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 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO
 
 LlBRARV 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF \ 
 
 SAN OlEGO J
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN DIEGO 
 
 3 1822 02399 6671
 
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 ^/^^2± 
 
 SPEECHES 
 
 BY 
 
 KAJA EAJENDRALALA MITEA, L.L.D.,C.I.E. 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 RAJ JOGESHUR MITTER 
 
 EDITOR OF THE SPEECHES OP SIE STETJABT BATLET, K. C. S, I., MB. GEORGE TTJLE AND 
 BABOO SURENDRA NATH BANEEJEA. 
 
 CALCUTTA : 
 MESSRS S. K. LAHIRI & CO., 
 
 BOOK-SELLERS AND PUBLISHERS. 
 
 5Jf, College Street. 
 1892. 
 
 (All Eights Re^rved.) 
 
 i
 
 New Town Press, Ehowanipore.
 
 THIS BOOK 
 
 IS 
 
 MOST KESPECTFULLY DEDICATED 
 
 TO THE 
 
 SACRED MEMORY 
 
 OF LATE 
 
 WHO WAS CUT AWAY AT THE PRIME OP LIFE, WHOSE UNOSTENTATIOUS 
 
 HABITS, SIMPLICITY OF MANNERS, EXEMPLARY CHARACTER, 
 
 PUBLIC SPIRIT, MORAL RECTITUDE AND OTHER NOBLE 
 
 QUALITIES OP HEAD AND HEART HAD WON 
 
 FOR HIM THE GOLDEN OPINION OP 
 
 ALL HIS COUNTRYMEN AND WHO 
 
 HAS LEFT BEHIND HIM A 
 
 LARGE CIRCLE OP FRIENDS 
 
 AND ADMIRERS TO 
 
 MOURN HIS 
 
 LOSS 
 
 AS A TOKEN 
 
 OP 
 
 THE EDITORS PERSONAL REGARD AND AFFECTION
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 No one holds up a candle light to show the midday 
 sun. The speeches of Raja Rajendralala Mitra are their 
 own recommendation and require no pufF to commend 
 them to the notice of the public. The profundity of 
 erudition, the breadth of views, the encyclopediac 
 character of knowledge which Raja Rajendralala 
 Mitra brought to bear on his public utterances are 
 rare in these days of cram and shallowness. And what 
 will strike the reader most is the mark of originality and 
 individuality which Raja Rajendralala has left in every 
 branch of theoretical speculation and practical business. 
 His was the rare knack of calling a spade a spade, 
 and of subordinating the will of others to that of his 
 own. He was an intellectual pugilist whose pleasure 
 was in vanquishing an opponent and floating against 
 the stream. But at the same time there was neither 
 brag nor bluster, nor that spirit of braggadacio which 
 emanates from vanity, that sure index of inanity. He 
 would give praise to whom praise was due and gladly 
 sympathize with and support any project which had 
 for its object the well-being of society, encourage- 
 ment of learning, or improvement in the condition of 
 the masses of the people, irrespective of the quarter 
 from which it emanated. But for vanity and plans of 
 self-aggrandisement he had nothing but a long whip 
 to crack. Vapouring politicians, budding orators, half
 
 ( n ) 
 
 unfledged reformers, charlatans and quacks, who consi- 
 dered their own nostrum to be the one universal panacea 
 for all the ills " that flesh is heir to," found in him an 
 enemy of uncompromising character, with whom their 
 talents were ill-fitted to cope. He was a hater of sham, 
 and was the last man to allow himself to be hood- 
 winked by dissimulation or prevailed upon to deflect 
 from the path^f rectitude either by cajolery or flattery. 
 That the speeches of such a man will be read with 
 pleasure and profit by the rising generation I have no 
 doubt. His utterances, as embodied in the following 
 speeches^ embrace topics of a varied character and ought 
 to be held as a model of composition. The students 
 of politics will do well to master and ponder over the 
 subject-matter of these speeches, and the mode of 
 their handling. And it will not be too much to say 
 that they will, for a long to come, act as a beacon and 
 a light to the youthful aspirants after Literary fame. 
 In the present compilation will be found almost all the 
 important speeches of Raja Rajendralala delivered at 
 the British Indian Association — the first and foremost 
 Political Association in Bengal. They will therefore 
 prove a mine of information on various topics, politi- 
 cal and educational, which engrossed the attention 
 both of Government and public for a period of nearly 
 thirty years ; and as most of these topics have yet to 
 be satisfactorily disposed of, the public will no doubt 
 study them with advantage. The utterances of Raja 
 Rajendralala at the Asiatic Society have been omitted 
 as they are of a specific and technical character and 
 may not on that account prove interesting to the gen-
 
 ( iii ) 
 
 eral reader. It was originally intended to include in 
 the present compilation all the important notes of the 
 Raja on matters, social and educational, but as it has ex- 
 ceeded its proposed limits, I have satisfied myself with 
 including a very few of the most important and inter- 
 esting among them. If the present compilation finds 
 favor with the public, I shall ere long bring out the 
 rest of his speeches and minutes. 
 
 In conclusion I beg to acknowledge with thanks 
 the valuable assistance which Kumar Ramendralala 
 Mitra, the eldest son of the Raja, has rendered me in 
 this compilation. 
 
 Calcutta, 
 SOtli January 1892 
 
 .} 
 
 RAJ JOGESHUR MITTER.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Page. 
 A Vote of Tha.nks to Sir Cecil Beadon ... 1 
 
 A Vote of Addeess to Lord Halifax . , . . 5 
 Kaja Sir Raphakant Bahadoor Memorial Meeting . 10 
 
 Vernacular Education 15 
 
 The Hon'ble Prosunno Coomar Tagore Memorial 
 
 Meeting 22 
 
 The Education Question 28 
 
 The Permanent Settlement Question . . . .36 
 Lord Northbrook Memorial Meeting . . . . 44 
 Inauguration of the Hurrish Ch under Mookerjee's 
 
 Library 50 
 
 The Twenty-fourth Annual Meeting of the British 
 
 Indian Association 58 
 
 A Vote of Thanks to Sir John Budd Phear . . . 62 
 The Indian Civil Service Examination . . . .68 
 The Disestablishment of the Church in India , . 72 
 The Twenty-fifth Annual Meeting of the British 
 
 Indian Association 80 
 
 Maharaja Roma Nath Tagore Memorial Meeting . . 84 
 The Hon'ble Dr. Sircar and the Faculty of Medicine 90 
 The Doorga Pooja Holiday Question .... 101 
 
 The Parsis of Bombay 104 
 
 Dr. H(ernle's Appointment and Romanization . . 136 
 The EDUCAnoN Commission, etc. . .... 141 
 
 The Bengal Tenancy Bill 151 
 
 The Ilbert Bill, etc 164 
 
 Amalgamation of the Calcutta and Suburban Munici- 
 palities 174 
 
 Adulteration of Ghee, etc 182 
 
 The Queen's Jubilee 188 
 
 The Second National Congress 192 
 
 The Hindu Marriage Question 201 
 
 The Thirty-seventh Annual Meeting of the British 
 
 Indian Association 208 
 
 Isolation of Lepers . . . . . . .212 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Report of the Entrance Examination Committee . i 
 The Age of Consent Bill ix
 
 A VOTE OF THANKS TO SIR CECIL BEADON. 
 
 In accordance with a requisition of the British Indian ^550- 
 ciation, a public meeting of the Native Inhabitants of the Ben- 
 gal Presidency was held at the Hall of the Association on 
 February 1st, 1864, at 4 P. M., for the purpose of taking into 
 consideration the propriety of testifying' to Sir Cecil Beadon, 
 the then Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, their sense of apprecia- 
 tion of his earnest desire and active endeavours to improve 
 the agriculture and cattle of Bengal by instituting an Agricul- 
 tural Exhibition in this country. 
 
 Raja (then Baboo) Rajendralala Mittra in supporting the first 
 ^^;eau^ution said that after the eloquent address of his friend Baboo 
 Ramgopaul Ghose, he did not wish to take up the time of the meet- 
 ing with a long speech ; he would confine himself therefore to a 
 few words in support of the Resolution that was under consider- 
 ation. It was one, however, that pleaded its own cause so 
 ably that it needed no advocacy from him. You have all, he 
 continued, seen and admired the Agricultural Exhibition of 
 Alipore and cannot be unconscious of the duty you owe to the 
 good and great man whose active endeavours to promote the 
 prosperity of this country by exciting a spirit of emulation and 
 enterprise has ' borne such happy fruit. The Exhibition, Sir, 
 has proved an eminent success. It has not only brought to- 
 gether from all parts of the country specimens of our agricul- 
 tural produce, it has not only shewn us our resources as well as 
 our wants, but it has also suggested the means of removing the 
 latter. You must have all noticed that our greatest weakness 
 lies in our dwarfed, degenerate, poverty-striken cattle. The sight 
 of them along the banks of our noble rivers, is always a sight 
 of woe. I have often traversed the net-work of mighty streams 
 which intersect the Gangetic delta, and observed with sorroAv 
 the miserable herds which presented to my view. It is not
 
 2 A Vote of Thanks to Sir Cecil Beadon. 
 
 remarkable, therefore, that they should have suggested the neces- 
 sity of measures for their amelioration. The subject is one of 
 vital importance to people engaged in agricultural pursuits. 
 Hence it is that two gentlemen of great practical experience 
 have come forward to claim the merit of first drawing public 
 attention to it, and suggesting the Agricultural Exhibition. 
 It was not for him, the Baboo said, to decide to whom of right 
 belongs the credit, but this much he would observe that more 
 than thirty years ago the gradual degeneracy of the Bengal 
 cattle was a subject of frequent remark, and it suggested to the 
 Agricultural and Horticultural Society of India, in the days of 
 its glory, the desirableness of offering premia for well-grown 
 cows and bullocks. The exhibitions which this led to were gen- 
 erally successful. They brought together large numbers of cattle 
 from different parts of the country, and many well grown Alder- 
 neys and Herfords from the farms of Brigadier Frith and other 
 gentlemen in the neighbourhood of Calcutta. But decadence, 
 like the cholera, was sometimes infectious. The Agricultural 
 Society caught the infection from the cattle, and has since be- 
 come a huge sham — an expensive establishment only for the 
 growth of roses and tulips, but worthless as an agency for im- 
 proving the cattle of this country (hear, hear). A new machin- 
 ery was therefore necessary and " he hailed he said" in the Ex- 
 hibition which had just closed — the precursor of many such — 
 the means of improvement. Nor was improvement impracti- 
 cable or even difficult. Cross-breeding in England had raised 
 from the heavy cart horse of the country the noble racer. The 
 same means in India had produced the magnificent teams which 
 we see yoked to our Commissariat carts and heavy artillery ; 
 such of you gentlemen, as wish to see the like in your fields 
 have only to send a Hurrianna or a Hissar bull to your Pur- 
 gunnah at a cost of two or three hundred rupees, and in ten years 
 your estates will abound in big, bony, powerful cattle, equally 
 productive in the field and the dairy (hear, hear). Turning 
 from the bovine to the equine race, you all must feel the neces-
 
 A Vote of Thanks to Sir Cecil Beadon. % 
 
 sity of improving our Keranchi tattoos. Nothing could be more 
 miserable to look at, or worthless for purposes of draft or the 
 saddle. The beautiful colts exhibited by the Government of 
 India, must have given you an idea of what may be done by 
 judicious cross-breeding. The soil of Bengal is not opposed to 
 the growth of good horses. We have land enough, and pasture 
 enough and if we had but heart enough, for the purpose, we 
 could at no distant day export instead of importing horse-flesh. 
 Our sheep too, the Baboo continued, demand our attention. 
 Eighty years ago, there was not a single sheep in Australia. 
 English settlers were the first to bring a few of them there, and 
 now the export trade in wool of the Southern continent amounts 
 to two crores of rupees a year. In many parts of India we 
 have splendid fields for sheep, and we have only to import good 
 stock to enjoy a like return. Adverting to the implements of 
 husbandry, he said, they were of the most primitive kind and 
 rec(.uired to be everywhere improved and altered, but he would 
 not detain his audience with any remarks on the subject after 
 the glowing description, his friend Baboo Ramgopaul Ghose had 
 given of the wonders of the English machinery lately exhibited 
 at Alipore. You all must be well aware, he continued, of 
 the importance of agriculture in this country. India has no rich 
 productive gold mines, nor has it any of silver ; our iron mines 
 are as yet scarcely able to supply the wants of the districts 
 where they exist, and our diamond mines have ceased to be pro- 
 ductive. Our manufacturing resources are equally poor, and 
 the looms which once clothed the Caesars of Rome are now re- 
 placed by howling deserts, the abodes of tigers. But our fields 
 are our mines and our manufactures ; they are our Golconda ; 
 they are our Australia and California ; they are our Newcastle 
 and Manchester (repeated cheers). That they are so I can prove 
 to you by a single fact. The greatest yield of gold in Australia 
 has seldom exceeded eight crores of Rupees in value, but here 
 we hope in course of the current year to clear no less than forty 
 crores by a single article, and that article is cotton. Thus our
 
 4 A Vote of Thanks to Sir Cecil Beadon. 
 
 cotton is five times superior to gold. Our oil seeds, our fibres, 
 our indigo, our rice and our silks are, if not equally still, highly 
 productive, and the man who helps to improve their quality and 
 their quantity deserves better of us than he who will give us 
 half a dozen gold mines. Such a man, gentlemen, is the Hon'ble 
 Cecil Beadon. He has evinced by his earnest endeavours to im- 
 prove the agriculture and cattle of Bengal ; the deep interest 
 he takes in the material well-being of the teeming millions placed 
 under his rule. To him therefore our warmest acknowledgments 
 are eminently due. So are they to Mr. Grote, the learned Pre- 
 sident, and the other members of the Executive Committee who 
 have so ably and zealously responded to the call of our Lieute- 
 nant-Governor to ensure success to the great work. The Resolu- 
 tion proposed, therefore, is in every way worthy of your appro- 
 bation, and I doubt not you will adopt it with acclamation. 
 There is one thing however to which I wish to allude before I 
 conclude ; it is the gratification I feel to notice the intelligent 
 interest that my countrymen have evinced towards this Exhibi- 
 tion. District after district has sent handsome contributions 
 to promote its object, and some of the noblest of the land have 
 come forward to compete for prizes. It has often been said by 
 our enemies that the natives of this country, blinded by social 
 distinctions and caste prejudices, know not how to appreciate 
 the value of agriculture. Had such been the case we would not 
 have seen thousands over thousands of respectable men coming 
 down from various parts of India to behold their own agricul- 
 tural produce, or the gratifying sight of men like the Nawab 
 Nazim of Bengal, the Maharaja of Vizianagram, Raja Deonarain 
 Sing and Rajah Protab Chunder Sing, coming forward to exhi- 
 bit bullocks and rice, and cotton, and chillies. The spirit of these 
 men pervades the minds of many of our intelligent Zemindars, 
 and I have no doubt that future Exhibitions will bring them 
 forward and help largely to develop the resouces of my native 
 land.
 
 A VOTE OF ADDRESS TO LORD HALIFAX. 
 
 The Committee of the British Indian Association convened a 
 public meeting of the Native Inhabitants of the Bengal Presi- 
 dency at the Hall of the Association on Saturday the 21st 
 April 1866 at 4 p. m., for the purpose of expressing their 
 regret at the resignation of the\Right Hon' hie Viscount Hali- 
 fax of the Office of Secretary of State and of recording their 
 high sense of appreciation of and admiration for his wise, 
 impartial and beneficent administration of India. 
 
 Raja (then Baboo) Rajendralala Mittra in supporting the first 
 Resolution said : He had been asked to say a few words on the 
 subject of the Resolution which had been proposed and seconded, 
 and he readily complied with the wish of his friends, as it was a 
 great pleasure to him to take a part in the business of the day, 
 and as the task assigned him was by no means a difficult one. 
 The Resolution spoke so well for itself, and it had been so well 
 supported by the eloquent speech of the mover that it needed 
 no advocacy from him. It was one eminently worthy of his 
 countrymen and of the nobleman to whom they had assembled 
 to do honor. It indicated arduous and important duties most 
 faithfully and most ably performed on the one side, and a 
 high feeling of gratitude on the other. It has often been said, 
 he continued, that our addresses are not the genuine outpour- 
 ings of our heart, but that they are the result of official dread 
 and influence, or of favouring sycophancy ; and it is not to be 
 denied, however offensive it may be, countrymen, to your sense 
 of self-respect, that such has sometimes been the case. It is not 
 to be denied that eighty years ago when some men of the last 
 generation gave addresses to that infamous governor and bad 
 man, the late Warren Hastings, they acted in the hands of 
 intriguers and thought not at all of justice, propriety of self- 
 respect. When those addresses were brought to the notice of
 
 6 A Vote of Address to Lord Halifax. 
 
 Mr. Briike, he very aptly observed that such was the dread 
 excited iu the minds of the people of India by the name of Mr. 
 Hastings that they would 'subscribe to any thing to get rid of 
 him from their country. Nor do I remember to have read a 
 finer or more pointed reply than that of the gifted Orator to those 
 who wanted to prove that Hastings was loved by the people of 
 Bengal, because they had dedicated a temple to him at Benares. 
 He said that he knew something of the mythology of the Brah- 
 mins. He knew that as they worshipped some gods from love, 
 so they worshipped others from fear. He knew that they erect- 
 ed shrines not only to the benignant deities of light and plenty, 
 but also to the friends, who preside over smallpox and murder. 
 Nor did he dispute the claim of Mr. Hastings to be admitted 
 into such a pantheon. And what was said of Hastings, may 
 be said of many others, for certain it is that several who have re- 
 ceived addresses in later times, had no better claims than the 
 despoiler of the Begums of Oadh to a niche in the temple of na- 
 tive opinion. It is notorious that some addresses have been 
 given from the most nefarious motives, and others from a psy- 
 chological weakness commonly known by the name of " eye- 
 shame." One peculiarity however characterized all those ad- 
 dresses ; they were never allowed to see the light until they had 
 done their duty. They were prompted in private, got up in 
 private, and presented in private. But, gentlemen, the Resolu- 
 tion which has been proposed has nothing of that private cha- 
 racters about it. Here we are assembled publicly, after repeated 
 advertisements in the public papers, to discuss openly and publicly 
 the propriety of recording it. I say, we are assembled, coun- 
 trymen, men of all ranks and stations in life, the young, the 
 old, and the middle-aged, by one common and spontaneous im- 
 pulse, to take our part in a public manifestation of our respect 
 and gratitude, and I challenge contradictions. Let those who 
 differ from the sentiments expressed in the Resolution, come 
 forward and give the reason for the difference, and I warrant 
 them every consideration. Let them but shew that the Resolu-
 
 A Vote of Adih'ess to Lord Halifax, 7 
 
 tion is undeserved,"and we are ready to reject it. But perliaps 
 this protestation is not called for. The career of the British 
 Indian Association for the last fourteen years is an ani[)le guar- 
 antee that this meeting has not heeii convened with any sinister 
 motive, and I am satisfied that from your personal knowledge 
 of the administrations of Sir Charles Wood you will most heart- 
 ily subscribe to the Resolution. Sir, our country has but recently 
 passed through a tremendous convulsion — a rising of malcon- 
 tent soldiers against constituted authority — a war of anarchy 
 against established Government. In that war some of the 
 worst passions of the human mind were brought into foul play. 
 The flood-gates of treason were thrown wide open, and crime 
 in all its enormity stalked through the land. On the one side 
 Nana Sahibs and Azimoollas and the other monsters of iniquity 
 hacked and murdered without distinction of age and sex, and on 
 the other the call for indiscriminate retribution was loud and 
 fearful. Then it was that Lord Canning stood forth as the 
 champion of Justice to punish the guilty, to spare the innocent, 
 and to reward the faithful, and by a wise policy of concilliation 
 and mercy suppressed the wide'spread Mutiny of 1857. A large 
 share of the credit of his success is due to Sir Charles Wood. On 
 him devolved the momentous duty of reconstructing the machi- 
 nery of Government and of restoring peace and order. How 
 ably and how successfully he achieved that work is testified by 
 the progress and prosperity that now smile on the land. He 
 knew us to be aliens in language, creed and color ; he had 
 never seen our country ; and not unoften heard us described by 
 our enemies ; but he rarely forgot our claims as men and as 
 children of the soil. He always remembered that if rebels and 
 mutineers numbered by thousands,' the faithful numbered by 
 millions, and he made a wise discrimination between the two 
 classes. In short he held strict and impartial justice to be his 
 guide, and he followed it steadfastly, swerving neither to the 
 right nor to the left. 
 
 Hence it is that he readily admitted the claims of the natives
 
 8 A Vote of Address to Lord Halifax. 
 
 to seats in the Imperial Legislature, and to his sense of justice 
 we owe the opportunity which enabled the late Sadagopa Char- 
 loo and my late lamented friend Baboo Roma Proshad E.oy to 
 shew what distinguished parts the Hindus can take in the act of 
 legislation. The time has not yet come when the full benefit of 
 the measure can be enjoyed by us, but the able advocacy of your 
 interest in the Bengal Council by my honor'ble friend opposite 
 (Baboo Degumber Mitter) is an earnest of what you may expect 
 if your representatives be judicially selected. The admission of 
 natives to the High Court of the different Presidencies is an- 
 other important measure of Sir Charles for which we are much 
 beholden to him. But there is one point in his character to 
 which I wish to draw your particular attention. Constituted as 
 the British Indian Government is, the greatest danger to which 
 we are liable is the likelihood of those who are at the helm of 
 the State to mistake the good of a few for the good of many, 
 and hence it is that it is of the most vital importance that we 
 should always impress upon our rulers that great principle of 
 Government — the greatest good of the greatest number. Sir 
 Charles never forgot it for a moment. 
 
 There is a knowledge that autocrats most dread, and subject 
 races most envy, but nations, whether subject or free, have all a 
 right, an indisputable and unalienable right to that knowledge ; 
 it is a knowledge of the character and conduct of their rulers. 
 Living under the benign rule of our Gracious Sovereign, 
 Queen Victoria, you have all exercised that right, and acting up 
 to your knowledge, often given free vent to your opinions and 
 feelings. I have myself exercised that right in my small and 
 humble way for the last five and twenty years, and I now place 
 the result of my observation of Sir Charles Wood's administra- 
 tion before you. It may be said that I am a servant of Govern- 
 ment and therefore not a disinterested witness. A servant — a 
 faithful servant — of Government 1 am, and am proud of it. 
 But I am not the less a citizen, and defy my worst enemies to say 
 that I have ever been wanting in an honest straightforward
 
 A Vote of Address to Lord Halifax, 9 
 
 expression of my opinion ; and I have no hesitation in assuring 
 you that you have had few rulers who have dealt with you more 
 honestly or more impartially. Countrymen, the respect and 
 admiration you cherish for a Bentinck and a Canning, are also 
 due to a Halifax, and you do well in thus openly expressing 
 them. Sir Charles is no longer at the head of the India House, 
 and the natives of this country have no longer any expectation 
 of good from him, except what he can render as a Member of 
 the Upper House. His career as an Indian Minister has ceased, 
 and we are now in a position to judge of his administration 
 without fear or favor, and we do but our duty in recording our 
 verdict. It is not my intention to take up your time or of those 
 who will follow me in addressing you, with a survey of the 
 different acts of his Government ; or to tell you of the justice, 
 liberality and wisdom, which characterise his measures regarding 
 the Permanent Settlement of the North West, the education of 
 the masses, the settlement of Oudh, the protection of the ryots, 
 the sale of Waste Land, the finances of the country and the 
 encouragement to commerce. You are familiar with them all, 
 and I have only, therefore, to invite you to accord to the Resolu- 
 tion your hearty support and thereby testify the high praise 
 which is due to the Viscount Halifax for his manifold services to 
 the people of this country.
 
 RAJA SIR RADHAKANT BAHADOOR MEMORIAL 
 MEETING. 
 
 Pursuant to advertisement, a public meeting of the friends and 
 admii'ei'S of the late Rajah Sir Radhakant Bahadoor took jylace 
 in the Hall of the British Indian Association on Tuesday the 
 14th May 1867 at 5 p. M. The meeting ivas attended by re- 
 presentatives of all classes of the community- 
 
 Raja (then Baboo) Eajendrakla Mittra in seconding the first 
 Resolution said : Yf hen I consider how well the Resolution of 
 the day speaks for itself, how congenial it is to your feelings, 
 and how eloquently and appropriately it has been set before you 
 by my learned and respected friend, the mover, I feel that I 
 need say nothing to recommend it to you. There are few in 
 this hall who knev/ not the venerable Raja to mourn whose death 
 we have here asssmbled, and who knovv'ing would deny that we 
 do well thus publicly to give expression to our high sense of the 
 services rendered by him to our country. It is right that we 
 should so meet, and it is proper that we should extol the virtues 
 of those who have done well by us. Respect for the dead has 
 been a characteristic of man in all ages and in every state of 
 society, and it is eminently due to those who have been bene- 
 factors to their race. It is a tribute to worth which it should be 
 our pride, as it is our duty to pay. Even in an utilitarian — a 
 low utilitarian — cense it is of use, for it does more good to the 
 living than it can possibly do to those v/ho have passed away 
 from among us. The memory of Raja Radhakant has high 
 claims to this tribute. Several of you, gentlemen, and foremost 
 of all you, Mr. Chairman, can, from your earlier and more inti- 
 mate acquaintance with the late Raja, speak more fully on those 
 claims, than I can, but I cannot forget that even I had the pri- 
 vilege of his friendship for more than five and twenty years, and 
 1 have not been a careless observer of his brilliant career.
 
 Maja'Sir Radhakanf Bahadoor Memorial Meeting. 11 
 
 Of the early history of the Eaja I know not mnch, and all 
 that I could say on the subject has been already anticipated by 
 Baboo Romanauth Tagore. At the time when Raja Radhakant 
 was a boy, school education was held unbecoming the rank of 
 the higher classes of the people, and there was no school in exis- 
 tence, save a few patshalas of the most primitive type ; but the 
 worthy father of the Raja had seen enough of Englishmen to 
 be able fully to appreciate the advantage of schools, and he over- 
 came the difficulty in his way by sending his sou to an English 
 Academy. Provision was at the same time made at home for 
 his tuition in Arabic, Persian and the vernaculars, and nothing 
 was wanting to secure for him an education befitting his high 
 position in life. Nor was he unworthy of the care that was 
 taken for him. Active, intelligent, well disposed, and of reten- 
 tive memory, he devoted himself most earnestly to his books, 
 and benefitted lai-gely from the training he received from his 
 tutors. The advantage he derived at Mr. Cumming's Academy 
 impressed on him the importance of school education over that 
 given at home, and he devoted his life strenuously and zealously 
 to encourage the diffusion of schools on the English model over 
 the country. It v/as quite unusual in those days for sons of Rajas 
 and men of rank to accept office, but Radhakant was deterred 
 by no such consideraticu. He became the Secretary of the 
 School Society — an institution projected by the late David Hare 
 to promote the education of the people through the medium of 
 public schools. In this capacity he laboured hard and effected 
 many radical changes in our system of popular education. He 
 had several schools placed under him ; hq visited them often ; 
 did much to extend the sphere of their Visefulness, and compiled 
 Primers and Readers, for the use of the pupils — the first of the 
 kind in our language. He took an important part also in found- 
 ing the Hindu College of which he was an active and most pains- 
 taking Governor for the long period of four and thirty years. 
 On his retirement from the office the General Committee of Pub- 
 lic Instruction recorded a resolution expressive of its high sense
 
 12 Raja Sir Radhahant Bahadoor Memorial Meeting. 
 
 of his services to the cause of native education. Nor did he con- 
 fine his attention to the education of the boys only ; the intel- 
 lectual condition of the females of the country early attracted 
 his notice, and, in the language of the late Hon'ble Mr. Bethune, 
 to him belongs the credit of being the first native of India "who 
 in modern times, has pointed out the folly and wickedness of 
 allowing women to grow up in utter ignorance." In his house 
 was seen for the first time in the history of this country the 
 happy sight of the pupils of girls' schools assembled to receive 
 prizes for successful prosecution of their studies. In this res- 
 pect he brought about a consummation for which he deserves 
 our highest praise. Again, as a leader and representative of the 
 Hindu community he commanded the respect of all his country- 
 men by his moderation, his urbanity and the thorough recti- 
 tude of his character. As the President of the British Indian 
 Assaciation he will be long remembered for his earnestness and 
 zeal for the good of the community at large. He was the 
 chairman of every public meeting, and foremost in every move- 
 ment for the social, moral, and political amelioration of our race. 
 He may not have been all that some so-called reformers of our 
 day could wish. He may have placed himself in opposition to 
 many of them. A Hindu brought up in the faith of his ancestors 
 he may have set his face against infantile and juvenile conver- 
 sions ; he certainly objected to the slaughter of the cow, and 
 strongly reprobated licentious indulgence in spirituous liquors, 
 which to many appear as the stepping stone to reformation. But, 
 Sir, he never offered opposition to any measure of real usefulness ; 
 and had nothing of the bigotry of a partizan. He was no enemy 
 to real reformers. He found no fault with those who dissected 
 the human "body in the Medical College. He subscribed as freely 
 to the fund for sending native youths to England to prosecute 
 their studies in medicine as for any orthodox undertaking. In 
 this respect he has set us a noble example and I cannot but ac- 
 cord to him the highest praise for the moderation with which he 
 exercised the unlimited influence which he had over Hindu
 
 Raja Sir Radhahant JBahadoor Memorial Meeting, 13 
 
 Society. He would not — and what right-minded man would ? 
 — surrender the liberty of his conscience to others ; but he hud 
 nothing of the character of those who — themselves an insigni- 
 ficant minority — would, in the fullness of their own liberty 
 ride rough-shod over the conscience of a whole race. 1 can 
 fully appreciate — I yield to none in a proper appreciation of — 
 liberality of sentiment ; but I cannot understand the liberality 
 of those who in the fervour of their own liberality would be the 
 most intolerant of oppressors to those who may happen to differ 
 from them in opinion. Raja Radhakant, though a thorough or- 
 thodox Hindu, was none of them ; and I have no doubt you will 
 all agree with me that he was as tolerant 'a Hindu gentleman as 
 he well could be. On his strict honesty, perfect sincerity, and 
 thorough uprightness I could dwell for hours, but you know 
 them as well as I do. As a man of fascinating and popular 
 manners he had no equal, and justly did Sir Lawrence Peel, Chief 
 Justice of the late Supreme Court, say that " he was a pattern of 
 gentlemanliness which we would all do well to imitate." But I 
 must now pass on to say a few words on his scholarship. It; is 
 a matter of regret that Sanskrit learning is not held in sufficient 
 estimation in our day, and Raja Radhakant's services in the case 
 of the ancient classics of our country may not, therefore, be 
 duly appreciated by many ; but as an humble labourer in the 
 field of Indian literature I beg to assure you, gentlemen, that 
 those services are of the highest order. The Raja was no 
 genius — no gifted man. Scholarship did not come to him of its 
 own accord. He could not say " he lisped in numbers for the 
 numbers came." No more for him than for others was there a 
 royal road to knowledge. He had to work his way like any 
 other man. He was born in wealth and affluence, but he did not 
 like others in his circumstances spend his time and wealth in ease 
 and enjoyment ; he adopted the hard life of a scholar, and de- 
 voted a whole lifetime to the cultivation of our ancient litera- 
 ture. It was by dint of unremitting labour of years — of 
 protracted labour of forty long years, — that he produced the
 
 14 Raja Sir Radhakant Bahadoor Memorial Meeting. 
 
 great work of his life the Sahdakulpadrama which has been the 
 theme of praise to all who have .leen it. Bat Sir, you need not 
 accept my assurance on trust. Those who are best able to weigh 
 the importance of literary productions, who are the great guard- 
 ians of the republic of letters and who bestow praise with the 
 greatest discrimination, I mean the learned societies of Europe, . 
 were the first to recognise the merits of the Raja's lexicon, and 
 not slow in giving expression to their sense of its value. The 
 Imperial Academy of St. Petersburgh, the Royal Academy of 
 Berlin, the Kaiserlichen Academy of Vienna, the Royal Asiatic 
 Society of Great Britain, the Oriental Societies of Germany and 
 America, the Asiatic Society of Paris, and the Royal Society of 
 Northern antiquities, sent him diplomas of honorary or cor- 
 responding membership. Those are testimonies the value of 
 which can never be shaken. Again, princes in Europe impressed 
 by a high sense of the Raja's scholarship forwarded to him hand- 
 some tokens of their approbation. The late Czar of Russia and 
 the King Frederick VII. of Denmark sent him medals, and our 
 own gracious Sovereign conferred on him the jewel of Her Order 
 of the Exalted Star of India ; and these favors would never have 
 come had not the great cyclopasdia been worthy of them. Raja 
 Radhakant is now no more. He has died in the fulness of time 
 esteemed by kings and scholars, and respected by all who knew 
 him. But his work remains, and as long as the Sanskrit langu- 
 age will be cultivated, so long will it endure as a splendid re- 
 paratory of our ancient literature, and a noble monument of his 
 devotion to the cause of letters.
 
 VERNACULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 At the Sixteenth Annual General Meeting of the British Indian 
 Association which loas held in their own Hall on Thursday, 
 the 27th Fehruanj, 1868, Raja (then Baloo) Rajendralala 
 Alittra spoke as folloios on the subject of Vernacidar 
 Education : — 
 
 Raja (then Baboo) Rajendralala Mittra was glad that the 
 question of vernacular education had been mooted by his honor- 
 able friend Kumar Hurrendra Krishna. For five and thirty- 
 years it had, off and on, engaged public attention in India, and 
 given rise to many and very warm discussions ; and certain 
 movements showed that it was, in the opinion of some, still an 
 open question. On it satisfactory solution depended the intellectual 
 well-being of the whole Hindu nation, and as such it was a very 
 proper subject for the consideration of the British Indian Associ- 
 ation. As regards the Calcutta University, the question had 
 been disposed of, at least for a time, by the very sensible Resolu- 
 tien which had been adopted by the Syndicate with reference to 
 Mr. George Smith's proposition to affiliate purely Vernacular 
 Schools to the University, and bestow honorary degrees for high 
 Oriental Scholarship. But in the North- West it was still open, 
 and he (Baboo Rajendralala) was sorry that the members of the 
 British Indian Association of Allyghur had taken so mis- 
 taken a view of the subject. At first sight a purely vernacular 
 education has so many points of attraction, and such vast ad- 
 vantages to recommend itself over one through the medium of a 
 foreign tongue, that few can resist its influence. For the masses, 
 it was unquestionably the only medium through which the light 
 of knowledge could enter their minds. For those who had to 
 begin life and bufi'et the world for existence at a tender age, the 
 language they imbibe with their mother's milk is no doubt by
 
 16 Vernacular Education. 
 
 far the best vehicle for learning. Language was but the means 
 to an end, and not the end itself; and it is the merest truism to 
 say, the Baboo contimied, that that means is the cheapest and 
 best which is easiest acquired ; and as the vernacular is learned 
 when a child can learn nothing else, as it grows with his growth, 
 and matures with his age, it is certainly the cheapest instrument 
 for learning. All other circumstances being equal, the man who 
 uses it will for certain far excel him who has to devote ten long 
 years to acquire a foreign language. But the circumstances are 
 not in all cases equal. The average time which the lower orders 
 in Europe can devote to education is scarcely four years ; in 
 many places it is not even full three years. In India many 
 things conspire to render even three years too long a period for 
 study ; and our small farmers and artizans and ryots must, for a 
 long time to come, rest satisfied with a very short period. Within 
 that short period we must give them the elements of such know- 
 ledge as we can, and the medium must necessarily be the verna- 
 cular. But these classes and the subjects they can learn, can 
 have nothing to do with universities. Their concern is with 
 village schools and easy primers. Those who think of univer- 
 sities, think not of a curriculum of two or three years. They 
 have to make up their minds for a much longer and more ardu- 
 ous course of studies. In Europe, with the vernacular for the 
 medium of learning, none can think of presenting himself for 
 admission into a university before the fifteenth year of his life, 
 which implies a preliminary training of from 8 to 10 years at 
 least. It is true, that training includes the study of two ancient 
 languages, but no university education can be perfect which ex- 
 cludes from its curriculum the intellectual exercise derivable 
 from the study of the ancient classics. The Baboo did not deny 
 that theoretically it is possible to translate into any one verna- 
 cular language the whole literature of a richer one ; but the ques- 
 tion was not the translation of the science and literature of one 
 language into another, but the conversion of the whole English 
 scientific literature of the day into many scores of imperfect
 
 Vernacular Education. 17 
 
 langnages and half-formod dialects — into the Santal, the Cole, 
 the Bheel, and the Abor dialects as well as into the Bengali, the 
 Hindvi, the Uria, the Guzrati, and the .Dravidian languages. 
 Vast, no doubt, were the resources of the British Indian Govern- 
 ment, but even they would prove inadequate for such a purpose, 
 except in course of time, which must be measured not by years, 
 but by centuries. But supposing that this could be accomplished 
 within a reasonable time, and that Hamlet in Santali would bo 
 no burlesque, the result still would be unsatisfactory. The M. A. 
 versed in the Santal version of English books would be but a 
 miserable counterpart of his brother of the London University, 
 for there are advantages in the study of ancient and foreign 
 languages, which never can be secured by the aid of translations, 
 and no University education can be perfect which confines 
 itself to a single vernacular. One of the richest literatures ex- 
 tant on earth in the present day is the English ; but were the 
 Universities of England this day to confine themselves to Eng- 
 lish alone, their graduates would stand but a sorry comparison 
 with the scholars of France and Germany, and the civilization 
 of England would be thrown back by at least two centuries. 
 With the Indians, divided into many groups by differences of 
 language, religion, and social institutions, the case would be 
 infinitely worse. They can never acquire equal rank with Euro- 
 peans if they will not study, and that thorougly, at least one of 
 the three leading languages of Europe, the English, the French, 
 or the German ; and their civilization must remain of the lower 
 order. The Hindus pride themselves in being a highly intellec- 
 tual race : their ancestors were the pioneers of civilization in 
 India ; and the sciences, the literature, and the arts of the 
 ancient world owe their origin to them ; and if they are to main- 
 tain their pre-eminence, it is not by the lurid light of a few trans- 
 lated school books, but by the broad sunshine of European 
 literature in its integrity. They must drink deep at the foun- 
 tain head, and not satisfy themselves with an impure muddy 
 stream far away from its source. It is true the vernacnlarists of 
 
 3
 
 18 Vernacular Education. 
 
 the present day do not deny the necessity of reading English ; 
 they maintain that it should be learnt as a language only and 
 the sciences should be learnt through the medium of the verna- 
 cular. But their profession is not in keeping with their prayer, 
 for they demand a vernacular university where true science and 
 true history can be taught in the vernacular only. Admitting, 
 however, that they are not opposed to the study of English, it 
 is obvious that they do not wish to teach it to the extent that it 
 is now taught in Bengal ; and in so doing, they propose to 
 sacrifice the best interests of the people for a phantom. For 
 even if our literature were as rich as that of England, still our 
 political condition would render a thorough knowledge of the 
 English an absolute necessity. The greatest Moulavi, grey with 
 the accumulated treasures of a lifetime devoted to the study of 
 Arabic, the hoary sage who has got through the learned lore of 
 the Maha Bhashya and the hymns of the Rig Veda, the M. A. 
 in Hindvi, and the L. L. D. dn Ahom, will find their learning 
 stand in sorry stead for earning a living without a competent 
 knowledge of the English language. If we are, said the 
 Baboo, to eschew interpreters, and ourselves to represent our 
 wants and feelings, our grievances and prayers, to the rulers of 
 the country ; if it is an object that members of our community 
 should enter the Civil Service ; if it is an honorable ambition in 
 our young men to enter the Bar and hold their own against 
 Barristers from Inns of Courts ; if it is desirable that our medical 
 men should stand on even ground with their European brethren ; 
 if India is to produce her Arkwrights and Stephensons, we must 
 know EngHsh as thoroughly as Englishmen. As matters now 
 stand, the portals to all those objects have an only key, and that 
 is the " open sesame'' of the English tongue. Without it, we 
 must, even with all the letters of the English alphabet for our 
 titles, stand outside the arena of wealth, honour, and distinction. 
 M. A. and B. L. are good things in their way ; but fancy a B. L. 
 in Uria practising in the High Court of Calcutta I Would any 
 sane man hand him a brief, even if he offered his services gratis ?
 
 Vernacular Education. 19 
 
 You are all anxious to see your children appear at the competi- 
 tive examination for entering the Civil Service ; but can you 
 send them to England for the purpose, if you are not satisfied 
 that they are intellectually and by education equal to English 
 candidates ? Are the natives of this country ambitious of dis- 
 tinguishing themselves as Principal Sudder Ameens, Sudder 
 Ameens, Deputy Magistrates, Deputy Collectors, or Extra Assist- 
 ant Commissioners ? If they are, they must command a thorough 
 knowledge of the English language, or they can never rise in 
 the Service. True, some few have had the honour of a seat in 
 the Supreme Legislative Council without knowing English ; but 
 with rare exceptions, they proved there more ornamental than 
 useful; and for all practical purposes, their pictures there would 
 have stood in good stead. It may be all very well to descant 
 upon the Bengal system of education ; but that system has pro- 
 duced men fi.t for the Bench of the High Court, which the ver- 
 nacular system of the North-West has yet failed to do. They 
 say that our Bengal system tends to Anglicise us. If they mean 
 thereby that we learn to think like Englishmen, to act like Eng- 
 lishmen, to exert our best to import into our country all that is 
 good and great among Englishmen ; if they mean that we try 
 to make our civilization progressive like that of Englishmen ; 
 that we wish our countrymen should rise above the idols of 
 custom and prejudice ; that we long for the day when they should 
 rend assunder the bonds of ignorance and priest-craft, I plead 
 guilty to the charge, and most devoutly wish that every man in 
 India may think and act like us, and be guilty in the same way. 
 But if by Anglicism be meant an insensate aversion to all that 
 is indigenous, — a neglect of our language and our country ; if it 
 be meant that by learning English we denationalise ourselves, I 
 repel the charge as false and calumnious. A ]:>rio7'i it would be 
 absurd to say that the poetry of Shakespear and Milton, the phi- 
 losophy of Bacon, Stewart, and Reid, the science of Newton 
 and Herschel, and Faraday, would make men forget their duty 
 to their nation ; but I shall appeal to facts. Twenty years ago a
 
 20 Vernacular Education. 
 
 young man, brought up in the late Hindoo College, in his zeal 
 for religious reform, discarded the creed of his forefathers, and 
 left the land of his birth to find an asylum among Englishmen 
 in a distant country, where, with an English wife and English- 
 speaking children, and English friends and neighbours, he passed 
 many years of his life without even uttering a word of Bengali. 
 He is now amongst us as the originator of blank verse in Bengali, 
 and the greatest Bengali poet living. The muse of Dante in 
 Italy inspired him to write sonnets, not in English, to which he 
 had devoted the best past of his existence, not in French or 
 Italian, or Latin or Greek, with all which he is familiar, but 
 in the language which he had lisped in his mother's lap, 
 and which they say we learn to despise by acquiring English. 
 I need scarcely tell you that the gentleman I allude to is Mr. 
 Madhusudana Datta. One of the first B. A's of the Calcutta 
 University, Baboo Bunkim Chunder Chatterjee, is the greatest 
 novelist in Bengali. Our best prose-writer is a pandit, but not 
 one of the old school whose lives are devoted to the study of 
 Sanskrit, and Sanskrit only, but one who improved his Sanskrit 
 by a liberal study of the English language and literature. That 
 pandit is Iswarachandra Vidyasagara. The most successful ver- 
 nacular Editor again is a pandit who, like Vidyasagara, polished 
 his Sanskrit and Bengali by a familiar knowledge of the English 
 tongue. I will not take up your time by naming others, men 
 like Akshayakumar Datta and Rangalala Banerji, who have en- 
 riched the Bengali language by their writings, and who have 
 been able to do so because their education included the whole 
 course of English literature. Suffice it to say that the best 
 books in the Bengali language are all due to men who have ac- 
 quired a superior knowledge of the English language, and the 
 number of those books is far greater than the vernacularists of 
 the North-West have ever produced. "We produce about twice 
 as many books in Bengali every year as they do in the North- 
 West, and yet we are accused of getting Anglicised and neglect- 
 ing our vernacular ! Adverting to the state of education in
 
 Vernacular Education. 21 
 
 Bengal, the Baboo said, he was free to confess that education in 
 Bengal had not yet permeated the massess ; but that is not owing 
 to any defect of the system which assigns the vernacular for the 
 masses, and English and vernacular to the middle and higher 
 classes, but to the limited resources of the Education Department. 
 Though the richest province in the British Indian Empire, 
 Bengal gets the smallest grant from the State for the education 
 of the people. Its revenue is 16 crores a year and its educational 
 expenses does not exceed one per cent. : if this could be remedied, 
 and Government would afford adequate aid for the expansion of 
 educational operations, the study of English would in no way 
 interfere with placing the rudiments of knowledge within the 
 reach of the poorest classes. 
 
 In conclusion the Baboo said : one word more, and I shall 
 be done. It is said that we cry for English because we wish to 
 have a monopoly of the loaves and fishes — or rather of the 
 crumbs — which Government bestow on the people of this 
 country. Had this been our object, we should most strenuously 
 nrge our friends of the North "West to abjure English, and stick 
 to the vernacular ; that would be the surest way of keeping 
 them away from every situation in the gift of Government. But 
 it is because we wish that natives, whether Beharies or Pun- 
 jabies, or Agurwallahs, — whether born in the Doab or Nagpore, 
 or Oudh, — should enjoy the benefits of service under Govern- 
 ment equally with the people of Bengal, and go hand in hand 
 with us in our efforts to ameliorate the condition of our race, 
 that I call on our friends of AUyghur to pause and consider before 
 they renounce the study of English, and thereby compromise 
 the best interests of their community.
 
 THE HON'BLE PROSSUNNO COOMAR TAGORE 
 MEMORIAL MEETING. 
 
 Pursuant to the Requisition of the British Indian Association a 
 public meeting of the friends and admirers of the late Hon hie 
 Prossunno Coomar Tag ore C.S.L, loas held at the Hall of 
 the Association on Thursday the 29th October 1868 at 4 P. M. 
 
 Raja (then Baboo) Rajendralala Mitra, in seconding the first 
 Resolution, said : The Resolution moved spoke so well for it- 
 self, and it had been so well and so eloquently set before the 
 meeting by the learned Chairman that it was superfluous for him 
 to say any thing in support of it. And yet there were times 
 when repetition of what was even well-known and familiar was 
 sweet to indulgent ears, and those of the friends and admirers 
 who had assembled at the meeting to give expresssion to their 
 feeling of regard and admiration for the lamented deceased, 
 could not but be the most indulgent. It was a custom with the 
 ancient Egyptians, on the occasion of a funeral, to assemble, on 
 an appointed day, forty-two Judges on the sacred lake of Nome, 
 before whom the public discussed the merits and demerits of the 
 dead, and the customary sepulture was regulated by the result 
 of the trial. Under ordinary circumstances such a custom, in 
 our day, would be an intolerable nuisance. But in the case of 
 those who have great power and influence and wealth and op- 
 portunities given them for doing good to their fellow-men such 
 a trial would not be without its advantages. Like the human 
 skull in the banqueting room of the Emperor, it would be a 
 warning to them of their duty, and of their accountability to 
 their Maker, which could not fail to be beneficial. Nor were 
 memorial meetings other than modern adaptations of the old 
 Egyptian trial. In them the public assembled to sit in judgment 
 over the earthly career of the dead, to weigh well their good 
 deeds and their evil ones, and to strjjie a balance to shew whether
 
 Tlie IlorChle F. C. Tagore Memorial Meeting. 23 
 
 the memory of the departed was worthy of our admiration or of 
 our execration. In the case of the good and great, such meet- 
 ings have a higher advantage ; they enable us, as in the instance 
 under notice, to hold communion, in spirit, with those who have 
 ceased to be amidst us, but have not ceased to claim our affec- 
 tionate veneration. There were few, the Baboo continued, 
 whom he had then the honor to address who, having had the 
 pleasure of the late Baboo Prossunno Coomar Tagore's intimacy, 
 would not gladly give rein to his memory to dwell on it over 
 and over again. Although Baboo Rajendralala never had occa- 
 sion to receive, nor ever to ask, from him a single favor of any 
 consequence, he had enjoyed his intimacy for eight and twenty 
 years, and he thanked that wonderful elastieity of Hindu rela- 
 tionship which converts neighbours and friends to kith and kin 
 {hear ! hear /) that his intimacy had matured into the relation- 
 ship of uncle and nephew and it is natural, he said, that he 
 should, under the circumstances, wish to dwell fondly on the re- 
 miniscence of his friendship. 
 
 Of the early life of the lamented deceased Baboo Rajendra- 
 lala said he knew but little, and even that little he did not wish 
 to bring to the notice of the meeting. The most important 
 event of boyhood was education, and he was glad to say that 
 Baboo Prosunna Coomar had as good an education as people at 
 the time could command. As one of the earliest students of 
 the Hindu College he had acquired great proficiency in the 
 English language and literature, and claimed a respectable 
 knowledge of the Persian, Urdu and the Sanskrit languages. But 
 law was the special field in which he was destined to shine the 
 most, and to it he devoted his earnest attention from a very early 
 period of his life. How well-rewarded have been his labours 
 in that field, is attested by the collosal fortune he has left behind 
 him. Nor did the benefit of his legal lore centre in him alone. 
 The country at large benefited most extensively by it. It was 
 his eminent abilities as a lav»^yer and his high influence in society 
 that enabled him to clear the Augean stable of the late Sudder
 
 24 The Ilon'hle P. C, Tarjore Memorial Meeting. 
 
 Court and remove some of the most serious obstacles that lay 
 in the path of even-handed justice. Before his time, pleading in 
 this country was rewarded, as aptly described by the national 
 poet Bharatchandra by more kicks than fees. The man who got 
 choopraoed and not cJioop rao soared was a lucky pleader. Babu 
 Prossunno Coomar was the first who got this monstrous evil re- 
 moved from court, and prepared the way for the honors which 
 his successors have since so nobly earned. In after-life, when 
 he had retired from the Bar, he placed the mature fruit of his 
 legal lore and vast experience at the service of his country, free 
 of cost. There has not since been a single case of any import- 
 ance in which his opinion was not sought, and in which it was 
 not freely and md!st readily given. Indeed, no man had any 
 confidence in his own case until he had the assurance of Babu 
 Prossunno Coomar, and so great was the anxiety to get his opini- 
 on that people travelled hundreds of miles from the farthest 
 parts of India for the purpose of getting it, and they were never 
 disappointed. 
 
 Nor was Babu Prossunno Coomar satisfied with benefiting 
 his countrymen by gratuitious advice. Following in the wake 
 of that truly good and great man, the late Raja Rammohun Roy 
 and his equally distinguished colleague the late Babu Dwarka- 
 nath Tagore, he interested himself in every movement, whether 
 social, or moral, intellectual or political, that had the good of 
 the community for its object, and did eminent service in every 
 instance. Whether as a hereditary' Governor of the Hindu 
 College, or the Secretary of the late Landholders' Association, 
 or one of the founders and members of the British Indian Asso- 
 ciation, he was always busily employed in the service of his 
 country, and everywhere he identified his own interests with thafc 
 of his countrymen. A remarkable instance of this was once afibrd- 
 ed at a meeting of the Imperial Council where, in reply to an 
 Hon'ble member, who remarked that the obnoxious clauses of 
 the Arms Bill would not apply to men like Babu Prossunno 
 Coomar, he said, " I ask no advantage that is to be denied to
 
 The Iloti^ble P. C. Tagore Memorial Meethifj. 25 
 
 my countr}Tnen. 1 rise or fall with them." 
 
 The history of the Landholders' Association may not, the 
 Baboo thought, be familiar to some of his hearers, and its name 
 might raise suspicions in their mind as to the catholicity of its 
 purpose. But he assured the meeting that it was a most useful 
 institution. He looked upon it as the pioneer of freedom in this 
 country. It gave to the people the first lesson in the art of 
 fighting constitutionally for their rights, and taught them man- 
 fully to assert their claims, and give expression to their opini- 
 ons. Ostensibly it advocated the rights of the Zemindars, but 
 as their rights are intimately bound up with those of the ryots, 
 the one cannot be separated from the other. What is truly 
 good for the one, is equally so for the other ; and what is bad for 
 the zemindar is also bad for the ryot. But however that was, it 
 was certain that the great agitation which the Landholders' Asso- 
 ciation carried on anent the resumption operations of Govern- 
 ment it benefited the owners of small holdings — the ryots — a great 
 deal more than the big Zemindar; and for that benefit the people 
 of this country were largely indebted to the gentleman whose 
 death they had assembled to mourn. Adverting to the services 
 rendered by Baboo Prossunno Coomar to the British Indian Asso- 
 ciation, Baboo R. Mitra said that they were so fresh in the me- 
 mory of his hearers that he need not long expatiate on them, but 
 he could not omit to mention that it was to Baboo Prossunno 
 Coomar that the Association was mainly indebted for a local ha- 
 bitation. 
 
 One remarkable characteristic of the late Babu Prossunno 
 Coomar was, he continued, was his memory. In that small head 
 of that little great man were stored, in the most systematic or- 
 der, a vast mass of most varied information. Did one require 
 the date of a particular Government letter ? or the number of a 
 particular section of a particular law ? or the chapter and verse 
 of some obscure old Smriti ? the Babu had them all arranged 
 on the tablets of his memory, and none could refer to more ready 
 or more infallible an Judex. The whole history of British ad- 
 
 4
 
 26 The Hon'hle P. C. Tagore Memorial Meeting. 
 
 ministration in India, from the most important facts down to the 
 smallest minutioe was at his fingers' end, and you could not have 
 a better referee on the subjects. To prove this, Baboo Rajendra- 
 lala referred his hearers to the enormous mass of letters and 
 reports and memoranda which Baboo Prossunno Coomar had sub- 
 mitted to Government, to the Board of Revenue, and the late 
 Sudder Court, and which shewed the extent, the depth, and the 
 versatile character of his knowledge and experience, and the 
 value which the Government set on them, and the frequency 
 with which he was consulted for their sake. 
 
 It would be supposed that his multifarious public business 
 "would leave him little leisure for literary occupation, but it was 
 not in the nature of Baboo Prossunno Coomar to leave so import- 
 ant a source of intellectual gratification untried. He wrote much, 
 and read more ; and many portly volumes in Bengali and Eng- 
 lish, such as the translation of the Vivada Chintamanij the Com- 
 mentary on the Rent -Law, and his Vyavastha Patra attest the 
 zeal and ability with which he laboured in the field of authorship. 
 At the same time he was a liberal patron of learning and learned 
 men, and a great number of Sanskrit books were published under 
 his patronage. 
 
 '' I must now," continued Baboo Rajendralala, " turn my 
 attention to another chapter in the history of his life, and 
 scrutinise his services as a social reformer. I must admit 
 that he was certainly not an ultra go-ahead-at-any-price progres- 
 sionist. He did not, as others have done for the sake of religion, 
 or love, or trowsers, or tail coats, rush forward, leaving their 
 countrymen far behind ; men who have been cast away as sloughs 
 from the bulk of the community, on whom their precepts have 
 proved as nil, and their examples something less, if I may use 
 the Hibernicism. Baboo Prossunno Coomar was so to say a 
 liberal conservative or a moderate progressionist. He wished and 
 laboured hard to move onwards, but not to go alone, leaving his 
 nation behind. He wanted to advance, and did advance pulling 
 his countrymen along with him. He knew that reformation to
 
 Tlie Iloii'hle P. C. Tagore Memorial Meeting, 27 
 
 be real should proceed from within, and not from without ; ho 
 knew that it should emanate from the mind, and not bo super- 
 posed on the body ; ho knew that it should be a revolution of 
 feeling, and not of dress, and to effect it he remained with the 
 people, and tried to leaven the whole mass by his precepts and 
 example, which operated with all the greater force and effect be- 
 cause they came from one of the people. 
 
 I am bound to confess that Baboo Prossunno Coomar had his 
 faults ; but they were not of a character to detract materially 
 from his sterling merits. He had his faults, and who has not ? 
 Let him who is pure cast the first stone, and it will be time then 
 to defend the memory of the dead. We should not, at any rate, 
 forget that the brightest light has its shadow, and even the sun 
 is not without its spots. He was unfortunate too in his domestic 
 relations ; but his servants supplied the place of his children, 
 and he rewarded their devotion by parental kindness and by 
 legacies the like of which no Hindu has ever given. His charities 
 were also of a princely character ; and as long as the dispensary, 
 the alms house, and the Sanskrit College at Mulajore and the 
 noble endowment in the Presidency College will last, so long wo 
 may say monumenta manebunt.'^ {Loud applause !)
 
 THE EDUCATION QUESTION. 
 
 Pursuant to notice, a public meeting of the inhabitants of Bengal 
 was held at the Town Hall on Saturday the 2nd July, 1870, 
 at 3 p. M., for the purpose of considering the propriety of me- 
 morializing the Secretary of State on the subject of the with- 
 draioal of State aid from English education. More than tivo 
 thousand persons were present, and all classes of the native 
 community were represented on the occasion. 
 
 Raja (then Baboo) Rajendralala Mittra in seconding the first Re- 
 solution said that, as the question of what should be the proper 
 medium of education had once again been revived, it was well 
 that his countrymen had thought fit publicly to give expression 
 to their opinion and wishes in regard to it. And it was highly 
 gratifying to notice from the proceedings, laid on the table, 
 of the several numerously attended and respectable meetings 
 that had lately been held in difi"erent parts of this province and 
 the deputations that had been sent to the Calcutta meeting, the 
 perfect unanimity which prevailed among the Hindu community 
 in the Mofussil on this most important subject. It was the more 
 gratifying to observe that the high and the low, the rich and the 
 poor, the twice-born Brahman and the degraded washerman, the 
 urban and the rustic, were all of one accord. Every man who 
 was able to think was of opinion that the moral and material 
 advancement of the people depended on a wide diff'nsion of 
 European knowledge in the country. Nor had that opinion been 
 formed by the sight of sundry crusts and crumbs which had 
 fallen from the official table to the lot of a fortunate few — a mere 
 drop in the ocean — but after a careful survy of the condition 
 and the most urgent wants of Bengali Society. In Calcutta 
 that opinion was arrived at more than half a century ago, when 
 the people so warmly seconded the exertion of that great philan- 
 thropist David Hare, to establish the late Hindu College, and
 
 Tlie Education Quest ion. 29 
 
 hundreds of boys crowded the forms of that institution. A 
 few years subsequently one of the noblest of the Hindu race, 
 the late Raja Ramraohun Roy, heartily joined the Anglicists and 
 raised his powerful voice against the mistaken orientalists of 
 the period ; and there has not been a single instance since that 
 time in which an intelligent man of Bengal had demurred to 
 the diffusion of the Western languages and literature in his 
 native land. This universal unanimity, spoke for itself, and need- 
 ed no comment. It settled the question definitively as regards 
 the people of this country. It may appear strange, continued 
 the Babu, that at a time when the brave and patriotic Poles are 
 exerting their utmost to defend their national language which 
 has been assailed at the point of the bayonet by an inexorable 
 autocrat, we here should cry for a foreign tongue when our kind- 
 hearted rulers wish to diffuse the blessings of education through 
 the vernaculars of our country. But, Sir, in Poland the vern- 
 cular is of the highest political importance ; it is the great bond 
 of union ; it holds the people together as distinct from the other 
 races of Europe ; it preserves for them the annals of all that 
 is dear to them, and contains a store of literature and science 
 fully sufficient for all their requirements. Our vernaculars, on 
 the other hand, (and we have many where the Poles have only one) 
 are poor and undeveloped, and serve only to divide and disunite 
 ns. We yield not to the Poles in our love for our country and 
 our race ; but we feel that the best way to love them is to 
 promote their welfare. It was well in the primitive state of 
 society to defend every thing that was national, for it was then 
 a question of life and death ; but such a patriotism in the pre- 
 sent day would be a curse, and you should have none of it. If 
 patriotism means an insensate love of every thing that is ours, 
 whether good or bad, away with such patriotism. If it is to 
 teach us to rest satisfied with our lares and penates, our language, 
 and our civilization, as they now stand, the less we have of it 
 the better. Such patriotism requires us to hug our chains, and 
 remain intellectual bondsmen for ever. True patriotism, how-
 
 30 The Education Question. 
 
 ever, is not a blind adherence to ancient customs, but an intelli- 
 gent love for the welfare and advancement of our race, and if 
 you really v^^ish to serve your country, you should not hesitate a 
 moment to spurn everything that stands in the way of pro- \ 
 gress, and import from foreign land whatever is calculated to 
 raise her in the scale of nations. Our history, our traditions, 
 our ancient glory, are preserved in a language which has long 
 since ceased to be current, and it is impossible to revive it. It 
 can now only serve as a monument of the past, and not the ins- 
 trument of future amelioration. Our vernaculars are mere 
 media of speech and all but totally devoid of such scientific and 
 literary lore as can raise a nation and satisfy our intellectual 
 wants. Our only resource therefore is to borrow what we want 
 from those who will help us, and who can assist us better in this 
 respect than the noble race which now sways the destiny of this 
 country ? Time was when the languages of Greece and Rome 
 were supposed to represent all that was noble and great for the 
 culture of the human mind. But that time has long since pass- 
 ed away. The languages of Germany, France and England have 
 gone far ahead of them, and no man can now be called truly 
 learned who has not acquired a thorough knowledge of at least 
 one of them, and of the magnificent stock of science and litera- 
 ture that they have amassed. For us the language of England has 
 the greatest commendation. It is fully as rich, if not richer, 
 than those of France and Germany, and it has at the same time 
 many advantages, which the others do not possess. Those ad- 
 vantages may be all expressed in a single sentence, it is the 
 language of our Government. If you wish to be an able lawyer 
 you must learn it ; if you desire to the honors of the bench 
 you must learn it ; if you wish to be a competent senator or 
 legislator you must again learn it. If you wish to distinguish 
 yourself in the healing art, you must learn English, so must 
 you if you desire wealth by foreign commerce. For you none 
 of the sciences of modern Europe can be more readily acquii*ed 
 than through the medium of English, and even for a thorough
 
 The Education Question. 31 
 
 study of the history of your own national classic, the Sanskrit, 
 you must have a competent knowledge of English literature. 
 Can you afford to give up such a language — such an Aladin's 
 lamp of knowledge — for the sake of a mistaken patriotism. 
 
 It has been said by a learned gentleman, high in Government 
 service, and performing the duties of a minister of Public In- 
 struction in India, that high education is not of essential service 
 to society^ and it serves only to make " tulips and exotics" of us ; 
 but will you, and will Europe, endorse the opinion that the 
 Herchels and Humboldts and Stephensons of society are mere 
 " tulips," like tares in a wheat field, and that tbose who have just 
 placed a girdle round half the circumstance of the Globe we in- 
 habit, are of no essential service to the community ? It may be 
 that it is more arduous for us to acquire, in a foreign language, 
 what people in Europe learn in their own vernaculars ; but it is 
 neither impossible nor particularly difl&cult. It is only a year 
 ago that one of you in a competitive examination stood second 
 in English amidst three hundred of the flower of England's youth. 
 He was weighted for a welter ,and had to run against feather 
 weights, and he won with ease. I have no doubt that there are 
 hundreds, if not thousands, amongst you who could do the same 
 under like circumstances. 
 
 It has been urged by the gentleman whom I have already 
 adverted to, that no body prevents us from learning English or 
 any other language we choose, but the Government is not bound 
 to provide for us. But this doctrine appears to me quite as 
 consistent as that about tulips and exotics. The gentleman 
 himself admits that it is the duty of Government to provide for 
 the education of the people ; and if so, it must follow as a matter 
 of course, that the education provided should be good and sound 
 and useful, and not a shadow which, to quote the language of 
 Macaulay, "can bring to the recipient neither bread nor honor." 
 It has been all along held in every part of the civilized world, 
 that the glory and greatness of a nation depend upon the sum 
 total of knowledge acquired by its foremost representatives, and
 
 32 The Education Question. 
 
 not upon the extent of the area over which it is sprinkled in 
 drops. Greece was great because she had her Homer and Soc- 
 rates and Plato. Rome was likewise groat because of her Philo- 
 sophers and Poets and Historians ; neither on account of any- 
 popular education, for they had none, and the bulk of their 
 population was made up of helots. England is great and truly 
 great, but has she achieved that greatness by any system of 
 widespread elementary education ? No : her greatness depends 
 upon her scholars and her scientific men. Take them away and 
 she will at once sink to the position of Spain or Portugal. If 
 then the greatness of a nation depends upon the extent to 
 which liberal education is cultivated, it is clearly the duty 
 of the British Indian Government to offer every encouragement 
 to high education in this country, and not to let it take care of 
 itself, in order that Government resources may be devoted 
 solely to that which is not by itself able to help the nation 
 onward, — a postponement of that which is of the utmost im- 
 portance, for that which is of secondary consequence. In the 
 cess despatch, just received, it is said "that the true wealth of a 
 wise and just Government lies in the growing wealth of its 
 people, and the fiscal system which most encourages the accumu- 
 lation and enjoyment of capital in private hands must in the 
 lono- run be the most profitable to the State," and if so, the Gov- 
 ernment is clearly bound to encourage that kind of education 
 most which is calculated to be the most remunerative and not to 
 deny it all encouragement because it leads to material advan- 
 tages. In European countries every possible encouragement is 
 held forth to university education, large annual grants are given 
 from the State exchequer for the support of universities. In 
 Germany this amounts to 29 thalers for every thaler paid by the 
 student in the way of fees. In France the Government allow- 
 ance is '190 Rs.. per studenl, and in Italy to no less than 227 
 Rs., against an average of ouly 10 Rs., in Bengal. Turning 
 from the Continent to England we find the magnificent endow- 
 ments of her Colleges are due, to a great extent, to gifts of land
 
 The Education Question. 33 
 
 by former sovereigns, and the State allowance to the Qaeen's 
 College in Dublin and the Maynooth grant shew that the princi- 
 ple has not been lost sight of in the present day. No doubt 
 many of the endowments of English Colleges are due to private 
 charities, but those charities did not flow in all at once. Cen- 
 turies passed away before they attained their present proportions, 
 and in India the same may be expected in a much shorter time. 
 Within the last fourteen years, that the Calcutta University has 
 been in existence, private benefactions for the support of colle- 
 giate education have poured in to the extent of nearly seven 
 lacs on this side of Indip,, and at that rate our colleges will be 
 rendered self-supporting before the century is out. But whether 
 they are so or not, the duty of 'Government will always remain 
 the same, and we have every right to demand — not to pray — 
 that it should reader every reasonable encouragement to that 
 which is of the highest value for the well-being of the nation. 
 This has been repeatedly acknowledged by the Government it- 
 self, and is such a manifest truism in the science of Government, 
 that it would be a waste of words to demonstrate it. 
 
 But while advocating the cultivation of the English langu- 
 age for those who can afford the necessary time and the means, 
 I shall not forget the claims of those classes who cannot afford 
 them. For them the vernaculars must continue to be the only 
 media of education, and it behoves both the Government and 
 the people at large, to see that they are supplied with what is 
 most appropriate for them. I shall be the last to deny any man 
 his due ; but I cannot tolerate any scheme which will deprive 
 one section of the community of its rights for the benefit of 
 another, even when put forth under the cloak of benevolence 
 and philanthropy. Injustice does not cease to be so because its 
 proceeds are devoted to a good purpose. To do evil that good may 
 proceed from it enters not in n-\j humble code of morals. If Gov- 
 ernment is bound to provide for the education of the people 
 under its care it is bound to see that the means at its disposal 
 are equally distributed among the different classes of the com- 
 
 5
 
 3« Tlig Education Question. 
 
 munity, who contribute to those means and not to select some 
 for its favours and neglect others. 
 
 It is the fashion among some of our enemies to say that the 
 education given in the Government Colleges is charity educa- 
 tion. I denounce the charge as a malicious calumny, and alto- 
 gether repudiate the idea that education given at the cost of 
 the State, that is out of the public revenues contributed by the 
 people at large, is an act of charity. Were it so you may as 
 reasonably say that the protection we derive from the police 
 and the judicial establishments of the country, are gratuitous ; 
 and the military establishments are kept up gratis for our good. 
 As a matter of fact, we in Bengal, pay more for our education 
 besides the share which comes out of our contribution to the re- 
 venues of the State, than any other nation in the civilized world. 
 According to a recent resolution of the University authorities 
 of Oxford the annual fee has been reduced to £3-10^. in that an- 
 cient seat of learning, when the average cost to each student in 
 Bengal is £9. Bearing this in mind I ask is it not a matter of 
 extraordinary effrontery for those who get their education at 
 the cost of £3-105. to themselves, the rest being made up by pub- 
 lic charities, to call us charity boys who pay £14-6*. in Cal- 
 cutta. True there are some Government scholarships attached to 
 our Colleges, and their total value is about £7000 a year, but 
 before malevolent people carp at us for them, it would be well if 
 they would remember that in France over 18 lacs are annually 
 devoted to bursaries, and in England the value of exhibitions 
 and bursaries proceeding from pure charity considerably ex- 
 ceeds that sum. 
 
 There is one question more to which I shall advert ; it is the 
 possibility of raising the Indian vernaculars sufficiently for the 
 purposes of a liberal course of education. I begin by denying 
 that such a thing is possible within any reasonable time. There 
 are a hundred and one vernaculars now current in the country, 
 and it is utterly Utopian to suppose that all or most of them can 
 be improved so as to be fit for university education. None, I
 
 Hie Education Question. 35 
 
 believe, will be fool hardy enough to insist on it, and if not, the 
 whole argument about the superiority of the vernaculars will fall 
 to the ground. A few of the vernaculars may be improved and 
 when they are what will become of those races whose vernaculars 
 are not improved ? They must be obliged to study in, to them, 
 a foreign tongue ; and if so why not give them the English at 
 once instead of waiting for the improvement of a language quite 
 as strange to them. Even to effect that improvement the only 
 means at our disposal is to import the sciences and the arts of 
 modern civilization from the nations of Europe, and how can that 
 be accomplished unless we learn those sciences first and then 
 translate them into otir vernaculars ? When Russia wanted 
 those sciences she did not begin by forbidding all foreign lan- 
 guages, but by offering every possible encouragement to the 
 study of the French and the German languages. The Porfe 
 and the Pasha of Egypt have done the same in a small way, and 
 if our Governors really wish for our good they must do likewise. 
 To sit still till the vernaculars are improved would be the surest 
 way to prevent the possibility of their ever being improved. It 
 would be invoking Jupiter instead of putting our own shoulders 
 to the wheel. But even with our best exertions we cannot 
 possibly attain our object in less than a century, and to give up 
 the study of the English now is therefore tantamount to giving 
 up all prospect of improvement for three generations to come. 
 But even after that the necessity for learning English will not 
 cease. No Hindu in Bengal would for a moment wish to see 
 our present Government changed. On the whole India never 
 had a Government so good in the whole course of her history ; 
 and if the Government is to last the necessity for learning 
 English will always continue, even after the Bengali is rendered 
 as perfect as the English. It is the language of our Gracious 
 Sovereign over whose dominions the sun never sets ; it is the 
 language of commerce all over the East. It is the language of 
 Milton and Shakespeare ; of Newton and Bacon, of Locke and 
 Hume ; it is the language of a noble host of physicists of the
 
 56 The Permanent Settlement Question. 
 
 present century who have aU.ogether changed the face of civiliza- 
 tion in Europe. Can you afford to give up such a language for 
 the poems of Kritibas and the doggrels of Kavi-Kankan, or even 
 for such sloppy translations as you can produce for years to 
 come ? If you can I shall deeply regret your choice, for it 
 would amount to an intellectual suicide. {^Tremendous loud 
 cheering.) 
 
 THE PERMANENT SETTLEMENT QUESTION. 
 
 Pursuant to advertisement, a large and influential meeting of the 
 native community was held at the Hall of the British Indian 
 Association, on Monday, the 3rd April, 1871, at 4 p. M., for 
 the purpose of considering a petition to Parliament against 
 the imposition of land cess^ as calculated to involve a breach 
 of the Permanent Settlement. 
 
 Raja (then Baboo) Rajendralala Mittra, in seconding the se- 
 cond Resolution said that the nature and character of the Per- 
 manent Settlement had been so often and so fully discussed 
 before, and the eloquent speakers who had preceded him already, 
 had so exhausted it, that he did not wish to occupy the time 
 of the meeting by repeating their arguments. Nor was it ne- 
 cessary for him to do so. As the seconder of the Resolution, 
 he had only to recommend it for adoption, and looking to the 
 manner in which the first Resolution had been received, he need 
 say little in its favor. It was but the sequel of the first, and 
 if the meeting was convinced that the proposed cess would 
 prove unjust towards the Zemindars, it was clearly their duty, 
 as it is their interest, to protest against it. No man is worthy of the 
 slightest consideration from his fellow-beings, who sits idle and 
 moping under a grave injustice, taxing fate for what it is his own
 
 The Permanent Settlement Question. 87 
 
 duty to overcome, but makes no exertion to right him?.elf. Idle- 
 ness and apathy, want of energy and resolution, were not the 
 characteristics of manliness, and he would be sorry indeed to 
 hear that any of those causes will overcome them in their 
 arduous but straight course of duty. They should be up and 
 doing, and move on, and if they still failed, they will have the 
 satisfaction of a clear conscience ; but if they gave up all exer- 
 tion, from a foregone conclusion that there was no hope, they 
 would act like the sick man who abjures medicines under an 
 impression that his disease is incurable. There was a moral 
 turpitude in such resignation which deserved the severest cen- 
 sure. He hoped that there were none amongst his audience 
 who, for a moment, believed that it was not politic to oppose 
 the scheme, now before the Bengal Legislature, because it let 
 off the Zemindar very lightly, and gave him additional power 
 to grind his ryots, whereby he would be able to benefit himself. 
 Should there be any such, he would denounce him, and every 
 honest man, he thought, would denounce him as a traitor to his 
 country, who, like most traitors, would find, when too late, that 
 he had sold his birth-right for a pottage. The speaker did not 
 wish to say any thing as to the merits of the case. The Zemin- 
 dar may be wrong, quite wrong, in thinking that the proposed 
 cess would undo the Permanent Settlement. The interpretation 
 that had been put to that compact by Government, may be 
 perfectly just and legal. But as long as the Zemindar conscien- 
 tiously thought that he would be wronged, so long it was clearly 
 his duty to .seek redress by every constitutional means at his 
 disposal, and what could be more constitutional and just than to 
 appear before the supreme tribunal of the country for a judicial 
 determination of his case ? The right of petition is one of the 
 fundamental principles of the constitution he lived under. 
 From the days of King John it had been conceded to every 
 subject of the British Crown. The Magna Charta and the Bill 
 of Rights, if they secured nothing else to the people of India, 
 they certainly gave them the power to appear before their
 
 38 The Permanent Settlement Question, 
 
 Sovereign and Her trusty Lords and Commons for the redress of 
 whatever they may have to complain of. It was an inalienable and 
 indefeasible right of every ryot of Her Gracious Majesty, and 
 none need shrink from exercising it. Even the condemned 
 felon and the malefactor were not denied it, and the Zemindars 
 could not be wrong if they acted up to it, though it be in appeal 
 from the decision of some of the highest officers of Her Majes- 
 ty's Government. The petition they proposed to submit was in 
 every way the most appropriate. It entered into no detailed argu- 
 ment, it treated of no vexed question of law or policy, it found 
 fault with none ; but after temperately putting the case in the 
 light in which the Zemindars saw it, pointed out that those who 
 were most conversant with the subject, and held the responsible 
 post of advisers to Her Majesty's Secretary of State, were very 
 much divided in opinion, and that under the circumstances a 
 decision by a judicial committee of the House of Parliament 
 would be the best way to bring the question to a final settle- 
 ment. Nothing could be simpler or more straightforward, and 
 he (the speaker) would be sorry indeed, if so reasonable a pray- 
 er be denied them. That the Zemindar had made out a case, 
 and it was fit to go before the the Jury, none, would deny who 
 had dispassionately read the Minute of Sir Erskine Perry, 
 an extract from which had been quoted in the petition. Other 
 Minutes were equally strong and decisive. Again, when the 
 Permanent Settlement was about to be completed, Mr. Law, the 
 Collector of Gya, wrote a Minute suggesting that a clause should 
 be inserted in the compact to the effect that under very pressing 
 and extraordinary exigency the Government should have the 
 power of demanding something in addition to the fixed revenue, 
 and in reply both Sir John Shore and Lord Cornwallis said that 
 that would entirely vitiate the first principle of the settlement, 
 and that in case of future emergency the Government should 
 look to commerce, and the increased wealth of the country for 
 recruiting their resources. Language could not be more precise, 
 and in his lay understanding, the speaker felt not a little stag-
 
 The Permanent Settlement Question. 39 
 
 gered to find that a principle so clearly enunciated could be open 
 to doubt ; but as he did not intend to enter into the legal bear- 
 ing of the question, all he had to say was that the petitioners 
 had prima facie a good case, and would do well to try the issue. 
 They could not be wrong in contending for what they thought 
 was due to them, but they were sure to bring on them the re- 
 probation of the world if they did not exert themselves to pro- 
 tect their rights. 
 
 The issue was as to whether there was or not a solemn compact 
 by which the Government had bound itself to abstain from rais- 
 ing its demand on land under any pretext whatever ; and so long 
 as it was confined to that, the petitioners were perfectly safe. 
 There was, however, another issue, which had been raised in 
 some quarters, and it called for a few remarks. It questioned not 
 the existence, but the legality and binding character of the pledge, 
 and the sophistry and the spirit of communion'with which it had 
 been put forth, have recommended it to all who have nothing to 
 lose and something to gain by the proposition. It was founded 
 on a supposed incapacity of one generation to bind a future, or 
 of a Government to bind posterity. It has been said that if an 
 individual should make a contract to transfer to another property 
 which does not belong 'to him, such contract is null and void, be- 
 cause the contracting party was not competent to execute the 
 instrument under which the property is claimed by the transfer. 
 Similarly, the Permanent Settlement Act of Lord Cornwallis 
 is not binding on the Government of to-day, because '' no Gov- 
 ernment is competent to bind posterity." This doctrine has 
 gathered great strength from the opinions put forth by such 
 great men as Carlyle and Mills, as to the right of Government 
 to repudiate treaties if they proved troublesome. The speaker 
 was not, he said, in a position to argue on the political bearing 
 of the question. He had a notion that the justice, legality, and 
 binding character of political treaties depended a great deal 
 more on Mars than on Minerva, and it was probably on that 
 ground, that the ancient Romans subordinated wisdom to power
 
 40 The Permanent Settlement Question, 
 
 by mnrrying Minerva to Mars. The balance of justice was in 
 the case of political treaties so much iuflueuced by the weight 
 of Kemp's guns and breech-loaders, and of sturdy phalanx 
 and veteran soldiers, and so little by logic and reason, that 
 it would be a waste of words to argue it. The case was, 
 however different, when we come to compacts between man 
 and man, and between subjects and their sovereigns. A pledge 
 under such circumstances, is the most solemn and sacred that 
 could be over conceived. It underlies the very foundation of 
 every civil contract, and to repudiate it would be to repudiate 
 all moral obligation between man and man. If one generation 
 could not bind another, ninety-nine out of every hundred docu- 
 ments in which attorneys bind '^ heirs, successors, representa- 
 tives, and assigns," would be worthless. Every son under such 
 doctrine would be justified to cancel the leases given by his 
 father, and every change of ministry authorise the cancelment 
 of the national debt. No doubt, the author of the article in the 
 Westmiiiister Revieio in which this novel doctrine has been set 
 forth at length, bases his argument on the ground that none can 
 give away that which is not his, and as the land, or its revenue, 
 did not belong to Lord Cornwallis' Government, it had no 
 power to give it away, as its successor is not bound to abide 
 by such a gift, it can cancel the grant at its sweet will and plea- 
 sure. Now the land, or the right to revenue therefrom after 
 the British conquest, must have belonged to the Government of 
 the day, and it had every right to deal with it in any way it 
 liked ; but admitting, for the sake of argument only, that it had 
 only a limited or so-to-speak life-interest, and could not bind 
 its successors, the speaker thought the idea absurd that there 
 has been any change of Government since the days of Lord 
 Cornwallis. The British Government ruled then as it does now, 
 and it cannot repudiate its own acts. No doubt, the personnel 
 of the Government has changed many times since that period, 
 but no man would be reckless enough to say that that amounted 
 to a change of Goveruiiient. Once admit that a change of
 
 The Permanent Settlement Question. 41 
 
 personnel amounts to a chano;e of Government, and it would 
 follow that every deed to which that late Viceroy put his hands 
 to binding hiinseU" and his successors, is now so much wasto 
 paper. The Judges of Her Majesty's Courts of Justice will not, 
 however, permit us to practically cany out such a doctrine, and 
 what is true of individuals is equally true of communities and 
 Governments. Admit the opposite doctrine, and you will find 
 that the compacts with the Talookdars of Oudh, are invalid, 
 that all the Jagirs which were given by Lord Canning are re- 
 sumable, and that it is the bounden duty of Parliament to take 
 back the large estates which are now owned by some of the no- 
 bility of England. Most of these estates were given away by 
 former kings to parasites and sycophants, and their descendants 
 have no business to hold them against the English public. It 
 is scarcely likely that the writer of the article, who is said to 
 be a gentleman high in the Civil Service would deny the se- 
 quitor of his argument, by declaring that the covenant under 
 which he came to India and which had been- executed by a for- 
 mer Secretary of State is no longer binding upon' Government. 
 According to the Revieiver, the land should contribute most to 
 the maintenance of Government, for it derives the greatest be- 
 nefit from a fixed and efficient Government. If so, and the 
 speaker did not wish to question the premiss, the virtuous indig- 
 nation which he expresses against the Permanent Settlement, 
 should be first directed to his own country. He finds that for 
 a revenue of seventy-one crores required for the maintenance of 
 Government in Great Britain, land contributes only six crores 
 and a half, whereas in India land pays twenty crores and all the 
 other sources of revenue about thirty, i. e., while in Great 
 Britain the incidence of taxation on real property, is as 6^ to 
 70, in India it is twenty to fifty ; obviously ,^ therefore, the in- 
 justice to the present generation of Englishmen done by the 
 acts of former generations of dissolute kings, is infinitely greater 
 than that to the Indian public by the settlement of Lord Corn- 
 wallis. Indeed, omitting the opium revenue from the calculation, 
 
 6
 
 42 The Permanent Settlement Question. 
 
 it will be found that land in Bengal under the much abused 
 Permanent Settlement, contributes nearly two-fiths of the entire 
 revenue of Bengal, while in Great Britain it yields only one- 
 eleventh. Revieiuer ! Hear I 
 
 The Reviewer next enters into a detailed argument against 
 the right of Zemindars to compensation of the land he resumed 
 inasmuch as their original right is invalid, but the speaker did 
 not think it necessary to take up the time of the meeting by any 
 attempt to expose its transparent fallacies. He only regretted 
 that the Reviewer was not present to protest against Parliament 
 voting away millions for compensation to slave-holders for their 
 unhallowed right to deal in human flesh and bones. It would 
 have obviated the necessity of a large national debt, and greatly 
 simplified the proceedings of the emancipators. (Cheers.) 
 
 The Revieioer makes an exception of public debt, inasmuch 
 as he says " substantial considerations are received in such 
 cases," but if he will dispassionately look into the nature of the 
 Permanent Settlement, he will find that equally substantial con- 
 sideration was given by the Zemindars for the right, of which 
 they are now proposed to be deprived. They gave up all claims 
 to abwabs which they had enjoyed before, and consented'to a per- 
 petual tax of ten-elevenths, when the usual rate at the time was 
 only one-half, and the temporary settlement since made by 
 Government in other parts of India range from forty to sixty- 
 five per cent. The excessive amount given (and it was given 
 for half a century before they got any return) was clearly a con- 
 sideration as any consideration could be. It was besides to the 
 interest of Government, and by desire of Government, that the 
 settlement was made, and it cannot now be set aside because it 
 is no longer beneficial to it, without a most reprehensible 
 breach of moral obligation. (Cheers.) 
 
 Then as regards its efi*ect on the people, the Permanent Settle- 
 ment has secured to the ryot, that is to the mass of the people, 
 much more substantial advantages than any other settlement that 
 the speaker was aware of. lu England, according to a return
 
 Tlie Permanent Settlement Question, 43 
 
 published in a recent number of the Journal of the Statistical 
 Society, only four lacks of persons, or about two in a hundred 
 have any interest in land, leaving ninety-eight per cent, of the 
 population to depend on labour, whereas in Bengal the ryots' 
 permanent rights and leases in land have been estimated by Mr. 
 Bell, the Legal Remembrancer, at tens of thousands in every 
 district. Those who know best estimate the number of khodkast 
 ryots in Bengal at one-third of the peasantry, and fully another 
 third has rights of occupancy, leaving only one-third without 
 any right to land. Such an equable distribution of land never 
 obtained in England, and it behoved those Englishmen who 
 wished for a fair agrarian distribution to turn their attention 
 first to England and not to India. Bengali farms may be indi- 
 vidually small, but no equal distribution can be effected without 
 reducing the bulk of e^ich individual share ; and it w%as no evil, 
 for it is the small peasant proprietor who is the most sturdy and 
 independent, and useful member of society, and the glorious 
 yeomanry of England, whose disappearace is so much mourned, 
 were all small peasant proprietors. 
 
 It might be said that even if justice should not, sound policy 
 should, dictate the Zemindars to abstain from opposing the pro- 
 posed cess. The objects for which it is required are good, and 
 by opposing it they oppose the social and material improvements 
 of the country. But the speaker could not subscribe to the 
 doctrine. He yielded to none, he said, in his estimation of the 
 manifold advantages of good roads, widespread education, and 
 municipal improvement. But he could not believe that the only 
 way to them lay through a breach of moral obligation. His re- 
 ligion, he said, would not permit him to tolerate the maxim 
 which justifies evil, because good may come out of it. If local 
 rates were necessary for such purposes, there were various ways 
 of raising them, and he would be glad, and he hoped none of 
 his hearers would object to any just, reasonable and inoppressive 
 taxation for such purposes ; but he thought it highly reprehen- 
 sible to secure such advantages by a measure which would cause
 
 44 Lord Northhrooh Memorial Meeting. 
 
 a firm and universal, even if it be a mistaken, conviction of a 
 grave breach of faith. (LouJ Applause.) 
 
 LORD NORTHBROOK MEMORIAL MEETING. 
 
 A public meeting of the inhabitants of Calcutta teas held at the 
 Toion Hall on Saturday the 8th April 1S76, to consider a 
 proposal to erect, by 'public subscription, a fitting memorial 
 to Lord Northbrook. 
 
 Raja (then Dr.) Rajendralala Mitra^ in moving the second 
 Resolution, said : — 
 
 I beg to propose, as a sequel to the Resolution you have jnst 
 adopted, "that a statue of the Right Hon^ble Lord Northbrook 
 be erected in the city of Calcutta as a memorial of his Lordship's 
 successful administration of the British Indian Empire.'' 1 call 
 this a sequel, as it supplies an omission in the first Resolution. 
 You have resolved to record your high sense of the eminent 
 services of the nobleman ; but the Resolution does not indicate 
 where it should be recorded. Surely, it is not to be only on the 
 tablet of your memory, for it is already firmly impressed on our 
 memory, and no Resolution is wanted to place it there. Nor 
 would you think that the proceedings of this meeting published 
 in the daily papers of Calcutta would give it sufficient perma- 
 nence, for the papers would, most probably, be all gone to the 
 trunk-makers long before the year will be out. No, the best 
 and most appropriate place for the record would be the pedestal 
 of such a statue as would be worthy of the illustrious nobleman 
 you wish to honor, and worthy of the metropolis of British 
 India. (Cheers.) 
 
 In days of yore, when society was young and imagination 
 ran riot, leaving reason behind and uncared-for, the usual plan
 
 Lord Northhrook Memorial Meeting. 45 
 
 of recognising greatness was by making gods of national heroes ; 
 but, I fancy, the pantheon soon got full, and no new admissions 
 oould be permitted. The scheme of bringing down particular 
 persons from that pantheon to do duty on earth was then brought 
 into vogue. This was called incarnation, and between apotheosis 
 and incarnation mankind remained well content for a long 
 period. But we live in sober times, and the highest form of 
 memorial that we can tolerate is a statue. This is what we have 
 learnt from the Greeks and the Romans, the two most advanced 
 nations of antiquity. Doubtless, there is the rival scheme of a 
 large memorial building, which has often been resorted to from 
 ancient times ; but I must frankly confess that it is not agreeable 
 to me. I have a notion that old Cheops would have been better 
 remembered even in the form of a sphinx than he is under the 
 great Pyramid. Besides, whatever effect it may have had in 
 former times, it has been of late too often resorted to in, what 
 I 'Cannot help describing as, a dishonest way, and therefore I 
 dislike it. Some sesthetic hobby, or sickly sentimentalism, or 
 other not very lofty motive, suggests a building ; but the public 
 will not subscribe for that particular project. The said public 
 will, however, readily open its purse-strings to do honor to a 
 great man. A subscription is accordingly raised in his name, 
 and then, in a hole-and-corner Committee meeting, the money is 
 diverted to the building for which the public would not have 
 paid even a penny. Or, it may :be, some officious friends of a 
 man in power wish to make a hero of him ; they know that 
 the public will not subscribe for their hero, and so they start a 
 useful public building, — a new wing of a hospital or library, — 
 und manage to draw the funds they require, and, when the build- 
 ing is ready, they clap on it the name of their hero, and he is 
 immortalised, ('laughter.) In either case, the public is sold, 
 whatever the utilitarian Benthamite value of the plan may prove 
 to them. At the best, one does not quite know whether he subs- 
 cribes for a charity, or a memorial. A plan for a statue is not 
 open to this charge of double-dealing, or uncertainty, and I
 
 46 Lord Nortlihrook Memorial Meeting, 
 
 therefore advocate a statue. It comes forward in all frankness 
 before the public, and the public may subscribe to it or not, just 
 as it likes ; and, if the plan is carried out, and a statue is erected, 
 it stands a faithful mounment of the feeling of the people. That 
 a statue in the present instance would be agreeable to you all, 
 I have no reason to doubt. The ringing cheers with which you 
 have received the first Resolution assure me that you feel as 
 warmly on the subject as 1 do (cheers) ; but, in moving the Re- 
 solution for a memorial, I am expected to say a few words in 
 praise of the subject of the memorial, and thence comes my dif- 
 ficulty. Not that I am at all in want of materials ; but the time 
 allowed me to deal with them is so exceedingly short. To des- 
 cribe fully the various acts of Lord Northbrook's administration 
 would require as many hours as you will allow me minutes. I 
 am free to admit that Lord Northbrook is no hero in the popular 
 acceptation of the terms. He has conquered no kingdom ; he has 
 added no new province to the empire ; nor shone foremost at the 
 head of an invincible army. No battle, with its tens of thousands of 
 killed and wounded, proclaims his greatness, nor does the wail of 
 widows and orphans attest his prowess. (Laughter.) Gentlemen, 
 you smile at my idea of prowess being indicated by widows' wail ; 
 but the idea is not new. From the days of Agamemnon and 
 Achilles and Alexander to those of Napoleon and the hero of 
 Sedan, it has been always the same ; the greater the carnage and 
 the greater the number of widows made, the greater the glory. 
 But he has done what no hero ever did ; he has rescued hundreds 
 of thousands from starvation, and large provinces from frightful 
 desolation. (Cheers.) Let those who have witnessed the Orissa 
 famine of 1866, recall to mind the heart-rending scenes of misery 
 and death which spread everywhere, even to the very heart of 
 this city, and then reflect that, under a crisis of exactly the same 
 kind, Lord Nothbrook did not allow a single person to die from 
 want of food, and they will realise the great moral victory which 
 that nobleman achieved. (Cheers. J His greatness is not pro- 
 claimed by carnage and woe, but by the united voice of a
 
 Lord Northhrooh Memorial Meeting 47 
 
 whole nation ; by happy families rescued from the jaws of death ; 
 by peace and plenty over the wide extent of the British Indian 
 Empire. (Cheers.) He has never made his triumphal entry in 
 any Indian town, with hundreds of foemen tied behind his car ; 
 but there is not a homestead in all Northern Bengal where the 
 cheerful voice of gratitude and cordial blessing do not await to 
 render him the highest honor which can proceed from the human 
 heart. (Cheers.) In adverting the other day to the success of the 
 British Arms in Abyssinia, an honorable gentleman, whom I see 
 before me, said that, had there been some reverses, some out- 
 posts lost, or a regiment or two decimated before the walls of 
 Magdala, it would have greatly heightened the glory of the vic- 
 tory ; and, in the same way, I feel almost tempted to wish that 
 there had been a few thousands killed by starvation in Tirhut, to 
 prove to carpers and Black Pamphleteers the true character of 
 the dire calamity which the humanity, forethought, and noble 
 statesmanship of Lord Northbrook so thoroughly and so com- 
 pletely overcame. As it is, the success of that war of philan- 
 thropy against famine was simply perfect, and history cannot 
 afford a parallel to it. (Cheers.) There may have been some 
 little waste here, or slight extravagance there, but I do not care 
 to look at the spots on the sun ; it would imply a sadly defective 
 perception of relative proportion. 
 
 As a statesman. Lord Northbrook is an advanced Liberal, 
 and every act of his during his four years' administration of this 
 country was characterised by a liberality and breadth of view 
 which claims our highest admiration. In a country governed 
 by aliens, the extent of taxation is the best index to the feeling 
 of the rulers, and the sympathy between them and the ruled ; 
 and the first thing Lord Northbrook did on his arrival in this 
 country was to veto the Mufasal Municipal ^ill, which then 
 threatened the people with a variety of new and vexatious impost. 
 To him also belongs the glory of abolishing the income tax, which 
 had created such widespread mischief over the length and 
 breadth of India. The abolition or reduction of duty on many
 
 48 Lord Northhrook Memorial Meeting, 
 
 of our articles of export and import also evince a high sense of 
 equity, Justice and fair-play for the commerce of this country. 
 And, while he has thus reduced taxation, he has, by judicious ad- 
 ministration of the finances of the Empire, maintsfined the effici- 
 ency of every department of Government. He has besides 
 contributed no less a sum than eleven crores to extraordinary ex- 
 penses during the period of his reign. This implies a surplus of 
 well nigh tv^^o and three-quarter millions on the ordinary tran- 
 sactions of every year. Think of this, and then of the deficits 
 and loans which formed such ever-recurring and salient points 
 of our former budgets, and you will be able to appreciate the 
 true nature of Lord Northbrook's financial administration, 
 (Cheers.) Remember, too, that this was effected after making 
 most liberal allotments for extensive public works, which will- 
 materially develop the resources of the country. Bear in mind 
 also that this had to be accomplished in the face of a ruinous fall? 
 in the value of silver, which is the only medium of exchange in 
 this country. But the greatest difficulty he had to overcome 
 was the unceasing cry of "Give, give" from that insatiate dau- 
 ghter of the horse-leech, the Pubiic Works Department, and he 
 certainly did not allow the cry to increase. (Cheers and laughter.) 
 Sir, had Lord Northbrook done nothing else besides extricating 
 the State finances from the muddle in which they were, he would 
 have deserved our highest praise. The task was] Herculean, and 
 it was performed in a manner that left nothing to be desired. 
 
 Lord Northbrook's services to the cause of education were 
 in every way worthy of British a statesman of the highest class, 
 and it touched a most tender chord of sympathy in the heart of 
 my countrymen. His encouragement of art and literature, his 
 urbanity, his freedom from vain ostentation and display, his 
 courtesy, his high sense of justice, without distinction of creed 
 and colour, and his sympathy for the people, were also such as 
 to endear him to one and all. To nothing do the people of this 
 country hold more tenaciously than to that great charter of 
 their liberties, the Queen's Proclamation of 1858, and, when
 
 Lord Norihhrook Memorial Meeting 49 
 
 Lord Northbrook left England, he pledged himself to carry out 
 the behests of our Gracious Sovereign in all their integrity. How 
 \vell, how faithfully, and how zealously he has V.Q\,i that promise 
 is patent to all of you. I could, with the garrulity of my age, 
 dwell for hours on these and kindred topics; but I am afraid 
 that those who will follow me will not thank me for so doing. I 
 must, however, refer to one notable instance of his sympathy 
 for my countrymen. I allude to the monument lately erected 
 to the memory of the Native officers and soldiers who fell in 
 the defence of the Lucknow Residency. They were heroes in 
 the highest sense of the word, and displayed an amount of moral 
 superiority^ the like of which no band of men in any other part 
 of the world has ever shown. Men, at diiferent times and in 
 various climes, have fought with great devotion for their homes, 
 for their country, and for their religion ; but none of these 
 incentives to devotion was at play in the case of the sepoys 
 at Lucknow. Neither nationality nor religion, neither consan- 
 gunity nor community of language, neither love nor interest, 
 tied them to their leaders ; the only chord between them was a 
 sense of duty, and it was enough to make this noble band hold 
 against every inducement which their brethern, their country, 
 their religion and their self-interest could prompt. For days, 
 weeks and months, they fought against all and everything that 
 was dear aud near to them, and one by one laid down their lives 
 to protect their alien leaders, aud all for the sake of that single 
 watch-word, "fidelity to salt." Well may Sir George Oouper 
 say that "the behaviour of those men was simply without a 
 parallel in the annals of the world." But after the restoration 
 of peace, while questionable claims were largely rewarded, no 
 one ever thought of this noble band of heroes, and for nineteen 
 years this memory was left to the care of oblivion, till the gene- 
 rous instinct of Lord Northbrook rescued it, and defrayed out of 
 his own pocket the cost of a mounment to keep it alive, and 
 mark his sense of the glory of devotion. That single act of his 
 ought to endear him to all admirers of moral greatness, and wo
 
 50 Inauguration of the II. C. Mooherjee Library. 
 
 cannot better testify our respect and esteem for sncli a man tlian 
 by dedicating to his memory a statue on which our children's 
 children and future generations may behold the lineaments of a 
 truly good and great man, and leara to appreciate the value of 
 true nobility of heart (Cheers.J 
 
 i:nauguratiok of the hubrish chukder 
 
 MOOKERJEE LIBRARY. 
 
 On Saturday, the 15th July 1876, a meeting icas held at pre" 
 mises, No 18, British Indian Street, for the inauguration of 
 the Hurrish Chunder Mooherjee Library, 
 
 Raja (then Dr.) Rajendralala Mitra, on behalf of the Trus- 
 tees of the Hurrish Chunder Mookerjee Library, requested the 
 Chairman to be good enough to announce the Library open to 
 the public. In making this request, he said, he thought it ne- 
 cessary to say a few words in explanation of the circumstances 
 which had led the Memorial Committee to adopt the course they 
 had done, the reason of the long delay in carrying out the pro- 
 ject, and the aim and object of the Library. Most of his audi- 
 ence were well aware that soon after the death of their late dis- 
 tinguished countryman, a meeting was held in the rooms of the 
 British Indian Association to vote a memorial in honor of the 
 lamented deceased, and a Committee was appointed to carry out 
 the intention of the meeting. The form of the Memorial was 
 largely discussed at a meeting ; and the different propositions 
 then made were referred to the Committee, which was left at 
 liberty to adopt any one of them, or any new one they thought 
 proper which they could best carry out with the means that 
 would be at their disposal. The feeling was strong in favor of
 
 Inauguration of the II. C. Mooherjee Library. 51 
 
 a memorial building, and tho late Babu Kally Prassana Singh, 
 who was so honorably noted for the deep interest he took in 
 every thing that was noble and generous, and conducive to the 
 well-being of his countrymen, came forward with an offer to 
 place at the disposal of the Committee a plot of land, measuring 
 two biggahs, situated on the Upper Circular Road, on condition 
 that the Committee should build at their cost a suitable house for 
 a Library and for public meetings, conversaziones and theatrical 
 performances. The offer was accepted, plans were prepared, 
 and a trust appointed, but the subscriptions raised proved utter- 
 ly inadequate for the purpose. For the thousands who had pro- 
 fessed high esteem and respect for the lamented deceased very 
 few indeed were found willing to come forward with their subs- 
 cription. Five rupees per head from those who professed their 
 frieu'lship for Hurrish Chunder Mookerjee would have raised a 
 lac, but those who were the loudest in their protestations were 
 the most conspicuous by their abstinence from touching the 
 subscription book. After years of toil the total sum realized 
 barely amounted to Rs. 10,500. The plan of erecting a house 
 had, therefore, to be given up, and the land to be returned to 
 the donor. A statue was next thought of, but no materials were 
 available for the purpose. Hurrish had never sat to an artist 
 for his likeness ; and the late Mr. Hudson, who had seen Hurrish 
 often, failed to produce a picture from memory. Scholarships, 
 prizes, stipends, and the like were next taken into consideration, 
 but none of them commended itself to the approbation of the 
 Committee. At this time the British Indian Association was 
 negotiating for the purchase of a house, and as it did not require 
 an entire house for its purposes, the Committee thought the op- 
 portunity a good one for securing accommodation for a Library 
 on advantageous terms. Hurrish Chunder Mookerjee was inti- 
 mately connected with the British Indian Association for a long 
 time. He had laboured for it most assiduously and for years. 
 Early and late at daily desk-work, at weekly Committee Meet- 
 ings, and at monthly and special general meetings, he was fore-
 
 52 Inauguration of the TI. C. Mooherjee Lihrary. 
 
 most everywhere, and identified himself in all its actions. The 
 Association too did much to encourage him in every way. It 
 placed at his disposal for the support of his paper a vast mass of 
 information, and the results of varied experience derived in 
 different walks of life by some of its oldest and most influential 
 members ; it offered him every facility for collecting facts and 
 figures ; it enabled him to mature his views by free discussion 
 with some of the ablest men of the country. Soon after his 
 death the members of the Association assisted in rescuing his 
 dwelling-house from sale under an attachment for debts incurred 
 by him on account of some law expenses, and thereby saved his 
 mother and widow from being driven out of home and hearth ; 
 and since then they had regularly paid pensions for the support 
 of his mother and widow. On the death of his mother they de- 
 frayed the cost of her shradh. His widow still gets her pension. 
 And it was supposed under the circumstances that a memorial for 
 him would be most appropriate if connected with the Associa- 
 tion. The terms obtained were also the most favorable possible. 
 For the sum of ten thousand rupees, the Trustees got the Asso- 
 ciation to agree to place at their disposal three rooms on the 
 ground floor of its new house with the necessary out-offices with 
 the reversion of the whole house in the event of the Association 
 being dissolved and no new one on the same principle being 
 formed within a year ; to keep the rooms in perfect repair at its 
 own cost ; to defray all taxes and rates ; to present to the Li- 
 brary all books and pamphlets that it may receive as presents or 
 by purchase ; to keep a clerk in attendance at the Library free 
 of charge ; to hold in custody the books and effects of the Trust; 
 and to direct the servants of the Association to attend to the 
 cleanliness of the rooms. Thus the whole expense of maintain- 
 ino- the Library was secured, and it was thought that it was not 
 at all likely that better terms could anywhere else be got. The 
 neo'otiations were at once closed, and this Library is the result. 
 For the supply of newspapers the Trustees are indebted to the 
 Editor of the Hindoo Patriot, who has promised to place at
 
 Indvffuration of the II. C. Mookerjee Librarij. 53 
 
 their disposal all tho papers that ho pnrchasos or oots in ftx- 
 change for his paper. As the Patvlot was orifrinally establisluiil 
 and raised to its high position by Hiirrish Chunder Mookerj(!e, 
 and is intimately associated with his memory, indeed it is the 
 best monument that ho could have left of himself and which had 
 been so ably and so successfully maintained by his successor 
 (cheers), it was not apprehended that this source of supply of 
 newspapers either from the present Editor or his successors will 
 in a hurry be cut off. The speaker then read out a statement 
 of accounts brought up to date, which showed that after 
 paying Rs. 10,000 for house-accomodation and defraying the 
 cost of book-cases, furniture &c., there was a balance in the r 
 hand of Rupees 1,500 in Government securities and about 
 Rs. 400 in the Bank of Bengal to the credit of the Library. 
 The whole of this sum will be devoted to the purchase of books. 
 For the future the Library must depend npon the gifts from 
 authors and friends and to such purchases as the Trustees can 
 effect with monthly subscriptions from persons who may wish 
 to borrow books for perusal at home. No arrangement for such 
 subscriptions has jei been made. On the whole the speaker con- 
 fessed that the Library made but a very humble beginning. To 
 those who were accustomed to large National Libraries, com- 
 manding from three to seventeen lacs of books, and whose an- 
 nual purchases reckoned by thousands of pounds sterling, this 
 would doubtless appear extremely insignificant. But India 
 never had a National Public Library, and there was no near pro- 
 spect of one being established for her. In India such an ins- 
 titution would be immensely costly, and it was not at all likely 
 that the Government would undertake one in a hurry. In 
 Europe national libraries derived their supply of bcoks princi- 
 pally through certain compulsory sections of Copyright Acts. 
 In England seventeen copies of every new book have to be pre- 
 sented to the different national libraries, and this at once ensures 
 a free and gratuitous supply of every book published in the 
 country. For books of small value this is not matter of much
 
 54 Inauguration of the II. G, Mooherjee Library. 
 
 consequence, but when we come to large illustrated works, like 
 Gould's 'Birds of Australia/ and the like, the tax on the pub- 
 lishers amounts to several thousands of rupees for every book ; 
 and when the Indian Copyright Act was passed, this fact 
 was taken into consideration, and no compulsory clause was 
 introduced into it. For purposes of registration only three 
 copies are taken of each book, and they are paid for. Had 
 they been deposited in a Library open to the public, it would 
 have been somethiog, but they are buried in the Secretariat, 
 and printed as most Indian books are on country paper, they 
 are only destined to feed our white ants. Had the case been 
 otherwise, and a gratuitous supply of books had been insisted 
 upon for one or more public Libraries, still the result on the 
 intellectual progress of the country would have been simply 
 inappreciable. For years — nay centuries — India must draw the 
 bulk of her supplies of books from Europe, and will have to 
 pay for them all at full rates, and the annual amount for an 
 adequate supply of English, French, German, Italian, and Ame- 
 rican books would amount to an enormous sum, which the 
 Government was not at all willing to contribute. This fact has 
 been felt for a long time ; and those who take an interest 
 in books, or have business to transact which requires cons- 
 tant references to books have adopted the system of divi- 
 sion of responsibility to supply their wants. The Barristers 
 cannot go on a step without books, and they have kept up 
 their Bar Library. The Botanists have at the Royal Bota- 
 nical Gardens at Sibpur an excellent collection of Botanical 
 works, most of them of great value, and all useful to those who 
 are engaged in that particular branch of study. In India, which 
 was a Botanical microcosm embracing within its boundary the 
 flora of every part of the world, from the tropics to the poles, 
 the study of Botany was a most important one, and it was greatly 
 to be desired that this Library should be thrown open to the 
 public even as the Gardens are ; but even then, located as the 
 Library now is, there is no prospect that it would be very largely
 
 Inauguration of the II. C. Mooherjee Library. 55 
 
 resorted to. The Trustees of the Indian Museum are now form- 
 ing a Scientific Library, which, it is to be hoped, will be open to 
 the public. The Library attached to the Presidency College is a 
 large one, but it is not, and cannot, be accessible to the public. 
 The largest and by far the richest library m Calcutta is that of 
 the Asiatic Society of Bengal. It comprises a collection of Mss. 
 in Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic, Urdu, Burmese, Pali, Nepalese, 
 and English, the like of which is nowhere else to be had, except 
 in the British Museum and the India House Library. Its col- 
 lection of European books on Indian sul)jects was also select and 
 valuable, and the speaker could not refer to them without acknow- 
 ledging his own obligations to it ; but it was a private library, 
 intended for use of a private Association, and the public had no 
 right or prospect to avail themselves of it. The only library 
 open to the public in Calcutta w^as the one located in the Met- 
 calfe Hall. It was a proprietory institution ; but the proprietors 
 ■were liberal and they invited the public to participate in their 
 riches. But it was a circulating library, and ,the kind of books 
 it patronised most was just what a great number of people did 
 not admire. " Prose works of imagination " as they call them 
 form the staple of its stock, and many of these were deleterious 
 to a degree. It was a matter of deep regret to moralists and 
 others interested in the moral and intellectual amelioration of 
 mankind, that the public taste of late had taken sostrouga lean- 
 ing towards the sensational, and a host of writers were so 
 busily engaged in pandering to that taste. French novelists of 
 the present day were specially guilty in this respect, and it was 
 a matter of particular regret that many English ladies had fol- 
 lowed in their wake. It is true that they do not openly praise 
 immorality and vice, but they paint immorality and vice in 
 colours which cannot fail to recommend them to unwary readers. 
 Whatever the character of her own life, George Sand did not 
 praise immorality, but her novels are the more dangerous, be- 
 cause they are so insidious. Mrs. Norton revels in her novels in 
 poisoning, murder, seduction, lust, and debauchery ; Miss Braddon,
 
 56 Inauguration of the II. C. Mooherjee Library/. 
 
 Miss Broiigliton, Miss Annie Thomas, Miss Florence Marryat, 
 Ouida and others are all great sinners in this respect, and some of 
 them indulge in descriptions of unbridled lust, debauchery and 
 crime with the most rhapsodical extravagance. They are neverthe- 
 less all fashionable writers, and their works are most extensively 
 read in every English home. And it was not at all to be wondered 
 at if the insidious, prurient, deleterious, or pestiferous intellec- 
 tual pabulum they yield has not much to account for the frivo- 
 lity, listlessness and other evils so characteristic of the 'girls' of 
 the period. But if there were bad novels, there were also good 
 ones. If "Cometh up like a flower," be sickening to every right- 
 thinking mind, there are works of some of the best English writ- 
 ters to afford solace and refreshment. Who is there that, because 
 there are novels by a Reynolds, would condemn the works of Sir 
 Walter Scott, of Bulwer, of Dickens and Thackeray ? "Who there is 
 who will deny that Waverly is as charming as the best of poetry ? 
 Who will prohibit the good because there is the bad ? The speaker's 
 avocations did not always permit him to indulge in novel read- 
 ing ; but he never missed an opportunity of reading novels 
 when good ones came in his way, and he had read many hun- 
 dreds of volumes. On one occasion he was confined to bed by 
 a painful and tedious disease for a whole year, and during the 
 time forbidden to speak and unable to converse with his friends. 
 The only means by wdiich he could allay his pain and forget his 
 illness .was by reading those novels, and he greatly benefitted by 
 the occupation, and those books which afforded him relief he 
 could not denounce as bad or injurious. No, as a means of in- 
 tellectual recreation they were as valuable as good poetry, and 
 for increasing the knowledge of human society, improving con- 
 versation, making men more and more sociable, novels were 
 better. Those whom the cares of the world and the battle of 
 life left ample opportunities for reading them, they were highly 
 useful. But good, bad or indifferent, there they were, and those 
 who sought them would find them at the Public Library. It 
 was not the object of the new Library to supply them. Hurrish
 
 Inauguration of the IT. C- Mooherjee Lihravij. 57 
 
 Cliunder was no great scholar in the ordinary sense of tlie word, 
 he did not pore over ancient classics, nor attempt to unravel the 
 tangled knot of past history. He lived with the living, and 
 thought with the living, and worked with the living. The pre- 
 sent was everything for him, and he distinguished himself most 
 as a political writer, toiling for the good of his countrymen, and 
 it was, therefore, proposed that the Library to his memory should 
 be a political one, calculated to train up his countrymen for 
 working in the same field in which he obtained such eminent suc- 
 cess. With this view it was intended that every work on modern 
 Indian history and every book and pamphlet which had been, 
 and hereafter may be, published, bearing on the social and poli- 
 tical economy of the country, should be brought together, so 
 that the student may have within his reach all the materials of 
 history that he may require for his purpose. la short, the object 
 was to prepare a training school for future Hurish Chundras ; 
 and it is to be sincerely hoped that there will be no want of re- 
 cruits who may in time not only rival but outshine the noble 
 patriot whose memory the nation wishes so fondly to cherish. 
 The resources necessary for the support of a Library of the kind 
 proposed were not large, and should be easily provided ; in fact 
 they had been in a great measure already provided ; but there 
 must be simple-hearted, earnest patriots to benefit by them, and 
 it will rest with the rising generation to show that India has 
 not altogether ceased to bear true and worthy sons; and that 
 they will continue to maintain the literary renown of their ances- 
 tors must be the earnest prayer of all who love their country,
 
 THE TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE 
 BRITISH INDIAN ASSOCIATION. 
 
 At ilie Tioenty-fourth Annual General Meeting of the British 
 Indian Association Raja (then Dr.) Rajendralala Mitra spoke 
 as follows : — 
 
 He had mnch pleasure in congratulating the members present 
 on the twenty-fourth anniversary of the Association. It was high- 
 ly gratifying for him to note that the Association had laboured so 
 usefully and so well for a quarter of a century, and had attained 
 an age, which in human life indicated the era of the greatest vigor, 
 best fitted for the most arduous undertakings. The practice of look- 
 ing back at stated times on the past career of a man's life was a 
 salutary one ; it enabled people to note what they had done and 
 what they had left undone, to learn their faults of omission and 
 commission, to know what they had to be satisfied with and 
 what to repent for. Many a golden youth would have been 
 saved from ruin and degradation if he had annually made a 
 reckoning of how deep he had dipped into his pockets. In the 
 case of corporations and associated bodies this process of looking 
 back was of the utmost importance. It was an old saying, and 
 as true as it was old, that, what was every body's business was 
 no body's business. The tendency always was to shirk work, to 
 leave to others what should be done by one's ownself, and unless 
 there were frequent looking-back, and periodical reviews, things 
 were sure to bo neglected, or to be done in a half-hearted per- 
 functory way that could only lead to failure. Anniversary 
 meetings and annual reports afforded very fitting opportunites 
 for such reviews. They did not come too frequently to convert 
 the reports into mere formalities, nor at too long intervals to 
 allow serious mischief to take place within the interim. The ad- 
 mirable report just read to the meeting afforded a fitting illus- 
 tration of this remark. It gives an excellent summary of the
 
 The Twenty-Fourth Annual Meeting (B. I. Association.) 59 
 
 operations of the past year, and ample materials to compare the 
 work of last with those of previous years, to show how the 
 Association was progressing and where it needed amendment. 
 Some captious people had of late said that the Association was 
 growing old and effete. In his own individual case the speaker 
 found the remark to bo but too true, certain it was that his 
 hearing of late had become dull ; and he required the aid of 
 spectacles to get through his morning papers. Had he been an 
 Archbishop of Granada his Secretary Gil Bias would have pro- 
 bably warned him against new sermons, but being no Arch- 
 bishop and having no Secretary he had not yet received that 
 intimation. The case was however entirely different as regards the 
 Association. The Association was then in the hey-day of youth 
 and vigor and strength and the report showed that it had worked 
 in a manner, worthy of its age and strength, and no associated 
 body in India had done better. Every scheme of law connected 
 with the welfare of the people, every Government measure of 
 importance, legislative or executive, every undertaking or occur- 
 rence bearing upon the well-being of the community had en- 
 gaged its attention, and elicited remarks, observations and 
 action which had borne most desirable fruit. To say this 
 was doubtless to snj what had been the case uniformly for the 
 last five and twenty years ; but that showed that in their asso- 
 ciated capacity the members had yet evinced no symptom of age 
 or failing. The position of the Association was that of a Vigi- 
 lance Committee watching the action of the Government towards 
 the people and serving as the mouth-piece of the people by re- 
 presenting their wants, wishes and feelings to Government, and 
 this was by no means a pleasant one. It was as troublesome 
 and ticklish as walking on a knife's edge with Scylla on the one 
 hand and Charybdis on the other. If the Association did not 
 warmly take up everything legislative and administrative in 
 behalf of those whose unpaid representative it professed to be, 
 they complained bitterly and called it all sorts of names, and if 
 it did go up to Government with advise and opinion on every
 
 60 The Tiventy- Fourth Annual Meeting (B. I. Associatioiii') 
 
 subject, a good many officers of Government and even a large 
 section of the European public dubbed it a Committee of grie- 
 vance-mongers, of factious oppositionists, of intolerable busy- 
 bodies, and what not. Besides that, occupying very different 
 stand-points, the Government officers and the members of the 
 Association could not behold thinos in the same light. A rever- 
 end gentleman, a friend of the speaker, once told him, in reply 
 to an objection to pay for two pages when the matter printed 
 covered only one page, "my dear sir, we have no paper in stock 
 which has only one side," and what was true of paper was equ- 
 ally true of all other things. Of every administrative question 
 there were always two sides of which from the peculiarity of 
 their respective positions the Government could only see the 
 front, and the people the back, and the shield which the Govern- 
 ment always took to be of gold appeared to the people as unmiti- 
 gated base metal, and those who took upon themselves to give 
 expression to the opinion so formed often appeared in a bad 
 light — not as the mouth-piece of the people bringing to the know- 
 ledge of the Governors the wants, wishes, and opinions of the 
 governed, but as individual malcontents who were viciously dis- 
 posed and inclined always to oppose the views of Government. 
 It must be said to the honor of Viceroys, Governors and many 
 high officials that they fully understood the position of the Asso- 
 ciation and of individuals in such cases, and offertd every encou- 
 ragement to those through whom the sentiments of the native 
 public could be ascertained. Bat there were others both at high 
 places and at the heads of municipalities and corporations whose 
 idle impatience or innate haughtiness, or arrogance of rank 
 and power, could not brook contradiction from the people of this 
 country, or listen to expositions of views which did not sort with 
 their own preconceived ideas. Having seen the golden side of 
 the shield they cannot possibly bear to be told that there may be 
 iron even on the other side of the armour. With them all who 
 talk of base metal talk treason — they are obstructives, captious 
 oppositionists, rebels fit to be hung by the nearest tree. In truth,
 
 The Tiventij-Fourth Animal Meeting (B. I. Association.) 61 
 
 such people do not oppose Government but help Government 
 even as Her Majesty's Opposition does in Parliament — to elicit 
 the views of its subjects and to shape ils course so as to avoid 
 mistakes and render its measures most beneficial to the people. 
 And the Association had this credit on its side that what the 
 Opposition in Parliament did for the sake of office, the Association 
 did solely and exclusively for the sake of good Government. 
 But for all that official human nature was no other than ordinary 
 human nature, and flattery and apkaivasfeism always told upon 
 it more effectually than contradiction and assertion of indivi- 
 duality. The speaker felt that he had suffi3red very much in his 
 worldly prospects by not understanding this fact thoroughly, and 
 that the Association by doing its duty and pointing out the 
 character of its side of the shield did also suffer was a well-known 
 fact. But at the same time the only proper course for the As- 
 sociation was to follow that which it had hitherto followed — that 
 straight course of duty, which required it to serve as the inter- 
 preter of the people to Government and of Government to the 
 people, and this it should do with the sole object of securing good 
 Government without any fear of consequences, or any sinister 
 view of favour. It should always, invariably, and on all fitting 
 occasions say its say modestly, i-espectfully, and constitutionally, 
 but at the same time firmly and unflinchingly. It can justify 
 its existence solely by so doing, and will well deserve to be 
 abolished when it failed to do so. Some obloquy, some misrepre- 
 sentation, some abuse it must be prepared to withstand, idle im- 
 patience and official arrogance will always denounce it as med- 
 dlesome and obstructive,but there was always a sufficient number 
 of men in high places who were willing to consult the wishes 
 wants and feelings of the people, and from such men the Associa- 
 tion is sure to have its due for its honesty, straightforwardness 
 and disinterested devotion to duty, and what was true of the Asso- 
 ciation collectively was equally true of the members individually. 
 They could often serve their own ends — obtain situations for 
 themselves or their relatives, favours and smiles from men in
 
 62 A Vote of Thanh to Sir John Budd Phear. 
 
 power, honours and rewards from high quarters, by adopting tho 
 policy of ajjhawaste and johakam, but by subscribing for the sake 
 of a radiant smile or hearty shake of the hand to every thing 
 they hear from men in power without reference to the peculiar 
 exigencies and condition of the people of this country, they will 
 betray the interests of their fellow-men, forfeit the respect of the 
 good, deprive themselves of the approbation of their conscience, 
 and in every way render themselves unworthy of the position 
 they hold in society. They had the choice of smiles and exerts 
 at the cost of sacrificing the interests of the nation ; of all that is 
 most sacred, on the one side ; and the cause of truth, justice, and 
 one's country, but no smiles, on the other ; and he hoped they 
 would find no difficulty in making up their mind as to which to 
 choose. 
 
 A VOTE OF THANKS TO SIR JOHN BUDD PHEAR. 
 
 A Special meeting of the members and well-ioishers of the Bethune 
 Society was held at theTlieatre of the Medical College^ Calcutta, 
 on Monday^ the 31st July, 1876, to take into consideration 
 the best means of commemorating the eminent services rendered 
 to the Society by its retiring President Sir John (then the 
 Uon'ble Mr, Justice) Phear. 
 
 Raja (then Dr.) Rajendralala Mitra, 'at the request of the 
 Chairman, proposed the first Resolution, which was to the efi'ect 
 " that this meeting desires to place on record the feeling with 
 which it accepts the Hon'ble Mr. Justice Phear's resignation of 
 the office of President ; and to express its grateful thanks for 
 eminent services rendered by him to the Society during the last 
 ten years ; and for his unwearied exertions to promote the inter- 
 est and advance the welfare of the people of this country." Ha
 
 A Vole of Thanhs to Sir John Budd Pliedr. G3 
 
 said that he need say nothing to recommend the Rosolution to 
 the notice of the meeting. He thought there was no one pre- 
 sent who would require any argument from him to prove the 
 propriety of adopting it, and most of them could, he was sure, 
 assign many better reasons from their own personal experience, 
 in support of the threefold object of the Resolution than ho 
 could. He knew besides, that the members present felt as 
 warmly on the subject as he did, and needed no advocacy from 
 him. Under these circumstances the best course for him to 
 follow would be to say nothing, and yet he could not allow 
 the Resolution to be put to the vote as a mere formality, a 
 cold, stiff, common-placo expression, like the "1 thank you" 
 of our every-day life. He had also, as an admirer of their 
 late President, to bear his humble testimony to the eminent 
 services he had rendered to the Society, and to the native com- 
 munity generally. The Resolution proposed referred to three 
 things : 1st, regret at the loss which the Society had sus- 
 tained by the retirement of the Hon'ble Mr. Phear ; 2nd, ac- 
 knowledgment for the services rendered by him to the Society ; 
 3rd, his sympathy for the people. In a strictly logical thesis, 
 the first should come last, -for the services should be proved be- 
 fore the regret could be justified. Now duly to appreciate those 
 services, it was necessary to recall to mind the social position 
 of the person who had rendered them ; his official occupation ; 
 the sacrifices he had to make in order to render them ; and the 
 feeling which actuated him ; for the same acts had to be estim- 
 ated very differently under different conditions. For instance, 
 in Europe, an educated gentleman, occupying a high social po- 
 sition, but having no official duties to perform, might, and in- 
 deed often did, for the purpose of simply finding occupation, 
 many kindly acts for his less fortunate neighbours. But his 
 action could not be assessed at the same rate as that of a hish 
 English official in India. Here we had no Englishman who 
 was compelled by enuni to seek occupation to while away his 
 time i none in office, who had not to devote the whole of his
 
 C4 A Vote of Thanhs to Sir John Budd Phear. 
 
 working hours to the most exacting and arduous duties ; none 
 who, under the pecuHar climatic conditions of Bengal, coull 
 be otherwise than anxious for rest and relief ; none who had 
 any of those social ties to exert himself beyond what was ab- 
 solutely required by the exigencies of official duties. Habits, 
 customs, language, religion, and nationality — those potent 
 chains which linked men into one brotherhood — were all against 
 any ardent sympathy between the Englishman and the Hindu. 
 Self-interest in the case of the Englishman for the natives 
 there could be none. The only bond between them was that of 
 one common Government ; but that, alas [ was but too often im- 
 potent when ranged against adverse nationalities, and had rarely 
 been able to overcome jealosuy, ill-feeling and rank animosity. 
 Mr. Phear was amenable to all those adverse influences. He 
 was a foreigner amongst the people, an alien to them in ha- 
 bits, manners, customs, and religious ideas, a Judge in the 
 highest tribunal of the country ; his official duties were the 
 most arduous and exacting possible. Interest in the good will 
 of the people he had none. Bora and bred in a cold country, 
 he was as subject to the depressing effect of the Indian climate 
 as others of his countrymen. Then the Bethune Society could 
 offer him no special attraction ; the essays and speeches which 
 it had to offer were mostly puerile and common place, and could 
 offer none likely to be edifying to Mr. Phear. But, he, never- 
 theless, . rose above all such iuflaences. He sacrificed his rest 
 and ease, regularly and punctually to attend the meetings of 
 the Society ; he attended to the minutest details of their affairs 
 for ten long years ; always held himself ready to afford the 
 advice and assistance that the Society sought ; and laboured 
 with unflagging zeal and unwearied perseverance to promote 
 its interests (cheers). His lectures, essays and speeches wei-e 
 some of the best that. they had had for a long time, and they 
 must have entailed on him much labour and thought, which 
 he could ill-afford to spare amidst his many and harassing 
 official duties. To a person of Mr. Phear's literary reputation
 
 A Vote of Thanks to Sir John Biuld Phear. 65 
 
 such lectures could bring no literary honours, for no man in 
 his position could think of such a reward. He wrote thorn 
 solely for the benefit of the Society, and to induce others of his 
 countrymen to come forward and help it ; to afford encourage- 
 ment to the rising generation of Bengal to betake itself to 
 literary habits ; to promote the advancement of knowledge in 
 India. And what he did for the Bethune Society, he did like- 
 wise for the Asiatic Society, for the Social Science Association, 
 for the Economic Museum, and for a number of other societies 
 and schools. The speaker had said that Mr. Phear did not 
 belong to his nationality, and that he was an alien and a for- 
 eigner. This was true if they measured time by centuries, but 
 there was a time about four thousand years ago (laughter) 
 when his ancestors and those of Mr. Phear formed one race, 
 lived in the same camp, spoke the same language, and worship- 
 ped the same household gods. Fraternal misunderstandings of 
 some kind or other led one branch of that race to forsake 
 the paternal home and proceed to the West ; another to go 
 forth to the East ; and a third to march to the South, forming 
 many new tribes, and races and nations. Under Divine Provi- 
 dence, their descendants had again met on one common ground, 
 the Englishman as Governor, and the Hindu and the Parsi as 
 the governed j and it was highly desirable that they should cir- 
 culate the calumet of peace and dwell in brotherly love with 
 each other (Cheers). One great object, of the Bethune Society 
 had hitherto been to promote this amity and peace, to make the 
 European and Asiatic to meet in good-will and sympathy, in 
 generous emulation, for the advancement of learning, and for 
 the cultivation of literature and science. The gentleman whose 
 name the Society bore was most honourably distinguished by 
 his exertions to carry out this object, and the Bethune School 
 was a monument of his good will for the people. A former 
 President, the Revd. Dr. Duff, was equally distinguished in this 
 respect, and Mr. Phear had most zealously followed his foot- 
 steps. Impelled by touch of that sacred spark which makes the 
 
 9
 
 66 A Vote of Thanhs to Sir John Biuhl Phear. 
 
 world akin, he rent asnnder those fetters which keep men's 
 minds confined to their own kith and kin, and widened the 
 circle of his sympathy. From the patriot he became the 
 cosmopolitan, from the lover of one nation that of many. He 
 did not love his countrymen the less, but he looked upon those 
 amidst whom his lot had been cast in this country with the same 
 kind feeling with which he regarded his own nations ; nor did 
 this widening lead to any dilution of his sympathy. He had 
 been as staunch an Englishman as any of his coimtrymen, and 
 he felt also for the natives, and whether as President of this 
 Society, encouraging the native and the Englishmen to mix to- 
 gether ; whether 'at his own social Board, or at the feasts 
 and social gatherings of the people of this country ; whether as 
 a citizen, or a private gentleman, ho always bore in mind the 
 maxim that true humanity knew no distinction of colour or 
 creed, and that it was the duty of the ruling 'race to stretcTi the 
 right hand of fellowship to those who were less fortunate (Loud 
 cheers). While adverting to this fact, the speaker could not 
 overlook the presence amongst them on that occasion of His 
 Honor the Lieutenant Governor, who had so nobly distinguish- 
 ed his career in Bengal by the same line of conduct and by 
 equal sympathy for the people (Cheers). A civilization like that 
 of the Hindus, of such ancient age, and developed with special 
 reference to their constitution, climate and- social requirements, 
 must differ materially from that of Europe, and Englishmen 
 must meet in it much that from their standpoint they could not 
 but think of as something disagreeable, if not positively repulsive, 
 to them J and yet it would be unreasonable to expect either nation 
 to give up at once its own order of things. Mr. Phear felt this 
 strongly, and he attempted to overcome the difficulty by generous 
 toleration, by kind forbearance, and by assuaging irritation. In 
 private intercourse, he was particularly remakable for the defer- 
 ence with which he regarded the opinion of others. The speak- 
 er had the misfortune to differ from him in opinion regarding 
 many social and other questions, and when he did so, he did not
 
 A Vote of Thanhs to Sir John Dudd PJiear. 67 
 
 ^leet froin Mr. Phear that idle impatience and intolerance which 
 had often fallen to his lot elsewhere, but with every mark of 
 conrtesy which he could expect, and the terms of their friend- 
 ship never sul][:ered the least on account of such differences. 
 This was not saying much, for every gentleman was expected 
 to be civil and courteous ; but, unfortunately among the natives 
 and Englishmen, it was not quite so common as could be wished. 
 Be felt certain that many besides himself had met with the 
 same treatment at the hands of Mr. Phear. Adverting next 
 to Mr. Phear's character as a Judge, the speaker went on to re- 
 mark that the greatest monument of British glory in this coun- 
 try was the High Court. It had been the bulwark of the rights 
 and liberty of the people. No British institution in the country 
 had so completely won the sympathy of the people as that 
 Court, and it was held in the highest esteem. From a moral 
 point of view, the acts of the Exesutive Government might not 
 always bear a close scrutiny, but the fair fame of the highest 
 tribnnal of the land had seldom been soiled by a single stain. 
 It was unrivalled and unique of its kind, and India never had 
 the like of it even in the palmiest days of her greatness ; and 
 Mr. Phear had contributed not a little to support its glory, and 
 was one of its brighest ornaments (Cheers). Comparisons were 
 odious, and he did not therefore wish to indulge in any ; but he 
 could not help remarking that next to administering impartial 
 justice it was essential that the people should be con%anced that 
 impartial justice had been done (applause), and there was not a 
 single person over the wide domain, under the rule of His 
 Honor the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, who did not enter- 
 tain in his mind the firmest conviction that his case in the hands 
 of Mr. Phear would meet with unflinching and impartial justice 
 (Loud cheers). Such was the character of the man who was 
 about to retire from the country ; such the gentleman whose 
 resignation they had assembled to accept ; such the philanthro- 
 pist to honor whom he begged to submit the Resolution for their 
 consideration. His services claimed their most cordial recogui-
 
 68 The Indian Civil Service Examination, 
 
 tion, and they would be wanting in duty to themselves if they 
 failed to render him their best acknowledgements, and to ex- 
 press their hearty good-will for his future happiness and pros- 
 perity. 
 
 THE INDIAN CIVIL SERVICE EXAMINATION. 
 
 At a General Meeting of the British Indian Association held at the 
 Hall of the Association on Friday, the 15th Septemher, 1876 , 
 at 4^ P. M., Maja (then Dr.) Rajendralala Mitra spoJce thus 
 on the subject of the Examination of the Indian Civil Service. 
 
 Raja (then Dr.) Rajendralala Mitra said, he begged to call 
 attention to the discussion that had recently been going on in 
 the public papers on the subject of the Civil Service Examina- 
 tions. The changes which had recently been made in this mat- 
 ter were, there could scarcely be any doubt, highly injurious to 
 the people of this country. Whether as candidates for office, or 
 persons to be "placed under those candidates when in office, they 
 would for certain suffer. But taking a broader view of the 
 subject, he could also add that they would lower the status of 
 the Civil Service. It was true there was to be no change in the 
 number of marks which were requiste to enable a man to pass 
 the examination, but it was impossible to conceive that a young 
 man of 17, 18, or 19 years of age should possess the same 
 amount of knowledge as a man of 21. It was well known that 
 the period between 18 and 21 was a critical one, and a young 
 man who, at 17, might be considered a promising youth, might 
 easily break down at 20, while, on the other hand, however hard 
 the crammer might ply his art, a man who passed a creditable 
 examination at 21 was not likely to break down afterwards. 
 Now under the new rule^ as young men of 17 and 18 would pass
 
 The Indian Civil Service Examination. 69 
 
 the exmaination for the Indian Civil Service, many would after- 
 wards break down, and the result would be that they would 
 have in future as many hard bargains as they had in the days of 
 the old East India Company. Was it of any advantage then to 
 the country and the service that the age should be lowered ? 
 Doubtless it would be of advantage to parterfamilias m England, 
 Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, that they should try to get their 
 sons into the service at 18, and if they failed they could at that 
 age get them to enter into some other service, and it was also 
 perfectly true that if a man failed at 21, there was less chance 
 for him to enter another service at that age. But it would not 
 benefit Indians in the least. The course proposed was one which 
 would result in the people of this country having to pay for hard 
 bargains, and to pay likewise for the maladministrations of those 
 who would be placed above them. The change in the age was 
 also a change against the people of this country, because fathers 
 here could not send their sons to England at so youns: an age to 
 compete at the examinations. No Indian father would send a 
 young man 16 years of age to England to study, and if he (Dr. 
 Rajendralala Mitra) had read anything of History, no English 
 father would send a boy 16 years of age to a country 9,000 
 miles away, for the purpose of passing a competitive examiuation. 
 Thus, the authorities had prevented examinations being held in 
 this country, they also practically prevented young men going 
 up to England to pass the examination there. It was all very 
 well to declare in proclamations and despatches that the door was 
 open to all, but things were managed in such a way that the feet 
 of some were pricked in the passage, while others were allowed 
 to pass on. This was playing false with the people of this country. 
 It was saying to them "come in and enjoy yourself," as the 
 stork said to his guest (laughter) ; but there was little chance 
 left for the guest to partake of the treat. It was the farthest 
 from his wish to say that the Secretary of State had deliberately 
 designed these rnles for the purpose of preventing the natives of 
 India from going up to England to compete at the examinations.
 
 70 Tlte Indian Civil Service Examination. 
 
 but he believed these rules were thought advantageous to the 
 peo[)le of England, and so they were adopted without any 
 thought as to what would be their practical effect on the people 
 of this country, and that is what he wished to point out. 
 
 It might doubtless be said that if the door to competitive 
 examinafion was closed against the natives there was another 
 and an easier one opened for therri ; and a great deal of these 
 changes, he dared say, was owing to the law passed about six 
 years ago for the admission of natives to the Civil Service in this 
 country without any competitive examination. But he could 
 not look upon the new door with any favour. For himself he 
 would say that ho would not go to heaven by the backstairs, and 
 the whole drift of this law was to provide a backstairs for ad- 
 mission to the heaven-born service (laughter). A great deal 
 might be said in favour of careful selection after long and well 
 tried service, but it was not always practicable, and it was sur- 
 rounded by many difficulties which could not be overcome. 
 After all human nature was peculiarly susceptible to butter 
 (laughter) ; if you plied butter ever so slowly but steadily, you 
 would overcome all difficulties at the end. More mistakes were 
 made by the Governors owing to their susceptibility to butter 
 than in any other way. This practice was simply placing a 
 premium on flattery, and could it be said that it was this which 
 was wanted for the good of the country ? Rather that not a 
 single Hindu should be admitted to the Civil Service, than be 
 admitted by means which cannot but cause wholesale demoraliza- 
 tion. It would not matter at all if natives never got into the 
 Civil Service, if the price for it was to be so dear. The admis- 
 sion to the service was sought as a right which as subjects of 
 Her Gracious Majesty, people could claim, in common with 
 others, and if they could not openly claim the right, the conces- 
 sion would not satisfy their legitimate aspiration. There were 
 now several Deputy Magistrates doing the work of Joint 
 Magistrates •, hereafter they might be called Joint Magistrate 
 and their salaries might be increased from Rs, 700 to Rs. 900 ;
 
 Tlie Tndlan Civil Service Examination. 71 
 
 but would that be a real concession ? It would not be admit- 
 ting natives into the Civil Service, but simply making souie 
 berths accessible to natives which have hitherto been held by- 
 Civil Servants. It would amount to a simple change of names 
 in a few cases, and for himself ho was strongly opposed to this 
 gilding on base metal. He knew many members of the Subor- 
 dinate Executive Service, whaVere well able to take charge of 
 districts. Several of these were his personal friends, but for this 
 very reason, if for no other, he would not wish them to come 
 into the service by the back door. They would not do justice 
 to themselves or their country, by entering a service bereft in 
 their case, of all its rights, privileges, and immunities. The 
 essence of the service was its covenant, its perfect immunity 
 from capricious dismissal, and as long as that was not insured no 
 native could govern a district successfully. Every civilian assist- 
 ant would be the master of the native Magistrate under the 
 circumstance, and not an officer w^orking under him. A native 
 Magistrate without a covenant would look more after the favour 
 of his young assistants than keep them to their duty. The high- 
 est moral courage was what was wanted, and the atmosphere in 
 w^hich a native Magistrate without a covenant would move would 
 nip it in the bud. The natives were not wanting iu moral cour- 
 age, but wanted fair opportunities to bring it to test. There 
 were as good fish in the sea as ever came out of it, and if they 
 had there Madhava Rao and Dinkar Rao, they also had hundreds 
 if not thousands as good who had not had the opportunity of dis- 
 playing their talent. As long as a native was not admitted to 
 the High Court Bench, the cry was — "qualify yourself for it.'' 
 But one appointment was made, it gave satisfaction, and those 
 of his countrymen who had been since sitting on the Bench had 
 held their own against the best men from Europe, and the ex- 
 periment which had proved so successful on the High Court 
 Bench would prove equally so in the district under similar con- 
 ditions. Under all these circumstances, therefore, especially con- 
 sidering that the age had been lowered, he hoped the Committee
 
 72 The Disestablishment of the Church in India. 
 
 would strongly urge on the Government the necessity of having 
 competitive examinations in this country simultaneously with 
 the competitive examinations in England. 
 
 THE DISESTABLISHMENT OF THE CHURCH 
 IN INDIA. 
 
 A General Meeting of the British Indian Association zoas held 
 at the Hall of the Association on Wednesday, the 24th Janu- 
 ary, 1877, at 4 p. M. Besides the members present^ there ivere 
 some Parsi visitors from Bombay. 
 
 Raja (then Dr.) Rajendralala Mitra said. — The subject to 
 which ho wished to invite the attention of the meeting was a 
 delicate one, as it was connected with religion, and he wished 
 therefore to bespeak the indulgence of his audience. 
 
 He entertained very high respect for the old-established 
 systems of religion. Leaving out of consideration all questions 
 about their truth, their dogma, and their philosophy it was un- 
 deniable that they had done incalculable good to humanity. 
 Civilization owed its very existence to religion. Take away 
 religion, and the whole fabric of society would at once crumble 
 down into discordant atoms. The highest form of morality 
 was that which was founded on religion, and nothing based on 
 mere philosophy could supply its place ; for while the latter 
 was extraneous and adventitious, the former was self-acting, 
 self-supporting, and innate. If the loftiest philosophy failed in 
 a remarkable instance to restrain a distinguished rationalist of 
 the present age from improper association, it would be easy to 
 conceive what would be the lot of the bulk of mankind, 
 cast adrift without the helm and anchor of religion, and the
 
 The Disestablishment of the Church in India. 73 
 
 manifold evils which would distract the texture of society. And 
 to the individual, reb'gion was as all-important as to society. 
 In thelhour'of tribulation, when human aid is of no avail ; 
 under the oppression of the tyrant ; in the extremity of disease; 
 under the affliction of poignant grief, — what on earth can afford 
 ns so soothing a balm as the solace of religion ? It was there- 
 fore the farthest from the wish of the speaker to propose any- 
 thing that would in any way weaken the influence of so bene- 
 ficial an element in the constitution of society. But he could 
 not shut his eyes to the fact that under particular circumstances 
 religion had proved more injurious to mankind than the great- 
 est commotion of nature. The worst passions of mankind had 
 frequently found the stoutest shield in religion. It was under 
 the cloak of religion that the Hindus and the Buddhists had 
 fought for centuries, destroying; hundreds of thousands of 
 the people of this country. The Vaisnavites and the Sivites 
 under the same cloak fought for hundreds of years and 
 deluged the country with humau gore. It was in the name 
 of religion that the followers of Muhammad carried war and 
 desolation over the whole length and lyr eadth of Asia and over 
 many parts of Europe and Africa. It was under the plea of 
 religion that the massacre of St. Bartholomew was attempted to 
 be justified and the horrors of the Inquisition reigned for cen- 
 turies. Religious animosity drove the Pilgrim Fathers from 
 the home of their ancestors, shot the peasantry of Ireland like 
 vermin under every hedge, and expelled a noble race, alike 
 distinguished for intelligence and enterprise from their father- 
 land to find a shelter in India, it was in the name of God 
 and of peace and good-will for mankind that the wars of the 
 Reformation were pressed to their sanguinary end, and even 
 at the very moment when he was addressing the meeting, the 
 speaker said, the lust of conquest and covetousness, were arming 
 in Europe to let, in the name of religion and peace, the hell- 
 hounds of war against their neiohbours. Turks should not 
 rule over Christians^ and so Christians may shoot the Turk even 
 
 10
 
 74 The Disestahlishment of the Church in India. 
 
 as they are now shooting clown and knouting the Tartars, and. 
 despoil them of their possessions in Europe, held for centuries. 
 That in a few words was the pith of the Eastern question as 
 regarded Russia ; and the circumstance which of all others was 
 the most favourable to making religion a potent instrument 
 for evil, was the union of the Church with State. That union 
 enabled bigoted sovereigns and wicked counsellors to rouse 
 the passions of the masses and carry out their own nefarious 
 purposes. The union was an unholy one, and always tended 
 to mischief. Do away with it, and the causes of war would 
 be cut off by one-half. Nor did the union only foment wars 
 among neighbouring nations ; it was a fruitful source, of in- 
 justice, partiality, oppression, and tyranny in a hundred differ- 
 ent ways, in every Government. The requirements of modern 
 civilization rendered the dwelling of men of different nation- 
 alities and religious beliefs under one Government unavoid- 
 able and to rule them fairly and impartially, religious neutra- 
 lity on the part of Government was a sine qua non. Mis- 
 chief was rife wherever that was wanting, and in some parts 
 of Europe even the dead could not find a decent burial, because 
 the State Church stood in the way. It was a matter of con- 
 gratulation that under the benign sway of Her Gracious Majesty, 
 India had to complain of nothing so outrageous. "While firmly 
 relying on the truth of Christianity, and acknowleging with 
 gratitude the solace of religion," she had granted the peo- 
 ple of this country her august promise that "none will be 
 anywise favoured, none be molested, or disquieted by reason 
 of their religious faith oi observance, but that all shall alike 
 enjoy the equal and impartial protection of the law." Her 
 Majesty's officers in India had on the whole faithfully carried 
 out Her noble behests. With a small dominant race of one 
 creed and subject races of many diverse sects and creeds, in no 
 part of the world had the problem of religious toleration been 
 solved more satisfactorily than in India. The doings of a few 
 heedless and bigoted officers apart — and which only proved the
 
 The Diseslahlishment of the Church in India. 75 
 
 rule — the liberty which the natives of this country enjoyed in 
 this respect was greater and more perfect than what was possi- 
 ble in France, Spain, Portugal or Germany in the present day. 
 Indeed, history, whether ancient or modern, could not afford 
 it a parallel. There was however a blot, and so long as it lasted, 
 perfect neutrality in matters of religion, so desirable in every 
 way. could not be consummated. It was not enough that per- 
 fect liberty should be granted to persons of every sect to follow 
 their respective creeds ; it was essential for perfect neutrality 
 that none should be especially favoured, and this could not be 
 accomplished as long as there existed a State Church, and the 
 relation between the Church and the State became the more 
 galling to all who were beyond the pale of that Church, if it 
 were supported by taxation raised from them. And this was 
 exactly what obtained in India. Amidst a vast and teeming 
 population of Hindus, Mahomedans, Parsees, Jews, Sikhs, 
 Buddhists, and a score of other sects there existed the Estab- 
 lished Church of England for the benefit of a few thousands, 
 and at the cost of the people at large. In the province under 
 the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, amidst a population of about 
 sixty-four millions, there were barely ninety thousrind Christians, 
 of whom scarcely one-fourth represented the Church of England, 
 imd for them alone was a large establishment of ecclesiastics 
 entertained at the cost of the non-conforming millions. Doubt- 
 less this state of things had come on gradually, slowly, and 
 imperceptibly. When the East India Company found it ne- 
 cessary to send out priests for the service of their soldiers and 
 civil servants, mostly their own kith and kin, they had every 
 right to do what they liked with the profits of their commerce. 
 It was but fit and proper that in a foreign country the religion 
 and morals of their servants should be taken care of by their 
 master : and this was what was done. In those days Govern- 
 ment also supplied Europe medicines free of cost to their ser- 
 vants, because they could not obtain them in the country. The 
 supply was stopped when medicines became readily accessible*
 
 76 The Dif>>estahtishment of the Church in India. 
 
 When the Company rose from merchants to the rank of 
 sovereigns, they settled the revenue permanently, and it did not 
 much concern the people how the money taken -was disbursed, 
 for in those days there were no fresh taxes, and deficits were 
 made up by other modes than taxation. 
 
 But the circumstances had greatly changed since. The coun- 
 try had passed from the hands of the Company to that of the 
 Sovereign. The people now felt they had the same rights and 
 privileges as the most favoured subjects of Her Gracious Maj- 
 esty. Her Majesty too had solemnly expressed Her Imperial 
 will and pleasure that they would be so treated. Taxation was 
 regulated by annual budgets, and every deficit had to be pro- 
 vided by fresh taxation. The people therefore had an immediate 
 interest in the expenses of Government, and they could not 
 but feel that the expenditure under the head of Ecclesiatical 
 Department was not what it should be. It was utterly un- 
 called for, for the purposes of State. If all Her Majesty's other 
 subjects including Christians of several denominations, could 
 maintain their religious institutions without State aid, it was 
 expected that those who belonged to the Established Church 
 should do the same. Doubtless the civil servants were brought 
 out to a foreign land, where there was no indigenous source 
 of Church of England priests. But those among the civil ser- 
 vants who were Roman Catholics, Baptists, or Methodists, 
 provided for their religious wants, and so could those who be- 
 longed fo the fold of the Established Church. The Roman Catho- 
 lics were mostly poor, of comparatively less affluence than the 
 Protestants in India, and if they and the whole body of the 
 Hindus and the Mahomedans could support their churches by 
 their own unaided efforts, those who drew salaries of 1,000 to 
 2,000 or 3 and 4 thousand rupees a month could pay for the 
 cost of their christenings and burials. For the Government 
 to support a large church establishment for them leaving the 
 others to take care of themselves, was a manifest impropriety, 
 and needed only to be agitated to be put down. In some dis-
 
 The Disestahlishment of the Church in India. 77 
 
 tricts of Benoral tlie congreffations of the Established Church 
 did not number from three to twenty persons ; while the other 
 religious sects numbered by thousands, and the average be- 
 tween the three and twenty enjoyed the support of Government, 
 and the millions had to shift for themselves. True it was that 
 three persons in a district could not maintain a chaplain ; but 
 if the exigencies of the service sent men to such places, it was 
 not the duty of the Government, to provide for chaplains. As 
 it was, half the districts of Bengal had no ministers of the Es- 
 tablished Church, and none had ever heard of tea and indigo 
 companies sending priests to their gardens and factories. The 
 substantial benefits of the service in such cases made amends 
 for its disgremens. Then the heavy annual cost for the repairs 
 of churches, and the building of new churches, for which 
 Government always paid half the cost, and not unoften the 
 whole — churches raised with heathen money, — was not in keep- 
 ing with the terms of perfect neutrality. Was there ever a 
 single pice spent for a mandir, or a mosque, a fire temple 
 or a Baptist chapel ? If it be proper that Government should 
 aid the people in the maintenance of their religion, the aid 
 should be extended equally and rateably to all ; if not, it 
 should be withheld from all. A fair field and no favour was 
 what the people wished. And nothing could be fairer. It had 
 been said, that the Government aided the Hindu and the Maho- 
 med an religions by leaving the Debotter and Pirottar lands 
 nnresumed, and therefore they had no reason to complain. But 
 it was not so. The lands had been alienated by former sovereigns, 
 and when the Government acquired the country it acquired the 
 property which belonged to those sovereigns, and not what they 
 had already alienated. When the Dewani of Bengal was made 
 over to the East India Company, it did not include the Dibottar 
 and Pirottar lands as taxable property, and consequently the 
 Government by not .resuming them had made no concession in 
 favour of Hinduism or Moslemism. 
 
 As regards the Military service, the speaker said, the question
 
 78 The Disestahl/shment of the Church in India. 
 
 was not quite so simple and easily deraonstratable. In course 
 of a recent debate in the French House of Parliament on the 
 propriety of military escorts for the burial of heterodox members 
 of the legion of honor, several distinguished generals maintained 
 that the efficiency of the array did not in any way gain by the 
 ministrations of priests, but on the contrary it often suffered. 
 This was however, a debatable point on which the speaker did 
 not like to enter. Admitting that large masses of mostly il- 
 literate men, or men of small education, would benefit by the 
 presence of religious teachers among them, the question arose 
 were Protestants and Roman Catholics alone fit to derive the 
 benefit, or were other sects equally amenable to its influence ? 
 If chaplains were necessary for Protestants, they were equally 
 so for Baptists, Methodists, and followers of the Free Church of 
 Scotland. Their number was not quite so large as those of the 
 Protestants, but if a chaplain for three persons in a district was 
 deemed necessary the number of Free Church of Scotland men 
 in the army will be found to be considerably more numerous. 
 Take then the Native army. Were not the Hindus, the Maham- 
 madans, the Sikhs, and the Gurkhas who (constitute it) three 
 times more numerous than the whole of the European members 
 of the army? And if religious ministrations be useful to Euro- 
 pean soldiers, they should be equally so to the natives. Doubt- 
 less the Europeans were on foreign service, away from their 
 fatherland. But the native regiments serving in China, Burmah, 
 Egypt, or Abyssinia, were equally away from their native 
 country, and on duty on foreign soil. The old homely adage 
 "what is sauce for the gander was sauce for the goose.', applied 
 very aptly to the case. In making the remarks the speaker 
 wished particularly to disavow all feeling of jealousy or hostility. 
 Relying faithfully and devotedly on his religion for his individual 
 consolation, he earnestly wished that none should be deprived of 
 his own particular creed. The solace of religion was the highest 
 on earth and he would be the last to deny it to his fellow-beings. 
 In dealing with the question, however, next to the equitable he
 
 The Disestablishment of the Church in IiuUa. 79 
 
 looked mainly from a fiaancial point of view. The state of the 
 Imperial Exchequer he thought was not flourishing. Clipping 
 and cutting down were the order of the day. A largo college 
 had already been abolished for financial reasons ; another was 
 doomed, and many useful institutions were tottering. The 
 shears were actively at work everywhere, and knowing men look- 
 ed upon nest March as pregnant with many new schemes of 
 taxation. The time was therefore most appropriate for consider- 
 ing what departments were the fittest for abolition, and he thought 
 that the Ecclesiastical establishment, not only the least useful, 
 but a standing source of heart-burning to the people. He beg- 
 ged therefore to move that the Association make a respectful 
 representation to the Government for that purpose. He knew 
 offence might be taken here and there. Some of these who 
 benefited by the estabhshment might protest against the move, 
 but the thinking portion of Christains will, he left confident, 
 admit that it was not to the honor of Christianity that it should 
 be supported by forced contributions from those whom the Chris- 
 tains called "heathens ;" and the Parliament of Great Britain, 
 which had disestablished the Church in Ireland, will not think 
 the request of Her Majesty's Indian subjects by any means 
 unreasonable. The inertia of vested interests was hard to over- 
 coijie ; but the arguments which had been found so successful 
 in the case of Ireland, will at the end prove equally so for India ; 
 and in that belief he left the question for the support of the 
 meeting.
 
 THE TWENTY- FIFTH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE 
 BRITISH INDIAN ASSOCIATION. 
 
 At the Tiventy- fifth Annual Meeting of the British Indian Asso- 
 ciation held at the Hall of the Association on Saturday, the 
 12th May, 1877, Raja (then Dr.) Rajendralala Mitra spoTce 
 as folloios : — 
 
 Raja (then Dr.) Rajendralala Mitra said, that when people 
 get into a railway carriage they are fully aware of the time they 
 would have to remain in it, perhaps ten, fifteen or twenty hours 
 or more, and yet before the first hour is out they begin to watch 
 the mile stones, and calculate the distance they have travelled 
 over, and many must have seen with what intentness passengers 
 put out their heads from the windows to know how many miles 
 they had passed. There was a sense of satisfaction, or a sense 
 of relief, in the knowledge which was thus sought by most 
 people. And what was true of railway travelling was equally 
 true of most things concerning life. A periodical examination 
 of the distance travelled over in the course of life, though not 
 always gratifying, was a source of relief, and as we grow older 
 and older we fondly recall to mind the memory of the pa^t ; 
 and if properly utilised, this serves an important purpose. It 
 enables us to realize in our mind what progress we have made 
 and wbere we have broken down, and the realisation proves, ac- 
 cordino- to circumstances, our guide or our beacon for the future. 
 And the retrospect good for individuals, was better for corpora- 
 tions. Certainly a retrospect of the past was most important in 
 matters relating to public institutions, where the history of the 
 past was generally the light for the time to come, and annual 
 meetino-s were designed to effect that purpose. They enabled 
 the non- working members to see the substance of all that was 
 done by their delegates in course of a year ; and thereby to 
 judge how those delegates had worked, and to decide whether
 
 The Ticenty -fifth Annual Meeting of the B. I. Association, 81 
 
 they should be allowed to continue in office, or not. Taking the 
 annual report laid on the table in that light, the speaker was 
 glad to be able to congratulate the meeting on the successful 
 working of the Association, There was no falling-off of energy, 
 no want of zeal, and no want of ability in the faithful discharge 
 of its duties to be noticeable in any respect. He might well say 
 the British Indian Association came to existence, very much 
 like Minerva, in the prime of vigour and armed cap-a-pie, and 
 the very first task it undertook was to tackle with the Charter 
 of the East India Company in 1852 (laughter.) And since then 
 there has not been a single movement of social or political im- 
 portance in which it had not taken a prominent part. The report 
 showed how busily it had been employed. Not a Bill of any 
 importance w^ introduced into the Supreme or the Local Council 
 in which tire Committee of the Association had not taken a part, 
 writing not unoften two or three memorials against it (laughter). 
 It reminded the speaker of a cartoon in the Indian Charivari in 
 which an Honorable legislator is represented as working at a mill 
 which poured forth legislative schemes in a copious stream. And 
 the Association seemed likewise to work a mill, and to pour out 
 a counter current of memorials, strong in facts, figures and 
 unassailable logic (laughter). It was true that he could not 
 congratulate the meeting on the invariable success of those me- 
 morials. Their prayers were not always granted ; many me- 
 morials were thrown out, only a few bore fruit. This was, how- 
 ever, what was to be expected. Remembering the Government 
 under which they lived, and their own political position, the 
 members could easily account for the result. Under the best of 
 circumstances it could not be expected that memorials emanat- 
 ing from a particular corporation would always prove success- 
 ful. The memorials of the British Indian Association, however, 
 were not all thrown away ; even when their prayers were not 
 granted. They exerted a moral influence which controlled the 
 action of Government in a variety of ways, and proved bene- 
 ficial to the community at large. They evinced an activity and, 
 
 11 •
 
 82 The Tiventy-fifth Annual Meeting of the B. I. Association. 
 
 watchfulness whicli could not but subserve the purpose of good 
 government ; and it would be a gi-eat mistake to suppose that a 
 memorial, the prayer of which was not complied with, was ne- 
 cessarily labour lost. The moral effect of an honest sound 
 memorial was always good, and, it should never be lost sight of. 
 It was not in the power of the Committee of the Association 
 always to command success, and they should be judged not by 
 the amount of success which attended their exertions, but by 
 the amount of work done, and the way in which it was done ; 
 and the meeting had in the report submitted ample materials 
 to come to a correct judgment. The members should cast up 
 and see how often they had failed, and how often they had suc- 
 ceeded. If they did not get their prayers granted, they should 
 try again and again till they succeeded. On the whole the 
 speaker believed that they had no reason to be sorry, and he 
 congratulated them on their Committee having done well. It 
 might be said that he (the speaker) was a member of the Com- 
 mittee, and his testimony was not altogether unbiased. He 
 admitted he was a member of the Committee ; but he had taken 
 so infinitesimal a part in the work of the Committee that he 
 felt he could not be biased. Besides he had not abdicated his 
 rights as a member of the Association by becoming a member 
 of the Committee ; and he was at perfect hberty to express 
 his opinion on the work done by the Committee. He would 
 be the first to denounce the Committee whenever occasion would 
 be given for such denunciation. Keferring to the Financial 
 Statement, the speaker called the attention of the meeting to the 
 fact that, notwithstanding heavy expenses on account of estab- 
 lishment, printing, books and contingencies, they had been able 
 to save rupees 2,000 during the past year and their funded as- 
 sets now amounted to Rs. 19,500. With such a nucleus they 
 should be able to go on increasing, and having at command 
 sufficient funds to meet all extraordinary contingencies. It was 
 gratifying to notice that the example set by the Association had 
 given birth in Calcutta to two offshoots, formed expressly for
 
 The Twenty-Jiflh Annual Meeting of the B. I. Association. 83 
 
 the purpose of ameliorating the condition of the people by all 
 legitimate means. He wished them every success, and hoped to 
 see them multi})ly, and the time come when there would be 
 hundreds of such institutions to advocate the cause of the country. 
 But even above such institutions what were most wanted, were 
 unity and honesty of purpose. They were not in want of mental 
 capacity, nor was energy denied them, as was evident by the fact 
 of their presence there, despite the weather (laughter). It was 
 the want of unity which deprived the people of India of their 
 independence some nine hundred years ago •, that want still 
 existed, and until they gained that they would never be able to 
 rise in the scale of nations. It was of all others the most vital 
 requirement for political greatness ; and next to it was honesty 
 of purpose. No political Association would prosper whose mem- 
 bers did not identify their interests with those of their country- 
 men. Self would be subordinated to the community and the good 
 of the community should be the good of the individual. Those, 
 who sought their own individual interests only, were not good 
 citizens. They were as bad as Bazaine who sold a part of the 
 patrimony of one of the noblest nations on the face of the earth 
 to serve his own object. They should be denounced as enemies 
 of the community. They could never help the amelioration of 
 of their country's cause. The speaker was sorry that he was led 
 to allude to them, but he felt strongly that it was the want of 
 unity and honesty of purpose which stood in the way of their 
 success, and those who wished for the good of their country 
 should be the first to secure those requirements. {Cheers.)
 
 MAHARAJA RAMA NATH TAGORE MEMORIAL 
 MEETING. 
 
 A croicded and most influential meeting of the friends and ad- 
 mirers of the late Maharaja Rama Nath Tagore, C. S. i., was 
 held at tlie Toum Hall on Friday, the 10th August, 1877, 
 at 4-30 P. M., for the purpose of adopting best means to per- 
 petuate his memory. Raja (then Dr.) Rajendralala Mitra in 
 seconding the second Resolution said : 
 
 I beg to second the proposition which has been just moved. 
 I think it is a fitting sequel to the Resolution which you have so 
 heartily adopted. You have resolved to place on record your 
 sense of the loss sustained by the community in the death of 
 Maharaja Ramanath Tagore, and this is designed to give due 
 permanence and solemnity to that record. Those who have so 
 cordially supported the first, will, I am sure, with equal readi- 
 ness respond to this proposition. I do not, therefore, think it at 
 all necessary for me to urge anything in recommending it to 
 your notice. The history of memorials dates from the earliest 
 dawn of civilization. Wherever and whenever m.en learnt to 
 live in society they felt immediately the necessity of erecting 
 monuments to the honor of the dead. Doubtless the earliest 
 monument were of a very primitive character — mere tumuli of 
 earth and rubble stone ; but at the time nothing better could be 
 expected. Cairns, cromlechs and rude stone crosses next came 
 into requisition, and gradually rose to the stupendous propor- 
 tions of the pyramids and the princely grandeur of the mauso- 
 leum, culminating at last in the inimitable beauty of the Taj 
 Mehal at Agra. Those great masters of the sculptors' art, who 
 raised statuary to the highest pinnacle of perfection which none 
 has ever since been able to approach, added statues and busts. 
 But whether as cairns and cromlechs, or mausoleums or statues, 
 every nation, whether rude or civilized, has recognised the im-
 
 Maharaja Rama Nath Tagore Memorial Meeting. 85 
 
 portance of memorials. The object is always the same — it is to 
 give permanence to the memory of those whom men have loved, 
 or respected, or held dear, for their virtues and services to their 
 country. The only question, therefore, that we have to decide, 
 is whether the person, whom wo have here assembled to do 
 honor is worthy of a memorial. But the requisition for the pre- 
 sent meeting and the vast gathering which I see before me to- 
 day, have fully answered that question. You are come pre- 
 pared to vote for such a memorial. I can not, however, allow this 
 opportunity to pass without noticing the significance of this 
 gathering. This is an extraordinary occasion : It is altogether 
 unprecedented. I have never seen in this country an occasion 
 like the present. You have often met here to bid adieu to great 
 proconsuls. You have met to welcome the return of successful 
 commanders who had added new glory and new provinces to 
 the Empire. You have gathered to do honor to statesmen who 
 have wielded the destiny of millions. But never in the history of 
 the British Empire in India has such a meeting bet^n held as this. 
 Never did the tribunal in the country, the great officers of State, 
 the leaders of the non-official European community, and the re- 
 presentatives of the nation come together to mourn the loss of a 
 private Native gentleman as they have done this day. (Cheers.) 
 That Native gentleman did not hold any high position in the 
 service ; he had wielded no special power or influence ; he had 
 no power to benefit hundreds ; he had not even the vulgar re- 
 commendation of great wealth — a recommendation which, like 
 charity covers many a sin, and, which I "am sorry to add, not 
 unoften widely opens the portals of honor. He had, however, 
 one thing of inestimable value, and that a single touch of which 
 makes the world akin and it is a matter of no ordinary gratui- 
 tiou for us, the children of the soil, to notice this demonstration 
 of sympathy for him on the part of the rulers. (Cheers.) The 
 circumstance is unprecedented in the history of India, and for 
 it you must congratulate yourselves. Much has been said about 
 the want of sympathy between the rulers and the ruled ; but the
 
 86 Maharaja Rama Nath Tagore Memorial Meeting, 
 
 proceedings of the day offer an empKatic protest against tlie 
 charge. (Cheers.) And it is especially gratifying that it is 
 the high character of one of your own countrymen which has 
 brought on first this great union of the two races. (Cheers.) 
 Believe me, my countrymen, if you will behave as well as did 
 the late Maharaja Ramauath, you will not only deserve but ob- 
 tain the same sympathy from your rulers which has been evinc- 
 ed this day for Raja Ramanath Tagore. (Loud cheers.) To 
 the European gentlemen here present I beg to say that we are 
 aliens to you in language, race and religion, and there must be 
 many traits in our customs, and manners, and characters which 
 cannot but prove uncongenial to you. But if you will make due 
 allowance for our peculiar circumstances, if you will bear us 
 company, you will not find us wanting. Our exteriors may be 
 different, but depend upon it, the human heart is alike every- 
 where and in all climes, and that which will affect the European 
 heart will equally touch that which is in our bosom, and like 
 yours, is susceptible of the same feelings and emotions — it is 
 quickened by the same feelings in Europe as in this country. 
 
 Of the antecedents, of the late Maharajah I need say very 
 little. About a century before the time when the Norman Barons 
 in the suite of William the Conqueror landed on England, five 
 Brahmins of great sanctity and profound learning who were 
 held at the time in the highest veneration by their sovereign, 
 came to this country on the invitation of the first of the last 
 Hindu dynasty of Bengal, Immediately on their arrival they 
 obtained the patent of the highest rank among the nobility. And 
 their descendants for the last 900 years have maintained that 
 rank. Bhattanarayana was the foremost among those five, and 
 his descendants have ever since occupied a prominent place in 
 the history of the country. Some of them were Prime Minis- 
 ters and Chief Judges during the Hindu rule. One of them 
 became the Rajah of Nuddea, and his descendants to this day 
 maintain that rank. In the time of the Mahomedans their des- 
 cendants owned some of the richest estates in Bengal and were
 
 Maharaja Rama Nath Tagore Memorial Meeting. 87 
 
 held in great respect by their governors. One of them was a 
 zemindar in the district of Jessore, and his descendants are the 
 Tagores, whose services to the British Government for over a 
 centiuy, were lately so handsomely acknowledged by Sir George 
 Campbell, late Lieutenant Governor of Bengal, Maharajah 
 Kamanath was the last representative of those Tagores, and well 
 may the Tagore family of Calcutta be proud of him who so 
 nobly maintained the honour of their family, and so greatly 
 enhanced it. If they will only follow his example, the honors 
 of their family will never be tarnished. 
 
 Born at a time when there was no good school in the town — in 
 the year 1800, — Raja Ramanath had very little scholastic educa- 
 tion. A grammar school kept by one Mr, Sherbourne, afforded 
 him the first rudiments of the English language ; but he had able 
 private teachers under whose care he acquired a great profici- 
 ency in English, Sanskrit, Persian and Bengali languages — so 
 much so that in his time he was noted for the ease and grace 
 with which he wrote in English. About the time when he was 
 stepping over the line which marks the boundary between youth 
 and manhood, his cousin, the late Prossunno Kumar Tagore, 
 started a periodical, called the Indian Reformer, and Mahara- 
 jah Ramanath was its most frequent and the ablest contributor. 
 Por upwards of 40 years afterwards he never dropped the habit 
 of writing. He wrote frequently for the Englishman and Ben- 
 gal Harhara. Under the encouragement afforded him by Mr. 
 Stoquelor, Mr. William Cobb Hurry, Mr. Parker of the Civil 
 Service, and a host of other influential and learned men, he soon 
 made up what was wanting in his collegiate education. The 
 only work of his to which I would draw your attention is one 
 entitled, the ''^Impropriety of Combining the Duties of the Collec- 
 tor and Magistrate in the same person.''' This book proves the 
 vast extent of his experience, his thorough knowledge of consti- 
 tutional law, and the liberality of his sentiments. 
 
 The first time he took up public question was in connection 
 with resumption of Lakraj land, and though he failed to attain
 
 88 Maharaja Rama Nath Tagore Memorial Meeting. 
 
 his object, nevertheless his example produced a complete change 
 in the feelings and motives of the people of this country. In 
 fact, it vi^as the first lesson in politics given to the Natives of 
 this country. His labours in connection with the Landholders' 
 Association were noted for great self-sacrifice and energy. Ho 
 was the founder and the most devoted supporter of the British 
 Indian Association. In fact he was the life and soul of that 
 institution, and he laboured for its advancement with the greatest 
 devotion and without any interruption or break for a quarter 
 of a centur}'. From the peculiar character of our political 
 condition, it is impossible for a political reformer to moA^e with- 
 out opposing many a measure of Government, and Maharajah 
 Ramanath in his connection with the several Associations never 
 hesitated a moment to do so, or to declare openly and frankly 
 what he thought. But his sincerity, his loyalty, and his recti- 
 tude of purpose were well known, and he never offended the 
 rulers of the land. On the contrary they reposed in him as 
 you had just now heard from the Lieutenant-Governor, every 
 confidence, and no Native in India was a more trusted coun- 
 sellor. 
 
 Though he was not born to struggle for existence, he never- 
 theless thought labor to be the most important element in the 
 economy of civilized society. He knew well that in the provid- 
 ence of nature idleness meant decadence, retrogression and posi- 
 tive crime, and labour meant life, progress and advancement, 
 and he never for a moment hesitated to make his choice. 
 Throughout his long and prosperous life he strictly acted up to 
 that principle. He was a devout worshipper of duty, and was 
 never wanting. He dreaded idleness, and always courted work; 
 He was more regular in his attendance at the office of the 
 British Indian Association ; more punctual than many of its 
 clerks. I wish that many of my countrymen, who are listen- 
 ing to me, will try to imitate their lamented friend, at least in 
 this respect, and I can assure them that they will largely benefit 
 themselves and their country if they would take a leaf from
 
 MaJiaraja Rama Nath Tagore Memorial Meeting. 80 
 
 the book of life of their lamented friend. I fear I am taking 
 up too much of your time ; but I hope you will excuse me wheu 
 I assure you that I had an intimacy with this noble man for 
 well nigh forty years ; and in speaking of him I cannot but give 
 vent to my feelings. As a social reformer he was second to 
 none of bis time. A friend and associate of Rajah Ram Molma 
 Roy, he co-operated with him in his works of reform, and was a 
 staunch advocate of everything that was honest, liberal, and 
 benefical to his fellow-men. He sought not eclat ; he sought not 
 notoriety or credit for himself ; nor did he rush forward, leaving 
 his countrymen far behind. He sought advancement for hig 
 countrymen, and thoroughly identified himself with them. But 
 it is as the political teacher of his country that I desire to offer 
 him my meed of praise. Sometime ago a gentleman remarked 
 that in India the word patriotism was the "offscouring of college 
 declamation." It is not my wish to recall to your mind the his- 
 tory of the many republics that once flourished in this country, 
 nor break a lance with the defamer, for he is no more. Had 
 that gentleman only known Maharaja Ramauath he would never 
 have said such a thing. I do not know whether the Maharajah 
 would have leapt into the chasm in a forum for his country, or 
 headed a band of patriotic soldiers ; the opportunity was never 
 presented to him. But I hold that a man, who systematically 
 and unflinchingly devotes a life of six and seventy years to the 
 good of his country, and never for a moment forsakes its inte- 
 rests ; who amidst calunmy and obloquy, and at the sacrifice of 
 all his own interests, consecrates his life to the service of his 
 fellow-men, has in him something more worthy of respect than 
 the "offscouring of college declamation". He may not surprise 
 us with the theatrical effect of jumping into a chasm, but there 
 is at least something more sterling of patriotism than is worth 
 only a sneer. Sir, he, as I have already told you, was our poli- 
 tical instructor. It was his light that guided us in our course, 
 it was his light that cheered us in our undertakings. That light 
 has disappeared. Rajah Ramanath Tagore is no more — he is 
 
 12
 
 so The Hon'hU Dr. Sircar and the Faculty of Medicine. 
 
 dead. But to quote the language of a distinguished orator, 
 *'there is little in the good and the great that can die." To his 
 country Rajah Ramanath lives and lives for ever. He lives in 
 all that perpetuates the memory of man on earth ; in the recor- 
 ded proofs of his own good actions, in the offspring of his intel- 
 lect, in the deeply engraven lines of public gratitude, and in the 
 respect and homage of his fellow-men. He lives in his example, 
 and lives emphatically, and will live in the influence that his 
 life and efforts, his principles and opinions will now exercise and 
 •will long exercise on the affairs of his countrymen. For such a 
 man, gentlemen, I hope you will not deem a memorial by any 
 means unworthy. (Loud Cheers.) 
 
 THE HON'BLE DR. SIRCAR AND THE FACULTY OF 
 MEDICINE. 
 
 At a Meeting of the Senate held on 31st August 1878 to consider 
 the Resolution of the Medical Faculty and Dr. Mahendra Leal. 
 Sircar s letter in reference thereto regarding his nomination to 
 that hodyy Raja (then Dr.) Rajendralala Mitra spoke as 
 follows : — 
 
 Raja (then Dr.) Rajendralala Mitra thought the resolution 
 proposed was a great mistake, but it was only one of a series 
 which made a complete comedy of errors. The first error was 
 committed when the name of Dr. Mahendra Lai Sircar was pro- 
 posed for the Faculty of Medicine. It was not at all wanted ; 
 and it brought discord into a — if not happy at least a — peaceful 
 family. The second mistake was committed by the Faculty 
 of Medicine when they recorded a resolution for the expulsion 
 of Dr. Mahendra Lai Sircar from their body. It was not at all
 
 The Hon hie Dr, Sircar and the Faculty of Medicine. 91 
 
 necessary, and it served only to make a mountain of a mole- 
 hill. If thoy did not want the breath of homoepathy to come 
 between the wind and their dignify, the Faculty could have 
 easily attained their object without having recourse to so serious 
 a resolution. None knew better than Englishmen how to send 
 a man to Coventry, — it was ii peculiarly English practice — and 
 had it been resorted to, Dr. Mahendralal Sircar would have 
 been driven from the Faculty at the very first meeting. Ho 
 would never have attended a second ; and he would have been 
 got rid of in the easiest way possible. And with such a ready 
 means at command it was a grave mistake to resort to a formal 
 and ostentatious vote of expulsion. The third mistake was com- 
 mitted by Dr. Mahendra Lai Sircar when he wrote the last para 
 of the letter which was submitted at the last meeting, and iu 
 which he offered to resign in the event of the Faculty of Medi- 
 cine not being satisfied with his explanations. Read off-hand 
 and without an eye to criticism it could not be taken in any 
 other sense than that of an unqualified offer of resignation, — a 
 complete surrender at discretion. But at the same time the 
 scarcely noticed little word '' thereby" which overrode his offer, 
 kept a wide door open for discussion. When he (the speaker) 
 heard the last para, of the letter he was very much disgusted, 
 and so were many other persons present at the meeting ; and 
 he (Dr. Mitra) had made up his mind not to have any thing 
 further to do with the matter. But he was subsequently obliged 
 to change his opinion. He felt he had a duty to perform. As 
 a member of the University he had a small fraction of respon- 
 sibility resting on him and he was bound to act accordingly, 
 and hence the part he took in the discussions of the day. The 
 fourth mistake was committed by the Faculty of Medicine ; and 
 he was surprised that it had been committed by so learned a 
 body thorougly conversant with the ways of the world. Had 
 the Faculty taken Dr. Mahendra Lai Sircar at his word, and 
 simply said that they were not satisfied with the explanation 
 given, there would have been an end of the matter, and a
 
 92 The Hon'hle Dr. Sircar and the tacvlty of Medicine. 
 
 satisfactory end it would have been. Dr. Sircar would have had 
 his mouth closed, and, however much he might have riggled 
 he could not have escaped. He would have been held like an eel 
 in the well-sanded grip of a scullion. Resignation would have 
 been the only resource left him, and a thorough gentleman as he 
 was, — and his greatest enemy did not deny him that attribute — 
 out of respect for his own words he would have resorted to it. But 
 the Faculty descended to argument, and thereby let go their hold. 
 And the arguments they resorted to were of the weakest kind, 
 full of fallacies and misstatements and they altogether changed 
 the aspect of the question at issue. The speaker had the high- 
 est respect for the members of the Faculty of Medicine. Some 
 of them were his personal friends, and he was loath to say any 
 thing that would give them offence. As a body of educated 
 English gentlemen the medical profession in Calcutta included 
 members, who were second to no other in thorough scientific 
 attainments and high social standing, and under ordinary cir- 
 cumstances he would never have taken upon himself to criticise 
 the doings of the elite of that body. But truth was supreme, 
 and must override all other considerations. It had been remark- 
 ed by the mover of the resolution that the arguments have been 
 given out of courtesy to Dr. Sircar. But such a courtesy to 
 one who was recommended to be expelled neck and crop was the 
 merest mockery, and the arguments were so fallacious that they 
 could not by any means commend the action proposed. The 
 learned members of the Faculty were particularly anxious to 
 assure the Senate that they had not been impelled by any vin- 
 dictive motive in making their proposition. They say, "The 
 Faculty do not, in the very faintest degree, desire to impose 
 restriction upon the most perfect freedom of opinion and prac- 
 tice in medical science," nor do they pretend "to condemn a 
 professional brother" for entertaining views "divergent from 
 their own." But was that correct ? Was it consistent with 
 the course of action they had adopted with reference to their 
 erring 'brother' \ What their desire was best known to them.
 
 The Hon'hle Dr. Sircar and the FacuUi/ of Medicine, 93 
 
 bnt their action divulged that they were very hostile to 
 the heterodox brother. They proposed to expel him from 
 a place of honor such as it was, and to cast a slur on his profes- 
 sional character, and yet they would fain make the Senate and 
 the public believe that they were not thereby trying to place 
 restriction on perfect freedom of opinion in scientific matters. 
 They would not associate with a man even in public business, 
 and yet they wished to maintain that they were acting fairly 
 and liberally towards him. Such protestations have been made 
 by all who wished to tyranise over their fellow-men, but they 
 have never succeeded in obtaining the confidence of right-mind- 
 ed men. AVhen the Hindus sought to deprive apostates of 
 their ancestral property, they said the apostates deliberately gave 
 up their claim to the property of their ancestors, they kicked 
 away their brethern, and preferred their spiritual to their world- 
 ly rights, and they should, therefore, not be allowed to inherit 
 the property of their Hindu parents and relatives. But the 
 British Government thought differently, and that very justly, 
 and passed a law declaring that none should incur any such 
 penalty for the sake of his religious opinion. Thrice did Baron 
 Rothschild appear before the bar of the House of Commons, 
 and thrice was he sent away, because he could not subscribe 
 to certain religious dogmas. There was no question about his 
 fitness for office, he was duly elected by the people, and he had 
 all the benefits of the English constitution secured to him, but 
 his religious opinion stood in the way of his acting as a member 
 of Parliament, and the good sense of the English public and 
 of Parliament at last did him justice by passing the Act for the 
 removal of the disablity of the Jews. The fact was that every 
 let or hindrance to a man's enjoying to the utmost the rights 
 and privileges of the community to which he belongs, and to 
 which he is entitled by his ability and his social position, on ac- 
 count of individual and national opinion on particular matters, 
 was a restriction — nay an injustice of which he had every right to 
 complain. Lord Macaulay had most emphatically shown this iu
 
 94 The Hon hie Dr. Sircar and the Faculty of Medicine. 
 
 Lis essay on the Disability of the Jews, and as every member of 
 the Senate had read it, it was not necessary to quote from it. 
 Dr. Sircar was one of the most distinguished eleves of the Uni- 
 versity, and he was in every way fit to sit on its councils, and he 
 was to be driven to rustication simply because he entertained 
 heterodox opinion about the doses in which certain drugs were 
 to be administered. If that was not putting him under a ban 
 the speaker knew not what would be a restriction. It was true 
 that the rustication was proposed to be limited to the Faculty of 
 Medicine. But it was not in the power of the Faculty to do 
 more, and so they did not attempt it. The second statement of 
 the Faculty involved a gross fallacy. The Faculty maintain 
 *'that Homoeopathy is based upon principles and methods of en- 
 quiry which are diametrically opposed to what they believe to be 
 true principles and methods of sound, logical, inductive reaso- 
 ning, a careful and thorough-going research/' or in other and 
 simpler words that which was sometimes wrong and sometimes 
 right was to be preferred to that which was invariably wrong. 
 This was a gross fallacy. That which was invariably «*vrong was 
 not necessarily worse than that which was sometimes right and 
 sometimes wrong. The reverse of the case was often but too 
 true. Pulling out his watch the speaker said, this watch is in- 
 variably wrong, it goes two to five minutes too fast or too slow, 
 but it is infinitely better and more useful than the watch that 
 did not go, and was on that account mathematically exact twice 
 every twenty-four hours. (A laugh). The meeting may laugh 
 at the illustration, but it was used by the greatest logician of 
 the day to illustrate that class of fallacy. The next argument 
 nrged by the Faculty was that "there would be no common 
 meeting ground of thought or opinion between themselves 
 and individuals who profess or practise Homoeopathy." This 
 however was as incorrect as the preceding. All the leading 
 subjects of medical study were common among the Homoeopath 
 and the Allopath. They both recognised the same Anatomy, 
 the same Physiology, the same Surgery, the same Chemistry,
 
 The Hon hie Dr. Sircar and the Faculty of Medicine. 95 
 
 the same Midwifery and the same Dentistry, and in all tliose 
 they had a common meeting rrround of thouglit and opinion. 
 They differed not in the least in such matters, and there could 
 not be any thing but a consensus of opinion regarding them. 
 Doctors were not noted for their unanimity. Proverbially the re- 
 verse was the case ; but in all the subjects named they could not 
 but agree to the fullest extent to which any two doctors could 
 agree, and in all of them theyhad an extensive field for meeting in 
 common, as they possibly could wish. The only subject in which 
 the Allopath differed from the Homoeopath was regarding the doses 
 of medicine ; in that one rode his infiuitesimal hobby, the 
 other the wooden horse of heroic doses. But that single differ- 
 ence could not in any way affect the position of the Homoeopath 
 in the Faculty of Medicine. His opinion as that of a single 
 individual could not in any appreciable degree influence the 
 action of the other members. Had the proposition before the 
 meeting been the propriety of appointing a Homoeopath as a 
 teacher in the Medical College or even an examiner, the question 
 would have been different. But no such functions appertained 
 to the Faculty ; they were only advisers of the Senate in medical 
 subjects, and the advice alwa3^s came in the form of resolutions 
 or reports adopted by a majority at a meeting of the Faculty, 
 and the opinion of a heterodox individual would be nowhere in 
 such cases. The next argument was an important one, and if it 
 could be shown that it was correct the Senate should be entirely 
 governed by it. The Faculty urge that "taking an earnest 
 interest in the success and prestige of the Calcutta University, 
 specially in the welfare of its medical graduates, the Faculty 
 cannot consent to be partakers in the introduction of a change 
 which would imperil that success, and deteriorate the value of 
 the University medical degrees." And if this should really 
 be the case, the speaker would be the last to advocate any 
 change. But he was not aware of any change. Believers in 
 Homoeopathy were connected with the University from a long 
 time, and nothing in the way of change had lately been pro-
 
 S6 The Hon'ble Dr. Sircar and the Faculty of Medicine. 
 
 posed. The presence of a Homoeopath in the Faculty was prac- 
 tically not more noxious than his presence in the Senate. 
 The speaker was not aware that the medical degrees of the 
 Calcutta University were at present recognized by the Univer- 
 sities and medical corpoi-ations in England. He had read in 
 a recent number of the Indian Medical Gazette that Sir Joseph 
 Fayrer and other friends of the Calcutta University were 
 only " trying " to get the Calcutta degrees recognised, but 
 that they had not yet attained their end, though there was 
 every likelihood of their attempts proving successful. Nor was 
 he aware of any such act of Parliament as the mover of the 
 resolution had referred to. He was aware of the Bill for 
 the amendment of the Medical Act, submitted to the Upper 
 House by the Duke of Richmond and Gordon the President 
 of Her Majesty's Privy Council, but it had not gone to the 
 Lower House and could not be the law of the land until 
 passed by the (!lommons at the next sessions. Such as it was, 
 that Bill instead of putting obstructions in the way of degrees 
 tainted by Homoeopathic taint, went quite the other way. The 
 Duke of Richmond wished particularly to prevent sectarianism 
 and trade, guild predilections from obstructing the progress 
 of medical science. All he insisted upon was a fair knowledge 
 of the science however acquired. In his speech His Grace re- 
 ferred to clauses 5 to 7 of his Bill which enabled " a person 
 who had obtained a medical diploma entitling him to practise 
 in a colony or in a foreign country to be registered on proof of 
 good character, if the diploma is recognised by the general 
 Medical Council, as representing a degree of knowledge tested 
 by examination, equal to that which is required for obtaining 
 in the United Kingdom a qualification for registration. H the 
 General Council refuses to recognise a diploma, an appeal is 
 allowed to the Privy Council." In this there was nothing that 
 could imply that the registration would be withheld if a member 
 of the Faculty of Medicine of the University granting the di- 
 ploma should be supposed to be a Homoeopath, but on the con-
 
 The Tlonhle Dr. Sircar and the Faculty of Medicine. 97 
 
 trary, every assurance was given that should the General Medi- 
 cal Council be guided by narrow sectarian jealousy, or unrea- 
 soning antipathy, they should be overridden by Her Majesty's 
 Privy Council, and perfect fair play should be insured to all 
 comers. In the face of this it would be absurd to suppose that 
 the retention of Dr. Sircar in the Faculty of Medicine would 
 be prejudicial to the interests of the University. It was worthy 
 of note that when the Duke of Richmond's Bill was drafted, 
 it must have been well known to him that in Canada the candi- 
 dates for medical degrees are required to pass an examination 
 in Homoeopathy, and to show that they not only knew the 
 principles of Allopathy thoroughly, but were also acquainted with 
 those of Homoeopathy, and that notwithstanding this open 
 teaching and learning of Homoeopathy, the degrees were de- 
 clared to be good and fit to be registered in England. Nor was 
 the idea of the appeal for the first time broached by the Duke 
 of Richmond and Gordon. The feeling of trade jealousy which 
 prevailed in certain quarters was well known in England for 
 sometime before, and the Government took particular care to 
 repress it as much as possible. A remarkable instance of this 
 was aflPorded by the charter of the Royal College of Physicians. 
 The twenty-third section of that charter, which was the Medical 
 Act, Victoria 21 cap. 90, runs thus : " In case it shall appear 
 to the General Council that an attempt has been made by any 
 body entitled under this Act to grant qualifications, to impose 
 npon any candidate offering himself for examination an obliga- 
 tion to adopt, or refrain from adopting, the practice of any par- 
 ticular theory of medicine or surgery, as a test or condition of 
 admitting him to examination, or of granting a certificate, it 
 shall be lawful for the said Council to represent the same to Her 
 Majesty's Most Honorable Privy Council, and the said Privy 
 Council may thereupon issue an injunction to such body so act- 
 ing, directing them to desist from such practice, and, in the event 
 of their not complying therewith, then to order that such body 
 should cease to have the power of conferring any right to be
 
 98 The Ilori'hU Dr. Sircar and the Faculty/ of Medicine. 
 
 registered under the Act so long as they shall continue such prae- 
 tice." In this not only was no restriction put upon heterodox the- 
 ories in medicine, but a positive penalty attached to refusal to re- 
 cognise such theories, and with that section before them the Senate 
 could not believe that there was any valid reason to rusticate 
 a learned and honoured member of their body for being suspect- 
 ed to be tainted with some slight soupcon of Homoeopathy, 
 though the accused himself repudiated the title of a Homea^path 
 and claimed that of a physician. The apprehension of non- 
 recognition in England was in fact utterly unfounded, — it 
 was the merest scarecrow, and should not have the smallest 
 attention paid to it. The mover of the Kesolution had said some- 
 thing about persons tainted by Homoeopathy not being entitled 
 to remuneration under certain medical Acts of England. But 
 surely if the degree-holders could under the proposed Act get 
 themselves registered ; they would find no difficulty whatever 
 in realising their fees. The main object of the registration was 
 to ensure their status in the profession, and having got that 
 they could not be deprived of their dues. But at the worst 
 that would apply to Homoeopaths and could not by any means 
 apply to persons who practised Allopathy, but who had obtained 
 their degrees from a University in the Faculty of Medicine of 
 which there was a Homoeopath. To connect them as cause 
 and effect was as far fetched as it was unworthy of the learned 
 gentleman who had moved the Resolution. The speaker said 
 he had gone through the arguments sereatim to show that there 
 \vas nothing whatever in the Resolution of the Faculty of Medi- 
 cine which would for a moment justify the action which the 
 Senate were called upon to take. However unpleasant it may 
 be to say so it was evident that the movement had been made 
 with a view to punish a heterodox brother. The whole course 
 of action of the Faculty showed that it was so. Nor was it 
 at all remarkable or unnatural. It was iu human nature to be 
 displeased with those who rose in rebellion against a routine 
 system. The speaker as a Hindu disliked those who became
 
 Tlie Ilmi'hh Dr. Sircar and the FacuUfj of Medicine, 99 
 
 Y^orverts from bis religion and kicked away their parents and 
 relatives, and Christians did the same wlien persons of their 
 fiiith renounced Christianity ; and no wonder therefore that al- 
 kpathic doctors should dislike him who should, after having 
 been brought up in their faith, abjure them and betake to in- 
 jSnitcsimal doses, and try to cast a slur on his professional re- 
 putation. But the Senate as the governing body of the Uni- 
 versity should not be influenced by any such motive. The 
 consideration had taken up much time, but the subject was of 
 great importance for the honor and credit of the University, 
 and could not be disposed of in a summary manner. There 
 ■was yet one point more to which Dr. Mitra would advert be- 
 fore he resumed his seat. He was surprised at the threat con- 
 veyed in the remark made by the learned mover of the Resolu- 
 tion to the effect that non-compliance with the request of the 
 Faculty would lead to " a reconstruction of the Faculty.'' The 
 s|ieaker was extremely sorry to hear that such a threat had been 
 put forth. It was highly improper to attempt to force the 
 Senate to a particular line of action by a threat, and the Senate 
 should on no account be controlled by so unbecoming a means. 
 The speaker had much faith in the good sense of the gentlemen 
 who composed the Faculty, and could not for a moment believe 
 that as servants of Government by whom they had been appoint- 
 ed members of the University, they would evince so reprehen- 
 sible a spirit of insubordination as to resign their seats in the 
 Faculty, for an appointment legally and fairly made by their 
 superiors — the Senate. No, that was impossible, and the Senate 
 need not at all apprehend any such contingency. The speaker 
 had no faith in Homoeopathy, and did not at all care for the 
 theory of infinitesimal. Nor had he any sympathy for those 
 who did so. He did net speak to advocate the cause of Homoeo- 
 pathy nor for the sake of Dr. Mahendra Lai Sircar. Dr. Sircar, 
 notwithstanding the slur that would be cast on him by lieing 
 driven out of the University, would be no great loser. There 
 •VYcre dupes enough in Calcutta who would continue to swallow
 
 100 The Ilorihle Dr. Sircar and the Faculty of Medicine. 
 
 his globules and pay him his fee, and he would go on as well as 
 he did ; he would most likely prosper all the better for the pro- 
 secution. But the reputation of the University was a matter of 
 vital importance, and the speaker was most anxious that it should 
 not suffer from an unworthy action on the part of the meeting- 
 It rested with the meeting to decide whether the University 
 should be known to the public and posterity as composed of the 
 representatives of those who condemened Galileo, or of educated 
 English gentlemen of the latter half of the 19th century; 
 whether the Fellows should be the leaders of trade guilds and 
 professional jealousy, or liberal patrons of science ; whether they 
 should be men at strike ready to ratten those who did not fall in 
 their ways, or upholders of perfect freedom of thought and 
 action ; whether they should be the administrators of a moral 
 Lynch law, or the protectors of honest and independent enquiry 
 into the arcana of nature ; and it was earnestly to be hoped that 
 their decision should not disappoint the public. Dr. Mitra con- 
 cluded by moving an amendment to this effect that the letter of 
 Dr. Mahendra Lai Sircar and the Resolution of the Faculty of 
 Medicine be recorded.
 
 THE DOORGA POOJA HOLIDAY QUESTION. 
 
 At a General Meeting of the British Indian Association held a' the 
 Hall of the Association on Friday, the 29th August^ 1879, 
 Raja {then Dr.) Rajendralala Mitra thus spoke on the subject 
 of the Doorga Pooja Holiday question. 
 
 Raja (then T)v.) Rajendralal Mitra said, the worst month for 
 enjoying a holiday was September, next only to Jnly and August. 
 The country then — at least in Bengal — is under water, and the 
 dry land is reeking in jungle and malaria. No one can shen 
 have a run after a jackal unless he chose to wade knee-leep 
 through water and puddle, and the chance of a stray shot at a 
 snipe was associated with that of a sun-stroke or an attack of 
 ague. No one then could be certain of the weather for six haurs, 
 and if nothing worse happened, being drenched with a good 
 shower-bath was always on the card. It was not remarkable, 
 therefore, that the Europeans should detest the Dusserah vaca- 
 tion. It can never be well enjoyed by them. Doubtless one 
 could run to Benares to "do" the Taj or the Kutab ; but that 
 cannot be repeated three times without the idea becoming pal- 
 ling. The planters at the time are busily engaged in drying and 
 packing and notwithstanding their proverbial hospitality, are 
 not always at leisure so to entertain their friends as they are later 
 in the season. The case was very different with the Natives 
 employed in public offices. They sought not Shikar, nor the 
 hospitality of planter friends. They had no penchant for run- 
 ning after jackals, for the honor of the first spear, or for winning 
 the brush for their caps. A great number of them come from 
 distant homes to centres of toil and business, and the Dusserah 
 is the only time when they can go home, look after their domestic 
 affairs, and observe the rites of their religion. To them the Dus- 
 serah vacation is a question of the utmost importance and the 
 agitation wliich has lately been made to do away with, or curtail
 
 102 TJie Doorga Pooja Holiday Question. 
 
 the period of the vacation, has filled them with the greatest 
 anxiety. The agitation commenced with the Chambers of Com- 
 merce, and it led to the appointment of a Committee by Govern- 
 ment to report on the question. The Committee consisted of 
 two Government officers, some merchants and tradesmen of 
 Calcutta, and two natives. The deliberations of the Committee 
 did not result in a unanimous verdict. It is said the native 
 members have urged that the period of the vacation should con- 
 tinue to be twelve days ; the merchants and tradesmen have re- 
 commended four days ; and the Chairman has split the differ- 
 ence, and suggested eight days. The report of the Committee 
 is now before His Honor the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, 
 and it is time that the Association should take action about it. 
 Dr. mitra would be the last to put any obstruction to the advan- 
 cement of commerce. He was well aware that the country had 
 largely benefitted by its foreign commerce. He knew that that 
 commerce had swelled from 15 to 60 millions within his per- 
 sonal experience. It had enabled the people to make the most 
 of their agricultural labours, and to tide over manifold difficul- 
 ties and distress, and every thing possible should be done to 
 promote that commerce. But he could not help thinking that 
 the cry was raised not for commerce, but for some other pur- 
 pose which he did not care to define. Government had already 
 provided for every convenience for the loading and unloading of 
 ships, for Custom-house passes, and for cashing notes, during the 
 vacation that could be reasonably required, and nothing further 
 was needed. Certain it was that those who wished for the cur- 
 tailment of the Dusserah, frequently urged the Christmas vaca- 
 tion to be extended to ten or twelve days, instead of three days 
 now allowed for it. It was equally certain that the pressure of 
 business in Calcutta during December was ten times greater 
 than what it was in September, and if a vacation in September 
 was injurious to commerce it would be ten fold more so in De- 
 cember. In Madras or Bombay the Christmas vacation extend- 
 ed ten or twelve days and uo one heard of the trade and com-
 
 The Doorga Pooja Ilol'ulaij Question. 103 
 
 merce there having been put to disorder. The commerce of 
 Bombay was many times greater than that of Bengal and in the 
 busiest of seasons the vacation did no harm there. The mer- 
 shants and the tradesmen of Calcutta knew this perfectly well, 
 and the obvious inference therefore was that the cry of injury to 
 commerce was not well-founded. But whatever that was, the 
 natives could not but look upon the proposition without the 
 greatest disfavor. It was calculated to deprive them of an op- 
 portunity of attending to their religious duties, for the mufusi- 
 lites could not go home and perform their pujas within four 
 days, nor could they do so in their own lodgings, where they 
 had not the necessary means for doing so. They would be de- 
 nied the opportunity of visiting their family once a year, an*! 
 they can have no chance of recruiting their health by periodi- 
 cal relaxation without incurring pecuniary loss. The last argu- 
 ment has been felt by Government as a matter of great import- 
 ance, and to enable its officers to keep in proper health for the 
 satisfactory discharge of their duties they have devised the rules 
 for furlough, and privilege leave ; but the hard-worked keranis, 
 the drudges of office, can never get the benefit of those rules, 
 and rarely if ever obtain them. No head of a Department can 
 grant such leave to his working hands without upsetting his 
 office work. Leave on private affiii^s can be had by submitting 
 to a deduction of salary which the ill-paid kerani cannot submit 
 to, and the curtailment of the vacation is tantamount to declar- 
 ing that while the favoured high officers will enjoy privilege 
 leave of one month in every twelve, the poor must rot in his 
 chain, and never have a leave. This is a serious issue ; and 
 justice and humanity alike prompt that its decision should not 
 be arrived at without the consideration due to the requirements 
 of the poor. The Europeans whose lot has been cast among the 
 people of this country, who make money by the labour of those 
 people, whom Providence has placed in the position of guardians 
 of the unbefriended poor, should look to the wants and require- 
 ments of the subject race with more sympathy than what the
 
 104 The Pdrsis of Bombay. 
 
 proposition under notice implied. Commerce cannot and does 
 not suflFer by the vacation as it is, but the people will suffer 
 grievously if it is curtailed, and it behoves the Association to move 
 in the matter, and to submit a representation to Government 
 which, the speaker was satisfied, would take a just and sympa- 
 thetic view of the case. 
 
 THE PARSIS OF BOMFAY. 
 
 Tlie following lecture on the Pdrsis of Bombay ivas delivered hy 
 Raja (then Dr.) Rajendralala Mitra on February 26th, 1880, 
 at a meeting of the Bethune Society, Calcidta. 
 
 Bombay is a paradox. It is described in text-books as an 
 island ; but it forms now as good a peninsula attached to the 
 mainland as any other in Hindustan. The sea has receded from 
 between it and the island of Salsette, and between the latter and 
 the mainland, and the swampy bed thereby formed has been so 
 intersected by numerous breakwaters and causeways, that there 
 is nothing prominent to indicate its original insular character. 
 It is the oldest possession of Great Britain in India ; but, as a 
 palatial city, it cannot be described to be quite five and twenty 
 years old. It represents two of the oldest nations of antiquity, 
 the Hindus and the Pdrsis ; but its inhabitants are, with some 
 notable exceptions, parvenus of but yesterday. Its houses are 
 the most magnificent ; there is no other part of India where so- 
 many rich and lofty mansions can be seen together ; but they 
 are all roofed with tiles of the kind called in Bengal khapraely 
 which the officer in charge of the last Census of Calcutta took 
 as the most prominent characteristic of huts. It claims to be 
 wbs jyrima in Indis ; but both in population and commerce it is 
 inferior to Calcutta.
 
 The Pars IS of Bombay. 105 
 
 Bombay has, however, a characteristic of its own which can- 
 not be predicated of any other city in India : it is its vitality — 
 its life, energy, and enterprise. Look where one will, whether by 
 day or by night, everywhere he will find men living, and trying 
 to live, and making the most of their earthly career. There is 
 no Buddha there who plunges headlong into the profoundest 
 abyss of privation and suffering, in order to avoid the chances 
 of disease and pain at some future unknown period ; none is 
 imbued with the pessimism which makes the earth the abode of 
 misery; none to sleep away, or smoke away, his life, taking it to 
 be the summum honum of existence. Every one is hurrying to 
 and fro, fully alive to the value of time, and every one is trying 
 to make the most of his capacity and opportunities. Work, 
 work, work, is his motto, and he tries to be true to it. 
 
 Labour is the lot of the bulk of humanity, and there is labour 
 enough — the most rigorous and grinding in all conscience — in 
 other parts of India ; but it is gone through in a toiling, groan- 
 ing, cheerless way — showing as if the labourers were more dead 
 than alive, and getting through their allotted tasks in a helpless 
 way, obviously compelled by outward forces which they would 
 fain resist if they could. Their houses are dilapidated and 
 weather-worn ; their homes cheerless and miserable — the abodes 
 of dirt and disease; their clothes dirty and torn; their existence 
 m6re a burden than a blessing. They always look behind, on 
 the dead past, and not ahead, for the hopeful future. The very 
 reverse is the case with the people of Bombay. They have no 
 past to think of, no tradition to recount, no bygone glory to 
 bask in. They resort to the place from all parts of India to 
 seek their fortune ; and, when they leave their native homes, 
 they leave all their past associations along with them. In their 
 new abode everything is before them — everything onward and 
 forward, — and they live with all the buoyancy and hope of 
 youth and enterprise. Labour they have, hard and incessant 
 labour — fifty thousand persons labouring in the different mills, 
 from thirteen to fourteen hours a day — and yet they look more
 
 106 The P arsis of Bombay, 
 
 lively and cheerful, and ready to enjoy life with more active 
 zest than what the people do in Calcutta, or Patna, or Benares. 
 And foremost in this race for advancement and struggle for exis- 
 tence come the Parsis, the Yankees of the East, who are as well 
 up in the art of manufacturing wooden nutmegs as in treading 
 the higher and nobler walks of life. 
 
 It would be foreign to my present.object to trace the history 
 of the Parsis from the time when they first embraced the religion 
 of Zerthust, Anglice Zoroaster, and established one of the great- 
 est monarchies of ancient times. That history is well known 
 to you, and 1 need not recite it. One circumstance it is neces- 
 sary to advert to ; it is that which led to the split between the 
 Indo-Aryans and the Perso- Aryans. Long before the dawn of 
 written history, the two had dwelt together on the plateau of 
 Central Asia to the north of the Hindukush, speaking the same 
 language, worshipping the same gods, and owning the closest 
 kinship with each other. In time the canker of religious differ- 
 ence burst forth among them. Those among them who had 
 been devoted to agriculture, liked to worship their gods with 
 the produce of their fields — with fruits, flowers and corn dressed 
 • in diverse forms ; but those who tended flocks and led a noma- 
 dic Hfe preferred animal sacrifices and fermented liquors. Fire 
 was the great god on earth to both ; both cherished it with ar- 
 dent devotion ; but the one offered it fleshmeat, butter and fer- 
 mented Soma liquor, and the other simple vegetable oblations 
 with the juice of the Soma plant in unfermented state. The 
 names of the gods were also changed. At one time the words 
 Deva and Asura were common to both, and they implied god ; 
 but when the split began, the one took Deva to mean god and 
 Asura a demon, and the other Asura (pronounced Ahura *) a 
 god, and Deva (pronounced Deo) a demon. Under these circum- 
 stances they could no longer live together. The worshippers 
 
 *Ahura has been, by some, identified with the Hindu Varuna, on the ground 
 of the former being the head of the seven Amaspands, even as the latter is one 
 and the head of the seven Adityas. This ajipears, however, to be ques- 
 tionable.
 
 Tlie Pdrsis of Bombay. 107 
 
 of the Devas were driven away from their ancestral home to 
 form the Hindu nation in northern India. The other, pressed 
 onwards by fierce hordes of Semetic colonisers from the east, 
 proceeded towards the south-west to establish the mighty em- 
 pire of Persia. These last are the ancestors of the Parsis of 
 Bombay. 
 
 Nothing is known for certain wdien this schism took place, nor 
 of the date of the reformation which Zerthust effected in the form 
 of religion which the south-western branch of the original Ary- 
 ans took away from their native land. In history they are known 
 as the followers of Zerthust with the Avesta for their scriptures. 
 
 The empire and the religion of the Parsis flourished from the 
 time of its foundation to the middle of the fourth century before 
 Christ, with a lustre which uo nation surpassed in ancient times. 
 But those who had often successfully assailed Greece, was at last 
 assailed by the Greeks, and, before Alexander the Great, had to 
 submit their neck to a foreign yoke. The Parsis believe that 
 this had been preordained, and Zerthust had prophesied that it 
 would be so. A passage is usually quoted from the Avesta, 
 which says : — 
 
 *'An oppressive king will rise among you ; 
 
 *Three times the true faith will be broken ; 
 
 *'Thrice will it be trampled on and overthrown ; 
 
 "The name of that Shah shall be Setamsar. 
 
 ''Through him the faithful shall be brought to despair." 
 
 The Setamgar of this passage is Sekandar or Alexander, and 
 he is said to have "burned the books of the true revelation, and 
 greatly oppressed the faithful." This is, however, denied by 
 some, probably with a view to defend the authenticity of their 
 scriptures as they now exist. 
 
 The supremacy of the Selucidans and the Parthians followed, 
 and it did not prove favorable to the faith of Zerthust. It was 
 not until five centuries after that the Parsis regained their inde- 
 pendence under the Sassanian king Ardasir Babegan. 
 
 Ardasir ascended the throne of Persia in A. D. 226, and
 
 108 The Pdrsis of Bomhay. 
 
 from that time to the middle of the seventh century, we have a 
 period of 415 years during which the Parsis regained their lost 
 ground, again asserted their high position among the nations of 
 western Asia, and gave new life to their religion of fire-worship, 
 Khushru Praviz was the last amongst the most distinguished 
 kings of the Sassanian line. He ruled from A. D. 582 to 628, 
 a period of 47 years, during which his generals fought many 
 battles, and brought large provinces under his sway. He was, 
 however, himself given to pleasure and sensual indulgence, and, 
 at the close of his reign much was lost which had been gained 
 at an earlier period. He was himself murdered by his son Sher- 
 oueh who absolved his sin of parricide by falling under an assa- 
 siu's dagger within eight months of his accession. 
 
 The country then, in course of four years,came under the no- 
 minal sovereignty successively of seven persons, including two 
 women, Purandukt and Arzemdukt.* Then came Yazdjird, the 
 last of the Sassanians ( A. D. 632 ) ; but he was totally unequal 
 for the occasion, and lost his kingdom in 641 A. D., on the fatal 
 field of Nuhvand, when the lieutenant of Khalif Omar, routed 
 his army, and drove him away from his possessions. 
 
 The conquest of the Muslims in those days did not mean 
 only the overthrow of dynasties, but also the suppression of 
 ancient forms of worship. With the Quran in one hand and the 
 scymitar in the other, the invaders overran the whole country, 
 offering to the vanquised the choice among the two. The bulk 
 of the people accepted the dispensation of Muhammad ; some, 
 and not an inconsiderable number, fell under the sword ; and 
 others retired to desert places to save themselves and their 
 religion. 
 
 A small band of these persecuted people, forsaking the more 
 populous parts of the centre of Persia — their abodes and resid- 
 
 * The f ollowi ng was the order of succession : — 
 I. Khushru Parviz. II. Shorouch. III. Ai'dasir. IV. Shahryar. V. 
 Purandukht, (daughter of I.) VI. Shah Sherendeh. VII. Arzemdukht, (daugh- 
 ter of I). VIII. Kesra. IX, Farrukhsiad, (natural son of I.). X, Yazdijii-d 
 (son of IV.).
 
 The Pdrsis of Bonibay . 109 
 
 ences, — their gradens, halls and palaces, — concealed themselves 
 for their faith in the deserts and bleak mountains of Khorasan. 
 A hundred years thus elapsed, but they brought no relief. The 
 enemy pressed closer and closer, and a flight to the then thinly 
 inhabited island of Hormuz or Ormus in the Persian Gulf was 
 the only resource left to them. They retired to it, and betook 
 to the profession of ship-building and maritime commerce. They 
 were, however, not allowed to enjoy the solace of their religioQ 
 and their humble calling in peace for any great length of time. 
 In fifteen years those who had persecuted them in central 
 Persia, assailed them in their new homo. The only alternative 
 now left them was renunciation of their ancestral faith, or exile 
 from their native land. Like the Pilgrim Fathers of a later day 
 and another clime, they preferred their religion to the country 
 of their birth. Their familiarity with ship-building and mari- 
 time life had prepared them for the new enterprise, and they 
 bade adieu to their native land for over. Taking their family 
 and their household gods on board, they set sail in the hope of 
 finding an asylum in the far east. Their ancestors had expelled 
 the Hindus from their birth-place on account of religious difier- 
 ences, and it was from the descendants of those Hindus that 
 they sought protection from religious persecution. 
 
 History is silent as to the number of the persons who thus 
 expatriated themselves. It is certain that the exiles did not go 
 out in one body, nor all at one time. Small bands must have 
 started from time to time under different leaders and different 
 circumstances. Even to this daymen come from Persia to save 
 themselves from persecution, privation and want, and to better 
 their condition with the assistance of their co-religionists in 
 Bombay. 
 
 The history of the first body of pilgrims is recorded in a 
 Persian work called 'Kisseh-i Sanjan.' It was written in 1599, 
 by a Parsi priest named Bahram, son of Kaikobad, of Nausari, 
 from traditions preserved by his ancestors, who were mostly 
 high-priests of the faith. The author describes himself as "an
 
 110 The Pdrsis of Bombay. 
 
 aged Bahman." This shows that the word Brahman, of which 
 it is a variant, was a term of respect from before the time when 
 the great schism took place which separated the Hindus from the 
 Parsis, and it was retained by both the parties to signify the 
 priesthood. Another work of great value, but of modern date, 
 is the 'Parsi Prakasa.' It contains a chronologically arranged 
 record of all the important events in the growth of the Parsi 
 community in western India. Its author, Mr. Bomanji Byramji 
 Patell, has, with great diligence, ransacked all the old records 
 accessible to him to collect his ^materials, and produced a very 
 useful guide to the history of his race. He begins from A. D. 
 999, and his book, therefore, does not contain an account of the 
 first immigration of his people. 
 
 Sailing estward, the exiles arrived at Div or Diu, a small 
 island a little to the south-west of the Peninsula of Katheyad. 
 Here they abided for nineteen years, but did not prosper. The 
 place was too small for a large colony, and too poor to afford it 
 remunerative occupation. It is probable, too, that the natives 
 of the place did not prove particularly well disposed towards the 
 new-comers. 
 
 The priests then consulted the stars, and resolved npon a 
 move to the mainland of India. The ships were ready in port, 
 and the pilgrims set sail for Guzarat in A. D. 717. This date 
 is generally accepted as correct. If so, it would not square with 
 the periods mentioned in the previous parts of this narrative. 
 There is no question that the conquest of Persia by the Muslims 
 took place in A. D. 641, on the 21st year of Hijerah, during 
 the Khalifat of Omar, and a hundred years passed in deserts and 
 on mountains, fifteeen on the island of Hormuz, and nineteen at 
 Diu, would make a total of 775, instead of 717. The difference 
 can be accounted for by assuming that the 100 years in the de- 
 serts is a rough way of saying many years, and the 19 at Diu 
 were probably much more than what were actually passed 
 there. 
 
 When out on the sea a fearful storm overtook the voyagers,
 
 The Pdrsis af Bomhay. Ill 
 
 but, through the blessing of the sacred fire Bahram, it was ap- 
 peased, and the pilgrims reached the port of Sanjau. This place 
 was situated on a creek about 24 miles south of Daman, and -4 or 
 5 miles inland. The place now known by the name is a poor 
 one, and contains very few Parsis. Rev. Wilson, in 1830, saw 
 only two ; but in the neighbouring town of Nargol, which was 
 probably at one time a part of ancient Sanjan, there is a large 
 number of the followers of the faith. 
 
 The chief of Sanjan at the time was a Hindu prince of the 
 name of Jado Rana, whose identity has not yet been satisfac- 
 torily ascertained. Rev. Wilson took the name to be a corrup- 
 tion of Jayadeva, who is supposed to have been a lieutenant "of 
 the Rajput king of Champaner, or perhaps Rattan, formerly the 
 Hindu capital of Gujarat," That the chief was not an indepen- 
 dent sovereign is evident from the title of 'Rai Rayan' assigned 
 him. The leaders of the refugees, their Dasturs and Mobeds, 
 waited upon him, and sought his protection. He, however, ap- 
 prehended mischief from the foreigners, and wished to know 
 fully their character and the nature of their religion before he 
 would grant them an asylum. The account which the chief 
 Dastur gave of his people is thus summarised in the 'Kissahi- 
 Sanjan.' 
 
 "Hear, illustrious prince, what I relate of our faith. 
 
 "Be not afraid of us. 
 
 "No evil will befall thee from our arrival here, 
 
 "We will be friends to all Hindustan. 
 
 *'We will scatter the head of thy enemies. 
 
 "Know for certainty that we worship Yezdan, 
 
 "On account of our faith have we tied from the unbelievers. 
 
 "We have abandoned all our possesions. 
 
 "We have encountered difficulties in a long journey. 
 
 "House, and land, and possessions we have at once aban- 
 doned. 
 
 "Prince of excellent fortune I 
 
 "We are the poor descendants of Jamshid.
 
 112 Tlie Pdrsi's of Bomhaij- 
 
 "We reverence the moon and the snn. 
 "Three other things we hold in estimation. 
 "The cow, water and fire. 
 "We worship fire and water. 
 "Also the cow, the sun, and moon. 
 "Whatever God has created in the world 
 "We pray to, for He has selected them. 
 "This belt, composed of seventy-two. 
 
 "We bind on with solemnity of vows. 
 
 * * « 
 
 "Moreover the woman who bears a son must observe restric- 
 tion for forty days. 
 "And she must remain retired and in seclusion. 
 "When a woman bears her son before her time is fulfilled, 
 "Or when a dead child is born to her, 
 "She is not permitted to go abroad or move out, 
 "Nor is she allowed to converse with any one. 
 "For forty-one days she must abide therein."* 
 This explanation, was well received. The respect evinced in 
 it for cows, fire, and the sun was enough to convince the Raja 
 that he had not very heterodox people to deal with ; and ho was 
 well disposed to afford them the shelter they sought. At the 
 same time he did not like to let loose a large number of foreign- 
 ers in his dominion, and, therefore, imposed upon them certain 
 rules which they had strictly to carry out. One of these was 
 the renunciation on the part of the refugees of their native lan- 
 guage, and their adoption of 'the vernacular of Hind,' which 
 meant Guzarati, Another was that the women of the foreigners 
 should exchange their own peculiar dress for that of their adop- 
 ted country. A third was that the men should forego the use 
 of their arms and armour. This implied that the men, too, 
 should change their dress. And lastly, that the marriage cere- 
 mony among them should be celebrated at night, and not by 
 day-light. What the object of the last condition was it is not 
 
 * Journal, Bombay Branch of thh Royal Asiatic Society 1. pp. 167ff.
 
 Tlie Parsis of Bomhay. 113 
 
 easy to proceivo. Probably large processions of foreigners 
 during day-time in the public streets were thought likely to 
 cause disturbance. 
 
 Those were hard conditions to bear, but, being without re- 
 source, the Dasturs were obliged to accept them, and, to the credit 
 of their people it must be said, they have faithfully abided by 
 them. The present vernacular of the Parsi — the language of 
 their home and affection and song — is the Guzarati, all over 
 India, and they cling to it now with the same affection which the 
 natives of Guzarat evince for it. The Pahlavi, which they 
 brought from Persia, has been entirely forgotten by all of them, 
 except a few of their Dasturs and Mobeds who cultivate the 
 literature of their religion. The female dress is strictly Hindu 
 as current in Guzarat, and put on in the Hindu style, except 
 that the upper part of the Sari, instead of passing from the right 
 waist diagonally over the chest to the left shoulder, is carried up 
 the left side over the head, and brought from the right shoulder 
 to be tucked under the left w^aist. There is another peculiarity, 
 and that is the practice of tying a white handkerchief round the 
 head. It does not obtain among Guzarati women. 
 
 To the stranger the dress of the men might, at first sight, ap- 
 pear distinct and foreign, but it is not so. Their turban is the 
 old Hindu Khirkidar, which was at one time worn all over Nor- 
 thern India, and is not altogether unknown even in the present 
 day in Calcutta. Fifty years ago no one would have been allow- 
 ed to appear at a Durbar who had it not. Only the Northern 
 Indian and the Bengali Khirkidar was not quite so tall as the 
 Parsi head-gear. It was formerly made of white muslin as in 
 other parts of India, and Dasturs and Mobeds still use that mate- 
 rial ; but, about the close of the last century, the common peo- 
 ple exchanged it for English calico of a dark colour, which is 
 more lasting, and consequently economical. Some use silk of the 
 same colour ; but this is not common. The change, whenever 
 made, was adopted both by the Parsis and the Hindus of 
 Guzarat. 
 
 15
 
 114 The Pdrsis of Bomhaij. 
 
 The coat of tlie Pdrsf is the old Indian Jama, which has been, 
 in course of time, divested of its pristine amplitude. The skirt 
 lias been deprived of its numerous folds, and the double breast 
 has been reduced to a rudimentary form ; but the lacing near the 
 neck and over the belly is the same as of old, and the sleeves 
 retain their former length, to remain crumped on the arm. In 
 cloth coats the last peculiarity has been dropped, and this is the 
 case alike with the Hindus and the Pdrsis. Even at the begin- 
 ning of this century, the more respectable among the Parsfs, 
 used the Jama in its entirety. The Parsis, however, have now 
 their Persian trousers, more or less modified, whereas the Hin- 
 dus have their dliuti. Whether the Parsis ever took to the dhuti 
 and subseqently gave it up, or not, has not been ascertained, I 
 have heard, however, that old Parsis in out-of-the way places 
 use the dhutiy which would suggest the idea that the refugees 
 did take to the Indian dhuti, and have only recently given it 
 up. The shoes are alike for both classes of the people. 
 
 It is said that when the Pdrsis gave up their armour, they 
 symbolised it in a muslin shirt which they wear nest to the 
 skin. This is called sadra. Its most sacred part is a small poc- 
 ket near the neck called Gerian, the vernacular form of the Per- 
 sian grivan for neck. I know not what the practical use of it 
 is : probably there is none. The story of the symbolization of 
 the armour seems to me to be unfounded, for the attachment to 
 the sadra appears to be of an older date than the expatriation of 
 its wearers, since it is used by both sexes, and is referred to in 
 the A vesta. 
 
 Another article to which the Parfci is particluarly attached is 
 the kusti. It is a hollow woollen cord formed of seventy-two 
 threads, and sanctified by the repetition over it of the kusti- 
 prayer half a dozen times every day. It forms the counterpart 
 of the Brahmanical paita, of which it, no doubt, is a reminis- 
 cence, only among Parsis, both men and women wear it, whereas 
 among the Hindu it is confined to the male sex. It is, moreover, 
 worn like a girdle on the waist, winding round it thrice, and is
 
 The Pdrsis of Bomlay. 115 
 
 tied, not utliw.irt tho chest, but by a kuot, which is opened 
 daily, and a prayer is daily repeated when tying it again. Those 
 to form "the panoply" in which the Parsfs believe they can success- 
 fully resist the assaults of Ahriman, the evil principle. Ed-ul 
 Daru, in his *Mauzat-i-zartusht,' says that " the sadra and kusti 
 preserve the soul from the calamities accruing from Ahriman, 
 and that souls of dead children are prevented by them from beco- 
 ming devils, Khavls and Jins.'^ The seventh year is reckoned 
 to be the best time for investing a child with the sadra and tho 
 kusti, and the sacrament is usually celebrated with great eclat. 
 Manu recommends the woolen paita for vaisyas, (II. 44,) and 
 the fact would corroborate, to a very a small extent of course, 
 the theory of the Parsis having originally ; belonged to the agri- 
 cultural class. 
 
 The Parsis also attach much importance to the wearing of a 
 skull-cap under the turban, and leather under their feet. These 
 all were, however, hidden from the sight, and the Hindu King 
 who received the refugees so hospitably could not have well 
 objected to them. Moreover all objections to such minor 
 matters were overcome by the reverence the Parsis evinced for 
 the urine of the cow. They hold it as a matter of the utmost 
 religious importance that the first purification every morning 
 should be the application of a little of cow's urine on the face. 
 This is repeated, should a second purification be needed in course 
 of the day. The fluid is also drunk when an important purifica- 
 tion has to be effected. The fluid is called Nirang. The urine 
 of the she-goat is substituted when cow's urine is not readily 
 available ; and lemon-juice is the substitute for the goat's urine. 
 The rising generation very stoutly object to this purification on 
 the ground of its being unauthorized by the Avesta. Their real 
 ground of objection may be easily imagined. 
 
 The land assigned to the pilgrims was a jungle at a short 
 distance from the city. It was cleared by order of tho Raja and 
 laid out into a town with corn-fields all round. Its soil was 
 fertile, and the Parsis thrived well in their new home, cultivating
 
 116 Th&^Pdrs IS of Bombay. 
 
 their fields and carrying on various handicrafts. Tlio king also 
 granted them permission to erect a large tom[)le in honor of 
 the great celestial fire Bahram, and the energy, activity and 
 business habits of the people soon secured for them wealth, influ- 
 ence and prosperity. Living in peace with the people, and assi- 
 milating, as far as was possible, with their manners, customs, and 
 habits, they soon became a part of the general community, and 
 no feud or dissension arose among them. 
 
 Centuries thus passed away, and the descendants of the ori- 
 ginal settlers spread far and wide. Nausari, Benkaner, Baroch, 
 Baryao, Ankulesvara and Combayat were the places to which 
 they removed largely, and everywhere they were received with 
 kindness and hospitality. 
 
 At the beginning of the sixteenth century Shah Muham- 
 mad Begoda, of Ahmedabad, heard of the prosperity of Sanjan, 
 and longed to bring it under his rule. He deputed one of his 
 trusty generals, Alif Khan, with a large army to invade the 
 place, and extort tribute from its Hindu sovereign. Though 
 centuries had elapsed since their expulsion from their homes, the 
 Parsis had not forgotten their hated enemies. They tendered 
 their services to their protector, and 1,400 Parsis respon- 
 ded to the call of the Hindu Raja to repel the invasion. The 
 war was protracted to many months, and Ardashir, the leader of 
 the Parsi band, displayed prodigies of valour. But neither the 
 Hindus, nor the Parsis, nor the two together, could long resist 
 the Muslim aggressors. Ardashir fell in battle ; his followers 
 were all cut up •, the Hindu army was defeated and dispersed ; 
 and the country was laid waste far and wide. Even as in Persia, 
 so at Sanjan the sacred fire was blown out, and the Parsi home 
 laid desolate. Flight was the only resource now left to the sur- 
 vivors of the colony, and to it they resorted. Bausodah was the 
 place selected, and a great number of the people repaired to it. 
 But the dispersion was general, and most of the leading commercial 
 towns of western India received refugees from Sanjan. Bombay 
 of course received none, for it was not then in existence as a town.
 
 The rar.^i's af Bomhay. 1 1 7 
 
 Wlierover thoy went to, they mixed I'rcoly with the pooplt!, 
 and lived in peace. From the "Satistical Account of J5oini)ay"' it 
 appears, however, that in the Kumarika Khestra, at the mouth 
 of the Mahim River, such was not the case. There tlio Par.sis 
 becamo so strong in numbers, and so overbearing in their con- 
 duct, that the Hindus were obliged to leave the place. A rej)ri- 
 sal followed, headed by a Benia of the name of Kalyan R;ii, and 
 a great number of Parsi's was put to the sword, and their houses 
 wore sacked and burnt. The rest fled from the place. 
 
 At Surat the Pdrsis lived in large numbers, and made them- 
 selves very useful to foreign merchants, by serving as interpre- 
 ters, contractors, and brokers. They rose in wealth, power, and 
 influence, and on one occasion a single Parsi is said to have had 
 a claim of several lacs against the East India Company, When 
 Bombay was ceded to England there was only one Parsi on the 
 island ; his name was Dorabji Nannabhoy. "He had been very ser- 
 viceable to the Portuguese in their intercourse with the natives. 
 His tact in reconciling conflicting social elements and setting an 
 example of loyalty t^the people, recommended him to the Eng- 
 lish Government."* "But as Bombay rose in importance and 
 finally superseded Surat, the Parsis followed the fortunes of the 
 English to the city, the first settlers having been, it is said, about 
 100 years ago, invited as skilled ship-builders to manage the 
 Bombay Dockyard .''f The chief of the ship-builders was one 
 Lowji, whose descendants still have the management of the Go- 
 vernment dockyard. The Parsis were so influential then that 
 "when the Seeddees of Jangirah took possession of the whole of 
 Bombay, one Rustam Dorab Patell fought on the side of the 
 English, and was actually for three days in charge of the Govern- 
 ment of the island."! About the third quarter of the seventeenth 
 century, the Parsis were very numerous in Bombay, and had 
 built their Tower of Silence on the Malabar Hill.§ 
 
 * Oriental, 1873 p. 177. % Tilrsi Trakasa, I. 
 
 t Maclean's Guide to Bombay, p. 94. § Prayer's Travels.
 
 118 The Fdrsis of Bomhat/. 
 
 It has been said above that when tliey came to India the Pdr- 
 sis brought their women and children with them. That the 
 Dasturs, Mobeds and other more respectable members of the re- 
 fugees did so, there need not be much doubt, but it is impossible 
 to believe that the relative proportion of the two sexes among 
 the refugees generally was such as to preclude the necessity of 
 foreign accession. Respect for women in Persia in the eighth 
 century was not such as to suggest the idea of a majority of the 
 immigrants troubling themselves with their families when flee- 
 ing from their country. Had the feeling been otherwise, still 
 they had not the means of removing them. Even in the present 
 day, with all the convenience and comfort of steamships, rail- 
 roads, and other means and appliances for easy travelling, of 
 the hundreds of thousands of immigrants who are driven to exile 
 from Europe every year, but a very small portion is represented 
 by women. A thousand years ago the disproportion in Asia 
 must have been considerably greater, and the obvious inference 
 is that the great majority of the Parsi refugees must have allied 
 themselves with the women of Guzarat and that the bulk of the 
 present race of Parsis has more of Guzmiti than of Persian 
 blood in their veins. 
 
 The religion of the Parsis does not recognise proselytism, 
 and from their position in India the Parsis had naturally to b3 
 very exclusive to prevent their fusion with the mass of the 
 people ; it was, nevertheless, not difficult for them to accept In- 
 dian mates whose children received the religion of their fathers. 
 In the earlier periods of their sojourn here this miscegenation 
 must have been pretty extensive, but with the increase of the 
 Parsi population the necessity for it ceased, and the exclusive 
 character of the community was more strictly preserved, though 
 it resulted in endogamy to a very large extent. The effect of 
 this breeding in and in, must be felt sooner or later, very much 
 in the same way in which it has already been felt among the 
 Jews of western Europe. 
 
 The personal names of the Parsis are taken mostly from the
 
 21ie Pdnis of Bombwj . 119 
 
 licroos of the Shabnamah and from the names of celestial objects 
 and au^els of the Zendavesta. Bahrain, the celestial sacred fire, 
 Harmuz, an angel, Ardashir, the founder of the Sassanian line, 
 Nausheerayan, the renowned king, Khurshed, the sun, Mahtab, 
 the moon, Kaikobad, Khushru, Shuhrab, and the like are the lea- 
 ding names. Indian words are, however, not altogether esch- 
 ewed. The words Jlira 'diamond,' Manik 'emerald,' Ratan 'jewel- 
 lery,' Motl 'pearl' &c., &c., are frequently used as personal 
 names, both for men and women. In selecting names the Hindu 
 astrological rule about the propriety of suiting the initial letter 
 to the planet which was on the ascendant at the hour of birth is 
 strictly followed, and no name is accepted which does not comply 
 with this requirement. Moreover, no word, whether Persian or 
 Indian, is used as a personal name without subjecting it to a 
 process of acclimatization which changes it to something very un- 
 like what is current in Persia, This is effected by adding the 
 syllable Ji after the name. This syllable is the abraided rem- 
 nant, or the vernacular form, of the Sanskrit jlva 'living,' the 
 intermediate form being jiu. Both ji and jiu are extensively 
 used in India as honorific or affectionate affixes. No well be- 
 haved man in Bengal or the North- Western Provinces mentions 
 the name of Krishna, or Gopala, or Baladeva, without the 
 affix, making Kissenji, Gopalji or Baladevaji, A pandit or spi- 
 ritual guide when addressed is Panditji or Guruji. In the 
 North- West even the high titles Maharaja or great king and 
 Thakura a god, are -not thought enough by themselves when ad- 
 dressing a person, and they must be changed to Maharajji and 
 Thakurji. As an affectionate term it occurs in Bengali letters 
 where a younger brother is always addressed Bhay'ijiu. The Bud- 
 dhist, not wishing to adopt the Brahmanical term, and yet 
 unwilling to be without a corresponding epithet, used its coun- 
 terpart, ayushnan "Life-possessing," for a similar purpose. The 
 Parsis in India could not resist the temptation of adopting a dis- 
 tinctive term of the kind, and took up ji as an affix for their pro- 
 per names, and this enabled them to keep their names distinct
 
 120 lite Piirsfs of Domlay. 
 
 j'loni tliosc of Miiliiniin;ul:ins. Thus Buliram became Buliriuiiji, 
 ILirninz, Ilarninzji and so on. 
 
 Another custom, purely Indian, hut of local currency, was 
 also adopted by the Parsis in the country. It was that of using 
 the name of the father between the personal name and the sur- 
 name. In the North-West ordinarily a sinolo nair.e is in use, 
 and that is the personal name. In Bengal it is followed by 
 the surname, so that no Bengali can have more than two names. 
 Among the Marhattas and the Guzaratis the father's name 
 intervenes, and the full name of a person is made up of three 
 separate words. Thus Kasinath, the son of Trimbak, and of 
 the country of Telang, which has become the surname, call3 
 himself — Kasinath Trimbak Telang. Surnames arc not univer- 
 sal, and when it is wanting, the name is made up of two 
 words. The Parsis have adopted this practice ; accordingly 
 liarmuzji son of Shapurji, calls himself Harmuzji fc^hapurji, 
 adding the surname after it when he has one, say Wadia, which 
 is the surname of several families whose ancestors were enn;ao;ed 
 in the profession of ship-building. The people of Persia do not, 
 and did not, follow this practice. In Arabia the father's name 
 is usually added to the personal name, but always with the inter- 
 vention of the word bin, an abbreviation of ehine, meaning "son 
 of." It is not at all likely that the Parsis copied the practice 
 from their inveterate enemies the Arabs. 
 
 The surnames are mostly very modern, and taken from the 
 -Indian vernaculars. Thus Modi, a grocer, Bengali, born in 
 Bengal, Wadia, ship-builder, Seth, a merchant, Shroff, a ban- 
 ker, Motiivala, a dealer in pearls, Mistrij, an artizan, Patell, a 
 patwari or village accountant, and so on. The most recent and 
 curious is Ready-money. It was adopted within the last 30 or 
 40 years. Surnames are now frequently dropped, and many 
 persons have none. 
 
 As seen in English letters Parsi names are sad corruptions 
 of the sounds they are intended to represent. Cursetji is now, 
 and must have always been, a common name among the Parsis
 
 The Pdrsis of Bombay. 121 
 
 but many would be puzzled to guess from its component letters 
 that it stands for Khurshedji. In Nasaranji we have the name 
 of the renowned Nausheravan, and Bomanji is our familiar 
 friend Brahmanji. The well-known Indian word Manik occurs 
 as Manock, and Hiraji as Hurji. And it took me sometime be- 
 fore I could make out that my friend Murwanji was no other 
 than Miharbanji, which in every sense of the word he is. In 
 Bengal the only name so transmogrified in Roman letters is 
 Tagore, wherein we have to find out the Indian Thakura ; but 
 among the Parsis corruptions seem to be the rule, and correct 
 spelling the exception. 
 
 Parsi female names are mostly of Indian origin, and Hira, 
 Manik, Ratan, Moti, Anna, and such like words are freely used. 
 A common name is Mihr or the moon ; and the honorific epi- 
 thet usually attached to such names is the Indian Bui, the 
 counterpart of the masculine Ji. Every woman, however humble 
 her occupation, tacks it to her name. Among the Marhattas and 
 the Guzaratis this epithet is reserved only for ladies of conse- 
 quence. 
 
 The total number of Parsis in India is extremely limited. 
 The Census of 1851 gave a total for the Bombay Presidency 
 of 1,32,563, of which 1,14,698, were assigned to the Town and 
 Island of Bombay, and 17,865, for the Mofussil, including 
 Surat, Broach, Tanna, Ahmedabad, Poena, and other places, 
 Surat heading the list at 12,663. The figures for Bombay 
 were probably not correct, or there must have been considerable 
 dispersion of the Parsis from the town since the date of the 
 Census, for the latest return sets down that number at 44,091 
 or 6*84 per cent, of the entire town population reckoned at 6 
 44, 485*. 
 
 But small as is their number, the Parsfs are unquestionably 
 the foremost in position, wealth, intelligence and enterprise. From 
 the membership of the Legislative Council to the lowest clerkship, 
 every office under Government has been very successfuly com- 
 
 Macleau's ' Guide to Ijombay. 
 
 16
 
 122 The Pdrsis of Bomhai/, 
 
 peted for hy tlicm ; and the number of Parsfs employed in pub- 
 lic offices is disproportionately large. The bulk of the trade 
 with China was at one time conducted by the Parsis, and even 
 now they command a very large share in the external commerce 
 of Bombay. The ranks of the learned professions are also filled 
 by a fairly large number of them, and there is not a trade flour- 
 ishing in the town, a good share of which is not in their hands. 
 Moreover, as hotel-keepers, purveyors, and wine-merchants, 
 there is not a large city in India where the Parsis do not occu- 
 py a prominent place. Their enterprise in this respect stands 
 in admirable contrast with the apathy so tmiversally prevalent 
 in Bengal. 
 
 It is said that the commercial probity of the Parsis has of 
 late deteriorated. This is probable ; but it should be borne 
 in mind that the temptation in their way has been great, and 
 the progress of honesty among those with whom they have to 
 deal has not of late kept pace with the advancement of com- 
 merce. Sixty per cent, of pipeclay in cotton stuffs and similar 
 tamperings in many respects on one side, suggest corespond- 
 ing tricks on the other. Young Bombay is, moreover, now 
 passing through a total transmutation in education, manners, 
 habits, and customs, and such transition periods are the least 
 favourable to moral excellence. 
 
 Unencumbered by religious and caste restrictions, and anx- 
 ious always to push themselves forward, the Parsis have taken 
 to copying the English models set before them much more 
 ardently than the Hindus ; and the change it has brought on is 
 immense, and is particularly observable in the domestic habits 
 of the people. At the beginning of this century, the Parsi at' 
 home differed very little from his Hindu fellow subjects. His 
 dress and that of his wife and daughters, it has been shown, def- 
 fered not at all from those of the Hindus. The furniture of his 
 house was the same, and he enjoyed life, squatting on cushions 
 and carpets like the Hindus. His victuals consisted of rice, home- 
 made unleavened bread, kid, mutton, and vegetables, dressed ex-
 
 T1t£ Pdrsis of Bomhaij. 12o 
 
 actly iu the same way as Hindu dishes are. He ate from plates of 
 silver, bronze, or brass according to circumstances, as did the 
 Hindus ; and his lady sat apart and took hear meals separately 
 from the male members of the family. Among the higher and 
 middle classes of the people of Bombay these customs have been 
 entirely given up. In no respectable Parsi house are the old 
 farsh and takia to be met with ; chairs and couches have entire- 
 ly set them aside. Metal plates have made room for glass and 
 china ; the meal is now served on English tables ; and tea, lea-^ 
 vened bread and pastry figure thereon. At ordinary meals the 
 rice and curry, however, still hold their ground, and on cere- 
 monial occasions English dishes are generally eschewed. The 
 restriction about the lady of a family dining with her male rela- 
 latives has also been to a great extent set aside. Mrs. Bomanji 
 sits at the head of the table, and distributes tea just in the same 
 way as does Mrs. Jones, Brown, or Robinson. Her presence, 
 too, serves in a great measure to improve the decorum and tone 
 of conversation at table. As a rule, however, none but casteraen 
 are as yet admitted to the social board. A go-ahead bachelor, or 
 a widower, may, without offence, invite a European or other 
 foreigner to dinner or lunch at his house ; but respectable heads 
 of families do not ordinarily do so. They also do not employ 
 other than their own castemen as cooks. 
 
 The change is also very markedly noticeable in matters of 
 education. As regards boys, the necessity for English educa- 
 tion as means for earning their livelihood is imperative, and it 
 is not remarkable, therefore, that one should see all the Parsi 
 boys sent to school. The schools are either supported largely 
 by the Parsi community, or are self-supporting. From a rough 
 estimate furnished me by a leading member of the community 
 I find the total number of boys attending school is 5,000, which 
 in a community of 44,000 persons must include nearly the 
 whole of the school-going population. Nearly the same amount 
 of attention is paid to female education. There are iu the town 
 altogether 37 Guzarati schools, teaching 2,800 girls. The teach-
 
 124 The Pdrsis of Bombay. 
 
 ing is necessarily of an elementary character ; but careful atten- 
 tion is paid to neatness and cleanliness in writing, and out of 
 some scores of writing-books shown me by little girls of 8 to 
 10 years of age I did not notice a single blot or interlineation. 
 Their cyphering was also fair, and very creditable to them. 
 Singing and needle- work are taught in almost all the schools, 
 and the piano is, though rare, not altogether unknown. 
 
 The standard of education in these schools is not high ; nor 
 is it possible, in the present state of Guzarati literature, the 
 medium through which education is ordinarily given, to secure 
 a higher standard. 
 
 In addition to these there are a few schools for education of a 
 higher standard and through the medium of the English lan- 
 guage. The most important of these is the Alexandra School 
 for Girls. It owes its foundation to the liberality of some of 
 the leading men among the Parsis and comprises a large number 
 of young ladies from the higher classes of the Parsf community. 
 Roughly speaking, the standard aimed at in this school is that of 
 the University Entrance, supplemented by drawing, singing, 
 and ornamental needle- work. The Head Mistress of this insti- 
 tution is an English lady, who evinces great interest for her pu- 
 pils, and the girls seem to derive much benefit from her tuition. 
 They speak English with ease and fluency ; read poetry with 
 fair attention to rythm and measure ; write neatly and sensibly ; 
 and sing with much pathos and naivete. I was not particularly 
 impressed with their drawing exercises, but their ornamental 
 needle-work was very pretty. I asked a good many questions 
 from their text-books on the history of India, and they answered 
 them readily and correctly. 
 
 It is a matter of complaint with many that the education in 
 these schools, both Guzarati and English, is not practical ; that 
 it unfits the pupils for the faithful discharge of domestic duties; 
 that it infuses in them ambitious ideas and expensive habits ; 
 in short, it produces "young girls of the period," and not meet 
 helpmates for men in moderate circumstances. This is very
 
 The Pdrsis of Bombay. 125 
 
 likely. Outward models of English ladies set before Hindu and 
 Pdrsf women, are calculated to bring on this result, in a good 
 many instances. Education, unless thoroughly sound, produces 
 at the beginning false ideas and exaggerated notions of trifles. 
 The idea of the relative importance of particular habits and cus- 
 toms cannot be fairly realised. The remedy, however, rests with 
 the people. The schools, one and all, belong to them, and 
 they can easily modify their curriculum to suit their circum- 
 stances. 
 
 A more serious complaint is occasionally made ; it is that of 
 consequences resulting from the system of courtship which has 
 superseded the old style of early marriages. Those consequen- 
 ces are, I fancy not altogether imaginary ; but I have so limi- 
 ted a knowledge of the Parsi domestic life, and the question 
 involves so many knotty and delicate issues, that I do not wish 
 to dwell upon them. 
 
 The domestic life of the Parsi is a happy one. The presence 
 of his ladies in the drawing-room is a charm which makes his 
 home truly dear to him ; and music and song from his wife and 
 daughters add greatly to its attractions. This is a feature of 
 domestic bliss to which all the other natives of India are stran- 
 gers. It tends to improve the moral tone of Parsi life, the ab- 
 sence of which is often noticed as a blot on native society else- 
 where. There is also an air of freedom and grace combined 
 with unaffected simplicity in the intercourse of Parsi ladies with 
 their guests, whether of their own faith or strangers, which is 
 admirable. I have had opportunities of visting several families, 
 and I always received the kindest treatment from my hostesses. 
 Mr. Bomanji, in a particular house, may be suspicious. He 
 wonders what you are, and doubts whether it is prudent to be 
 very open with you. But his daughters are always kind and 
 courteous and hospitable. They talk with you freely, and invite 
 conversation to entertain you. But above all there is a gentle 
 winsome smile hallowed by an air of unsophisticated simplicity 
 and good nature which cannot fail to impress the beholder. Mrs.
 
 126 Tlie Pdrsis of Bomhay. 
 
 Bomanji may not know English or Hindi to talk with you, 
 Guzarati being the only language she has cultivated ; but this 
 shortcoming does not prevent her from expressing her good-will 
 for her guests. She puts twenty questions through her daugh- 
 ters, and expresses her satisfaction at the opportunity of seeing 
 strangers. Music is a passion with her and she regularly takes 
 her daughters to the Bandstand and the Appollo Bunder^ and 
 is not often absent from an opera. 
 
 The physical weakness of the Bengali and the overwhelm- 
 ing preponderan3e of Muslim power in the North- Western 
 Provinces produced a system of zenana seclusion, which never 
 extended to Guzarat and the Marhatta country. There women 
 were never confined behind the Parda ; and Parsi ladies have 
 always enjoyed considerable latitude in going out of their houses, 
 visiting or shopping. They may be seen by scores "eating the 
 air" on the strand along that magnificent sheet of water, the 
 Back Bay, mostly walking, some in their chariots or broughams, 
 or travelling in railway carriages, or taking a constitutional of 
 a morning. Fair and beautiful by nature, and arrayed in their 
 rich coloured silken garb, they trip on the trottoir with char- 
 ming ease and grace. On more than one occasion I saw a lady 
 taking a walk at 8 o'clock in moon-light without a chaperon, her 
 brougham following her at some distance. Receiving and re- 
 turning visits are very common among Parsi ladies, and the 
 time usally selected is the afternoon. Tea and cakes are often 
 offered on such occasions. 
 
 Parsi ladies are not in the habit of putting on so much jew- 
 ellery as their Hindu and Mahamadan sisters do. Light ear- 
 rings, a necklet, or bangles are all that they usally put on. At 
 home a single circlet of green glass at the wrist, is not unoften 
 the only ornament on the person of a young lady. This seems 
 to be the counterpart of the Hindu Karra, for I did not notice 
 it on a young widow whom I met. Rings are not used to any 
 large extent. 
 
 lu so far the Parsi pater familias has not to incur the same
 
 The r arsis af Bomhay. 127 
 
 heavy expense which the Hindu is subjected to an account of jew- 
 ellery. This advantage on the part of the former, however, is 
 more than counterbalanced by the cost of millinery. The hubit 
 of going out daily, either for "eating the air," or visiting, or shop- 
 ping, neccessitates constant change of dress, and rich satins, 
 silk laces, kid gloves, and lace boots, which the Misses Bomanji 
 patronise, aro expensive articles, which tell heavily against the 
 purse of the "master of the house," Then the Mademoiselles, 
 though proficient in Berlin wool-work and cap embroidery, fight 
 shy of honest homely sewing, such as their grandmothers prac- 
 tised, and the consequence is that their dresses have to be got 
 up by the "Worths of Bombay, This too is a sore point with the 
 "master of the house." An elderly gentleman, the fi.nest speci- 
 men of the Parsi gentry 1 have ever met with, once told me, 
 
 "Mrs. brought up all her children without ever employing 
 
 a nurse, but my daughter-in-law must have a nurse because she 
 cannot sit up at night to tend her sick child." On the whole, 
 however, that bane of maternal affection in English homes in 
 India — the wet nurse, is not an institution among the Parsfs ; 
 and, roundly speaking, Parsi ladies make loving wives, kind 
 mothers, dutiful daughters, and aifectionate sisters. And the 
 solicitude which a respectable young lady expressed to me for 
 the education of her lately orphaned son, — a boy of six years — 
 afforded me a notable instance of the intelligent interest Parsi 
 mothers take in such matters. 
 
 Master Bomanji is a lithe smart youth, (none of his race shows 
 any tendency to excessive corpulency or paunchyness,) and at 
 school is no mean rival of his more intellectual Marhatta form- 
 fellows. He may not be always the dux of his class ; but he is 
 rarely far removed from the place of honour. And what he loses 
 in the class-room he makes up on the play-ground. He is 
 always the first bat and the best bowler in his class. It is 
 said that his education diverts his ambition to a wrong chan- 
 nel. He longs more for the ease of the Government office, 
 than for the toil and wealth behind the merchants's counter,
 
 128 The Pdrsis of Bombay. 
 
 where his ancestors thrived the most. This is, however, a com- 
 plaint which is common all overlndia, and not unknown in other 
 parts of the world. I once read of 593 applications in England 
 for the post of a tide-waiter, where the official was '' to wax 
 rich on forty pounds a year.'' 
 
 The marriage ceremony of the Parsis corresponds very closely 
 with those of the Hindus as regards the observances respected by 
 the ladies. Of course it is also the season for feasting and mer- 
 riment and exchanging presents^ as it is in all civilized parts of 
 the world ; but it is unattended by any complicated ritual. There 
 is not even any necessity for going to the temple or the church. 
 It is celebrated in one's private dwelling, if it is large enough for 
 the accommodation of the guests, or in one of the three public 
 houses which are kept ready furnished at Bombay and let out 
 on hire for the purpose. This is a curious arrangement, and I 
 have not heard or read of anything of the kind among any other 
 civilized people. The marital contract is always attested by 
 the priests of the two contracting parties, and consecrated by a 
 short service from the Avesta, which is addressed to the happy 
 couple while they stand holding a piece of cloth between them. 
 Blessings follow, and paddy and cocoanut kernels are thrown 
 over the couple to emphasize those blessings with material sym- 
 bols. 
 
 Divorces are sanctioned by law ; but they are not com- 
 mon — certainly not nearly so common as in Transylvania where, 
 among other reasons, the very droll ones of ''Augenverdrehen'' 
 which means that the party, he or she, rolled about his or her eyes, 
 or "the drunkenness of the father-in-law,'' are held sufficient 
 to justify judicial separation. The duties of Justice Hannen are 
 vested in panchayets, and they are the antipodes of their bro- 
 thers of Transylvania, for they seem to be very chary of cutting 
 the marital knot. They are, moreover, governed by an appeal 
 to the High Court of Bombay. 
 
 Although free from false notions in many respect, the Parsis 
 evince the most inveterate attachment to the exploded science of
 
 TJi£ Pdrsis of Bombay. 1 29 
 
 astrology. They will do nothing without consultiug the stars, 
 their conjunctions, and their oppositions. They rarely start on 
 a journey without being satisfied that no adverse star stands in 
 the way, and no marriage can be solemnized among them with- 
 out a careful scrutiny of the relative position and disposition of 
 the heavenly bodies. Their literature on the subject, however, 
 is limited. The only work I know of is a Persian treatise 
 entitled Siroza or the 'thirty days,' which gives an account of 
 the thirty days of the month and their influences on human ac- 
 tion. It is puerile in the extreme, and as stupid as such books 
 usually are ; but it exercises a potent influence on ithe action 
 of its followers. By way of illustration I shall quote its account 
 of a highly lucky, of a moderately lucky, and of an unlucky, 
 day. 
 
 The Pdrsi era begins from the date of accession of Yazd- 
 jird, the last of the Sassauians, in the middle of September, and 
 reckons 12 months of 30 days each, with five intercalary days 
 at the end, which are passed as holidays. The first day of the 
 month is called Behdin, and is sacred to the god Harmazd. 
 "This day is reckoned auspicious for all good undertakings espe- 
 cially such as commencing new buildings, sending children to 
 school (for the first time), and commencing the cultivation of a 
 field or garden. It is auspicious for all kinds of consultation, 
 for selling and for buying, for uniting together, and for marry- 
 ing ; for dressing in new clothes, and for cutting nails. Shavings 
 going to the bath, and perjury, on this day, meet with instant- 
 aneous punishment from God. If a person be taken ill, he will 
 soon be restored to health. The day is well adapted for a short 
 journey. If a person may have mislaid any thing, he will reco- 
 ver it. Should a child be born, it becomes very fortunate,, and 
 enjoys long life. Dreaming is attended with good, and the- 
 dream ought not to be revealed to any person, till its result b& 
 known. The signification of a dream will bo manifested and 
 not occult." 
 
 The second of the month affords an instance of a moderately 
 • 17
 
 130 The Pdrsis of Bomhay . 
 
 lucky day. It is ''sacred to Bahman, the angel who presides 
 over increase of mankind, and protects horses and goats. It is 
 a moderately fortunate day, and well suited to sensual indul- 
 gences, to the performance of marriage ceremonies, to the drin- 
 king of wine, to putting on new clothes, to scraping nails, to for- 
 ming new hopes, to contracting friendly alliances, and to giving 
 instruction.'' 
 
 The third day is an unluky one. "It belongs to Ardehehisht, 
 the angel who is the guardian of fire. This day is inauspicious ; 
 -we should desist on it from doing any work. Fire must he 
 worshipped. Nothing else must be done, lest its issue should 
 prove unfortunate. It is to be maintained that whoever shall 
 work this day, will repent it at the end. The day is .certainly 
 not good for selling and buying. The child born this daywill 
 Tdc miserable, stupid, deceitful, during a. long life. Good reports 
 are neither to be approved nor credited. The visions of dreams 
 will not be realized. Should a person fall ill, his life is in danger. 
 If any thing be lost, it will never be recovered, unless by a 
 special interposition of Providence."* 
 
 Other days are described in the same way, some highly for- 
 tunate, others moderately so, while others are frightfully bad. 
 The Parsis, however, do not rest satisfied with the guidance of 
 these directions. They resort freely to Hindu astrologers, and 
 ho marriage is solemnised without consulting them. Horoscopes 
 are always cast by the same class of persons, and no child is 
 named until its horoscope has been got ready. 
 
 Although it is not my object in this lecture to dwell upon thb 
 religion of the Parsis, it may not be amiss to cast a glance on 
 "their festivals, which display the social side of their character. 
 'No system of religion designed for the community at large can 
 prosper without festivals. A dull routine of every-day life soon 
 begins to pall — to blunt the edge of enthusiasm, and festivals 
 are the whGt-stones which take that bluntness away. They serve 
 
 * Journal, Royal Asiatic Society IV. pp.' 293, fif.
 
 The Pdrsis af Bomhaij. 131 
 
 as whips to lasli flagging devotion into ardent zeal. The laity 
 can be held together, not by daily prayers and routine formulce, 
 but by frequently-recurring festivals in which men, women and 
 children may join for the sake of mirth, gayety, and entertain- 
 ment, with which religion is blended for their benefit. The 
 character of the festivals may vary with reference to the intellec- 
 tual condition of the people for whom they are intended ; but in 
 every system of religion which recognises festivals — and there 
 is none that does not — there is an attempt to bend, — to descend 
 from the lofty chair of the solemn and the venerable, — to take 
 the lowly orders of the people by the hand, and to make them par- 
 take of the solace of religion sweetened with the honey of enter- 
 tainment. They serve not only to keep alive the hold of religion 
 on the masses, and to familiarise them with its history, but also 
 to ensure a steady income to the exchequer of the clergy. The 
 necessity for them is so absolute, that even the atheistical Bud- 
 dhists could not forego the opportunity for them ; and in our 
 own times there is not a sect, whether Deistic, Theistic, Athestic 
 or Positivist, which has not its festive gathering of some kind or 
 other. 
 
 'Periodical festivals arise either from astronomical causes, or 
 from a desire to perpetuate the memory of some notable event iu 
 the history of a particular religion. The former are universal ; 
 the latter local and particular. Adverting to the former, Wil- 
 son, in his excellent paper on the "Religious Festivals of the 
 Hindus," says, "the universal festivals, which are probably tra- 
 ceable among all nations elevated above barbarism, and which 
 may have been handed down by tradition from the earliest pe- 
 riods in the history of the human race, are manifestly astronomi- 
 cal, and are intended to commemorate the revolutions of the pla?- 
 nets, the alterations of the seasons, and the recurrence of cyclic- 
 cal intervals of longer and shorter durations" ; in either case 
 they rapidly give a strong hold on the mind of the masses, and, 
 once established, they hold on with great tenacity, and defy the 
 attempt of reformers ajid the influence of changes iu the forms
 
 1 32 The Pdrsis of Bombay, 
 
 of religion,'* Hence it is that they turn up nn ler the most un- 
 toward and unexpected circuuistances. And what is true as re- 
 gards other people, is equally so with reference to the Parsi's. 
 They have a great number of festivals, some of which are astro- 
 nomical, others historical, and not a few borrowed from their 
 neighbours. The character of their religion does not admit of 
 much outward festive display of processions and exhibitions. 
 Nor is fasting tolerated by it, the torturing of the flesh being 
 considered sinful. But feasting and gayety, the two essential 
 elements of all festivals, recur often and often. The first occa- 
 sion for such a rejoicing amongst most nations is oiBFerred by the 
 first day of the year. Among the Parsis this occurs in the middle 
 of September when they begin their new year. It is the anni- 
 versary of the day of the accession of Yezdjird, the last of the 
 Sassanians of Persia. It is described to be"a day of great and 
 universal rejoicing — when the ties of friendship are drawn closer, 
 when offences are condoned and pardoned, when every heart is 
 filled with gladness, when music is heard in every street, and 
 •when every table is loaded with good cheer." The day begins 
 with a special religious service, either in private residences, or at 
 the fire temples. It does not, however, take up much time, and 
 is followed by visits to relatives, patrons, and friends for the 
 exchange of new year's greetings, and taking each other by the 
 hand, a ceremony of much consequence, and known by the name 
 of Ha'mmamjor or "joining of hands." Exchange of presents, 
 alms to the poor, and new cloths to the servants, follow, and the 
 rest of the day is spent in feasting, music, singing and merri- 
 ment. Correctly the name of this festival should be Naxiroz^ or 
 *new day,' but by some confusion or other this name is now 
 given to the last day of the year, and the first is called Patetiy 
 from the Zend Poitka, "repentance," which was an expiation 
 for the sins of the year — a sort of closing of the religious 
 ledger, making up all untoward balances by charity. 
 
 On the 19th following a ceremony is performed in honour of 
 
 * Antiquitiea of Oijssa, II., p. 129,
 
 Tlie Pdrsis of Bomhaij. 1 33 
 
 the maues who have become Frohars or celestial gngels. The 
 place for it is a tower of silence or Dokma where the remains 
 of the dead are disposed of. On this occasion all who die at 
 a distance from home in unknown places, obtain a share of wheat- 
 en cakes called darans, and some fruits. The fruits, however, 
 are actually partaken of by the offerers as an act of religious 
 duty. The manes are called Pitaras, the counterpart of the Hindu 
 Pkris, and the ceremony is closely related to the tarpan before 
 the Durga Puja. A ceremony similar to this is called Muktad, 
 and is celebrated at about the close of the Parsi year. 
 
 Most of the festivals are celebrated in honour of the angels 
 Amaspands, the sacred fire Bahman, the solar luminary, Mitta- 
 ras, and others, and one or other comes on once every month, 
 and of all these, besides a rite called jasan, prayers, alms, feas- 
 ting and merriment are the prevailing characteristics. The anni- 
 versary of the death of Zoroaster is observed on the 11th of 
 the month of Deh, which falls about the close of June. 
 
 The Vernal equinox has been a season of festivity among the 
 Aryans in all parts of the earth, and the Carnival and the Holi 
 are the types on which the festa is regulated everywhere. The 
 character of the Holi is well known to my audience, and to give 
 an idea of its counterpart, I quote a few lines from a description 
 of the Carnival as it used to be at one time celebrated in Ger- 
 many, * The whole of Germany eats and drinks and gives it- 
 self up to jokes and sports as if there was not another day to 
 live, and people wear disguises and masks, or stain their faces 
 and vestures with red and black paint, or run about naked like 
 the Luperci, from whom, 1 think, this annual exhibition of insan- 
 ity has descended to us." Naogeorgus thus describes this in 
 verse : 
 
 "Then old and young are both as much as guests of Bacchus' feast ; 
 "And four days long they tipple, square, and feede, and never rest. 
 
 " Feare and shame away ; 
 
 "The tongue is set at libertie, and hath no kind of stay.
 
 ]34 Tlie Pilrsis of Bomhaij. 
 
 "All things are lawful! then and iloue, no pleasure passed by, 
 "That ill their miuda they can devise, as if they then should die. 
 
 * * * * 
 
 "Some uaked run about the streets, their faces bid alone 
 
 With visars close, that so disguised they may of none be kaowne." 
 
 The Pdrsis, as Aryans, have always observed this festa, but 
 th(;y call it the new year's day of Jamshid, one of their most 
 ancient kings, who first introduce the system of reckoning time 
 by years. They do not, however, indulge in offensive frivolity 
 or obscenity. ... 
 
 The creation, according to the Parsi scriptures, was effected 
 in six periods, a day of rest intervening after each. Thus there 
 are six days of rest in the year. They are called Gahambars," 
 and most devoutly respected by the orthodox among the Parsis." 
 But a holiday without feasting would be a bonnet without its' 
 trimmings, and feasting and merriment, after the religious rite, 
 are never neglected. 
 
 From what has been said above it will be abundantly obvi- 
 ous that the Parsis in India have led a life of compromise, yield- 
 ing to their Hindu protectors in all matters of domestic life,\ 
 and copying them as faithfully as they could. But they have 
 never allowed their religion to be tampered with, nor their com-, 
 munity avowedly to amalgamate with the Hindus. They have: 
 lived and thrived among the Hindus and with the Hindus, but 
 they have always maintained their distinctive character as a- 
 separate and exclusive community. ; 
 
 Want is the most potent incentive to change, and lest that 
 cause should lead to any of their community forsaking them, the 
 Parsis have devised every means at their command to prevent it. 
 They hold it as one of their most important duties to befriend 
 the poorer members of their body. Funds are always forth- 
 coming to relieve the needy, and such a thing as a Pdrsi beggar 
 is never seen in the streets of Bombay. Public women of that 
 sect are also, I am told, unknown. Medical relief is abundant. 
 There are several dispeusai'ies and hospitals for their use ; and
 
 The Pdrsis of Bombay/. 1 35 
 
 the Parsis have always maintained in Boinba}% tlieir liigh cha- 
 racter for liberality and benevolence. Number I'or number 
 they distribute more money in charity than does any other 
 community in India. And foremost among them has been that 
 truly great and noble man, the first Sir Jamsetji Jijibhoy, to 
 ■whom is due the largest hospital in this country. That hospital 
 is as handsome in its exterior, as the work done in it is noble. 
 It accommodates six hundred patients, or twice as many as any 
 other charitable hospital existing in any other part of India. The 
 most showy as an exterior is that magnificent pile yonder, (the 
 Fever Hospital of Calcutta), but it cannot take in more than 300 
 patients. To Sir Jamsetji belongs the honour, also, of establish- 
 ing an Obsteteric Hospital, which has no equal in any other part 
 of this country. For the relief of distress his Charitable Fund 
 is a highly useful institution. To provide for the intellectual 
 requirements of his fellow creatures, he, moreover, founded the 
 Benevolent Institution, a School of Art^ and a Zarthusti Madrissa. 
 There are in Bombay several other endowments due to his prin- 
 cely hberality, and our gracious Sovereign never bestowed a Ba- 
 ronetcy on more deserving an individual than the late noble re- 
 presentative of the Parsi community.
 
 DR. HCERNLE'S APPOINTMENT AND 
 ROMANIZATION. 
 
 At a Quarterly General Aleeting of the British Indian Association 
 held at the Hall of the Association on Friday, the 29th July 
 1881^ at 4 FM., Raja (then Rat) Rajendalala Mitra^ Baha- 
 door, loho ivas in the chair , spoke as follows :— 
 
 The President, in opening the business of the meeting, said, 
 the report about to be read by the Secretary of the operations 
 of the Managing Committee for the past six months was so full 
 and clear that it was not necessary for him to dwell at length on 
 the several topics embraced in it. It would be seen that the 
 Committee was, as usual, very busily and very usefully employed 
 in the consideration of many important subjects connected 
 with the political well-being of the native community, and 
 the action taken by it in regard to them was in every way 
 judicious. The most important subject was Finance. After the 
 exposure made during the last two years of the sad way in which 
 the financial affairs of the State had been managed, it was neces- 
 sary that the Association should lay before Government an ex- 
 pression of the wants, wishes and the feelings of the native com- 
 munity in regard to that subject, and the Committee had done 
 well in making a representation about it. Now that the Depart- 
 ment of Finance was under the management of a gentleman who 
 had thoroughly established his character for unflinching justice, 
 great prudence, and vast experience — one who brought to his 
 office the wisdom and the sympathies of the administration of 
 Lord Northbrook — there was every reason to expect that the 
 Finances would be placed on a healthy footing, and all com- 
 plaints and abuses will be put down. 
 
 The next subject to which the President wished to invite the 
 attention of the meeting was the representation made in regard
 
 Dr. ITosmle^s Appointment and Romanization. 137 
 
 to the appointment of a missionary gentleman to a professorship 
 in the Presidency College. It was not without grave delibera- 
 tion that the step had been taken, and it was taken on principle, 
 and not with reference to the person appointed, against whom 
 individually the Committee had nothing to say. The speaker 
 was personally acquainted with the gentleman, and cherished 
 much respect for his varied learning and scholarship. To the 
 natives who looked upon the Proclamation of 1858 as the char- 
 ter of their liberty, who took the assurance given by our graci- 
 ous Sovereign that she would in the distribution of offices make 
 no distinction on account of race, creed or colour, objection to 
 any appointment on the ground of religious differences would be 
 highly unbecoming •, and had the objections on the occasion un- 
 der notice proceeded from such a cause, the speaker would have 
 for certain condemned it, and not made himself a party to it. 
 The case, however, was not so. The objection was not to the 
 appointment of a Christian to a teachership in a native school,— 
 there were hundreds of Christian and Mahomedan teachers in 
 schools for Hindoos as there were Hindoo and Mahomedan tea- 
 chers in schools for Christians, and no one in his senses would ever 
 think of objecting to them. The objection was to the appointment 
 of a person who had given his pledge before God and man to devote 
 his life to the subversion of the faith of the people, and taken in 
 that light, — to an act calculated to injure the religion of the peo- 
 ple, — the objection was right and proper. The paramount — if 
 not the sole — duty of a missionary was to propagate the religion 
 of Christ to the overthrow of all other forms of religion. He 
 accepts his office as a missionary under that pledge, and he would 
 be untrue to his pledge and to his God if he did not faithfully, 
 honestly, and to the best of his ability do so. He does not accspt 
 his office as a hireling, to do a particular duty during the time he 
 is paid for it, but he accepts it as a religious duty to which he is 
 bound for life in justice to his faith. He thereby renders himself 
 unfit for secular duty — particularly a duty in which he has the 
 training of the morals and education of children of adverse faith. 
 
 18
 
 138 D)\ Hoernle's Appointment and Romanization. 
 
 Thus he incapaciates himself from deriving the benefit of onr 
 Sovereign's gracious ordinance. Take the parallel case of a Hindu 
 ■who takes a pledge before his God that he would devote his life to 
 attempts for the subversion of Christianity. Would he not there- 
 by render himself totally unfit for the training of Christian chil- 
 dren ? ' And what was true in the one case, was equally so 
 in the other. Doubtless a pledge once given, however solemnly, 
 before God and man, may be revoked under altered circumstan- 
 ces ; but there was nothing to show, that such a revocation had 
 ever been formally made on the appointment of a missionary to a 
 teachership for native children. The pledge before God remains 
 intact, and native children are left to their own devices. Nor is 
 the adverse feeling peculiar to the people of this country — or as 
 some Englishmen are disposed to describe it as native prejudice. 
 The feeling prevails all over the civilized world. A Roman Catho- 
 lic is as indisposed to send his children to a Protestant mission- 
 nary, as a Protestant is to place his children under the tuition 
 of a Roman Catholic clergyman. Other Christian sects evince 
 their feelings in very much the same way. The House of Com- 
 mons has recognised the reasonableness of this feeling by making 
 large grants for Maynooth and other Roman Catholic Colleges 
 in Ireland in addition to the Protestant State Colleges of the 
 Dublin University ; and the consideration which has been shown 
 to the Roman Catholics of a conquex'ed country like Ireland is 
 what -the natives of this country has a right to expect from so 
 liberal a Government as that of Great Britain. 
 
 There was another point in connection with the appointment 
 which called for notice. A solemn pledge had been given by 
 Government that all appointments worth above Rupees two hun- 
 dred would be given to the natives, if the appointments were 
 made in India, and all appointments of Europeans above Rs. 200 
 would be made in Europe. This rule had been laid down to pre- 
 vent the inundation of the country by what was vulgarly called 
 Dowb. In this instance the rule had been broken, and every 
 breach implied the taking away of a legitimate berth from the
 
 Dr. IToernle's Appointment and Romanization. 139 
 
 children of the soil. 
 
 The question of Romanization was also one of principle. 
 The orders passed by Government were by themselves of littlo 
 moment, but they involved a principle which the Committee 
 could not allow to leave unnoticed. From the beginning of this 
 century the Government, with characteristic liberality, had evinc- 
 ed considerable earnestness to render the proceedings of the 
 law Courts easily intelligible to the people. And in 183G orders 
 were issued suppressing the use of the Persian character and the 
 Urdu language in the Courts of Bengal in favor of the Bengali 
 language and character which were best known by the community. 
 Soon after Persian was replaced by Urdu in the Courts of Behar 
 and the North- Western Provinces, and some laws were enacted 
 to legalise the changes. In 1872 Sir George Campbell noticed 
 that the Urdu as it existed in the Behar Courts was not the lan- 
 guage of the people, and therefore recommended the use of the 
 Hindi language and the Kaythi character. The oders under 
 this head were subsequently repeated several times, but to no 
 effect ; the old Urdu continued everywhere, and the Hindi was 
 left uncared for. In the middle of last year peremptory orders 
 were issued prohibiting the use of the Urdu language and the 
 Persian character from the 1st day of this year. Two contradic- 
 tory movements were thereupon set in motion. The Hindus 
 from the different districts affected, poured in addresses convey- 
 ing their grateful acknowledgments to His Honor the Lieutenant- 
 Governor for making the language of the Courts intelligible to 
 the masses, while some of the Mahomedans who felt that the 
 orders meant the sweeping away of the last emblem of the for- 
 mer supremacy of their co-religionists in this country, protested 
 against their language and character being placed under the ban. 
 The Mahomedan Vakeels of Patna, who took the lead in the lat- 
 ter movement, based their argument on the hardship of being 
 obliged to learn and use the language of the Kafirs, the Hindus, 
 in the discharge of their duties. The argument was baseless, for 
 they all spoke the language of the Kafirs, and most of them had
 
 140 Dr. Ilcernle^s Appointment and Romamzation. 
 
 their ordinary business transacted in Kafir writing. But the 
 .agitation offered a good opportunity to such of the officers of 
 Government as were interested in the Romanizatiou scheme to 
 benefit by it, and some of them suggested that the way to solve 
 the difficulty would be to give them the option of using the 
 Roman letters in writing Hindi. The Government accepted 
 this suggestion, and ordered that in "petitions other than plaints" 
 the Roman character may be used in the Courts of Behar. This 
 involved a very small question by itself, but knowing how some 
 influential officers of Government — District Judges and others 
 — were anxious to make a beginning somehow with the ultimate 
 object of suppressing all the vernacular alphabets, your Commit- 
 tee thought fit to make the representation under notice. The 
 reply of Government to your representation has placed the sub- 
 ject in a new light. It has been said that the orders were in- 
 tended to relieve the disabiUties which would otherwise be im- 
 posed on a small class of Mahomedan pleaders, and the opera- 
 tion may perhaps serve to throw some light on the practical 
 working of a system of Romanizatiou, and so be of service 
 ultimately in the settlement of the controversies now current on 
 the subject. The first reason is not tenable. No class of plea- 
 ders can carry on their profession by writing " petitions other 
 than plaints.'' The plaint is the corner-stone of all legal pro- 
 ceedings, and if that must invariably be in the languages of the 
 Kafirs,- the pleaders can gain but little by writing "petitions 
 other than plaints''in Roman letters. The objection if any thing 
 is a religious one, and it cannot be met by making the infrac- 
 tion of a leligious duty compulsory in some cases, and optional 
 in others. The second reason would logically suggest the idea 
 of there being a desire on the part of Government to supplant 
 the vernacular characters, and experiments are being tried with 
 a view to find out the easiest way of effecting that object. But 
 the speaker did not believe that there was really any such desire 
 on the part of Government. He had the highest confidence in 
 the justice, liberality and wisdom of Government, and could not
 
 The Education Commission, etc, 141 
 
 for a moment harbour the idea tliat the hberal British Govern- 
 ment would ever tolerate the impolicy which had been the cause 
 of so much national irritation in Hungary, Poland, Schleswig, 
 Holstien and elsvvhere. Tiie distinguished statesman who was 
 at the head of the Bengal Government was well known for his 
 sympathy for the people, and he would not on any account lend 
 himself to so objectionable a policy. 
 
 THE EDUCATION COMMISSION, etc. 
 
 The folloioing speech was delivered hy Raja (then Hai) Majendra- 
 lala Mitra, Bahadoor, at the Thirtieth Annual General Meeting 
 of the British Indian Association held in the Hall of the Asso- 
 ciation on Monday, the 10th April, 1882. 
 
 It was not without great reluctance that about this time last 
 year I accepted the office of President of your Association. 
 Appreciating highly the honor you conferred on me, 1 felt that I 
 "was not competent to discharge the trust with the same ability 
 and influence which my illustrious predecessors had done. Hav- 
 ing sat long at the feet of some of the earlier members to learn 
 the art of political association I knew full well their worth, and 
 could not even in moments of the wildest aspirations think of 
 approaching the high merits of a Radhakant, a Ramanath, or a 
 Prosunno Kumar. I was aware, however, as I told you at the 
 last anniversary, that your Association had outgrown its infancy ; 
 it was in the possession of organs most fully developed ; it was in 
 the hey-day of vigorous manhood ; and needed no longer the kind 
 attention of a dry nurse. You were well able to work, and did 
 work, for yourselves with consummate ability, and was fairly 
 above the necessity of an inspiring, leading guiding spirit. You 
 required only what all public bodies do require, a moderator at
 
 142 The Education Commission, etc. 
 
 your meetings, and not a Mentor ; and in so humble a position 
 I did not think my shortcomings would be too glaring. I relied, 
 too, on the cordial co-operation of your distinguished Committee, 
 and of your able Secretary. A year has since elapsed ; the 
 period of my office has come to a close, and it is a source of 
 great satisfaction to me to know that I retire without having 
 injured your interests in any way. The report just read shows 
 that during the past 12 months your Committee worked with 
 the same zeal, the same prudence, the same wisdom, the same 
 imtiring energy, which had before marked their conduct. No 
 subject of any importance to the well-being of the native 
 community has escaped their notice. They met regularly 
 every week, debated long and carefully every Govern- 
 ment measure bearing on the people, and in every instance took 
 action in the way which, you will admit, was perfectly 
 right and proper. Altogether some forty diflPerent subjects en- 
 gaged the attention of your Committee, and some of them were 
 of grave importance. Take for instance the Private Trust Bill, 
 which under plea of regulating private trusts, laid down rules 
 which virtually set aside all trusts for future generations. The 
 main object of a private trust is to keep away property from the 
 immediate control of beneficiaries, but the new law provides that 
 the terms of trusts may be modified with the consent of the bene- 
 ficiaries, i. e. the trustees and the beneficiaries should be the abso- 
 lute masters of property, irrespective of all conditions of trusts ; 
 in other words trust-deeds in such cases must be mere waste 
 paper. The power given to trustees to nominate their own suc- 
 cessors also opened a wide door for mischief. Turning next to 
 the Emigration Bill I must admit that it concerned only the 
 poorest class of the community, but it was just the class which 
 claimed the most earnest attention of your Committee. "What- 
 ever the detracters of the Association may say to the contrary 
 in order to weaken its well-earned influence, the Association has 
 always been true to its profession of representing all classes of 
 the community, and the interest of those who cannot help them-
 
 The Education Commission, etc. 143 
 
 selvea, the ryots and the labouring classes, have always been cou- 
 Bulted with the greatest care, they have never been so well repre- 
 sented as by the Association. Legislation was originally called 
 for on the subject on account of grievions mismanagement on the 
 part of planters, but the tendency of late has been all on the 
 other way. The Bill under notice was got up mainly in the in- 
 terest of the planter, under the inspiration of some influential 
 persons in England interested in tea, and contained many provi- 
 sions highly injurious to emigrants. The two most obnoxious fea- 
 tures were the saleability of labourers as chattels along with tea 
 estates, and the power of arresting deserters without a warrant. 
 No justification was attempted of the sale clause by the legisla- 
 ture, but a section of the English Merchant Shipping Act was 
 quoted to show that your Committee were all wrong in saying 
 that the arrest without warrant of the kind proposed was unpre- 
 cedented in civilizied legislation. Of course arrest without war- 
 rant was not unprecedented ; every guardian had the power 
 of arresting without a warrant a run-away minor, and every 
 passer-by a mnrderer or a thief in the street, but whereas the 
 section quoted required the arrest of a sailor to be reported to 
 the nearest Magistrate within 24 hours, the alleged cooly deser- 
 ter may be, under the law, carried from one end of India to the 
 other, from Delhi to Debrughur, and kept on travelling for six 
 months without giving him an opportunity to plead his own cause 
 before a Magistrate, and were he after six months or more to 
 prove his innocence the oppressor was to be let off with a fine not 
 exceeding fifty rupees. This lenience to law-breakers was the 
 most offensive feature of the law. The law was defended most 
 strenuously on the ground of the coolies being, better lodged, bet- 
 ter fed, better clothed, and altogether better kept than in their 
 own homes. This, however, proved too much. The argument press- 
 ed home would justify imprisonment for life. A prisoner at the 
 Alipore Jail is better housed, better fed, better clothed and better 
 tended, than millions of the lower orders of the community. The 
 latter have scarce a comfort to think of, their huts are the most
 
 144 The Education Commission, etc. 
 
 miserable possible, huts which protect them neither from sun 
 nor from rain; their clothing is a misnomer ; their fare the hard- 
 est that ever fell to the lot of the labourer, the most despicable 
 in quality and insufficient in quantity j their children melt away 
 from starvation ; and their family die like rotten sheep from 
 want of medical aid ; and yet how many of the millions would 
 exchange their lot for a home in an Indian Juil ? No, not one 
 in a hundred and that because they have a will — a feeling which 
 rebel against imprisonment, and the denial of the common rights 
 of man. 
 
 The Hindu Wills Act opened the old question of gift i7iter' 
 sivos. A false interpretation of a logical conceit in the Daya- 
 bhaga opened this question, and the Lords of Her Majesty's Privy 
 Council were misled by it, and an attempt was made by the legis- 
 lature to legalise it ; but on the opposition of Maharaja Jotindra 
 Mohun Tagore the attempt was abandoned. 
 
 The Cess Bill discussions call for no remark at this stage. 
 Vour Committee have paid every attention to them, and will 
 watch them with unfailing care. 
 
 The appointment of a missionary gentleman as a teacher in 
 a Government school formed the subject ofoue of your represen- 
 tation to Government ; but the Government of Bengal has not 
 deigned to acknowledge your memorial. The subject of Govern- 
 ment aid to charitable dispensaries also engaged the attention 
 of your Committee for a time. It was in 1864 that the theory 
 was enunciated that under the principles of political economy it 
 formed no part of Government duty to save people from famine, 
 and a million of people were offered as a holocaust to this Moloch 
 of political economy. The doctrine was abandoned soon after, 
 and a very different principle prevailed during the famine of 
 1873. It was reserved, however, for the medical advisers of the 
 Bengal Government to revive it in connextion with charitable dis- 
 pensaries in 1881, and laying down the doctrine that it was 
 beyond the recognised province of Government to provide medi- 
 cal aid to the poor. Yes, men may die by hundreds of thousands
 
 The Education Commission, etc. 145 
 
 of epidemics of cholera and plague originating from Government 
 neglect of sanitary rules, and it was not the duty of Govern- 
 ment to save them ? The Government had accepted houses, 
 lands, endowments, and subscriptions from the public to keep 
 up charitable dispensaries ; but the medical authorities repudiat- 
 ed the responsibility which the acceptance implied ; and pro- 
 posed the withdrawal of Government from the field. No, I beg 
 their pardon, they did not recommend absolute withdrawal ; 
 they recommended it only with reference to the poor miserable 
 wretches of the Mofussil, but admitted the propriety of keeping 
 up large hospitals in presidency towns which provided fat super- 
 intendentships for well-paid pluralists. The reply of Govern- 
 ment to your representation does not argue the politico-econo- 
 mic doctrine, but says the subject will be taken up by the Local 
 Boards about to be appointed. The other subject noticed in the 
 report call for no remark. The report closes with the calender 
 year, but during the last three months two subjects turned up 
 which call for note. One of them was the Criminal Procedure 
 Bill, in which the old complaint of the people that in the eye of 
 the law the white man was held to be different and of greater 
 importance than the black man, and safeguards were provided 
 for the former pa^tic^^larly as regards the haheus corpus sections, 
 which were denied the latter. Your Committee, as usual, protes- 
 ted against them, but to no avail. 
 
 The second was the Education Commission ; but with re- 
 ference to it your Committee have not had as yet any thing to 
 do. It is one, however, that should engage your most earn- 
 est attention, as it concerns your very existence as an intel- 
 lectual nation. For the head of the Commission I have the most 
 unbounded respect. His profound erudition, his vast experi- 
 ence, his generous sympathy render him the fittest map for the 
 leadership of the Commission ; but his surroundings are not 
 good, and the action of the Commission augur no good to the 
 people. The Commission has arisen from an interested misre- 
 presentation by influential persons in England of the 62nd para 
 
 19
 
 146 The Education Commission, etc, 
 
 of the famous Education Despatch of Sir Charles Wood. In that 
 para a hope is expressed that a time would come when the Gov- 
 ernment would be able to retire from active participation in 
 the work of high education. It was a mere flourish — a forecast 
 of fancy — of what may be possible in the distant future, and not 
 laying down a line of policy, for immediate action. Sir Charles 
 Wood knew well that many centuries of national Government 
 had not sufficed to enable the State from retiring from high edu- 
 cation in Great Britain and Ireland, and that State aid for univer- 
 sities there amounted to four times as much as in Bengal, while 
 the population of Bengal is twice as numerous as in Great Bri- 
 tain, and he could not possibly have anticipated to effect in India 
 amidst subject nations in twenty-five years what had not been 
 effected in four centuries or more among a free people. His lan- 
 guage in the despatch can be reasonably explained in the sense 
 in which I take it. But the language of the Despatch apart, the 
 question to be asked is — is it the duty of a civilized Government 
 to provide for the education of the people ? In theory that is 
 the duty of Government which the people cannot do themselves. 
 Justice, police, protection from foreign enemies, post, public roads, 
 currency and the like, are the duties of Government, because 
 private exertions cannot suffice for tliem. Education in the same 
 way is a public duty, and to deny it is to repudiate one of the 
 most important duties of Government, Government admits this, 
 but say those who are opposed to high education that the duty is 
 limited to the masses who are unable to help themselves, but do 
 not apply to the well-to-do who want high education. This am- 
 ounts to the same thing as saying that the police should protect 
 the poor only, and not the rich who can protect themselves ; that 
 the police should apprehend the sneaking rogue that purloins 
 a lota from a beggar, but let alone the burglar who breaks into 
 the treasury of a Maharaja. Logically there is no difference 
 between the two cases. Moreover, I look upon the high schools 
 as nurseries for the supply of competent officers for the service 
 X)i Government. Government wants competent Moonsiffs, com--
 
 Tlie Education Commission, etc. 147 
 
 peteat teachers, competent Deputy Magistrates, Deputy Col- 
 lectors, Deputy Surveyors and head clerks, and keeps up the 
 schools for their own use. When well educated Civil >Servant3 
 were wanted, Government paid five lacs for the liailebury College. 
 For thirty engineers a year, it pays three lacs of rupees every 
 year for the Cooper's Hill College ; and are two lacs and a quar- 
 ter too large a sum to pay for two to three hundred officers of 
 the different grades, I have named ? If not, the charge is a le- 
 gitimate one and should not be withheld. It might be said 
 that if the well-to-do would take care of themselves the Gov- 
 ernment would find the means for extending popular education. 
 This is, however, not practicable. The people are not in a 
 position to take care of high education. They are a subject 
 race, without any political aspiration. They are divided by 
 difference of nationality, religion, sects and mutual jealousy. 
 They cannot combine to prop up national schools, A witness 
 the other day said before the Commission — let Bengali bo 
 the language of education for the lower orders of the Maho- 
 medans, but the said Bengali should be bastardized by a 
 liberal infusion of Arabic and Persian and the teachers 
 should be Mahomedans. Can there be any union for the main- 
 tenance of a national college where such feelings prevail ? 
 Sectarian differences have led to the maintenance of separate 
 colleges for the Protestants and the Roman Catholics in Ireland, 
 and we can hope for nothing better in India. The Government 
 Resolution refers only to competent natives, but the Commission 
 in their question have generalised the idea, and adverting to these 
 I say, the only persons who can take up the colleges when the 
 Government drops them are the missionaries, and the question 
 therefore is should the Government maintain non-sectarian col- 
 leges at a high cost, or for the sake of economy make them over 
 to the Christian missionaries who work with the avowed object 
 "of killing the religion of the people through the brain".'' 
 Would it be the proper duty to circumvent the destruction of 
 the people's faith by making over the colleges to the mission*
 
 148 TJie Education Commission^ etc. 
 
 aries ? The plea of economy is of no avail in such a case. Would 
 such a plea be tolerated for a moment in England, if the pro- 
 position were that education there be made over to the Jesuit 
 priests lately expelled from France and other places ? It is 
 morally certain that the Jesuits can supply very competent tea- 
 chers at one-fourth the cost of Protestant teachers. There are 
 other serious questions in connexion with the subject ; but I 
 cannot take them up now. I hope and trust your Committee 
 will watch the proceedings of the Commission with care, and 
 avail themselves of the earliest opportunity to bring to its notice 
 the views, wants, and wishes of the people. 
 
 From the summary I have given it is undeniable, and I must 
 admit with regret that the services so zealously and indefatigably 
 rendered by your Committee did not bear all the fruit that you 
 could wish. ■ But that was unavoidable. You are sadly over- 
 weighted in the race of life and you must be prepared to see 
 even your best efforts not unoften blown out by the breath of 
 official impatience of criticism. No Government was more 
 virtuously inspired, more honestly intent to rule fairly and justly, 
 than the British Indian Government under which you have the 
 privilege to live ; and the organization of that Government is 
 more perfect than what India ever had. But it is still a bure- 
 aucracy ; it may be tempered by the best of feelings ; it may be 
 governed by the most advanced principles of liberality, but still 
 it is a bureaucracy. Business is done in departments, each of 
 which is governed by a chief who is a most perfect master of all 
 that concerns his department, and the department of legislation 
 with which you are most concerned, was most noted of late for 
 its impatience of criticism and of public opinion. In the over- 
 flowing fulness of its wisdom it thought that it did not exist for 
 the people, but that the people existed as a corpus vilas for it to 
 experiment upon ; and this could not but lead to unwholsome 
 legislation under the best circumstances. The tendency in 
 bureaucracy is to attach higher importance to the comfort and 
 convenience of executive officers than to the right, liberty, safety-
 
 Tlie Education Commission, etc. 149 
 
 and well-being of the public at large. No one can study the 
 course of legislation in India during the last five years without 
 being painfully aware of it. There is, moreover, a sad want of 
 sympathy, and I believe that no legislation can be good which 
 does not consult the feeling of the people, their habits, manners, 
 customs and mode of thinking ; and the bureaucracy would 
 cease to be a bureaucracy which evinced a solicitude for the 
 feeling of the people. Doctrinaire principles of abstract justice 
 may be all right ; but man is not made up only of brains ; 
 there is in him a heart as well as a head ; and no statesman can 
 do his duty satisfactorily who will not recognize this grand truth, 
 and act accordingly. 
 
 A new element of mischief has lately arisen to mar the liber- 
 al intentions of our rulers. It is what is called 'home influence.' 
 I apprehended it when the charter question was on the tapis in 
 1852-53, and gave expression to my apprehension at more than 
 one of your meetings. That apprehension has since been pain- 
 fully realised. You rulers are utterly powerless against it. 
 Some of your rulers glory in it, as did a member of Council when 
 he said "above all I am an Englishman, and the interest of Eng- 
 lishmen must ever be foremost in my mind." Others, more cons- 
 cientious, more anxious to be just and fair to the people, find 
 it to be a grave difficulty in their way ; but it is an incubus 
 which they cannot shake ofi', and must therefore submit to its be- 
 hests. The people must go to the wall if their interests are in 
 any wise opposed to that of the said influence. But even this 
 influence, mighty as it is, is but a feather against a ton of lead 
 when it is shaped and moulded and put into action by the exi- 
 gencies of party Government. It is then simply irresistible ; and 
 of late you all know India had been made the shuttle-cock of 
 party tournament. For it, you are nothing better than cork and 
 feathers, created to serve as the implement of play. You are but 
 the foot balls for the ins and outs who hunger for the loaves and 
 fishes of office. What then with a bureaucracy, with many un- 
 sympathetic rulers, with home influence and party wants, your
 
 150 The Education Commission, etc. 
 
 position is by no means favourable to any marked on your work. 
 You have to swim against the current, to rise uphill, to run 
 against all powerful private interests, you should therefore be 
 prepared for many reverses. Your motives will be misinterpreted, 
 and your action denounced. The whole armoury of banter, ridi- 
 cule, scorn and contumely will be hurled against you in season, 
 and out of season. But you must be prepared for them. You 
 hove a sacred duty to perform ; you represent the interests of 
 two hundred millions of human beings. However otherwise di- 
 vided the people of India may be by diversities of caste, religion, 
 language, and nationality, their political interest is the same — 
 whatever is good for any one of the nations is good for all, and 
 whatever is injurious is equally harmful to one and all ; and you 
 constitute their mouthpiece. If you will discharge your duties 
 honestly, faithfully and unflinchingly, you are sure, sooner or 
 later, to attain your object. You have besides a tribunal to go 
 to which is the best on earth ; it is the heart of the great English 
 nation. However clouded at times by false and sinister repre- 
 sentations, it is sound to the core, and no prayer for justice will 
 remain unlistened by it. Be then of good cheer ; mind not 
 your reverses ; laugh to scorn the taunts and jibes of your ene- 
 mies ; bear in mind the sanctity of your cause ; and apply your- 
 selves steadily to your self-imposed duty, without swerving to 
 the left or the right. Above all mind that you do not yield to 
 sinister motives. Your character is the keenest weapon you 
 have ; beware that it is not blunted by the rust of self-interested or 
 rather of short-sightedness, for interested we all are ; we all try 
 to better ourselves ; only some do it on a broad liberal principle, 
 whereas others do it on a narrow basis — people who in the lan- 
 guage of Bacon would set fire to village to poach an egg for 
 their breakfast. If I can attain my object by saying yea to a 
 man in power, what care I if the measure to which I give my as- 
 sent be injurious to my neighbours, is a feeling which has always 
 exercised an overpowering influence in human affairs, and it is 
 hard to put it down. Party-feeling, cliquism, envy, and jeal^
 
 The Bengal Tenancy Bill. 151 
 
 ousy are, likewise, powerful factors in human affairs. Suppress 
 them altogether you cannot, but believe me that your advance- 
 ment as a nation will always bear a direct ratio to the extent 
 with which you can overcome them ; and earnest do I pray that 
 the united example of those who have brought up this Associa- 
 tion to its present position may long continue to inspire your 
 action. 
 
 THE BENGAL TENANCY BILL. 
 
 A meeting of the Central Committee of the Landholders of Bengal 
 and Behar^ for the purpose of memorialising the Secretary of 
 State and the Viceroy on the subject of the Bengal Tenancy 
 Billy loas held at the Town Hall, on Saturday, the 17th 
 November 1883, at 3-30 p. m. 27ie meeting teas largely and 
 influentially attended by zemindars and other landholders from 
 different parts of the country. Raja {then Rai) Rajendra 
 Lala Mitra Bahadur, L.L.D., CLE. {President of the British 
 Indian Association and of the Central Committee of the Land- 
 holders of Bengal and Behar), icas in the chair and delivered 
 the following address :— 
 
 Before proceeding to the programme of to-day, I desire to 
 cflFer a few words with reference to the nature of this meeting. 
 This is not a meeting of the zemindars of Bengal, Behar and 
 Orissa, nor is it a demonstration with the object of eliciting pub- 
 lic opinion. As stated in the circular and advertised in the 
 newspapers, you will perceive that the name given is the "Cen- 
 tral Committee." Now this Central Committee consists of barely 
 59 persons, and in meeting in this Hall our object has not been 
 to have these 59 persons to make a demonstration, but to suit 
 the convenience of many of our colleagues. We represent,
 
 152 The Bengal Tenancy Bill. 
 
 however, a constituency of 150,000 families in the Lientenant- 
 Governorship of Bengal ; the ancestors of some of these families 
 were at one time sovereigns in their own right ; many more 
 were territorial chiefs of great power and influence ; even now 
 many of these families own large estates in more than one dis- 
 trict. We meet here as representatives of these families. There 
 are others — a very influential and large class — which represent 
 the capital of this country, either in the hands of natives or 
 Europeans who have cast their lot in the country. The subject 
 before us is of vital importance, and in considering what steps 
 we should now adopt, we want calm, quiet, and serious delibera- 
 tion, and not harangues and ostentatious sentimentalism, and for 
 this purpose we require a small meeting, and that is what we 
 proposed. It happens, however, that we have here present a 
 much larger number of gentlemen than what, strictly speaking, 
 would come under the name of a Central Committee. These 
 gentlemen are all more or less interested in zemindaries. They 
 feel the warmest sympathy for our endeavours to protect the 
 rights of those who have had interest in land in this country for 
 centuries, — long, long before British rule was established here, 
 — and they have thought fit to aid us and by their presence to 
 give us encouragement under our circumstances. In the name 
 of the Executive Committee, and of the Central Committee, I 
 desire to tender our thanks to those gentlemen for the sympathy 
 they have shown us. (Applause.) 
 
 The first subject in connection with the meeting should be an 
 abstract of the proceedings of your Executive Committee, Your 
 Committee have been engaged in the preparation of representa- 
 tions regarding the Bill, and the publication of papers, and the 
 issue and dissemination of information both here and in England. 
 We have established an agency now in England, and we hope 
 ere long that the misrepresentations which have been studiously 
 circulated in England to divert public opinion from the true na- 
 ture of the Bill will now meet from the hands of our agents and 
 friends there an . adequate reply. We have published several
 
 The Bengal Tenancy Bill. 153 
 
 papers, but need not dwell on them. One of them I wish to 
 name because it is one which we have not published. We owe 
 it to our friend, Mr. Bell, who has most generously written an 
 able defence of the proprietary rights of the zemindars in their 
 lands. Mr. DaCosta has also written one during the recent 
 discussions, and our thanks, therefore, are due to him also for it. 
 Other papers have also been written. These I have not yet 
 read. I have heard that an admirable paper has been issued by 
 Mr. Lethbridge, but I will not refer to it now. I cannot, how- 
 ever, allow this opportunity to pass without adverting to the in- 
 terest which some of the newspapers have taken in our proceed- 
 ings, and the generosity with which they have opened their 
 columns, both editorial and correspondence, for the discussion of 
 questions connected with the Tenancy Bill. To the editors of 
 those papers our thanks are particularly due. (Hear, hear.) We 
 have an uphill work to do. We, most of us belong to a conquer- 
 ed nation ; we are weak, we are without influence, we are with- 
 out power, and we have to contend against the most powerful 
 bureaucracy on the face of the earth, determined to carry things 
 without regard to law, or reason, or justice, or right ; and under 
 such circumstances, however little may be the assistance we shall 
 derive, we cannot but feel deeply grateful for every item of help 
 to give strength to a cause which, however just, is, I am sorry 
 to say, not backed up by power and influence. (Applause.) 
 
 The first item on the programme is ijie correspondence which 
 has been published in the India Gazette of October 20. This 
 gives us the opinions of a number of selected officials of the 
 Government on the nature of the Tenancy Bill. You are aware 
 that, when that Bill was drafted by the Bengal Government and 
 forwarded to the Indian Government, we applied for copies, but 
 got none. The Indian Government has recast the Bill and sent it 
 on to the Secretary of State for his sanction without giving an 
 opportunity to the 150,000 zemindars, whose interests were at 
 stake, to say a single word in their defence [Cries of "Shame."] 
 This is an omission to which reference will be presently made 
 
 20
 
 154 Tlie Bengal Tenancy Bill. 
 
 by abler individuals who will address you. But it was with the 
 view of, to a certain extent, minifying that omission, that the 
 Government thought proper to send out the Bill to their selected 
 ofBcials for opinion. I always dislike any such matters being 
 referred to "selected" officials. Pray select not ; for in select- 
 ing the human mind is for certain warped, and it selects those 
 who are likely to be of the same opinion with its own. 
 
 However, the opinions elicited are strongly and markedly 
 opposed to the principle of the Tenancy Bill. Out of some 60 
 persons who have sent in their opinions, the great majority are 
 strongly opposed to it. The Bill is a very large and complicated 
 one, and in giving their opinions on such a subject, it is but 
 natural to suppose that 60 men cannot agree in all points. There 
 must be dissentients and differences, and it is not at all unna- 
 tural that you have some opinions which are strongly in favour 
 of the policy of the Government. But the great majority are 
 against it. Out of a total of ten Commissioners, the great majo- 
 rity are opposed to it, and I will just read one or two opinions 
 on it. 
 
 I first quote the opinion of Mr. Lowis, an officer of many 
 years' experience as a Commissioner. He says : — 
 
 Speaking generally, I may say that the introduction of this measure 
 is viewed by all whom I have consulted on the subject with the gravest ap- 
 prehension, as tending to embitter the relations between landlord and ten- 
 ant, and likely to lead to a crop of litigation, with all its accompanying 
 frauds and chicanery, which must in the end injure and not benefit the 
 ryot. These views have been expressed, not only by landlords, but by 
 native officials unconnected with land, and they are based mainly on the 
 conviction that the provisions of the Bill do not deal with facts as they 
 really exist, but seek to evolve and insist on theoretical privileges as ap- 
 pertaining to the ryot which that class have never enjoyed, and which they 
 are for the future to enjoy at the expense of the landlord. 
 
 Mr. Beames is another. He has been long connected with 
 the Burdwan Division, and is a philologist, a master of languages, 
 an historian. I cannot say how far his sympathies are with the 
 people, but he is of opinion the Bill will not subserve the only
 
 The Bengal Tenancy Bill, 155 
 
 pnrpose for which it ha3 been drafted, and his reasons are thus 
 given : — "The ryot suffers from causes over which no Govern- 
 ment can have any control ; the country is over-peopled ; and 
 the intensity of the struggle for existence is due principally to 
 this cause, and not to the incapacity or bad management of the 
 zemindars. Every one will marry : and loill have heaps of 
 children; no one loill emigrate, a vast majority ic ill grow nothing 
 but paddy, and the poorest loill spend in advance the earnings 
 of ten years on a marriage feast, or a religious ceremony. "It 
 is very doubtful whether any legislative measures will improve 
 the condition of people whose manners, customs, and prejudices 
 are so utterly incompatible with improvements as these.'' 
 
 You have, most of you, read the opinions of Mr. Munro and 
 Lord Ulick Browne, who also bring to the subject vast experi- 
 ence ; and I need not do more than refer to them. As for the 
 Collectors, there is a very strong consensus of opinion against 
 the leading provisions of the Bill, and the one to which I would 
 call special attention is only three lines in length, but it is very 
 expressive. It is the Collector of Jessore who says : — ; 
 
 I consider the Bill to be a most arbitrary, partial and unjust measure. 
 It will sever all friendly ties between landlords and tenants, and lead to a 
 state of things that must have disastrous results. There is nothing in it 
 that will facilitate the collection of rents, and very little that will do any 
 real good to the ryot. In fact, the Bill seems to have only one object, and 
 that is, to stamp out landlords. 
 
 That is the opinion of one who is not one with you in co- 
 lour, in caste, in language, or in religion. If he has any sym- 
 pathy, it is for the Government, of which he is a distinguished 
 servant ; and there you have his opinion which can scarcely be 
 made more emphatic. If one were disposed to be very critical 
 he could only take exception to the words " stamp out." For 
 my part I have no reason to suppose, and indeed it would be a 
 libel against Government to say, that the " only object " of the 
 Bill is to stamp out landlords. The only object is certainly not 
 that but the practical effect will, I feel convinced, be stamping 
 out.
 
 156 The Bengal Tenancy Bill. 
 
 Attached to this volume is the report from the Government 
 of Bengal. One would suppose that in forwarding the opinions 
 of all the different officers of such diverse characters, the Bengal 
 Government report would give us a connected review of the 
 whole, pointing out the errors of such officers as have committed 
 mistakes^ and singling out where the opinions are founded on 
 experience and where they were correct. Nothing of the kind 
 occurs in it. There is a great deal in the name of analysis, hut 
 no* real analysis of diverse opinions, Every paragraph ends 
 with '• Mr. Rivers Thompson thinks " or " Mr. Rivers Thompson 
 is of opinion." Of course, if the opinions had come direct from 
 an Archbishop or from His Holiness the Pope, it would have 
 been something, but when a local Government forwards opinions 
 of this kind, we have a right to expect a little more discussion, 
 a little more criticism, a little more weighing of opinions, a 
 little more extensive review. The more important points con- 
 nected with the Bill are all more or less touched on, but in not 
 one single one have I seen anything which controverts by argu- 
 ment the position which your Committee have adopted since 
 this discussion has arisen. What has struck me as most re- 
 markable are the new meanings which have been attached to 
 some old words. I am aware that I am not a master of the 
 English language, and I speak with great diffidence when I have 
 to speak of the meanings of English words, but still I must say 
 that it was not until I read this report that I learnt the mean- 
 ing of the word " distraint." I had always understood it to mean 
 a process which would issue without a court's decree. In ordinary 
 cases in England, the landlord has the right to issue distraints. 
 A landlord not getting in his rent on the evening of Saturday, 
 takes measures to stop the tenant from entering into his own 
 tenanted house. That is distraint. But distraint means a dif- 
 ferent thing now in the hands of our Legislature and Govern- 
 ment. The zemindai* has the power to distrain now, and have 
 had it for well nigh a century, but they are to be deprived of it. 
 The Government will not, however, say so in so many words,
 
 The Bengal Tenancy Bill. 157 
 
 Oh dear no ! "We are told the zemindar will have the power to 
 distrain the crops. But how ? Why. They will first bring an 
 action ; they will prove their claim ; they will obtain a decree, 
 and then get out ii distraint. I thought the process issued for 
 distraining was something very different from an execution 
 warrant. But we live and learn, and we have learnt from the 
 Government that distraint mean, the same thing as an execution 
 warrants. The cardinal principle on which the report, of the Gov- 
 ernment is based is "policy ;" not justice, not right, not con- 
 tract, not old binding laws and regulations, but "policy." It is 
 this youthful, enticing dominant wench Policy that overrides 
 the pure and humble demands of the elderly, quiet, homely da- 
 mes Justice and Fair-play. It is the day now for the initia- 
 tion of a new policy. That policy says "Do wrong that good 
 may come out of it • rob the zemindar that the tenant may 
 thrive.'' Acting upon this policy it is proposed that the rights 
 of the zemindars in their soil shall be transferred to the ryot, 
 and the ryot shall have full liberty to sell the land that he rents 
 from the zemindar. I look upon this right of sale as one of the 
 shibboleths of the Radicalism of the day. It is the drop of ren- 
 net which curdless the whole of the Government milk of human 
 kindness. I say this right of free sale is a right which will not 
 only impoverish the zemindars, and ride roughshod on legal 
 rights, but reduce the ryots to the level of day labourers, and 
 convert them into candidates for emigration to Demerara. 
 (Applause.) Even the mover of the Bill was aware of this when 
 he spoke with reference to the right to subletting, that it will 
 place the ryots in the position in which they will have no legal 
 protection. The Lieutenant-Governor himself is aware of this. 
 Adverting to the provisions of Chapter XIV he says : 
 
 His holding is the occupancy ryot's all, and, deprive of this, he becomes 
 a pauper, unable to sue. He becomes an incumberance on the community 
 ■which, under the circumstances of the country, cannot provide him with 
 industrial employment, and a source of embarrassment^ especially in 
 times of scarcity, to the Government. He nevertheless advocates that 
 very measure which will for certain create a large mass of men who are to ,
 
 158 The Bengal Tenancy Bill. 
 
 be, ia his own language, "an incumberance on the community, and a source 
 of embarrassment to the Government." 
 
 This is, gentlemen, the great good which has been offered to 
 the ryot at the sacrifice of the zemindars. Mr. Thompson will 
 not listen to history, he will not listen to experience, he will not 
 listen to old laws. Though the Bill is a standing protest against 
 everything which is existing, with everything which belongs to 
 the present day, with everything which is now current, still, 
 like the drowning man, the Bill is to clasp custom as the only 
 protection for justifying this severe measure. You perhaps 
 think I am exaggerating ; you perhaps think that I have not 
 fully either understood or appreciated the Lieutenant-Gover- 
 nor's arguments. Here are his very words : — 
 
 It may be accepted that freedom of transfer was not an incident of the 
 hhudkhast ryot's holding ; and the Lieutenant-Governor is not unmindful 
 of the fact that in Jhansi, in the Deccan to some extent, in the Sonthal 
 Pergunnahs, and possibly in other parts of India, free sale has had evil re- 
 sults on a thriftless peasantry. If he had to deal with the question as one 
 of mere theory, Mr. Rivers Thompson would probably not remain uninflu- 
 enced by its historical aspect, and by the dangers of vesting a population 
 with transferable rights of property before habits of thrift among them 
 had been fully confirmed. But the Lieutenant-Governor has here to deal 
 with a question, not of theory, but of actual practice. It is here not a mat- 
 ter of "introducing a source of temporary prosperity," and encouraging an 
 ''increase of thriftlessness on the one hand, and of greed on the other," as 
 was the case in the Deccan, but of confirming and recognizing a growing 
 custom, to which the needs of the country have spontaneously given birth, 
 and which has so far produced no evil results." 
 
 There it is — custom, and the only time that custom has been 
 appealed to, to protect the principle of the Bill. But there is 
 something else. There are certain figures which have been pro- 
 duced from the Report of the Registrar-General of Assurances of 
 last year, which show the number of sales which have taken 
 place. I find out that there were in all 17,835 permanent tenures 
 sold during the course of the year, and of occupancy rights 32,633 
 at the same time. The Lieutenant-Governor appeals to these facts 
 conclusive. I have looked at them, and my impression has been
 
 The Bcmjal Tenancij Bill. 150 
 
 that nothing more condemnatory of the measure than tliese 
 figures has been put forth. Out of these 17,835 phis 32,633, or 
 50,516 sales, in one year, 23,970 — one half nearly passed away 
 from the hands of the ryots to those of money-lenders and zemin- 
 dars, that is, you are depriving, even now, the ryots, at the rate of 
 24,000 every year, of their occupancy rights. Take each tenant 
 to be the head of a family of 5 persons the net pauperization per 
 annum is now going on at tlie rate of 1,20,000 persons. Let the 
 advantage of rack-rent which is proposed to be given to the pur- 
 chasers, be well known and the ratio of outside purchasers will 
 rise to 95 per cent, and the sales will multiply many fold as then 
 instead of increasing our paupers at 1,20,000 a year you may 
 safely rely on five lakhs. (Hear, Hear.) But to turn from the 
 sales to the purchasers. Who were the purchasers ? Why, they 
 were the money-lenders and zemindars ; that is, the very men 
 from whose clutches the Government is most anxious to save 
 the ryots. Will not the zemindars and the indigo planters know 
 their own interests ? Will not they buy all the occupancy 
 tenures which come into the market in order to get out 
 of the limitation of rents as fixed in this law ? They will 
 be entirely oblivious of their own interests if they do not, and 
 rest assured that they will not be so ovlivious. It is a legal 
 right that is ofi'ered, and they will be perfectly justified in 
 dealing with and in trying to make the best of it. The reply 
 made is that the evil will right itself ; that Political Economy 
 will soon set the right the evils which may be first produced by 
 this law. I have not a doubt about the efi'ects of Political Eco- 
 nomy. I certainly believe that the laws of Political Economy 
 will do their work in time, and produce their effect without let 
 and hindrance ; but I have some experience of the mode of ac- 
 tion of Political Economy. It was in 1864 or 1865, that I called 
 on Sir Cecil Bead on, on three or four occasions, to try and in- 
 duce him to do something for the starving people of Orissa ; and 
 every time Sir Cecil told me "don't you be uneasy : the laws of 
 Political Economy are certain and if there is a demand there
 
 160 TJie Bengal Tenancy Bill, 
 
 will be a supply.'' Of course 1 went away without saying a 
 word in reply. What was the result ? Political Economy did 
 do its work, did send a supply -, but Political Economy did not 
 run as well as poverty and suffering and famine, and starvation, 
 and these killed one million oiit of three millions in Orissa 
 before Political Economy brought relief. (Hear, Hear). In 
 the present instance I have no doubt that Political Economy is 
 wholly in the right, but before it reads its lessons to dissuade 
 people from marriage, and the expenses attendant on marriages ; 
 before the people learn to forego the duty of burning or burying 
 their parents ; before they abjure their religion and abstain 
 from shrauddhas and other religious rites and ceremonies ; 
 before they learn it is better to starve and die than to go to 
 money-lenders for help, the speculative proclivities of zemin- 
 dars, money-lenders, land jobbers and others will have brought 
 off every inch of land in Bengal which is worth buying, and 
 when the land is in the hands of those communities no kind 
 of political expedient, except the bayonet perhaps, and the gun, 
 will save it from their hands. This is the good which has 
 been promised to the ryots. 
 
 One great objection on the part of zemindars to free sale of 
 occupancy tenures is the inevitable evil of being forced to receive 
 rival and inimical zemindars and wicked mischievous iuti'iguing 
 ryots in their estates. The table published by Government shows 
 that for 1,108, zemindars, who purchased tenures in their own 
 estates 22,899 got entry in their estates against their consent, 
 and 3,182 were rival zemindars. The Government admits the 
 evil. But there is one relief offered. The Government says 
 "we will relieve the ryot, and we will not do any injustice to the 
 zemindar, and give them the right of pre-emption, and so prevent 
 any outsider from entering. On the face of it this is really 
 very kind ; but if you will look into it you will find it is the ve- 
 riest Dead Sea apple which ever any Government condescended 
 to offer. The zemindar may buy, but he is not to get anything 
 of what he^buys. The value of the occupancy land depends on
 
 The Bengal Tenancy Bill. 161 
 
 the difference between product on the one hand, and the cost of 
 production artd the rent on the other. To put the thing clearly; 
 let the produce be worth Rs. 4, rent Rs. 1-8, and cost of pro- 
 duction Rs. 2, the value of the land in this case is represented 
 by the difference, eight annas, and at ten years' purchase the 
 amount is Rs. 5. The Government says let the land be sold at 
 Rs. 5, to the zemindar, but he is not to get the eight annas, for 
 he is to let it out at the old rent. In other words, the Government 
 says : — "Let the zemindar pay the full price and buy it, and get 
 nothing." I can illustrate this better by saying that I have an 
 old horse for sale, and I ask my respected friend to my right, Sir 
 Jotendra Mohun Tagore, to buy it, and give him permission to buy 
 it. I tell him "Here it is, pay the full market price, and take it, 
 and keep it, and feed it, but you are not to clap a saddle on its 
 back. If you do so, there will be a law court for you. And at 
 the end of a year the first way passer may snatch it away for 
 you." That is the pre-emption I give and that is what the Gov- 
 ernment offers the zemindars. "You can,'' says the Lieutenant- 
 Governor, "gain something by fines, but nothing by way of en- 
 hancements, and if you do not dispose of it this year, why we will 
 snatch it away from you.'' That is the right which the Govern- 
 ment has given in the name of pre-emption. 
 
 I have one more word to say, and that is with reference to 
 those who will benefit by the Bill. It is not the zemindars ; for 
 they, according to the Collector of Jessore, are to be stamped out. 
 It is not the ryot, for even the Lieutenant-Governor says in one 
 place, that there is an over-population, and emigration is needed. 
 It will not be the public at large, for it is no concern of theirs. 
 Who then, will benefit ? The public say that it is the Govern- 
 ment for whose benefit the law will be changed. I believe that 
 impression is false, but there it is, and the chain of evidence pro- 
 duced by the native public in support of the opinion, is certain- 
 ly very imposing. There was a time when the revenue had to 
 be collected under torture and a great deal worse in the time of 
 Warren Hastings. A great many oppressive acts unnamable 
 
 21
 
 162 . Tile Bengal Tenancy Bill. 
 
 were committed in his name, and the name which his agent got 
 from the great orator Burke was "Factor General of Bribes." 
 
 In this volume which I hold in my hand there are some fifty- 
 pages devoted to the manner in which revenue was collected by 
 the myrmidons of Warren Hastings in Rungpur, Dinagepur and 
 Behar, but I shall read out only one paragraph. 
 
 On the same principle, and for the same ends, virgiDs, who had never 
 Been the sun, were dragged from the inmost sanctuaries of their houses ; 
 and in the open Court of Justice, in the very place where security was to 
 be sought against all wrong and all violence (but where no judge or lawful 
 Magistrate had long sat, but in their place the ruffians and hangmen of 
 Warren Hastings occupied the bench), these virgins, vainly invoking 
 heaven and earth, in the presence of their parents, and whilst their shrieks 
 were mingled with the indignant cries and groans of all the people, were 
 publicly violated by the lowest and wickedest of the human race. Wives 
 were torn from the arms of their husbands, and suflEered the same flagi- 
 tious wrongs, which were indeed hid in the bottoms of the dungeons in 
 which their honor and their liberty were buried together. Often they were 
 taken out of the refuge of this consoling gloom, stripped naked, and thus 
 exposed to the world, and there cruelly scourged ; and in order that cruelty 
 might riot in all the circumstances that melt into tenderness the fiercest 
 natures, the nipples of their breasts were put between the sharp and elastic 
 sides of clept bamboos." 
 
 This is the language of Burke, and that was the way in which 
 the revenue was then extorted. Lord Gornwallis came and put 
 a stop to all this ; and brought peace and prosperity and good 
 will all .over the whole of Bengal, and Europeans even were loud 
 in his praise. The people themselves attested their respect for 
 the memory of the great nobleman in the statue which stands in 
 this house. But Government gratitude is an evanescent virtue, 
 and does not last long, and with an empty treasury after the 
 Nepalese and the Pindari wars, in 1816, the rulers of the country 
 thought that something, should be done to make the land yield 
 more. The permanent settlement of Lord Gornwallis was found 
 to be a drawback, and a serious drawback. The first step taken 
 was the resumption measures of 1819 in order to assess all lands 
 which were said to have invalid tenures. That measure had to
 
 The Bengal Tenancy Bill. 165 
 
 be compromised as the hue and cry was great and the Govern- 
 ment paid the cost at ruinous rates. An Act was then passed 
 for the sale of zemindaries on the strength of a minute by Mr. 
 Halliday who said it is the interest and duty of Government to 
 buy up zemindaries at a nominal price. A greater crisis came 
 when with the mutiny came a deficit, Then the income-tax was 
 extended to permanently settled lands. It had to be given up 
 because of the oppression it caused. Then the Government pas- 
 sed three Acts for taxing zemindaries. They are called cesses. 
 They are as good as revenue, and they have added taxation upon 
 zemindaries to the extent of three-quarters of a million, that is 
 an addition of 25 per cent. But the Government are not yet 
 satisfied. They wish for something yet, and they have touched 
 on occupancy tenures in the name of the ryot, by which land can 
 be permanently snatched from the zemindar, and made accessible 
 to further taxation. That is the impression abroad. I look upon 
 this chain of argumentation as the noveltists' network of circum- 
 stantial evidence which melts away under the first ray of truth. 
 I don't for a moment believe that the concatination of circum- 
 stances implies a settled policy. Even as our forefathers of the 
 Vedic times used to describe every god to be the supreme for the 
 time being, without thinking of the one they had before de- 
 scribed as such, so does Government. In 1871 Sir George 
 Campbell issued a manifesto giving the most solemn assurance 
 that the Census then in hand had no ulterior fiscal object, and 
 before the moon had twice filled her horns issued another in 
 which among other projects, he recommended a Poll Tax, that 
 is the Census was to count the heads and the next measure was 
 to tax every head, and yet he was not insincere. In regard to 
 Vedic gods Max Miiller calls this hienotheism and our Govern- 
 ment is I fancy actuated by a principle of political hienotheism. 
 But for all that this political hienotheism is calculated to do im- 
 mense mischief, and I leave it to you to decide what you should 
 do under the circumstances.
 
 THE ILBERT BILL, ETC. 
 
 The following speech ivas delivered hj Raja {then Rai) Rajendra- 
 lala Mitra, Bahadoor, at the Thirty-Second Annual General 
 Meeting of the British Indian Association held in the Hall 
 of the Association on Wednesday the 7th May 1884. 
 
 Raja (then Rai) Rajendralala Mitra said : — Gentlemen, before 
 putting this resolution to the vote I deem it necessary to give 
 you a brief summary of the operations of this Association during 
 the past year. This is the more necessary as, owing to the ill- 
 ness of my friend to my right, he has been obliged to give you 
 only a summary of the report, instead of reading the whole of it. 
 It would have been a cruelty to have asked him to read the 
 whole of it. It is so long. But it is full and, I dare say, those 
 of you who have read it will be perfectly satisfied that the con- 
 gratulation with which it opens, is well justified. I entirely con- 
 cur in the opinion of your Committee of Management that this is 
 an occasion when your Committee may fairly congratulate you 
 upon the success which has attended the operations of this As- 
 sociation. Thirty-two long years have elapsed since the estalish- 
 raent of this Association, and I have been connected with it near- 
 ly the whole time, with the exception perhaps of two months or 
 three. I am therefore in a position to say that the^institution 
 was never in a more flourishing situation than it is now. Your 
 list of members is extending steadily and satisfactorily; your 
 financial accounts show a handsome saving, a funded balance of 
 Rs. 19,500, You have a good rental from the godowns and other 
 possessions, and now possess this handsome and commodious 
 house. In so far, the material prosperity of the institution conti- 
 nues steady. Nor has its inactivity waved in any respect. Your 
 Committee have been steady at their works, and as in 1852 when 
 we first commenced operations, so in 1883, they have done as 
 much work as you had occasion to undertake. The only thing 
 about which I have to mourn on the present occasion is the loss
 
 Tlie Ilhert Bill, etc. 165 
 
 of two very valuable members. The first was the foremost — ono 
 of the most accomplished members, one of the two or three that 
 we had lately living of our foundation members. We have lost 
 in him a most valuable co-adjutor, who hal done good service 
 to the Association for a very long time. I allude to the late 
 Babu Peary Chand Mittra, He and his brother the late Kissory 
 Chand Mittra, were most arduous in every undertaking which 
 came before the Association, and all our early representations, 
 papers, reports and proceedings bear the stamp of their intellec- 
 tual powers. To me the loss is severe because both these indivi- 
 duals I looked upon as old and intimate personal friends, and 
 many of you, at least some of you, I am sure, who have had the 
 pleasure of walking with Babu Peary Chand Mittra, will bear 
 me out that you cannot have a more hearty good-natured and 
 ardent gentleman who was ever foremost in every good' under- 
 taking (Applause). It would be long before we shall be able to 
 replace so valuable a co-adjutor. I am glad to state that a few 
 months ago this Association took the lead in holding a meeting to 
 adopt means to perpetuate the memory of Peary Chand Mittra. 
 A subscription has been opened, and a fair sum has been sub- 
 scribed, and I hope before long to have the pleasure of seeing 
 the benign countenance of my old friend put in marble in some 
 of our public institutions. 
 
 The other individual for whom I have had to mourn was the 
 late Raja Promathanath Roy of Dighapatty. I had the pleasure 
 of rearing him up from his boyhood. He was a ward of mine 
 for upwards of eight years, and I always looked upon him with 
 paternal affection. It was most gratifying to me that upon at- 
 taining his manhood he bore out in every detail the anticipations 
 I had formed of his becoming one of the leaders of native socie- 
 ty (Applause), His ardent love for the improvement for the 
 amelioration of the condition of the people of this country, and 
 for their intellectual advancement, was unceasing, and he erected 
 a noble monument of his goodness by contributing a lac and a 
 half of rupees to the Rajshahye College. He was for some time
 
 166 The Ilhert Bill, etc. 
 
 a member of the Bengal Council, and in every movement for the 
 good of the country that we had in Calcutta he was in some 
 way or other associated. In referring to his loss I feel again 
 that I have lost one in whom I had centred a great deal my 
 affection. 
 
 To turn now to the work done by your Committee. I shall 
 not take up your time by going through all the details of this 
 report, but there are items which 1 cannot allow to pass by with- 
 out remark. The first subject in this report is the jurisdiction 
 Bill — the notorious Ilbert Bill. I call it notorious, because it 
 has since become notorious. It was conceived in the best of 
 spirits, and the stamp of the highest statesmanship was imprint- 
 ed on the Bill. Nothing can be nobler than the idea which 
 dictated it. The nobleman at the head of the Government tried 
 to do away with race distinctions in matters of law. He was in 
 a manner going to follow in the footsteps of that nobleman, Lord 
 Bentinck, whose memory will live ever fresh in our minds, who 
 when in 1835 first granted the natives civil jurisdiction over 
 Europeans. It was he who inaugurated the measure, and the 
 law was passed shortly after he left the country. That measure 
 was the first " Black Act" as some of our fellow citizens thought 
 proper to stigmatize it. It met with the most violent opposition; 
 but the men at the head of the Government on that occasion 
 were Lord Bentinck, Mr. Macaulay, Sir Charles Trevelyan and 
 others who were true to the real interests of the British Govern- 
 ment in this country, and true to Humanity. They passed the 
 law by which the jurisdiction of Native Munsiffs, Sadar Amins, 
 and Principal Sadar Amins was extended to cases connected with 
 Her Majesty's British-born subjects in the country. Since then 
 several attempts were made to advance in that direction by ex- 
 tending the criminal jurisdiction of native officers over British- 
 born subjects. The first attempt was made by the late lamented 
 friend of the country, Mr. Bethune, and it was upon that occasion 
 that my late friend Ramgopal Ghose whose portrait graces the 
 wall before me, was assailed with the most violent and illiberal
 
 The Ilbert Bill, etc. 167 
 
 vituperation for the action he took in advocating that Bill. He 
 was black-balled from the Agricultural Society for his temerity 
 upon the occasion. The next attempt was made in 1855-56 but 
 it bore no fruit. The next attempt was made in 1800-61 and 
 that law was so framed that it would cover the jurisdiction, but 
 in a very awkward and imperfect manner. The question really 
 came in for discussion in 1872 when the Criminal Procedure 
 Code was revised, and a compromise was come to giving juris- 
 diction to Muffusil European Officers over British-born sub- 
 jects, but denying it to Native Officers. It was with a view to 
 remove the last short-coming that the Ilbert Bill was brought 
 forward. It was very cautiously worded as you all know, and 
 it was left entirely to the discretion of the Local Government 
 to extend the powers to such tried officers as it thought pro- 
 per, and only made it imperative in the case of Judges and 
 Magistrates. You are all familiar with what transpired last year 
 on the subject, nor are you less acquainted with the utter col- 
 lapse which took place at the beginning of this year when the 
 Bill was passed ; and it is with reference to what then transpired 
 that I call the Bill notorious. It has done nothing of what it 
 contemplated to do. The power which was left to the Local Gov- 
 ernment to invest distinguished native officers with the Criminal 
 Jurisdiction has been done away with. The power which existed- 
 for a long time in District Magistrates and Justices of the Peace 
 to try British-born subjects has been taken away — virtually taken 
 away though not nominally. They were able then to try Euro- 
 pean subjects under the ordinary law, but they cannot do so now. 
 The native officers can only try those who do not take exception 
 to their jurisdiction on the ground of race privilege, the clause 
 of not taking exception has been in full force since 1872 so that 
 nothing has been gained. It was only the other day that I 
 heard of a case at Cuttack in which a European charged with 
 the heinous crime of rape did not care to claim his race privilege 
 and was tried by a native Deputy Magistrate ; under section 3 of 
 the new Act, the purport of which perhaps I do not clearly
 
 168 The Ilhert Dill, etc, 
 
 grasp, the case would have been diiFerent. In the case of Ses- 
 sions Judges you have only obtained one advantage, and that is 
 the Sessions Court Judge, whether European or Native, may try 
 European subjects, but then these cases must always be tried 
 ■with the aid of a jury. Formerly, European Judges in non-jury 
 districts tried too such cases without a jury and so far there has 
 been a deduction on that account and not again. Consequently 
 the Bill has proved an absolute failure giving you nothing except 
 abuse maintained for a whole year. But abuse does not break 
 bones and I do not mind it. I am only sorry that the reopening 
 of the question has been delayed sine die. It will be a very 
 strong Government indeed which will be able hereafter to come 
 forward and re-open the case. You must mourn this the more 
 deeply as the Bill has been passed under the administration of a 
 nobleman who has endeared himself with the whole native com- 
 munity, by his liberal sentiments and earnest desire to ameliorate 
 the condition of the people of this country. 
 
 The next Bill introduced was the Agricultural Loan Bill. I 
 do not intend to take up much of your time by dwelling on it. 
 The main objection 1 have to the Bill is that it is of a most arbi- 
 trary, unjust and impractical character. It defies every princi- 
 ple of sound political economy. I really do not know that any 
 Government however powerful can regulate the value of money. 
 Money has a law of its own and will override the most powerful 
 Governments. There was a time when a Chinese Emperor, and 
 a more autocratic individual ever lived on the face of the 
 Earth, issued paper bank-notes stamped with a law declaring 
 that whoever objected to receive them as cash must have his 
 head cut off, and many, luckless head fell under that law, but for 
 all that the autocrat failed to get his notes into circulation. 
 Another equally powerful Sovereign, one of India, was Ferok- 
 shah, and he thought of leather bank-notes. He ordered the 
 issue of these notes, and he failed as ignobly as the autocrat of 
 China. Such being the case is it possible for the liberal law- 
 abiding Government of the country to regulate the loan of
 
 The Ilhert Bill, etc. 1C9 
 
 money at fixed interest ? It is simply impossible. Tlie Govern- 
 ment can only do what an autocrat can do, that is force money 
 for some persons and give it to others. The Government can 
 tax the country at large for the benefit of the agriculturists. 
 The project is that bonds for loans for agricultural purposes 
 from Government and certain selected Banks and private persons 
 shall have the benefit of reduced stamp duty, reduced law 
 charges and low interests. Well all this may be good. But 
 what will be the result of that? The stamp revenue must fail, 
 the registry revenue must fail, other sources of revenue must 
 fail, and the Government will have to tax the people anew to 
 provide for the losses it would sustain by helping the agricul- 
 turist. Well, the agriculturist benefits, but is not he as a 
 member of society, as much liable to heavy taxation as any 
 other section of the community ? I know for certain, and you 
 know it too, that two Lieutenant-Governors of the most earnest 
 sympathy for the poor of this country, dwelt on the neces- 
 sity of doing everything possible for the good of the ryot, and 
 how did they end ? They consummated their good will for 
 the poor by levying two new taxes on those people. I have no 
 faith in public good resulting from loans to particular sections of 
 the community from the public purse, with special privileges the 
 cost of which must recoil on the public ; but I have a lively im- 
 pression of coming geneml taxes on that account. In one word 
 the idea is communistic and cannot be carried out in regard to one 
 section of the community without doing general harm. Sym- 
 pathy for the poor is good enough but why should the poor 
 artizan be taxed for the benefit of the agriculturist ? 
 
 The next subject is the Excise Amendment Bill. It calls for no 
 remark. It is a measure of a very small character about hhajiir 
 ros and I do not care whether it is taxed or not though I pity 
 the poor men who are deprived of the luxury of having a cool- 
 ing refreshing drink at a small cost. 
 
 The next is the Port Trust Amendment Act. This is one of 
 those laws which people in this country will have to complain of 
 
 22
 
 170 The Ilhert Bill, etc. 
 
 from time to time under the peculiar constitution of our Gov- 
 ernment. A solemn pledge was given by Lord Dalhousie that 
 the Strand Bank land would be kept for the health and recrea- 
 tion of the people. Influenced by a powerful corporation our 
 present Government interprets "health and recreation" to mean 
 large three-storied godovvn blocking up the ventilation of the 
 town. I do not know if there was a shadow of a shade of a 
 sarcastic smile^ on the corner of mouths of the men who told 
 us it was for the health and the recreation of the people of the 
 town that these houses and godowns have been built. 
 
 The Hill Coolie Bill is the next, and I have only these words 
 to say to this subject. It was designed on the principle of holding 
 the people of this country to be children all their lives. No Hill 
 porter was to be allowed to exercise his calling, except with the 
 voucher of a badge from the Magistrate of the district, or what 
 was the samething, the Municipal Commissioners of the District ; 
 and if by chance any of you happened to go to Darjeeling, and got 
 out of the train and asked a wayfarer to take your carpet bag in 
 his hand, and that wayfarer happened to be unlicensed, that indi- 
 vidual would rue the day by being sent to one of Her Majesty's 
 jail for six months. No man is to be permitted to sell his own 
 labour except with the license of Her Majesty and the price of 
 that labour is to be regulated by the employer of labour and not 
 the labourer. The Bill was modified to some extent, but as far as 
 Darjeeling and Kurseong are concerned it is in full force. 
 
 The Mofusil Municipality Bill has not yet 1 believe received 
 the assent of the Governor-General. (The Secretary, " it has ") 
 Oh, it has. Well it is the first outcome in this country or pro- 
 vince of the famous Self-Government Minute. I had occasion 
 to read the Bill carefully, and I can tell you that either owing to 
 my advancing age or dull intellectual capacity, 1 could not per- 
 ceive tittle of "self" in it, unless it be selfishness ^on the part 
 of those individuals who will have the working of it. The most 
 annoying part to that Bill was the discussion which took place in 
 the Bengal Council. The proposition was that certain classes of
 
 The Ilhert Bill, etc. 171 
 
 subjects should pay a tax of 7|por cent a year for Municipal 
 purposes. An Amendment was then brought up saying that 
 rate was very proper when it concerned the huts of poor men, 
 but when it concerned jute mills and manufactories and uncom- 
 monly large houses owned by Europeans, it would prove a great 
 hardship ; and the resolution come to is that the richer the man 
 the less he has to pay for Municipal purpose? (Applause). It was 
 a painful thing to notice that all the European members of the 
 Legislature voted for this infamous clause of the Municipalities 
 Act. 
 
 The next and the only other measure I wish to notice just 
 DOW is the Tenancy Bill. You know all about its details, and I 
 shall not traverse the well-known ground. I look upon it as ano- 
 ther exemplification of what I have been telling you about the 
 eternal infancy of the native population of this country. I do 
 not see that any body has put it in that form, but the main prin- 
 ciple whether admitted or not, of that Bill appears to be that 55 
 out of the 60 million population of the country should be de- 
 clared unfit to enter into any engagement connected with land 
 I say 55 millions because that is the estimate of the Famine 
 Commission regarding the population connected with land. 
 These 55 millions of men are to be declared incapable of entering 
 into any contracts. No one can enter into any contracts with- 
 out the Government or whoever represents it, the District 
 Collector or any other official. Vou are told that enhancement 
 of rent should not exceed 25 or 20 per cent, and so on, but 
 upon what principle our legislators and law-makers think that 
 the relation between produce and rent should not exceed 20 per 
 cent. I cannot understand. There is no argument, nothing to 
 show it, except it is the wish of the Bengal Government. Why 
 was it not said that it should be 10 or even 5 per cent. ? Possibly 
 we ought to be thankful that the Bengal Government has not 
 thought fit to fix the limit at 5 per cent. But the drift of the 
 whole thing is not to fix ratio at 20 per cent, but to put every 
 obstacle ia the. way of contracts between man and man. No
 
 172 ^ The Ilbert Billy etc. 
 
 contract shall be allowed. The land shall be declared the pro- 
 perty not of the zemindar to whom Lord Oornwallis gave it, not 
 of those who have owned it for centuries before, but of the 
 squatter who may happen at any moment to construct a wigwam 
 over it. Once a squatter has put up a wigwam, he is the resi- 
 dent ryot, and he is the owner of the soil, and the zemindar 
 and his ancestors, men who have been kings in Bengal a 
 thousand years ago, who happen to hold the land, is only a rent- 
 collector. He is liable to all sorts of pains and penalties and he 
 has no power or right in the land. If Herbert Spencer think 
 that certain rules made in England for compulsory education for 
 the poor are sowing slavery in England, what should be the 
 case when we have at one soop, declai-ed 55 milions incapable of 
 taking care of themselves? Are they or are they not to have 
 liberty to act and judge for themselves, to think for themsslves ? 
 It may be all very well to talk of free sale, what will be the 
 consequence ? The consequence will be as certain as the sun 
 will rise that the land will pass away from these privileged 
 ryots and fall into the hands of money-lenders and capitalists. 
 The Government knows this perfectly well. The framer of the 
 Bill himself declared that in time the ryot will have no legal 
 protection whatever from this Bill. But there is salvation for 
 you as there was balm in Giliad. He said that when that con- 
 tingency should arrive he may return from England and frame 
 another Bill to help the people out of their difficulties. Are we 
 to rest satisfied with tl»at prospect ? Are we to allow such a 
 law to he passed and see the whole country reduced to abject 
 slavery because certain doctrinaires in their allegiance to the Irish 
 Land Act desire to do the same thing in India what has been 
 done in Ireland ? It is nothing more than a desire to spend 
 wide in Bengal rank communistic theories. There is no objec- 
 tion in itself pure and simple, but I do object to see any 
 member of *the community reduced to a mere infant in the hands 
 of the Government and that being so, is there any reason tq 
 suppose that the Government will not hereafter think proper
 
 The Ilhert Bill, etc. 173 
 
 for a particular purpose, to raise a tax from the poor ryots who 
 reaps the benefit in one way by being relieved from the so-called 
 oppression of the murderous zemindars and placed at the tender 
 mercy of the tax collector ? The people say, Government has 
 always said that the Permanent Settlement should be brpken 
 through and that when it is broken through -that they will have 
 more liberty and freedom in raising taxes and making, what is 
 called in thjo jargon of the day, the revenue more "elastic." It 
 is in order to secure the elasticity of the revenue that the Bill 
 has been framed. And though I cannot readily give my assent 
 to such an idea^ I do not wish to convey such an insinuation. 
 I feel convinced and am morally certain that it would be rank 
 insult to the noble man at the head of Government to suppose 
 that he could be actuated by such a motive. His motive is un- 
 questionably pure and most benevolent, but I deem it my duty 
 to point out what the impression of the natives is on the subject. 
 I shall not take up any more time. I think I have said 
 enough to show that your Committee have done their utmost 
 to protect your rights. I shall now retire from the chair on 
 which you did me the honor to place me this time last year. My 
 honorable friend in my left who will succeed me will with the 
 knowledge of business and v/ordly wisdom, I have no doubt, 
 enable the Association to proceed as satisfactorily hereafter as has 
 been done heretofore.
 
 AMALGAMATION OF THE CALCUTTA AND 
 SUBURBAN MUNICIPALITIES. 
 
 A PuUiG Meeting, ichich was attended hy the most influential 
 members of the native community connected loith landed and 
 house property m Calcutta, loas held at the Town Hall on 
 Saturday the 12th September 1885, at 4 p. M., for the pur- 
 pose of considering how the proposed amalgamation, of Calcut- 
 ta loith a portion of the Suburbs, under one system of Munici- 
 pal Governme7it, ivoidd affect the rate-payers of the Town, and 
 lohat steps should be adopted to memorialize Government on 
 the subject. 
 
 Raja (then Rai) Rajendralala Mitra said that he was suffer- 
 ing from a severe sorethroat and he should have felt thankful 
 had the projectors of the meeting saved him the duty of addres- 
 sing the meeting — a duty which was always welcome and plea- 
 sant, but somewhat difficult of satisfactory discharge on the pre- 
 sent occasion. He found however, there was no help for it. 
 But before proceeding to the subject before them he must make 
 a few remarks with reference to the observations which had 
 been made by his friend Babu Amarendra Nath Chatterjee. He 
 begged permission to make only a very few remarks, because 
 the Chairman had called the speaker io order, who said that the 
 meeting should be postponed because it was not large enough for 
 the discussion of the subject. Dr. Rajendralala Mitra desired to 
 say that the meeting was a meeting of the rate-payers of Calcutta 
 and it was not to be expected that the whole community of 
 Calcutta should assemble here. The question before them was 
 of a difficult and complicated nature, and required considera- 
 tion rather in the closet than in the forum, and he could not help 
 thinking that the present assembly was more than large enough 
 for the discussion of the question. Turning to the subject be- 
 fore the meeting he said, he had appealed to them in reference 
 to the difficulty he was laboring under. He had another difficulty
 
 Amalgamation of the Calcutta Sf Suhurhan Municipalities. 175 
 
 to face ; and that was the subject of debate which had brought 
 them there that day. He felt that it was of a misleading charac- 
 ter. It was in human nature to wish for advancement, for pro- 
 gress, for amelioration, for enlargement. Man always wished 
 to be bigger, stronger, richer, and more powerful. Every one of 
 the audience, if he was not mistaken, entertained the same idea, 
 and none of them, he was sure, would like to be less than what 
 ho was, less than five feet, or so weak as not to be able to lift a 
 chair. This was human nature, and what was true of human 
 nature was equally true of kingdoms and of empires. They all 
 wished to grow larger. One-third of continental Europe, the 
 ■whole of Northern Asia and a great part of Central Asia did not 
 satisfy the ambition of the White Czar, who was still hankering 
 after and thirsting for more land, and was doing his utmost to 
 get at least a slice of India. And what was true of the "White 
 Czar was equally true of many other kingdoms and empires. 
 Such being the case generally, it would at first sight appear 
 anomalous that men were assembled there to protest against a 
 proposition which did not in any way intend to shorten their 
 powers, but to enlarge them, to add miles to the extent of their 
 municipal area, and thousands of population and lakhs of revenue. 
 Under such circumstances why did they object to the proposal 
 of the Government ? It wanted to add to their power and their 
 greatness, and not to detract from them. They should rather 
 thank the Government, and not oppose it. But the reply was 
 not far to seek. Every expansion was not healthy ; every 
 growth was not conducive to good. A sufferer from hydroce- 
 phalus did not think that he was ^better off than his neio-hbour 
 with ordinary heads. It was not a question of mere enlarge- 
 ment and expansion, but a question whether such enlargement 
 and expansion was beneficial, and would lead to the health and 
 good government of the city. Taken in this light, he thought 
 they would do well to pause before they accepted the resolution 
 of the Government. That resolution was based on evidence 
 ■which was anything but satisfactory, and they all felt they would
 
 176 Amalgamation of the Calcutta Sf Suhurhan Municipalities. 
 
 be taking a leap in the dark to accept the principle of the resolu- 
 tion, To do so would be to plunge head foremost into a river 
 without knowing, the depth of it. He felt entirely with them in 
 this respect. It was in the nature of prudence, of foresight, of 
 good policy, of business-like caution, to see before you leapt. 
 This had not been done, and it was because such a thing had not 
 been done that he thought they were right in meeting together 
 to place their opinion on record, and to pray the Government 
 to give heed to their wishes. The evidence on which the Go- 
 vernment resolution was based, was poor and meagre in the ex- 
 treme, and inasmuch as the Government had taken up nothing 
 more than that, it was necessary at the present moment to en- 
 quire how far the evidence was well founded and reliable. The 
 first item noticed in the resolution was, he found, a para in a 
 report of the much abused Calcutta Corporation. In the course 
 of the annual report of that Corporation the Chairman thought 
 fit to compare this city with the great city of the West, Bombay, 
 which had for some time assumed the motto urhs primus in 
 Indis, the first city in India. By a process of dialectic disquisi- 
 tion, the Chairman of the Corporation proved that in the natural 
 course of things Calcutta should include the Suburbs, and that 
 after they were included the population, the area and the income" 
 of Calcutta would be greater than those of Bombay. This was 
 certainly a good feat in the way of a dialectic disquisition ; but 
 it was no report on which the Government could base its resolu- 
 tion. It did not go far enough or near enough^ as to what should 
 be the nature of the enquiry which would justify the amalgama- 
 tion. This was the first item. The second was of greater im- 
 portance and more pretentious, and this was a report from the 
 late Vice-Chairman of the Suburban Commissioners. It so hap- 
 pened, as many were aware^ that tbat gentleman's conduct made 
 his position in the Municipality, an untenable one ; the place 
 became too hot for him, and the Government had to find him a 
 situation elsewhere. The first attempt was made in the Muni- 
 cipal Act to provide that he should not be removed. But this
 
 Amalgamation of the Calcutta Sc Suburban Mumdpalities. 177 
 
 could not be, as it was entirely opposed to the principle of tho 
 self-government scheme of Lord Ripou. What was to be done ? 
 The Government found him a place elsewhere. [One present 
 objected to these personalities.] I hold the remarks quite legi- 
 timate, and to the point at issue. Well, the gentleman left as a 
 parting legacy and a blessing, the report which he held in his 
 hand, and in it he enumerated all the arguments which in his 
 opmion, justified the amalgamation of the Suburbs with Calcutta, 
 nay not only justified but which rendered it absolutely necessary 
 that the amalgamation should take place, and that the Lieutenant- 
 Governor should by one stroke of his pen remove the barrier 
 which kept apart the two. The arguments were very strong 
 and he must confess that they were much stronger than he 
 had yet read in the matter. With the permission of the meeting 
 he would read a few lines, which contained the pith and sum- 
 ming up of the whole of the arguments. They were contained 
 in the Administration Report of the Suburbs for the year 1884, 
 page 56. The Vice-Chairman said : " The same authority that 
 rules the Calcutta Corporation, rules both the Calcutta and 
 Suburban Police,'' ergo, the two should be one : again, " The 
 same fire brigade, under the same authority, is responsible for 
 the protection of the Town and Suburban property," ergo, the 
 two should be one, because the same engines put water on fires 
 both in Calcutta and tho Suburbs (Laughter). Again, "the 
 same Gas Company lights the streets of the two Municipalities,'' 
 ergo, the same should be united. Again, " The same Tramway 
 organization traverses their thoroughfares and carries their 
 trafiic," ergo, they must be the same. Again, " The same agency 
 licenses their public conveyances," ergo, they are one, and so on. 
 Dare any one question these assertions ? These were incontro- 
 vertible facts, but the speaker only regretted that the learned 
 gentleman who drew up these arguments and facts had not 
 added a few more of the same nature and efifect. It might with 
 equal justice be said that the sun which heated Calcutta likewise 
 heated the Suburbs and that the moon gives the same light 
 
 23
 
 178 Amalgamation of the Calcutta Sf Suburban Muyiicipalities. 
 
 to Calcutta which she gives to the Suburbs. Again he said 
 " the same general postal and telegraph departments provide for 
 the wants of both places." And so he might have added that 
 the same sovereign rules the Town and likewise the Suburbs. 
 This would have made the enumeration complete. The audience 
 were welcome to add as many more of the kind as they liked, 
 but he appealed to them whether they were satisfied that these 
 were arguments which justified amalgamation. Nor was there 
 a tittle of evidence to show that the Calcutta part would benefit. 
 The third item was in the report of the late Sanitary Commis- 
 sion, that grand Commission which was to convert Calcutta 
 into a paradise. But it was at last found that their report 
 was addled in the hatching. The report was a perfect de rebus 
 omnibus et quibusdam alts. There were a great many things 
 and a good deal of margin besides. The Commission were 
 called on to report on a specific point, but it traversed the whole 
 area of knowledge and got into all manner of things, and a dis- 
 quisition on theories and fancies all jumbled together. The 
 report was a big one, and the evidence taken extensive, but evi- 
 dently from his sins, committed in a former life, he the speaker 
 had the misfortune to wade through it, and, what was the 
 result ? Not a line, not a syllable of evidence was produced to 
 show that it was necessary for the health of Calcutta that the 
 Suburbs should be joined to it. Nevertheless, as these gentle- 
 men:' wanted to show their learning, they put in as many things 
 as came in their way. But we must take their assertions as ex 
 cathedra and nothing more. If a dictum came from the Ponti- 
 fical chair such of his friends as were Eoman Catholics might 
 have bowed to it, but was the meeting prepared to vote for the 
 report ? He thought not. They were not to be guided by extra 
 judicial declarations, and were they prepared to submit to any 
 such declaration, in favour of amalgamation ? He was sure 
 they were not. The next item, was the report of the Octroi 
 Committee. They knew that these gentlemen were engaged in 
 enquiring whether the Octroi was feasible in Calcutta or not.
 
 Amalgamation of the Culcutta ^' Suburban Municipalities. 179 
 
 They found the greatest difficulty in demarcating the boundaries 
 within which these duties were to be levied so as to prevent 
 smuggling. They wore not able to find a perfect line of circum- 
 vallation — a wall, a river, or a moat — to _keep smugglers out. 
 But they spied a canal at some distance, and said if we had that 
 what an advantage it would be ; and so away they went out of 
 their way and recommended that there should be an amalgama- 
 tion of certain portions of the tract which lay between the town 
 and the canal, without defining what those portions were. He 
 had an opportunity of prying into that report, and it did not 
 disclose the smallest scintilla of any enquiry having been made 
 as to what would be the effect of the amalgamation proposed. 
 In fact if he relied on what he heard from a friend, the whole 
 thing was got up by Mr. Harrison. [Babu Narendranath 
 Sen: — " He insidiously inserted the last paragraph."] He was 
 the drafter of the report and he put in the three lines which 
 recommended the amalgamation ; and the good men, his col- 
 leagues, caring not a tittle for what was written in those lines, 
 put down their names blindly. They were satisfied that their 
 report recommended no Octroi, and they did not care for amal- 
 gamation. There was one more item which was obtained from 
 the Memorial which was got up by Major Wace. How it was 
 got up ; who framed it, and the way in which it was got up, he 
 did not know; but when it was brought to him for signature he 
 was told that he should sign it because he would have Calcutta 
 filtered water without paying for it, and the person who took 
 the greatest trouble in obtaining the signatures of shop-keepers of 
 Balliaghattah and other places adjoining to it, was an overseer of 
 the night-soil department who had been dismissed for some short- 
 comings or other. Lay as much weight as you would like on 
 the memorial, but he hoped he had said enough to show that the 
 first part of the resolution before the meeting was perfectly and 
 literally correct in the assertion that no enquiry has been made 
 of the advantages and disadvantages to Calcutta which would 
 accrue from the proposed amalgamation, and this was all that
 
 180 Amalgamation of the Calcutta 8f Suburban Municipalities. 
 
 was proposed in the first part of the resolution. 
 
 The second part of the resolution contained the assertion that 
 the scheme at the present moment was inopportune, because, it 
 interfered with the healthy working of the Calcutta Corporation 
 and the working of the Suburban Corporation . He did not 
 stand there to defend the Calcutta Corporation, his business was 
 not to defend that much-abused body ; but this much was certain 
 that the Government had more than once, within a few months, 
 admitted that the Corporation was working satisfactorily, and 
 had done a great deal for the improvement of the town. If 
 this was the case, if the Government which had been the great- 
 est enemy of the Corporation for the last two years, believed that 
 much, that was the time for the Government to come forward 
 and say "I shall knock you on the head, I shall take away your 
 constitution.'' If so, was it not a correct assertion then that the 
 proposed amalgamation was at present inopportune ? As regards 
 the Suburban Municipality, of which he had the Ihonor of being 
 a member for upwards of 16 years, that Municipality had been 
 just invested with new powers and a brand new constitution, and 
 with the local self-government scheme of Lord Ripon, had got 
 the elective system, the members under which were to hold office 
 for three years, and would it not be a gross injustice to them 
 who had been appointed for three years, who had not committed 
 any fault, to be kicked out within six months ? Was that an act 
 of justice ? Was it proper and becoming in a great Government 
 to pass a legislative measure declaring that these Commissioners 
 elected for three years, should, for no rhyme or reason, be dis- 
 missed and swept away. The local self-government scheme and 
 the Municipal Bill were taken into consideration by the highest 
 authorities in the country, and the greatest attention and delibera- 
 tion were devoted to them by both the Supreme and Local Goven- 
 ments, and the result, the outcome, of those deliberations was that 
 Municipality. Had it proved such an utter failure within the 
 past six months, that it should be knocked on the head ? Was 
 there any thing to show that it had proved a failure ? Had the
 
 Amalgamation of the Calcutta Sf Suhurhan Municipalities. 181 
 
 Government before it any thing to show that it was a failure ? 
 It was not his duty to go beyond the four corners of the resolu- 
 tion, nor should he here advert to what could be the motive of 
 the Government in adopting a measure which was not consistent 
 with facts patent to the pubHc. He had eveiy respect for the 
 rectitude of purpose of the Government. He thoroughly believed 
 that Sir Rivers Thompson was incapable of doing any act which 
 was unjust to the community. He had declared from time to 
 time, since the publication of the minute of Lord Ripon, ho had 
 been all along in favor of investing the community with larger 
 powers than those they have enjoyed, and it would be an injustice 
 to him to say that he did not conscientiously believe, and believ- 
 ing so, intend that their powers should be extended. But the 
 concluding part of the Resolution distinctly stated "the constitu- 
 tion should be changed.'^ The speaker must confess though it was 
 painful to him to do so, he must do so, in the discharge of a 
 public duty, that it was an unfortunate commentary upon the de- 
 clarations of the Government. What the belief of the public was 
 they know much better than he did, but the belief was that the 
 great motive for the amalgamation was the Kidderpore Docks. 
 In the report of the same Vice-Chairman, it was distinctly stated 
 that one important reason for the amalgamation was the improve- 
 ment of the sanitary condition of those Docks. If those Docks 
 proved profitable, the Port Commissioners would enjoy the pro- 
 fits. They were to have the charge of it, and those who expected 
 the benefit should be those who paid their costs. But the peo- 
 ple of Calcutta would derive no benefit from them. The belief 
 ■was among a large body of Calcutta merchants, that it would in- 
 crease the cost of landing goods so that the increased cost would 
 •ultimately fall on the rate- payers, and those who paid good prices 
 for English cloth, would have to pay so many annas more. These 
 were the benefits they would derive from the docks. He also 
 hoped and prayed that the other objections as to their being a 
 large body of stagnant water near Calcutta and of its being hurt- 
 ful, would not be realised. The report of the Amalgamation
 
 182 Adulteration of Ghee, etc. 
 
 Committee had not yet been published, and they did not know 
 what their recommendations were, and liis remarks therefore were 
 confined for the present wholly to general principles, and if he 
 had spoken long, very imperfectly no doubt, still if he had been 
 able to convince them that the Resolution of the Government 
 was hasty, and that it was also inopportune, he was quite sure 
 they would agree with him in supporting the Resolution which 
 he held iu his hand. (Loud applause.) 
 
 ADULTERATION OF GHEE, ETC. 
 
 The folloiving speech loas delivered hj Raja (then Rai) Rajendra- 
 lala Mitra, Bahadoor, at a Half-yearly Meeting of the British 
 Indian Association held in the Hall of the Association on 
 Wednesday, the 6th September, 1886. 
 
 Gentlemen, — Before I put the resolution to the vote, 1 think 
 it necessary to explain to you the reason why this report has 
 been delayed. It embraces the period from January to June, 
 and the proper time for the submission of it was July, but it so 
 happened that in July, your house was under repairs, and con- 
 sequently it was not possible to convene a meeting. The repairs 
 took up the whole of August, and therefore your Committee was 
 compelled to defer the meeting to this day. On that ground, 
 however, your Committee did not feel it desirable to extend this 
 report to the end of August. Usually our reports embrace six 
 months, and consequently this report is just three months after 
 time, and it does not give you any information with regard to 
 what has been done during the last three months. The last three 
 mouths, however, have not been altogether uneventful, and I 
 shall attempt to give you an outline of what engaged their atten- 
 tion during that period. The first question to which your Com-
 
 Adulteration of Ghee, etc- 183 
 
 mittee directed their attention during the last three months was 
 the exodus of Government from Calcutta. The question was 
 first suggested to us hy the Chamber of Commerce, and a meet- 
 ing of the representatives of the Chamber of Commerce, of the 
 Trades' Association, of this Association, and of the Indian Associa- 
 tion, was held in the rooms of the Chamber of Commerce for 
 devising means for a proper representation to Government of 
 the grievances we complain of on account of this exodus. The 
 Chamber of Commerce in this instance evinced the warmest 
 sympathy for the people, and the unity of sentiment which pre- 
 vailed was highly gratifying in every way. The meeting, con- 
 vened by the united Committee in the Town Hall, was of a 
 highly satisfactory kind. The unity was perfect, and the effect 
 of the meeting, I have reason to believe, will be good. You have 
 already seen from one of the late telegrams from EnglanJ, that 
 the Under-Secretary of State has said that there was no inten- 
 tion to transfer the seat of the metropolis from Calcutta to Simla. 
 Upon this telegram, I should not be justified in expressing a 
 definite opinion. It may mean anything or nothing. The sub- 
 ject will, no doubt, be discussed in a quiet way, when every- 
 thing is ready for discussion. But the telegram shows that the 
 meeting must have had an efi'ect for good. The Government of 
 England are not yet prepared to assert positively and finally 
 what they want to do. The matter will take much time before a 
 decision is finally arrived at, I can easily conceive how strong 
 must be the opposition in official quarters to the giving up of 
 this prolonged nine months' picnic on the hills for the benefit of 
 nobody but the picnicians, at the cost of the public. It is satisfac- 
 tory to know that the public have done their duty, and have en- 
 tered their most earnest protest against the conduct of Govern- 
 ment ia forsaking Calcutta, the metropolis, for their Simla re- 
 treat. If you could conceive Lord Salisbury seated in his 
 chalet Cecil and the whole of Downing Street carried with him to 
 the shores of the Mediterranean, and ruling England therefrom, 
 you would have some idea how Government is conducted in this
 
 184 Adulteration of Gliee, etc. 
 
 country ; with this difference, that in regard to England, it 
 would be the Riviera ; here you have the crest of the Jakko 
 Hill, leaving the people hundreds of miles away from the ruler. 
 In the case of Bengal, you have the Lieutenant-Governor on the 
 top of Birch Hill at Darjeeling, surrounded by Lepchas and 
 Bhooteas, ruling the whole race of Hindus and Mahomedans 
 
 000 miles away from him. You can also imagine in the same 
 way Mr. Grant-Duff in the Neilgheries, or at Ootacamund, 
 and the people of Madras left to take care of themselves. 
 Could any Government in England have dared to insult the 
 community at largo by taking their perch on the top of Ben 
 Nevis, and ruling England, Wales and Ireland ? Such a thing 
 would be preposterous ; but that is exactly what is done in this 
 country, and in protesting against what has been done, and 
 which is pretty well becoming an institution, have you done 
 what is the duty of your, as people of the country, feeling 
 strongly the advantage of good government and the disadvant- 
 age of bad government. 
 
 The next subject which engaged the attention of your Com- 
 mittee, was a domestic one — in reference to the annoyance felt 
 by the people on account of the adulteration of ghee, one of the 
 main necessaries of Hindoo dietary. In its simplest form, 
 gJiee is nothing but butter, and yet there is a difference. In 
 ordinary language, when we talk of butter, we mean something 
 very emollient and agreeable, and we often say one has been 
 buttered when we mean he bas been flattered, but it comes to 
 something greasy and obnoxious if we change butter into ghee. 
 
 1 am sure if I could butter well, I could win the good graces 
 of a great many ; but I would jeopardise my skin if I tried to 
 ply rancid ghee instead. To Indians, ghee may be welcome as 
 an article of food, but ghee by itself is one thing, and quite 
 another, when a quantity of tallow or some other fat, or some 
 other fatty oil, is put into it, and this is what the tradesmen 
 of Calcutta have been doing for some months, not only to the 
 injury of the health of the people, but also to the injury of the
 
 Adulteration of Ghee, etc. 185 
 
 religious feelings of the community. It is gratifying to me to 
 notice that His Honor the Lieutenant-Governor has taken the 
 subject into his earnest consideration, and has gone so far as 
 to leave his delightful residence at Darjeeling, and come down 
 to Calcutta for the express purpose of passing a law on the 
 subject. I am sure that the whole of the Hindoo community 
 of Calcutta are deeply thankful for this prompt action of the 
 Lieutenant-Governor (hear, hear). Your Association took the 
 matter up with, as usual, very great promptness, and, after de- 
 Kberation, they submitted a representation to Government 
 praying that as the matte was of great urgency, it should at 
 once be taken notice of and an ordinance issued to put a stop to 
 it. The Government thought a different course desirable. 
 They published a draft of an Act in the local newspapers for 
 any suggestions that might be offered at any time. The objec- 
 tion to the present course of legislation, is that we cannot accept 
 this hasty legislation, and enter, as we have hitherto done, our 
 most emphatic protest against legislation in a hurry. It is 
 usual to take the greatest care to give permanency to the laws 
 of a nation, and every caution against the liability of laws 
 being frequently and readily changed. The form and procedure 
 prescribed for making laws require much deliberation and much 
 time, and they are the best safeguards against hasty legislation, 
 and nothing should be done to undo that. Is it then desirable, 
 is it prudent, that the people at large should set aside all checks 
 and go and ask the Government to pass a law in 24 hours' time 
 for their own benefit? Doubtless they may be benefited in 
 this instance ; but they should not forget that if they give up 
 the principle for their own benefit, and accept a principle fraught 
 with mischief, it can be brought into play against them quite as 
 effectually as to their benefit. I am, therefore, strongly opposed 
 to the system of legislation in a hurry. I would have infinitely 
 preferred an ordinance which could have been set aside at any 
 time on objection. The Bill as it is drafted is a very unsatis- 
 factory ono (hear hear). In the first place i is limited -to 
 
 24
 
 186 Adulteration of Ghee^ etc, 
 
 Calcutta onlj^ where people are dissatisfied with larded ghee ; but 
 are not the people living on the east side and west side of 
 Calcutta equally dissatisfied ? And if they are, they should 
 have the same benefit from the law ; but as the law stands, they 
 must be 3ontent with larded ghee. We, the inhabitants of Cal- 
 cutta, have no special right to get a law to which the others 
 have no claim. The Government should treat the Hindoos and 
 the Mahomedans alike, and give the benefit of the law on the 
 other side of the river as well as on this side. But the Govern- 
 ment is not going to do this, and have not told us why. Some 
 say the law is not going to be made general, because it is not 
 convenient to obtain chemical analysis of ghee in the mufussil. 
 I should not think this is a valid reason, and therefore strongly 
 advise your Committee to submit a representation to Govern- 
 ment that the law may be more general. In one section of the 
 Draft Bill, — I forget which, it is the Srd or 4th — the wording is 
 very defective. It says " articles unfit for human food." What 
 is unfit ? In ordinary parlance that is unfit which is prejudi- 
 cial to health. A sirloin of beef or a shoulder of mutton is 
 " unfit '' when it is too stringy or tough. We don't say it is 
 unfit, because some Hindoos won't touch it. The word simply 
 applies to what is wholesome as opposed to what is unwholesome. 
 We complain of what is prejudicial to our religion. Lard is 
 not prejudicial to health, suet is not prejudicial to health. Doc- 
 tors,- in ninety-nine cases in every hundred, recommend the use 
 of mutton, and seldom denounce it as unfit, but it is prejudicial 
 to religion, and the wording should have been very different. 
 The duty of your Committee is to call the attention of the Go- 
 vernment to that clause. It is quite true that a Bill hastily put up 
 and passed will require an amendment in a short time, and our- 
 Council is like a tinker's shop where our legal utensils are re- 
 paired every month ; but that is not what we want. We want 
 abiding laws and matured laws. 
 
 The next subject, and that is one on which no action has of 
 late be^n taken by you, there having been no opportunity for it.
 
 Adulteration of GJiee, etc, 187 
 
 is that of the increase of the income-tax. You have all heard 
 that the prospect is not cheering about the balancing of our 
 income and expenditure in the next Budget. There is sure to 
 be a heavy deficit, and to meet that deficit, the rumour is that 
 the rate of the income-tax is to be considerably increased. 
 Very unwelcome news to you ; but you must be prepared to 
 face it, and the sooner you take care to meet this, the better. 
 
 For your friends, the zemindars, there is yet another matter. 
 It is said that the Government contemplates taking revenue in 
 gold — to be calculated in gold. What disastrous effects this 
 change will have, my friends, the zemindars, know well. For 
 my part, if such a change is desirable, I hope that Government 
 will likewise make it applicable to the Government securities, 
 reckon the promissory notes in gold, and pay us interest and 
 capital in gold. This has not yet been developed ; it is yet in 
 its infancy; but we must be prepared for the contingency. 
 When I will have the opportunity of addressing you again 
 some time in the beginning of next year, I am afraid that I 
 shall have to talk on this subject in greater detail. Before put- 
 ting the resolution to the vote, I should have said something 
 about the exchange, but the appointment of the Royal Commis- 
 sion for enquiry into the currency, has already had the effect 
 of slightly improving the rate of exchange, I therefore put it 
 off to another occasion. (Loud applause).
 
 THE QUEEN'S JUBILEE. 
 
 The following speech was delivered hy Raja Rajendralala Mitra, 
 Bahadoor, at the Meeting held in the Toion Hall, on Wednes- 
 day, the 19th January y 1887 , to consider the best means for the 
 best loay of commemorating the Fiftieth Anniversary of Her 
 Gracious Majesty^s most beneficient reign. 
 
 Your Honor and Gentlemen,' 
 
 I have been asked to say a few words in support of the reso- 
 lution now before the meeting, and 1 respond to the call with 
 much pleasure. It is a pleasure to take part in such a demons- 
 tration as this. It is a pleasure to see our people earnest and 
 sincere in the cause of loyalty and devotion to our sove- 
 reign ; and it is a pleasure to know that each in his own sphere 
 is willing and foremost to contribute his mite to so noble a 
 cause (cheers.) The opportunity is a rare one. In the whole 
 course of Indian history, during the last eight hundred years, 
 we have had only one opportunity of the kind, and that was 
 connected with the glorious reign of Akbar. But then there 
 was no Jubilee celebration. During the same period in Eng- 
 land, .there were three opportunities or about one in eight 
 generations, or well nigh three hundred years. To us, the pre- 
 sent opportunity is most welcome, and we hail it with delight. 
 Never was there an opportunity so nobly associated, as the 
 present. Glorious, doubtless was the reign of Akbar, but in 
 the sovereign whose Jubilee we will celebrate in course of the 
 next month, and who will complete her fifty years' reign in 
 June next, we have a nobler and greater being than Akbar of 
 blessed memory (applause.) Her equal no history can show. 
 Owner of an empire far more extensive than that of Rome in 
 her palmiest days, and over which the sun never sets, she is the
 
 Tlie Queen's Jubilee. 189 
 
 mistress of a treasure even greater than her boundless domi- 
 nions ; it is the heart of her subjects. Her subjects are more 
 numerous, more diversified by origin, caste, color, religion, and 
 more deeply separated by everything which divides race from 
 race ; but they have one thing in common, they are identically 
 one in their devotion to their sovereign. This is a predicate 
 which none can apply to any other sovereign, living or dead. 
 This unique treasure she has acquired, not by the might of her 
 arms, not by phalanxes of invincible veterans, not by the su- 
 premacy over the sea, not by awful armaments and villainous 
 gunpowder, but by the purity of her nature, by her generous 
 consideration for the well-being of her teeming millions, by her 
 just, generous and motherly rule. Her sympathy for her 
 people is unbounded. In their joys and their sorrows, she is 
 always with them, In her distant home in the north of Scot- 
 land, she takes a delight in visiting the homes of the poor 
 tenants in their huts, and sending them such little comforts as 
 they stand most in need. Are wounded and disabled soldiers 
 brought home from a distance, she is the first to visit them in 
 the hospital* Has a 'calamity happened anywhere in her domi- 
 nions, she immediately sends a telegram to express her sym- 
 pathy and freely subscribes for relief. It was only the other 
 day that a disastrous fire took place in Madras, and one of the 
 first things you noticed in the papers was a sympathetic tele- 
 gram from the Queen-Empress. For such a sovereign^ for 
 such a Queen, for such an Empress your highest loyalty and 
 devotion are justly due, and it is a matter of high satisfaction 
 to me to know that one and all of her subjects are inspired by 
 the fulness of such feelings. I have no hesitation in saying 
 that there is none here present, none in Calcutta, none in all 
 Bengal whose heart does not beat in unison with that of his 
 neighbours in cordial sympathy. For me, sir, and for all of 
 you, I presume, there is even a higher motive for our devotion. 
 It is the purity of her long and glorious life. She is the asy- 
 lum and home of all goodness and domestic virtues that can
 
 190 The Queen's Jubilee. 
 
 adorn human nature. If she is exemplary as a Queen, she is 
 equally exemplary as the mistress of a family. One phrase of 
 her life, gentlemen, has produced a deep and lasting impression 
 on my mind, it is the ideal of Hindu widowhood that she has 
 realized in her life. For five and twenty years has she in this 
 respect set an example to the world which is entirely unparal- 
 leled. To the Hindus, this trait of her character comes deep 
 in their hearts. They pride in extolling this virtue in their own 
 domestic circles, and they cannot but admire to the utmost this 
 noble trait in their sovereign. Her virtues, gentlemen, are 
 manifold, and with the garrulity which is the privilege of my 
 age, I could expatiate on them for hours. I could find it in my 
 heart, gentlemen, to pour all my dullness on your worships. 
 But I feel,-I am poaching on other's preserves. I cannot, 1 fear, 
 say a single word which will now be set before you by those 
 who will follow me, with more vigour, more force, and more 
 eloquence than what I can pretend to. Nor is any effort on 
 my part necessary. The main object of the resolution is that 
 we do celebrate the fiftieth year of Her gracious sovereignty 
 in a manner worthy of the occasion. If there be any truth in 
 what I have already said, this comes home one and all, and 
 needs no recommendation. Is there any one here present who 
 does not feel as warmly, as ardently, as devotedly, on the sub- 
 ject as the warmest of the admirers of Her Gracious Majesty ? 
 If so, there is no room for recommendation, no necessity for 
 urging, no occasion for rousing. You all feel most forcibly the 
 propriety of the course proposed, and, without assuming the 
 role of a prophet, I can boldly affirm that when the day comes, 
 India will respond to the call of duty with the utmost enthu- 
 siasm, and I wish you Grod-speed in your noble resolve. The 
 second part of the resolution is a matter of detail, and reads 
 rather poorly along with the first part, I should have liked to 
 see it separated. After a glorious outburst of enthusiasm and 
 devotion, it breaks down with the common place request — pray 
 give us leave for another day. But rightly considered, there is
 
 The Queen'' s Jubilee. 191 
 
 no inconsistency here, not to celebrate the Jubilee, but to de- 
 vise ways and means for -celebrating it on a future occasion, 
 and in this connection the first question necessarily refers to 
 time, and all we want is that we should have more time than 
 what has been proposed by His Excellency the Viceroy. One 
 day is not enough, and we want two. In the Leveticus, where 
 we have the oldest mention of a Jubilee, the time fixed is one 
 year, during which none should sell or barter, none should sow 
 or reap, none should engage himself in the ordinary afiairs of 
 every-day life, but all should be engaged in doing good. But 
 that time won't suit us now. It would bring starvation at the 
 door of many. I have been told that on the occasion of the 
 Jubilee of King George the Third, the period allowed was nine 
 days, but that is too long. In these days of electric telegraphs 
 and railway, we cannot afford to sit rejoicing so long. One day, 
 however, is, as I have just said, not enough. A philosopher 
 may have in a day his full rejoicing at heart on discovering an 
 asteriod, but for ordinary flesh and blood rejoicings mean some- 
 thing actively sensuous. We want music, we want songs, we 
 want theatrical exhibitions and fireworks. la olden days, in 
 Greece and Rome, they required athletic games and gladiatorial 
 fights. "We can do, and should do, without the last ; but the 
 short space of twenty-four hours affords no time for full enjoy- 
 ment, and leaves no margin for rest before facing the inevitable 
 black Monday. I have no hesitation in saying, therefore, that 
 the prayer in the resolution is a just and proper one. On the 
 whole the resolution placed before you is worthy of your most 
 cordial support.
 
 THE SECOND NATIONAL CONGRESS. 
 
 The following speech loas delivered hy Raja Rajendralala Mitra, 
 Bahadoor^ at the Second National Congress^ held in Calcutta 
 in Deceniber 1887. 
 
 Gentlemen, — The duty I have to perform on the present oc-. 
 casion is to receive the delegates who have come from the various 
 Provinces of the Empire to take part in our deliberations. It is 
 a very agreeable duty, and I most heartily welcome the gentle- 
 men to this assemblage. In the name of my colleagues who have 
 organized this Congress, I express my welcome to them. In the 
 name of the citizens of Calcutta, I beg to tender them our most 
 cordial greetings. I receive them with my extended hands ; I 
 ofifer them the right hand of fellowship for the cordial manner in 
 which they have responded to our invitation. It is not for me 
 on the present occasion to dwell at length upon the subjects 
 which will be brought forward for consideration here. But I can 
 not rest content with the few words I have already said. It has 
 been the dream of my life that the scattered units of my race may 
 some day coalesce and come together ; that instead of living mere- 
 ly as individuals, we may some day so combine as to be able to 
 live as a nation. In this meeting, 1 behold the commencement 
 of such coalesc'ense. {Cheers). I hope the union will not be very 
 distant. It may not be left to me to realize the sight, but it is high- 
 ly gratifying to me that we are here assembled together, dele- 
 gates from th6 North and from the South, from the East and 
 from the West, all anxious to join as members of one nation for 
 the good of our country. Addressing those of my own race, I 
 can tell you that there was a time when our forefathers lived as 
 one single race. Circumstances led to their dispersion, and paro- 
 chial hedges of various kinds kept them apart. It is therefore 
 not a matter of small rejoicing that we should have surmounted 
 those difficulties and come together. The Aryan blood that
 
 The Second National Congress. 193 
 
 courses in my veins is the same which vivifies yon, and as hlood 
 is thicker than water, I take the highest delight in being able to 
 welcome my long separated brethern. {Loud cheers.) Pardon mo, 
 gentlemen, if in the exuberance of my emotion I have forgotten 
 for one moment only the Mahomedau gentlemen who have graced 
 this meeting with their presence. They are as much welcome 
 as the people of my own race. I welcome them with all my 
 heart, and I look upon their presence here to-day as a guarantee 
 of this being truly a National Congress. Without them we 
 might have felt that we were at a marriage party without the 
 bride. Diverse we are in origin, in religion, in language, and 
 in our manners and customs, but we are not the less members of 
 the same nation. {Cheers.) We live in the same country, we are 
 subjects of the same Sovereign, and our good and evil depends 
 entirely on the state of the Government and the laws passed in 
 this country. Whatever is beneficial to the Hindus is equally 
 beneficial to the Mahomedans, and whatever is injurious to the 
 Hindus is equally injurious to the followers of Mahomed. Na- 
 tions are not made of sects but of tribes bound together in one 
 political bond. {Loud and prolonged cheering.) We are all bound 
 by the same political bond, and therefore we constitute one na- 
 tion. I behold in this Congress the dawn of a better and a 
 happier day for India. 1 look upon it as the quickening of a 
 new life. For long, our fathers lived and we have lived as indi- 
 viduals only, or as families, but henceforward I hope we shall be 
 living as a nation, united one and all to promote our welfare and 
 the welfare of our mother country. {Cheers). That is the great 
 object of this Congress, and if you bear that in mind, I am sure 
 there will be no difference of opinion as to the propi'iety of our 
 receiving each other in brotherly love and trying our best to se- 
 cure the utmost union possible. It would be absurd to suppose 
 that we can for one moment secure perfect union. We know 
 that Jesus Christ failed to secure perfect union in the body of 
 his disciples, and out of 250 millions of people, you must find 
 that wo have many more than one disciple who is opposed to us. 
 
 25
 
 194 The Second National Congress. 
 
 There has been a good deal written lately about the impro- 
 priety of this Congress, about the injustice we do to the Govern- 
 ment by holding these meetings, {Here Mr, A. 0. Hume enter- 
 ed the Hall amidst loud and deafeninp applause,) I shall not stop 
 to refer to the scandalous and absurd charges which have been 
 hurled against us about our being a discontended people, a band 
 of wire-pullers and professional agitators. I would not say one 
 word against those who complain of our being disloyal ; for 
 such charges are beneath contempt. But there are others who 
 are more moderate in their tone and in the charges they bring 
 against us and therefore are more injurious in their action. For 
 instance, we have been told that we are trying to force the hand 
 of Government. "What is meant by that, I must confess, 1 do 
 not clearly understand. As an old man, it has been my habit 
 occasionally to cut in for a hand at whist. I know that in this 
 position it is an object with the players to force the hand of their 
 opponents. But are we really forcing the hand of our opponent, 
 the Government ? Do we really look upon the Government as 
 an opponent ? It is understood in the game that my opponent 
 has some card, some honour, some trumps, which he is not at all 
 disposed to let me know. Has the Government any such thing ? 
 Does the Government desire that there should be something kept 
 secret and away from the public, and which we are trying to force 
 the Government to disclose ? No. Those who say so libel the Gov- 
 errnment. It is altogether wrong to suppose that the Govern- 
 ment is holding anything away from us; and we cannot try 
 therefore to force the hands of Government, when they contain 
 nothing that would not be given to us freely. Again, we have 
 been told, we must have a policy of confidence in the Govern- 
 ment. I would say at once, away with such nonsense. I will 
 never have a policy of confidence. A policy of confidence im- 
 plies the simulation of a merit which W9 do not possess; it is the 
 simulation of a feeling which we do not really feel. If we really 
 have confidence in the Government, we need not adopt any poli- 
 cy or semblance of it. We have perfect confidence in the Gov-
 
 The Second National Congress. 195 
 
 ©rnment, and therefore it is absurd to talk of * adopting a policy 
 of confidence.' Let those who have no confidence in the Gov- 
 ernment, but who have their own purposes to serve, say they 
 have ' a policy of confidence.' We shall have none of it. {Loud 
 cheers,) 
 
 We have again been told that the Government should not be 
 obliged to precipitate their action ; that they have already adopt- 
 ed a resolution for enquiry, and that we should not oblige them 
 to come to a conclusion without such enquiry. Bat are we doing 
 so ? Do you for a moment believe that by assembling here to- 
 day and taking into consideration all those subjects which con- 
 cern us most, we are forestalling the decision of the Govern- 
 ment ? The Government has itself said that the Public Service 
 Commission is of a judicial character, and that the whole busi- 
 ness depends on the evidence produced before it. Who is to 
 produce the evidence for the whole people of the country if the 
 men of light and leading, who are our leaders in every respect, 
 should keep away and be prevented from joining together and 
 deliberating in the manner in which they can put forth the most 
 reliable evidence ? We are only preparing the evidence, and not 
 forestalling the action of the Government. If you were to say, 
 as they have said, that we force resolutions instead of allowing 
 time for consideration, the same may be said of those gentlemen, 
 of the long robe who take up so much of the time of our Judges 
 in discussing matters before the Judges have made up their 
 minds. There is no pretence whatever to say we have not the 
 utmost confidence in the Judges of the High Court, and the 
 other great Courts of the country. We all have the utmost 
 confidence in the Judges. Still we deem it necessary, for the in- 
 terest of our cause, that we should employ the gentlemen of the 
 long robe to explain matters to the Judges ; we desire that our 
 cases shall be put rightly before them. This is an analogous case, 
 and we want our delegates of mature judgment to consider the 
 evidence and put it in ship-shape, so that it may be laid before 
 the Government with perfect confidence of success, and may
 
 196 The Sficond National Coiigrexs, 
 
 enable the Government to see thronoh our cause much better. 
 {Cheers.) If it be true that the Government is superseded, by- 
 such action, the same may be said of the Judges, and the conse- 
 quence would be that if the gentlemen of the long robe insisted 
 on not interfering with the discretion of the Judges during trial, 
 they would very soon find their green bags to be empty. There 
 are some other charges made, but they are all of the same stamp, 
 and I shall not take up your time by dwelling on them, for I 
 must leave ample time to my successor to deliver his inaugural 
 address. I will, however, in this connexion tell you a thing 
 which occurred to me two years ago. As President of the Bri- 
 tish Indian Association, I took a deep interest in organizing the 
 opposition to the Bengal Tenancy Bill, and I asked a Hindu 
 gentleman, — I am particular to say a Hindu gentleman, — to join 
 the opposition. He said, no, he would not. And why so ? 'Be- 
 cause my Collector won't like it.' 'But what do you care about 
 your Collector ; your interests are involved .^' ' But you require 
 a subscription from me, and if I join you, I shall lose my money 
 and I shall lose the good graces of my Collector, ^ou will not 
 lose your case, because I keep back ; if yon win, I shall derive 
 the full benefit and I shall retain the friendship of the Collector 
 and my money ; if you lose, you lose all, but I shall still have 
 the benefit of the Collector's good graces and my money.' Is 
 there anything like this feeling somewhere which makes people 
 keep away from this conference ? It is not for me to attribute 
 motives, but I found that in one case, and it is not out of my 
 way to bring it to the notice of the Congress. 
 
 The subjects which you will have to consider are so varied 
 and so diverse in character, and they will be expatiated upon so 
 fully by my friend who will soon occupy this chair, that I shall 
 not take up time by going through them seriatim. The most 
 important of them is the reconstitution of the Legislative Coun- 
 cils. I look upon that as the corner-stone of all the topics of 
 political condition, {Loud cheers.) Nothing can be done, no- 
 thing will be advantageous, as long as our legislatures are ia
 
 The Second National Congress, 197 
 
 their present condition. All other things dwindle into very 
 little, when you place beside them this primary consideration, 
 the reconstitntion and reformation of the Legislative Councils. 
 Nor is this a matter in which we have for the first time con- 
 ceived any idea. Time was when our laws were passed in ca- 
 mera, in the Council Chamber, with closed doors, and when no- 
 body knew anything of how our laws were fashioned, until they 
 were read, passed, and published in the Gazette. The Govern- 
 ment itself felt that that was not a very fair way of doing busi- 
 ness. The Government itself wanted co-operation from with- 
 out, and the first step taken was to appoint a native gentleman 
 of vast experience and illimitable judicial lore to lend his aid 
 to the maturing of Bills. This was, however, a very poor subs- 
 titute for better representation ; it was a procedure which was 
 felt to be utterly worthless, and in a few years it was set aside. 
 The Councils' Act under which we now live is a great improve- 
 ment on the past. It has given you several persons in the 
 Council instead of only one adviser, but the evil arose from the 
 several persons who were appointed not being representatives of 
 anybody but themselves (cheers) ; they represented no one but 
 their own good interests (cheers) •, they were selected, I will not 
 say how or with what motive, but we know that they were se- 
 lected so as to produce more ornament than usefulness. (Cheers) 
 We have heard with reference to ladies what Mrs. Grundy 
 sometimes calls heaps of millinery, and we had several such ; 
 there were others who acted with perfection as dummies ; others 
 who had taken up the role of ap he loaste's, {Cheers^ But whe- 
 ther as ap he loasteSy as dummies, or as heaps of millinery, they 
 ■were just the men not wanted. "When I say this, I must not 
 forget that there were some who were my personal friends, and 
 better men India did not produce. But they were few. They 
 were not able to cope with the overwhelming dead weight of the 
 official majority that rested upon them, and their usefulness was 
 minimised. If by the action of Government at three different 
 stages you see that it has been felt expedient to alter the cons-
 
 198 The Second National Congress. 
 
 titution of the Councils for the preparation of our laws, there is 
 nothing disloyal or improper if we once more say 'let us take 
 another step forward.' The goal may not be reached for some 
 time, but our grand children might come to it. At present, we 
 "want only one step forward : for nomination by the authorities, 
 nomination in any case of an irresponsible character, we want 
 election by those whom the elected are to represent. This is 
 the primary object of our agitation with regard to the Legisla- 
 tive Councils. Let the representativs be elected. {Cheers.) 
 Let the system be-^hatever the Government in its wisdom may 
 think proper, but let the policy be a policy of representation, 
 and let there be a sufficient number of representatives to make 
 the feelings and wants of the people fully heard by the Govern- 
 ment. We live not under a National Government, we live 
 Tinder a foreign bureaucracy (cheers) ; our foreign rulers under 
 the peculiar circumstances of the case are foreigners by birth, 
 religion, language, habits — everything that divides humanity 
 into diflferent sections. They cannot possibly dive into our 
 hearts ; they cannot ascertain our wants and feelings and aspira- 
 tions. (Cheers.) It is impossible for them to do so. They 
 may try their best, and I have no reason to doubt that many of 
 our Governors have tried hard to ascertain our feelings and our 
 wants ; but owing to their peculiar position, they have failed to 
 ascertain them. Therefore, what we want is to have a sufficient 
 nurnber of men to represent the people, each bringing his quota 
 of knowledge of the requirements of a particular section of the 
 community. (Cheers.) Perhaps it is not for this Congress to 
 decide the number of such representatives ; it would be for the 
 Government to decide. But this much is clear, that in all ho- 
 nesty we do want a much larger number than at present. 
 
 There is one point in connection with the Legislative Coun- 
 cils which I must not forget, and that is the right of interpella- 
 tion. (Cheers.) At present, owing to the peculiar circumstances 
 of the Government, there is no interchange of opinion, each 
 party having the right to express its view. We have thus to
 
 The Second National Congress, 19^ 
 
 make our guesses as to what others think, and many Acts which 
 are most useful in their way, many orders of an administrative 
 kind which are most necessary and judicious, are announced ia 
 the pages of the Gazette without a single word of explanation, 
 and the people cannot help doubting the good faith of those who 
 pass them. A single question in the Council Chamber would at 
 once explain the matter ; and therefore we think that as a mat- 
 ter of justice it is extremely important that whatever might be 
 the constitution of the Legislative Councils, we should have the 
 right of interpellation. (Loud cheering.) 
 
 "With regard to the other subjects before the Congress there 
 is one only to which I shall refer, and that is the Public Service 
 question. It is not so important, not nearly so vitally important, 
 as the question of the reconstitution of the Councils ; it is rath- 
 er a narrow question and has a bad stamp on its face, an anxiety 
 on our part to get the loaves and fishes ; but still it is a very 
 important question ^ because, without taking into account the 
 money point of view, the nation have a right to demand that 
 they shall have the privilege of serving their own country. 
 {Cheers.) This is a right inalienable from the people in all other 
 parts of the world. It has been conceded even by the Czar of 
 Russia, and I hold that the keeping it away from us is a grave 
 injustice. (Loud Cheers.) That this deprivation should be done 
 away with is a matter which should occupy your foremost atten- 
 tion. True, it may be said that at present the people can go to 
 England and enter into the Civil Service, but it is such a mock- 
 ery that the man who tells it is either joking with me or actual- 
 ly insulting me. The question is, that we should send our chil- 
 dren, at the age of 16, five thousand miles away for three years 
 together for the purpose of passing an examination of the strict- 
 est possible kind. The odds are against them, the prizes are 
 few, and the blanks numerous, and the risks of sojourn by youths 
 ■without guardians in a large metropolis, teeming with tempt- 
 ation are most serious. As a matter of fact, several Indian 
 youths have returned from England as raving maniacs. Parents'
 
 200 The Second National Congress, 
 
 must be foolhardy indeed who, in the face of these facts, will 
 venture to send their children to England at the age of 16. But 
 suppose the age is raised by two years. Would that satisfy all 
 your demand ? I say, nay. For the service of one's country, 
 in no part of the world is a person called away from his native 
 land to pass an examination. {Cheers.) Canada is under the Bri- 
 tish Government. But Her Majesty the Queen- Empress does 
 not require that every French subject there shall go to England 
 to pass an examination before being admitted into the Canadian 
 service. Nothing of the kind is required in the Cape Colonies, 
 nor in Australia, nor in Ceylon. And what is true of them is 
 true of any other country which is a foreign dependency. Why 
 should then the case be different in India alone ? The rule here 
 is that no man should be allowed to serve the country without 
 running the great risks which await them in England, without 
 having to expatriate himself for three years, and come home to 
 be excluded from caste. This is a great grievance too and it is 
 one regarding which every Hindu and every Mahomedan gentle- 
 man has a right to make a strong protest. I do not deny for a 
 moment that there are advantages in going to England, intel- 
 lectual and moral, of a very high order (loud cheers), and I would 
 be the last to put an embargo on any one going to England. 
 But I hold that it should not be made a sine qua nan for appoint- 
 ment under the Government. It is just as bad as the Czar's 
 mandate which will allow no man to become a high officer unless 
 a Mahomedan Ali Khan changes his name to Alikhanoff. Our 
 Sovereign, Her Gracious Majesty the Empress, would be the 
 last to show that she is in this respect on a par with the Czar of 
 Russia, and I hope therefore that those who will take the subject 
 into consideration will not lose sight of this important point. 
 
 I shall say nothing further with regard to the subjects which 
 will come before you, and I shall close by simply nrging that 
 whatever you do and say, and whatever policy you mature, bear 
 in mind that of all things moderation is of the utmost import- 
 ance. {Cheers.) Let your speakers speak moderately ; let your
 
 The Hindu Marriage Customs. 201 
 
 schemes be moderate ; and let yonr resolutions be so framed 
 that 710 Government can have any occasion to complain of w^ant 
 of moderation. That is what I am particularly anxious to en- 
 sure, and 1 hope your Committee and your Congress men will 
 bear this fact prominently in mind. 
 
 I shall say nothing more, but repeat our welcome to the 
 gentlemen here assembled and leave the matter to your consi- 
 deration. {Prolonged clieering.') 
 
 THE HINDU MARRIAGE CUSTOMS. 
 
 An important meeting anent the " Hindu Marriage Customs" took 
 place in the Hall of the late Maharajah Kamal Krishna Baha- 
 dur, on Saturday, the 6th August, 1887, at 5 P. M. Notwith- 
 standing the inclemency of the iveather the spacious Hall was 
 croiod ed, and the assembly loas intelligent, respectable and 
 representatioe. The chair ivas taken by that illustrious scholar^ 
 Raja Rajendralala Mitra, c.i. e., loho, on opening the proceed- 
 ings of the meeting, said : — 
 
 When I started from home, looking to the state of the 
 weather, I did not expect anything like the audience I have 
 before me. I thought of dozens, I have the pleasure of facing 
 hundreds of the elite of our community — men of light and 
 leading — whose presence and earnestness attest to the importance 
 of the subject intended for discussion this afternoon. The sub- 
 ject has now been discussed for some months in the press ; the 
 Government of Bombay has recorded a grave minute and the 
 Government of India has issued a circular inviting the opinion 
 of local Governments, and the Hindu public feel deeply interest- 
 ed in it. It involves the fundamental conditions of our social 
 bonds as well as of our religion. It concerns the key-stone of 
 
 26
 
 202 The Hindu Marriage Customs. 
 
 of the arch which supports our social organization ; it concerns 
 the home and hearth of every one who professes the Hindu faith. 
 That such a subject should bring you together even in spite of the 
 weather is not remarkable. Jt is my duty, however, to inform 
 you that this is a sporadic meeting, entirely unconnected with 
 any public or private Association. We meet to hear a lecture, 
 and express our opinion on it, but not to come to any resolution 
 or take any action. Every gentleman here present will form 
 his own opinion and act according to his wish, bnt as an assem- 
 bly we shall not commit ourselves to anything but the opinion 
 we express individually. The conveners of the meeting have 
 deemed it necessary to impose this condition to prevent misun- 
 derstanding and 'dissension. The object is to elicit opinion and 
 nothing more. There are enough of Societies, Associations, and 
 other organized bodies in Calcutta to take action, and to them we 
 relegate the duty of doing what is needful. Now I have only 
 to invite the expression of opinion without fear, favour or any 
 reservation. The only condition I have on my part to impose 
 is that the different speakers should condense their speeches as 
 much as possible^ avoid repetition and scrupulously avoid irrelev- 
 ant matter. I know not what time the lecture will take up. I 
 have not read it, nor I have any idea of its extent. I presume 
 it will take up an hour or so. Then there are the names of nine 
 gentlemen on the circular who will have precedence and others 
 will follow, and they are welcome to comment on the lecture and 
 the speeches of the gentlemen named. But I shall deem it my 
 duty to bring the proceedings to a close by 8 o'clock, and the 
 speakers should not take up more than ten minutes each. The 
 subject is one which every speaker can dwell for hours ; but we 
 cannot possibly have an all night sitting, as in the House of 
 Commons ; I must consult the comfort and convenience of the 
 gentlemen who have done us the favour to attend^ and not to 
 force them to forego or forget their dinner hour. I beg of the 
 speakers to bear this condition in mind and to relieve me of the 
 painful necessity of culling their attention every now and then
 
 The Hindu Marriage Customs. ' 203 
 
 to the clock. Witli these remarks, Gentlemen, I shall now. 
 introduce the lecturer to you and invito him to deliver his 
 lecture. 
 
 (After the Lecturer and other speakers who followed him 
 have finished their addresses, Raja Rajendralala Mitra brought 
 the proceeding to a close, by making the following observa- 
 tions) : — 
 
 I have listened with great attention to the many excellent 
 addresses delivered this evening ; but 1 missed in every one of 
 them what I thought should have come foremost, I mean an 
 expression of opinion regarding the merits of the lecture we 
 Lave heard. I must supply this omission. The lecture is an 
 able one ; it does honor to the head and heart of the learned 
 gentleman who has done us the favor to deliver it to us. It is 
 thoughtful, judicious, and very considerate — in every way 
 worthy of the character of the lecturer. We may not subscribe 
 to every opinion it contains ; we may differ widely from it in 
 some respects ; but we are bound to accord to it high praise for 
 its general merits. In saying this, I feel certain that I give 
 expression to the opinion of every one here present. With your 
 permission, therefore, I shall, gentlemen, in your name, convey 
 to Mr. Shome the thanks of this meeting for his lecture (re- 
 peated cheers). 
 
 I have another remark to make about the speeches. They 
 produced in me a sense of intense conservation — an excessive 
 amount of Toryism, unrelieved by any dissent. Every thing 
 we have is good, and nothing should be done to disturb the 
 status quo. This concensus of opinion is doubtless gratifying 
 to me as a Hindu ; but it is not in accord with the supreme law 
 of nature. There is nothing in status quo in the universe. Change 
 is the order of existence. The moon we behold is a burut-up 
 sphere ; the earth of to-day is not what it was a thousand years 
 ago ; nor was it a thousand years ago, what it had been ten 
 thousand years before that. The layer above layer which 
 we see on it, each of which took thousands of years to form,
 
 204 The Hindu Marriage Customs. 
 
 shows that it has changed greatly in course of time, it is still 
 changing, and will go on changing to the end of time. The 
 same changes have taken place in the forms, habits and manners 
 of animal life, and the process of change will continue steadily 
 on and on. Under the circumstances it is hopeless to expect 
 that we shall be able to arrest change, and maintain an absolute 
 status quo. The powers of nature are irresistible ; they will 
 bring on change, as time flows on, and we must, will we or nil 
 ■we, yield and accommodate ourselves to our circumstances and 
 surroundings. Our ancestors have done so all along, and w© 
 must do likewise. 
 
 My friend opposite (Pandit Haraprasad Sastri) has just told 
 you that the Rig Veda mentions the ceremony of Svayamvara, 
 and the inference he draws is that consensual marriages were 
 then in vogue. I always fight shy of that Veda. It is a cor- 
 nucopia that yields to its admirer whatever he desires, and no 
 one can be sure of a general deduction from any permiss derived 
 from it. I have found in it mention made of a sage or Rishi 
 who married ten damsels all at once. In another place two 
 goods, the Asvins, together took one wife. Thus you have self- 
 choice, polygamy, and polyandry. 
 
 The digesters of this Veda, the Sutrakaras, make mention of 
 the Rakshasa form of marriage, in which a brute seizes a damsel 
 by her hair, and drags her away after killing or disabling her 
 guardians and relatives, and while she screams piteously or help. 
 This was probably the most ancient form of marriage. It is well- 
 known that from remote antiquity two forms of selection were 
 current among the two great primitive nations of Central Asia ; 
 the Aryans marrying outside their tribe or Gotra, and the 
 Turanians within the pale of their gens. The former method 
 is called exogamy, and the latter endogamy. It may shock your 
 sensibility to be told so, but forcible abduction was the usual form 
 of marriage among your remote ancestors, and old Manu, while 
 denouncing it as bestial, was obliged to admit when he wrote that 
 it was a form of marriage and not rape. The reminiscences of this
 
 Tlie Hindu Marriage Customs. 205 
 
 marriage still linger among the Arj'ans in different parts of the 
 earth, in some form or other. Slow, well know that when a 
 marriage party comes to a village, the orthodox welcome they 
 should receive is a shower of brickbats as aggressors, and it 
 has to be obviated by a bribe called Delahhanga : you do not 
 actually deliver the shower, but never fail to exact the bribe. 
 Even in Calcutta the bribe is a regular demand paid at every 
 marriage, and never remitted. In some parts of the 'North- 
 West and in Kajputana, the usual practice is to set up a wicker- 
 work gateway in front of the village. This is called a toran, 
 a symbol of a fort, and the bridegroom's party must assail this 
 and knock it down before it is allowed to enter the village. This 
 is a symbolical over-throw of the bride's guardians, and they 
 yield of the girl in theory by vis major. Englishmen have done 
 away with all tokens of ancient customs, but, as Aryans, have 
 still a trace of this form of marriage left among them. When 
 a bridegroom takes away his bride, the honor done him is to shy 
 old shoes at him. It is the counterpart of the brickbats of 
 Bengal. 
 
 This form of marriage must have ceased in its naked rude- 
 ness at an early age; in India, it was replaced by the form 
 most admired by Mann, that of gift, or Prajapatya, and it ob- 
 tains to this day. In it there is no selection, no self-choice, no 
 consent on the part of the bride ; she is an article of gilt : she 
 is given away, even as a book or a picture, a cow or any other 
 chattel. (Laughter.) You may laugh at my way of putting 
 the case before you ; but it is litterally true. Recall to your 
 mind the mantras of marriage, and you will at once perceive 
 that the case is one of Dana^ and nothing more. Even in Eng- 
 land, where so much is made of consensual marriage, the theory 
 of gift still prevails : the father or guardian gives away the 
 bride, and if there be no one present to make the gift, the offi- 
 ciating priest enacts the role of the father, and makes the gift. 
 The ceremony of marriage cannot be gone through without this 
 gift. Of course in England it is a mere formality, now, but it
 
 206 Tlie Hindu Marriage Cvstoms. 
 
 is Dot the less significant on that account. In India, this gift is 
 identically the same, as is done ; mutatis mutandis, in the very 
 words used in giving a child in dattaka adoption. In either 
 case thete is not the remotest idea of consent on the part of the 
 child given. The boy becomes a son and remains irrevocably 
 so, no matter whether the adopter is blind, or lame, or ugly, or 
 otherwise highly repulsive. No adopted son can on any ground 
 dissolve the adoption. He becomes, by virtue of the religious 
 rite of adoption, of the blood and gens and family of the adopt- 
 er, and must ever remain so. Even such is the case with the 
 bride. Certain religious rites convert her into the blood, gens 
 and family of her husband, and under Hindu law she must ever 
 remain so. To talk, therefore, of consent is to talk nonsense. 
 The theory of a civil contract is quite different, and stands on a 
 lower plane. It does not enter into consideration when dealing 
 with Hindu law. 
 
 It may be said that the Hindu law is bad, and should be res- 
 cinded. So say Christian missionaries and others, and from 
 their standpoint they may be right ; I do not care now to en- 
 quire, if they are. But I cannot permit persons to claim Hin- 
 duship who will not abide by the Hindu law. Their Hinduism 
 depends on the laws of the Rishis, and if they decline to abide 
 by those laws they have no locus standi within the pale of Hindu 
 Society. I do not wish to control the freedom of choice of 
 any person. Even as I have a right to do what I think proper, 
 so have others. If a person does not like Hinduism let him by 
 all manner of means abjure it, and betake to Christianity, or 
 Muhammadanism, or Brahmoism, or Agnosticism, or whatever 
 else he likes. Let him get up a creed of his own, if no current 
 form of religion will suit him. Rukma Bai does not like to go 
 to her husband because she was not asked to give her consent 
 when the marriage with him took place ; but her Hinduism de- 
 clares that the bond is valid without the consent, and she must 
 abide by her religion and family law. If she declines, she 
 ceases to be a Hindu, and the matter ends. All I insist upon is
 
 Tlie Hindu Marriage Customs. 207 
 
 that WG should not for a moment tolerate the aggressiveness 
 whioh makes some people denounce Hindu law, and still insist 
 upon being admitted to Hindu Society. This I look upon as 
 outrageous impertinence, and you do well to protest against it. 
 It is nonsense all to talk of the correct interpretatians of our law. 
 Whenever such interpretations have been attempted they have 
 given rise to new sects. The self-appointed interpreters are not 
 the men who have any claim to our confidence, and we simply 
 repudiate them. Of course, in resisting outside force, 1 say no- 
 thing about the natural law about change. That operates slow- 
 ly, gradually, and I have not the slightest notion of opposing it. 
 Its action may be retarded or quickened by our surroundings — 
 our altered circumstances and requirements — and as intelligent 
 men we should do well to promote it, when it lies in our power to 
 do so ; but I have not language strong enough fully to denounce 
 those who will shut the doors of our schools and colleges against 
 those who are married early (tremendous cheers and applause). 
 But I nave already taken up much more time than what I fixed 
 for each speaker, and so I must stop here, (" No,'' " no," " go 
 on.") Pardon me, gentlemen, my alloted ten minutes have long 
 since passed away, and I cannot. I had intended to dwell on 
 the time of early marriage, widow-marriage and the other topics 
 to which the different speakers have referred ; but we have al- 
 ready sat for four hours ; it is nine o'clock now ; and I would 
 require much more time to do justice to those topics than what 
 I can now spare. I must therefore, now "convey the thanks of 
 the meeting to the lecturer, and declare the meeting dissolved.
 
 THE THIRTY-SEVENTH ANNUAL MEETING OF 
 THE BRITISH INDIAN ASSOCIATION. 
 
 Tlie foUoioing speech icas delivered by Raja Rajendraalala Mitra, 
 Bahadoor, at the Thirty -seventh Annual Meeting of the British 
 Indian Association, held on Wednesday ^ the 24th April, 1888. 
 
 Gentlemen, before I assume the chair which has been so 
 kindly placed at my disposal, I wish to retura to you my most 
 cordial thanks for the honor you have done me. For the third 
 time you have thought my services worthy of recognition, and 
 no man in India can be so insensible as not to feel deeply the 
 honor which has been conferred on me by this important body. 
 But I regret I cannot congratulate you upon your choice. AH 
 along defective in some respects or other, I have lately been 
 prostrated by ill-health of more than a year, and you now see 
 me a mere wreck of what I was before. Even my voice is gone, 
 and I cannot address you so naturally and strongly as I have 
 hitherto done. This much, however, I can assure you that I 
 shall try my utmost to serve you to the last day of my hfe. It 
 may not be much, but that is all 1 can promise I shall be able to 
 do for you. It is consolatory, however, on my'part to think that 
 you will not require my services to any material extent. You 
 have gained that stage of experience when no mentor is wanted; 
 when no supervising guiding hand is required. You have for 
 eight-and-thirty years conducted your business with consum- 
 mate ability, and you will not now feel the necessity of an ac- 
 tive President who will go so far as to lead you in your work. It 
 is I rather that will look upon you for assistant in carrying on 
 your duties and in serving the country. Really I am, I think, 
 nothing better than a figurehead — the figurehead of a ship — 
 which is an ornament merely. I am sorry that in my present 
 condition I cannot even be looked upon as ornamental in your 
 society. Well, I shall try, as 1 have already said, to do my
 
 Tlie Thirty-seventh Annual Meeting of the B. I. Association. 209 
 
 best to discharge my duties as well as I can. It is said in that 
 noble, national epic, the Ramayana, that even the great hero of 
 Oadh, Tlamchaudra, pressed into his service the aid of squirrels 
 •who rendered him assistance in bridging the sea to Ceylon. I 
 am content to serve even as the squirrels did. I only hope that 
 such as my service may be, you will accept it for what is intend- 
 ed, not for its worth. 
 
 1 have already adverted to your being able to conduct your 
 business very effectually. But you have a singular fact before 
 you. The late Viceroy told a different story. The late Viceroy 
 thought that you were mere children ; and that your ambition 
 is that of Phreton which will hurl you to perdition I It is not 
 for me to criticise the sayings of a great statesman of the stand- 
 ing of Lord Dufferin, but this much I may say that between his 
 professions at a convivial gathering and his actions in the 
 Council Chamber, the diversity was vital. Though he believed 
 you to be mere Phtetous who could not be entrusted with any 
 responsibility, in the Council Chamber he thought fit to record 
 a despatch in which he recommended that a number of your 
 countrymen — aye, some of the Phaetons — should be elected or 
 appointed to the Councils of the Empire. How he could justify 
 recommending the appointment of these Ph?etons to the Councils 
 of the Empire, I cannot conceive. You must pardon me if I feel 
 disposed to think that, the only way he could account for the 
 differences existing between the two opinions, was that the one 
 was an after-dinner speech, made at a convivial gathering, which 
 should never have been interpreted too seriously ; while the other 
 written within the four walls of the Council Chamber, was a 
 correct expression of Lord Dufferin's views. You are all aware 
 that his successor fully sympathises with you, and proposes to 
 grant you the most important concessions of electing members 
 to the Council. Whether he will do so during his tenure of 
 office or not I cannot say ; but certain it is he will give you 
 the other blessing of interpellation in the Council Chamber, and 
 that of itself would be a great gain. Anyhow this much is 
 
 27
 
 210 The Thirty-seventh Annual Meeting of the B. I. Association. 
 
 certain that the opportunity of interpellation yon have been 
 seeking for the past thirty-seven years, has now come near at 
 hand. 
 
 It was in the year 1853 that the first petition yon prepared 
 for the House of Commons had for its first section the defects 
 of our Legislative Councils here. Most of you are no doubt 
 aware that in those days legislation was carried on with closed 
 doors by the Executive Council, and no reporters were allowed 
 admittance. Your petition was so far successful in 185iJ that in 
 1856 you had a law passed which authorised the Government to 
 appoint others than the members of the Services as members of 
 Council, and the doors of the Legislative Council were thrown 
 ppen so far as to admit reporters. 
 
 From closed doors to an open chamber was a great gain ; not 
 that more was not wanted, but the first instalment was very 
 good. In 1859-60 you again addressed the House of Commons 
 about a revision in your Council, and in 1861 you went up again 
 complaining of the Council and suggesting with great truth 
 that certain members of the Council should be elected by the 
 people — not by the people — but by certain representative Socie- 
 ties and A ssociations of the people. In 1868 you had another 
 petition. In that you broached the creation of a consultative 
 Council Chamber, — that all projects of law should be initiated 
 by that lower chamber, of which the members would be some of 
 the people of this country, elected by the people, and that the 
 upper chamber should be the revising regulator which could 
 either adopt or leject the recommendations of the consultative 
 chamber, and that the Council of the Governor-General should 
 do nothing without first consulting the consultative council. 
 Other petitions then followed. All through 1872 to 1880 and 
 latterly, your representatives have been foremost in mooting the 
 subject of reform in the legislatures in the several National Con- 
 gresses. It is therefore not the National Congress that broached 
 the subject, but it was the British Indian Association, thirty- 
 geveu years ago, which first brought up it, and full credit should
 
 The Thirty seventh Annual Meeting of the B. L Association. 211 
 
 be given to that Association for this. Of course, you are not in 
 a position now to say what lies iu the womb of the future, but 
 this much is certain that your representations have given such 
 weight to the National Congresses that they have succeeded in 
 securing the co-operation of a large number of men in India 
 and Europe in their favour. You will not, therefore, be dis- 
 heartened by what has transpired at the St. Andrews' dinner. I 
 should like to urge that you should redouble your exertions now 
 that the day of success is within a measurable distance. It 
 will depend entirely upon you whether you will succeed or not 
 in your further moves towards a reformed legislative council. 
 Mind you, I who have a very few days before me to live, warn 
 you that to be disheartened is to give up the campaign, and to 
 give up the campaign would be a proof that you do not deserve 
 to succeed. Fight; to the last of your resources fight, and when 
 I use the word I mean fight constitutionally, loyally and faith- 
 fully with the single object of improving the Empire of Her be- 
 nign Majesty the Queen under whom we live, and that is the 
 only way by which you can secure success. Bear in mind an- 
 other thing and that is to be prudent and cautious. Never use 
 any thing in your arguments or methods which may be construed 
 into disloyalty, or opposition to the interests of the Government. 
 The interests of Government as a Government are entirely for 
 your benefit. The interests of certain individuals in that Gov- 
 ernment who delight in finding fault with you may be quite A 
 different matter, but that is a dangerous subject to touch upon, 
 and I shall say nothing about it. 
 
 The next subject to which I shall draw your attention and to 
 which you have all along devoted attention, is the Civil Service. 
 In your petition of 1853 to which I have referred, the constitu- 
 tion of the Civil Service was prominently noted, and notwith- 
 standing all the improvements which have been made in it they 
 have proved inadequate, and it will be for you to exert your ut- 
 most to secure something worthy of your efforts. As at present 
 advised I do not think the report of the Public Service Commis-
 
 212 Isolation of Lepers. 
 
 sion affords at all a satisfactory solution of the problem youliavo 
 before you. But I am afraid I am tiring you. What with my 
 •whining and broken voice and my whisperings I do not think 
 I shall be justified in taking up more of your time, but I hope 
 and trust that you will not in a moment forget the great, the im- 
 portant, the paramount subject of a reform in our Legislatures. 
 That is at the base of all improvements in this country, "With- 
 out it nothing can be done that will be worth anything ; and I 
 trust that you and your successors will never play, never slum- 
 ber, never lose a moment in exerting yourselves for your good. 
 I return you once again my thanks for the honor you have done 
 me, (Loud applause^ 
 
 ISOLATION OF LEPERS. 
 
 The following speech was delivered hy Raja Rajendralala Mifra, 
 Bahadoor, at the 30th Annual Meeting of the British Indian 
 Association, held on Wednesday, the 30th April, 1890. 
 
 Gentlemen, — When this time last year you did me the 
 honour of electing me your Chairman, I never expected to survive 
 ^he year. Rather, it was my conviction that I would not have 
 the privilege and pleasure of uniting with you and presiding at 
 the closing meeting of my term. Providence has, it is true, 
 spared me to come here to-day ; but I have come here only to 
 confess that as your President I have been a failure. You had 
 scarcely done me the honour of assigning your chief office to me 
 when my health completely broke down, and for nearly the whole 
 of the year your business — which should have been directed by 
 me — has had to go on under the fostering care of the Hon'ble 
 Raja Durga Churn Law. But, gentlemen, although I must own 
 that I have failed to do that for which I was appointed, I am
 
 Isolation of Lepers, '2,\'6 
 
 happy to be able to assure you that your business has not suffer- 
 ed, rather it has been performed for nie in a more efficient n\an- 
 ner than I could have done it. My friend Riija Dnrga Churn 
 Law has not let the grass grow under him. The report in your 
 hands shows how varied and onerous have been the duties which 
 he has performed for you, and how ably he has directed them. 
 His energy, his aptitude for business, his ability, and his influ- 
 ence have enabled him to work for you far more effectually than 
 I could have done, and your grateful thanks are due to him. For 
 myself I gladly avail myself of this opportunity of publicly ex- 
 pressing my deep obligations to him. As moneyed men it will 
 be interesting for you to know that he has been able to reduce 
 your expenses aiKi to show you a clear saving of Rs. 2,000, which 
 has been duly invested. Without meaning any offence 1 may 
 say that saving funds is not extraordinary work for Raja Durga 
 Churn Law, but we are not the less thankful for it. True, the 
 amount saved was not large, but as a saving it should be grate- 
 fully accepted. The amount would have been larger but for the 
 losses occasioned by the dishonesty of subordinates. Suffering 
 as I am from the effects of long illness, it is indeed a painful 
 task for me to address you, and besides, the weakness and other 
 conditions of my voice must jar upon your sensitive nerves. But 
 I cannot sit down without referring to one or two of the matters 
 treated off in the report, [ shall be as brief as I can, and I 
 must ask your indulgence if I am not quite audible. Your re- 
 presentations to the Government regarding the regulations of 
 the Postal Money-Order System, in so far as they affected small 
 money-orders for payment of rent, were wisely conceived, and 
 as they had for their object the relief of much discomfort felt by 
 the poor ryots, whose cause you champion I am glad to say 
 most of them were accepted by the Government. Our main 
 proposals were that the coupon and acknowledgment should 
 provide for entry of the name of the recorded tenant, as well as 
 of the remitter ; that the annual rent of the holding should be- 
 inserted where a ryot held more than one holding, and that Ban-»
 
 214 Isolation of Lepers. 
 
 kar and Falkar engagements should be separately specified. We 
 further suggested that the name of the '* mahal '' should be put 
 in instead of the name of the " village" only, and that the par- 
 ticulars about the year for any kist of which a remittance was 
 made, as well as the grand total, should be entered in words as 
 well as in figures to prevent foul practice. We further suggest- 
 ed that there should be a postal rule to the effect that a search- 
 ing or inspection fee of four annas, paid by the landholder of a 
 village or his agent, should enable him to examine the acknow- 
 ledgments deposited in the Post Office for payments made in a 
 village office in one year. All these suggestions have been ac- 
 cepted by Government and the poor ryot has thereby been much 
 benefited. We have fought their battle, not our own, and we 
 have earned their gratitude. 
 
 The next subject upon which I would say a few words is the 
 Wards Bill, which recalls olden days, when I could forcibly 
 express views which were begotten of experience. An attempt 
 was made by Government to deprive the community, by a side- 
 wind, of control over minor estates which were legally under 
 their management, and to place every minor estate under the 
 Court of Wards. Our Committee at once took the matter up, 
 and urged that no de facto guardian should be compelled to place 
 himself under the control and supervision of the court, except 
 in those cases in which the guardian voluntarily applied for it. 
 A person who became the guardian of a minor, and who was ap- 
 pointed a guardian by a Will or other instrument, was ordinarily 
 the best person who could be appointed to the office, although 
 the considerations which governed the selection or appointment 
 might not be appreciated by the outside public. The courts 
 which exercised similar jurisdiction as the Court of Chancery 
 could give relief on mere application of a relative or friend of the 
 minor in case of misconduct and gross neglect of the guardian, 
 while the immunity which a guardian whose title had been de- 
 clared by a court enjoyed as regards acts done by him, with the 
 permission of the court, was a sufficient inducement for a de facto
 
 Isolation of Lepers. 215 
 
 guardian to place himself under the control of the Court, when- 
 ever necessary. Our Committee stated that section 20 of the 
 Bill should be omitted, if the minor be a member of an undivid- 
 ed family. The effect of the proposed provision would be to in- 
 vest the court with the power of bringing under its control all pro- 
 perties held by joint Hindoo families. It would open a door for 
 vexatious and harassing applications against the de facto guardian 
 by his enemies. It was doubtful whether any restrictions could 
 be imposed upon a guardian appointed by the court which would 
 not unduly interfere with the powers of the managing member 
 of the family, and whether the costs of such separate manage- 
 ment would not ultimately prove detrimental to the interests of 
 the minor himself. The Committee observed that they had 
 submitted their views on 1st July 1886 on the general provisions 
 of the Bill, and they were glad to find that several of their 
 suggestions had been embodied in the amended Bill. Our 
 further suggestions were accepted by the Viceregal Council 
 and were eui bodied in the Bill. The only other matter 
 upon which I shall try and address you is one in which I take 
 much interest. I refer to the proposals of Government for the 
 isolation of lepers, I have carefully studied the subject of 
 leprosy for very many years now, and I boldly assert, and dare 
 to challenge contradiction, when I say that leprosy is not in- 
 fectious like small-pox or other diseases I could name. I admit 
 it is a loathsome disease — a very loathsome disease — but I 
 tell you that it is not by any means infectious. Had 
 it been so, Calcutta would to-day have had a leper popu- 
 lation which could be counted by thousands. You know 
 or have heard how assiduously Indian wives serve husbands 
 afilicted by this awful disease, each supplying the place of a ser- 
 vant to a leper, instead of one for every forty lepers, as Captain 
 Haye's letter shows us. They wash them and tend on them, and 
 ijhough some have done this for years and years, no signs of 
 leprosy have appeared on the patient dutiful wives. Why then 
 shoidd lepers who have the means to provide themselves with
 
 216 Isolation of Lepers. 
 
 care and medical treatment at home be compelled to find shelter 
 in a leper's asylum ? As soon as the Government Bill for the 
 isolation of lepers was introduced our Committee pointed out 
 that the Bill was based on the assumption that the health of the 
 community was affected by lepers being allowed to mix freely 
 in society, and that legal powers were, therefore, needed to en- 
 force their isolation. No reports or other papers were circulated 
 to prove that such isolation was urgently or at all required. 
 The Committee of the British Indian Association were not aware 
 that the disease in question was at all so intensely infectious as 
 to render such isolation necessary. It should first be ascertain- 
 ed whether the disease was really infectious, or communicable 
 by mere touch with a sound body. The bulk of the medical 
 profession was opposed to the idea of its being contagious. The 
 Committee obtained a Report from the Secretary of the Dis- 
 trict Charitable Society, who has charge of the Leper Asylum, 
 and they found that none of the 40 officers and attendants who 
 were employed for the last fifteen years in the Asylum and had 
 constant association with the patients, were affected by the di- 
 sease. The fact is that the idea of its infectiousness were great- 
 ly spread about by the unfortunate death of Father Damieu 
 who caught the disease somehow and died. This circumstance 
 was noticed by Royalty, and that gave an adventitious interest 
 to the subject. Under such circumstances, it would be highly 
 injudicious to make any provision which would be based on the 
 assumption that the disease was contagious. It would lead to 
 a great injustice if men were deprived of their personal liberty 
 and civil rights on an assumption which at present was not at 
 all established. Reports might not be wanting to show that mere 
 contact had led to the spread of the disease, but such reports 
 were vague, there being nothing positive to show that in such 
 cases there had not been some unconscious inoculation. And 
 such being the case, a careful consideration of these factors was 
 necessary before a correct conclusion could be arrived at. Al- 
 though the Committee were very unwilling to enter into a dis-
 
 Isolation of Lepers. 217 
 
 cussiou of professional questions, they had still ventured to show 
 that no legislation should be attempted on the basis of partially- 
 adopted theories, and they held that personal liberty and civil 
 rights were sacred things, and should never be meddled with 
 through mere fear of the theory of some persons only. These 
 might be hereafter proved to be false, and the Committee would 
 not advise Government to take any action which would deprive 
 any section of the community of their personal liberty and 
 means of earning their livelihood. It was very true that lepers 
 ■were poor miserable wretches, who would be better cared for in 
 a hospital or a retreat, or an asylum ; but the effect of such iso- 
 lation upon them could not compensate for the mental depres- 
 sion which would result from a life-long imprisonment. The 
 Committee, therefore, ventured to protest against all compul- 
 sory segregation of lepers. They had no objection to segregat- 
 ing the pauper vagrants and persons volunteering to be placed 
 under restriction, as these men were very poor and quite unfit 
 to earn their livelihood, and most of them had no houses or re- 
 lations to go to. It is really offensive to see leprous vagrants 
 crowding the streets of a town, but that could be easily checked 
 under the municipal law. As for volunteers, none would be will- 
 ing to come to public hospitals, who had prospects of any pri- 
 vate support, and no legal provision was needed for those who 
 were willing to do so. The Bill is still before the Select Com- 
 mittee of the Viceregal Council, and we are not yet aware how 
 far our suggestions have been acted upon. The fii*st business 
 before you to-day is to receive the annual report, and in refer- 
 ence to that the letter which has been read to you suggests that 
 the draft report should be circulated beforehand amongst the 
 members. But that has not been our practice, nor is it, as I 
 understand, the practice of any other Society except Trading 
 and Financial Associations and the like. The report is careful- 
 ly considered by the Committee appointed by yourselves and com- 
 posed of 40 members and you will not get any one else to give 
 greater or more careful consideration to it than they have given. 
 
 2%
 
 218 Isolation of Lepers. 
 
 I thiuk therefore the suggestion is not at all an inviting one. 
 There is another subject to which 1 must refer before I sit down. 
 The letter which has been read before you to-day also contained 
 a suggestion, that we should do away with the rule fixing the 
 time of payment. But can you for a moment believe that that 
 will facilitate our business ? Is it not the experience of most of 
 you here that some of our members, though very loyal, are still 
 in arrears; and they do not pay, notwithstanding the rule. If 
 therefore with a law they do not pay, without a law they will 
 never pay — (Laughter and applause) — and the abolition of that 
 law will mean that the business of this Association will have to 
 be conducted by means of the subscriptions of other men ; and 
 it will be unjust to those members who do pay and by whose 
 subscriptions the work is carried on to permit those who do not 
 pay to enjoy all the rights and privileges of members. With 
 these remarks, gentlemen, I lay the report before you.
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Report of the Entrance Examination Committee. 
 
 DISSENT. 
 
 I dissent from paragraph 5, which recommends Chemistry as a snba- 
 titnte for Ph^-sical Geography, and insists upon its teaching with experi- 
 ments. 
 
 I object to the recommendation : — 
 
 First. — Because it is open to the same objections which have led to 
 the rejection of Physical Geograpliy. 
 
 Secondly.— Bqcslvkq it betrays a want of adequate conception of the 
 sequences of science. 
 
 ThirJli/. — Because Chemistry forms no necessary part of a universal 
 training for Entrance students. 
 
 Fourthly. — Because the recommendation will involve a loss of opportu- 
 nity which should be properly utilised. 
 
 Fifthly. — Because [Chemistry cannot be satisfactorily taught in the 
 generality of Indian schools. 
 
 2. When the teaching of Physical Geography was proposed by Sir 
 George Campbell, about 16 years ago, I was the first to oppose the project. 
 I held that Physical Geography was not an elementary science, but the 
 application of most of the elementary sciences to the elucidation of cer- 
 tain physical phenomena, and no one who was not well grounded in those 
 sciences could at all satisfactorily follow lessons on that subject. The 
 proposition, described, was one of about the same value as that of placing 
 the cart before the horse, and totally unsuited for this country, where our 
 boys did not, at home or in the lower forms of the schools, acquire any 
 knowledge of even the most fundamental facts regarding matter and 
 motion. My opposition, however, proved vaia, and the proposition was 
 adopted. Since then I have never missed an opportunity of urging my 
 objections, and it is a source of satisfaction to me to observe that a majo-
 
 n APPENDIX. 
 
 lity of 1113' colleagues have now resolved upon doing away with the ano- 
 maly. Tiie substitute proposed, however, is open to the same objections 
 which have led to the rejection of Physical Geograph3\ Chemistry pre- 
 supposes a knowledge of the first principles of matter and motion. With- 
 out that knowledge, not even the simplest operation of Chemistry can be 
 intelligenty grasped ; and as there is no provision made in cur schools to 
 teach those principles, nor any arrangement at the homes of the students 
 to acquire them privately, I hold the proposal to be a faulty one. 
 
 3. The second objection is a sequel to the first. It is unquestionable 
 that the rudimentary principles of matter and motion form the ground- 
 work of the whole circle of the Physical Sciences, and in every system- 
 atic course of teaching, they should be taught first and foremost. It would 
 be a waste of labour to attempt to impress this fact on the minds of in- 
 telligent people. It i«, I -believe, self-manifest. In England little boys 
 are made familiar with several universal principles of Physics by other 
 methods than school-teaching, but even there Chemistry before rudiment- 
 ary principles is held to be unsuitable. No less a personage than Pro- 
 fessor Balfour Stewart, writing for the School Board of London, lays 
 down, in the Preface to his ' Experimenal Physics,' that ' the study of the 
 Introductory Primer will, in most cases, naturally precede that of either 
 of the above-named subjects (Experimental Physics and Chemistry) ; 
 and then it will probably be found best to take Chemistry as the second 
 and Physics as the third stage.' It is, I believe, universally admitted that, 
 age for age, Indian youths are less fitted by domestic training for the 
 study of Chemistry than English youths, and the recommendation is that 
 we should force the foi'mer to take up a book which would be difficult to 
 the latter, and which was prepared expressly with the object of being 
 preceded by another. There is nothing in the condition of Bengali youths 
 which justifies this departure. 
 
 4. My third objection is that Chemistrj' forms no absolutely necessary 
 part of a universal ti-aining for boys who prepare to enter a college. It 
 is the furthest from my wish in any way to decry the importance of 
 Chemistry. I hold it in high estimation, and urge that all who can afi'ord 
 to learn it should by all means do so ; but I demur to the theory that a 
 boy is not qualified to enter a college who has not imbibed a cursory 
 knowledge of the non-metals, as given in Mr. Roscoe's little primer. 
 Such knowledge cannot be of the smallest use in many departments of 
 learning. My colleagues themselves are of this opinion, for they recom- 
 mend that the subject should be optional with those schools which can 
 provide for its teaching. Had they thought that a knowledge of Roscoe's
 
 APPENDIX. HI 
 
 Primer was aluolutcly necessary for one and all, tbcy would not have 
 made sncli a recommendation. No plea of difficulty should justify the 
 abandonment of that which is peremptorily and absolutely necessary, 
 
 5. It has been said that "Chemistry was the legitimate introduction 
 to the F. A. science course, as at present constituted." This is not cor- 
 rect. Tiie text book in the F. A. course now is Ganot's ' Natural Philo- 
 sophy,' and there is nothing in those chapters of it which are read in the 
 colleges which require a previous knowledge of Roscoe's Introductory 
 Primer. As a popular treatise, it is to a great extent self-contained, and 
 needs very little from the outside. The only part of it which bears direct- 
 ly on Chemistry is the chapter on gases, and that contains everything that 
 one can learn on that subject in Roscoe's book. 
 
 6. The difficulties which I advert to above are serious. It would be 
 a trite axiom to say that Chemistry cannot be properly taught without 
 experiments. It would be infinitely better not to teach it at all than to 
 teach it simply by rote like the mantras of the snake-charmers. The only 
 question at issue therefore is, how far can wo have teaching with experi- 
 ments without injury to the advancement of general education ? For 
 experiments we require competent teachers and suitable apparatus ; and 
 we have neither. Even B. A. candidates in the B. course in the Presi- 
 dency College are not afforded the means for making experiments with their 
 own hands in the College laboratory, — the privilege, if I am not misin- 
 formed, being limited to the Honour and M. A. candidates. In other col- 
 leges where laboratories exist the same system obtains ; but most of the 
 colleges have no provision whatever for experimental teaching of Chemis- 
 try. Under the circumstances, it is hopeless to expect that a sufficient 
 number of competent teachers can be obtained for our Entrance schooLs. 
 The total number of teachers required will be about four hundred and 
 fifty. The Calcutta Science Association teaches science practically ; but, 
 to judge from the weekly advertisements issued by it in the Hindoo Pat- 
 riot newspaper, the practical class is limited to Chemistry, and the number 
 of pupils there is exceedingly limited — about a dozen weekly. It would be 
 vain to calculate upon a large supply of teachers from that source. Were 
 the case otherwise, and a supply of teachers could be had, their pay would 
 be an insurmountable bar to their being largely utilised. The cost of the 
 instruments, all to be imported from Europe, would likwise be a serious 
 difficulty in the way of the poorer schools. The cost is estimated at about 
 rupees three hundred, besides a standing monthly charge for chemicals. 
 Many of the schools cannot afford to obtain even wall maps for the teach- 
 ing of general geography, and to them the idea of monthly supplies of
 
 "iv APPENDIX. 
 
 cheaiicals would be absurd. 
 
 7, When this pbase of the subject was discussed in committee with 
 reference to Experimental Physics, Sir Alfred Croft admitted that about 
 ten per cent, of the weaker schools might be unable to provide the neces- 
 sary apparatus As chemical instruments and apparatus, though less cost- 
 ly at the first start, are liable to more frequent breakage, and the cost of 
 chemicals is heavy, the percentage must be higher. From my own in- 
 quiries I am satisfied that about twenty per cent, of the poorer Entrance 
 schools would be forced to give up the idea of.teaching upto the Entrance 
 standard. If so, we have to decide whether it would better for the Indian 
 community at large that some few boys should learn to handle retoi'ts and 
 crucibles, at the sacrifice of twenty per cent, of our Entrance schools, or 
 these should remain and the country should wait till a future day for the 
 teaching of experimental Chemistry. Up to this time education has ad- 
 vanced very widely without the use of philosophical toys, and I am 
 firmly convinced that we would do well to follow the course which has 
 proved so successful, and defer the experimental teaching to a fitting op- 
 poi'tunitj' hereafter. 
 
 8. Tiiese objections will doubtless be confronted by the remark that 
 the difficulties I advert to have been fully taken into consideration by my 
 colleagues, and it is to meet them that they have proposed the Chemistry 
 course to be optional with such schools as can afford it. Of course there 
 can be no objection to an optional subject, and if boys chose to qualify 
 themselves in so useful a science as Chemistry, the University would do 
 well to take note of it. I would go further and readily agree to its hold- 
 ing examinations in other elementary sciences, not even excepting Music. 
 The question, however, has to be looked at from a different standpoint. 
 One general subject (Pliysical Geography) having been abandoned, the 
 question arises whether we should recommend another in its place, com- 
 pulsory on all candidates, or let of those schools which plead poverty, 
 and require those which xirge no such plea to teach something extra. I 
 dislike the second branch of the alternative. Had the option been given 
 to the boys it would have been something ; but to schools it is absurd. It is 
 observable that the profession which a boy is in after life to follow is 
 not determined until after the Entrance examinination, a.id to force before 
 that time all the boys of a particular school to learn a subject for which 
 some of tliem may ha^e no occasion afterwards, or for which they have 
 no natural aptitude, is a hardship. It involves a great waste of time 
 and labour. I would insist upon a general course for one and all, and 
 leave those who are able to learn more than what we insist upon, to learn 
 what they like, in addition to the fixed course. Now, the omission of
 
 APPENDIX. V 
 
 Pliysical Geograpliy ag a general subject gives iis a legitimate opportunity 
 to iutroduce in its place something of universal interest, and wliicli every- 
 one should know, whatever may be his future course of life or study. 
 Such a subject presents itself to us ia the form of a primer on matter and 
 motion. It is almost as essential a basis of learning as Grammar or 
 Geography. No man should do without it, and it is sure to prove useful 
 in every branch of learning. It is impossible that there should be any 
 difference of opinion as to its value and importance. Some have objected 
 to it on the ground of the difficulty in providing instruments for its pro- 
 per teaching ; but 1 look upon the objection aa frivolous. Experimental 
 teaching is not needed for the purpose. Broad general facts have, in the 
 first instance, to be taught categorically. For all practical purposes, I 
 think the Introductory Primer by Professor Huxley will be quite enou^'-h 
 for our purposes, at least to begin with. It should be taught in the same 
 way in which we teach beginners the rules of Grammar, or the axioms 
 of Mathematics, or the principles of Physical Geography, i. e., mainly by 
 rote. I name the text, partly because it conveys a clear idea of what I 
 Avant to be taught, and partly because it is the leading text-book in 
 all the Board schools in England ; but I would not object to any other 
 book of the same character and extent. I would make it compulsory on 
 all Entrance candidates, and leave them after that to learn as much Che- 
 mistry, or Botany, or Drawing or Music, or whatever else they choose, 
 provided they do not, as regards marks, in any way handicap those boys 
 who do not take up any extra subject. I hold that such a text-book 
 would be a far better introduction to Ganot's 'Natural Philosophy' in the 
 P. A. course than Eoscoe's Primer can possible be. 
 
 9. The next recommendation I object to is the scheme of marking 
 laid down in paragraph 1 1 . The Committee was appointed 'to enquire 
 into and report on the system under which candidates for the Entrance 
 examination are admitted into the University.' Its primary duty was 
 therefore, 'to enquire into' and to point out the defects of the present 
 system, and then to suggest reforms, if it thought proper, though the 
 resolution of the Senate is silent on the subject. The necessity for the 
 inquiry was felt on account of the unprecedented failures. This they 
 have not done. They do not ascertain the nature of the disease, but hap- 
 hazard suggest remedies, the value of which cannot be rightly judged 
 without reference to the past history of the Entrance examination. It 
 may be all very good to suggest improvements, but our primary duty is 
 to ascertain existing evils, and to point out how to remove them. 
 
 10. To coniine my attention to the failures, I find that the average
 
 VI 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 number of failures from 1876 to 1883-84 ranged from 45 to 52 per cent. 
 During the last three years of the period the ratios were : — 
 
 Session. 
 
 Total of 
 Candidates 
 
 Total of 
 failures. 
 
 Ratio of 
 failures. 
 
 1881-82 
 
 2,937 
 
 1,493 
 
 50 percent. 
 
 1882-83 
 
 3,111 
 
 1,602 
 
 51 „ 
 
 1883-84 ... |> ... 
 
 3,591 
 
 1,752 
 
 48 „ 
 
 Average 
 
 3,213 
 
 1,615 
 
 50 „ 
 
 During the whole of this period an equal number of marks (lOO) was ap- 
 portioned to each subject. In 1883, a scheme was adopted which allotted 
 varying numbers of marks to diflferent subjects, thus : — ■ 
 
 English 
 
 Mathematics . . . 
 Second Language 
 History and Geography 
 
 200 
 160 
 120 
 120 
 
 This scheme came into operation at the examination of 1885-86, and the 
 number of failures at once rose, ia round numbers, to 67 per cent. In the 
 following year, it rose to 70 per cent. In order to ascertain which of the 
 subjects caused the greatest number of failures, I have prepared the 
 following tables : — 
 
 
 1881-82. 
 
 1882-83. 
 
 1883-84. 
 
 1884-85. 
 
 1885-86. 
 
 
 CM 
 
 o 
 
 
 o 
 
 
 C4-< 
 O 
 
 
 C4H 
 
 o 
 
 
 =4-1 
 C 
 
 
 
 
 
 3 c« 
 
 .2 
 
 ci 
 
 P3 
 
 a3 <v 
 
 -al 
 
 3 cs 
 
 .2 
 Pi 
 
 1:2 
 
 3 cS 
 
 .2 
 '■13 
 
 P5 
 
 -11 
 
 3 rt 
 
 .2 
 
 ei 
 
 English 
 
 1,124 
 
 75 
 
 1,012 
 
 63 
 
 1,113 
 
 63 
 
 L715 
 
 62 
 
 2,385 
 
 79 
 
 Mathematics 
 
 870 
 
 58 
 
 1,057 
 
 65 
 
 980 
 
 55 
 
 1,996 
 
 72 
 
 1,941 
 
 65 
 
 Second Language ... 
 
 672 
 
 45 
 
 914 
 
 57 
 
 818 
 
 58 
 
 1,128 
 
 40 
 
 1,486 
 
 49 
 
 History and Geo- 
 graphy 
 
 604 
 
 40 
 
 591 
 
 36 
 
 508 
 
 28 
 
 1,844 
 
 66 
 
 868 
 
 29
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Failures in one subject (rnli/. 
 
 Vll 
 
 
 1881-82. 
 
 1882-83. 
 
 1883-84. 
 
 1884-85. 
 
 1885-86. 
 
 
 o 
 
 
 O 
 
 
 o 
 
 
 <+-4 
 
 o 
 
 
 o 
 
 
 
 t, to 
 
 II 
 
 .2 
 a 
 
 Ph 
 
 u en 
 
 3:2 
 
 .2 
 
 
 
 Sri 
 
 C8 
 
 II 
 
 3 'S 
 
 _6 
 
 05 
 
 Euglish 
 
 205 
 
 13 
 
 112 
 
 6 
 
 240 
 
 13 
 
 166 
 
 6 
 
 501 
 
 16 
 
 Mathematics 
 
 106 
 
 7 
 
 183 
 
 11 
 
 224 
 
 12 
 
 .301 
 
 10 
 
 313 
 
 10 
 
 Second Language ... 
 
 56 
 
 3 
 
 149 
 
 9 
 
 199 
 
 11 
 
 99 
 
 3 
 
 96 
 
 3 
 
 History and Geo- 
 graphy 
 
 25 
 
 1 
 
 22 
 
 1 
 
 29 
 
 1 
 
 100 
 
 3 
 
 9 
 
 3 
 
 These tables show most clearly tliat English and Mathematics proved 
 the most disastrous. Those subjects have always been the most difficult. 
 A former Director of Public Instruction described them as the 'most 
 fatal subjects,' and another called them 'the most lethal,' and assigning 
 them a larger number of marks than before, brought on the evil of which 
 the public so bitterly complain. The Principal of the Sanskrit College, 
 Calcutta, called the attention of the Committee to this subject ; but my 
 colleagues, have not taken it into their mature consideration, or assigned 
 it that weight which its importance demanded. The rise from 100 to 
 200 and from 100 to 160 was an enormous leap, and my colleagues have 
 failed to aflford the relief that is needed. Both the present and the pro- 
 posed numbers are much higher than what is required for the higher 
 examination of First Arts, which is 150, and at that examination English 
 of a higher standard is required than at the Entrance. 
 
 11. I do not at all advocate any lowering of the standai'd in English ; 
 but I object to tlie raising of it in 1883, and the maintaining of the higher 
 marks in the present report. I am deeply sensible of the value of 
 English as an element of education under the present circumstances of 
 the country. It was on that account that I objected to the scheme of Mr. 
 Tawney, which, I thought, unduly lowered the value of the English 
 language and literature in his alternative Entrance curriculum. But I 
 cannot forget that the Government of India has denounced our present 
 standard of English for the Entrance as too high for domiciled European 
 and Eurasian youths, and devised a lower standard for them, which it 
 requires should be reckoned as equal to the University Entrance standard, 
 
 29
 
 Vlll APPENDIX. 
 
 wliich is mainly intended for Indians. If then the University standard 
 is too high for European and Eurasian youths, whose niotlier tongue is 
 English, it must ipso facto be excessively so to Indian boys, whose verna- 
 cular is totally and radically different. This is not fair ; it is positively 
 unjust ; it should not be so. Were the standard fixed for the European 
 and Eurasian boys made applicable to Indian youths, it would handicap 
 them heavily, but I would not object to it. The political condition of 
 this country renders it necessary that Indian boys should run on even 
 terms with the foreign competitors ; but I cannot but resent a penal' 
 addition of weight agai^t them. 
 
 12. It might be said that excess of knowledge is ipso facto advantage- 
 ous and not injurious, and therefore our higher standard need not be 
 objected to. This, however, is a fallacious, delusive argument ; it does 
 not meet the real question at issue. We are not concerned in this con- 
 nexion to discuss the substantive value of knowledge in any two given^ 
 cases, but to enquire wliat is the amount of preliminary training absolutely 
 necessary to qualify our youths to benefit by collegiate education. What 
 this absolutely necessary quantity should be is indicated in the Univer- 
 sity records by the words " English in its simpler forms." This defini- 
 tion, though somewhat vague, is, I think, sufficient for a general rule, and 
 I desire not to disturb it. My colleagues explain this definition by say- 
 ing (Resolution (2) of February 5) : ' English Grammar and composition, 
 should be studied by Entrance student more with a view to he able to 
 write plain EHglish correctly, than with a view to learn the philosophy of 
 the English tongue.' They add : ' and as great doubt and uncertainty 
 prevails as to the scope and extent of this branch of the subject, a suit- 
 able text-book or text-books should be fixed or recommended for study.' 
 Their scheme, however, is not con.sistent with their profession. They 
 admitj(paragraph 8) that their proposal 'imposes in one sense a higher 
 standard than that which now prevails,' and they justify it by saying 
 ' the number of students who just pass in this way, in the minimum of all 
 subjects, must be very small indeed. These are not students whom the 
 Committee desire to encourage.' I cannot concur in this opinion. I ask 
 no favour or encouragement. All I insist upon is that which is just and 
 fair, and the plan proposed is not so. I hold that to insist upon a higher 
 qualification at the Entrance is to make the path of knowledge more 
 thorny than what it need be. It involves the necessity of plucking much 
 more extensively than what is required in the interest of popular educa- 
 tion. The plucking of three thousand candidates annually and passing some 
 fourteen hundred out of a total number of four thousand four hundred is a
 
 APPENDIX. IX 
 
 positive scandal. Admitting that the less thoroughly trained, would, not 
 make the brightest pupils in a college, I hold that they wouM still learfi 
 a great deal in a college and become better fitted to make worthy merabere 
 of society by reading in a college than what they can be by beijig cast 
 adrift at the Entrance with all chance of further study closed to them. 
 The candidate plucked at the Entrance is literally lost to the community ; 
 but those who are plucked at the B. A. are nearly, if not quite, as good 
 as a third-grade B. A. Indeed, tiie plan appears, though of course really 
 not so intended, to serve as a check to a wide diffusion ofjuaeful knowledge. 
 13. I do not at all wish to hamper our professors by placing under 
 them untrained youths. All I urge is that any boy who is able to follow 
 the lessons or lectures of a collegiate teacher is by that fact proved to be 
 duly qualified, and it has not yet been shown that up to 1883 our under- 
 graduates who passed the .Entrance under the lOO-raarks system were 
 ill-fitted to follow their professors, and, subsequently, failed heavily in 
 the collegiate examinations. Hence I conclude that the scheme of marlo- 
 ing adopted in 1883 was an injurious one, and no attempt has now been 
 made to undo it. I feel it my duty, therefore, to place my protest against 
 it. To follow our motto, we have to do everything 'to promote the 
 advancement of learning,' and not to adopt technical subtleties to check 
 that object. 
 
 June 7, 1SS7. RAJENDRALALA MITRA. 
 
 THE AGE OF CONSENT BILL 
 From 
 
 RAJA RAJENDRALALA MITRA, LL.D.,C.LE., 
 To 
 
 SIR J. WARE EDGAR, K.C.LE , C.S.L, 
 
 Chief Secretary to the Government of Bengal. 
 
 8 Manictollah Road, Calcutta, the 7th February 1891. 
 Sir, 
 
 I have the honor to acknowledge your letter of the 22nd ultimo, with 
 annextures requesting the expression of my opinion on the Bill to amend 
 the Indian Penal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code. In reply I beg 
 to submit the following remarks for the consideration of His Honor the 
 Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal.
 
 X APPENDIX. 
 
 2. la his " Statement of Objects and Reasons " Sir A. Scoble states 
 that '* the limit at which the age of consent is now fixed favours pre- 
 mature consummation by adult husbands of marriages with children who 
 have not reached the age of puberty, and is thus, in the unanimous opinion 
 of medical authorities productive of grievous suffering and permanent 
 injury to child-wives and of physical deterioration in the community to 
 which they belong." The opinion, however, have been very roughly given, 
 and information is not sufficient as to the injury done to the community as 
 regards the individual and the race. Bearing in mind the insufficient and 
 unsatisfactory sanitary conditions to which women iii labour are subject, in 
 this country, it may be taken for granted that much preventible injury is 
 being done to the people in this country. The facts, figures and other 
 detailed information are, however, wanting to show the extent of injury 
 done and how much of that injury is due to premature consummation of 
 marriages. Under the circumstances any means of preventing the evil must 
 be, to a great extent, a leap in the dark and we can never be satisfied that 
 our remedies would adequ:-fely, if at all, cover the ground we have to 
 work upon. Satistics in this country are quite i n satisfactory, and even 
 the language we use is more of sentiment than of facts. Knowing full 
 well that child bearing is a natural process which is regulated by human 
 nature, a)id not by art and accident, it is to be expected that the process 
 should go on naturally without let or hinderance and in as much as child- 
 birth, or particularly first child-birth, is subject to^serious risks of life, it is 
 to be inferred that the condition is one, if not of danger, at least of serious 
 consideration, and requires to be very carefully handled. In a process of 
 nature, accidents are rare and we should be particularly careful about false 
 assumptions. What we hastily conclude as very likely may be the very 
 reverse of likely. This statement is remarkably illustrated by the guess 
 works lately published by Government. I find there some one who^takes 
 the average at 90 per cent, and another who takes it at 40 per cent., which 
 shows that we may be wrong at 50 per cent, in one item. Professional 
 statistics are sadly in defect in this respect ; and we may be entirely wrong 
 in our calculation and deductions. There are many factors in case and 
 surely to lump them all under the general head of " premature consum- 
 mation" is open to severe condem nation. In the case of racial deterioration 
 the reporters who have written on the subject are peculiarly unscientific. In a 
 question of a biology, or physiology, every thing must depend in statistical 
 information, and in this respect we have not a single fact to show that like 
 moral sin improper consummation is vi-sited in the race several generations 
 after the first offender. Under the circumstance I cannot at present believe
 
 APPENDIX. XI 
 
 in the opinion that there has been sufficient deterioration in the Bengalee 
 
 race within the last 400 years on account of early marriages. There in. 
 positively not an iota of proof in that respect, and I cannot see the siuall- 
 est chance of doing the people any good by tampering with their marriage 
 law and subjecting individuals to great inconvenience on tliat account. I 
 have personally high respect for the me<lical gentlemen consulted, but 
 their letters as published show that they have not been consulted with a 
 view to any scientific decisions. It is certainly not in accordance with 
 their wishes that conclusions have been drawn from reports which have 
 not been got up for submission for scientific purposes. For no scientific 
 man could deduce from them that the nation has deteriorated physically 
 from premature consummation of marriages during many generations. 
 In other words, the conclusions that the Government has arrived at is not 
 in keeping with our ideas of what should be scientific facts. I have not 
 the smallest possible objection to deferring, or altogether rejecting, reli- 
 gious practices of any kind whatever, if it can be shown that such is need- 
 ed for the good of the community, but the demonstration should be ex- 
 act and not a matter of leap in the dark, and I cannot accept mere pre- 
 sumption to be proofs, and at present conclusions drawn from the Bill are 
 mere presumptions. 
 
 3. Even as a presumption that the delaying of consummation would 
 be beneficial to physical improvement of the race we have per contra to 
 examine other conditions which are even greater importance. It was with 
 a view to prevent the deterioration of the race that policy prompted the 
 
 I Brahminic authors to avoid miscegenation and to preserve the purity of 
 their race, they took every care possible to preserve the original purity of 
 their caste. Early marriage is the consequence of their policy, and can we 
 put a stop to early marriage without being prepared to meet with the 
 consequences thereof and of thereby benefiting the nations? It would be 
 easy enough to get up hybrids, but will they be in all cases such as the 
 nations Vould like to have ? There are many biological laws which are 
 well known to the ethnologists but not taken care of with refereuce to the 
 question now under discussion. Physically the Bengalees are certainly 
 not very superior, but there is in their a certain adaptation to the exi- 
 gency of their condition, which altered conditions may not be adapted to. 
 It is well-known that unions of races like the Punjabis and the Bengalees 
 are not ungenesic, and on the whole what is gained by mere physique is 
 lost by reduced advantages in other respects. Many of these are debatable 
 questions, but it is proposed to cast aside all consideration about them in 
 
 j carrying out the Bill. 
 
 I 4. On the other hand, the question of the faith of the nation on the
 
 XU APPENDIX. 
 
 v;iiue of the Grovernment pledges is now supreme, atAthe Hindu nation will 
 for certain think that the Government have not beew true to their pledges, 
 by breaking their promise. When the promise wi* given no conditions 
 whatever was attached to it, and to talk of other conditions is not such 
 as would be creditable to Government, The change of law is also provi"- 
 sional on the face of it. The (English limit sixteen years for oyflority ; 
 we in India cannot always abide by a lesser limit. Ere long we shall re- 
 quire to change the limit and all considerations about social, physical and 
 sundry other matters, we shall soon have to propose an alteration of the 
 law in a matter in which the natives are peculiarly sensitive, and our 
 motives in this respect must always be misconstrued at no distant date. 
 Under these circumstances, I cannot recommend or approve of the Gov- 
 ernment adopting the change proposed. It can do no good whatever by 
 it, but do an incalculable amount of mischief by breaking y^e pledges of 
 He Majesty and thereby creating a widespread suspicions in the minds of 
 the peogle. • 
 
 5. The changes made in the Procedure Code are certainly consideratej 
 but they do not take into consideration tfrat it is not the officers them- 
 selves, but the influences under which they are subjected are such as 
 create the greatest amount of mischief. Family dissensions are not the 
 least injurious in this respect. The policy of hairan 9.nd pershccn is the 
 most important items to be taken into consideration in regard to the social 
 conditions of the people. To Englishmen it would sound not as very 
 strange ; to you, Sir, I need not say how hairan and pershan will play so 
 prominent a part in Mofussil life. 
 
 I have, the honor to be 
 
 Sir, 
 
 Your most obedient Servant, 
 
 (Sd.) RAJENDRALALA MITTEA. 
 
 •■* ,
 
 1«989
 
 AA 000 786 063
 
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