should be, as far as practicable, based upon and accommodated to the indigenous institutions for this purpose, closely interwoven as these are with the habits of the people, and the customs of the country, and all other peculiarities of climate and physical and mental constitution, and, we may add, by no means so few or contemptible in themselves, as we had supposed.

Mr. Adam divides the existing educational institutions of India into four classes. 1. Indigenous Elementary Schools, or schools in which the elements of knowledge are taught, and which owe their existence to, and are supported by the natives themselves, in contradistinction to those that are supported by religious or philanthropic societies. 2. Elementary Schools, not Indigenous, or schools for elementary instruction, attended by the native children, but supported by, and entirely under the control of foreign residents or benevolent associations. 3. Indigenous Schools of Learning, or colleges in which the higher branches of an Oriental education are provided for at the expense and under the sole direction of natives. 4. English Colleges and Schools, including all those institutions, both of a higher and lower grade, one of whose principal objects is to teach the English language, and through that medium European science and literature.

We have been most interested in the accounts given in the Report of the Indigenous Elementary Schools, from which it appears, as Mr. Adam says, that the system of village schools has long been extensively prevalent in Bengal, and that the design to give education to their male children must be deeply seated in the minds of parents, even of the humblest classes.

"A distinguished member of the General Committee of Public Instruction in a minute on the subject expressed the opinion, that if one rupee per mensem were expended on each existing village school in the Lower Provinces, the amount would probably fall little short of 12 lakhs of rupees per annum. This supposes that there are 100,000 such schools in Bengal and Behar; and, assuming the population of those two provinces to be 40,000,000, there would be a village school for every 400 persons. There are no data in this country known to me by which to determine, out of this number, the proportion of school-going children, or of children capable of going to school, or of children of the age at which, according to the custom of the country, it is usual to go to school. In Prussia it has been ascertained by actual census, that, in a population of 12,256,725, there were 4,487,461 children under fourteen years of age, which gives 366 children for every 1,000 inhabitants,

or about eleven-thirtieths of the nation. Of this entire population of children it is calculated that three-sevenths are of an age to go to school, admitting education in the schools to begin at the age of seven years complete, and there is thus in the entire Prussian monarchy the number of 1,823,200 children capable of receiving the benefits of education. These proportions will not strictly apply to the juvenile population of this country, because the usual age for going to school is from five to six, and the usual age for leaving school is from ten to twelve instead of fourteen. There are thus two sources of discrepancy. The school-going age is shorter in India than in Prussia, which must have the effect of diminishing the total number of school-going children; while, on the other hand, that diminished number is not exposed to the causes of mortality to which the total school-going population of Prussia is liable from the age of twelve to fourteen. In want of more precise data, let us suppose that these two contrary discrepancies balance each other, and we shall then be at liberty to apply the Prussian proportions to this country. Taking therefore eleven-thirtieths of the abovementioned 400 persons, and three-sevenths of the result, it will follow that in Bengal and Behar there is on an average a village school for every sixty-three children of the school-going age. These children, however, include girls as well as boys; and, as there are no indigenous girls' schools, if we take the male and female children to be in equal or nearly equal proportions, there will appear to be an indigenous elementary school for every thirty-one or thirty-two boys." pp. 8, 9.

But lest our readers should form too high an opinion of the state of elementary education in these countries, it will be proper to make them acquainted with the quantity and quality of instruction given in these seminaries.

"The education of the Bengalee children, as has been just stated, generally commences when they are five or six years old and terminates in five years, before the mind can be fully awakened to a sense of the advantages of knowledge or the reason sufficiently matured to acquire it. The teachers depend entirely upon their scholars for subsistence, and, being little respected and poorly rewarded, there is no encouragement for persons of character, talent, or learning to engage in the occupation. These schools are generally held in the houses of some of the most respectable native inhabitants or very near them. All the children of the family are educated in the vernacular language of the country; and in order to increase the emoluments of the teachers, they are allowed to introduce, as pupils, as many respectable children as they can procure in the neighbourhood. The scholars begin with tracing the vowels and consonants with the finger on a sand-board and afterwards on the floor

with a pencil of steatite or white crayon; and this exercise is continued for eight or ten days. They are next instructed to write on the palm-leaf with a reed-pen held in the fist, not with the fingers, and with ink made of charcoal which rubs out, joining vowels to the consonants, forming compound letters, syllables, and words, and learning tables of numeration, money, weight, and measure, and the correct mode of writing the distinctive names of persons, castes, and places. This is continued about a year. The iron style is now used only by the teacher in sketching on the palmleaf the letters which the scholars are required to trace with ink. They are next advanced to the study of arithmetic and the use of the plantain-leaf in writing with ink made of lamp-black, which is continued about six months, during which they are taught addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, and the simplest cases of the mensuration of land and commercial and agricultural accounts, together with the modes of address proper in writing letters to different persons. The last stage of this limited course of instruction is that in which the scholars are taught to write with lamp-black ink on paper, and are further instructed in agricultural and commercial accounts and in the composition of letters. In country places, the rules of arithmetic are principally applied to agricultural, and in towns to commercial accounts; but in both town and country schools the instruction is superficial and defective. It may be safely affirmed, that, in no instance whatever, is the orthography of the language of the country acquired in those schools; for, although in some of them two or three of the more advanced boys write out small portions of the most popular poetical compositions of the country, yet the manuscript copy itself is so inaccurate, that they only become confirmed in a most vitiated manner of spelling, which the imperfect qualifications of the teacher do not enable him to correct. The scholars are entirely without instruction, both literary and oral, regarding the personal virtues and domestic and social duties. The teacher, in virtue of his character or in the way of advice or reproof, exercises no moral influence on the character of his pupils. For the sake of pay, he performs a menial service in the spirit of a menial. On the other hand, there is no text or school-book used containing any moral truths or liberal knowledge; so that education, being limited entirely to accounts, tends rather to narrow the mind and confine its attention to sordid gain, than to improve the heart and enlarge the understanding. This description applies, as far as I at present know, to all indigenous elementary schools throughout Bengal." - pp. 10, 11.

In treating particularly of the District of Hooghly, the Report says:

"The indigenous elementary schools amongst Hindoos in this

district are numerous, and they are divisible into two classes; first, those which derive their principal support from the patronage of a single wealthy family; and secondly, those which are destitute of such special patronage, and are dependent upon the general support of the native community in the town or village in which they are established. The former are the most numerous, there being scarcely a village without one or more of them. The primary object is the education of the children of the opulent Hindoos by whom they are chiefly supported; but as the teacher seldom receives more than three rupees a month from that source, he is allowed to collect from the neighbourhood as many additional pupils as he can obtain or conveniently manage. These pay him at the rate of two to eight annas per month, in addition to which each pupil gives him such a quantity of rice, pulse, oil, salt, and vegetables at the end of each month as will suffice for one day's maintenance. Sometimes the teacher, in addition to the salary he receives, is fed and clothed by his patron. Such schools have seldom any house built or exclusively appropriated for the use of the teacher and his pupils. The second class of schools is not so numerous as the former, but they afford a better maintenance to the teacher. In general the pupils pay him from four to eight annas per month while they write upon leaves, and from eight annas to one rupee, according to their means, when they write upon paper; in addition to which he also receives one day's maintenance per month from each pupil. Another perquisite of the teacher is a piece of cloth from each scholar on promotion to a higher class; but this is not one of the conditions of admission, and depends upon the liberality of the parents. The number of scholars in each school of either description averages thirty, some schools in populous towns having more, and others in small villages having less. The teachers are either Brahmans or Sudras. If the former are respectable and learned, they gain a comfortable subsistence; but the majority of them do not take sufficient pains to write a neat hand, and they have in general only a superficial acquaintance with arithmetic and accounts. Books are not in use in this class of elementary schools. The instruction comprises writing on the palm-leaf and on Bengalee paper, and arithmetic. As soon as the scholar is able to write a tolerable hand and has acquired some knowledge of accounts, he in general leaves school. In this district they enter school usually at the age of six and remain four or five years." pp. 61,

62.

Some important reforms, we are happy to find, have lately been introduced into schools of this description, particularly in Calcutta, through the exertions of the Calcutta School Society.

VOL. XXI. -3D. s. VOL. III. NO. I.

4

'Printed, instead of manuscript, school-books are now in common use. The branches formerly taught are now taught more thoroughly; and instruction is extended to subjects formerly neglected, viz., the orthography of the Bengalee language, geography, and moral truths and obligations. The mode of instruction has been improved. Formerly the pupils were arranged in different divisions according as they were learning to write on the ground with chalk, on the palm-leaf, on the plantain-leaf, and on paper, respectively; and each boy was taught separately by the schoolmaster in a distinct lesson. The system of teaching with the assistance of monitors and of arranging the boys in classes, formed with reference to similarity of ability or proficiency, has been adopted; and as in some instances it has enabled the teachers to increase the number of their pupils very considerably, and thereby their own emoluments, it is hoped that it will ultimately have the effect of encouraging men of superior acquirements to undertake the duties of instructors of youth."—p. 12.

From the statistics given in the Report respecting the indigenous schools for the higher branches of learning, it is plain that the class of men in Bengal who either have received, or are engaged in giving or receiving a Hindoo collegiate education, is large and influential. "The principle," we are told, "which secures the perpetuation of these institutions, as long as the Hindoo religion subsists, and is professed by the mass of the people, and by a majority of the wealthy and powerful, is, that it is deemed an act of religious merit to acquire a knowledge of the Hindoo shastras, or to extend the knowledge of them either by direct instruction, or by pecuniary support or assistance, given either to scholars or teachers." But the following description of the Hindoo colleges, is not such as to authorize us to expect that they will do much to help onward civilization. After stating that the buildings are generally constructed of clay, the Report goes on:

"Sometimes three or five rooms are erected, and in others nine or eleven, with a reading-room which is also of clay. These huts are frequently erected at the expense of the teacher, who not only solicits alms to raise the building but also to feed his pupils. In some cases rent is paid for the ground; but the ground is commonly, and in particular instances both the ground and the expenses of the building are a gift. After a school-room and lodging-rooms have been thus built, to secure the success of the school the teacher invites a few Brahmans and respectable inhabitants to an entertainment, at the close of which the Brahmans are dismissed with