Page:James Thomason (Temple).djvu/197

Rh 'And while I cannot refrain from recording anew in this place ray deep regret that the ear which would have heard this welcome sanction given, with so much joy, is now dull in death, I desire at the same time to add the expression of my feeling, that even though Mr. Thomason had left no other memorial of his public life behind him, this system of general vernacular education, which is all his own, would have sufficed to build up for him a noble and abiding monument of his earthly career.'

The Governor-General in Council then recommended to the Court of Directors in London that a Scholarship should be founded in memory of Thomason at the College of Civil Engineering at Rúrki, which has already been described, in order 'to keep alive among future generations of public servants the influence of his great example.' This is represented to the Court as 'an appropriate memorial of one of the best and ablest men it has ever counted in the distinguished body of its public servants.' The Court, while approving this proposal, considered that 'the opportunity should be taken of connecting his memory with the Rúrki College in a more emphatic manner, and that an institution of such peculiar importance to India, and of a character so entirely novel in that country, should bear the name of its founder.' They accordingly directed that the College should henceforth be designated the 'Thomason College of Civil Engineering at Rúrki.'

Further, the Court of Directors bore this testimony, on receiving the official news of his death: —