Page:Adam's reports on vernacular education in Bengal and Behar, submitted to Government in 1835, 1836 and 1838.djvu/346

286 practice, but they are mentioned here that the various bearings of the question may be better understood. I shall now attempt briefly to indicate some of the principal sources from each of which, to a greater or less extent, the means of establishing the proposed endowments may be gradually derived.

The first source is the Khas Mahals of Government. In the two provinces of Bengal and Behar, in which the land-revenue is for the most part permanently settled and limited, there are in every district, or in almost every district, estates called by the above name belonging in full and entire propriety to Government, Government is the landlord, the sole and exclusive owner of those estates, just as much as any nobleman in England is of the estates which he has inherited free of debt or entail from his ancestors. The farmers and cultivators of those estates are Government tenants with varying periods and conditions of lease. The managers, who have to treat with the tenants, are Government servants specially appointed for the purpose. The entire net produce is the property of Government, and Government is consequently subject to all the liablilitiesliabilities [sic] and responsibilities attaching to a large and wealthy landed proprietor. It is not necessary to advert here to the modes in which Government has come to retain or assume this character in the settled provinces; nor does my information enable me to state the number and extent of the estates so held, although it is undoubted that they are considerable in both respects, and it is believed that they are not distinguished in any way from estates held by private proprietors for improved modes of management or cultivation, or for the superior character and comforts of the cultivators. All that is requisite to my present object is to bring distinctly into view the fact that such estates exist, and to suggest that here, if any where, a beginning may be made in the attempt to give a permanent character by means of small endowments to an improved system of village-schools. If the importance of the object is admitted, the community will naturally look to Government to afford proofs of its advantages on the Government estates and to set an example of liberality, I am not sufficiently acquainted with the mode in which those estates are managed to point out the way in which such an object may be most conveniently, economically, and efficiently attained, but many friends of native education are competent to furnish such information when it shall be required. The renewal of leases will afford an opportunity of setting apart for this purpose a few bighas of the lands of each village with a deduction so inconsiderable from the rent payable by the farmer as to be scarcely perceived, and to be hereafter more than compensated by the pecuniary as well as moral benefits which an improved system of instruction will bring in its train. Whatever the mode adopted of carrying it into effect, the principle I propose is that Government should make it legally obligatory on itself to establish