Page:On the education of the people of India (IA oneducationofpeo00trevrich).pdf/156

142 ment to bind faster still the fetters which have so long confined the native mind. This is a new view of our obligations; and, if it be a just one, it is to be hoped that in pity to our subjects we shall neglect this branch of our duties. Fortunately for them, we have not thought it incumbent on us to act on this rule in other departments of administration. We have not adopted into our system barbarous penal enactments and oppressive modes of collecting the revenue because they happened to be favourites with our predecessors. The test of what ought to be taught is, truth and utility. Our predecessors consulted the welfare of their subjects to the best of their information: we are bound to do the same by ours. We cannot divest ourselves of this responsibility: the light of European knowledge, and the diffusive spirit of European benevolence give us advantages which our predecessors did not possess. A new class of Indian scholars is rising under our rule, more numerous and better instructed than those who went before them; and, above all, plans are in progress for enlightening the great body of the people as far as their leisure will permit an undertaking which never entered into the imagination of any of the former rulers of India.