Page:Adam's reports on vernacular education in Bengal and Behar, submitted to Government in 1835, 1836 and 1838.djvu/402

340 the barrier which the pride of foreign rulers and the prejudices of native society have combined to raise. In proportion as the scheme was extended over the country it would place the Government in friendly relations with every city, town, and hamlet, with every head of a family, with every instructor of youth, and with the entire juvenile population speedily to become the instructed adult population of the country. It would constitute a chain, the links of which would be found in every village and at every hearth. It would produce men not only able to understand the measures of Government, which would be something; but, what would be still better, morally disposed to appreciate the good intentions of Government and to co-operate in carrying them into effect.

“Sovereigns and chiefs of nations!” says DeFellenberg, “the fruitful source of sedition, of crime, of all the blood which flows upon the scaffold, is owing to the erroneous education of the people. Landlords! it is here you must seek the cause of all those obstacles which the idleness and growing vices of the laboring classes oppose to the increase of the produce of your estates.”—“By degrading the people we dry up the richest source of power, of wealth, and of happiness which a State can possess.”

“In the infancy of the British administration in this country,” says Lord Moira, “it was perhaps a matter of necessity to confine our legislation to the primary principle of justice, ‘not that nice and delicate justice, the offspring of a refined humanity, but that coarse though useful virtue, the guardian of contracts and promises, whose guide is the square and the rule, and whose support is the gallows.’ The lapse of half a century and the operation of that principle have produced a new state of society which calls for a more enlarged and liberal policy. The moral duties require encouragement. The arts which adorn and embellish life will follow in ordinary course. It is for the credit of the British name that this beneficial revolution should arise under British sway. To be the source of blessings to the immense population of India is an ambition worthy of our country. In proportion as we have found intellect neglected and sterile here, the obligation is the stronger on us to cultivate it. The field is noble. May we till it worthily!”