appreciable headway being made through the Government agencies in Bengal. The first obstacle was the belief that elementary education was to be fostered mainly by means of the grant-in-aid system. The second impediment was that it was commonly held that, although an educational cess on land had been introduced into other parts of British India, the Permanent Settlement of Bengal by Lord Cornwallis precluded its being levied in that Province. The first of these obstructions was removed by the Despatch of 1859, which pronounced that the grant-in-aid system* as heretofore in force was unsuited to the education of the people at large. The second of these hindrances was pushed aside by paragraphs 51 and 52 of the Despatch, which plainly directed that the means for diffusing popular education was to be derived from the levy of educational rates should it be deemed expedient to impose them.

The Cess Controversy.

It might have been supposed that the sanction of educational rates by so high an authority as that which had issued the Despatch would have silenced all opposition and discouraged debate. On the contrary there ensued what came to be known as the "Cess Controversy " between the

* The most important of the grant-in-aid rules restricted the aid given by Government to an amount equal to what was contributed by private persons, and schooling fees were not taken into account as an income derived from private sources. In 1857 Mr. Hodgson Pratt, Inspector of Schools, South Bengal, thus wrote: "It appears to me undeniable that the present Grant-in-Aid Rules are inapplicable to the state of things in this country. The poorest classes, those who form the mass, do not want schools at all because they do not understand the use of Education, because they are too poor to pay Schooling Fees and Subscriptions, and because the labour of their children is required to enable them to live. The middle and upper classes will make no sort of sacrifice for the establishment of any but English schools. Yet the rules in force presume the highest appreciation of Education, because based on the supposition that the people will everywhere pay not only schooling fees but also subscriptions. In fact, we expect the peasantry and shopkeepers of Bengal to make sacrifices for Education which the same classes in civilized England often refuse to make! That we have been able to establish any Vernacular Schools at all is owing in nearly every case to the fact that in the place where such a School is set on foot, there happen to reside one or two persons of superior intelligence and education--a Calcutta clerk, a Moonsif, or a young Zemindar educated at College, etc.; but even these take but little interest in promoting improved Venacular Schools, and only as a pis aller where they cannot collect sufficient funds for an English School."

All the Inspectors of Schools condemned the existing rule regarding half the cost of a school being borne by the people, and further urged that the income from fees should be addedt o the donations and subscriptions of villages. Mr. Pratt proposed as an improvement that local support of a school should be related to the economic condition of the people, and should be adjusted to a sliding scale, so that the private sources of income should pay one-half, or one-third, or one-fourth of the total monthly expenditure, the balance being made good by the grant-in-aid.

Governments of India and Bengal. The former Government urged that in Bengal cesses might legitimately be imposed on land to the end that education might be afforded to the children of the agricultural classes. The Government of Bengal-which since 1853 had been under a LieutenantGovernor-contended that the land revenue had been settled in perpetuity in the Province, and that therefore no new impost was permissible; that inasmuch as lands had changed hands many times since the first settlement, there were great difficulties in the way of decreeing new levies on land. The Local Government, further, pointed out that in Bengal there already existed a very large number of indigenous schools, and primary education was therefore an every-day fact. They, moreover, explained that about one-third of the children attending patshalas belonged to the middle and upper classes, i.e., to the comparatively well-to-do orders. If taxation was to be resorted to, in all fairness local rating should fall alike on agriculturists and non-agriculturists. Finally, under existing conditions the taxation of land alone for the support of patshalas was neither just nor expedient. It would be better to have a general tax for education. Or, again, so high was the rate of the salt duty in Bengal as compared with other parts of British India, that a portion of its revenue might appropriately be made available for the improvement of Bengal primary schools. In any case, the voluntary principle had not been proved to have exhausted its strength, and the Local Government was unwilling to abandon that principle. It was still vigorous, for the people were eagerly availing themselves of the grants-in-aid, and the income from fees in Bengal exceeded the entire local payments in certain other Provinces-their educational cesses included.

Mr. James Wilson declares that an Educational Cess
was not barred by the Permanent Settlement of Bengal.

While this discussion was proceeding between the two Governments there happened to be an expert

financier in the country. Each of the Mutiny years had ended in an enormous deficit-amounting in all to thirty million pounds. Lord Canning requested the Home Government to send him a competent adviser to recommend how the finances of the India Government might be rehabilitated. Accordingly, Mr. James Wilson, Secretary to the Board of Control and Vice-President of the Board of Trade, arrived in India in 1859. He examined the educational cess problem which was dividing Governments, and decided that the Permanent Settlement did not exempt Bengal landholders from liability to the general taxation of the country, and he showed from Lord Cornwallis' Minutes that their exemption was not contemplated in that Settlement. "He pointed out how unsound and dangerous a policy it would be to relieve the richest and most privileged class in India from its lawful share in the national expenditure, and how essential it was, in the general interests of the country, to adhere strictly to the rule laid down by Lord Cornwallis himself, that all who enjoy the protection of the state must pay for it in accordance with their means.

The Argyle Despatch of 1870 declares an Education Cess in
Bengal permissible, but does not advocate its present Imposition.

The Government of Bengal remained impenitent and unconvinced. No steps had been taken up to the time that the Duke of Argyle's Despatch, dated the 12th May, 1870, arrived. It gave the verdict in favour of the Government of India and of Mr. Wilson :-"Rating for local expenditure is to be regarded, as it has hitherto been regarded in all the Provinces of the Empire, as taxation separate and distinct from the ordinary land revenue. The levying of such rates upon the holders of land irrespective of the land assessment involves no breach of faith on the part of Government whether as regards holders of permanent or temporary tenures. Her Majesty's Government can have no doubt that elsewhere, so in Bengal, the Earl Canning by Sir H. S, Cunningham,

*

expenditure required for the education of the people ought to be mainly defrayed out of local resources. This, however, is precisely the application of rates which the present condition of the people may render them least able to appreciate. I approve, therefore, of Your Excellency proceeding with great caution."

No land is cessed in Bengal for Primary Education.

Thus terminated a memorable debate. But in the end no cess for the maintenance of elementary schools was imposed on land in Bengal.* The question was never again reopened, for in 1875 the Finance Commission declared "it is desirable that the cultivator should pay a smaller proportion (than now) of the national charges." Mr. Howell thus tersely sums up the position that had been reached :-"The State has, in fact, assumed the duty of providing elementary education for the masses, but it has not undertaken, and indeed it cannot undertake, to find the necessary funds from the Imperial exchequer."

Popular dislike to a Vernacular Education,

and the Measures adopted to overcome it.

Meanwhile in accordance with the new programme of the Despatch of 1854, the Council of Education had been replaced by a Director of Public Instruction-Mr. Gordon Young of the Civil Service. Four Inspectors and forty Sub-Inspectors were presently appointed. The grant-inaid system was ratified, and a set of rules was drawn up under which Government was prepared to subsidize all "schools in which a good secular education is given through the medium of English or the vernacular tongue.' The training of teachers being essential to the scheme of educating the masses, Normal Schools were established at Hooghly, Dacca, Calcutta and Gauhati. But the most difficult portion of the work to be done lay in overcoming the indifference, or rather the aversion, displayed on all sides

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It is not clear whether this was due to the attitude of the Government of Bengal to the impost, or whether it may be ascribed to the circumstance that the financial position of that Government was improved by the decentralization of the finances, a measure which was effected shortly after the receipt of the Duke of Argyle's Despatch. (See page 177.)

to a purely vernacular education. In their last Report for the years 1852-55 the Council of Education had written :"A demand for English education has arisen in every District, and its strength may be tested by the fact that schooling-fees are willingly paid, and increasing numbers of teachers are supported, in private schools. It must, however, be confessed, that the hope of lucrative employment, rather than any real desire for education itself, mainly induces parents to pay for their children's instruction. In vernacular schools no such powerful motive exists, for the superiority of Government schools over those conducted by gurumahashays is not generally acknowledged in the mofussil. Gradually, but surely, the vernacular schools established by Lord Hardinge have disappeared, until, at the beginning of the present year, there remained but twenty-six out of the original one-hundred-and-one." In order to overcome the popular aversion to vernacular education, it was resolved to establish a number of model vernacular or Halliday schools, in the more backward Districts, in the hope that their example might stimulate a taste for an education of a similar description. That the material advantages might not be wanting, 320 vernacular scholarships of four rupees a month were annually bestowed up to a fixed number on the best boys in vernacular schools. Half the scholarships were tenable at the Normal Schools to prepare their holders to be teachers, and the other half at English Zilla Schools. The Government, moreover, issued a general order to the effect that all appointments in the Public Services exceeding in value Rs. six a month, should in future be given to those only who could at least read and write."

Gurus sent to Normal Schools for Training as Teachers

Presently it became evident that patshala gurus must be formally trained at the Normal Schools. In order

*The Hardinge and Halliday Vernacular Schools were regarded partly as models for the guidance of grant-in-aid schools in their neighbourhood, and partly as "pioneers" intended to prepare the way in backward places for the establishment of aided schools.