I have still further pleasure in acknowledging the ready and obliging assistance I receivd from the Magistrates of the different districts I visited, particularly from Mr. Bury and Mr. Dirom in Rajshahi, Mr. W. J. H. Money in Beerbhoom, Mr. W. Taylor in Burdwan, and Mr. Wilkinson in Tirhoot.
Section II.
Plan of Investigation.
Some account of the plan of investigation adopted may be useful to future statistical inquirers, and it is necessary to explain the sources of error to which I deem the results still liable.
The first object to which I directed my attention was to prepare the forms in which I desired to embody the information to be collected; and in passing from district to district I continued to improve them according as experience, reflection, or local circumstances suggested.
The language in which the forms were prepared was Bengali, Hindi, or Urdu, and the character respectively Bengali, Nagari, or Persian, determined in part by the prevailing language and character of the district where they were to be used, and in part by the attainments of the class of persons in each district who offered their services to me. In the Bengal districts Bengali was chiefly used, but in the city of Moorshedabad I found it necessary to have recourse partially to the Urdu language and Persian character. In South Behar I deemed it advisable to employ the Hindi language and the Nagari character, and in Tirhoot the Urdu language and the Persian character. I believe that in the latter districts I should have experienced fewer difficulties if I had adopted both the Persian language and character, for those of my agents who were acquainted with Hindi only, although very steady and industrious, were peculiarly obtuse and unintelligent, and those who understood Persian were continually diverging into the use of that language in their weekly reports of work done, although this was contrary to my express injunctions.
The forms I prepared were adapted to ascertain—first, the state of school-instruction; and second, the state of domestic and adult instruction. For the former purpose a separate form was employed for each description of school, one for Bengali or Hindi schools, another for Sanskrit schools, a third for Persian and Arabic schools, &c., each embracing with modifications the following details, viz., the name of the town or village in which the school was situated; the description of place employed as a school-house; the name, religion, caste, and age of the teacher; the sources and amount of his receipts; the extent of his instructions; the number of his scholars, present and absent; their religion and caste; the age at which each had entered school, his present age, the probable age
