Page:On the education of the people of India (IA oneducationofpeo00trevrich).pdf/173

Rh These, however, are no new sentiments: they have been repeatedly urged by the Court of Directors on the Indian government; and considering how deeply the success of our administration, not in one only, but in all its different branches, is concerned in the establishment of a system of public instruction adequate to the existing wants of the country, it may be hoped that the necessary funds will soon be placed at the disposal of the Governor-general in Council.

But this part of the subject has another, and perhaps a still more important aspect. The same means which will secure for the Government a body of intelligent and upright native servants, will stimulate the mental activity, and improve the morals of the people at large. The Government cannot make public employment the reward of distinguished merit, without encouraging merit in all who look forward to public employ: it cannot open schools for educating its servants, without diffusing knowledge among all classes of its subjects. Those who take their notions from England, or even from most of the Continental nations, can have no conception what an immensely powerful engine, either for good or evil, an Asiatic government is. In India, the Government is everything. Nearly the whole rental of the country