Page:On the education of the people of India (IA oneducationofpeo00trevrich).pdf/122

108 ficial knowledge of the rudiments of English on the other.

Nothing can be more groundless than this assumption. The medical pupils who were declared by Mr. to have passed as good an examination for the time they had attended lectures as any class of pupils in Europe, acquired their knowledge entirely from English books and lectures delivered in English. Neither were these picked boys; they principally came from Mr. preparatory school, and from the second and third classes of the, and they were therefore below the standard of those who go through the whole course of instruction at our principal seminaries.

In their report published in 1831 the committee, speaking of the Hindu college, observe: “The consequence has surpassed expectation; a command of the English language and a familiarity with its literature and science have been acquired to an extent rarely equalled by any schools in Europe.” Such having been the result at the Hindu college, what is there to prevent our being equally successful in the more recently established seminaries? The same class