Page:Viscount Hardinge and the Advance of the British Dominions into the Punjab.djvu/67

Rh tion the existing state of education in Bengal, and being of opinion that it is highly desirable to afford it every reasonable encouragement by holding out to those who have taken advantage of the opportunity of instruction a fair prospect of employment in the public service, and thereby not only to reward individual merit, but to enable the State to profit as largely as possible by the result of the measures adopted of late years for the instruction of the people as well by the Government as by private individuals and societies, has resolved that in every possible case a preference shall be given in the selection of candidates for public employment to those who have been educated in the institutions thus established, and especially to those who have distinguished themselves therein by a more than ordinary degree of merit.'

The effect of this Minute was remarkable. Early in the December following, the Calcutta Babus called a meeting, at which five hundred native gentlemen attended, to present an address to the Governor-General in acknowledgment of the policy he had propounded. In his reply, Sir Henry Hardinge dwelt on the advantages both to the governors and to the governed of the spread of education, laying special stress on the services of natives of superior intelligence as tending to the happiness and prosperity of the community at large.

In the following March (1845) the Governor-General distributed the prizes at the Hindu and Muhammadan Colleges, and was much struck by the ability of