Page:Reports on the State of Education in Bengal (1835 & 1838).djvu/533

462 are, in fact, the most inveterate enemies to improvement in all countries, but they are no where invincible when met with prudence, skill, and perseverance. We do not mean that we should vexatiously interfere with the usages of the inhabitants, or that we should attempt forcibly to change their habits,—far from it. But on the other hand, when their habits are bad, let us not plead their attachment to them as an apology perhaps for our own indolence in not endeavoring to correct them. Our efforts may for a long time be unavailing; but, if judiciously directed, we do not despair of their eventual success.”—Selections, Vol. I., p. 66, paras. 99—105.

The Honourable Court points so directly, in the concluding part of the extract, to another cause than “the poverty, prejudices, and indolence of the natives of India” operating against improvement, that it is not necessary to corroborate this prescient warning except by stating without comment that a period of about twenty-three years has elapsed since Lord Moira’s proposition was made for the establishment of houses of industry at the chief station of each zillah, and a period of about twenty-six years since the Court’s proposition for the establishment of experimental farms in various parts of the country; and that there is as much necessity now for re-urging the consideration and adoption of these or similar measures as there ever was. It may be hoped that the attention of Government will now be revived to both these designs with some practical result; and when the subject shall receive full consideration, it will probably appear that the Khas Mahals afford ample scope and means for experimental farms and houses of industry with a view both to “the increase of the Government revenue” and “the prosperity of its subjects.”

I have now completed the duty that was assigned to me. I have collected information respecting the state of native