Page:The Marquess of Hastings, K.G..djvu/217

Rh previous period in the history of the country was the credit of the British Government more firmly established, or was the prospect of financial prosperity more promising than at the commencement of 1823, when the Marquess of Hastings retired from the guidance of the pecuniary interests of India .'

Very few chaplains, amounting to only thirty-two in the whole of India, were provided for the spiritual needs of the numerous English population that was constrained to live in Asia in the Company's service; this matter had not escaped notice, and Lord Hastings frequently observes in his Private Journal with regret and surprise, that there was an almost entire absence of places of worship in the country. The renewal of the Charter in 1813 gave an opportunity for applying a remedy to this state of things, and the matter was not neglected; though the measures taken effected little with respect to conversions, yet they gave an impetus to general education among the natives. The Governor-General cordially approved of this latter work, promoted it in every way in his power, and established schools out of his own private means. He was the first to encourage the moral and intellectual improvement of the natives, and his views on the subject were altogether in advance of Indian officials of his time.

Soon after the Nepál war he took an early opportunity of proclaiming his anxiety to raise the people