Page:A General Biography of Bengal Celebrities Vol 1.djvu/184

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HIS PRIVATE LETTERS. 175 jects on which it was thought desirable to collect new or more detailed information. The real state of the Police, and the means of improving it, the Abkari system, its uses and abuses, the causes of the absence ■of a spirit of enterprise in Bengal, and the means of reviving them, is population increasing or diminishing and what are the causes operating to produce either effect ? Is wealth increasing or decreas- ing 1 Ato the comforts of the great body of the people increasing or diminishing and what are the causes? Is the morality of the great body of the people improving or deteriorating in towns and -in the country, amongst tide Hindoos and the Mahomedans, and how far do the policy' and measures of Government and the character and the institutions of the "people contribute to the improvement or deterioration f What are the real effects of Missionary labours and in what light, are they regarded by the people t This will bo sufficient to give you an idea of what is meant to be done. Can the educated natives employ their leisure hours better than in carrying into effect this proposal ] Mr. Adam will not lay the information before the English public as his own, but he will distinctly tell how ' and in what manner it comes to his band. Petitions and publio meet- ings do not produce their desired effects, only because it is known to be the doings of a few English agitators, but when they will see that the natives themselves are at work, seeking to be relieved from the grievances under which they labour, depend upon it, the attention of the British public and consequently of the Parliament will be awaken- ed in such a manner that the reaction upon the local Government will be irresistible. We will then and not till then see active measures of amelioration put into operation. Need £ say to convince you of the usefulness, nay the necessity of what is proposed to be done. &c. &c. I think you will be very much disappointed, if you suppose that more time the leading members of onr Society take, the better will be their productions. They are very idle and apathetic, (myself inoluded) and I do not know if they will < ever mend. Peary Mitter has been preparing himself, and will perhaps make his appearance before long. You wish to know if the Secretary wrote in the Daily Intelligencer under the signature of a member of the S. A. G. K. The first letter was mine, and the second I do not know whose.