Hindoo regeneration. He was not rash and fickle, but deliberate and determined. measure, and established it. He matured his To promulgate the following document, was one of the last public acts of Lord William Bentinck's administration in Bengal. "FORT-WILLIAM, "General Consultation, 7th March, 1835. "The Governor-General of India in Council has attentively considered the two letters from the Secretary to the Committee, (the Government Committee of Public Instruction) dated the 21st and 22d January last, and the papers referred to in them. "1st. His Lordship in Council is of opinion, that the great object of the British Government ought to be the promotion of European literature and science among the natives of India; and that all the funds appropriated for the purpose of education, would be best employed on English education alone. "2d. But it is not the intention of his Lordship in Council, to abolish any college or school of native learning, while the population shall appear to be inclined to avail themselves of the advantages which it affords; and his Lordship in Council directs, that all the existing professors and students at all the Institutions, under the superintendence of the Committee, shall continue to receive their stipends. But his Lordship in Council decidedly objects to the practice which has hitherto prevailed, of supporting the students during the period of their education. He conceives that the only effects of such a system can be, to give artificial encouragement to branches of learning which, in the natural course of things, would be superseded by more useful studies; and he directs that no stipend shall be given to any student that may hereafter enter at any of these institutions; and that, when any professor of Oriental learning shall vacate his situation, the Committee shall report to the Government the number and state of the class, in order that the Government may be able to decide upon the expediency of appointing a successor. "3d. It has come to the knowledge of the Governor-General in Council, that a large sum has been expended by the Committee on the printing of Oriental works; his Lordship in Council directs, that no portion of the funds shall hereafter be so employed. "4th. His Lordship in Council directs, that all the funds which these reforms will leave at the disposal of the Committee, be henceforth employed in imparting to the native population a knowledge of ENGLISH LITERATURE, AND SCIENCE, through the medium of the ENGLISH LANGUAGE; and his Lordship in Council requests the Committee to submit to Government, with all expedition, a plan for the accomplishment of this purpose. (A true Copy.) (Signed) "H. T. PRINSEP, works. To show at what rate the committee to which this letter was addressed had been inclined to patronize oriental literature, it is stated, they applied, during ten years, 20,000l. for printing or purchasing Sanscrit, Arabic, and Persian works; they voted 6,500l. for the same object, which yet remain to be appropriated; and had resolved to print, in his original, Avicenna's most celebrated This was an Arabian writer of the eleventh century, styled the prince of Arabian philosophers and physicians, by his admiring contemporaries: but who was in fact a licentious, intemperate, though precocious scholar, whose profound study of philosophy had not taught him good morals, or his speculations in medicine, the art of preserving his own health from the effects of intemperance. To publish the works of this obsolete and empirical philosopher, the committee had resolved to devote some two thousand pounds, when Lord W. Bentinck interrupted their dreams and extravagance. The committee had been modified in character, by an infusion of new blood in 1834, when the change enacted by parliament passed upon the Indian government: but there still remained so much of the old nature in its constitution, that modern principles of education could only count upon an equal moiety; while the elder seers tenaciously adhered to their Sanscrit veneration. Parties so nearly balanced, stood parallel; similar to a recent parliamentary division relating to education at home. Lord W. Bentinck destroyed the equilibrium; he cast his weight into the scale for reform, and made it kick the beam. The contest had formerly seemed so undecided, that the seniors hoped the value of the doubt would be conceded to them-that vested prerogatives, and use-and-wont would preponderate in favour of their opinion. When therefore the order in council was issued, consternation filled their minds; and the sides of their oriental Parnassus shook with convulsive alarm, as if Jupiter-tonans would confound the snowy Himalayas in his rage. From the banks of the Ganges to the halls of Oxford, and from the pagodas of Benares to the colleges of Germany, one loud, bitter, and mournful wail was heard for the precious relics of Hindoo antiquity, the unfathomable mysteries of Sanscrit philology, the untold and undiscovered riches of post-diluvian science and theology. An avatar of Jones, Colebrooke, Halhed, and Wilkins, might almost have been prognosticated, or a metempsychosis of some beydanti sages, so as to give us a conference between the living and the dead on this crisis of oriental literature. A conclave of the Hindoo immortal and famous Nine, Loomus, Makiendee, Byass, Ashootaman, Bul, Hunwent, Bibeekhen, Kirpacharij, and Purrissram, and of all the Gooroos, of celebrity past, present, and to come, with Abulfeda and Hafiz, Avicenna and Ferdusi, Averroes and Sadi, Abulpharajius and Abulwafa, under the presidency of Brahma and Mohammed, should long ere this day have been convened by the joint influence of our German and oriental savans, to proclaim the infallible wisdom contained in the Sanscrit, Persian, and Arabic literature; and to set forth, with due authority, an Index Expurgatorius against all Anglican nastiks and European giaours, and their poisonous writings, introduced under the auspices of science and philosophy. The effect of this educational and literary reformation, has undoubtedly been most propitious to an extended sway of the mother tongue of Britons and of sound literature and science among the millions of Asia. Education has derived a new impetus, philanthropy a new impulse, and truth a new force; which, with knowledge as the lever and intellectual liberty the fulcrum, will move onward and upward, with gigantic strides, the generations of men; when they shall occupy the place in the scale of being, and shine in the brightness of wisdom and benevolence, enriched with the rewards of virtue and peace, and clothed in the spoils of reason and research. The resolution of Lord W. Bentinck has brushed away the dust and cobwebs of many dark ages. Lord William Bentinck found an efficient and cordial coadjutor in the Right Honourable Thomas B. Macaulay, who sustained, in the new system, the office of president of the General Committee of Public Instruction. The progressive and exalted eminence attained by this statesman in the political world, and the honours heaped on him as a public servant, do not more distinguish him than do his |