Page:Adam's reports on vernacular education in Bengal and Behar, submitted to Government in 1835, 1836 and 1838.djvu/358

298 is for the wisdom of Government to decide whether this expectation is visionary or founded on reason.”

May these burning words produce their full effect until not an Englishman shall be found in India or out of India who will not be anxious to acknowledge that it is equally the duty and the interest of the British Government to improve and instruct its native subjects! The political power which rests on the affections of its subjects may be likened to the “wise man who built his house upon a rock, and the rain descended, and the streams came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded on a rock.” The political power which rests on the ignorance of its subjects may be likened to the “foolish man who built his house on the sand, and the rains descended, and the streams came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell, and the fail of it was great.”

The next objection may be held to apply to the expense of the plan and on this topic various considerations may be suggested. It would be very satisfactory to me if I could state within what precise limits the expense will be confined; but it must be evident that in a country so vast and populous, where so very little has been done, and where so much remains to be accomplished, where so much must be hoped; and so little may be obtained from the co-operation of the native community, any such estimate would be deceptive. One thing, however, is certain that, if this or any similar plan is adopted, Government must lay its account with incurring first a small, then a gradually increasing, and ultimately a considerable, expenditure for the purpose, since it is, in fact, the creation of a new department of administration to be in time extended over the whole country. Another thing next to certain is that, in proportion as the plan is extended, it will have a direct effect in advancing the prosperity of the country, and an indirect effect in lessening the expense of governing it. But although it is impossible to know at present the cost of the plan when it shall be in full operation, yet I find it equally impossible to conceive any plan that shall afford a reasonable prospect of effecting so much good with so small an expenditure of means; for in any given district, by means of an educational survey, the appointment of an examiner, and the distribution of a few books, it proposes to call forth and set at work an infinite complication of hopes and fears, desires, ambitions and activities on the part of parents, teachers, and scholars, all aiming at the same object and tending to the same end,—the giving and receiving of instruction. Let us endeavor, however, without pretending to strict accuracy, to ascertain the cost of the experiment continued in a single district during a period of four years, and for this purpose we must look at every item of expense separately.

The first item will consist of the examiner’s salary and allowances. I propose that for the first four years he shall have a salary