been disregarded even long before the enactment, above quoted, was passed. Mr. Hastings founded the Madrissa, or Mohomedan College in Calcutta in the year 1780, and in 1794, at the recommendation of Mr. Duncan, a College was endowed at Benares for the cultivation of Hindoo literature. But in the year 1811, the decay of science and literature among the natives of India, became the subject of the peculiar consideration of the government, and it was then resolved to found two new Hindoo Colleges in the districts of Nuddeah and Tirhoot, for the expenses of which it was designed to allot the annual sum of 25,000 Rupees. Various difficulties, however, having obstructed the execution of this intention, it was ultimately abandoned and a different plan adopted.
Provincial seminaries of this description did not, on more mature enquiry, promise those general and extensive advantages which were contemplated in their establishment, and the Government was satisfied that its views could be best accomplished by the formation of a Collegiate Establishment at the Presidency, the principal object of which should be the cultivation of the Sanscrit
