Page:Lord Amherst and the British Advance Eastwards to Burma.djvu/53

 canal had once again been brought into Delhi. But it was not till 1823, when Colonel John Colvin—a famous member of a famous corps, the Bengal Engineers—was appointed to be general Superintendent of Irrigation for the Delhi district, that constructive advance began. The Western and Eastern Jumna Canals are the enterprises which chiefly engaged attention in Lord Amherst's day, though they were not completed when he left.

Social reform engaged the attention of Lord Amherst and his advisers. If little in the way of immediate performance ensued, the period was the starting-point of tendencies which, under Lord William Bentinck who succeeded, took precise shape. It was the transition from the epoch of fighting and diplomacy to that of social reform. The arms of the West had triumphed over native prowess, the ideas of the West were now to be brought to bear upon the complex mass of native usage and superstitions. A beginning was to be made with that great policy of education which has brought much of the intelligence of India within the pale of Western culture. Some of the prognostics that may be read in the eloquent letters and minutes of the time have come true. The knowledge of the English language we know now does not necessarily bring with it a grateful or even a candid appreciation of the incidents of English rule, and many of the disciples would perhaps not be unwilling to use the lessons they have learnt for the purpose of superseding the teachers. If the results are not wholly