Page:Macaula yʼs minutes on education in India, written in the years 1835, 1836 and 1837 (IA dli.csl.7615).pdf/43

Rh when they have under their own eyes a deserving person, they think that cannot do too much for him. We, on the other hand, have to superintend many Schools; and cannot be generous in one quarter without depriving ourselves of the means of being just in another. I would leave Mr. Nichol only half his present allowance for house rent; and in doing so I think that I am erring, if at all, on the side of liberality.—[Book O. page 26th.] 12th July, 1836.

Mode of selecting Monitors.—Mr. Hamilton does not explain how the monitorial offices are to be given, or what is to be the test of the merit by which they are to be retained. I would make them depend on the yearly examinations.—[Book O. page 27th.] 13th July, 1836.

The essential importance of imparting instruction in the Vernacular languages at English Schools.—The teaching of Persian is out of the question. The teaching of Hindee is another matter. As I understand the orders of Government, they leave us perfectly at liberty to provide the pupils in our schools with the means of learning to read and write their own mother tongue. In fact their knowing how to read and write their own mother tongue will very greatly facilitate their English studies. Indeed I conceive that an order to give instruction in the English language is, by necessary implication, an order to give instruction, where that instruction is required, in the vernacular language. For what is meant by teaching a boy a foreign language? surely this, the teaching him what words in the foreign language correspond to certain words in his own vernacular language, the enabling him to translate from the foreign language into his own vernacular language and vice versâ. We learn one language—our mother tongue—by noticing the correspondence between words and things. But all the languages which we afterwards study, we learn by noticing the correspondence between the words in those languages and the words in our own mother tongue. The teaching the boys at Ajmere therefore to read and write Hindee seems to me to be bonâ fide a part of an English education. To teach them Persian, would be to set up a rival, and as I apprehend, a very unworthy rival, to the English language.

I vote for granting what is asked as to the Hindee. For the Persian I would do nothing.—[Book O. page 30.] 3rd July, 1836.

Ornamented certificates at Delhi.—I should like to see the plan before I decide. My own impression is strongly in favour of giving money. You may easily give honorary distinctions which cost nothing at all; and why you should sink money in giving such distinctions, when you may give them just gratis,