Page:Reports on the State of Education in Bengal (1835 & 1838).djvu/100

30 of the Heber theological scholarships. The other Heber scholarship is filled by an Armenian youth. Thus of the sixteen scholarships, twelve are filled, and of the four now vacant, three are expected to be soon filled.

I have recorded these details respecting Bishop’s college at some length, partly because the information thus collected is not generally possessed; partly because one of the declared objects of the institution is to train schoolmasters and to extend the benefits of education generally; and partly in the anticipation that, apart from its primary religious objects, it will, both by the indirect operation of its example and influence and by the actual admission of non-Christian students, produce very beneficial effects on the morals and intellect, the science and learning, of the country.

In connection with the Calcutta Diocesan Committee of the Incorporated Society, on the premises of the Tollygunge or Russapughlah mission there is an English school which appears to have been at one time in prosperous condition, containing fifty-two scholars, but a dreadful mortality swept many of them away. No less than sixteen died, while the parents of many of the others kept back their children through fear, as they had to come from a considerable distance. The school having been re-organized, twenty-five boys were in attendance, and at the date of the last report (1834) additions were daily made. It is also mentioned in the report of this committee that two grandsons of a zemindar at Barripore had received instruction in English from one of the missionaries.

The Calcutta Corresponding Committee of the Church Missionary Society has an English school on the mission-premises in Calcutta containing about 200 boys. It is carried on by Native teachers under the superintendence of a Native convert, who was educated at the Hindoo college, has become a catechist of the Society, and is an admitted candidate for holy orders. Reading, writing, grammar, geography, history, and astronomy are taught. Prominence is given to religious instruction and occasion is taken to include sentiments intended to serve as an antidote to the poison of political enthusiasm alleged by the head-teacher to be prevalent in this country. This is the only instance with which I am acquainted of a Native school being made the theatre of instruction in political partisanship. Lately