122 BENGALI LITERATURE correspondence between their qualifications and their duties” The Minute then declares that “A College is hereby founded at Fort William in Bengal for the better instruction of the Junior Civil Servants of the Company.” The institution was projected on a seale of magnificence which marked all the plans of Lord Wellesley, but under the pressure of the authorities at home, who were deadly opposed to the institution and without whose sanction and acquiescence it had been set up, the College was continued on a reduced scale. ! The range of studies marked out for the students in the College was very extensive The range of studies; and one of its most striking features নিহত was its orientalism. The curriculum, subsequently modified, was intended to include in its grand scale “Arabic, Persian, Sanskrit, Hindusthani, Bengali, Telegu, Mahratti, Tamil, Kanara”, besides ‘Laws and Regulations, Political Economy, Modern Languages, Greek, Latin, English Classics, General. History ancient and modern, History of India, Natural History, Botany, Chemistry and Astronomy” !? The College was patronised by the Governor-General himself, his colleagues, and the Judges of the Supreme Court ; for it was considered to be one of the most important insti- tutions of the State and the senior members of the Government were required in virtue of their office to take a share in its management. Public disputations in Public disputations in oriental langu- oriental languages. ages were held annually in the grand edifice which Wellesley had erected, in an august assembly, composed of men of high rank.
- The College continued till 1854; but since the foundation of School
Book Society and Hindu College in 1817, its importance was overshadowed and diminished.
- Roebuck, op. cit. p. xvii.
