of Hindu ladies, and pointed out the desirability, nay, the urgent necessity, of giving the girls a decent education. The appeal was responded to by the European ladies belonging to Messrs Lawson and Pearce’s Seminary, who, after mature deliberation, formed the “Female Juvenile Society,” with the object of placing within the reach of their Hindu sisters the blessings of education. The members of the Female Juvenile Society, with the assistance of Raja Radhakanta Deb, established many girls’ schools in Calcutta, and at their instance the British and Foreign School Society sent Miss Cooke, a lady of great attainments, to India, with the idea that she might take the lead in this new and difficult undertaking. She arrived here in November 1821, but unfortunately she had at first to meet with a rebuff. The School Society, now torn by factions, refused to support her, and she would probably have had to return home had not the Church Missionary Society in Calcutta received her with open arms, and promised to pay all her charges. Under this society she began in earnest her work among the benighted women of our country. In a short time ten schools were opened in Calcutta alone, and the number of girls attending them was 277. Miss Cooke soon became Mrs Wilson, and though in this changed position she could not devote so much time as before to the work for which she had left home and its dear associations, yet she remained as zealous a worker as ever.
Immediately after Miss Cooke’s marriage some of the English ladies of Calcutta, under the auspices of Lady Amherst, established the “Bengal Ladies’ Society,” with the intention of forwarding the cause of female education in India. The society went on establishing schools in different places. It laid the foundation of a very large schoolhouse in the centre of Calcutta. Besides that
