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206 tories, he earnestly recommended that the system of vernacular education, associated with the honoured name of Mr. Thomason, should be extended to the whole North-western Provinces. In the following year the Court of Directors, with these and other proposals for the development of vernacular instruction before them, at length dealt in a comprehensive spirit with the great question of Indian Education.

The Despatch of Sir Charles Wood in July, 1854, to use the words of Lord Dalhousie, 'left nothing to be desired, if, indeed, it did not authorise and direct that more should be done than is within our present grasp.' This great State-paper put an end for ever to the old controversy between the rival supporters of English and of the classical languages of India, as the basis and main subject of education. For it founded Indian education neither on the one nor the other, but on the modern vernacular languages of the Indian peoples. A vast network of educational institutions has, under the system thus initiated, been spread over India. Those institutions start from the indigenous hedge-schools of the Hindus and the old Mosque schools of the Musalmans, which have now been brought within Government inspection. They advance, by well-ordered upward steps, to the Vernacular and Anglo-vernacular Schools, the High Schools, the Affiliated Colleges, and the Universities. The