Page:Reports on the State of Education in Bengal (1835 & 1838).djvu/367

Rh them only three days in the week from one hour and a half to two hours each day. The school-books used are Spelling Book, the English Reader, Murray’s Grammar, Woollaston’s Grammar, and  History of England which are provided by the scholars, and from the irregular supply of books the classification of the boys is found impossible. In penmanship the scholars write on slates and paper. Some of them learn Persian elsewhere. The average age of the thirteen scholars when they entered school was 12·9 years; their average age when the school was visited was 16·6; and the average of the different periods mentioned when they would probably leave school was 22·3. After the examination of the school the elder boys expressed their gratitude to Mr. Paterson for his instructions, lamented that he could not devote more time to them, and entreated me to represent their ardent desire to be favoured with more ample means for acquiring a knowledge of English, a request in which Mr. Paterson himself joined. The boys afterwards came to my lodgings of their own accord to express the same sentiments in more formal manner. It has given me pleasure to observe that an attempt has been made since I left the district to establish an English school by public subscriptions both amongst Europeans and Natives.

The Berhampore Orphan Asylum is under the general superintendence of the Revd. Messrs. Hill and Paterson of the London Missionary Society, from whom the following details respecting it have been derived. The origin of the institution is ascribed to the late David Dale, Esq., who as Magistrate of the district had frequently to provide for destitute native children. He received three orphan boys into his own house and subsequently sent them for instruction to the Revd. Mr. Williamson of the Baptist Missionary Society, residing in the Beerbhoom district. About three years afterwards, and about four years before my second visit to the district in July, 1886, the Asylum at Berhampore was built at the expense of J. P. Pringle, Esq., and the orphans were removed to it from Beerbhoom, and supported by Mr. Pringle till his return to England. At the above-mentioned date, nineteen orphans had been received into the institution, of whom four had died of cholera and diseases contracted in their destitute condition before their admission into the institution; two female orphans had been sent to the Christian school in 22—1826B.