Page:On the education of the people of India (IA oneducationofpeo00trevrich).pdf/185

Rh Whatever system of popular instruction it may hereafter be resolved to organise in India, these Zillah seminaries must form the basis of it; and, as some time must be allowed for their operation before we can with advantage proceed a step further, their early establishment is a matter of importance. Every part of our dominions having the same claim upon us, there is exactly the same reason for establishing a central school in one Zillah as in another. Indeed, the motives for carrying out the plan to its full extent are much stronger than those for originally commencing it. The inhabitants of a Zillah in which a seminary has been for some time established, have a very unfair advantage given them over the inhabitants of the neighbouring Zillahs. Calcutta has lately been supplying native deputy-collectors to the whole of Bengal and Behar, because it was the only place at which educated natives were to be obtained in any number. This was justified by the emergency of the case; but, as a general rule, it is very desirable to employ the natives as much as possible in their own neighbourhood. Strangers,