Page:On the education of the people of India (IA oneducationofpeo00trevrich).pdf/193

Rh ral different languages spoken in the Madras presidency, and English has been to a great extent adopted as the common medium of intercourse, not only between Europeans and natives, but between the natives themselves. This circumstance must give a permanent impulse to the study of the language, and will probably lead to its being more commonly used in ordinary conversation, and more largely diffused through the native languages in the south of India than in any other part of our Eastern dominions. The rough materials of a system of national education are therefore ready to hand in the Madras presidency; and all we have to do is to organise them, and apply them to their proper purpose. English is no novelty; it is in great request; thousands already know it: but it has hitherto been taught loosely and unsystematically, and we must bring all the modern improvements in education to the aid of its easy and correct acquisition. It has hitherto been taught merely to the extent necessary for carrying on colloquial intercourse; but we must enable our subjects to cultivate it as the means of obtaining access to all the knowledge of Europe.

At Bombay more has been done for native education. At first, too exclusive attention was paid to the vernacular languages; books for which there