on these points; and at last both the English and their subjects arrived at the conclusion that radical reforms were essential.
The local English authorities before this had carefully avoided introducing the least change in the administration of the country. They had first entrusted intelligent Indians with the responsible duty of collecting the revenue. But these men soon betrayed the trust by robbing the ryot right and left; and it was found necessary to abolish the posts they filled. These revenue collectors were called Naibs or Dewans; and two of them, Govinda Ram and Ganga Gobindo Singh, who were respectively the Dewans of Clive and Hastings, are notorious in history as speculators of the first class. There were several others of the same stamp; and Government thought it best to do away with them all. Their conduct had served so much to disgrace the native character, that Lord Cornwallis, on taking into his hands the reins of government, dismissed the Hindus and the Muhammadans from all responsible posts, and appointed Europeans in their stead.
The English Government had at first, as we have already said, a predilection for Oriental learning. It did much for the culture of Sanskrit, Persian, and Arabic, while English was carefully excluded. But circumstances soon made it necessary for the Government to act otherwise, and to give the natives of India means of obtaining some insight into the treasures of literature and science amassed by the Western intellect. And in this way a new epoch in the intellectual history of Bengal, if not in that of all India, was inaugurated — an epoch rendered especially illustrious by its association with such men as Bentinck, Macaulay and Raja Rammohan Roy. The last of these three not only drew Lord Amherst’s attention to the expediency of giving English education to the people of India, but also
