Page:Calcutta Review Vol. II (Oct. - Dec. 1844).pdf/320

Rh was sent to go over the same ground. When the returns made appeared satisfactory, a correct copy of them was made for record, and a full abstract of them prepared in English.

Having finished his inquiries in the thana Nattore, Mr. Adam next moved to the adjoining district of Moorshedabad, in which he fixed on the thana of Daulatbazar, applying to it the most improved mode of investigation to which he had attained in Rajshahi. His subsequent proceedings are thus described by himself:—

"“The next district I visited was that of Beerbhoom, and there I adopted a modification of the plan of investigation, which spread the inquiry over a much wider surface in an equal period of time, and with equal security for accuracy of detail. In Rajshahi and Moorshedabad, with the sanction of the General Committee, I had limited my investigations to one Thana in each district; but it now occurred to me, that as I employed agents in that single Thana, under my own superintendence, in collecting information according to prescribed forms, this plan admitted of simultaneous extension to the other Thanas of the same district. Accordingly, having selected one Thana, as before, for special investigation, the results of which would fulfil the instructions I had received from the General Committee, I extended a more limited survey, by means of separate agents, over all the remaining Thanas. The difference was, that in the latter the inquiry was confined to the state of school-instruction; whereas in the selected Thana it embraced also the state of domestic and adult instruction. For the special and more minute investigation of the selected Thana, four, five, and sometimes six agents were employed; and for the more limited survey of the remaining Thanas, one agent to each was found sufficient. The result was highly satisfactory; for it enabled me to pronounce with confidence on the state of school-instruction, not in one Thana only, but throughout all the Thanas of a district. This extended and comprehensive course of investigation has been pursued in Beerbhoom and Burdwan, South Behar, and Tirhoot. In the city of Moorshedabad the plan of investigation was made still more comprehensive; the special and minute inquiry into the state both of school-instruction and domestic and adult instruction having been extended to all the nineteen Thanas included within the city jurisdiction.”"

In this manner, the state of native education in seven separate localities, or six districts and one principal city, was fully investigated. The time occupied in the actual business of local inquiry, and irrespective of various intervals devoted to other affairs, amounted to an aggregate period of fifteen or sixteen months. That the multifarious results of this searching inquiry are absolutely without error or defect, Mr. Adam himself does not presume to allege. But, considering the life and vigour which he infused into all his operations, and the unslumbering vigilance with which he superintended them down to the minutest items of detail; considering, too, the nature of his own official appointment, and the full equipment which he possessed of all the official means, appliances, and agencies necessary to