Page:Macaula yʼs minutes on education in India, written in the years 1835, 1836 and 1837 (IA dli.csl.7615).pdf/10

Rh continue to be the best sketches of the state of Vernacular Education that have been submitted to the public.

On the 24th March, 1835, Macaulay writes:—

“I agree with Mr. in thinking that Mr. Adam cannot at present be more usefully employed than in digesting such information on the subject of Native Education, as may be contained in reports formerly made.”—[Book E. page 99.]

Mr. Adam in his third Report, p. 2, when reviewing the progress of his enquiry, says, “My appointment by the Governor General in Council is dated 22nd January, 1835, placing me under the orders of the General Committee of Public Instruction, whose instructions I received dated 7th March. On the 8th of April, I obtained the authority of the Committee before proceeding into the interior of the country, to report the amount of information in existing publications and official documents on the subject of Native Education in Bengal, and such a report was accordingly submitted to the Committee on the 1st of July following, and afterwards printed by order of Government.” On this first Report of Mr. Adam, Macaulay writes as follows—

“Though Mr. Adam has been directed to correspond with the General Committee, I do not conceive that it was the intention of the Government of India to throw on our funds any part of the expense of his inquiries. The printing of any reports which he may make, the cost of collecting any works which may illustrate the state of the vernacular literature, are matters quite extrinsic to the purposes to which our funds are devoted. Of course the Government which has ordered him to report, will give the necessary orders about his report. We have only to transmit it to the Secretary in the General Department with our opinion of its merits. I have not time at present to inspect it. But I have no doubt from what I know of Mr. Adam, that it deserves the eulogy of the Secretary.”—[Book E. page 128.] 13th July, 1835.

Second Report of Mr. Adam—We are much indebted to Mr. Sutherland for his excellent abstract of Mr. Adam’s Report, which those gentlemen who have not time to go through the original will find very useful.

I am surprised to see that in the district (Rajshahi) to which the report refers, a great majority of the people are Mahomedans. Surely this is an exception to the general state of things in Bengal. If so, it would seem desirable that Mr. Adam should next explore some district in which the Hindoo population decidedly predominates. But on this question I submit my judgment to that of gentlemen who possess more local experience.