Page:Bulandshahr- Or, Sketches of an Indian District- Social, Historical and Architectural.djvu/112

 admire in the new works at Bulandshahr, and gladly go to considerable expense in procuring models and drawings of them; but the taste of our provincial Vitruvius is far more fastidious, and can only be satisfied by the elegant refinements of his own departmental standards.

In the same compound stands a boarding house, where such of the boys are lodged as have no relations with whom they can live in the town. There is now accommodation for forty. The building is in the form of a quadrangle, of which about one-half was finished and occupied before I took charge of the district. It was simply a barrack of the very plainest description, and for the sake of uniformity I was obliged to continue it on somewhat similar lines. But I have given it character by adding a gateway in the centre of one wing, throwing out two stair-turrets at the corners of the front, and substituting pierced stone-tracery for wooden bars in the windows. An extension at the back has also been made this year and over this at some future time, when sanction has been obtained, it would give importance to the design, if a large dormitory were added as an upper story. The existing accommodation is still inadequate, and a house has to be rented in the town for some of the boys. There is an available fund of Rs. 2,000 invested in Government paper, the interest of which is spent upon scholarships. But the craving for English education among the poorer classes already amounts almost to a disease, and, in my opinion, ought not to be encouraged by a system of gratuitous education. From the very beginning of my career I have been an enthusiast for a certain kind of schooling, but I am convinced that the study of English has been pushed on too rapidly. Being regarded simply as a means for making a livelihood, it is not the leaders of native society, but only the struggling and the indigent who are anxious to secure Government education for their sons. When they have completed the first stage of the appointed curriculum, they can seldom afford to proceed any further, and—in order to support themselves—begin to look out for employment. As the general civilization of the country is only in the agricultural stage, native society does not require their services: the only patron to whom they can turn is Government, and every Government office is already besieged by a host of disappointed candidates. The ideal condition of things would be an English-speaking and highly cultivated aristocracy, with a proletariat able to read and write their own vernacular, and a middle class further instructed either in English, if they aim at being