Page:Report on public instruction in the lower provinces of the Bengal presidency (1849-50).djvu/15

Rh in so short a time, far exceeding any expectation its most sanguine supporters would have been justified in entertaining at the commencement, receives a double value from the consideration that it has been achieved by the exertions of a private individual, and cannot be attributed to the influence of the power of Government.

3. “The example given by Mr. Bethune in his school has, His Lordship in Council is informed, been imitated by educated Natives in other parts of Bengal.

4. “The Governor General in Council considers that a great work has been done in the first successful introduction of Native Female Education in India on a sound and solid foundation, and that the Government ought to give to it its frank and cordial support.

5. “The Governor General in Council requests that the Council of Education may be informed that it is henceforward to consider its functions as comprising the superintendence of native female education ; and that, wherever any disposition is shewn by the Natives to establish female schools, it will be its duty to give them all possible encouragement, and further their plans in every way that is not inconsistent with the efficiency of the institutions already under their management. It is the wish also of the Governor General in Council that intimation to the same effect should be given to the Chief Civil Officers of the Mofussil, calling their attention to the foregoing disposition among the Natives to establish female schools, and directing them to use all means at their disposal for encouraging those institutions, and for making it generally known that the Government views them with very great approbation.”

The Council lost no time in making known the sentiments of the Government to all persons connected with the Institutions already under their charge, requesting them to give the fullest possible effect to the Government instructions, by making them generally known to all in their neighbourhood who take an interest in or are likely to aid the cause.

In promulgating the intelligence, the Council intimated their conviction that a measure fraught with such important consequences, and so eminently calculated to extend the benefits and influence of education, would meet with the most cordial support of every person connected with the Education department.