure of the scheme of vernacular education adopted in Bengal among the more intelligent, docile, and less-prejudiced people than those in the North-Western Provinces I am much struck with the real, solid advance made by Mr. Reid's system I am convinced that it is not only the best adapted to leaven the ignorance of the agricultural population of the North-Western Provinces, but it is also the plan best suited for the vernacular education of the masses in Bengal and Behar."

Lord Dalhousie causes the N.-W. P.
System to be introduced into Bengal.

Lord Dalhousie, who was now Governor-General, took Dr. Mouat's Report into careful consideration, and in his minute of the 21st October, 1853, he declared "It is the plain duty of the Government at once to place within the reach of the people of Bengal and Behar those means of education which, notwithstanding our anxiety to do so, we have hitherto failed in presenting to them in an acceptable form, but which... are to be found in the successful scheme of the Lieutenant-Governor of the North-Western Provinces."

He therefore called upon the Council of Education, proceeding upon Mr. Adam's Report and the NorthWestern Provinces system, to frame a scheme "best calculated to provide the most efficacious means of founding and maintaining a sound and well adapted system of Vernacular Education to all the Provinces of this Government."

The Education (Wood) Despatch
(No. 49) of the 19th July, 1854.

But, while the Government of Bengal,* the GovernorGeneral and the Council of Education were elaborating

* On the renewal of the Charter in 1853 the Governor-General, who under the Act of 1833 had been ex-officio Governor of Bengal, was relieved of this position, which thereupon devolved upon a Lieutenant-Governor. Sir Frederick James Halliday was the first Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal (1854-59).

schemes of education for the peoples of Bengal, the Charter of the Company was once more renewed, and the Indian Government was charged more completely than ever with the responsible duty of educating the masses. In 1854 was issued the Education Despatch, generally known as the Despatch of Sir Charles Wood (afterwards Viscount Halifax),* and regarded in India as the Charter of Education. Summarizing its scope, Lord Dalhousie pithily said :It contains a scheme of education for all India far wider and more comprehensive than the Local or Supreme Government could ever have ventured to suggest. It leaves nothing to be desired, if, indeed, it does not authorize and direct that more should be done than is within our grasp." The appointment of Directors of Public Instruction in each Province.

The Despatch of 1854 wrought great changes in the educational activities of the Indian Government, and it put to an end the many disputes and discussions which from time to time had divided counsels and impeded progress. One of the most important changes which it introduced was the assumption of the functions of the Council of Education by a Director of Public Instruction in each of the Provinces of British India. †

Lord Stanley's Despatch No. 4 of the 7th April,
1859, supplements the Despatch of 1854.

The Wood Education Despatch of 1854 was supplemented by Lord Stanley's Education Despatch of 1859. Between these dates the Sepoy Mutiny had been quelled, and India had passed from Company to Crown. The sudden crisis which British fortunes came through during these memorable years, might have alienated another Government from its subjugated races. But Canning, nicknamed " Clemency" by his embittered countrymen, exhibited British qualities at their best; and Queen

.

It is believed to have been drafted by John Stuart Mill.

+ Lord Auckland had anticipated the realization of this climax :"The time may come," he wrote in 1840, "when unity and efficiency of supervision will be better secured by having a single Superintendent of the Government seminaries, with an adequate establishment, than by retaining the large Committee of Members, acting gratuitously and having other laborious duties to attend to."