out was, that it was the shortest way for getting at the people—that English education was to prepare for Vernacular. Thirty years have elapsed since these promises were held out. Mr. Adam was appointed by Lord W. Bentinck as Commissioner to enquire into Vernacular Education in Bengal, His reports were shelved, and so was the subject until lately. These reports have been a long time out of print, and contain much valuable information bearing on the present question. In 1861, the Bengal Government accepted my offer to edit a selection from, or digest of, the most useful portions of them; but ill-health soon after forced me to England. On my return I saw there was not sufficient interest taken by the authorities in the subject of Vernacular Education to induce me to enter on the work.
“But now that the question of the extension of Vernacular Education has been re-opened, I believe a selection from those reports would be of use; and if my services in editing them were required, I would gladly undertake it for the Government of India. The subjects discussed, and information given, might be suggestive of Vernacular Education in other Presidencies, and might be printed in the Selections of the Government of India.”
Adam, in his Report, dwells on the importance not only of Vernacular but also of Oriental Education, which must be the fountain for polishing the Vernacular, making English ideas to be clothed in an oriental garb suitable to the people. He gives interesting details of the studies, writings and influence of the Pundits and classes acquainted with Sanskrit or Arabic; since then, great improvements have been made in the Benares Sanskrit College, while the Sanskrit College in Calcutta has been re-modelled, has produced, and is producing, a class pf able teachers of Sanskrit and the Vernacular, as well as supplying clever translators. The interest in Oriental Education is on the increase: and, in 1867, Dr. Smith, of Serampore, submitted a proposition to the Syndicate of the Calcutta University on the subject of Oriental Education. The following are the leading points:—
From G. Smith, Esquire, to J. Sutcliffe, Esquire, Registrar of the University of Calcutta,—Dated Serampore, the 29th November 1867.
“It seems to me that the time has come for the Indian University system to assimilate to itself, and so to elevate and impregnate with the results of Western thought, the purely Oriental learning and Vernacular Education of India. That system is based exclusively on the constitution and practice of the London University, and ignores almost all that is not English in form and substance.
“It will certainly be admitted, at least, that the time has come to ask the question, whether the course of Education in India in the last third of a century has not been too exclusively English in its character.
“The people themselves feel this want, and in the past few years more than one demand has been made upon Government for its satisfaction. The movement which is known as that of the Lahore or Punjab University is well known to the Senate. Of its earnestness and importance I satisfied myself when at Lahore at the end of last year, and Major Lees will testify to both with an authority I cannot presume to claim. Solely from the impossibility, or unwillingness of our University to assist, elevate or incorporate that movement, it has drifted into what looks very like ultimate failure. The opinions of His Excellency the Chancellor and of Sir Donald MacLeod in favor of that movement have been widely published. Both have given it warm personal and official support. Then there has been, more recently, the similar application of the
