Page:The despatch of 1854, on General education in India.djvu/6

Rh uproot demoralising practices, and even crimes of a deeper dye, which for ages had prevailed among the natives of India, the good results of those efforts must, in order to be permanent, possess the further sanction of a general sympathy in the native mind, which the advance of education alone can secure.

3. We have, moreover, always looked upon the encouragement of education as peculiarly important, because calculated “not only to produce a higher degree of intellectual fitness, but to raise the moral character of those who partake of its advantages, and so to supply you with servants to whose probity you may with increased confidence commit offices of trust” in India, where the well-being of the people is so intimately connected with the truthfulness and ability of officers of every grade in all departments of the State.

4. Nor, while the character of England is deeply concerned in the success of our efforts for the promotion of education, are her material interests altogether unaffected by the advance of European knowledge in India: this knowledge will teach the natives of India the marvellous results of the employment of labour and capital, rouse them to emulate us in the development of the vast resources of their country, guide them in their efforts, and gradually, but certainly, confer upon them all the advantages which accompany the healthy increase of wealth and commerce; and, at the same time, secure to us a larger and more certain supply of many articles necessary for our manufactures and extensively consumed by all classes of our population, as well as an almost inexhaustible demand for the produce of British labour.

5. We have from time to time given careful attention and encouragement to the efforts which have hitherto been made for the spread of education, and we have watched with deep interest the practical results of the various systems by which those efforts have been directed. The periodical reports of the different Councils and Boards of Education, together with other official communications upon the same subject, have put us in possession of full information as to those educational establishments which are under the direct control of Government; while the evidence taken before