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172 duties of the Government. Universality of education in Provinces with forty thousand villages and four millions of peasant proprietors (inclusive of their families), might be beyond his means. But his Government would make a real beginning in every part of the country, which would serve as a veritable example, and might lead to indefinite extension. He thereupon formed a scheme, and carried it out effectually in a number of selected districts. With this actual and visible success as his warrant, he obtained the sanction of the Governor-General in Council to try the plan in all districts throughout his Provinces. These educational proceedings of his affected the mind, not only of the Governor-General in Council, but also of the other Governments throughout India; and gave an impulse to public instruction in the whole empire. Certainly he was the father of elementary education in northern India, and here again is one among the chief trophies of his career.

So much progress has subsequently been made regarding Public Instruction in India, that the dead weight under which Thomason laboured, the prejudice and inertia with which he contended, may seem marvellous. But all that enhances our estimate of his prescience far in advance of his time. He met, too, with opposition from some of his best friends. They held that any such educational scheme as this ought to be accompanied by Christian teaching — and that without this teaching, the scheme would be worse than useless. He gave much the same reply as his