Page:On the education of the people of India (IA oneducationofpeo00trevrich).pdf/216

202 are at present left. I never heard that the education given in the national schools unfitted the common people of England for the ranks of the army; although the inducements to honourable and faithful service, which are open to them after they enter the army, are much inferior to those which are held out to our Sepoys.

Religious instruction forms no part of the object of the Government seminaries. It would be impossible for the State to interfere at all with native education on any other condition; and this is now so well understood, that religious jealousy offers no obstruction to our success. The general favour with which English education is regarded, and the multitudes who flock to our schools, prove this to be the case. The Brahmins, it is true, ruled supreme over the old system. It was moulded for the express purpose of enabling them to hold the minds of men in thraldom; and ages had fixed the stamp of solidity upon it. Upon this ground they were unassailable. But popular education, through the medium of the English language, is an entirely new element, with which they are incapable of dealing. It did not enter into the calculation of the founders of their system; and they have no machinery to oppose to it. Although they have been priest-ridden for ages,