2_*3-//<^
LIGHTS AND SHADES
OF
THE EAST.
W *A N S
LIGHTS AND SHADES
OF
THE EAST:
on
A STUDY OF THE LIFE
OF
BABOO HABRISCHANDEK;
AND
PASSING THOUGHTS ON
INDIA AND ITS PEOPLE.
THEIB PRESENT AND FUTURE.
i;y
FEAMJI BOMAX.TI,
M
LATE OF THE ELPHIN8TONE COLLEGE.
ALLIANCE PRESS, BOMBAY:
CHESSON & WOODHALL Printers.
MDCCCLX1II.
[ The right of Translation is reserved.']
LOAN STACK
2J\ *«? DSf75
^ MSZF7
TO HIS EXCELLENCY
SIK HENRY EDWARD BAETLE FRERE.
K.C.B., &c. &c,
H8RNOR OF BOXBAY,
.:: 5 $arfci3 |*5?wMg jfcftri
IN HUMBLE TOKEN OF ADMIRATION,
THE AUTHOR.
430
PREFACE.
Many of the following pages have already
been read before the public and received
the stamp of approbation, as affording a
series of sketches calculated to give in-
struction and encouragement to the Indian
Youth. What were delivered in the shape
of desultory Lectures, together with the
addition of hitherto undelivered sketches,
having been put in a collected form and
sent the round of some half-a-dozen En a-
lish scholars (among whom may be named
the kind and learned Rev. Drs. Wilson,
Mitchell, Fraser, and G — , and K — , as
particularly affording encouragement), the
Author ventures to put them forth in the
form of the present volume, with fear and
trembling;.
Vlll PREFACE.
Indian Society has undergone some
change since the latest missionary and
other publications relating to it were is-
sued; and the writer has attempted in the
following pages a faithful picture of India
in soihe of the most prominent intellectual,
social, and moral bearings of the present
day. The aim has been particularly kept
in view to state in honest boldness the
faults and discrepancies to be perceived
in Natjve character ; and as human nature
is too vast for any particular description,
there may seem contradictions in some
places, either in the narration of existing
facts, or in the hopes entertained of the
future. But these contradictions may be
easily reconciled by the reader, who would
persuade himself to believe that the ex-
istence of defects in a portion, and even
the larger portion, of the inhabitants of a
country, need not necessarily dim the
bright prospect of the future inspired by
a recognition of the worth of the other and
smaller portion.
PREFACE. IX
This is the writer's first essay in English,
which he has prepared only in hasty in-
tervals of leisure from heavy studies and
avocations in life; and though the MS.
has been, as already noted, inspected by
English scholars, the writer doe;; not
hesitate to say that, being desirous to
appear in his native and independent
garb, howevj'; huni 1 .^- and awkward it be,
he has not asived anj? qni of his English
friends to add or alter aught, either to
ensure correctness or perfect elegance in
his work. There may, therefore, be dis-
covered faults of taste as well as idiom
and reasoning ; but whatever may appear
worthy of blame in the work, let the
critic, when tempted to be harsh, take our
inexperience into consideration, and he
will learn to be lenient and unsearch-
ing. And it must never be forgotten,
that writing, as the Author does, in a
foreign language, acquired only in the
schoolroom and the closet, born and
living in a country of enervating climate,
X PREFACE.
which denies to the zealous student many
a wished-for hour of active study and
labour, and bred up in the midst of a
society which is socially, morally, and
intellectually as coldly apathetic and
defective as he has described, he can-
not hope to achieve any high degree of
success with +^ of favoured nation which
has the noble heritage of the English
language, Eng /h climate, and English
institutions to claim as its own. He would
therefore naturally ask to be tried by a
special and much modified code in the
English court of criticism.
As for his countrymen, the author is
confident many will dislike his bold ex-
position of their faults, and some self-
deluders from among them will, in some
way or other, set about pulling him to
pieces. But it will do them good service
to remember that the first step towards
advancement of any kind is a knowledge
of one s defects, and if India is to be ad-
vanced, the defects in the character of
PREFACE. XI
her sons must be boldly and prominently
exposed. The writer's share in the work
of his country's progress is doubtless in-
trinsically of the minutest consequence ;
but to himself it appears to be of great
consequence — to himself it appears to be
of great consequence to decide whether
he lives an arrant coward, as some would
wish him to be, or a true man, as he
wishes to be ; and, right ' wrong, good
or bad, this is his work, which he chanced
to do, and which he has done to the best
of his ability and honesty.
The author has in conclusion to acknow-
ledge that he has when necessary availed
himself of other sources of information;
and to tender his best thanks for the ex-
treme honour done to him by most of the
greatest and most illustrious names of
India, and some of the distinguished
statesmen of England, appearing in his
list of subscribers.
Bombay: March, 1863.
CONTEXTS.
CHAPTER I.
mum; and 1'
Philosophy- more liberal than the World in its estimate
of character. — Baboo Harrischander appreciated □
by the former than the latter.
tbe advent of the English. — Eastern and
phecies relating to the Supremacy of the Europeans in
India. — Lights and Shades of India. — The Scholar and
the Philanthropist more needed in the East than the
Historian. — The object of the treatise rather moral, and
rgestive of Reform, than historical. — Picture presented
i»y Baboo Harrischander in early life. — Contrast afforded
at the close. — Stirrings in the outer world upon his
Death. — A question as to his Lite. — Grounds of our in-
vestigation
CHAPTER II.
HIS CAREER.
Meaning of the expression Young India. — Two divisions
of this class always distinct but always confounded. —
Exclusion of Young India from his proper position. —
Government and Mercantile reserve. — Patricians and
Plebeians in India. Danger to Government from this
distinction. — Harris's misfortune under the present
levelling system .—He commences as a Clerk on Rs. 10.
c
XIV CONTENTS.
Page
— His removal to the Military Auditor's Office. — His
strong intellect first perceived by Mr. Mackenzie
and Colonel Champneys. — They aid its development.
— His rise in the Office. — Commences the Bengal
Recorder Newspaper. — Its failure. — Establishment of
the Hindoo Patriot. — Suicidal policy of Lord Dal-
housie. — The Mutinies. — Harris's manly position. — Men-
tion oj his writings and character by Mr. Norton
of Madras, and Dr. Russell of the London Times. —
Suppression of the Mutinies. — The cry of the Bengal
Byot. — Harris's unwearied exertion in his cause. — His
ultimate success. — The British India Association. — Har-
ris's services with it. — The climax of his Fortune. — His
End 21
e CHAPTER III.
INHERENT SOURCES OF HIS SUCCESS.
Inherent sources of success in life. — Poverty, the chief
impulse of activity in material and intellectual attain-
ments. — Melancholy history associated with literary life.
— Allegory of Consuelo. — Harris's poverty. — His earliest
avocation an incentive to his activity. — Conception of
education and learning among the illiterate Natives. —
Merivale's conclusion from Roman history. — Fault
the character of Young India. — How removed? — Hasty
notions of his conduct. — Two great classes of Y<
India how distanced ? — A representative of the worst
class. — His career and life allegorically described. — His
dejection in after-life. — His want of perfect self-re-
liance. — Harris prominently apart from his educated
countrymen in the possession of confidence of opinion. —
Cogency of feeling required to impel all internal decis
into action. — Courage required to withstand the attacks
of ridicule and contempt from others. — Disraeli's bold
CONTE>. XV
Page
stroke of courage on his first appearance in Parliament.
— Baboo HarrischandeT ; all the bolder virtues
of success. — An incident in bis School-life to illustrate
bis noble disdain of all wrong and insult 44
CHAPTER IV.
CAUSES 01! A WANT or Tin: MAINSPRINGS OF 91
(II \\l\< II It OF "• Y«>| V. INDIA.''
CJttee want of early domestic training in India.— Instances
of Indian Women figuring as Authors and Po<
eminence.— The doctrine of Female Depravity, as pro-
pounded by the Rishees.—'Bj Menu. — Woman's occupa-
tion in India.— Her daily round of labour d. —
Her extreme fondness for begetting Children. — Pur,
quoted. — Present Female Education in India. — Absence
of all elementary information on it. — An ol f no
spirit of a change being wrought over the Girls by the
present system of education stated. — A scheme for the
higher training of Females. — Englishmen's aversion for
familiarity with the Natives in private life. — It is just and
merited. — Clever Women are of greater importance to
the world than clever Men. — Absence of Boarding-
Schools in India. — Its pernicious effects. — Physical har-
dihood of an Indian more of a forced character than
otherwise. — Strength and spirit required to uphold Na-
tional Rights 75
CHAPTER V.
EXTERNAL CIRCUMSTANCES BEARING ON SUCCESS IN LIFE, AND
THOSE WHICH OPERATED ON HARRIS.
External influences from early Teachers. — The Mis-
sionary best adapted to be the Teacher of Youth. — Why,
however, he is disliked in India. — His undue zeal in
the propagation of his Religion. — Mr. Gaster quoted. —
XVI CONTENTS.
Page
The passage between School and Manhood. — How is
individual character determined ? — Requisites in the
moulding of character. — When and where is fate or
destiny determined? — The preponderance of the roman-
tic over the sober tendency ruinous. — The fate of
Eugene Aram. — The critical pass in the case of Baboo
Harrischander how signalised. — His " being born again." 112
CHAPTER VI.
HIS ENERGY AND AMBITION DIRECTED TO A SPECIFIC COURSE.
Importance of a specific course of life. — Two subdivisions
of the better class of Young India. — The worst described.
— Our so-called Savants. — Their vanity and presump-
tion. — Their dishonesty in essays and books. — An auda-
cious attempt of this kind stated. — The fate of a young
man who begins to work in earnest. — The daily labours
of a so-called Savant, and men of his class. — Observa-
tions of contemptible ignorance of the most rudimentary
knowledge and learning stated. — The " domestic literary
treason" of the elder Disraeli. — Study pursued in India
more as a means to rise than as an end in itself. — Want
of earnestness and pro-calculation with Young India in
all his undertakings. — lie justly meets with the discom-
fiture of Alnascar. — Harris prominently distinct in his
traits of character. — His pursuit of knowledge as an end,
not as a means. — His remarkable zeal after learning. —
His manner of spending leisure. — A remarkable scene in
the mock Bengalee Temple. — Who achieves success ?. . 126
CHAPTER VII.
IN WHAT RESPECTS WAS HARRIS A GREAT MAN ?
A pernicious conception of greatness. — Genius and
talents over-estimated by the world. — Another class of
CONTENTS. XV11
Page
heroes. — Heroes of the heart. — Their fate. — The most
apparent not always the most important or most inter-
esting. — Profession of Literature. — Charles Lamb's ad-
vice thereon. — Peculiarly apt for Young India to bear in
mind. — Harris's works. — Patriots of all classes have a
family likeness. — Harris no less a Patriot than the great-
est patriot of the world. — Han iff of greati;
— The rights and position of a great mind. — Difference
between it and the insignificant 14'2
CHAPTER VIII.
THE POETRY OP HI- HEART.
Feeling nature of his character. — Poverty unlocks tin
sympathies of the heart. — Harris's grateful remembrance
of past favours. — Emotion at mention of the name of his
first kind Teacher. — His irrefragable ti< titude
and reverence to Colonel Champneys. — His neglect of
self-interest and advancement for the sake of the Colo-
nel. — Harris and Rammohun Roy. — Military glory and
valour not wanting in India even in her degen< ■:
days. — Her intellectual vigour yet unsui;
battle is the last achievement of humanity. — Indi;i
yet to fight it. — Harris did not commence it. — Nor
it yet commenced. — The Social Science Association ii.
England. — A similar Institution for India recommend-
ed. — Necessity for Educated Natives travelling in India. —
An "Indian Travelling Fellowship." — Natives alone ca-
pacitated to describe social anomalies 152
CHAPTER IX.
THE LONGEST, BUT THE MOST IMPORTANT CHAPTER IN THE
BOOK : REGENERATION OF INDIA.
Two theories for the amelioration of the people. — Which
preferred. — Danger from the present hopeless condition
xvni CONTENTS.
Page
of the people. — The Empires of the World. — Of the
Cassars, Baber, and Napoleon. — Uniqueness of British
domination. — The present time pre-eminently fitted for
undertaking the task of Popular Education in India. —
Ileview of the History of Indian Education. — Its three
epochs. — Government System of Education faulty. — Dis-
tinction between general and special education. — Every
man, 'however low and grovelling, receives all life long
some education or other. — In India there is in one sense
no general education. — Percentage of boys that finish a
complete course of general instruction. — A mournful
question. — Necessity of rendering Colleges self-support-
ing. — Grounds for viewing the measure as easy of accom-
plishment. — Percentage of boys receiving elementary
education. — The state of this education. — Number of
Schools in the Bombay Presidency. — Statistics of Popu-
lation in the different divisions of British India. — The
educational requirements of each calculated in compari-
son with some of the States of Europe. — With reference
to Primary Schools. — With reference to Teachers. —
Unfitness of the present Staff* even in the highest English
Seminary. — The number of Normal Colleges and of In-
spectors required. — The people too poor to join the
Schools. — Their popular notions on Englishmen's leaving
India for their Mother Country. — Great misapprehension
among Englishmen with reference to the wants of the
people. — Advocacy of the German method of popular in-
struction. — Striking resemblance in the state of Germany
and of India. — Our present system of education not
essentially differing from the German, though so popu-
larly taken. — Mere Schools and School Training ineffec-
tual to work any change among the people. — The French
Colportage described. — Establishment of a Committee
for the diffusion of knowledge advocated. — The present
state of Prose and Poetry in the Vernacular. — The
CONTENTS. xix
Page
tablishment of Clubs advocated. — What is our present
national strength and vigour ? — A new order of thought
and morality, as yet unknown to the world, evolved in
India. — A Summary of our Scheme 170
CHAPTER X.
m i m.K mi; \\
The two classes of writers on India. — Two dangers to
India. — The difficulties of making a successful stand in
the Punjab against tic Russians stated. — Confidence and
a feeling of Patriotism more requisite on the defensive
line of operations, than strength and discipline. — Warlike
tribes of Upper India, and their ambition. — The only
measure to avert th - Colonisation.— Colonisa-
tion of two sorts. — That which we ask for India different
from all colonisations to America and Australia, and
beneficial to India only. — The presence of the English
Settlers also beneficial, in checking all abuse of official
power in the interior. — English settlement will enhance
our crops, and j. — Art wholly wanting in the
Native Peasant. — A zeal for improvement. —
The Anglo -Indian Government worse than the Roman
and Mahomedan, in their zeal for public works of utility. —
Dillerence between Calcutta and Delhi or Agra. — All
extensive conquests preserved by Colonisation. — En.
settlement peculiarly beneficial to Young India. — Rights
will then be more liberally granted. A question to Young
India.— England's mission in India threefold -2*-J
CHAPTER XI.
A CHAPTER OF NONSENSE, IF IT BE SO UNDERSTOOD. THE
FUTURE OF INDIA IN Till; EAST.
capacity for foreign acquisition and colonisation
compared with other mighty powers of Europe.— With
XX CONTENTS.
Pa^e
Italy.— With Spain.— With Portugal.— With Holland.—
With France. — The Anglo-Saxon Colony carries away
all other Colonies before it. — The finger of God traced
in the progress of the British in the East. — The tendency
and course of the Empires of the World. — Civilisation
not likely to end in America. — It is returning to the land
of its birth. — Dr. Arnold's theory of Civilisation examin-
ed afod refuted. — The prospect of another and mightier
Civilisation. — It will commence from India. — Our
grounds for so supposing. — Bright future for Young
India. — His future Religion 299
CHAPTER XII.
THE FUTURE OF INDIA AND THE EAST CONTINUED.
Dr. Arnold's view of History not wholly desponding. —
Guizot's just discernment of History. — The grounds of
Dr. Arnold's theory. — His opponents. — Mr. Greg in
England, and the Author of " Lectures on Man" in
America. — Their advocacy of Negro civilisation. — Their
errors not essentially differing from Dr. Arnold. — Ex-
posed on an historical survey. — Twofold tendency of
Arabian Civilisation. — Greek, Roman, and Modern Eu-
ropean Civilisation Arian in origin. — Celts and Teutons
of Europe. — Their stream of Emigration from Asia. —
Arians never found as a fishing or hunting tribe. —
Distinction between Arabian or Mogul progress and that
of the Arian nations. — Freedom only enjoyed by the
Arians. — A glorious page always to be found in the
history of the Arian nations. — Capability of degeneracy
among the Arians. — The superior prerogative of the
Arians even in the lowest state of civilisation. — Sup-
posed influence of the climate insufficient to account
for the intellectual and moral differences among races. —
Influences of Government and religion also insufficient
COfl xxi
Page
on this score. — Individual exceptions always to be found
among the Arian tribes and Negro races. — Third ground
of our theory. — The origin of all differences amongst the
Avians and other races, especially the Negro, to be
traced in the unfathomable plan of Providence. — Civili-
an ion has been running Westward during the last three
thousand years. — It is now in the extreme West of the
world. — In the usual tendency it must hence come Ea
ward. — India is the only country to receive it. — Charac-
teristics of modern civilisation. — Anomalies of modern
civilisation. — Can the present be the latest stage of
human destiny? — Three principal i »ur social
anomalies. — Supposition of the present exhaustion of all
human capability insufficient to disprove future progress.
—How every science and art may be considerably
advanced without supposing our capability being at all
increased, or the force and scope of the action ot our
mind enlarged. — We are not chimerical in our specula-
tions 321
CHAPTER XIII.
CONCLUSION.
End of the Work.— The Author plainly perceives its
defects. — But a first essay is always defective. — The two
parts of the Work.— The lessons of both.— India's time
for regeneration.— Every individual has a share in the
work of regeneration.— It must be fulfilled in spite of all
opposition and slander 371
Appendix A 377
Appendix B 380
LIGHTS AND SHADES.
■■:-*:■--
CHAPTER I.
SUNRISE AND SUNSET OF HARRIS
Philosophy more liberal than the World in its estimate of
character. — Baboo Harrischander appreciated more by the
former than the latter. — Change in the East since, the ad-
vent of the English. — Eastern and Western Prophecies re-
lating to the Supremacy of the Europeans in India. — Lights
and Shades of India. — The Scholar and the Philanthropist
more needed in the East than the Historian. — The object ot
the treatise rather moral, and suggestive of Reform, than
historical. — Picture presented by Baboo Harrischander in
early life. — Contrast afforded at the close. — Stirrings in the
outer world upon his Death. — A question as to his Life. —
Grounds of our investigation.
" I, demens, et soevas curre per Alpes
Ut pueris placeas et declamatio fias ?"
Juvenal.
It has been rightly observed, that the world is
by no means the right discerner of worth. Not
that it deliberately awards praise where only
censure is due ; and whatever errors it may be
led into at the onset, its judgment is in time
2 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
so nicely balanced that philosophy has seldom
found cause to reverse, however much it may
qualify, the sentence passed by the world. But
it is nevertheless not sufficiently fair in its
standard of selection, inasmuch as it is pre-
cisely of " the world, worldly." Obtain success
in the cabinet, perpetrate an inhuman slaughter
on the field, or shine out publicly in literary
quackism, and the world is ready to pour forth
applause with all its vehemence and adulation ;
but pass an entire life in the labours of quiet
benevolence, rescuing hundreds and thousands
from • the ills that flesh is heir to," or the ills
their own misguidance and circumstances, or
the misguidance and circumstances of their
forefathers, have subjected them to, and the
world is prone to be indifferent and silent.
The statesman, the warrior, and the poet have
their praises and their testimonials, because
theirs is the apparent merit : but the humbler
patriot, who has quietly worked for the politi-
cal advancement of his country ; and the silent
philanthropist, who has devoted his life to the
promotion of the happiness or alleviation of the
sufferings of his fellow-creatures, have neither
the recognition nor the reward of greatness from
the world — not, certainly, as truly undeserving,
ESTIMATE OF CHARACTER, 3
but as greatly passing its own conception of
greatness. But narrow as the world is in this
respect, philosophy is liberal enough ; so that
while it allows the heroes of the world their
merited meed, it also concedes due honour and
admiration to those quiet heroes of the heart
who appeal the most earnestly, because the least
pretentiously, to its regard. If the worth of
these is not according to the common apprecia-
tion of mankind, it is still according to the
appreciation of those philosophic minds that in
their recognition would ask for something wor-
thier and nobler than outward show. And if
the world neglects them, it is much to their
taste, as theirs is the pleasure to contemn all
popular applause in the silent approval of their
hearts. Of such noble worth there are but few
illustrations, but from amongst these few it
were hard to find a greater name for India than
that of Baboo Harrischandeu — a name promi-
nently distinguished by services which the
world neglects, and philosophy loves to honour
with becoming regard.
The State of India is certainly far better
now than of yore. The ignorance and into-
lerance of Mahomedan times have vanished,
and we have a change mighty in results, and
4 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
mightier still in prospect, coming over the
country under the benign influence of British
domination ; and there has now sprung up a
class of men who, without purse or power, are
more influential than the greatest warrior in
olden days. We refer to the educated men of
our country, who are not, like all influential men
of some centuries past, "blind leaders of the
blind"; not men whose influence, whenever they
have any, may be seen only in the triumphs of
the field or the chicaneries of the court, — but
men, who command more without either of
these graces, by the mental light they enjoy ;
men, whose power is only in the evocation
of the breath or the stroke of the pen. There
are traditions in this land which perhaps none
has yet attended to with due concern — that
the East will be completely changed by a
nation from the west ; and the tenth avatar
of Vishnu, a man on a white horse, so cur-
rent among the prophecies of the sacred Brah-
manical writings, must be looked upon to
typify the advent of the English in India.
Statesmen vainly look upon the Anglo-In-
dian empire as an accident, something that will
not last long ; and though events like the Mu-
tinies of 1857 frequently give to that expres-
PROPHECIES.
sion a significance it can never otherwise bear,
the prophecy of the West, " Japhet shall dwell
in the tents of Shem," and the prophecy of the
East relating the tenth incarnation of Vishnu,
a man on a w r hite horse, coming from the West
and destroying everything Brahmanical,*, ren-
der it imperative on us to accept, however re-
luctantly, that European supremacy in Asia is
one of the permanent conditions of the world.
When we consider the darkness of former
times, the slavish reverence to authority, its
abuse, its adulteries, and its vicious ^cts in
every instance, and the superstitious awe of
religious guides, in spite of their lies, decep-
tions, and crimes, we may well conceive that
He who sits King among nations has most
wisely ordained that the East shall be lorded
over by the West. If there is anywhere in-
scribed, in modern times, with special truth,
" Ichabod!" it is upon Eastern imbecility and
utter darkness; and we have got among us
now a class of young men moral in tone, vi-
gorous in character, and intellectual in attain-
ments, in whom centre the hopes of families,
* The writer of these pages is not aware whether this pro-
phecy has been dealt upon in its significance by any author, but
if not, he does not see why he should not on his part.
O LIGHTS AND SHADES.
of churches, of the entire nation, of futurity
itself. These are destined to convert the whole
country into a moral, healthy, and vigorous
being, to dispel its present darkness and bring
forth light; who shall illuminate not only
their < own country, but, as we shall show here-
after, the whole of the East, and even perhaps
the World, by developing a new and more
healthy civilisation than the European. We
predict a glorious future for these men ; they
are as lights, created by the advent of English
civilisation : " few and far between," we readily
a^mitjbut yet lights to illuminate this land
oi darkness and error, and, in time, also the
East; and though night yet broods thickly
and extensievly here, we may say, without any
inspiration of prophetic discernment, that "the
morning cometh? But while thus cheerfully
according its due meed, we must never forget
that this subject has shades as well as lights.
JThe state of our young countrymen has much
to cause a gloom as well as exhilaration in the
heart : the many defects in their character, their
want of energy, fixedness of purpose, and de-
terminate zeal — so apparent, that he who runs
may read them — require as much to be weighed
in the balance of calculation as their greatness
THE MORNING COMETH. /
and their lustre. Their mission is noble, and
their destiny glorious ; but before this goal is
attained, the shades in their character must
be well observed and carefully replaced by
rays of light: and the object of the following
pages has been an earnest exposition of a
change in this direction. Some characters
have already been well redeemed ; and pre-emi-
nent among these stands undoubtedly the late
Baboo Harrischander. In all respects save one,
which we will point out in its proper place,
this Baboo approaches to a just conception of
what an educated young Native should be- -
what that light of India, without the accom-
panying shades, must be, that is to shed a halo
of lustre in the wide East ; and it is by exam-
ples like his that we would enforce our lessons
of instruction. The career and the success that
were his may be those of any one who chalks
them out for himself; and" as our object is not
so much narration as moral instruction, we will
more fully consider in our pages what conspired
to produce this career and this success, rather
than describe with nicety; and record, with
humour if we can, the incidents of the Baboo's
useful life.
India is a vast field for the scholar to reflect,
8 LIGHT AND SHADES.
and the philanthropist to exert, upon, and either
renders more durable service to God and man-
kind by his honest exertions, than the historian,
who vividly records ; and in this circumstance
we hope will be found an apology for the change
in our title,* and for our entering more into an
exposition of circumstances at present complete-
ly paralysing the spirit of the country, and
cramping the energies of its rising generation,
than a bare narration, with a philosophic
dissertation here and there only of facts and
incidents — the staple materials of dull and
unprofitable biography. Indeed, all history is
subjective ; and he who made the shrewd obser-
vation that " there is properly no history but
biography," full well anticipated that biogra-
phies should be what we would, in our humble
way, exhibit in the following pages. The world
certainly exists for the education of each indi-
vidual ; and there is no age, society, or action in
history, to which there is not something corre-
sponding in his own individual life : what Plato
has thought, he may think ; what Jesus has felt,
he may feel ; what has befallen Caesar, he may
* The title of this discourse, as it at first stood, was " The
Life of Baboo Harrischander, as affording a useful study for
young Natives."
OBJECTS OF THE TREATISE. 9
understand even as true of himself. Every
individual, as he reads, becomes Greek, Koman,
Persian, and Arab; philosopher, priest, and
prophet ; patriot, warrior, and villain ; — or he
reads nothing, and learns nothing. If all
history, then, though not expressly written so,
is read, and ought to be read, with a view
to individual education, individualising general
facts and generalising individual experiences, the
reader will understand us when, in inviting him
to these pages, we invite him especially to imi-
tate Baboo Harrischander ; invite him to be the
educated Native, of whom Baboo Harrischan-
der was so honorable a specimen ; invite him
alike with the Indian peasant and member of
the dull and torpid mass of population for whom
Baboo Harrischander fought so bravely and
manfully; and invite him also to appreciate
the British Government and the British people,
whom, though on certain occasions he blamed
bitterly, Baboo Harrischander esteemed and
admired sincerely. The treatise under these
circumstances necessarily becomes unmethodi-
cal to a certain extent ; but we shall attempt
to give to it a systematic arrangement, leaving
it to the kindness of our critics to suggest im-
provements for our future guidance, and divid-
10 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
ing it for the present into two parts, the first
treating of Baboo Harrischander, and the second
containing passing thoughts on the present and
future of our country.
But a propos of the immediate subject of
our discourse, we must, to allow of a just ap-
preciation of his merited greatness, say that
he has evidently two disadvantages. In the
first place, he lived with us ; and every subject,
it will readily be acknowledged, in order to
lend a more vivid and lively interest, requires
to be shaded by the twilight of remoter times.
Delille, by no means a critic of ordinary powers,
suggested the defect of that masterpiece of the
Revolutionary times — the Henriade — by saying
that " it was too near to the eye and the age" ;
and it has been remarked with much vehemence
that Milton might, with far greater effect, have
thrown his angelic warfare into a remoter per-
spective. We cannot with conviction say why,
but so it is, that Napoleon storming the strong-
hold of Presburg, and Havelock surveying his
straitened position within the enclosures of
Lucknow, influence us with fainter emotions
than Brutus musing in his tent at Philippi, or
Henry bearing down upon the desperate troops
of the French Charles at Agincourt. And so
HARRISCHANDER'S POSITION. 1 1
it must be, that the man who died only a year
past, leaving the effects of his patriotism and
greatness as yet only half-perceived, must suffer
in the interest and acknowledgment of his just
merits. And secondly, it must be admitted, as
we have already hinted, that he has not, un-
fortunately, shown himself sufficiently great, in
the worldly conception of greatness, to deserve
of a notice such as we would claim for him :
he has not been a king or conqueror ; nor even
a poet, historian, or novelist — he wrote nothing
in which we may
" At intervals descry
Gleams of the glory, streaks of flowing light.
Openings of Heaven."
But yet, the friend of the poor, the mentor of
the rich, the spokesman, the patriot, the brave
heart that defied danger and opposition in the
strife for settling the politics of his country,
enchains our affections and sympathies in pro-
portion as he was really little in the estimation
of the world, and great in the truly philosophic
sense of greatness, by rendering his life useful
in one continued scene of charity, benevolence,
and uprightness.
Harris was born in 1824 a. d. The second
son of a Koolin Brahmin, in absolute begga-
12 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
ry, or with just perhaps a shade or two less
than what was required by professional strict-
ness, he was confided to the fondness of a
maternal uncle to be reared and educated. Of
course this cost the latter nothing; because
the infant was to live on coarse rice — such as
required, by way of expense, only the despic-
able pittance of not more than about three
rupees a month, and vegetables such as were
got for the begging. This infant, preserved
in penury and beggary, grows up in time, not,
like those of his class, a meek, alms-seeking
boy, but bold and impetuous, and rather of a
violent and domineering disposition. He had
been torn from the bosom of his parents at a
very early age, and his adoptive father permitted
the greatest indulgence in him, lest he should
feel dissatisfied with his relations ; every one
near him, therefore — uncle, aunt, neighbours
and all, — had to yield obedience to the pet
child, who thus felt himself rather encourag-
ed " to play the little tyrant," and was not,
w r e should suppose, unwilling to try the cha-
racter on occasions. This bold, impetuous
child grew in time into a boy in digoji, and his
education was then to be considered. Fortun-
ately, this was even cheaper than his men-
HARRIS IN EARLY LIFE. 13
dicant living; for it cost the beggar father
absolutely nothing. He was installed as a
charity-boy of the Bhowaneepore Union School,
an insignificant village seminary, which sub-
sisted on the philanthropy of a few benevolent
officials. Here his character changed^ his
impetuosity still remained, but his sense of the
moral dignity of man increased. He devoted his
attention and energies to the cultivation of his
faculties, and studied with the facility of a pre-
cocious boy, mastering every subject of his cur-
riculum to the extent of his tutors' capacity to
teach, and displaying a spirit thorough-going
through every task ; sifting, instead of passive-
ly receiving — a baneful characteristic, only too
general among us — everything that came to his
mind right and left, and suggesting difficul-
ties and cross-questionings so awkward, that
one of his Native teachers, it is said, always
stood in dread of the shrewd-minded pupil-
But the pupil who could take in all in so
comprehensive a grasp of the mind as to mas-
ter his varied studies, whose progress attract-
ed the regard and attention of the head
European Master, and whose shrewdness and
intelligence confounded the Native tutor, and
often put him to the blush by the correct-
14 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
ness of his explanation and analysis against
the authoritative interpretation of passages,
was not destined to finish his education — not
destined to go beyond the meagre elements of
a charity-school, and come in contact with
those elevated and refined minds who are ca-
pacitated to take us to
" Drink deep, not merely taste the Piraean spring."*
The boy could not hold himself out longer
in school : the means of support at home were
very scant and precarious ; the cry for bread
became urgent and piteous; and he humanely
determined to sacrifice his embellishments to
the natural wants of a starving family. He
left his school at the early age of thirteen —
when the faculties are said just to commence
developing, — to dash himself into the world, for
the purpose of supplying his own and a beloved
family's animal wants; though it must at the
same time be borne in mind, that, with the
school, as he subsequently proved to the world,
he did not leave his books. When he left the
school, to procure a livelihood, he begged for a
common clerkship everywhere that he could
persuade himself to hope for one ; but he found
* Pope, with a verbal alteration.
STRUGGLE WITH POVERTY. 15
no charity in men to respond to his dutiful
endeavours ; and wherever he applied he had
the mortification to find his merit, learning,
and school-passport ridiculed and rejected by
heads and assistants, who were always found to
be guided in their selection by stiff-necked old
keranee subordinates, who had slowly risen to
position and fortune by the help of neither. The
only passport then, as even now, to any situa-
tion, however mean, was a letter of recommen-
dation. But poor Harris, born of beggarly pa-
rents, was as beggarly, as concerned that con-
temptible but indispensable commodity, as his
parents. He was therefore obliged to betake
himself to the business, as vicarious as uncertain,
of drawing up petitions, letters, bills, &c, which
brought him, no doubt, a stray rupee now and
then, but it could not certainly be sufficient to
give to him his livelihood ; and he became des-
perate in position. On one unfortunate day,
when he had not a grain of rice in his house
for a simple dinner, and the call of nature could
not be unattended to, he thought, poor soul,
of mortgaging a brass plate to buy his simple
fare. It was raining hard and furious, and
there was no umbrella to go out under. Pen-
sive and sad did the famished youth sit in the
16 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
house, meditating upon his unfortunate lot —
not, however, without a full reliance in the
providence of Him who oversees the needy
wants of all, providing with an unsparing hand
for the poor and the destitute. He looked down
upon Harris, sitting alone and grievous, and
rescued the unfortunate victim of cruel fate
from sheer starvation, by sending to him, just
in the very nick of time, the mookhtyar of a
rich zemindar with a document for translation.
The fee was but two rupees — but it was a god-
send : like the manna in the wilderness to the
wandering Israelites, it proved to be the pro-
vidential supplying of his pressing wants ; and
Harris, receiving it, offered up his thanks to
Him who had so mysteriously saved his life,
feeling at once the full truth of those trite but
wholesome lines —
" For young and old, the stout, the poorly,
The eye of God be on them surely."
But leaving this scene of early penury and
wretchedness, we will now turn to the latter end
of his life — to within a year of the present time,
to June 1861. Let us imagine ourselves placed
before the residence of a Baboo gentleman — a
Calcutta mansion in Bhowaneepore, a mansion
with a decent verandah and look-out; with its
THE CONTRAST. 1/
spacious halls and tall stories, decked out with
mirrors, and glasses, and chandeliers, and car-
pets, with all the other signs of the respectable
social position of its possessor. We will draw
near, enter, and observe; and we find all our
expectations from the outer appearance -real-
ised in the substance, elegance, and refinement
within, with even a shade or two more, display-
ing talents, accomplishments, and patriotism.
But where are we? Are we in the social parade
and joy of a rich Native family? No!- — hush,
and walk gently; for we are in the very midst
of the dark shadows of death, and are draw-
ing nigh the chamber of a dying man! The
master, the life and soul of the spacious mansion,
is drawing his last breath. I lis family and
friends are near him; the doctors are sent for,
but to no avail; and the hand that moved so
powerfully before, -in struggles for the whole
country, now falls motionless. The pulse sinks
down ; and he is lulled into sleep. All is over !
The spirit has gone — gone to the bosom of its
Maker, to regain its freedom from the tempo-
rary lease of the nether world ; and there it is,
in holy communion with the Father, who is in
heaven, enjoying full felicity for a life of love
and labour — love to God above and labour
1 8 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
towards alleviating the sufferings of His crea-
tures on earth — men.
But now we will leave the house, and the
dark scene within it, and observe the subse-
quent events passing in the world outside.
The 'death of this man is an event of national
interest. He is spoken of in the newspapers,
English and Native, as one who had passed a
life of love and energy ; whose heart was set on
rescuing the helpless ryot from oppression and
cruelty, and protecting the nation from a poli-
tical thraldom which was only too ready to
overtake them; whose name, in one word,
was identified with whatever was of constitu-
tional opposition to abuse of power and prosti-
tution of influence ; and whose death, therefore,
is painfully announced as a calamity that will
be deplored from one end of the country to the
other. His memory is honoured with public
notices: the Phcenix, the ablest of the Cal-
cutta English journals, opens its columns in
eulogy, and hopes that " the memory of such a
man cannot be allowed to pass away with the
present generation," and is glad " to see his
Native friends bestirring themselves suitably
in the matter." The hint is taken ; subscrip-
tions are set on foot in different parts of the
HONOUR TO THE DEPARTED. 19
country — Calcutta, Delhi, the Punjab, Bom-
bay, Madras ; numbers of all ranks, poor as well
as rich, Englishmen as well as Natives, join
willingly in honouring his memory. And there
he is! — the raw beggar-boy of 1824, who was
bred up in a charity-school, and left it inmttcr
poverty ; who found himself rejected and ridi-
culed wherever he sought for an opening in
life, and who felt the necessity of contenting
himself in the mean berth of a copyist on ten
or twelve rupees a month at a common auction-
eer's — transformed into the well-known, intelli-
gent, public man, whose loss is reverberated in
sorrow as a national blow through the entire
country; the hero, who stands as a public mo-
nument, to live, to attract the admiring gaze of
generations yet unborn !
These are the two contrasts presented by
Baboo Harrischander to the reflective mind, at
the beginning and at the close of his life. His
name is yet fresh — the sad event is only recent;
and his deeds and his name, still resounding
throughout the country, are held in grateful
remembrance. There is yet much blowing of
trumpets, much noise; we are deafened some-
what by the din. But is his career worthy
of imitation ?
20 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
Boldly yes ! — Baboo Harris is worthy of imi-
tation.
But in investigating the grounds for this
opinion, we must consider — 1st, what he did?
2nd, what were the internal circumstances of
his life that led him to achieve the aim of his
ambition? 3rd, what were the external cir-
cumstances that helped him in his life? 4th,
what deductions are we to draw from a study of
his life ? 5th, how exemplify them in our lives ?
— with other circumstances of interest, connect-
ed witfe the requirements of our country and the
duties of our Government, that may, in passing,
be evolved in our consideration of each of these
investigations. Some of these heads we will
pursue distinctly, and even with vehemence and
force ; and others, especially the two last, only
cursorily — these being left to the reader for
distinct elaboration.
21
CHAPTER II.
HIS CAREER.
Meaning of the expression Young India. — Two divisions of
this class always distinct but always confounded. — Exclusion
of Young India from his proper position. — Government and
Mercantile reserve. — Patricians and Plebeians in India
Danger to Government from this distinction. — Harris*! mis-
fortune under the present levelling system. — lie commences
as a Clerk on lis. 10. — His removal to the Military Audi-
tor's Office. — His strong intellect first perceived by Mr.
Mackenzie and Colonel Champneys.— They aid it> develop-
ment. — His rise in the Oflice. — Commences the Bengal Re-
corder Newspaper. — Its failure. — Establishment of the Hin-
doo Patriot. — Suicidal policy of Lord Dalhousie. — The Muti-
nies. — Harris's manly position. — Mention of his writings and
character by Mr. Norton of Madras, and Dr. Russell of
the London Times. — Suppression of the Mutinies. — The cry
of the Bengal Ryot. — Harris's unwearied exertion in his
cause. — His ultimate success. — The British India Association.
— Harris's services with it. — The climax of his Fortune. — Hid
End.
What did Harris do ? Why the events of the
life and career of a clever or talented young
Indian under the British Government can be
neither many nor remarkable. And here we
are tempted to enter into a long dissertation
on the hopes and aspirations of " Young India,"
22 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
and the cruel bars that cramp their energies
and exertions; but while reserving that for
some future occasion, to be dealt with at suffi-
cient length and according to its intrinsic im-
portance, it is considered advisable here to
touch on the subject in a cursory manner.
" Young India," the name whereby the rising
generation of this country has been designated,
is an expression of such ambiguity and vague-
ness that some use it sneeringly of the enlight-
ened generation, as expressive of the low habits
and tastes which are to be seen in a certain
class of our young countrymen ; while others, in
their application of it, connote some- of those
bright traits of mental and moral worth asso-
ciated with the character of the rising genera-
tion. Used so differently, it has been a matter
of doubt whether the name is expressive of
contempt or praise. The fact, however, is,
" Young India," instead of being one class, com-
prehensible under one description, consists of
two grand classes, as distinct from each other
as they could be wished or made. These
classes have nothing common in them save their
young age, which is neither's work, while in
character and bearing, they stand so distinct
as to answer nicely the contrariety of interpre-
" YOUNG INDIA" ANALYSED. 23
tation. There is the young gentleman of good
education and morals, and there is the young
gentleman of the insolent and fast-going race ;
there is the young generation with diplomas
and medals from colleges and universities, and
there is the young generation with only im-
pudence to surpass its ignorance ; there is the
" Young India" of books and work, and there is
the " Young India" of the bottle and dice ; and
were a distinction so wide always maintained,
neither would the one class be unmeritedly cen-
sured, nor the other unnecessarily praised.
The first class certainly presents a bright
picture for India ; for if he has any fault, it is
perhaps in his acquiring too great a preference
of English taste and feelings. It is well that
it is so ; and Young India would ere long have
occupied his proper position under a more
liberal and enlightened Government. At pre-
sent, however, while he acquires all the essen-
tials of action, his ambition is cribbed, cabined
and confined within a narrow sphere after an
anomalous fashion. For what is all education
but the means of preparing for a sphere of
action ; and where is the sphere of action for
Young India ? Government patronage is so
exclusive and mean, that he is debarred from
24 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
rising by any high attainments or distinguished
merit beyond a certain rank in the public
service — and that rank below what even the ve-
riest dunce of a civil or uncovenanted servant
may in the commencement of his career generally
attain. Government may admit frankly enough
the learning, efficiency, and even good faith of
$ ^ung India, but they would not raise him to
the rank of exercising this learning, efficiency,
and good faith, lest little Johnny or Tommy,
now dandling in his mamma's arms, or in the
play-ground at home, remain unprovided for in
future, and have, Iago-like, to grin —
"The lusty Moor hath jumped into my seat !"
And the mercantile communities — both Native
and European, — composed for the most part of
men who have learnt arithmetic well enough
to calculate the highest percentage of profit
with the least possible distribution, have the
selfishness of Government before them to ex-
clude Young India from rising to their own
level of wealth and importance. Thus exclud-
ed on all sides, Young India finds his education
and intelligence "fust" in subordinate spheres
of usefulness, which neither excite his ambition
nor feed his intellect. And thus some are
POSITION OF NATIVE YOUTH. 25
engaged as schoolmasters, drudging life through
in a wearisome and unremunerative task ; some
are employed as editors, reporters, and writers
of pamphlets and books, disseminating Western
civilisation, with pockets empty of the last
rupee and minds full of the most recent ideas ;
some manage their own or paternal small farms
and estates, with notions formed and matured
on state-policy and government ; many are
bankers and petty dealers of commerce ; and
many more are sunk in the drudgery of clerk-
ship, plodding through life on a salary of Es. 50
or 80 a month — with heads full of Bacon and
conic sections ! A position like this is but a
temptation to Young India to pervert his edu-
cation, to misrepresent the Government, if not
actually to resist it. As the German proverb
runs — " The school is good, the world is bad";
— the school affords an ample field to Young
India for the exercise of his natural acumen,
but when he is out of it, the world at once
blunts it, and this is as doubly heart-rending
to him as losing what one has once laboured to
acquire and perfect. Had the Native mind
been curbed after the fashion of an Austrian
or Papal Government, it would have been one
thing, and the British Government would have
26 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
seemed consistent with the meanness of Native
exclusion from posts of emolument and dignity ;
but after having educated the Young Indian, and
then to deny him all exercise of his education,
is to inflict a cruel wrong, which is excusable
neither on the score of justice and fair dealing
nor that of evil consistency. One of the wit-
nesses of the troubles of 1857, in his evidence
before the Parliament, stated, " I found it to be
a general rule, that where you had an official
well educated at our English colleges, and con-
versant with our English tongue, there you had
a friend, upon whom reliance could be placed."*
And yet there is a line of complete demarcation
established in all British India, as dangerous
and demeaning as that in France before the Re-
volution. We have here, in one sense, the de-
fective position of only two classes, without the
intermediate one to serve as a connecting-link
between them ; it is the recurrence of the old
order of patricians and plebeians of the Roman
world — English sojourners and even Eurasian
members playing the first, and the entire mass
of the Indian people the unfortunate other. It
was this distinction which proved too dangerous
to the Romans to be tolerated longer than barely
* C; Raikes, Judge of the Chief Court of Agra.
PATRICIANS AND PLEBEIANS. 2/
two hundred years ; and precipitated the Re-
volution when France resolved upon its revival.
Though Alison, with his shrewd perception,
failed to recognise it, it has not the less been
seen, that the great feature of the French Revo-
lution was simply that it was a rebellion against
class-legislation. It is, however, not to be denied
that he half perceived it, when, in the enumera-
tion, in all their enormity, of a host of oppres-
sions, sufficient to have driven even wise men
mad, as the proximate causes that precipitated
the Revolution, he felt it to be a grievous wrong:
— "On the one side were 150,000 privileged
individuals, on the other the whole body of the
French people. All situations of importance in
the church, the army, the court, the bench, or
diplomacy, were exclusively enjoyed by the for-
mer of these classes." Who will deny that this
is literally the case in India, where the Natives
are shut out from all avenues of preferment —
now open only to the few English adventurers?
A system of such transcendant egotism — a sys-
tem which, in a population of a hundred and fifty
millions, reserves all the loaves and fishes of the
State for a few thousand favourites of the alien
race — does, without doubt, imperatively call for
a total reconstruction ; and this, if not attend-
28 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
ed to in time, will, at no very distant date, as
History unerringly teaches, give rise to a revo-
lution, the basest enormities of which will be
redeemed by its being the struggle only of
man against nobleman. But as it is for the
present, the most intelligent of the Indians,
astutely denied every career, cannot rise from
his desk or cutcherry to administer a province,
lead an army to a glorious victory, or rivet
attention, even when he does not persuade, in
a State council. The genius of an Akbar, and
the talents of an Abul Fazul or an Anvari,
are, under the present levelling system, wrecked
in the process of quill-driving, book-keeping,
or thief-catching,! And Harris, having had
the ill luck of being born and bred up under
it, commenced as a common clerk on Us. 10,
and culminated as an Assistant Military Au-
ditor !
Well, but what did Harris do, under all the
disadvantages of his position? Why, in the
first place, he left school, as every man does, and
obtained employment at the late Messrs. Tulloh
& Co.'s auction-rooms, at Us. 10 per month.
After some time he begged for promotion, and
a couple of rupees more were thought quite
adequate to his abilities. His wants were yet
THE DISTINCTION DANGEROUS. 29
pressing, and he anxiously applied for three
rupees more, earnestly representing his miser-
able condition to his employers, and praying
for a salary of Rs. 15 a month, which sum he
believed, and declared with an honesty truly ad-
mirable, would put him quite above want., But
he was cruelly refused. He was in the auction-
eers' rooms, where many little odds and ends lay
about, perfectly unnoticed; and these might,
under the circumstances, have afforded to many
a one a tempting opportunity for revenge on
the stinginess of his employers, could he hnve
descended to profit himself thereby ; but though
Harris's heart was ready to burst at the abject-
ness of his position, his conscience warned him
of the fatality he would attach to himself if he
ever preferred vice to honesty, and he determi-
nately spurned every base artifice for support.
The cry of want at home, however, not only
remained as pressing, but grew more grievous
every day; he thought of it with distress —
nature worked in his bosom. Reflection defined
his choice; and he resolved to leave his mer-
ciless masters, to seek out some other employ-
ment, cost what it might. It was during some
month in 1848 that a vacancy was announced
at the Military Auditor General's Office : the pay
30 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
was Rs. 25 monthly, and the competitors many
in number. An examination was, fortunately,
to determine the selection. A theme and an
arithmetical problem carried the day for Har-
ris, and he was inducted, to the envy of all but
himself, into the energy-destroying keranydom.
Poor fellow — he was for many months pinned
to a three-legged desk, and a broken chair,
in this State office; but instead of grumbling,
Harris, with the contentment of every great
mind, solaced himself with the thought that that
arrangement was infinitely better than his ow r n
crossed legs, on which he, like other Bengalees,
was accustomed to write ! He worked with ear-
nestness, and studiously endeavoured to give
satisfaction. His immediate superior found
in him intelligence and shrewdness far above
an ordinary clerk, and introduced him to the
notice of the Deputy Military Auditor Gene-
ral, Colonel Champneys, who at once re-
cognised in his common quill-driver energy
and abilities of an uncommon sort. He was
now promoted from one post to another;
and it was through the sheer force of his
intellect that he rose to the Assistant Military
Auditorship, which was, until his installation,
a preserve for European and Eurasian candi-
HARRIS'S RAPID RISE. 31
dates only. Unquestionably, with respect to
his advancement and worldly position, Harris
won the great and honorable testimony of being
the absolute founder of his own fortune: like
that illustrious Roman, who owed nothing to
his ancestors — videtur ex se nattos, — he Sprang
from nothing and made himself.
The Bhowaneepore Charity School-boy was
now converted into a high official in Calcutta,
drawing a salary of Rs. 400 month, and with
respect and honour constantly increasing abroad.
His entry into the Military Auditor General'*
Office was an event marked out in his life,
as having touched the sources of that power
and strength which distinguished his after
career. He was inducted into keranifdam, the
atmosphere of which region is suffocating ;
but fortunately for Harris, aye and for India
herself, it did not and could not stifle, though
it might and must have hampered, his keen
intellect.
But, while engaged in the mechanical la-
bours of his mean profession, his genius found
its way out, and betrayed itself to his superiors.
One of them readily recognised it, and en-
couraged its development. He lent him books,
both from his own collection and from the Cal-
32 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
cutta Public Library, and he read them all with
the enthusiasm of a student, and the reflec-
tion of a liter ateur. His knowledge and learn-
ing, now extensive, tended to press its way out,
and in 1 849 he commenced, with a friend, the
Bengal Recorder. That was but the trial.
Like every first trial, it failed; and success as
a writer was reserved for Harris only in the
columns of the Hindoo Patriot, which rose some
time after, like the Phoenix of old, out of the
ashes of the Recorder. The time was oppor-
tune for the starting up of this journal. The
Anglo-Indian Government had sunk low : there
was nothing more than the policy of aggres-
sion, spoliation, and confiscation, characterising
their administration. Sattara, Surat, Nag-
pore, Oude, Tanjore, and the Carnatic were
all spoliated, one after another, in the short
space of eight years, under the Yankee eu-
phemism of " Annexation." It was a sort of
plunder by a public character — by the highest
representative of England in the East, in his
public capacity ; from the bare thought of which
he, guided by the influence of the spirit of his
Christianity, and that of the moral infantine
breeding of his country, would shrink, we are
perfectly sure, as a private individual. Lord
POLICY OF THE TIMES. 33
Dalhousie (peace to his ashes!) was a self-
willed man; he held the creed in his time that
" he," to use his own words, "cannot conceive
it possible for any one to dispute the policy of
taking advantage of every just opportunity
which presents itself, for consolidating the ter-
ritories that already belong to us, by taking
possession of states which may lapse in the
midst of them, for thus getting rid of these pet-
ty intervening principalities, which may be made
a means of annoyance, but which never can, I
venture to think, be a source of strength, for
adding to the resources of the public treasury,
and for extending the uniform application of
our system of government to those whose best
interests, we believe, will be promoted thereby."
This was the key to his lordship s policy of
annexation. He thought, perhaps, in his dreamy
imagination, that the English rule was a bless-
ing, and that it should at all events be made uni-
versal in India; and thus, no scruple of con-
science ever turned him with disgust from all
barefaced violations of the principles of honesty
and good faith; or, if he ever felt a kind of
remorse, it was of that fleeting kind of u holy
humour," which the Bard of Avon tell us, in
his " Richard the Third," of him who annexed
34 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
Clarence — it " was wont to hold him but while
one could count twenty." Consolidation was
the policy, territory the grand object.
" Si possis recte, si non, quocunque modo rem."
And a pursuance of these suicidal State-poli-
tics told more on the Indian nation than all the
past just and benevolent actions of Government
put together, and produced the most pernicious
results. The confidence in the good faith and
honesty of the British people, so wholesome to
the prospects of both nations, was at once
destroyed ; the remaining Native princes took
alarm for the safety of their territory ; and the
soldiery was roused by passion to make a bold
stand against the ruin of their ancient dynas-
ties : so that when this all-absorbing but never-
satiated ambition lay its hand on Oude, where
every family, as Sir James Outram said, had
at least one representative in the Bengal army,
Government laid the train to that extremity
of indignation, which burst forth so terribly
in the Rebellion of 1857- Then were com-
mitted those atrocities extreme passion and
social risings are apt to perpetrate ; which,
though they have an excuse in history, so leni-
ent in its judgment, shock humanity even at
JUSTICE FOR INDIA ! 38
this distant hour, and which then blinded
the judgment of that most patiently reasoning
and practical nation of the British Isles, and
shut up, by the enormity of their heinousness,
every avenue of their mercy and humanity. En-
raged and blinded, the English nation lost their
wonted discernment, and confounding the small
band of an infuriated soldiery with the mass of a
nation, unjustly called aloud for immediate and
indiscriminate vengeance against the entire po-
pulation of India. Harris knew the hour was
imperative; he took his stand-point as a fearless
champion between the people and the shrieking
portion of the English public ; all that was noble
and all that was little in him now subordinated
itself to his grand object: he boldly denounced
the annexation-policy, which alone had brought
ruin and disaster to Government, set his face
vehemently against the bullying opposition and
vituperation of the Indian nation, and, exhort-
ing his countrymen to rally round the British
banner, triumphantly cried out for — Justice to
India !
It was about this period that Mr. Norton,
of Madras notoriety, wrote his " Rebellion
in India," and exposed the vanity of the pre-
sumption, on the part of English statesmen
36 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
and English writers, of supposing the Natives
of this country always view them and their
measures with a child-like admiration. He
startled England out of her torpor, to see now,
with eyes wide open, that a change, past all
remedy, had already come over her younger
sons (could such a title be vouchsafed to us) of
the East, through her unpremeditated, yet Hea-
ven-directed policy ; that education was spread-
ing, judgment had been formed, and the standard
erected whereby to judge of her course and mea-
sures, not with ignorance and fear, as of yore,
but with knowledge and reflection. Those who
sceptically doubted his revelation were pointed
to the tone and dignity of the Hindoo Patriot,
which he announced was " written by a Brah-
min, with a spirit, a degree of reflection, and
acuteness, which would do honour to any jour-
nalism in the world." Then came Russell, the
special correspondent of the Leviathan Times,
to see personally, and to describe graphically,
the scenes of the Mutinies ; and even he, coming
in contact with Harris, was confounded, for
a while, whether to applaud the spirit and in-
telligence of his mind, or the liberality and
patriotism of his heart ; and after some acquaint-
ance, but much hesitation, vouchsafed to style
THE LUCULLUS OF INDIA. 37
him, in his graphic pages, " the Lucullus of In-
dia." It is no small thing this! A beggarly Brah-
min boy, leaving a charity-school at the early
age of thirteen, friendless, beholden to others
for even the bread of poverty, rising step after
step, without recommendation, without educa-
tion, through the sheer force of his own power-
ful intellect, to the highest post in a State office,
— thus growing into a man, burdened with bu-
siness of the greatest responsibility, engaged, on
the one hand, with making up the deficiencies
of an early education by intense self-labour and
study, and satisfying, on the other, a share of
the social cares and concerns of the complicated
Hindoo Society, editing single-handed a paper
in the English language, which influenced the
Government in the dictates of their just course
and policy, vindicated the right and honour of
an entire nation, and excited admiration and
called forth eulogy, not only in words of oral
delivery, and pages of ephemeral production,
but also in the writings of those English au-
thors who are more likely to live than die even
in the far West, where mind has attained to the
latest feature of its development in the run of
present civilisation !
After the suppression of the Mutinies, the
38 LIGHTS AND SHADES,
tone of the Patriot sobered down for a time
into calm suggestions for reconstructing the
disordered elements of government; but soon
did it elevate itself again in emphatic and
reiterated protest against the inhumanity and
oppression of the Indigo Planter towards the
ignorant and helpless Ryot. The latter, pros-
trated as he completely was, at the duplicity
and addresse of the former, in managing his
affairs of mean aggrandisement and chicanery,
had no hope of relief, or even of succour, until
he sa c w Baboo Harrischander willing to im-
part both with all his patriotism and humanity.
He confided his cause to the voluntary advo-
cate, with a reliance worthy of him who, in
his turn, accepted the charge with a deep sense
of its responsibility and sacredness ; gave to it
his time, his intellect, his heart ; his days and
nights, his enthusiasm and devotion ; and dis-
charged it with that faithfulness and zeal which
Providence usually rewards, as He did most
distinctly in this, with ultimate success.
At the same time, Harris allied himseif
with the British India Association, which, it is
not too sanguine to say, promises at no distant
date to be the glorious " House of Commons" in
India. The history of this Association has been
THE BRITISH INDIA ASSOCIATION. 39
the history of what immense benefit one powerful
intellect, exercising its energies in the right di-
rection, can do for an entire nation, and leave a
glorious heritage to future generations " to paint
a moral and adorn a tale." Already it has miti-
gated the reproach so long cast on our nation —
that our best energies were only confined to the
desk and the counter, — by distinctly showing,
that, as occasion requires, we can even as well
advise and regulate politics. Already it has
been the source of great national benefit, by
averting the imposition of ruinous and impro-
per taxes, by sagely persuading the authorities
out of their crudely-formed views ; already it
has been acknowledged to muster statesman-
like wisdom and prescience within its ranks, so
as to sit in a fit conclave of consultation on any
question of importance and interest ; already it
has been recognised as the great representative
of the people of this country, to express their
feelings, wants, and convenience in every depart-
ment of government ; and already it is being
consulted by Government on every question of
internal policy as such. This Association was
formed, and it achieved all this, mainly through
the energy and exertions of Baboo Harrischan-
der ; and this reflects no small amount of credit
40 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
on the power and force of his intellect. Scep-
ticism is one of the safe and cautious character-
istics of the English people — nothing is believed
at first ; and this habitual resistance to novelties
might be applauded as a sound instinct, if it
did not sometimes obstruct the progress of
knowledge; and it was with a people so habi-
tuated that Baboo Harris succeeded in getting
himself heard, even with respect, as a suggestive
patriot! His fame now culminated; he was
introduced to every one, and every one heard
his suggestions and revelations in regard and
good faith, even when he did not appreciate
their full worth. " Rien ne reussit jamais
comme le succis" says the French proverb —
" there's nothing half so successful as success,"
say the Americans, translating the untranslat-
able; and the full force of its truth was here
exemplified. He, to whom neither European
nor Native would vouchsafe the meanest berth,
which he at first stood so sadly in need of, was
now the friend and companion of the greatest
and the richest of the country; he, who was
but twelve years before a common clerk, so
lightly valued as to be pinned to a three-legged
desk and broken chair at the lowest step, was
now the highest Native functionary of the office,
CLIMAX OF HARRIS'S FORTUNE. 41
more honoured and better appreciated than
even his immediate European superiors, by the
Government and the public ; and he, who was
scoffed at in the beginning of his public career,
as a mere " nigger" and a " pandy" — when it was
the fashion to politely utter these little ce,tch-
words of distinctive abuse on the p&rt of every
splenetic English journalist at a loss for some-
thing to argue, — was now respected, esteemed,
admired ; recommended as a State-craftsman
upon all topics of the time ; and, in spite of
his inherent unfortunate position, which gained
him no practical experience of State politics,
rescued from the obscurity of a tiny English
hebdomadal to be the leading spokesman of
India! But in the midst of these achieve-
ments, time and incessant toil had gradually
broken down the health of this Patriot and
Philosopher. The evening of life had come,
surely, and but too quickly; and at the ap-
pointed hour, calm and happy, with his mind
full of radiant hope and triumph, with a con-
sciousness of having lived a life of usefulness
and fellow-freling for God's creatures on earth,
and of holy communion with the Spirit above,
this Martyr of public labour breathed his
last.
42 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
It is a pity that he left no dying words of
advice ; for strange have been the sentences and
expressions of dying warriors, kings, philoso-
phers, and priests, reflecting some ever-latent
trait in their character; and strange, too, but
yet not unnatural, is the fondness with which
we linger ovfer death-bed scenes, and gasping
words. Gasping words ! — eh bien ! — the whole
of life seems, as it were, summed up in one
moment, and we linger round its utterances
when "out of the fulness of the heart the
moutb speaketh," in anxious yearning, and ques-
tion those moribund expressions, whether they
cannot give us some glimpse of the world to
come, where the spirit that sent them out in
tremulous motion is about to find its lodging
for evermore. In one sense, every man here is
a Moses, seeking the Promised Land — brighter
still, we must admit, than what was vouch-
safed to the Jewish Prophet, who took the
Pisgah view of his destination from the summit
of the mountain; and we can well conceive
other chosen spirits of this world, if not all, like
him, taking a Pisgah view from the side of the
death-bed, and seeing something of the bright
land of promise in their own case. Harris's last
words would no doubt have afforded a glimpse
DEATH-BED SCENES. 43
of his own faith, full of intense interest and
veneration. But alas ! he had no last words
to utter. Eminently prosperous and useful,
he lived and worked, and died in perfect si-
lence ; only leaving the awful impression on
his friends and countrymen, when his spirit
left this world, that a bright star had set in
I leaven !
44
CHAPTER III.
INHERENT SOURCES OF HIS SUCCESS.
Inherent sources of success in life. — Poverty, the chief im-
pulse of activity in material and intellectual attainments. —
Melancholy history associated with literary life. — Allegory of
Consuelo. — Harris's poverty. — His earliest avocation an
incentive to his activity. — Conception of education and learn-
ing among the illiterate Natives. — Meri vale's conclusion from
Roman history. — Faults in the character of Young India. —
How removed ? — Hasty notions of his conduct. — Two great
classes 1 of Young India how distanced ? — A representative of
the worst class. — His career and life allegorically described.
— His dejection in after-life. — His want of perfect self-re-
liance. — Harris prominently apart from his educated country-
men in the possession of confidence of opinion. — Cogency of
feeling required to impel all internal decisions into action. —
Courage required to withstand the attacks of ridicule and
contempt from others. — Disraeli's bold stroke of courage on
his first appearance in Parliament. — Baboo Harrischander
possessed all the bolder virtues of success. — An incident in
his School-life to illustrate his noble disdain of all wrong and
insult.
The brief and rapid review that we have taken,
in the last chapter, meagre and imperfect
as it is, of what Harris did, brings us to our
second question — What was he, who did all this,
with regard to the inherent circumstances of
his life? Here he is — a rude, beggar-boy, of
INHERENT RESOURCES. 45
imperious habit, without the working of any
higher emotion than is the wont of an ordinary
youth in his infantine years; who had, save
perhaps a little of unusual intelligence, and
memory, nothing pre-eminent in him as a boy ;
who stopped in his school only to pick up such
a smattering as enabled him to scribble and
speak a little gibberish — like many a youngster
from the last forms of our colleges and schools ;
who at the early age of thirteen relinquished
his school and his tasks, to beg for an appoint-
ment of eight or ten rupees — the salary of a
common sepoy, — in different parts of the city,
and found himself rejected and repelled with
scorn and a sneer, and at length mendicantly
consented to be a common ten-rupee clerk at
an auctioneers; — this boy passes, in after-life,
not only into a man occupying a post of dignity
and emolument as yet denied to all his country-
men; not only into a gentleman of rank, wealth,
and influence; not only into a journalist, edify-
ing his readers with his learning, information,
and eloquence ; but also into a patriot, sternly
fighting the battle of humanity and freedom
against a powerful and cynical Government —
into a man of wisdom and sagacity, opening the
sealed book of the politics of his country, cutting,
46 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
criticising, caricaturing State measures, and
suggesting problems which would take to task
the highest powers of a versed politician — into
a public character, ever-successful, ever-ho-
noured, — leaving to his nation the legacy of
an Association, that, with its present influence,
represents the popular element in Government,
and promises, if rightly and constitutionally
sustained, the regular Third Estate, in time
to come, with its full splendour, majesty, and
awe, in this ever-neglected, ever-oppressed land
of the East! How all this came about, and
what led the man inherently to an achievement
of this consummation, is the inquiry for present
investigation.
What led the man to his achievements ? —
Why, in the first place, it was his poverty !
Poverty has been the great world-maker; the
greatest ends have been achieved by poverty ;
for the o yvious reason that " Necessity is the
mother of invention !" When one is poor, he
must scheme for the stomach ; there is no wealth
furnishing sustenance, and no friends to lend a
helping hand. He must think alone, contrive
alone, and work alone; and independence of
position, and success, naturally result to him.
The earth itself, without poverty, would have
THE GREAT WORLD-MAKER 47
remained but a wilderness; for all the magnifi-
cent, the wonderful, the elegant, or the luxurious
enterprises of the world have been initiated by
poverty. But for poverty, the earth would not
have been dug, nor wildernesses penetrated,
nor forests felled, nor colonies established, nor
flax, cotton, and silk wove or spun, nor all
the necessaries and elegances of an easy and
slothful life ever produced. In the realms of
literature, poverty has so immutably been at
work, as the source of all success, that, with
the exception of Rogers and Byron, so (ar as
our memory leads us to believe, there is no
name to which a history of absolute want is not
attached: with many has been associated even a
melancholy fate. It is only now, when times are
changed, that Bulwer has gained a fortune by
his writings, and Thackeray and Dickens live
in palaces erected by the profits of their own
pens. But less than two hundred y jars ago,
Lovelace and Butler died of want ; Otway
choked himself with a piece of bread which he
was greedily devouring to appease his hunger;
Savage wrote his poetry on scraps of paper
picked out of the gutter, and expired in a jail
without a farthing for his interment; Dryden
was forced to die in harness ; and even in more
48 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
recent days that inspired boy, of whom Coleridge
sung, as
" Sublime of hope and confident of fame, 1 '
after having been many days without food, poi-
soned himself, to put an end to his miserable
days; and it is barely twelve years ago that the
promising Thom of Inverary played the beggar s
flute in the public street, and died behind a
hedge, succumbing under the cold of falling
snows ! But apart from this melancholy and
misery, it will not pass unnoticed that poverty,
which seems to the superficialist so unwhole-
some, puts all our energies into action; and
wherever we look, whatever department of hu-
man labour we search in, we invariably find that
it is only the poverty-stricken who have achiev-
ed success and renown. There is a just and
adequate picture drawn of poverty in the " Con-
suelo" oftif George Sand, translated by Mrs.
Child; it is well worthy the serious considera-
tion of every individual, and we give it here: —
" Paths sanded with gold, verdant heaths,
ravines loved by the wild-goats, great moun-
tains crowned with stars, wandering torrents,
impenetrable forests, let the good goddess pass
through — the Goddess of Poverty !
THE GOOD GODDESS OF POVERTY. 49
" Since the world existed, since men have
been, she traverses the world, she dwells among
men: she travels singing, and she sings work-
ing — the goddess, the good Goddess of Poverty !
" Some men assembled to curse her. They
found her too beautiful, too gay, too nimble,
and too strong. ' Pluck out her wings/ said
they ; ' chain her, bruise her with blows, that
she may suffer, that she may perish — the God-
dess of Poverty !'
" They have chained the good goddess, they
have beaten and persecuted her ; but the? can-
not disgrace her. She has taken refuge in the
soul of poets, in the soul of peasants, in the
soul of martyrs, in the soul of saints — the good
goddess, the Goddess of Poverty !
" She has walked more than the wandering
Jew; she has travelled more than the swal-.
low ; she is older than the cathedral of Prague ;
she is younger than the egg of the wren ; she
has multiplied more upon the earth than straw 7 -
berries in Bohemian forests — the goddess, the
good Goddess of Poverty !
" She has many children, and she teaches
them the secret of God. She talked to the
heart of Jesus, upon the mountains ; to the
eyes of the Queen of Libussa, when she became
50 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
enamoured of a labourer ; to the spirit of John
and of Jerome, upon the funeral pile of Con-
stance. She knows more than all the doctors
and all the bishops — the good Goddess of Po-
verty !
" She always makes the grandest and most
beautiful that we see upon the earth ; it is she
who has cultivated the fields and pruned the
trees ; it is she who tends the flocks singing
the most beautiful airs ; it is she who sees the
first peep of dawn, and receives the last smile
of evening — the good Goddess of Poverty !
" It is she who builds the cabin of the wood-
cutter with green boughs, and gives to the
poacher the glance of the eagle ; it is she who
rears the most beautiful urchins, and makes
the spade and the plough light in the hands of
the old man — the good Goddess of Poverty !
" It is she who inspires the poet, and makes
the violin, the guitar, and the flute, eloquent
under the fingers of the wandering artist ; it is
she who carries him on her light wing, from the
source of the Moldan to that of the Danube ;
it is she who crowns his hair with pearls of dew,
and makes the stars shine for him large and
more clear — the goddess, the good Goddess of
Poverty !
THE GOOD GODDESS OF POVERTY. 51
" It is she who instructs the ingenious arti-
zan : who teaches him to hew stone, to carve
marble, to fashion gold, silver, brass, and iron ;
it is she who renders the flax supple and fine as
a hair, from the fingers of the old mother, or
of the young girl — the good Goddess of Po-
verty !
" It is she who sustains the cottage shaken
by the storm ; it is she who saves rosin for the
torch, and oil for the lamp; it is she who
kneads bread for the family, and weaves gar-
ments for summer and winter; it is she who
feeds and maintains the world — the good God-
dess of Poverty !
" It is she who has built the grand churches
and the old cathedrals ; it is she who carries
the sabre and the gun, who makes war and
conquests. It is she who collects the dead,
tends the wounded, and hides the conquered —
the good Goddess of Poverty !
" Thou art all patience, all strength, and
compassion, O, good goddess ! It is thou who
unitest all thy children in a holy love, and who
givest to them faith, hope, charity — O, Goddess
of Poverty !
" Thy children will cease one day to carry
the world upon their shoulders ; they will be
52 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
recompensed for their trouble and toil. The
time approaches when there will be neither
rich nor poor ; when all men shall consume
the fruits of the earth, and equally enjoy the
gifts of God ; but thou wilt not be forgotten in
their hymns — O, good Goddess of Poverty !
" They will remember that thou wert their
fruitful mother, their robust nurse, and their
church militant. They will pour balm upon
your wounds, and they will make the rejuve-
nated and embalmed earth a bed where thou
canst at last repose — O, good Goddess of Po-
verty !
" Until the day of the Lord, torrents and
forests, mountains and valleys, heaths swarm-
ing with little flowers and little birds, paths
which have no masters, and sanded with gold
— let pass the good goddess, the Goddess of
Poverty !"
Now Harris was poor, and poverty inspired
in him activity and energy. He had to pro-
cure his livelihood, and he actively searched for
an appointment ; but being rejected everywhere,
he stayed at home, and engaged himself in writ-
ing occasional petitions, letters, and bills, that he
might procure his pittance of a rupee or two.
Of course, in such an engagement, he could not
POVERTY AT WORK ON HARRIS. 53
find occupation for more than a few hours, and
these, too, not regular hours, nor every day ; so
that between the time he wrote one petition or
letter and the second was forthcoming, he had
leisure, which he could not spend in listless-
ness. He was naturally inclined to occupy
every minute ; and the nature of his avoca-
tion was itself an incentive to this inclina-
tion. He had to do extra work ; he must,
therefore, attract people, by some show or
other, and persuade them to believe he was
competent to do his task. He therefore sat
just in public view, book in hand, poring over
its contents — not affectedly, like the majority
of our Native youths, who are so apt to show
themselves more than they really are, but in
right earnest, comprehending and digesting
every word that glittered on the page. Were
he to sit listless or playing, without any atten-
tion to his books, he should put his reputation
at stake among the common people, who are
so apt to measure learning by its pomp, and not
its modest course. Even in our own island we
see men, engaged in writing petitions or letters,
placing on their tables some dusty volumes —
useful, worthless, or pernicious — just for the
look of the thing ; and it is precisely the number
54 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
and the size of these volumes that attract cus-
tomers, and not the facility or competency with
which their business is executed. And this view T
of learning and ability is so common and deep-
rooted amongst our illiterate as well as half-
educated countrymen, that whenever they de-
sire to know the progress of any scholar, the
question invariably turns upon the number of
books he has read or learnt! We can well
remember the time when, in our younger days,
w r e were accosted with the senseless question
— " IJow many books have you read ?" — by
every stiff-necked, old-fashioned gossip, who
desired to know anything of our progress ; and
when we answered that we had read only five
(for that was the number of volumes in M'Cul-
loch's series, once taught at the Elphinstone
School), we were jeered at, and thought of light-
ly, because the number was so small and insigni-
ficant, whatever else we might say as to the true
dignity of learning not yet lowered to the mere
number of lessons and books read in the dull
school-room. Thus, it was the necessity of his
own position, which he had betaken himself
to for want of an opening in life, that gave him
the early company of books, which, aided by
an innate trait in his temper, as we shall pre-
AN EDUCATIONAL TEST. 55
sently see, did not fail to make him the man
he in after-life was. Though most poor and
miserable himself, he early learnt to be gene-
rous, and ready to recognise others' wants and
miseries from his own : he grudged not writing
a letter or two, without any remuneration, for
the utterly helpless and the destitute. Of how
many has it been sung,«and with what force,
in one sense, can it be sung of Harris himself —
" Though mean thy rank, yet in thy humble cell
Did gentle peace and arts unpurchased dwell :
Well pleased, Apollo thither led his train,
And Music warbled in her sweetest strain,
Cyllenius so, as fables tell, and Jove,
Came willing guests to poor Philemon's grove.
Let useless pomp behold, and blush to find,
So low a station — such a liberal mind' ?
But the pressing need of his poverty, with-
out being actuated by certain wholesome prin-
ciples or stirrings from within, could not have
sufficed to make Harris what he subsequently
became. He possessed within himself a spirit
of independence and self-reliance to an unusual
degree. His purpose being once firmly fixed,
nothing could change it subsequently ; and in
the possession of this bold virtue, he stood
prominently apart from the mass of his coun-
trymen, " old" or " young." It is needless to
56 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
enter into an analysis of the character of the
former class, as it is fast dying out, and has
already been represented in the numerous ex-
hibitions of Hindoo character which mission-
aries and other writers have given us. Every
possible hole has been picked in the coats of
men who, having nothing in common with their
historians, have recerwed at their hands no con-
sideration or favour. It is not necessary here
to reproduce these misrepresentations. For
our part, we would rather undertake to show
up thex worthies of past times as specimens of
a class of men now rapidly dying away, than
repaint the oft-painted picture of ignorance,
prejudice, and shrivelled heart, that prevailed,
and yet linger among the mass of that commu-
nity, which, a few years hence, will be num-
bered with the things that were. It is only
with the latter class — " Young India" — that we
have any concern, and that too for their good.
That our young countrymen have within so
short a space of time made such rapid progress
in general enlightenment and knowledge, with
the aid of Western literature and lore, is in it-
self rather a wonder, which cannot but challenge
the admiration of every unprejudiced English-
man. With scarcely any of the advantages
DISADVANTAGES OF NATIVES. 57
which the English boy enjoys at home, sur-
rounded moreover by the thousand evils of our
social fabric, which exercise an emasculating
influence upon his character — and brought up
under a system of education that is both im-
perfect and defective — the acute and intelli-
gent Native youth still displays a degree of
vigour and energy in all matters which is really
surprising. But this affords no reason to over-
look the weak points, or uphold the errors and
prejudices of our character. Nothing could be
more fatal; for the Native character, when
completely formed and ameliorated upon the
Western model, will naturally command that
high degree of English esteem and reverence
to which it is not entitled in its present ano-
malous position. There is an evident duty for
both — the Native and the Englishman — to
execute in India, and which both have yet sadly
neglected. The former has as yet imitated only
the superficialities of English life — its boots
and stockings, its bottle and the table ; but he
has neglected to imitate the English enterprise
and independence, English energy and decision
of character; and, above all, that English sense
of propriety, which excludes a member, however
rich or dignified, from the pale of general sympa-
58 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
thy, when he has been found committing himself
by a single act of objectionable repute. But
when he has understood and acquired the solid
virtues of the Anglo-Saxon, the latter will have
to grant to him proportional benefits and re-
wards as the requirements of his new position.
We opine that, if for no higher motive, for po-
licy's sake, the conquerors and the conquered
of this country require to be gradually brought
together to one level of rank and position.
And we have, to vindicate our opinion in this
respect, the evidence of a noble page in the
history of the world, borne out by a historian
of great comprehension and political sagacity.
"One principle," says Mr. Merivale, "seems
to be established by their history [i. e. the
history of the Romans]. It is the condition
of permanent dominion, that the conquerors
should absorb the conquered gradually into
their own body, by extending, as circumstances
arise, a share in^ their own exclusive privi-
leges to the masses from, whom they have torn
their original independence"
But while we quote this, it is very unfor-
tunate that it should so little be applicable in
India. There are faults on both sides — more
perhaps with Young India than with the Eng-
FAULTS OX BOTH SIDES. 59
lish ; and it is to be regretted, that while we
find many among the latter ready to severely
censure these faults, there are so very few who
will assist them, by wholesome advice, to cure
their errors. They are all youths; and they
have faults, even of very grave character, like
all youngsters ; and were Englishmen but to take
them kindly by the hand, show them the path
they ought to pursue — show them how to study,
how to write, how to reform, and how to rise, —
we feel confident that the Indians would ere
long become a healthy and intelligent nation,
worthy the protection England humanely oi
them. But, instead of this, they are roughly
censured every now and then at the most trifling
error, and even called trimmers, insolent fops,
infidels, free-thinkers, deists, atheists, scoffers, of
the school of Volney and Voltaire, et hoc genus
omne, without reflecting that these epithets are
not all equally applicable, nor are they very
consistent. Yes, trimmers we may be, in the
sense of having as yet received nothing solid
in our education or our treatment, which is as
different from mere profession as any two dis-
tinct things can ever be ; insolent and violent
we may be, in the sense that we have as yet
received no kind consideration, or sober coun-
60 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
sel as to how we should shape our course ; like
infidels we may be, in the sense of not having
yet received the Christian faith, which itself
has still to be settled without dispute to its true
form and church, even in the most pious states ;
free-thinkers we may be, and after emancipation
from the slavery of ages, it would be folly to deny
freedom of thought ; deists and theists we may
be, but in this we are in no fault, as a system
of pure theism is the last consummation of
Christianity as well as its first stepping-stone ;
but atheists and scoffers we have never been,
and never can be. We are thus unjustly and
unthinkingly censured by English writers and
gentlemen ; our faults are all roughly handled,
and the general demeanour of those who ought
kindly to better us developes every now and
then a very fair growth of that odious kind of
cant, of which Mr. Squeers, in Dickens's " Ni-
cholas Nickleby," is so instructive an example.
It was vexation of spirit enough for the un-
fortunate boys who came under the lash of that
severe disciplinarian to be continually flogged
and kept on short commons, but human nature
must have fairly given way when they were
told that it wa«all for their good, and that Mr.
and Mrs. Squeers were the only persons who
A REMEDY SUGGESTED. 6l
understood their true interests. In a similar
tone of contemptible morality have the majo-
rity — for there is an honorable minority, who
form the truly loyal and humane exception —
of Englishmen conducted themselves towards
the Natives of this country, without familiarly
min«lin<£ with them in their concerns, and flfiv-
© © ' ©
ing counsels against impertinence, vanity, puff-
ing, or scoffing — their unfortunate blemishes.
This violence has well-nigh been dangerously
imitated; in fact, it could not long continue with-
out a reflective action upon the Native mind, and
the antagonism lately produced between the
two races is the necessary consequence of those
reckless animadversions on both sides which
have painted the one as black as the other,
without calm advice on mutual regard and
improvement. Did each candidly and rightly
acknowledge his individual faux pas — and
we hope it will be granted that an English-
man is not without his, though the Native
may have more, — without unnecessarily abusing
and bullying each other, we should undoubt-
edly have seen by this time a happier state of
things — a serener and healthier national at-
mosphere.
Having thus traced the so v~ce of Young
62 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
India's failings and shortcomings in the want of
wholesome advice from Englishmen, it will be
no unprofitable task to expose them in rather
bold and honest terms. When introducing
Young India to the notice of the reader, we
pointed out two classes as having no sympathy
with each other. Englishmen see our young
countrymen here driving fast in pomp and
parade, and there revelling in luxury and de-
bauchery ; here engaged in gaming and scandal-
ising, and there playing the " bulls and bears"
on a piost extensive scale, cheating some and
ruining others ; and they are apt to take these
as fair representatives of young educated Na-
tives. But it needs only the most superficial
inquiry to learn that they are not members of
the wholesome class. They are generally the sons
of the richer community, who are bred up from
early life in ease and ignorance; and mere
school-boy upstarts, who had hardly advanced
even to the highest classes of their school in
the course of their education. With the young
students from out of our colleges, these fast-
going gentlemen have no affinity — their walks,
their pleasures, their pursuits, are quite their
own; and instead of any fellow-feeling, they
look down upon the whole batch of our stud
TWO SECTIONS OF YOUNG INDIA. 63
with contempt. There is a reserve on both
sides, in regard to familiarity, which neither
attempts to overcome; and there is a marked
contrast in the general bearing of both. One is
proud of his purse, the other contemns it ; one is
light in conscience, the other scrupulous in his
subserviency to it : and under differences like
these, it is absurd, if not morally harmful, to
mix them up into one class. Unfortunately
for themselves, the well-educated portion of our
young countrymen present a split, which favours
this mixing up of distinct classes. One section
is hard-reading, modest, and amiable, while the
other is idle, noisy, and surly; and this latter,
from its very obtrusive nature, often coming to
the notice of the public, is looked upon as con-
stituting the entire class of Young India. But
whatever the discreditable splits among the
healthy class of Young India, we most steadfastly
believe its general character and bearing are
bright and hopeful. This class is limited, and,
we admit, the majority have not as yet learnt to
appreciate study for itself; but still it is to be
kept distinct from all other classes in point of
moral vigour and intellectual strength. View-
ing other classes than that of our well-educated
youth, the picture no doubt is gloom-inspiring ;
64 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
and excepting only the few who thoroughly
imbibe English taste, and English spirit, by
a well-progressed education, the general bear-
ing of the young-born of even our enlightened
generation is pitiable. There are three evident
classes : the fast-going gentlemen and the col-
lege alumni have been distinctly named ; and to
these may be added the low, grovelling class of
young men, who, blessed with only a smatter-
ing of English, can but just copy letters, &c,
and pass their life in drudgery and mechanical
ploddjngs. The better class sometimes dege-
nerates into either, and with the exception of
those who remain firm in their position, the
whole histoiy of the young-born of the country
can easily be epitomised : — He is born, and ear-
nest and loud merriment proclaim to the world
his advent. Parents, relations, and neighbours
rejoice, and, offering up prayers, bless the day*
when the father conceives his position —
" I gained a son,
And such a son as all men hailed me happy I"
* As yet, the prejudice in favour of the son and against the
daughter is rampant in India. It has a partial standing among
the half- literate Parsees ; but the writer has heard even well-
educated Hindoo friends expressing grief at the birth of a
daughter !
A THIRD CLASS. 65
They all express their desire to see him, in
after-life, sit, not with the cloth, the chisel, the
brush, or the plough, like his father (if that
were the case), but at the desk in an office, and
make his debut an accomplished scholar, certes
a great philosopher, who, like Archimedes,
would require only the fulcrum to move the
whole world at his will ! And, after all, what
does this coveted intellectual greatness consist
in? Just such proficiency as will enable him to
take occupation as an eight or ten-rupee copyist
in an office ! And it is for this that so much of
ecstasy is spent at his birth ! At the very birth,
his nativity is cast; and the astrologers, with
their mnemonic words and mystic characters, are
quite ready to read that he has come, Minerva*
like, into light, an incarnation of all wisdom, an
encyclopaedia of knowledge. Yet it is deemed
prudent in many cases not to repose much
trust in nature. Art combined with nature i^
perfection, and our pride-inspiring hero would
become the impersonation of " perfection's self, v
were his wonderful natural gifts well developed
by a little discipline of art. In time, there-
fore, he sets out for the field, where the battle
is to be fought with the lance of the pen, the
shield and buckler of slate and books, and bv
66 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
the manoeuvring of the mind under poltroon
generals, against the Lilliputian army of letters,
singly or in battalions. Here he is, of course,
given at first only a few watchwords of safety on
the close of the day, to ensure recognition and
admission at the next action. This done, on
the break-up of his regiment (and here the
break-ups are daily), from the action of the day,
he saunters forth, in and out of the place, to
the astonished gapings of foolish and fond
parents and neighbours, who vainly flatter him
as a great hero already. He goes and returns
every day, of course with new watchwords and
tactics, to w r hich he is necessarily advanced, as
he has ultimately to become the leading hero
of the fight against every one's opposition, if
he has only the desire and courage. But his
parents and neighbours flatter him as already
sufficiently advanced and skilful. The time for
real strife may yet be forthcoming ; but spoilt by
flattery and fondling, he deems himself suffi-
cient for all purposes ; and if he meanwhile gets
a commission on the staff, he relinquishes his
field without achieving any glory, and prides
himself on the acquisition, be it small or great.
His debut in life being thus made, his
spirit and his life can easily be prejudged.
AN ALLEGORY. 6/
He was never independent and commanding,
for ere the time for this position could come
he left the field ; so that the scapegrace is only
an arrant coward, and, instead of improving in
his manoeuvring, by private parades, he l<v
his knapsack and his weapons for ever! He
lacks a complete discipline, and he lacks
self-reliance and energy in his early training ;
so that in life he is often found hesitating
between different, if not actually opposite de-
terminations. Ever and anon a faint impulse
of preference inclines towards the one or to-
wards the other; and while the mind is thus
held in a trembling balance, it loses the sober
opportunities of actual success. Give to him
any proposal : perhaps he persuades himself to
accept and attempt to accomplish it; but at
the very outset, the puny force of some circum-
stance, about as powerful as a feather, makes a
seizure of the hapless boaster, and exhibits the
futility of his determination.* It has been
remarked above, that he leaves his knapsack
and his books on quitting the field — the school ;
* The writer has seen several instances of very intelligent
students making a resolution of study and further progress
just one day, and, while considering how to begin, the resolution
is gone !
68 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
but perhaps, in some instances, there may still
linger the heart-devotion of earlier life to a
favourite author or character ; and when ani-
mated with any example in reading, the youth
conceives the design and sketches the plan of
his life, and his imagination revels in the feli-
city attendant upon its accomplishment; but
alas! in a moment of remitted excitement, a
thought crosses the mind — " All this is very
well for England, where talents find their way,
and industry gets its reward; where one has
to command thousands on paper, or sparkle in
Parliament. What have we here, in India,
where the press is poor, people are illiterate,
and superiors are so apt to censure every defect
and stifle every rising ambition to actuate indus-
try and study? Why should I study ? What
benefit can I reap? — while if talents, health,
and station be well used for practical purposes,
I should live much more comfortably, and more
usefully to myself and my family." There the
thought seizes; the ardour is slackened; the
resolution is gone, and the wretched utilitarian
plods life away in visions of practical utility,
and idle repinings at the refusal by fate of
imaginary advantages. Thus awanting in man-
liness, he never plays any part of real useful-
A COMMON FAILING. 69
ness, and sinks into utter degradation and
neance, from whence disappearance into the
grave is but by one short leap, " unknown,
unhonoured, and unwept."
This description, very condemnatory, is un-
fortunately too true ; and more than ninety
per cent, of our young educated countrymen will
very readily be found to verify every word that is
mournfully uttered. To know how to cultivate
a determination is one of the first requisites
of a successful character : the deliberation may
take time — it did with Caesar, before he passed
the Rubicon; but only a few moments of doubt
and hesitation intervened between the decision
and execution. A really strong character does
not at all hesitate between one thought which
proposes, and another which only upsets the
first ; nor does it ever demean itself from fear
of friends or superiors, who must necessarily
think upon any determination variedly, accord-
ing to taste and feeling. The object is clear
to him, and he proudly disdains the arrogant
scoffings of men ill capacitated to judge, or the
adverse criticism of a narrow-spirited press. It
is only weakness that tempts presumption and
impertinence; strength keeps clear the space
around, where it may freely play, and where
12
70 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
stupid impertinence or arrogant forwardness
dares not intrude with dictation and sneers.
If this fact were well borne in mind, and every
one of our rising generation were to carry into
execution whatever he once determined upon,
Harris, who so well exemplified it in his life,
would have struck only an ordinary character,
without at all being an example for the study
of Young India.
But this grand basis — confidence of opinion,
or self-reliance — is not sufficient to ensure suc-
cess such as Harris achieved : there is needed
c #
the cogency of feeling to impel all internal
decisions into action. The most successful men
in the world, in any department of human life,
have been those of the most ardent feelings ;
and, indeed, it is only from the warm ardour
of feeling that the cold dictates of reason can
ever become excited into active exertion. Judg-
ment may be clear, and even strong ; but it
requires the strong force of feeling to execute
its dictates. Pope very justly styles the " rul-
ing passion' the moving spring of all our
actions. Good or bad, it acts with force and
constancy very remarkable; and its strength
gives dignity to the character even in its worst
development. While reading in history or fie-
DESIDERATA. 71
tion of an agent of the darkest purpose, we are
compelled, in spite of ourselves, to cast on him
a look of respect and admiration, if he has exe-
cuted his design with an intrepid resolve and
will. And so it is that we are stirred up with
an instinctive emotion at the exhortation of
Satan, when, after an indomitable resolve and
strenuous desire to avenge the Ruler in Heaven,
he gave the alternative,
"Awake ! arise ! — or be for ever fall'n !"
Both these sources of success — self-reliance
and strenuous will — require jr&t to be superad-
ded by a third, viz. courage. In one sense it
is included under the two virtues just named ;
but yet, the distinction is apparent, and not
the less essential. Self-reliance and strenuous
will relate to the man so far as his own self
is concerned, his thoughts, and his resolves ;
but to withstand succumbing to the mean at-
tacks of contempt and ridicule, as well as the
pernicious effects of flattery and praise, requires
the exercise of courage. This sterling virtue
is everywhere — it is everything. Blessed with
it, men have searched the earth to its far-
thest ends, ventured without shrinking into
the frozen deep or panted at the line ; lightning
72 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
and storm, thunder and hurricane, undaunt- «
ing. With it they have undergone all, dared all,
conquered all, even with failure after failure.
" You may laugh now," said the son of a re-
tired gentleman, originally a mere articled clerk
to a London attorney, friendless as he felt
himself on his entry into Parliament, and spite-
fully caricatured for a wild extravagance of ima-
gination in a first essay in romance, but now
the most eloquent of all Parliamentary speakers
and the accepted leader of a great political
party — the younger Disraeli — " You may laugh
now," said he, courageously, as he concluded
his first speech ; " but you shall hear me some
day." This courage to manfully repel the con-
tempt and ridicule of vain scoffers is scarcely to
be found even in the best of our young men, who
have much of that vincibility of temper which
makes them mere playthings in the hands of
designing fools; and but for this they should
ere long have been fitted to adorn the highest
posts of their country — to manage, in other
words, the reigns of self-government, which, in
their present cowardly temperament, whatever
their vain boasters or false friends may say, we
believe they are not equal to.
Now, these inherent principles of character
SECRET OF HARRIS'S SUCCESS. 73
for success in life Baboo Harrischander pos-
sessed in a pre-eminent degree, affording a
bright picture, quite distinct from the gloomy
aspect we have just been contemplating. He
was a man of strong self-reliance, stern purpose,
indomitable will, and manly courage, though,
under more favourable circumstances than it
was his lot to be surrounded by in early life, he
being a Native of India, these should all have
been well tempered and increased. It would
be a work of supererogation to mark the work-
ing of these bold virtues in his after life, after
all that has already been said in the preced-
ing pages of what he did, and what opposition,
scoffing, and contempt he met with in the
early part of his career ; and rather than engage
in this work of mere repetition, we should
prefer to hasten to an investigation of the
causes that lead to the utter want of the ele-
ments of success in our young educated coun-
trymen. But before closing this chapter, it
is necessary to state that the manly robust-
ness, and noble disdain of all meanness and
wrong, which so pre-eminently marked out the
public career of Baboo Harrischander, were
early discernible in the boy Harris. While at
the school, a drunken sailor having once on
74 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
an occasion insulted some stray lads of his
class, Master Harris felt extremely indignant,
and resolved upon revenge. A Lilliputian army
was immediately assembled in Bhowaneepore,
armed with rulers, and, with young Harris com-
manding, marched on with measured steps,
"breathing revenge." The warrior, who had
vainly thought to annihilate entire armies, like
Samson, single-handed, was at once brought to
a sense of his vincibility. He received a severe
blow, and was put to flight ! This was the in-
trepid victory of Master Harris, barely ten years
old. But how often at this age are Native boys
lost amidst pigeons and play, and alarmed into
instinctive shiverings at the very sight of a
sailor or soldier !
75
CHAPTER IV.
CAUSES OF A WANT OF THE MAINSPRINGS OF
SUCCESS IN THE CHARACTER OF -YOUNG
INDIA."
Utter want of early domestic training in India. — Instances of
Indian Women figuring as Authors and Poetesses of eminence.
— The doctrine of Female Depravity, as propounded by the
Rishees. — By Menu. — Woman's occupation in India. — Her
daily round of labours described. — Her extreme fondness
for begetting Children. — Puranas quoted. — Present Female
Education in India. — Absence of all elementary information on
it. — An observation of no spirit of a change being wrought
over the Girls by the present system of education stated. —
A scheme for the higher training of Females. — Englishmen's
aversion for familiarity with the Natives in private life. —
It is just and merited. — Clever Women are of greater import-
ance to the world than clever Men. — Absence of Boarding-
Schools in India. — Its pernicious effects. — Physical hardi-
hood of an Indian more of a forced character than other-
wise. — Strength and spirit required to uphold National
Rights.
Perhaps the deficiency, or even perfect want
of the mainsprings of all successes in life, in
the character of Young India, as recited in the
last chapter, can be traced more to their unfor-
tunate position in the very nature of things, as
they obtain in India, than their own neglect.
/O LIGHTS AND SHADES.
Since with the domestic life is connected the
promotion of the best interests of man, both
in this world and the next ; since it is within
the little circle of the walls of " home, sweet
home," that the best affections are implanted
and rooted ; and since it is there that the ele-
ments of infant humanity are developed, bearing
an influence on the principles and conduct in
future life : it is no less palliative of the defects
in the general character of Young India, than
it is melancholy, to say that their homes are a
wretched scene of ignorance, indifference, and
misery. It is the mother that reigns paramount
at home ; our blood comes from the mother ; our
bones are our mothers' bones — we are all our
mothers' ; and it is the mother that gives us
life — first animal life, then spiritual life ; for it
is the mother that teaches us to walk, and talk,
and think, and lays within us the whole future
man. Yet how do we behold the mother in her
own house ? Can she not justly complain, in
the words of Tennyson's Lilia —
" But convention beats us down :
It is but bringing up, no more than that ;
You men have done it; how I hate you all !
Ah ! were I something great : I would I were
Some mighty poetess, I would shame you then,
That love to keep us children. O ! T wish
INDIAN MOTHERS. 77
That I were some great princess : I would
Build far oif from men a college like a man's,
And I would teach them all that men are taught.
We are twice as quick."
Yes, they are twice as quick ; for wherever
they have appeared to public notice, they have
shown a degree of intelligence and learning
truly remarkable. India herself is not want-
ing in her examples. The names of Atreyi,
Maitreyi, and Gargi are handed down in tra-
ditional succession as eminently distinguished
for their knowledge of Vedantic philosophy, at
which so many of our learned European scho-
lars yet rack their brains. Bhamiat is the
author of a work to expound the same subject,
and her learning and depth of thought may
put to the blush the intelligence of Madame
de Stael. Shila, Vija, Mechika, were poetesses,
of whom it is not too much to say that they
wrote the most difficult and philosophic San-
skrit, and may properly cast into the shade the
genius of Mrs. Hemans. A writer of consider-
able keenness on logic, the author of Tarka-
prakash, pays a high compliment to the literary
acquirements of his mother, to which he ascribes
his successes, more vehemently and forcibly
than Mill does to those of his learned wife.
13*
78 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
Taramati, Damaynti, and Rukhmani are names
familiar to every one even very superficially ac-
quainted with Indian literature. These instances
may be multiplied to the number of learned fe-
males of all the European countries put together,
did we of necessity require it, which we do not.
But yet the later rishees have, by a system of
false and contemptible theology, degraded woman
in India even more than the ancient Greeks
and Romans — " Falsehood, cruelty, bewitchery,
folly, impurity, and unmercifulness are woman's
inseparable faults." — " Woman's sin is greater
than that of man, and unatonable by any pro-
cess of expiation." — " Women are they who
have an aversion to good works." — " Women
have hunger two-fold more than men ; cunning,
four-fold ; violence, six-fold ; and evil desires,
eight-fold." Even Manu, by a pitiable short-
sightedness, allotted to women " a love of the
bed, of their seat, and of ornaments, impure
appetites, wrath, weak flexibility, desire of
mischief, and bad conduct" ;* and a system of
this mawkish sentimentality, of a hypocritical
and renegade philosophy, has degraded woman
* For further information on the condition of woman in
India, see " The Evangelisation of India"' by John Wilson,
D.D., F.R.S., Discourse x., pp. 407— 403.
DOCTRINE OF THE RISHEES. 79
to the utter depth of darkness, from which
even streaks of light are now hardly percepti-
ble after the best endeavours of philanthropists
for nearly half a century of active labour. The
time which requires to be employed in the cul-
tivation of her own mental and moral power,
and in the prosecution of those most important
duties of preparing her children to be wor-
thy citizens of this world, and eventually to
receive the favours of their Maker in the world
to come, she most indifferently and negligently
loses in petty cares and amusements, which
neither attract the fancy nor gratify the taste.
Excluded as she is from the society of the
world, woman in India has a little society about
herself, where she finds subjects sufficient to
engage her — eating, drinking, sleeping, tale-
telling (that is, scandalising men and families) ;
and then eating, sleeping, drinking, and back-
biting again, all over day, month, and year !
A Native home resembles one of those convents
of Spain and Italy, which Lamartine describes
in his " Regina" as presenting " la monotonie
dans le vide, l'importance dans le rien, un sen-
sualisme pieux sanctifie par le mysticisme."
This is no exaggeration, and in our convent the
recluse (not even imbued with the taste of read-
13*
80 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
ing, as the recluses of Europe ! ) is retained, wast- ,
ing life in closeness, superstition, and sensuality.
The son in his intelligent manhood wonders how
he could respect the motherhood of his fami-
ly when he recalls the misery of the days that
he has spent in his early home in vulgar conver-
sations, mean thoughts, and those petty amuse-
ments which fail to satisfy even the ennui of an
hour, but w T hich sufficed to afford pleasure to the
whole life of the mother. But the poet has said,
" The sports of children satisfy the child,"
and the Indian mother thinks nothing of making
the mechanical concerns of the kitchen, the
settling of the disputes and differences of the
family, or the getting up of fresh ones in her
turn ; sewing and scandalising ; bargaining for
materials to deck her body ; marrying her sons
and daughters at an early age ; and, after mar-
riage, becoming anxious for their begetting
children in their turn ;* and the strict observ-
* The propagation of our species is a desire natural to man,
and more perhaps to woman ; but when it sinks into the idea
of the beau ideal of all domestic happiness, it becomes a low
grovelling passion for animal appetite. But so it is in India,
that when two women, whether Parsee, Hindoo, or Mussulman,
meet together, the inquiry as to sons or daughters, if about ten
years old, invariably turns as to whether they are married or not,
and if twelve or fifteen, whether they have begotten any children
FEMALE OCCUPATIONS. 81
ance of almost all the superstitious ceremonies
and extravagant customs of her forefathers, to
be the sole solitary incidents of the history of
her life. In the present void of her mind, she
already ! A youth of fifteen or sixteen, if he has not begotten a
son or daughter, is victimised with base taunts ; when twenty or
upwards, this circumstance is held past bearing. Instances to
illustrate this observation are too numerous ; and the writer of
these pages has not himself been spared very uncomplimen-
tary remarks, even from our so-called " educated women," for
his single position in life. To be a single man among the lower
orders till twenty or thirty, or even for life, is perhaps regarded
with no very great aversion ; but to be such when one belongs to a
well-to-do family is held utter damnation. The religious' injunc-
tions on this head are themselves injudicious. The writer of
these pages has, through the assistance of his Sanskrit teacher,
been able to glean the following, which, he hopes, will be
found interesting. The Mutcha Purana says — "No man ought
to remain unmarried even for a day ; if he does so, he must
perform certain penances as an atonement. And this, although
he may otherwise be diligent in prayer, in giving alms, and in
studying the Veda"! The Bhavishiut Purana says — " If a man
marry after his forty-eighth year, he shall be accounted sinful;
but if he remain unmarried, or without a male child, until his
forty-eighth year, all the good actions of his life shall be of no
service to him" ! ! And again, in the same Purana, in another
place, we have been struck with the absurdity — " If a girl is
not married before the age of puberty, her father, mother, and
elder brother are rendered for ever sinful." And what does
the reader imagine the age of puberty to be ? Our Sanskrit
studies are not much advanced ; but yet we can tell him with
confidence that this age of puberty is ten! — (Vide Chandrogo-
pnrusistang .)
82 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
has nothing to amuse or instruct her, and she
finds complete satisfaction if she is occupied
only with the enjoyment and dissipation of the
present. Having learnt nothing, she has
nothing to teach to her children, who, in the
natural constitution of the human mind to re-
main unaffected by surrounding impressions,
early learn lessons of effeminacy, listlessness,
and vulgarity at home. The long chain of
her duties and amusements, from the time she
rises from her bed to the hour when she a^ain
retires to rest, can be very easily epitomised, to
the shame of every Indian patriot. With the
crowing of the cock she rises from her bed, and
commences the dull routine of the affairs of
the kitchen, calling daughters and daughters-
in-law, and domestics, if any, to assist her in
their management ; grumbling, and often abus-
ing and gnashing at them, at every little inat-
tention, or failing in properly executing her
little commissions. Then, kindling her fire, she
sits basking before it till she is half melted,
and prepares her little things for breakfast,
which are no sooner ready than they are
eaten up by the little children and other mem-
bers of the family, who have by this time
become alive to the call of nature. She next
DAILY ROUTINE. 83
engages herself in the preparation of dinner,
which is dispatched before the husband leaves
for his office. During the afternoon, she
explains minutely the various operations she
performs in the morning to her fellows, who
then generally visit her on matters of friend-
ship or business — relating, imprimis, how
sedulously she engaged herself in her affairs,
what amount of labour, dexterity, and diligence
she was obliged to undergo in placing rightly
the different utensils, vessels, and the other ar-
ticles of the kitchen ; and how watchful she was
to discover the slightest degree of negligence,
or absence of expertness, or the least departure
from her sanctioned injunctions, in her domes-
tics and daughters-in-law ; then regretting their
dishonesty in shirking from her orders, and
the whispered Warnings and broils with which
her attention was engaged in the morning, and
which were conducted in a suppressed tone lest
her companion in life should be disturbed in his
sweet repose ; next depicting the conduct of her
consort with fond epithets, praising him for his
good sense in acquiescing in all her favourite
propositions, and in essaying to contribute
to gratify her little vanities ; applauding his
earnestness and determination in obviating
14
84 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
difficulties and privations ; and pouring upon him
her admiration for the thousand and one ways
in which he procures wealth, and the care with
which he treasures it up. But here ends not
her tale, stupid though it be : she goes on to
an outline of the several forms and ceremonies
usually observed in her house ; all the little
bargains struck with the draper and the tailor ;
all the fanciful likings and thoughts which dis-
tinguish her husband and children; the many
intricate and remote, the friendly and relational
ties, by which she is united with several of her
caste-fellows, especially rich members — cursing
and slandering them for their forgetting her in
the pride of riches ; the numerous thoughts that
revolve in her mind relative to the promotion
of the worldly interests and concerns of her
husband, of herself, and of her offspring ; the
hardships which she has to bear while pursu-
ing the end and aim of her wishes ; the imper-
tinent inquiries which she makes into the con-
duct and character in life of the families with
which she means to unite her daughters or sons
in the way of marriage ; the ready responses
by which she flatters the demands of some
for either, or the flat denials by which she
discourages those of others ; with a word or two
THE DAUGHTER'S POSITION. 85
of scandal for every family. She loves to dilate
daily on topics such as these, while occupied
with her domestic duties. She not unfre-
quently calls out for her daughters and
daughters-in-law, who may be occupied in the
performance of some other business, directs
them to aid her in supervising and superintend-
ing, embracing every occasion to edify them
in all household affairs, and enlighten them on
their true nature and character ; and exhort-
ing them to copy her own skill and diligence
in the kitchen, with a view to make. them
good wives, when tliov happen to enter on
life. The daughter-in-law (who is always
kept in hot water) is then enjoined to place
in order the various articles of domestic eco-
nomy, and perform what she may be called
upon to do in the kitchen ; while the mother
is always on the alert to detect in her any
little idleness, dereliction of duty, or the
infringement of the rules laid down for her
guidance. She narrowly watches over her con-
duct and her motives, and takes to scold and
whip her the moment she goes astray, be her
motive quite pure, or her erring quite innocent.
If she does not find her docile, and mindful of
her behests, she heaps upon the poor creature
15
86 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
volleys of censures and reproaches, and even
goes so far as to threaten the severance of
her marriage contract, and driving her off
from the company of her son. Beyond this,
the matron squanders away her time in bar-
gaining for her as well as her family's use.
She occasionally ruminates upon the several
items of expenditure she incurs during the
day, and often repeats them over, in order to
recollect them when giving in the account to
her lord, owing to her being either too illiterate
or too unwilling to write. Several considera-
tions also toss about her mind, relating to the
performance of some ceremony or other, which
custom enjoins should be personally notified
to her kith and kin. To effect this, her
daughters, and daughters-in-law, and herself
often, are actively engaged. They are all
clad in the gayest attire possible, and orna-
mented with jewels ; all the fineries of the
family, or begged and borrowed on loan, are
lavished on the occasion, so as to enhance the
charms of their persons with the tinsel of art —
things so fondly doted on by every family, as in
their absence to subject them to indifference
and contempt w T herever they go. The finery
being procured and put on, the matron, with a
LOVE OF DRESS. 87
significant look, takes a survey of one daughter
after another, turning them in a semicircle now
and then, to judge of the neatness or otherwise
of their dress and decoration. Pandering in
this manner to her own self-complacency, she
sometimes sends for some of her near neigh-
bours, to examine the make-up of herself and
her young ones, and to gain applause for the
taste and ingenuity manifested by her. In
case she lacks daughters and daughters-in-law
of her own to make up the proper number, she
graciously takes in her tenants and neighbours,
and being thus fitted out, they go on their errand
of invitation, loitering ungainly on the road,
morning or afternoon, or even under the burn-
ing sun, requesting relatives and acquaint-
ances to attend, in language loud and illite-
rate; and their rich and splendid ornament-
ing and dressing charm the eye of every one
who accosts them, and draw forth some remark
as to the appropriateness of, or towards better-
ing, their appearance, from the friends visit-
ed. At home, meanwhile, the requisite prepa-
ration is being made with great promptitude,
either by the mother, if she stays behind, or old
dames charged with welcoming the invited, w T ho,
on coming to the house, meet with the most cor-
88 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
dial and adulatory reception. They are seated
on a carpet, or some other kind of cloth spread on
purpose, and are treated in a manner quite in
unison with the dictates of morality, the rules
of hospitality, the injunctions of the shastras,
or the sanction of custom. After this they are
allowed to return — not, however, before being
presented with a dish brought forth with fruits,
flowers, or viands. And thus ends the day of the
materfamilias on an important occasion. As
evening approaches, she goes through the same
routine of business in the kitchen as she is
required to undergo in the morning, taking
care not to burden her mind with thoughts
otherwise than fall into a fanciful or humor-
ous reverie, so as to delight her mind; — sel-
dom reminded of the duties she owes to her
Almighty Maker as a creature of His will
and grace ; and at last she falls, much like the
lower animal, on her bed of repose.
Thus are the precious hours of an Indian
woman, high or low, told over ; though it must
frankly be confessed, that, if there is aught
different from the picture just presented, in
the domestic circles of " the upper ten thou-
sand" of Native society, it consists only in the
occupation with the piano, and embroidery,
CONSEQUENCES OF THE SYSTEM. 89
and such like showy things, and a great deal
of waste in sleep and useless chat. The conse-
quences from a system of this debasing character
are obvious as well as pernicious. If these petty
objects and useless pursuits occupy the time
and engage the attention of every mother in an
Indian family ; if, beyond these, her mental
vision never penetrates, and her heart never
flows ; if, amidst all her trappings and decora-
tions, which she so much revels in and centres
her happiness in possessing, she can never even
acknowledge the Source from whence all things
spring ; if the affairs of the kitchen, the
bonds of relationship, and the extending of
connections, and temporal advancement of her
children, are the sole objects and purposes of
her existence, and complete the whole circum-
ference of her actions and thoughts — then it can
never be that an Indian son enjoys the real
blessing and comforts of an early domestic
education in all its varied extent and useful-
ness.
It will be urged, and Europeans are ready to
believe, that the picture given above of female
character in India was true some five-and-
twenty years ago ; but now that female educa-
tion has been working so steadily in Bombay
90 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
and Calcutta during the last quarter of a cen-
tury, it must materially have altered. But
this is placing too much confidence in the rose-
coloured reports of an organised system of hy-
pocrisy, which a few interested men, with a
sturdy pride, worthy of a better cause, try to
perpetuate. The system of education imparted
among the Parsees may, we presume, be taken
as a fair sample — rather a better one than any
else — of female enlightenment in India : better,
we say, because Parsees are so much ahead of
all Indian tribes in their enlightenment and
progress ; because they are not trammelled by
restrictive hindrances on the score of creed or
custom, like the Hindoos or Mussulmans ; and
because their commercial pursuits bring them
in almost daily contact with European thought
and intelligence — which are all facilities in their
way for adopting the machinery of modern Eu-
ropean education, and which are awanting among
the other races. The immediate instruments of
instruction are raw school-boys, on the merest
pittance of salary ; and it is the height of folly
to expect that the education imparted by them
can at all be solid, systematic, or influential in
refining. Berlin wool-work, crochet-knitting,
and chanting Gujarati doggerels, are all the
FEMALE EDUCATION. 9 1
shovvv acquirements that girls receive, without
ever being led into refined ideas, and love
of enlightenment and reflection : and what is
the result ? Girls growing up into women are
as void of pure delights as their mothers or
grandmothers ; and short as the time is that
they stay in school, they leave off all reading
after entering into life. There is no change
wrought over the spirit and bearing of females
by the present system of female instruction ;
and we have seen several instances in which
superstition and ignorance are as prevalent
among the so-called educated girls as among
women of the old school — with perhaps the
only difference, that the former are more
showy, more ambitious, more surly than the
latter. Two of these girls — the best of their
class, honoured with two prizes of books and
sewing-boxes, and a medal — cannot now read
plain prose with any degree of ease and
grace, and have twice been seen going in
the company of women paying their supersti-
tious vows to the goddess of the sea ! Tell
the girls to work for you a pair of slippers, and
you shall have a very gaudy-looking cover for
the feet ; tell them to chant to you a piece of
that doggerel, in which the best sentiment and
92 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
the best imagery rise not in the least above
the ideas of a common lascar or cooly, (and this
is the style of Gujarati verses put into their
hands, ) and you will have a harmonious flow of
the treble to please your ear without gratifying
your taste : but ask them whether their brother
or cousin, proceeding to England, goes by the
west or the east, or whether there is any distinc-
tion between one piece of plain composition and
another, and you behold them standing dumb be-
fore you, petrified as before the head of Medusa I*
* This, picture is as true of the girls of any caste or creed as
of the Parsees. The writer of these pages has twice visited Hin -
doo girls' schools, and found the melancholy truth verified —
there is really no female education in India. He has had com-
munication with an intelligent Native of Calcutta on this topic
— a Baboo by birth, — and has read articles in candid journals,
which have both confirmed him in his view. Discussion on
the present state and amelioration of female education was very
warm and long-continued, recently, in the papers here, both
vernacular and English, in both of which the writer took an ac-
tive part ; and at length found that with the only honorable (?)
exception of two Gujarati journals, all shared in the views just
as they are here expressed. The organ of the Female Education
Committee, when hard pushed, admitted that the Committee
imparted only an " infant education" to our girls ; and made
a defence of the existing rotten system on that ground in a
first leader, tinctured by mawkish sentimentality, made doubly
disgusting by its hypocritical complexion. It was then re-
plied, by the writer of these pages, that that was " a novel dis-
covery or conviction after a trial of twelve long years, during
DEFECTS OF THE SYSTEM. 93
This is no exaggeration, but a plain statement
of observed facts — as melancholy for the writer
to relate as derogatory to the national character
of his country. It is alleged, by way of a pal-
liative for all these defects, that the girls, owing
to early marriage, and prejudice on account of
the schools being conducted, superintended, and
planned by men, leave them so early as between
the ages of ten and twelve. The early mar-
riage is slowly disappearing, and must be left
to time and the action of the very education
which is destined to break the neck of this
touch-me-not effete custom, and the progress
of which it now tends so much to arrest ; but
the prejudice is the indication of the very
defect in the system, and there is more credit
for the community in yielding to it, at any
expense, than in destroying it. Any one, with
which time the Committee flattered themselves they imparted
female education, and for the sake of honesty and truth they
would now head their reports with "Female Infant Education."
It was after all a great satisfaction to know, that after a dispute
continued from time to time, in which they had employed
many makeshifts and lame arguments to support themselves,
the Committee (or rather their organ) awoke to the full sense
of their false pretensions, and frankly admitted that the educa-
tion here imparted was simply an infant education — by which
we understand reading with halts, writing without grammar,
chanting without prosody, and calculating without arithmetic !
16
94 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
the least sense of honour, should be the last
person to consign his daughter or his sister
to the charge of men, who, neither by supe-
rior education nor position in life, are in the
least degree fitted to cultivate the mind or
refine the heart. Why, it is impossible to con-
ceive that tastes and habits can be taught which
none but those that can naturally display them
are capacitated to confer ; and hence the incon-
gruity supposed in employing male teachers
in schools intended to impart feminine refine-
ment , and politeness, even in England. The
Bethune School at Calcutta commenced with
the excellent Mrs. Heberlin and her successors ;
and it is high time now to have Englishwomen
instructing our girls in all the different parts
of India, where shares of Es. 20 each can be
easily filled up to the extent of about 5,000
in number, to found high English schools.
We want the English language, English man-
ners, and English behaviour, for our wives and
daughters ; and until these are supplied, it is
but just that the present gulf between the
Englishman and the Indian should remain as
wide as ever. They meet each other in the
counting-house or the state-office, get on well
as men of business, and understand each other
SUGGESTIONS. 95
well as concerns all there considered; but in
all private and personal concerns, the for-
mer instinctively avoids coming in contact
with the latter, whether by way of asking ad-
vice or claiming sympathy. This is plain
enough, and easy to be comprehended: the
former does not know how far the latter is ca-
pable of understanding his position, or sympa-
thising with him in the concerns of the heart
and feelings. Woman makes the man ; so
that as long as the Indian woman is not ca-
pacitated to understand the English w^man,
and be understood by her in turn, the Anglo-
Indians cannot be expected to understand the
character of the men of the East ; and so long
as this requisite of a reciprocal understand-
ing is not supplied, Englishmen are not to be
blamed if they preserve themselves at a distance
from the Natives in private life, lest their finer
feelings be shocked or worn away by too fami-
liar contact with natures that have never been
refined by the subtle amenities of enlightened
female society. Napoleon once asked of Ma-
dame de Staelhowhe could make France a great
nation, and received in reply the brief but com-
prehensive suggestion, "Educate the Mothers."
Young India needs to know that women are
16*
96 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
not to have a mere " infant education" ; but
their intellect requires to be thoroughly dis-
ciplined and developed. It is of greater im-
portance to the world to have clever women
than clever men ; and if it were offered the
choice of the two suppositions — that all men
were clever and all the women fools, or that all
women were refined and all men untutored, —
the world would be far better in the general
aspect of mankind, and the appearance of the
men of genius and ability, in its selection of
the latter alternative. Weak men with clever
wives have begotten sons of high endowments
and power, but clever men with fools for their
mates have generally begotten fools. Sir Nico-
las Bacon was twice married : his first wife, an
illiterate woman, begot a careless offspring ; but
his second wife, a woman of very high capacity
and education, produced to him the great Lord
Bacon. Indeed, it must be ever borne in mind
that woman is born for something more than
a show of God's finer handiwork ; she is born
to make that child which is to be " father to
the man" ; and marriage is that serious respon-
sibility, to be so understood by man as to feel
that what he wants therein is not merely his
helpmate in life, but a mothei* for his children.
CLEVER WOMEN AND THEIR OFFSPRING. 97
Under circumstances like the foregoing, we
are almost tempted to pardon the defects in the
natural constitution, mental and moral, of the
rising generation of India, and feel ourselves
gratified, that hemned in, as it is, by defects
the most momentous in their issues — and what
other defect can be more momentous than that
of the utter neglect of early domestic training ?
— it has already achieved great things in the
department of intellectual vigour. We are
the more tempted to award to Young India
his prize and eulogy, when we consider
that there is an inherent defect even in the
system of instruction imparted to him at the
school, which gives to his mental capacity the
appearance of a forced implantation. Need it
be told what it is, after all that has been said
of the utter want of domestic education, which,
but for it, may not be so disastrous in its con-
sequences ? Yes — it is the total want of board-
ing and lodging in association with our schools
and colleges, whereby the boy invariably acquires
two important elements of human life — physical
hardihood and manly self-reliance. If there is
in any country a need of this institution more
than in another, it is in India, where the home
is so much a blank, and the boy is so apt to be
17
98 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
infused with the ignorance and weaknesses of
the parents; and yet Government have with-
held it from us !
In England, a boy leaves his father and
mother's house, and goes to live at a college or
school. In exchange for the influence of his
parents, home, and family, he receives that of
his teachers, and that of his college or school
friends and companions. A sitting-room and
a bedroom are assigned to him, as his castle,
and there he makes his first experience of life,
with some of the details of house-keeping, of
society, of independent action ; and learns the
privileges and responsibilities of being his own
master. Here he has no parents or brothers
to protect or help him, and he soon awakes to
the fact that he has to fight his way unassist-
ed by other support than what his own manli-
ness supplies. He becomes the asserter of his
rights and claims; the architect at first, and
protector afterwards, of his individual position
and dignity : and thus acquires one important
element of human life and success — self-reliance.
But there is that harmony of system in Eng-
lish universities which does not give a one-
sided growth to this element, rendering boys
churlish; there is evolved, along with it, the
ENGLISH BOARDING-SCHOOLS. 99
element of union and nationality, also want-
ing in India. The student, while he lives at
the college, is united to it by the ties of com-
mon interests, common amusements, common
studies, and a common worship : he meets his
companions almost daily at the lectures, in
the hall, in the chapel, in the deba ting-room,
in walks, in rides, in the boat-race or the
cricket-field. The same ties, a little relaxed,
unite him with the students of other colleges in
the university; and he sees in the union of his
companions the union of a nation in after life.
According to the most obvious division of
human nature, man is composed — 1 , of the body,
or physical organisation ; 2, of the mind, or intel-
lect ; and 3, of spirit, or moral nature ; — a divi-
sion that has come down to us since the Repub-
lic of Plato ; and education being that process
whereby the whole man is trained, a great
school, a college, or university, is bound to train
and fashion, not the understanding only, but the
body and the spirit also. An English boy,
looking upon his school days as a period of
happiness and mirth, sings —
" Oh ! when I was a tiny boy,
My days and nights were full of joy ;
My mates were blithe and kind !
100 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
No wonder that I sometimes sigh,
And dash the tear-drop from my eye,
To cast a look behind !"
But every urchin in India, on the contrary,
ever looks upon his schools as so many prisons,
and grieves —
" What tender urchins now confine,
What little captives now repine,
Within yon irksome walls !"
And the reason is obvious, from the fact that
while in England play and study are combined,
in order to educate both the physical and the
intellectual man, (in Oxford and Cambridge,
the religious is also trained up,) in India, the
operation of nauseous cramming is systematical-
ly pursued. We shall content ourselves, with
a view to illustrate our observation, with a
short extract from " Tom Browns School
Days" relating a foot-ball match, when the
boys run about in the grounds, strength and
energy all exhausting, reckless even of a
shoulder broken or body crushed to pieces
in the rush of boys eager to give a " drop-kick"
to the ball into the enemy's side, amidst
" the din of Look out in quarters !" — " Off
"your side!" — Down with him!" and the
like.
"TOM BROWN'S SCHOOL DAYS/' 101
" The quarter to five has struck, and the
play slackens for a minute before goal; but
there is Crew, the artful dodger, driving the
ball in behind our goal, on the island side,
where our quarters are weakest. Is there no
one to meet him? Yes ! look at little East!
the ball is just at equal distances between the
two, and they rush together, the young man of
seventeen and the boy of twelve, and kick it
at the same moment. Crew passes on without
a stagger; East is hurled forward by the shock,
and plunges on his shoulder, as if he would
bury himself in the ground; but the ball rises
straight into the air, and falls behind Crew's
back, while the ' bravos' of the School-house
attest the pluckiest charge of all that hard-
fought day. Warner picks East up, lame
and half stunned, and he hobbles back into
goal, conscious of having played the man.
" And now the last minutes are come, and the
School gather for their last rush every boy of
the hundred and twenty who has a run left in
him. Reckless of the defence of their own
goal, on they come across the level big-side
ground, the ball well down amongst them,
straight for our goal, like the column of the
Old Guard up the slope at Waterloo. All
102 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
former charges have been child's play to this.
Warner and Hedge have met them, but still
on they come. The bull-dogs rush in for the
last time ; they are hurled over or carried
back, striving hand, foot, and eyelids. Old
Brooke comes sweeping round the skirts of the
play, and turning short round, picks out the
very heart of the scrummage, and plunges in.
It wavers for a moment — he has the ball !
No, it has passed him, and his voice rings out
clear over the advancing tide, ' Look out in
goal.' ' Crab Jones catches it for a moment ;
but before he can kick, the rush is upon him
and passes over him ; and he picks himself up
behind them with his straw in his mouth, a
little dirtier, but as cool as ever.
"The ball rolls slowly in behind the School-
house goal, not three yards in front of a dozen
of the biggest School players-up.
" There stand the School-house praepostor,
safest of goal-keepers, and Tom Brown by his
side, who has learned his trade by this time.
Now is your time, Tom. The blood of all the
Browns is up, and the two rush in together,
and throw themselves on the ball, under the
very feet of the advancing column ; the praepos-
tor on his hands and knees arching his back.
AN ENGLISH PLAY-GROUND. 103
and Tom all along on his face. Over them
topple the leaders of the rush, shooting over
the back of the praepostor, but falling flat on
Tom, and knocking all the wind out of his
small carcass. ' Our ball,' says the praepostor,
rising with his prize, ' but get up there, there's
a little fellow under you.' They are hauled
and roll off him, and Tom is discovered a
motionless body.
" Old Brooke picks him up. * Stand back,
give him air,' he says ; and then feeling his
limbs, adds, ' No bones broken. How do you
feel, young 'un ?'
" ' Hah-hah,' gasps Tom as his wind comes
back, ' pretty well, thank you— all right/
" ' Who is he ?' says Brooke. * Oh, it's
Brown, he's a new boy ; I know him,' says East,
coming up.
" i Well, he is plucky youngster, and will
make a player,' says Brooke."
We may laugh at this over-excitement, a fair
picture of which can only be seen in the full
description, which would run over some twenty
pages of our book, and is therefore too lengthy
for extraction. The Native reader may not
see much in it ; but it must be borne in mind
that a battle would look much the same, " ex-
1 4 LIGHTS A1STD SHADES.
cept that the boys would be men and the balls
of iron."
In " Tom Brown at Oxford" there is the
description of another amusement, as charac-
teristic of the maturer years of the student
as a foot-ball is of his school-days. It re-
lates an university boat-race, which is per-
haps the most characteristic of all gymnas-
tic amusements. We must premise that
Oxford and Cambridge are both situated on
rivers, but they are rivers so narrow that it
would be difficult, if not dangerous, for one
eight-oared boat to pass another in a race.
Hence a system has been devised, which is
called " bumping," whereby the boats, instead
of starting abreast, are placed at the beginning
of a race one behind the other, at short inter-
vals, in a fixed order, and the victory consists
in touching some part of the boat in front with
the bow. After this feat is performed, the
successful boat, in the next race, endeavours to
to give another bump, thereby gaining a fur-
ther advanced place in the list ; and then on
again, until it wins the coveted honour of be-
ing the " head of the river," as it is called — i. e. 9
first of all on the list. Here, then, is an account
of a boat-race between the scholars of two
"TOM BROWN AT OXFORD." 105
.colleges, St. Ambrose's and Oriel, in which
Miller is the steerer of the St. Ambrose boat,
Tom and Hardy actors in the race, and Drys-
dale a spectator of it on the shore : —
" After a few moments of breathless hush on
the bank, the last gun is fired, and they are off.
The old scene of mad excitement ensues, only
tenfold more intense, as almost the whole inte-
rest of the races is to-night concentrated on the
two head boats and their fate. Both make a
beautiful start; in the first dash the St. Am-
brose pace tells, and they gain their boat's
length before first winds fail, and then they
settle down for a long steady effort. Both
crews are rowing comparatively steady, reserv-
ing themselves for the tug of war above. Mil-
ler's face is decidedly hopeful; he shows no
sign indeed, but you can see that he feels that
to-day the boat is full of life, and that he can
call on his crew with hopes of an answer. His
w T ell-trained eye detects, that while both crews
are at full stretch, his own is gaining inch by
inch on Oriel. The gain is scarcely percep-
tible to him even — from the bank it is quite im-
perceptible ; but there it is, he is surer and surer
of it, as one after another the willows are left
behind. . . .Now there is no mistake about it,
18
106 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
St. Ambrose's boat is creeping up slowly but
surely. The boat's length lessens to 40 feet, to
30 feet, surely and steadily lessens. But the
race is not lost yet; 30 feet is a short space
enough to look at on the water, but a good bit
to pick up foot by foot in the last two hundred
yards of a desperate struggle. There stands
the winning-post, close ahead, all but won. The
distance lessens and lessens still, but the Oriel
crew stick steadily and gallantly to their work,
and fight every inch of distance to the last.
The Orielites on the bank, who are rushing
along, sometimes in the water, sometimes out,
hoarse, furious, madly alternating between hope
and danger, have no reason to be ashamed of a
man in the crew. Another minute and it will
be over one way or another. Every man in
both crews is now doing his best, and no mis-
take ; tell me which boat holds the most men
who can do better than their best at a pinch,
who will risk a broken blood-vessel, and I
will tell you how it will end. ' Hard pound-
ing, gentlemen ; let us see who wall pound
longest,' the Duke of Wellington is reported
to have said at the Battle of Waterloo ; and
he won. Is there a man of that temper in
either crew to-night ? If so, now is his time.
A BOAT-RACE. 10/
For both coxswains have called on their men
for the last effort : Miller is whirling the tas-
sel of his right hand tiller-rope round his
head like a weary little lunatic : from the
towing path, from Christ Church meadow,
from the rows of punts, from the clustered tops
of the barges, comes a roar of encouragement
and applause, and the band, unable to resist
the impulse, breaks with a crash into the tune
of the Jolly Young Waterman. The St. Am-
brose stroke is glorious. Tom had an atom of
go still left in the very back of his head, and
this moment he heard Drysdale's ' view holloa'
above all the din ; it seemed to give him a lift,
and other men besides in the boat, for in ano-
ther six strokes the gap is lessened, and St.
Ambrose has crept up to ten feet, and now to
five astern of the Oriel. Weeks afterwards,
Hardy confided to Tom, that when he heard
that view holloa, he seemed to feel the muscles
of his arms and legs turn into steel, and did
more work in the last twenty strokes than in
any other part in the earlier part of the race.
Another fifty yards and Oriel is safe, but the
look on their Captain's face is so ominous that
their coxswain glances over his shoulder. The
bow of St. Ambrose is within two feet of their
108 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
rudder. It is a moment for desperate expe-.
dients. He pulls his left tiller-rope suddenly,
thereby carrying the stern of his own boat out
of the line of St. Ambrose's, and calls on his
crew once more : they respond gallantly yet,
but the rudder is against them for a moment,
and the boat drags. St. Ambrose's overlaps.
' A bump,' i a bump,' shout the Ambrosians on
shore. ' Row on, row on,' screams Miller. He
has not yet felt the electric shock, and knows
he will miss his bump if the young ones slack-
en for a moment. A young coxswain would
have gone on making shots at the stern of the
Oriel boat, and so have lost. A bump now
and no mistake ; and the bow of St. Ambrose's
boat jams the oar of the Oriel stroke, and the
two pass the winning-post with the swing that
was on them when the bump was made. So
bare a shave was it. To describe the scene on
the bank is beyond me. It was a hurly-burly
of delirious joy."
Here we see much pluck, endeavour, and
excitement, expended on a worthless object, a
barren honour — so much, indeed, that the risk
of bursting a blood-vessel is run in order to win.
And we cannot but perceive that the spirit
which wins an Oxford boat-race is the same
PHYSICAL HARDIHOOD. 1 09
spirit which has won for England her place in
history, displaying the steady resolve, undaunted
courage, and earnest perseverance after distinc-
tion, which distinguish the English nationality,
wherever implanted. It is, indeed, very sad to
reflect that we have been denied that training
which is calculated to implant in us, as shown
above, a manly reliance, a sense of national
union, and physical hardihood, at the same time
while it educates the man in his double rela-
tions of the intellectual and the physical being.
l/nder a foreign government, a people can
never rise above a certain amount of material
prosperity, and but to a very low point in mental
and moral character. Self-government, inde-
pendence, and patriotism, which, if not the only,
are yet the strongest motives to exertion, are
denied them. We are far from hereby insinuat-
ing that we want self-government ; but yet we
ask to be prepared for it in our schools and
colleges. England cannot hope to be perpe-
tually prominent, and a time may yet arrive
when she shall have to yield to retarding in-
fluences, and sink into the quiescence of all
things mundane ; and it is against this contin-
gency that she has to train up her Indian sub-
jects. When the fall is prepared for her
19
110 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
greatness, and she has to withdraw herself from
India, let it not be said that she left us in the
miserable plight that Rome formerly left her —
an easy prey to internal anarchy and foreign
invasions, — but with the union and courage of
a mighty nation, ready to fight its battle of
independence, when needs be.* For this end,
the boy must be taught at the school that his
own hands are the safeguards of his person and
rights, and he will naturally learn in his maturer
years to look upon his home as his castle, which
he must defend with his individual strength.
His hardihood, growing with his growth, and
matured with his maturity, will have endurance
such as a free and hardy citizen enjoys. At
present, however, while feats of strength and
agility are not wanting in India, we do not
fail to meet with instances in which our best
athlete quails before the sight of a European,
even though conscious of superior strength of
body. The reason is, that the mere mus-
cular development which is seen in our Indian
* If England's destiny be, on the contrary, such as we here-
after describe — to establish an universal freedom in the world, —
then the duty that we here point out becomes the more impe-
rative. England's mission in India is undoubtedly to capacitate
her to be great and free, and she must work to this end from
now, or she proves herself faithless both to God and mankind!
DEFECTS IX INDIAN TRAINING. 1 1 1
athletes was acquired when the adult stepped
into the lists, without that regular training at
the school which makes the boy hardy and
self-relying before he becomes a imm.* The
state of tilings must be altered ; and if India
is to be advanced politically, and if her sons
are to act for themselves as a nation is wont
to act, they must be taught to feel, from train-
ing and education, that they are the natural
protectors of their person and propertv, and
that each individual possesses within himself
the spirit and strength required to becomi
guardian of the national rights of his country.
* This is a safe deduction from the experience gathered from
the writers connection with the Parsee Gymnastic Institution,
at Bombay, as a Member of the Committee, for the last two
years, as well as his intimate contact during the same period
with Native boys — infantine and grown-up— as the head man
directing and controlling the Parsee High School associated with
it. He has seen boys so timid and weak as actually to faint away
at any threatening order, out of fear ; but, after exercise for a
year or half-year at the gymnasium, becoming so manly and
self-relying as to defy any danger. Had boarding been also
associated at the school, this change might, perhaps, hare been
more general, and more wholesome. But the Parsees have been
thinking of a boarding-school for last six years at least, without
inaugurating any step in the right direction ; and, probably,
they may only think, for ever !
112
CHAPTER V.
EXTERNAL CIRCUMSTANCES BEARING ON SUC-
CESS IN LIFE, AND THOSE WHICH OPERATED
ON HARRIS.
External influences from early Teachers. — The Missionary
best adapted to be the Teacher of Youth. — Why, however,
he is disliked in India. — His undue zeal in the propagation
of his Religion. — Mr. Gaster quoted. — The passage between
School and Manhood. — How is individual character deter-
mined? — Requisites in the moulding of character. — When
and where is fate or destiny determined? — The preponder-
ance of the romantic over the sober tendency ruinous. —
The fate of Eugene Aram. — The critical pass in the case of
Baboo Harrischander how signalised. — His " being born
again."
The external circumstances that determine the
future character of any individual are those
under which he receives his impressions as a
boy, from the schoolmasters at school, or compa-
nions immediately after leaving the school ; or
between that time and the time of passing into
manhood. Often the boy is idle, desultory, and
mischievous ; and it is by some circumstances
during his passage from the . school to man-
EXTERNAL INFLUENCES. 1 1 3
hood that he is changed; it is then, as it were,
" a renewing of the mind" — " a being born
again" — a transformation — a conversion from
" death to life and from darkness to light" — a
total change from one species of character into
another, occurs. But in the case of Harris,
these external circumstances of character were
fortunately exerted both at the school and dur-
ing his passage from youth into manhood. At
school, Harris had, as a teacher, one of those
remarkable men, who are often to be found
in a class too much overlooked. This was a
Missionary of the Church of Christ — Mr. C.
Piffard, — a wise, good, and kind friend — who
had a deep sense of the responsibility he incur-
red in his endeavours to secure the happiness of
his pupils, and to form their moral character
— which, though not necessarily Christian, yet
should be good and moral withal ; — a resolute
master, too, who, when his pupil was in the
wrong, carried his point, and enforced obedi-
ence; a real missionary — for there are false
ones also, — fully alive to the importance of his
mission; and had, therefore, known nothing
but integrity and honour. People think lightly
of these men of love and labour : perhaps they
have a right to do so — because, in their zeal
19*
1 1 4 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
and piety, these followers of the Cross are apt
to overleap the bounds of propriety in attempt-
ing to implant the principles of a Christian
life on tender minds of ten and twelve, which,
without working at all upon their judgment, yet
lay a hold of them too powerful even for becom-
ing respect to parental affections and social
ties. These class-philanthropists have done
much for India, and will do yet more; and but
for their undue zeal in seeking to work strong
impressions on our young boys at an age when
they may as easily be enlisted under the Satanic
banner, to try their puny strength against the
powers of Heaven, every child of India would
find himself entrusted, not through necessity,
like Harris, but through choice and better in-
stincts, to a Piffard, a Wilson, or a Mitchell.
This circumstance has been well touched on by
one of their own order in a recent work — by
Mr. Gaster,* though he also has his theory for
the propagation of Christianity in India: —
" I don't like schools. No, I don't like them at
all as a part of a missionary's w r ork among the
Mussulmans and heathen. Now, don't mistake
me : I do like schools ; yes, I do like schools for
* " Missions in India," 1
MISSIONARY EDUCATIONISTS. 1 15
Native Christians, both for adults and children,
because I believe the sole duty of a missionary
in the educational department is to raise the
standard of the Native Christians. But how
can a missionary be bound to prepare a num-
ber of Mussulmans and heathen for situations
in Government offices ? What claim is there
on me, or on any other minister of the Gospel,
to cram heathen boys with algebra, Euclid, bo-
tany, ' the poets,' and a dozen other matters ?
The reply is, i By teaching the young such
matters, we get them to read the Bible one
hour every morning,' — i. e., you use five hours'
algebra and botany as a bribe for one hour's
Christianity. Depend on it, Christianity needs
no bribes whatever — neither intellectual nor
tangible — to help it on through the world. If
the heathen will not hear the Gospel, it is
their fault; but pray don't bribe them," &c.
But, be the case as it stands, it is not to be de-
nied that it was a happy circumstance in the early
life of Harris to be under the management of
the Rev. Mr. Piffard from the age of seven : it
was this, more than anything else, that shaped
and moulded the future man of substantial
strength, right direction, and noble aims.
But it has been remarked above, that there
116 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
had also operated an influence other than this
of the school upon Harris, in which Providence
seemed to take him most conspicuously by a
kindly hand. At the very early age of thir-
teen he left school : he had made no great pro-
gress in learning, and he had no more settled
purpose, when he left his form, than the very
vague one of falling upon the world to procure
a bare livelihood ; and it was at this time that
he was most perilously situated. The period,
reader, between the school and manhood, is
the riiost critical in life. In our grown-up
manhood it is that we pause, and look back
with interest on the world of circumstances
through which life has been drawn. In our
retrospective glance, we meet with a number
of friends and acquaintances, who have had
contact with us ; a number of impressions and
thoughts that we received from these, and gave
to these; a number of exhibitions of virtue that
fell to our notice, and excited our admiration
and sympathy, as well as, at the same time, of
evil, that forced themselves before the eye and
awoke natural or forced disgust and abhorrence;
a number of books read, or narrations heard,
and contemplations and musings, that pictured
to the imagination dreams and vanities, which
GERMS OF MANHOOD. 117
proved futile as soon as formed; — and all these
multitudinous circumstances have had their
influences upon us; though we may wonder
how all these jarring impressions and incidents
conspired, like that imaginary attraction which
produces the resurrection of the body by draw-
ing in particles from the hills, wind, dust, and
everything, to produce our individual character,
without diversity or inconsistency. The reason
of this, and which takes away the wonderment,
is, that amidst all these jarring and incon-
gruous influences, natural, moral, and intellec-
tual, operating on the individual mind, there is
some one of them that is most prominent, and
that at once determines its future cast and
tendency. Yes; it is from some particular
contact, reading, or scene, forcibly impressed
on the mind during this period of life, that
the future man is determined. Whatever the
character of the boy in the school, something
now touches the vital chain, and he*is snatched
away from all earlier habits and tastes, and
born again, and lives anew, if the influence
and the impression be healthy and wholesome.
His latent energies and tastes (these must be
naturally good, or the influence is lost) are
awakened, ambition is enkindled, and studies
1 18 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
commenced and continued. He comes to it,
perhaps, as many do, an idle boy, of desultory
habits ; but leaves it in purpose and career a
man. He sees its loftiness, catches the infec-
tion, Nature whispering within — " You might
also do that, if you awake out of your torpor";
and the determination re-echoes, " I must — I
will!" — and there the man is stamped. Man
sees the mystic lights above world upon world,
infinite, incalculable, rolling for ever in a fixed
determinate order and course ; and in an hour
of gloomy dejection and despair, he is tempted
to cast up his eyes towards the high vault, and,
reading in them his destiny, is apt, in super-
stitious submission, to question those orbs with
impassioned feeling — " Can I look upon you,
your determinate order, your fixed orbit, from
which you, with all your mighty massiveness,
cannot move one atom of your bodies, and not
discern therein that I and my fellow-creatures
are indeed the poor victims of an all-powerful
destiny ? Oh ! can aught avert the doom pre-
destined to us ; will not the change in a jnere
particle of our fate involve partiality from One
who has sternly fixed the destiny of millions
mightier than man himself? Away, then, vain
efforts, ineffectual prayers : we must move blind-
INFLUENCE OF 'DESTINY." 119
ly onwards, the wisest or the most foolish ; the
colours of our existence were doomed before our
birth — our sorrows, and our crimes, — millions of
ages back, when this hoary earth was peopled
by other kinds; yea, ere its atoms had formed
one layer of its present soil, the eternal and all-
seeing Ruler of the universe, Destiny, or God,
or whatever name you may employ, had here
fixed the moments of our birth and the limits
of our career!" But, repining and blasphem-
ous man, if thou seest aught aright, thy fate,
destiny, or whatever thou namest it, ha.^ been
fixed not long before — not in the antediluvian
or yet remoter world; it was fixed only in
this world of thine existence : the whole chart
of thy life was drawn just before thyself only,
twenty, thirty, forty years past — in which the
sketches and the colouring were all executed
before thine eyes; every line and shade of the
future full portraiture were given by a myste-
rious pencil in the critical pass between school
and manhood.
But let it not in the least be understood
that there is any attempt here made to attach
undue importance to the external influences in
early life. That they are very powerful in
moulding the man is not to be denied ; yet, it
120 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
must be admitted, at the same time, that if
the inner instincts of the boy be of a gross
and ignoble nature — if he feels really at home
with low tastes and vulgar habits, — any im-
pression of a wholesome external influence
is not only unavailable, but actually ruinous.
When in contact with a noble influence or
example, he feels himself out of his element ;
he is mortified, sunk low — and his heart strug-
gles of itself to fly off for the more appropriate
and congenial exhibition. Much depends in
everything upon the inner self ; and often, where
neither the external influence nor the inward
impulse is pernicious, from the preponderance
of the romantic, in earlier youth, over the sober
and the discerning, the richest crop has been
blighted and withered, the best heart and the
noblest mind ruined. The romantic may be
of any sort — romantic grief, felicity, imagina-
tion, and so forth ; but wherever there is a pre-
ponderance, there is utter ruin, death, annihila-
tion. That graphic and most acute delineator
of human nature, Sir E. Bulwer Lytton, has
well illustrated this ruin in the character of his
Eugene Aram, whose splendid mind, flowing
heart, and noble aspirations, were all wrecked
through a fatal love of reverie in early life : —
EXAMPLE QUOTED. 121
" ' It is singular,' said Aram, ' but often as
I have paused at this spot, and gazed upon
this landscape, a likeness to the scenes of my
childish life, which it now seems to me to
present, never occurred to me before. Yes,
yonder, in that cottage, with the sycamores in
front, and the orchard extending behind, till
its boundary, as we now stand, seems lost
among: the woodland, I could fancv that I
looked upon my father's home. The clump of
trees that lies yonder to the right could cheat
me readily to the belief that I saw th<* little
grove, in which, enamoured with the first
passion of study, I was wont to pore over the
thrice-read book through the long summer
days ; — a boy — a thoughtful boy ; yet, oh, how
happy ! What worlds appeared then to me to
open in every page ! how exhaustless I thought
the treasures and the hopes of life ! and beau-
tiful on the mountain tops seemed to me the
steps of knowledge ! I did not dream of all that
the musing and lonely passion that I nursed
was to entail upon me. There, in the clefts
of the valley, on the ridges of the hill, or by
the fragrant course of the stream, I began
already to win its history from the herb or
flower ; I saw nothing that I did not long to
122 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
unravel its secrets ; all that the earth nou-
rished ministered to one desire : — and what of
low or sordid did there mingle with that desire ?
The petty avarice, the mean ambition, the
debasing love, even the heat, the anger, the
fickleness, the caprice of other men, did they
allure or bow down my nature from its steep-and
solitary eyrie ? I lived but to feed my mind ;
wisdom was my thirst, my dream, my aliment,
my sole fount and sustenance of life. And
have I not sown the wind and reaped the
whirlwind ? The glory of my youth is gone,
my veins are chilled, my frame is bowed, my
heart is gnawed with cares, my nerves are
unstrung as a loosened bow : and what, after
all, is my gain ? Oh, God ! what is my gain ?'
" * Eugene, dear, dear Eugene !' murmured
Madeline, soothingly, and wrestling with her
tears, c is not your gain great ? is it not triumph
that you stand, while yet young, almost alone
in the world, for success in all that you have
attempted ?'
" ' And what,' exclaimed Aram, breaking in
upon her, ' what is this world which we ran-
sack but a stupendous charnel-house ? Every-
thing that we deem most lovely, ask its origin ?
— Decay ! When we rifle nature, and collect
YOUTHFUL ROMANCES. 123
wisdom, are we not like the hags of old, culling
simples from the rank grave, and extracting
sorceries from the rotting bones of the dead ?
Everything around us is fathered by corruption,
battened by corruption, and into corruption
returns at last. Corruption is at once the
womb and grave of Nature, and the very beauty
on which we gaze, — the cloud, and the tree,
and the swarming waters, — all are one vast
panorama of death ! But it did not always
seem to me thus ; and even now I speak with a
heated pulse and a dizzy brain. Come, Made-
line, let us change the theme.' "
Thus the early life of Eugene was passed in
passionate yearnings after knowledge : but all
his acquisitions did not satisfy him — nothing,
in fact, in the world, could satisfy his romance ;
and just in his critical pass through life — the
perilous period between the school and manhood
— he gave himself up to calculate his gains and
his losses ; and brooding moodily, as he did, over
some disappointment of a mysterious influence,
the bright scholar wrecked his talents, his
reputation, his life itself, on his romances.
But this critical pass in life was signalised
in the case of Harris with his entry into the
service of the Military Auditor General. He
124 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
had applied for an increase of only Us. 3
to his salary at Messrs. Tulloh & Co.'s, and
had his application been entertained, he would
have remained satisfied — his energy, perhaps,
have been gone, and he plodded on in life at the
auction counter, without forcing himself out
so prominently in after life ; but Providence
works His designs most mysteriously, and his
application was rejected. This led him to
present himself at the examination for a va-
cancy in the Military Auditor Generals Office,
where,, after entry, he came in contact with Mr.
Mackenzie, popular even in the odious situation
of an Income-Tax Commissioner at Calcutta.
This officer was above the narrow-minded
prejudices of many of his countrymen. The
surly contumacy of hot-brained Englishmen,
which despises the Native, was not to be found
in the kindly and humane constitution of the
Collector ; and he freely associated himself
with his " nigger" clerk. He entered into the
character and the constitution of the mind of
Harris, and discovering a powerful intellect,
he at once resolved to lead it to a full develop-
ment. With this view, he introduced him to
Colonel Champneys, the Deputy Military Au-
ditor General, another Englishman zealously
THE CRITICAL PERIOD WITH HARRIS. 125
devoted to do good to any one who stood in
need of him, and extremely anxious to make
his clerks intelligent, knowledge-seeking men.
He very soon perceived the worth of his obscure
copyist, and resolved to promote him t
and emolument by his patronage, and direct-
ed his mind with a stern injunction to :><n)ks
and education. Harris's prospects now bright-
ened: at the very time which should del
the future tendency of his mind, he found him-
self under the care of Colonel Champn<
Air. Mackenzie, lending him books co
solid thought and knowledge, not only
their own private collections, but
the Calcutta Public Library ; and Harris r<
them all with a greedy avidit;
stirrings of a noble aspiration within. I
above, and a goal before him.
126
CHAPTER VI.
HIS ENERGY AND AMBITION DIRECTED TO A
SPECIFIC COURSE.
Importance of a specific course of life. — Two subdivisions of
the better class of Young India. — The worst described. — Oui
so-called Savants. — Their vanity and presumption. — Their
dishonesty in essays and books. — An audacious attempt of this
kind stated. — The fate of a young man who begins to work
in ea?;nest. — The daily labours of a so-called Savant, and men
of his class. — Observations of contemptible ignorance of the
most rudimentary knowledge and learning stated. — The " do-
mestic literary treason" of the elder Disraeli. — Study pursued
in India more as a means to rise than as an end in itself. —
Want of earnestness and pre-calculation with Young India in
all his undertakings. — He justly meets with the discomfiture
of Alnascar. — Harris prominently distinct iri his traits of
character. — His pursuit of knowledge as an end, not as n
means. — His remarkable zeal after learning. — His manner
of spending leisure. — A remarkable scene in the mock
Bengalee Temple. — Who achieves success ?
As yet we have seen Harris possessing natural
general energy and decision, which might not
have yielded the fruit they actually have done.
These were disciplined by happy external influ-
ences — perhaps also increased by them : but
this energy, and even talent, might have been
A SPECIFIC COURSE IMPORTANT. 127
wrecked, and utterly ruined, as in the case of
Eugene Aram, but for their being employed in
a specific course, with success and credit. Two
sub-classes of Young India — that is Young
India of the first grand division, the hope of
India and of the East — have been spoken of in
the foregoing pages ; one of which is surly,
ostentatious, and idle, wholly taken up in the
concerns of common life, in the mere mechani-
cal ploddings of a professional pursuit, where
there brightens not a single aspiration of a
higher motive: dedicated every bit — brain and
hands, skill and strength, day, night, and hour
— to mere business, ease, and listlessness, they
are those hirelings of learning and education,
who pursue study, not as an object, but as the
instrument of their exaltation, and leave it as
soon as their mean purpose has been served.
They are like Watson, who gave up his pur-
suits in chemistry as soon as he obtained a
professorship, and did not blush to vent forth
the wretched jingle, after attaining his object,
that he preferred " larches to his laurels" ;
and, like him, are actuated in life by that egotis-
tic pride worthy only of the creature of selfism
and worldly fame. These have formed a coterie,
and having the accident of being somewhat
128 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
well established in public opinion (public opi-
nion! — say rather their own self-conceited opi-
nion), pass their time in easy tale-telling — that
is, scandalising every rising spirit that ventures
to look upon them with just contempt, or make
a bold front of rectitude and honesty against
the counsels of their pride and egotism. Edu-
cation — sound, thorough education — has been
working its way at least thirty years on this
side of India, and with all the vast expen-
diture bestowed on organising and continuing
for so long a period a cumbrous system of sound
enlightenment — with all the boasted knowledge
of the English language on the part of all our
past batches of students — with all their vaunt-
ing of being the promoters of civilisation and
refinement among the benighted mass of India,
— we have not one man of talent or genius from
among them to compare with some of the com-
monest artisans, or persons in indigent circum-
stances, who have shed a halo of glorv round
the British name by their writings, inventions,
or discoveries ! They deem themselves the
directors of taste, learning, and — everything;
though they can show nothing beyond men
compilations of dictionaries (which, by
way, is a mechanical task, especially ai
MOURNFUL FACTS. 129
results of the labours of Englishmen in this
department), and a few essays, in which there
is not a single stretch of thought, but a great
deal of abstract, and still more of trash.* Ill
* With the exception of Moonshee Mohanlal's " Journal"
Messrs. Hirji and Jehangir's " Residence in England" Mr. Dosa-
bhoy Framji's " History of the Parsis" and some tracts of Bal
Gangadhar Shastri, we have nothing on this side of India to
show even as readable compositions. There are, no doubt, high-
sounding " moral essays," " social dissertations," and " civil
administration" and " religious" essays — one or two in English,
the rest in the vernacular; but they are all compilations, if not
dishonest plagiarisms — part from this author, and part from
that. It is the conviction of the writer of these pa^es, that
almost all works and essays printed in the vernacular are tinged
with a degree of dishonesty disgusting to any honest reader.
Often, entire books are plagiarised, and no mention made of
the authors ; and when the writer is deliberately dishonest, but
also intelligent, he endeavours to avoid detection by indent-
ing upon different authors at the same time. The writer has
seen a book of moral essays, with the name of the pretended
author prefixed, which, even on a superficial reading, remind-
ed him of " Chambers's Moral Class-book" (already trans-
lated into Gujarati as well as Marathi), and the late Rev.
Mr. Nesbit's " Discourses." That this practice of indenting
upon English authors is not unconscious, is obvious from the
fact that the author (we mean of the dishonest plagiarisms)
does it with a view to obtain favourable reviews, and tries, in
the whole run of his argument, to avoid detection as much as
possible, by introducing a sentiment of his own in a line or two
here and there. Some five years ago, a most audacious decep-
tion of this kind was attempted on the public, and had very
nearly escaped all notice. A collection of essays was published
in Gujarati, with the name of the would-be author affixed to it,
22
130 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
fares it, then, with any young man who ventures
to dispute their dictum, or pursue earnestly
a course of reform and enlightenment in his
own way ; for whenever he touches any one
without any mention — even so much as a passing allusion —
being made to the aid derived from another writer. No doubt
the work, as reviewed by our Gujarati papers, and judged by
the public, was a surprisingly useful one — as much so as Bacon's
"Aphorisms ," which it resembled in many respects. But the
only credit due to the audaciously dishonest appropriator was, as
subsequently discovered, that he had translated word by word a
small English work published in the last century, and now quite
out of print !
While advancing such facts as these, it needs not to be
stated that the man who felt no moral restraint from such
a bold piece of contemptible dishonesty and cheatery with the
public, though he affects much, is possessed of but little Eng-
lish learning ; and, in his translation, we hesitate not to assert that
he has altogether spoilt a fine, thoughtful English treatise, from
want of a clear comprehension of the philosophic strain of the
essays. The English work, so dishonestly and ignorantly ran-
sacked, was doubtless translated with the view of getting either
a name, (but what name is there in being a mere translator ?)
or making up a little fortune by way of literary profit. Even
with this practice, we have not a long list of prints to show.
The prospect in Calcutta is, however, far more cheering, and
the writer of these pages has been assured by his Baboo cor-
respondent that there are occasionally very creditable works
published in his city. The number of different tracts and
works already published in the Bengalee language he believes
from minute inquiry is not far short of thirteen hundred ; while
here, in Bombay, with all the dishonest pretensions on the
part of our older students, we cannot show one -fourth of that
number.
OUR WOULD-BE SAVANTS. 131
of these arbitrary savants, or their cherished
views, the effect is much the same as that
caused by catching a gander by the tail —
when the whole flock, geese, ganders, goslings,
one and all, show a fellow-feeling, and hiss
and cackle together. And thus it is that any
further progress is checked and retarded in
this country.* As for their manner of spend-
ing their time, it consists almost entirely in just
reading the newspapers, chatting at a library,
visiting friends, going to the gardens, where a
rich patron is willing to fatten them on rich
viands, and besot them on rare wines, without
putting them to any expense ; writing an article
or letter once or twice a month in the papers,
speaking disparagingly of the educational de-
partment, or jeeringly of the sleeping secre-
tary and members of this association and that ;
meeting at the bandstand ; reproaching the
fool-hardiness of a European official in exacting
* It is not to be understood that the whole of our older batch
of students have betaken themselves to such a contemptible
course of life. There are several exceptions : all that is here
meant is an exposition of the state of affairs -generally. While
this work has been passing through the press, the writer has
read of a similar state of social terrorism being rampant also
in Calcutta. Discussion is yet rife on this topic, with which the
readers of newspapers are doubtless familiar.
132 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
from a Parsee cabinet-maker the respect of an
approach with unshod feet, and glorying in the
courage of a young Parsee in at once retali-
ating with the whip an insult offered to him ;
thinking of becoming volunteers to defend the
Queen and her throne ; and thus talking and
dreaming — et hoc genus omne, — these complete
the discreditable but faithful picture of their
days, months, years, and lives ! The spirit of
improvement from within is totally absent ;
and it is a sad truth we state, that when one of
these,-, a boasted first normal scholar, occupying
a very respectable position, had to write a
common statement of facts, in the form of an
English letter to his superior, he could not
confide in his powers and education, but came
down a mile and a half to consult a gentle-
man or two on his good grammar and bad
idiom ! The fact of a graduate of our medical
college having once walked down from Poona
to Bombay, in order to submit orally the
report of the dispensary under his charge,
from utter incapacity to write it, is too well
known to excite any degree of surprise in the
reader ; and he may also take this as a well
authenticated fact — that even one from among
those the people are apt to consider as the cele-
CONCEIT AND IGNORANCE. 133
brities of Bombay, could not, in a conversation
with us, say whether or not Macbeth was
Shakspeare's composition, whether or not Her-
cules ever cleared the Augean stables, whether
or not Alexander was a celebrated personage
of the fourth century b. c; and confidently
stated that Voltaire was Shakspeare's contem-
porary, that Buonaparte was born in France,
and that he dismembered the kingdom of
Poland ! It is with no feeling of self-glorifica-
tion, nor with a desire to speak ill of his coun-
trymen, that the writer of these pages reveals
his observations. The task is disgusting to
him, and the thought of such an intellectual
nonage casts a gloom over his heart : but he
would much rather be voted unpatriotic, than
be guilty of flattering the self-conceit or the
unfounded claims of his educated country-
men. Truth, however mournful, and self-con-
demnatory, must be told; and it is with this
conviction in his mind that he states that this
confederacy of blockheadism and vanity exerts
the most pernicious influence in retarding ear-
nest progress and sound enlightenment among
us. That every silly roisterer, who has the
accident of being thrown upon the world before
others, and of having acquired what is called
23
134 LIGHTS A1STD SHADES.
the " pride of office," should exalt himself with
a degree of self-complacency as a learned and ta-
lented man, because he has written a dishonest
essay, perhaps scarcely readable, or mere trash,
and puffed up by writers not one whit better
than himself, is an offence which no honest
individual will ever willingly pardon.* That
this spirit of opposition and ignorance does
exist in the rising Native society is unquestion-
able: those who have read what the author
calls " the domestic treason" of literature in
the '^Literary Character of the Men of Ge-
nius" of the elder Disraeli, will not find any
difficulty in arriving at a full realisation of our
sketch ; while the state becomes doubly per-
nicious when we consider that the growing
* It affords a curious illustration of this observation to state
that one gentleman, whose education never reached higher than
M'Culloch's " Se?*ies of Lessons" whose worldly position was
never better than that of a petty schoolmaster of fifteen or twenty,
or that of a common country-printer, once undertook to lecture
for full two hours to the writer of these pages on the method of
writing articles for a paper, though he had had experience in
this line of business for two full years, as well as upon the means
of study, in an English conversation, every third word of which
betrayed some violation either of grammar or idiom. He holds
himself to be of the learned class, competent to criticise every
individual, and to suggest, with a low running commentary, how
the first should behave and the second should be executed.
ABSENCE OF PERSEVERANCE. 135
youngsters of our schools and colleges are
too apt to imitate the pride and sloth of their
elders; and the elders — those who initiate them
and those who do not — one and all lack a
spirit of pre- calculation on the nature and
difficulties of their undertaking, steadfast per-
severance in it when undertaken, and a final
execution of it after thought and labour.
Books are shut up so soon as the college or the
school is left, and the fresh hero, who has to
win his way in the world, enters upon under-
takings both in business and in the reform and
enlightenment of his country, without a previous
patient reflection on their nature and magni-
tude ; he lacks perseverance ; he has undertaken
them with the mercenary object either of gain
or worldly fame ; so that when he meets with
slight opposition or defeat, he is dissatisfied,
and leaves them — perhaps only just commenced.
He then runs to others, as blindly as before.
Sometimes his abilities, sometimes means, fail
him ; and he relinquishes these for a third set,
again in the same narrow spirit ; and thus goes
on, stumbling from one failure to another — or,
if more fortunate, from one modicum of success
to another, which benefits neither him nor his
country. The secret of the utter futility of
136 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
the thousand and one projects of the Natives,
as soon as commenced, is, that they do not
pre-calculate the real depth of their mind and
extent of their means ; nor do they undertake
aught in a spirit of thorough earnestness ; and
it is not wonderful, then, that in attempting to
imitate the visionary calculations of Alnascar
on his basket of glass-ware, which was so soon
to procure for him the Sultan's daughter, they
meet with like defeat and ridicule.
With Harris it was different. He had a
mind at first to proceed in his studies, and
even presented himself at the entrance exami-
nation of the Presidency College ; but having
failed, he on reconsideration resolved to become
a man of business. He made his choice, and
became a lowly clerk; but, having cast his
die, and taken his course, he devoted himself
thoroughly to it. At the Military Auditor's
Office he entered into his work, from the be-
ginning, with all his heart, soul, strength, and
intelligence, and allowed no thought of ease or
prospect of fame to interfere with the execu-
tion of what he held to be his imperative duty.
But a mind like his could not rest satisfied
with merely mechanical copying, and it joyfully
fled, morning and evening, to the converse of
THE CONTRAST IN HARRIS. 137
books. Indeed, it was not possible for an active
mind, brought under the fostering care of
such high-souled superiors as Mr. Mackenzie
and Colonel Champneys, to do otherwise than
pass every moment of leisure in the congenial
atmosphere of literature, philosophy, political
economy, and law ; — for these were the heavy
studies in which Harris was hearty, earnest,
fixed, and united — on which his whole soul
was concentrated ; and these are precisely the
studies which our young students, coming out
from the college, sedulously neglect to cultivate.
Knowledge, he, unlike his fellow-countrymen,*
pursued for its own sake ; pursued it in busi-
ness, in leisure, in recreation from professional
strain. Look at his taste, his energy, his greed
after it: Dr. Duff was to deliver a lecture
on mental philosophy in Cornwallis Square, a
distance of twelve English miles, going and
coming, from Bhowaneepore, in the suburbs of
Calcutta, and Harris footed it, alone, without
conveyance, and without companions ! Where
is the youth among us who will incur such
physical exertion, even on an exciting occa-
sion, without thought of either ? Again, while
* Honorable exceptions, by no means very few, must always
be allowed, to every general observation in these pages.
23*
138 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
advancing steadily in his professional position,'
Harris, instead of feeling satiated, and passing
his time in idle luxury, sought out amusements
which beguiled his hours in happy relaxation,
while they sharpened his intellect to that fine
acumen of reasoning which distinguished his
writings, whether plain or polished, in the sub-
sequent period of his life. Baboo Samboonath
Pandit, the Government pleader, then only a
Mohurir of the Calcutta Sudder Court, had at
this time established himself at Bhowaneepore.
His learning, good taste, and kind urbanity,
attracted a crowd of educated young men from
the vicinity to his house ; and among these
Harris daily wended his way to the venerable
mansion. Luxury was abhorrent to the Pandit,
idle chat perfectly disgusting ; and in choosing
the best method to amuse themselves, the young
inmates decided on a law-club, to conduct
mock-trials, and discuss the intricacies of law.
Brilliant were the discussions nightly held
in the room of the Sudder pleader : regula-
tions were framed, and constructions put upon
them, with all the enthusiasm and keenness of
professional lawyers — presenting, to all intents
and purposes, the appearance of the spirit and
talents of a Bengalee Inner Temple ! There
THE BENGALEE INNER TEMPLE. 139
was on one occasion a fine scene: a lower court
passed a decision; the judge reversed it on
appeal ; the Sudder reviewed the proceedings,
and ordered a retrial ; — counsel were arrayed
on both sides, and opinions advanced with the
depth, earnestness, and learning exhibited in
actual forensic strife. Regulation so-and-so of
this code supported one view, while commentary
so-and-so reversed it ; the case was analysed,
principles sought after, and Harris's ability and
shrewdness carried the day. He was warm
and earnest in the debate, and his view settled
the adjudication. What a bright ornament
to the bar was pinned to the dull desk by
the caprice of fortune !
And here is a fine lesson for any one to
learn. Harris never went to college, and yet
he became a great and influential man — one
who was admired, while living, for his varied
accomplishments, and regretted universally for
his beneficence when dead. He was a mere
school-boy when he entered life, but, by vigor-
ous study, became famous in the world. It is
this, after all, that is of use, and distinguishes
between man and man ; for no school or college
is intended to make the perfect man — and, even
were it intended, it were quite impracticable,
140 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
in the nature of things themselves. Think of
Harris, the son of a beggar Brahmin, tasked
to support a family at the early age of thirteen,
occupied the whole day in laborious work, and
yet reading extensively in English literature,
digesting English views, and meditating on
English politics. He truly is a model for
each one of us to imitate — reading and study-
ing at every stage of his life, from fourteen
onwards e\en to thirty and seven-and-thirty —
his last stage of existence, — to prepare himself
for the" one grand object of his life, the conduct
of an English journal with spirit, learning, and
success. He had this goal before him. There
may be one before every one — as absorbing, per-
haps, as the establishment and conduct of the
Hindoo Patriot* was to him ; and it behoves
every one, therefore, to prepare himself for
it. There is nothing more likely but that a
thousand apples might have fallen before us,
dear reader, without awakening any answer-
ing thought ; and all the apples in the world
might have tumbled about us before we ar-
rived, from hints like these, at a knowledge of
* Harris had tried two journals before the establishment of
the Patriot — the Bengal Recorder, already noticed, and the
Hindoo Intelligencer, — both of which failed.
PREPARATION NECESSARY. 141
the universal law of gravitation. The sugges-
tion fitted the mind of Newton, because that
mind had been prepared to receive it, by pre-
vious study and application. In everything — in
matters of discovery or invention; in trade,
business, and dealings ; in war or politics ; in
the run of common life ; from the obscurity of
a penny-a-line scribe to an author of reputation
and wealth ; from the counter as a clerk to
the counting-house as a partner — success will
come to him who has prepared himself for its
reception.
24
142
CHAPTER VII.
IN WHAT RESPECTS WAS HARRIS A GREAT MAN?
A pernicious conception of greatness. — Genius and talents
over-estimated by the world. — Another class of heroes. —
Heroes of the heart. — Their fate. — The most apparent not
always the most important or most interesting. — Profession
of Literature. — Charles Lamb's advice thereon. — Peculiarly
apt for Young India to bear in mind. — Harris's works. —
Patriots of all classes have a family likeness. — Harris no less
a Patriot than the greatest patriot of the world. — Harris's
real stall* of greatness. — The rights and position of a great
mind. — Difference between it and the insignificant.
A notion, erroneous and dangerous in its ten-
dency, has captivated mankind, that sparkling
talents and much intellectual pomp are real
eminence and dignity. Want of real discern-
ment has led to thus placing boundless faith
in brilliant and magnificent minds — in fact,
in mind as mind; and who does not acknow-
ledge that this is carried to an unworthy ex-
treme in this country — this idolatry of the hu-
man mind — this worship of the idol of endowed
PERNICIOUS NOTIONS. 143
intelligence? Indeed, it cannot be otherwise
in a country which lacks it to such a shameful
extent, and where every writer swells himself
into the importance of an author of eminence.
True, we cannot find fault with the tendency ;
for w r here would our race have been had talents
and genius never lent their ministering influ-
ences ; what revolutions — material, intellectual,
social, moral, political — do not owe their origin
to the majesty of their power ?
We may award to genius and splendid talents
their real worth ; but it is not the less to be
recollected on that account that the truly great
men have been those earnest workers in the
cause of humanity who, without h ceding the
noisy glory of the world, take their stand-point
on a surer foundation than passing fame — as-
piring to become known among the spirits in
Heaven, if unknown among men on earth. Are
they not real heroes, who lived with their hearts
directed now upwards in holy communion with
the music above, and then downwards, alleviat-
ing the wrongs of suffering humanity ; and yet,
how many such realised the true purpose of
their life, even though their lot was cast in the
ranks of humble life, never so much as emerg-
ing from the dull round of ordinary toil ? Yes,
1 44 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
many have lived thus, and made no sign ; and
their names, without commanding any ostenta-
tion, have passed away as quietly after death as
they lived in life. Ah ! but does genius never
sink into oblivion ? Who knows but in name
Occam, Acquinas, or Erasmus, who swayed the
whole world of letters in their time ? What
has become of Salmanasius, for whom Queen
Christina of Sweden prepared the fire with
her own hands ? How much are Cowley and
Waller, in their days in the height of popula-
rity and fame, now read and remembered ? Is
splendidness always in something perceptible,
something great executed? Who sees the
roots thrown out or the flowers growing in full
verdure ? No ; the deepest work is always out
of sight — the flower is developed, but the pro-
cess is hidden : and the real man often lives
unseen, without crying in the world — " See :
I am here !"
Now Harris was of the latter class. So far
as we can claim for him the epithet great, we
are quite content that his greatness should
not be anything of ostentation and noise. He
did not enter life, as Coleridge says of Chat-
terton,
" Sublime of hope and confident of fame !"
CHARLES LAMB ON AUTHORSHIP. 145
And even if he had the stuff, he calculated
wisely in his choice. When Bernard Barton,
the Quaker Poet, held the situation of a clerk
in the Bank of Woodbridge, in Suffolk, he
contemplated abandoning his profession for the
chances of a literary life. He communicated
his design to Charles Lamb, asking him for
advice, and he was replied to in awful but stern
truth — " Throw yourself on the world, with-
out any rational plan of support beyond what the
chance employ of booksellers would afford you !
Throw yourself rather, my dear Sir, from the
steep Tarpeian rock, slap-dash, headlong upon
iron spokes. If you have five consolatory mi-
nutes between the desk and the bed, make much
of them, and live a century in them, rather than
turn slave to the booksellers. They are Turks
and Tartars when they have poor authors at
their beck. Hitherto you have been at arm's-
length from them — come not within their grip.
I have known many authors want for bread —
some repining, others enjoying the blessed se-
curity of a country-house ; all agreeing they
had rather have been tailors, weavers — what
not, — rather than the things they were. I have
known some starve, some go mad, one dear
friend literally dying in a workhouse. Oh !
25
146 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
you know not — may you never know — the mi-
series of subsisting by authorship !"
Perhaps there may be some exaggeration
here ; but though the state of affairs have ma-
terially changed since Sir E. B. Lytton taught
his countrymen that the world must know " it
is not charity but tribute which they ow r e to
genius,"* so as to give the direct lie to the
bickerings of Charles Lamb, it is true to the
very word in this country, where the mass wal-
lows in ignorance, and the rich in utter apathy
and luxury. Harris, in attempting at all to
enter the line of authorship, should, like the
majority of his young countrymen, have mis-
calculated his position, and wrecked himself
utterly. He had no other ambition, t*<e jea-
lousy of the British Government having denied
him ; and the only one left to him was that of the
common journalist, any higher aspiration than
which was but coveting frustration, and draw-
ing ridicule, contempt, and ruin. The thought
moved in his mind at the early age of twenty,f
* " Not so bad as we seem" — a play by Sir E. Bulwer
Lytton, Bart.
fin the beginning of 1860, the writer of these pages had
some correspondence with Baboo Harrischander on a subject
of some moment, when, inquiring of each other his past career,
he wrote this fact.
ASPIRATIONS OF HARRIS. 147
.when, communicating it to his kind superiors, he
received it as their earnest advice to make the
cause of his suffering countrymen the first, last,
and only theme of his writings. He came out,
impressed with an awful sense of the dignity
of his self-imposed task ; opposed every fraud,
every injustice and wrong, with the firmness
of principle and the force of enthusiasm, and
commenced war against the grasping policy of
the Dalhousie Government. Be was opposed,
ridiculed, and scorned, as a " nigger" and a
" pandy," and his writings denounced as " un-
grammatical howlings"; hut as his resolution
was fixed, nothing daunted him in his career,
and he revealed dark forebodings. But writers
and stptesmen at times villify even themselves —
" Each lolls his tongue out at the other,
And shakes his empty noddle at his brother";
and they could not refrain from hitting hard at
the " perverse patriot." But Harris remained
calm. All wish, certainly, they could lay claim
to that celebrated motto of Justice Whisted,
which Swift made those pungent verses upon —
" Libertas et natale solum."
People are very willing to draw contrasts
between the characters and deeds of differ-
148 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
ent patriots : but though these be ever so
different — from the wily assassination of a so-
vereign to the glorious success on the battle-
field, they (the patriots) have one family like-
ness, of the most apparent kind. The assassin
who was excited to slav the French General,
Kleber, was of the same stuff mentally as
Mutius Scsevolla or William Tell. He believed,
no matter if wrongly, yet he believed earnestly,
that he should free his country from the strain
of a tyrant, and make sure work by striking
him down, receiving gladly the horrible tortures
which the Government of the country prescrib-
ed for him. So Scsevolla thrusts his right hand
into the blazing fire, and sternly assures the
king that there are four hundred youths in
his country as brave as he. And so did Harris
rise against an overwhelming force, and strug-
gle hopelessly, yet manfully, to assure his Go-
vernment, that in their fatal policy they were
nearing the brink of a precipice. He fought
not with common weapons, nor suffered any
physical tortures; yet he was not the less a
patriot. He had no faith in the bayonet or the
sword : his gun was his pen, his gunpowder his
ink ; yet he acted not the less patriotically in
enforcing the recognition of the rights of his
TRUE PATRIOTISM. 149
country. His warnings were verified ; and a
sad tragedy followed on the heels of his words.
Now was his real character discerned. People
thought, from his denunciations, that he was
a rebel at heart, and that his restless energy
would soon exchange the pen for the sword.
In times of social risings, men of impetuous and
untiring energy have always added their own
weight to the balance of confusion, carnage,
and ruin of the country. France teems with
numerous illustrations ; England herself is not
wanting in this dark scene. But this Indian of
activity and energy always measured his posi-
tion : in early life he had come in contact with
the very best and most powerful representatives
of that calm glory-achie\ing people — English-
men. He knew the strife was unequal ; he
also knew it was injudicious; and stood, there-
fore, in the troublous times of the rebellion,
boldly by his Government, singing more loyally
than ever — God save the Queen! After the
storm subsided, he rose placidly to propound his
notions of government, and claim the just rights
and privileges of his country. A zealous mem-
ber of the British India Association, he made
appeals and protests ; and proprietor and editor
of a respectable English hebdomadal, he gave
25*
150 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
depth and extension to his cause ; and assert-
ing thus a powerful voice, the cause of India
and the Indians became the spirit of the age.
He became the man of his day, his class, and
connections ; so that when he stood up in awful
majesty for the oppressed ryot, others — mission-
aries, writers, Englishmen, Government them-
selves, followed in the train, and relief came po-
sitive in prospect. It was great heroism this !
the " haughty island-nation," with all their
imperfections the first for ability and power in
the world ; the most difficult to win, impossible
to subdue ; the quickest in their perception of
pretence and show; the most unshrinking in
their demonstration of contempt and indiffer-
ence ; the most unrelenting in their demands
for something worth hearing, if the man wishes
to be heard ; and the most equitable in the
long run, let us unequivocally add, in their
recognition of merit, — with this nation, we say,
Harris occupied a respectable position in public
estimation, and continued to dictate, suggest,
and advise. Voltaire, with all his imperfections
the best satiric painter of human nature, very
briefly solves the problem of the right and posi-
tion of a great mind, when in one of his happiest
hits — " Le Fanaticisme" — he strikes wonder-
LABOURS OF HARRIS. 151
ment into the heart of Zopire at the audacity of
Mahomed in changing and reforming the entire
position of his country, and burst forth at length
in the long-hovering query —
" Quel droit as-tu rec;u d'enseigner de predire,
De porter Fencensoir et d'affecter l'empire ?
" Mahomet
Le droit qu'un esprit vaste, et ferme en ses desseins
A sur l'esprit grossier des vulgaires humains."
There ! the whole solution is offered : What
right has any man to command ? — Why, the
" right of a vast mind,^rm in its designs, over
the lowly-minded of the common multitude."
Write this, reader, on thy soul ; have this as
thy guide, and thou shalt succeed : the differ-
ence between the feeble and the strong, the
insignificant and the great, has always been
FIRMNESS UNSHAKING DETERMINATION; a pur-
pose once fixed in the mind, and then death
OR VICTORY !
152
CHAPTER VIII.
THE POETRY OF HIS HEART.
Feeling nature of his character. — Poverty unlocks the best
sympathies of the heart. — Harris's grateful remembrance of
past favours. — Emotion at mention of the name of his first
kind Teacher. — His irrefragable ties of gratitude and re-
verence to Colonel Champneys. — His neglect of self-interest
and advancement for the sake of the Colonel. — Harris and
Rammohun Roy. — Military glory and valour not wanting in
India even in her degenerate days. — Her intellectual vigour
yet unsurpassed. — Social battle is the last achievement of
humanity. — India has yet to fight it. — Harris did not com-
mence it. — Nor has it yet commenced. — The Social Science
Association in England. — A similar Institution for India
recommended. — Necessity for Educated Natives travelling
in India. — An "Indian Travelling Fellowship." — Natives
alone capacitated to describe social anomalies.
But that trait in the character of Harris which
procured for him the proud title of the " Indian
Lucullus" in the vivid pages of Kussell's Diary
in India is worthy of separate consideration.
His heart was of the noblest — ever glowing to
assist the poor, ever ready to sympathise with
all that was high and estimable. His ready zeal
to assist the poor and the oppressed may be
SOURCES OF BENEVOLENCE. 153
explained — we must once more recall it — as the
result of the influence of poverty in early life.
The man, we may justly say, who has not suf-
fered, is unfit to be the minister of beneficence
to others. We are all made alike, though not
all suffering ; and though there is a nobler,
because severer kind of suffering, than that
arising from mere poverty and external circum-
stances, yet to the poor man, the pinchings of
his own state bring up vividly before his mind
and heart the sufferings of others from a simi-
lar condition of things. Thus it is that the
inner sympathies of the heart are unlocked ;
thus it is that some of the grandest lessons of
humanity are brought home to the bosom and
business of man ; and were the rich and the
poor to change positions for a short term, bene-
ficence and sympathy would be far more active
and expansive in our world than they have
hitherto been, or will otherwise ever be. There
are natures, no doubt, which are not proof
against poverty: when it comes to them, their
affections are scorched ;* they grow impatient ;
* Indeed, it cannot be otherwise in this country, where, after
reading the chapter on the condition of woman in India, the
reader perceives an utter want of early religious instruction in
the domestic circle.
26
154 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
they droop and pine away, blaming God and
cursing fate; — but when it comes to a right-
minded man, he sustains it manfully, sustains
its fires unscathed, and in the midst of burning
sensations, looks up with a reverential eye to
the Creator, blessing His dispensations, and
blessing also his destiny ; and from that time
forth " comes out with harp in hand, qualified
to be the minister and instructor of his race,
a strong spiritual nature battling with despair,
light as of old contending with darkness."
" Did God set His fountains ot light in the skies,
That man should look up with tears in his eyes ?
Did God make this earth so abundant and fair,
That man should look down with a groan of despair ?
Did God fill this earth with harmonious life,
That man should go forth with destruction and strife ?
Did God scatter freedom o'er mountain and wave,
That man should exist as a tyrant and slave ? —
Away with so heartless, so hopeless a creed,
For the soul that believes it is darkened indeed !"
Hard, indeed, it may have been, to keep fast
faith in God and life under circumstances such
as were unmistakeably Harris's in the early
part of his life — impressed, as they were, with
absolute beggarism, and saddened by every
disappointment when he threw himself on the
world; but he bore them patiently and unmur-
TRAITS IX HARRIS'S CHARACTER. 155
muringly, and it was owing to this ordeal,
through which life was passed for more than
twenty long years, that he learnt the wholesome
lessons of humanity. Besides his kindly and
sympathising nature, his heart was full of the
most ardent and generous feelings, of the
deepest gratitude to those who had rendered
him any assistance at one time or other of his
existence. It has already been stated that Mr.
Piffard was his first teacher at the Bhowanee-
pore Charity-school. His extreme kindness,
and zeal in the interest of his pupil, had en-
gendered feelings of the sincerest gratitude in
the heart of Harris, so that on one occasion, in
after life, in the plenitude of his power and posi-
tion, when he met Mr. C. Piffard (the son, of the
Calcutta bar) at a friend's residence, and who
in conversation communicated to Harris the.
name of his father, its very recital brought up
bright memories of the past, and swelled his
bosom in grateful remembrance, until he burst
out before a numerous company of both friends
and strangers into tears of joy. Again, when,
in the mock-court at Baboo Samboonath's, he
displayed his clear judgment and shrewd ana-
lysis in settling the knotty points of their minia-
ture code, his friends advised him to give up
156 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
the writership under the Military Auditor, and
assume his proper position under the Judge.
But he remained firm, simply through feelings
of grateful remembrance, to the profession
which supported him in adversity, and justified
his decision by maintaining that his situa-
tion as a clerk left him greater leisure than
otherwise to aid the poor, by advice, and by peti-
tions and letters, which every wrong-doer read
with the blush of shame and the pallor of
anticipated defeat. But in addition to this self-
sacrificing spirit, Harris had another reason,
too deeply-rooted in his bosom ever to be era-
dicated, for continuing in the Military Auditor
General's Office, while he might successfully
have shone at the bar. He did mention it
once to a friend, not with a view to parade his
virtue, but in the sacred confidence of friend-
ship — as a reply, once for all, to the recom-
mendations of others, — that it was his feelings
of gratitude that bound him in irrefragable
ties to Colonel Champneys, and that so long
as his benefactor remained connected with
that department, he would not leave it for
the world ! No argument, no taunt, no ridi-
cule, effected any change in his resolution ;
and even when he broke through it, and em-
POETRY TO THE LIFE. 157
boldened himself to resign, a feeling word from
the Colonel planted him yet more firmly at his
desk. Harris never wrote poetry; but if poetry
is feeling with the beautiful and the true, there
is poetry in all this : and what is more than
this, in his whole course of life, Harris, like
many of his unostentatious class among all
nations, did more than the greatest poet of
Europe — he acted and lived poetry.
Such is Harris, as his character and his
course of life unfold themselves to any indivi-
dual who reflects upon them. Such he is in
his constitution and traits, his labours and his
fortune, his life and death. In the foregoing
pages, there has been laid down nothing but
what may be borne out by facts. There he
is, a model of noble humanity for the copier —
with no pretensions to genius, no astounding
talents, no prose or poetry about him. He
is simply a person of good common sense, of
ordinary powers ; but of firm purpose, diligent
perseverance, steady self-study; true to his
trust, true to himself ; honouring and honoured,
loving and beloved. He has only one short-
coming in his whole career — but this is one
27
158 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
to be eschewed : he was a political reformer,
without being the social and the moral reform-
er also; and in this respect he stands in a
painful contrast with another noble Indian—
the great Rammohun Roy, buried thirty years
ago in Bristol.
Education on western principles has done
much for India, and is destined to do still more ;
national conceit will yield to knowledge, and
superstition decay before progress ; but yet, if
the history of this very country, if not of the
world itself, demonstrates one thing more dis-
tinctly than another, it is this, that it is per-
fectly unsafe to put any great reliance on poli-
tical, or even on intellectual ability. Have we
not had political freedom of yore ? — have we
not had martial glory in our time ? A writer,*
destined to live as long as the English language
exists, spoke only too truly of our country, even
in her later degeneracy, when he called it " a
region of Asia equal in extent to the whole of
Europe (exclusive of Russia), with a popula-
tion of more than a hundred and forty millions,
all of them aliens in blood, language, and reli-
gion ; and many consisting of warlike tribes,
so gallant and brave as to have again and
* The Rev. Dr. Duff.
INDIAN GLORIES. 159
again repelled the combined hosts of the Mos-
lem conquerors with a heroism not unworthy
of the best sons of Greece." Again, do we lack
intellectual splendour? Before Greece was
peopled, or Rome colonised, we had attained
a height of intellectual glory — of achievements
in poetry, philosophy, mathematics, and science
— which remains yet unapproached by the most
polished nation on the earth. Search poetry,
philosophy, mathematics, or science, and there
is but one thought, and let that thought be
spoken by the best of judges : — " The iEneid
of Virgil extends to about twelve thousand
lines, the Iliad of Homer to double that num-
ber ; but the Ramayana of Valmika rolls on to
a hundred thousand, while the Mahabharatha
of Vyassa quadruples even that sum." Many
of the other sacred books extend to a volumi-
nousness quite as amazing. The four Vedas,
when collected, form eleven huge volumes; the
Purans about two millions of lines ! In one of
these it is gravely asserted, on divine authority,
that originally the whole series of Purans alone
consisted of one hundred kotis, or a thousand
millions of stanzas ; but as four hundred thou-
sand of these were considered sufficient for the
instruction of man, the rest were reserved for
160 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
the gods. Well might Sir William Jones say,
" Wherever we direct our attention to Hindoo
literature, the notion of infinity presents itself ;
and sure the longest life would not suffice for
a single perusal of works that rise and swell
protuberant, like the Himalayas, above the
bulkiest compositions of every land beyond the
confines of India."* Even now, how high are
we in point of mental vigour, yet where are we
left ? Some of our countrymen, if not many,
can dispute the palm of intelligence and learn-
ing with the best of England's scholars ; but
yet the latter have a moral vigour, a habit of
spending time rightly and earnestly, and of at-
tempting thoroughly whatever they undertake.
We have intellectual vigour, but no moral sta-
mina; and the reason is obvious — no one from
among us has earnestly directed his attention
to the science of sociology ; and of the nume-
rous books and essays printed, and cries raised
in this country, scarcely any has deemed this
science of modern growth sufficiently engross-
ing to apply its principles to the removal of the
harrowing evils of our hearths. The English
in England, so pre-eminently advancing in hu-
* The Rev. Dr. Duff.
SOCIOLOGY. 161
manity and wisdom with the advancing tide
of civilisation and fortune, have had their at-
tention directed to various social evils in their
country, the remedying of which their writers
and statesmen have gradually been awakening
to appreciate as a necessary preparation for
the yet further extension of political rights.
There is an association, the Social Science As-
sociation, in that country, whose name suffi-
ciently indicates the object of the institution,
as well as the importance of the subject we are
now dilating on, and which counts moro than
two thousand members ; and another, the La-
dies Association, consisting exclusively of female
members, to co-operate with the male association
in their mission of social regeneration. Lord
Brougham, Lord J. Russell, and the Earl of
Shaftesbury, have given addresses at the yearly
meetings ; and France and Russia have com-
bined to rival each other in the display of their
interest in the working of the Association and
its objects.
Though first in thought, social elevation is
undoubtedly the last in time ; and it is but as it
should be that India, after fighting its intellec-
tual and political battles, may only now gird
up its loins for social victory. It is difficult to
27*
162 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
define what is sociology, though it is easy to
say what it is not. It is not political economy,
nor statistics, nor politics, nor ethics, though
it borders closely on all these. But we must
caution our countrymen that it is not, nor does
it border on, what has been styled socialism in
England, which is certainly no new doctrine,
and which has come down to us from the time
of Plato in one phase or other, and under one
representative or other. Sociology, as we con-
ceive it to be, teaches one lesson, which is much
needed everywhere, but more in India — that a
people's prosperity mainly depends on them-
selves; their fate and their future are in their
own hands, and in their's alone. Well has a great
statesman, Guizot, characterised as a " gross
delusion, the belief in the sovereign power of
political machinery." To this is evidently to
be ascribed the many social anomalies in the
French people ; and they repeatedly err, and
therefore naturally fail, in attempting to reform
their political status, without at first reforming
their social position — thus illustrating with sig-
nificance Sir J. Mackintosh's remark, " Con-
stitutions cannot be made ; they grow." Lord
Shaftesbury, in one of his late addresses at the
Social Science Association, observes it, with
SOCIAL SCIENCE. 163
much correctness, to be one of the good effects
of social science, that " it is no small success to
have taught the people to see that to cry out
A law ! a law ! on all occasions of an evil felt,
or an evil detected, is to check private in-
dividual and combined exertion, and to keep
men from the wholesome conviction that in
many matters they mast be a law unto them-
selves."
But how little has this observation been un-
derstood in this country? Our spirited jour-
nalists often ask, with a sneer at the British
Government, what they have done to alleviate
the miseries of the mass ? We rather ask the
educated youth what they have done for the
people ? It is complained, and rightly, we
admit, that Englishmen leave a dangerous
chasm between themselves and the educated
Natives, to whom any consideration of respect
or regard is seldom, if ever, awarded ; but
the fact is, that there exists as deep a gulf
between the educated and uneducated Native
as between the former and the English peo-
ple, and on which he expends so much of
discontent and anger. But it never occurs to
him that the pride and exclusion he so much
detests in his English master characterises his
1 64 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
disposition and actions towards the poor mass
of the people, whose thousand and one social
miseries (we have no faith in political elevation,
we repeat) he contents himself to look upon
with unpatriotic apathy and inhumanity. He
may expose the planter's cruelties and unfair-
ness; he may try to prevent the passing of the
obnoxious and unstatesmanlike contract-law;
but what avail these, if his own ryot country-
man has no sense of his personal dignity and
rights, and blindly rushes, through sheer ne-
cessity or perverse wrong-headedness, into the
very cruelties, from which there has been so
much done to liberate him ? — like those slaves
of the sugar-plantations in the other world, who
would rather be slaves, and who pray for a re-
turn to their old masters, after their emancipa-
tion ! The educated Native thinks nothing of
the poor people ; he is indifferent about them,
save when they afford to him his political hob-
by to ride upon ; but herein he forgets that
his own rise in his much coveted political field
depends upon the amelioration of the masses,
who will always be a drag and a chain on him.
In ignoring the masses, he plays the role of the
philosopher who, being disturbed in his study,
by the servant informing him that part of his
INDIFFERENCE TOWARDS THE POOR. 165
house was on fire, coolly replied, " Tell your
mistress ; you know I don't attend to household
concerns !"
What lies at the basis of all good govern-
ment is the social condition of the people ; and
if our educated countrymen desire to secure
good government for their country, the social
state of the masses must be studied and ame-
liorated. There are various debating societies
in this island, and perhaps in all the principal
cities of India ; but everywhere there has un-
fortunately been brought before the meetings
some abstract of a subject or a book already
better treated by European authors, or a half
political thesis, exciting discontent and false
hopes, which we have always deprecated and
condemned, as we would have our debating
clubs discuss social topics only, and aim at
practical results and reforms. We do not ex-
pect that from among us — the neglected class
of educated Natives, who are for the most part
only able to keep our bones and flesh together
— social reformers will at once rush into the
wretched hovels of our population, devoting
nights and days, and the contents of our pockets,
to rescuing our fellow-countrymen from mise-
ry and the anomalies of life that sink the man
28
166 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
into the animal ; but yet we do expect patriotic
attention to and study of their manners and
condition, and some attempt at national rege-
neration. The Government have done their
task ; they have rendered us capable of inves-
tigating and reporting ; aye, and they have
done more — they have supplied us with cheap
and comfortable means of locomotion — they
have opened railways, which in a few short
hours, and at a low rate of charge, take us into
the miserable villages in the interior of our
country. Why do not our educated young
Natives then travel, and observe, collect infor-
mation, and carefully study the condition of
the mofussil?
While writing this, information reaches us,
that at the suggestion of the present learned
Principal of the Elphinstone College, Sir A.
Grant, Bart., a Bania of the " upper ten thou-
sand" meditates subscribing a handsome sum for
the foundation of a" travelling fellowship" to
Europe for the benefit of the Hindoo alumni of
the college : but, though we applaud both the
suggestion and the liberality, we wish the fund
were diverted to travelling in our own country,
and the " fellow" or " fellows" occupied in pub-
lishing observations at intervals, at the close
TRAVELLING FELLOWSHIPS. 167
of the term of the fellowship. Natives can
investigate and write, if not suggest, regarding
Native society — its intricacies and its miseries,
— which it were vain for Englishmen to endea-
vour to do. We know several English authors,
pretending to pourtray " manners of the Hin-
doos" and the like ; hut with all respect to the
learning and shrewdness of our English writers,
we must confess we have always laughed at the
idea. Exceptions are confounded with exam-
ples, enforced superficialities witli constitution-
al traits, and in various cases the task has been
executed in the ridiculous spirit of that un-
sophisticated Marquis, who, after only a few
months' residence in Russia, wrote more than
one volume upon everything — the geography,
topography, politics, statistics, ethics, sociology,
&c. of the empire; proclaiming, with dramatic
effect, " that he saw nothing, but guessed every-
thing" !
We are strong in our affirmation ; but Eng-
lishmen will allow that as it is difficult for
Frenchmen to understand the people of per-
fide Albion, so also is it difficult for English-
men to understand their "volatile neighbours."
To come yet closer, and more forcibly to illus-
trate the immense difficulty of foreigners (even
168 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
of the same descent) understanding the Natives
accurately, an American writer mentions he
was twenty-five years in Scotland, and thought
he understood the Scotch ; but on going into
England, and residing there also twenty -five
years, he felt convinced that he understood
neither the Scotch nor the English ! Need our
appeal, then, to our educated Natives, to observe,
study, and describe the state of Indian society,
breaking faith with their English friends,
require for its earnestness a better illustra-
tion?*
* A learned gentleman at Calcutta, a personal friend of Har-
rischander, supplies a gap connected with the deceased patriot
in the literary line : he states that the late Baboo exerted him-
self in behalf of the poor and illiterate ryots of Bengal, not only
by exposing the cruelties of their oppressors in the columns of the
Hindoo Patriot, but spared no pains to write memorials for them
to Government, and to organise means for procuring legal as-
sistance to them in the conduct of cases, and for general advice
on the subject. He even went the length of helping them with
money from his own scanty pocket. This is undoubtedly
patriotism of an uncommon sort in India ; and while its display
attracts ten times more admiration than it otherwise would,
from the painful contrast in which our now well-to-do, vain,
and half-literate older students, with but very few exceptions,
stand on this island, in comparison with it, we regret that
the zealous patriot did not devote the same exertions towards
ameliorating the social position of the cultivators. That he
has died doing good to the masses of Bengal, none will deny ;
but that good was only temporary — such as relieved the ryots
HARRIS AND THE RYOTS. 169
from being ground down by the cruelty and chicanery of the
planter, into which state he has as much chance as before of
again at some future time falling, and the effects of which will,
we believe we may openly assert, though at the risk of offending
some thin-skinned individual, die out. We mean no offence to
the memory of one, whom, while living, we esteemed the most,
and when dead regretted sincerely. We say that it was in his
power to do permanent good to the cultivating masses in his
immediate vicinity, but that he unfortunately missed his oppor-
tunity. May his name and his memory be an encouragement to
others of his countrymen to carry out those exertions and
that philanthropy which distinguished the political reformer in
that line of genuine reform where they are so pre-eminently
required.
29
170
CHAPTER IX.
THE LONGEST, BUT THE MOST IMPORTANT
CHAPTER IN THE BOOK: REGENERATION OF
INDIA.
Two theories for the amelioration of the people. — Which pre-
ferred. — Danger from the present hopeless condition of the
people. — The Empires of the World. — Of the Caesars, Baber,
and Napoleon. — Uniqueness of British domination. — The
present time pre-eminently fitted for undertaking the task
of Popular Education in India. — Review of the History of
Indian Education. — Its three epochs. — Government System
of Education faulty. — Distinction between general and special
education. — Every man, however low and grovelling, receives
all life long some education or other. — In India there is in
one sense no general education. — Percentage of boys that
finish a complete course of general instruction. — A mournful
question. — Necessity of rendering Colleges self-supporting. —
Grounds for viewing the measure as easy of accomplishment.
— Percentage of boys receiving elementary education. — The
state of this education. — Number of Schools in the Bombay
Presidency. — Statistics of Population in the different divi-
sions of British India. — The educational requirements of
each calculated in comparison with some of the States of
Europe. — With reference to Primary Schools. — With refer-
ence to Teachers. — Unfitness of the present Staff even in the
highest English Seminary. — The number of Normal Colleges
and of Inspectors required. — The people too poor to join the
Schools. — Their popular notions on Englishmen's leaving
THE MILLION. 171
India for their Mother Country. — Great misapprehension
among Englishmen with reference to the wants of the people.
— Advocacy of the German method of popular instruction. —
Striking resemblance in the state of Germany and of India. —
Our present system of education not essentially differing
from the German, though so popularly taken. — Mere Schools
and School Training ineffectual to work any change among
the people. — The French Colpovtage described. — I^stablish-
ment of a Committee for the diffusion of knowledge advo-
cated. — The i te of Prose and Poetry in the Ver-
nacular. — The establishment of Clubs advocated. — What is
our present national strength and vigour ? — A new order of
thought and morality, as yet unknown to the world, evolved
in India. — A Summary of our Scheme.
As vet we have only spoken of Baboo Harris-
ehanderandof his class ; but incomplete wbuld be
any treatise on India, in which there is nothing-
said of the millions, helpless, hopeless, and igno-
rant, that inhabit its vast tracts. Baboo II arris
chander fought for the ryot ; why then not c
a glance on the poor tiller, and see if anything
can be proposed for his amelioration? The
really educated class of Young India form but
the minority ; so small, indeed, as to measure
only a few drops of water in a long arm of the
sea; and though the future enveloped in this
minority may justify any long and exclusive dis-
sertation, we have at the very outset promised to
invite the reader to the ignorant and the lowest.
It would be a long and arduous task to describe
29a
1 72 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
their condition as it is at present, and the
requirements it imperatively asks for ; but yet
we might say our say on their amelioration by
the highest nobility. How shall we treat of
them? Shall we treat of their rights, their
material well-being ? No ; all the acts of the
French Revolution, and of others which fol-
lowed in its wake, were the consequences of
a declaration of the "rights of man." The
philosophers and the statesmen (and they were
convertible terms at the time) of France took
up the theory of liberty and of material well-
being as the basis of their labours. They threw
down all the obstacles that opposed this
theory; they conquered liberty — conquered it
only to the extreme of libertinism. Religion
was chased out ; moral restraint or the restraint
of society removed; and the population left
without the unity of religion or the unity of a
constituted society. They taught only to enjoy
liberty and material well-being, and the people
followed, one and all, their own interest and
advancement, not caring whether on their way
they trampled on the heads of their brethren —
brethren only when the expression was to be
used, but enemies when liberty was to be gained !
To this we had once come, and to this we will
THEORIES FOR AMELIORATION. 1 73
again come, if we recur to the theorv of liberty,
which, whenever and wherever it has been
sought for as the end, has ultimately led to the
saddest of results. When under the emperors,
the ancient Romans contented themselves with
demanding partem et circenses: they were the
most abject race possible ; and after suffering
all the oppression of their emperors, they
became the passive slaves of the barbarians
who conquered them. When the theory of
rights is taught, the nation rises in insurrection
and annihilates the organisation of society, until,
tired of anarchy, it willing!) offers itself ti wo
tyrannies and oppressions; and under the theorv
of material well-being it becomes egotistic* a
worshipper of the material, without the virtues
of independence, generosity, good faith, &c. of a
rightly constituted society. Both afford tem-
porary relief — one while it satisfies the idea of
liberty, the other while it provides present wants
— and may in this respect be looked upon as one.
One is sought after in a moment of excitement,
the other in that of abjectness ; but as happily we
are neither excited nor abject, the point in our
aim ought to be to find a principle superior to
any theory of temporary relief — a principle of
improvement, as well as of unity. This princi-
1 74 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
pie is education — the principle which embodies
the whole of our doctrine of amelioration.
Indeed, with us, all material amelioration is the
means, and not the end, to be aimed at; for as an
individual immersed in poverty is forbidden all
means of educating himself or his children, he
need change his material condition only that
he may morally develope himself. This is his
duty; and to this alone, leaving aside all other
requirements of the dumb millions of India,
we address ourselves in this chapter.
This chapter may seem unimportant or
impertinent ; but if it be conceded that the
entire mass of the people of India is immersed
in utter poverty, and know not how to rise —
that they have, in fact, nothing to lose, and
everything to gain, by a change of masters, and
hope for the day when their country may be
in a temporary interregnum — and that they
have no comprehension nor idea of the ex-
cellence or otherwise of any Government in the
abstract, much less of the British, the burthens
of w T hich they already hate and curse — then
the full magnitude of the importance of the sub-
ject-matter of this chapter, seemingly so use-
less and extraneous, will readily be recognised,
accepted, and even enhanced. Nations do not,
PRESENT DANGERS. 1/5
like individuals, " rather bear the ills they have
than flv to others which they know not of "; on
the contrary, they strenuously exert themselves
to get rid of the burthens they feel to be galling
and troublesome ; and w T hen their condition is
perceptibly deteriorating,* until it becomes ut-
terly hopeless, without the moral faith to bear
it with resignation, they eagerly catch at any
prospect, however remote, of relief ; and every
one will readily admit that there is no foe more
dangerous to the country than an internal one,
whose condition is desperate, and who has never
had his moral nature well trained and deve-
loped by healthy discipline in early life. The
rebellion of the Jacquerries in France has well
demonstrated the fury of ignorance ; and there
is every reason to suppose that the outbreak of
the Bengal soldiery would have been redeemed
of half its enormity if education had already
permeated the lower ranks of Indian society.
The duties of Government, in spite of what
* An inquiry into the condition and requirements of the
people in the political point of view is pregnant with great
interest and importance ; and though many treatises have been
written, there is ample room for a candid and well ascertained
exposition, especially by a Native. The writer of these pages
has himself attempted something on this subject, but he waits
for a better opportunity and field for publication.
176 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
selfishness dictates and tyranny enforces, are
now being slowly but steadily recognised and
accepted in every country of the world. They
are now comprehended in the defence of the
empire from external invasion, the repression
of internal violence, the impartial distribution
of justice, the preservation of an equilibrium,
if not a surplus, in the exchequer, the encou-
ragement of trade, the development of the
country's natural resources, the construction of
roads and other works of public utility, and
the social advancement of the people ; but the
accomplishment of these objects, the recognised
function of Government, is attended with no
ordinary difficulty; — but the difficulty is consi-
derably diminished where rulers obtain the
co-operation of an intelligent and spirited po-
pulation.
But it is not solely from a policy-view of the
question that we would urge the necessity of
the education and moral amelioration of the
millions of India. When one considers the
manner in which this magnificent empire has
been subjugated by an insignificant island in the
extreme border of Western Europe, he must
needs acknowledge that India has been con-
signed to the guardianship of England for higher
DUTIES OF GOVERNMENTS. 177
ends than to open a market for her manufac-
tures, and afford scope for the ambition and
avarice of a portion of her population. There
is no merit in the achievement of the conquest
of a country of the size of nearly the whole of
Europe by a handful of warriors ; for instances
enow there have been of empires formed under
grander auspices, attaining to an earlier matu-
rity, and extending over wider tracts of peopled
territory. Alexander acquired possession of
his world-wide conquests in a short period of
twenty years. The Romans under the first
Ca3sars were masters of all Europe, and some of
the finest parts of Asia and Africa. Timour
conquered by his own arms the whole of Asia,
including this very peninsula, which it has
taken a century lor England to make her own.
Napoleon threatened at one time to be the
real or ostensible master of all Europe. The
empire of Russia occupies nearly a sixth of the
whole of the world. Independently of India
itself, the extent of England's power is as wide
as that of any of the large empires of the world,
ancient or modern. But the growth of her
Indian empire is unique for all that. In the
whole range of history, there is not to be found
anything that, in front of a meagre adaptation
30
"178 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
of limited means to a desired object, would
bear a parallel with the lasting conquests achiev-
ed by England on the plains of India. Alex-
ander and Napoleon undoubtedly achieved
great conquests ; but love of glory and aggran-
disement being their only inspiration, they
made acquisitions greater than they could sus-
tain, and the empires that they founded were
soon lost by their own weakness or the weak-
ness of their successors. The conquests of
Timour were long sustained in the house of
Baber, because that house, very cunningly,
adapted itself to the circumstances and needs
of its people ; but it had from the begin-
ning been weakened by internal dissensions
and viciousness, and it fell at the very
first blow that struck it for England's
power in the East. Rome had no stability in
herself; and if she conquered the nations of
Europe, it was because she was more highly
civilised than the rest of Europe, and at such
time as the conquered nations began to be
enlightened the Roman power commenced to
yield.
Rome had grown up to maturity while the
surrounding states were but infantine in their
organisation. Rome conquered by force of
EMPIRES OF OLD. 1/9
her arms alone ; and as the young nationalities
of modern Europe grew up into man's estate,
they learned to measure their own strength
with hers, and snapped in due time their child-
ish fetters as easily as Samson did the bonds
of the Philistines. " Kingdoms have (thus)
fallen after kingdoms, and provinces after
provinces, with a rapidity which resembles the
incidents of a romance rather than the accus-
tomed train of political events" ; but it is only
to England, the patroness of improvement and
the handmaid of every true amelioration, that
India has been entrusted, doubtless, that she
may be qualified by a long, if not a permanent
dependency, to take her natural place in the
community of nations. And by what means
can so glorious a consummation be brought
about but by imparting to the people the in-
estimable benefits of a sound enlightenment ;
And what time than the present is better
adapted for Government to work with activity,
and honest patriots to think with seriousness
on the cause? All before the mutinies, the
presence of powerful and ambitious chiefs and
princes had forced our Government to keep up
an attitude of perpetual warfare, and deep
anxiety for the safety of their position ; but they
180 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
have from time to time been all subdued and
absorbed ; while the few adventurous marauders
that remained completed their destruction by
precipitating the terrible rebellion of 1857.
That too has been completely crushed ; the last
rebel just captured, and the temple of the Janus
of Indian politics closed upon war. Nor were
the finances ever in a healthier state than at
present. The deficit, which had for so many
years been eating into the vitals of the State,
has been removed ; a remission of taxation has
taken place, and we now enjoy the pleasing
spectacle of the addition of the munificent sum
of half a million sterling to what was already
devoted to the cause of mental and moral
elevation. If, then, there ever was a conjunc-
ture of circumstances pre-eminently favourable
to the prosecution of national instruction, it is
the present ; and if it is trifled with, woe worth,
we boldly say, the Government and their coun-
sels! Another great obstacle has also been
removed ; and everything conspires, as it were
providentially, to commence the regeneration
of India. " I feel," says Lord Macaulay, in
his minute, " that it is impossible for us, with
our limited means, to attempt to educate the
body of the people : we must at present do our
PRESENT POSITION OF INDIA. 181
best to form a class who may be interpreters
between us and the people whom we govern ; a
class of persons, Indian in blood and colour, but
English in taste, in opinions, in morals, and in
intellect. To that class we may leave it to
refine the vernacular dialects of the country,
to enrich those dialects with terms of science
borrowed from the western nomenclature, and
to render them by degrees fit vehicles for con-
veying knowledge to the great mass of the
population." These memorable w r ords were
written in 1835, and during the 27 years that
have since elapsed, a change mighty in results
has come over the bearing and the condition of
circumstances. For, it may not be too much
to say, that the two reasons that prevented
Lord Macaulay from giving to the people of
India the benefit of a system of national in-
struction, viz. the want of means and the want
of a medium wherewith to communicate know-
ledge to the mass of the people, are now com-
pletely obviated. The educational means are
at present so very liberal, that even the addi-
tional grant, sanctioned by the Home authori-
ties only recently, is itself upwards of fourteen
times the whole sum allowed in the days of
Lord Macaulay, when he thought of a system of
31
182 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
national education for India. And as to the
medium of communication, the class of men
whom Lord Macaulay wanted to be the " in-
terpreters" between the people of the East
and the West — a class of men whose existence
he held indispensable for raising the much-
neglected mass of India, has been formed at
each of the principal stations of India ; a class,
though " Indian in blood and colour," yet " Eng-
lish in taste, in opinion, and in intellect" ; a
class which has been " enriching the vernacular
languages with terms borrowed from the western
nomenclature," and so rendered them " fit vehi-
cles for conveying knowledge to the great mass
of the population." The difficulties are over,
and the subject must be thought of seriously.
It would undoubtedly be ungrateful to deny
all attempts in this direction by the British
Government ; yet we will not think lightly of
that shrewd and observant, yet unjustly cen-
sured author of " Modern India" who believed
that our people did not at all receive education
either more extensively or of a superior nature
under British domination than of old. It is
his firm conviction, that India was celebrated
in ancient times for the number and excellence
of its schools. We can ourselves glean this
POPULAR EDUCATION. 183
fact from the works of the Persian and Arabic
historians of India ; while Mr. Campbell per-
sonally came in contact with the mountain
tribes, among whom the majority of people
could read and write with ease and grace ; and
he conjectures that a century before the estab-
lishment of the British power, the many inter-
necine wars that ruined the country during the
disputes for thrones between ambitious and
aspiring members of royal families, ruined
the schools, and degenerated the people into
that illiteracy and ignorance in which the
British adventurers found them on their arrival
in India. The British Government have been
doing much, though not all that they should do,
in reviving and invigorating the education of
the people of this country ; and we hope that a
short history of this education will not be found
uninteresting in this place.
The very day that the establishment of Bri-
tish power in the East was effected by the suc-
cesses of Clive, the British Government directed
their attention to imparting education to their
eastern subjects ; and so early as 1781, Warren
Hastings, the first Governor-General of India,
in spite of his narrow circumstances and mean
emoluments, set apart from his own fortune a
1 84 LIGHTS AXD SHADES.
sum, amounting to Rs. 57,745, for the estab-
lishment of the Calcutta College, to the main-
tenance of which his Government assigned a
jahageer of the annual value of Rs. 29,000.
Ten years afterwards, that is in 1791i under
the administration of Lord Cornwallis, Jona-
than Duncan, whom our Presidency had in a
subsequent period the good fortune to claim as
her Governor, opened a Sanskrit College at
Benares. It must be admitted that the object
in founding both these institutions was not to
impart the blessings of a sound education and
enlightenment to the degenerated people of the
East, so much as to produce from among them
a set of pedants, spouting Sanskrit and Arabic
poets, and doctors of the Hindoo and Maho-
medan la*w. Under the administration of the
Marquis of Wellesley, in 1 800, was opened the
College of Fort William ; but this college was
not for the education of the people of this
country, but for the instruction in oriental lan-
guages of English officers coming out from
England. In the administration of the gentle
and peace-loving Lord Minto, the attention of
Government to education began to be directed,
not as a voluntary feeling, but rather as an ac-
knowledged duty ; and under the advice of the
HISTORICAL SKETCH. 185
celebrated oriental scholar Colebrooke, institu-
tions were founded for the study of Sanskrit in
Tirhoot, Nundia, and other cities of Bengal.
From this period we may mark the consumma-
tion of the first epoch of Indian education ;
though, unfortunately, at this time attention
was directed to the exclusive study and revival
of the Arabic and the Sanskrit, under the false
and pretentious idea of raising the people in
the scale of enlightenment by means of their
old and effete literatures. It was something
like the vain prudery of the dark ages of Eu-
rope, when men thought to elevate their nation
by pedagogic feats and the exclusive cultivation
of the Latin and Greek. Lord Minto, in whose
time this oriental mania, commencing with
Warren Hastings, reached its culmination, in
a minute, dated 6th March 1811, laments that
" science and literature are in a progressive
state of decay among the Natives of India" ;
ascribes the " prevalence of the crimes of per-
jury and forgery, so frequently noticed in the
official reports, both in the Mahomedans and
the Hindoos, to the want of due instruction in
the moral and religious tenets of their respective
faiths" ; and recommends the reform of the
then existing, and the establishment of new,
31*
1 86 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
Sanskrit and Arabic colleges. The Court of
Directors entertained these views, and voted
" that a sum not less than one lakh of rupees
in each year should be set apart and applied
to the revival and improvement of literature
and the encouragement of the learned Natives
of India, and for the introduction and promo-
tion of a knowledge of the sciences among the
inhabitants of the British territories in India."
The consequence of this was pernicious, because
it gave an impetus to the exclusive cultivation
of the Sanskrit and Arabic languages ; awarded
pensions and rewards to superannuated Pundits
and Moulavis; and encouraged public dispu-
tations on subjects such as absorbed the atten-
tion of the school-men in the dark ages of
Europe. It is scarcely necessary to add, that
this scheme of education, devised by the wis-
dom of the Indian Government, and sanctioned
by the authority of the Court of Directors, was
not at all calculated to improve the character
and condition of the benighted millions, inas-
much as it was necessarily confined, in the
very nature of things, to a limited class of
pedagogues and linguists. The Sanskrit and
the Arabic flourished, no doubt, to the very
height of their glory, just as the one did under
FAULTS AT STARTING. 18/
the patronising care of Sandracotus thousands
of years ago, and the other under that of the
enlightened Haroun Al Kaschid four centuries
back ; but yet, it must be held a marvel how
an enlightened statesman of the nineteenth
century cherished the idea of regenerating an
ignorant and enslaved nation by means of the
exploded philosophy, abstruse science, and con*
fused ethics (for it was positively confused and
vitiated by the later munis and fakirs) of a
bygone oriental age. Happily, this preposterous
idea shortly received discountenance from an
unexpected quarter, and in a curious way, to
which we may justly ascribe the origin of all
English instruction in India, and the beginning
of the second and important epoch of Indian
education. In 1815, under the Governor-Ge-
neralship of the Marquis of Hastings, the
Indian philanthropist and benefactor, the
Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic, Bengali, and Eng-
lish scholar, the well-known Rammohun Hoy,
who in a discussion on Biblical doctrines and
claims had once outwitted the Indian head
ecclesiastic of the English church, that scholar
once held an evening convocation in his house
of friends and visitors, among whom was an
Englishman, poor in means, but rich in mind,
188 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
and expansive in heart, of the name of David
Hare. Discussion was held as to the best
means whereby the condition of the people
might be ameliorated, and knowledge gained
to them; but disputants even so earnest and
acute as Rajah Rammohun Roy and David
Hare could not arrive at a definite plan
in a single evening; and it was determined
to hold a public meeting every week to consider
their laudable object. Mr. Hare, with great
cleverness and vehemence, at length succeed-
ed in convincing his hearers of the advisa-
bility 6f an English education for the Native
population of Calcutta, by the establishment of
a Hindoo College. Rajah Rammohun Roy
believed that a society would effect the desired
change ; and he forthwith established a Brah-
ma community, believing in a Supreme Creator
and cherishing a common faith ; while at the
same time, through the instrumentality of an
inferior in mind, yet diligent, strong, and clever
workman, the Hindoo College took its rise —
and, if we speak yet more properly, the origin
of English education in India. That workman,
we need not repeat, was Mr. Hare, to whom
one day is consecrated at Calcutta every year
through grateful remembrance. And he, with
RAJAH RAMMOIIUX ROY. 189
the assistance of the Chief Justice, Sir Hyde
East, collected a subscription from the Native
gentry and public, amounting to Rs. 1,13,1/9,
for the founding of the present Hindoo College.
The twentieth anniversary of this energetic
and clear-minded Englishman has just been
celebrated at Calcutta (on the 2nd of June
last), when an intelligent Baboo delivered a
short sketch of the history of the institution
he was so instrumental in founding, which
throws additional light on the philanthropy of
Rammohun Roy as well as David Hare. He
says — "Availing himself of this altered* state
of feeling, David Hare, a retired watchmaker,
urged on the leading members of the Native
community to consider the necessity and import-
ance of establishing a great seat of learning in
the metropolis. They listened to this proposal
with unfeigned interest, and promised it their
hearty support. They willingly accepted an
invitation from Sir Edward Hyde East, the
then Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, to
meet at his residence for the purpose of adopt-
ing measures for carrying it into effect. The
preliminary meeting was held in May 1816, in
the same house (Old Post Office Street) which
was lately occupied by Chief Justice Colville,
32
190 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
and which is now tenanted by Messrs. Allen,
Judge, and Bannerjee, and a conclave of other
lawyers. Among those who did not attend
this preliminary meeting, was one who never-
theless shared with David Hare the credit of
originating the idea of the institution of the
Hindoo College, almost from its inception, and
whose name will be therefore inseparably asso-
ciated with its foundation. As a moral and
religious reformer, Rammohun Roy had, from
a very early period, felt the imperative necessity
of imparting a superior English education to
his countrymen as the best and most efficacious
means of achieving his end. He had estab-
lished an English School at his own expense.
He had heartily entered into the plans of David
Hare, and zealously aided in their develop-
ment. But, as an uncompromising enemy of
Hindoo idolatry, he had incurred the hostility
of his orthodox countrymen, and he apprehend-
ed that his presence at the preliminary meet-
ing might embarrass its deliberations, and
probably defeat its object. And he was not
mistaken. Some of the Native gentlemen, the
representatives of Hindooism, actually told Sir
Hyde East, that they would gladly accord their
support to the proposed college, if Rammohun
THE MAHAVIDYALYA. 191
Roy were not connected with it; but they
would have nothing to do with that apostate !
Rammohun Roy willingly allowed himself to
be laid aside, lest his active co-operation should
mar the accomplishment of the project, Baying
— ' If my connection with the proposed col-
lege should injure its interests, I would resign
all connection.' The arrangements for the
establishment of the Mahavidyalya, or great
seat of learning, as the Hindoo College was
originally called, having been completed, it was
inaugurated in 1816. The house on the Upper
Chitpore Road, known as Gorrachaud Bv'sack's
house, and now occupied by the Oriental Se-
minary, was its first local habitation. It was
afterwards removed to Firinghi Komul Bose's
house at Jorasanko. The object of the in-
stitution, as described in the printed rules
published in 1822, was to ' instruct the sons
of the Hindoos in the European and Asiatic
languages and sciences.' Though it was pro-
posed to teach English, Persian, Sanskrit, and
Bengali, yet the first place in importance was
assigned to English. In truth, the college was
founded for the purpose of supplying the grow-
ing demand for English education, Sanskrit
was discontinued at an early period. The
192 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
Persian class was abolished in 1841. The only
languages which have since been taught are
English and Bengali."
After the founding of the college, in 1821,
under the same administration, for the promo-
tion of Sanskrit studies, the British Govern-
ment subscribed the munificent sum of Rs.
1,20,000 for the building of the Hindoo Sans-
krit College, and offered Rs. 30,000 annually
for its maintenance ; and in the subsequent
year, that is in 1822, they subscribed Rs.
42,521 for building a college at Agra, and
deterriiined to pay annually the sum of Rs.
15,420 for its maintenance. From this date
up to now, we have had colleges at Delhi,
Patna, Allahabad, Bareilly, Saugor, Jubbul-
pore, Hooghly, Dacca, Kishnagur, and other
places, a history of which it is of no very great
importance or interest to relate here. In 1823,
the Bengal Government, with a view to test
the merit of their educational department, and
ascertain the different ways in which their
grants were expended, opened the " Committee
of Public Instruction," which lasted for twenty
years, until 1842, when Lord Auckland dis-
solved it, and established instead the late
"Council of Education"; with the first of
VERNACULAR EDUCATION. 193
which were connected at different times philan-
thropists and scholars like Princeps, H. Wilson,
and Tytler, and with the second henefactors
like the late lamented Bethune, and the yet
living and working Charles H. Cameron. It
must be here stated, that from among the dif-
ferent colleges we have just enumerated, some
commenced with Arabic instruction, some with
the Sanskrit, and some with the English ; and
others combined the three in their curriculum,
which, it is probable, is nearly the same even at
the present day. Nowhere in Bengal was at-
tention ever paid to the dissemination of a
general education in the vernacular dialect of
the different sections of the community. On
the 10th of October 1844, Lord Hardinge
wrote his celebrated minute on the commence-
ment of vernacular education in the different
cities and villages of the country, a minute that
has vet continued to be an authoritative de-
spatch, that deserves the best attention of both
Government and the public ; and though a
hundred vernacular schools were forthwith
opened in different parts of India, they ulti-
mately proved a failure ; and it might, indeed,
be said that this judicious minute has nowhere
yet been carried out in its full integrity.
33
194 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
With regard to Bombay, the first move of
any kind in the subject of education was made
in 1816, when, through the exertions of Arch-
deacon Barnes, a school was opened at the pre-
sent site of the Byculla Church, for the educa-
tion of European orphans and paupers, and
which school is yet in existence. In August
1820, the active members of the committee of
this institution thought of the education of the
Native people of our island ; and in 1 822, some
of these, joined by their friends, formed the
" Bombay Native School and School-book
Society," and commenced the benevolent work
of Native education in the Western Presidency.
In 1824, under the administration of the late
Honorable M. Elphinstone, Government deter-
mined to subscribe annually Us. 6,000 to the
funds of this society ; and this was the first
Government aid given to the work of Native
education in Western India. In 1827, the
above society changed its name to that of the
" Bombay Native Education Society." It was
in 1827 that that friend and benefactor of the
Natives, the accomplished statesman and scho-
lar, the late Honorable M. Elphinstone, retired
from the administration of the Government
of Bombay ; and with a view to express their
MOVEMENT IN BOMBAY. 195
veneration and esteem, and commemorate in
gratitude his name and his services among their
progeny, the Native gentry and public of Bom-
bay subscribed, through the exertions of the
immediate father of Western Indian education,
Colonel Jervis, whose portrait is yet to be seen
hung in a conspicuous place at the entrance of
the Elphinstone school, and through the liberal
co-operation of that enlightened Parsee, Mr.
Framjee Cowasjee — whose portrait occupies
the opposite side of the room which is graced
by that of the English colonel, — a magnificent
subscription, of upwards of lis. 3,00,000, was
forthwith raised, and employed, not in the
presentation of a purse or plate, so often
foolishly voted to retiring greatness or friend-
ship from the scene of its active labours in
this country, but in the founding of that vene-
rable institution, which perpetuates the name
of Elphinstone in the enlightenment of the
sons of Western India, and the dissipation of
its gloom and ignorance. Subsequently, in
1840, for the purposes of general direction and
superintendence, was established the " Board
of Education," in imitation of the " Committee
of Public Instruction" (afterwards " Council of
Education") in Bengal ; and in the same year
196 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
the school of the " Bombay Native Education
Society," which was in the back-town of our
city, and their college in the fort, were amal-
gamated into one institution, bearing the name
of the "Elphinstone Native Education Society,"
which in 1845, at the suggestion, and under
the auspices, as we conjecture, of Sir E. Perry,
was changed into the present " Elphinstone
Institution" ; and in the same year, be it assert-
ed to the credit and appreciation of his learning
and talents, unfortunately always obscured by
a too great assumption of modesty, Dr. John
Harkness, from among the five professors then
on a degree of equality, was unanimously elect-
ed Principal of the Institution.
Three years previous to attention being first
directed to the education of the people of this
city, the empire of Bajeerao was dismembered,
and its reins assumed by the Bombay Govern-
ment. In the fourth year of this event, that
is in 1821, the Commissioner of the Deccan,
Mr. Chaplin, established at the seat of this
empire, Poona, a Sanskrit College, with the
same object with which Warren Hastings was
led to establishing at Calcutta the Mahomed an
College, and Jonathan Duncan the Benares
College. Mr. Chaplin, no doubt, worked in
HISTORICAL SKETCH. 197
an erroneous spirit ; and he himself admitted,
that in order to render his institution " agree-
able to the Hindoo population," he " determined
to employ Shastrees to teach all the subjects of
instruction," many of which he fully acknow-
ledged " to be worse than useless." Sanskrit
education was thus commenced at Poona, as
soon as it passed into the hands of the British
Government; and it continued till 1834, when
the Government of the Earl of Clare appointed
a Committee of the Revenue and Judicial
Commissioners of the Deccan, and the Poona
Judge and Collector, to examine into the nature
and working of this institution ; who, report-
ing that, instead of enlightening, it tended to
propagate false theories and superstitious views
among the people, induced the Government to
meritedly express a desire to abolish it. How-
ever, the exertions of Major Candy having
made some improvement in the working of the
institution, it was continued intact till 1851,
when the suggestion, made in the celebrated
minute of Sir E. Perry " on the present state
and future prospects of education in the Bom-
bay Presidency," in October, 1849, was put into
execution, by amalgamating this college with
the Poona Government English School, and
S3*
1 98 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
founding the present Poona College, on the
model of the Elphinstone Institution in Bom-
bay, under the able management of Professors
Green and McDougal, and Messrs. Keru and
Madhavarao Shastree. At the very time that
educational institutions were thus founded at
Bombay and Poona, a school was opened at the
insignificant town of Panvel, to impart English
education, which, after a precarious existence
of twenty-one years, died a natural death in
1842, at the mandate of the Board of Edu-
cation. There was, about the same time with
the founding of the school at Panvel, that is
in the year 1823, opened an English School at
Tanna, which, through various viscissitudes,
is now in vigorous working; and about 1833
there was established a school at Poona,
which produced very good scholars ; and it
must not be forgotten, that to a small degree
the establishment of the Poona College owed
its origin to the active exertions of the students
of this school, which is now in amalgamation
with the college. Subsequently to this, schools
were opened at various places — at Surat (1842),
Rutnagherry (1845), Ahmedabad (1846), Ah-
mednuggur and Dharwar (1847), Broach
(1848), Belgaum (1850), Sattara (1852), and
STATISTICS. 199
Dhoolia (1853) ; and the work of opening new
schools has since been considerably increased,
especially under the active exertions of Mr.
Howard, our Director of Public Instruction,
as shall be seen hereafter. With regard to
vernacular education in our Presidency, we
must say it commenced in 1826, when, from
the one Gujarati and one Marathi schools that
were long before opened in connection with the
Elphinstone Institution, fourteen Marathi pun-
tojis and ten Gujarati mehtajis trained therein
were selected and sent into the interior to each
of the zillahs under the charge of the Collectors ;
and as the Revenue or Judicial Commissioners or
Collectors recommended, Government showed a
readiness to open schools for vernacular edu-
cation of the people. In 1826, when the move
in this direction was first made, these schools
amounted to 24 in number ; in 1840, when the
" Board of Education" was nominated, they
were 85; in 1850 they were 168; in 1854,
when the present machinery of inspection was
inaugurated, they were above 200 or 250 ; and
in I860, under Mr. Howard, the number of
all kinds of schools in the Bombay Presidency
amounted to 76 1 . We may mention en passant,
that for the education of the peasants in the
200 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
Poorundhur division of the Poona Collectorate
were opened in 1836 about 60 schools ; but the
pay of the puntoji had long been ranging from
the magnificent sum of Rs. 2-8as. to Rs. 5-8as.,
and that of the head master was Rs. 10 ; and
we believe the same state of affairs yet continues
to some extent in several of our village-schools
even at the present day. We mention this
fact, as it will be useful to bear it in mind while
perusing the following pages.
But incomplete would be any history of In-
dian education, if we did not notice, of course as
cursorily as before, the important differences
which have at various times divided men of au-
thority in their opinion on the topic of general
enlightenment. The most disputable and stub-
born question has always continued to be as to
the medium whereby to impart education to the
people of this country. Various views have
been advanced, at various times ; but these
may be reduced principally to three heads — 1st,
the advocacy of the different languages and
dialects of the different provinces as the me-
dium of education ; 2nd, the advocacy of the
Sanskrit studies for the Hindoo, and of the
Arabic for the Mahomedan population of In-
dia ; and 3rd, the advocacy of English education
DISPUTES AS TO THE MEDIUM. 201
for the people. It is curious, and at the same
time despairing, for any preference on our part
to enumerate the great names arrayed on each
side — Malcolm, Munro, Macnaughten, Clerk,
Thomason, Hodgson, Sprenger, Wilkinson,
Marshman, Willoughhy, and Jervis were the
advocatesof the first opinion ; and Warren Hast-
ings, Jones, Colebrooke, Princeps, Shakspeare,
Tytler, H. Wilson, and Cunningham, of the
second; while Bentinek, Auckland, Macaulav,
Trevelyan, Ryan, Cameron, Bethune, Duff, El-
phinstone, Frank, Warden, Grant, Norton,
Rammohun Roy, and last, though not the least,
David Hare, disputed for the third. At first
sight, the advocates of the first view seem to take
the palm of justice and clear-sightedness off the
dispute ; for where there is no enlightenment,
where the people do not know to read and write
with grace and ease, and where science and art
have not shed any ray of their lustre, it is ex-
pedient to impart education in the vernacular
of the country. But in India this is most im-
practicable. There is a language for every
province, and a dialect for every zillah ; which,
when aggregated, would give an overwhelming
number for the national languages of India.
Sir E. Perry, in his " Languages of India, and
202 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
the function of the English as a Lingua Franca,"
enumerates twenty-one distinct languages in
India, each of which has its distinct dialects,
often unintelligible to two sections of the people
in one district; and Sir E. Perry himself enu-
merates eight distinct branches of the Hindi, a
knowledge of the one of which does not at all
make the other intelligible. It is true that
all enlightenment and reformation have been
effected through the national language of the
people ; it was with this that Luther worked in
Germany, Wickliffe in England, St. Patrick
in Irdand, John Knox in Scotland, and even
Sankracharya in India ; but of the innumer-
able languages and dialects of the people of
India at the present time, which is to be pre-
ferred ? is the knotty question, that completely
upsets the first view. Besides, each of these
languages is imperfect in its nomenclature, and
loose in its structure ; there are no standard
indigenous works in any one of these ; and if
all were to be equally favoured, the first step
would be to create a literature in them all,
which is evidently a long and even then hopeless
task. The second view received the greatest
countenance of Government from 1/81 till
1835; and it is wonderful how effete litera-
DIFFICULTIES. 203
tures found so much favour from men in autho-
rity. It must undoubtedly be admitted, that
Sanskrit is the most perfect, rich, and ancient
language of any in the world ; and though we
do not know much of it, we can safely give to
it superiority over the Greek and Latin in
every respect : but we believe that in the olden
times it should have been the fittest vehicle of
enlightenment. Perhaps its advocacy might
have been appropriate also in the middle ages ;
but in the days of railways, the steam-engine,
and telegraph, of experimental and metaphy-
sical philosophy, the days of Newton, Faraday,
Arago, Compte, Locke, Cousin, Adam Smith,
Mill, and Whewell, to believe that the Sanskrit,
and, we may also add, the Arabic literature,
could inculcate doctrines of a genuine science
and unerring philosophy, would be a sheer ab-
surdity. In fact, at no period of the world's
past history did there exist the science, im-
parting comfort and power over nature to man :
it is essentially of modern growth; and that
education which does not elevate the moral
and material position of a people is worse than
useless. Rajah Rammohun Roy, than whom,
we believe, a more shrewd, clear-sighted, and
benevolent Native India never produced, at
204 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
first differed from the clear view of Mr. David
Hare ; and in spite of the latter's advocacy for
the founding of a Hindoo College for English
education, darted upon his Bralimo-Siimaj as
the best means of ameliorating the condition of
his countrymen, in 1815. But time worked a
change in the mind and opinions of the earnest
philanthropist, and he so clearly perceived the
futility of his plan, and the superior claims of
the English to all Sanskrit lore, that in Decem-
ber 1 823 he made a petition to the Government
of Lord Amherst to abolish the then Sanskrit
College, which he compared with the useless col-
leges that were founded and maintained in
Europe before the time of Lord Bacon; and
openly asserted that its instruction, instead
of benefiting the mind of the student, rather
burdened it with oppressive rules of grammar,
and old venerated theories of nature, now
wholly exploded. He said that the Sanskrit
w T as the most difficult language for acquisition ;
that it would take a lifetime before attain-
ing to the science under its veil, which, after
all the exertion to acquire, in no way rewarded
the zealous votary. Indeed, Mr. Adam, who
was at first a missionary, but, changing his
mind, and joining a Socinian community, left
RAMMGHUN ROY'S VIEWS. 205
his avocation of the Gospel, and became the
first editor in India, and who was commis-
sioned by Lord Win. Bentinck, in 1835, to exa-
mine and report upon the state of Govern-
ment education in Bengal and Behar, has calcu-
lated that a studentship of eighty years is ne-
cessary for a complete curriculum of Sanskrit
studies, and, under favourable circumstances,
of not less than twenty or twenty-five years !
Rammohun Roy, in his celebrated petition,
stated that he believed it would take ages be-
fore enlightenment could be diffused in the
country through the Sanskrit, and ages* again
before the people could be persuaded to have
a taste for its study ; and, indeed, Mr. Adam,
on inquiry, found that while there were 109
schools in Bengal for Sanskrit education, the
total number of boys amounted to 1,358 only,
with the monthly expense of Bs. 3,119, or
over Rs. 37,000 annually, with a further ex-
penditure of Bs. 20,000 every year on the
publication of Sanskrit (and Arabic) works.
Bammohun Boy further believed, that had
England desired to keep her sons in igno-
rance and unenlightenment, she would have
perpetuated the philosophy of the schoolmen,
and forbad that of Bacon, in her universities
206 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
and colleges ; and if she intended to keep her
Indian subjects depressed and illiterate, she
could not do it more successfully than by im-
parting and tolerating yet further the present
Sanskrit education. The riyal claims of the
Sanskrit and the English thus continued to be
discussed in no measured language, and even
with bitter personal acrimony, between the
opposing advocates ; and on the 2nd of Feb-
ruary 1835, Lord (then the Honorable) Mac-
aulay, the Fourth Member of Council, made
the most lucid, argumentative, and eloquent
minute, worthy, in one word, of the first writer
in the Edinburgh Review, on education for In-
dia (re-copied with permission into the Honor-
able Mr. Cameron's work on the " Dudes of Eng-
land to India'), in which he advocated the
claims on the English for the enlightenment of
this country, and expressed himself so forcibly
and stubbornly that he threatened to resign his
office, should his views be discarded. Happily,
however, they found an echo in the liberal views
of Lord Wm. Bentinck, with whom commences
the era of English education in India ; which
measure owes no small share of its origin also to
the enlightened interest of the Marquis of Hast-
ings. That illustrious Governor-General, Lord
RESULT OF DISCUSSIONS IN BENGAL. 207
Wm. Bentinck, than whom an abler, a more
liberal-minded and philanthropic ruler (save
perhaps the late Lord Canning) never wielded
the sceptre of Indian viceroyaltv, the uncom-
promising reformer of every branch of the
administration, the abolisher of the inhuman
rite of sati, and the exterminator of debasing
thuggism, in his resolution dated 7th March
1835, founded on the celebrated minute of
Lord Macaulay, discouraged the exclusive cul-
tivation of the Sanskrit and Arabic literatures,
opened patronage to English learning, and
thus commenced a new era in Indian education.
From that memorable year, the stream of Go-
vernment liberality was chiefly, we might say
wholly, directed to the cultivation of English
literature and science among the Natives, and
the erection in various parts of the country of
colleges and high schools. But Government
did not work alone in this field of real useful-
ness. Individual philanthropists, both mission-
ary and civilian, like Messrs. Edwards, Hume,
and Thomason, put forth individual efforts,
vieing with the Government colleges in impart-
ing a sound instruction in literature, science,
morals, and, in addition, religion.
The dispute that raged so fiercely in Bengal
208 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
was not without a shadow of its reflection in
our own island; where, however, it partook
more of the nature of a difference of the degree
of encouragement to be afforded by Government
than in the medium of education. Some advo-
cated that a greater amount of aid should be
afforded to education in the vernacular than
that in the English, w r hile others reversed the
view. This dispute raged very fiercely twice
in our island : on the first occasion, it was
between the Honorable F. Warden and Sir
John Malcolm, of w r hich there came no satis-
factory settlement ; for the one was supported
in his advocacy with the results achieved in
Bengal, where seventy per cent, of school-boys
were found about the year 1844 to receive
English education (i. e. 3,953 out of 5,570),
while in Bombay only seven per cent. (i. e.
761 out of 10,6 16), which greatly supported
the attitude assumed by the Bombay Governor.
On the second occasion, this dispute arose,
not between the Bombay Governor and a
member of the Board of Education, but be-
tween Sir E. Perry and Colonel Jervis, both
members of the board. The incident was this,
that on the 30th of January 1847, Government
addressed a letter to the board about the estab-
KESULTS IN BOMBAY. 209
lishment of an Engineering School in connec-
tion with the Elphinstone Institution, when
Colonel Jervis objected to the Government
suggestion of imparting this instruction in the
English language, while Sir E. Perry strenu-
ously supported it. This dispute was continued
till 1850, and was waged with such stubbornness
and acrimony on both sides, that the Govern-
ment of the Honorable J. P. Willoughby at
length, in a letter on the 24th of April in the
lastnamed year, passed a censure upon it, and
authoritatively ordered it to be closed.
Such is the short history of Indian 'educa-
tion in Bengal and in Bombay, until the period
we advisedly call the beginning of the second
and more interesting epoch of our enlighten-
ment. The third epoch in this history com-
mences with the 19th of July 1854, when,
thanks to Mr. Edwards, Mr. Marshman, and
Dr. Duff, Mr. Baring wrote the famous de-
spatch signed by Sir Charles Wood, which
furthered the cause of Indian education, by
calling into existence an effective educational
machinery of directors and inspectors to watch
over its progress and its failings ; the institu-
tion of universities ; the system of grants-in-
aid ; and the ultimate withdrawal of the State
35*
210 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
from all direct control over individual schools.
But a false economy, and the narrow views of
those (and especially of Mr. P. Grant, who
influenced both Lord Dalhousie and Lord
Canning in education movements) who were
charged with giving effect to the measures
advocated in the memorable despatch, pre-
vented the realisation of these much-to-be-covet-
ed consummations. The system of grants-in-
aid has been almost a failure everywhere, but
especially in Bombay, where it has been stre-
nuously opposed by all the authorities ; and the
only £reat result as yet arrived at in this
country has been the establishment of univer-
sities in the three Presidencies. But that
famous document provided for something more
■ — it positively contemplated a system of na-
tional education. In 1859, Lord Stanley re-
viewed its results ; and finding that its original
object had been entirely overlooked, directed
Lord Canning to give his attention to it ; when,
with praiseworthy alacrity, the late lamented
Governor- General invited the opinions of all
practical teachers, as well as of men interested
in education, declaring that he would at once
create and vigorously work a scheme of na-
tional schools. Replies were sent in to Mr.
A NATIONAL SYSTEM. 21 1
J. P. Grant three years ago, and he forward-
ed them to the Governor- General twenty- two
months ago — to no purpose, as it proved af-
terwards, whatsoever. Unfortunately for the
dumb millions of India, Lord Stanley's minis-
try was at an end ; Lord Cannings new-born
zeal, having no food to keep it active, evapo-
rated, and this subject, like all Indian subjects,
is still " under consideration" ; and while exalt-
ation has been made of the great and the rich
— the princes, the chiefs, and the ameers, —
by a policy of liberal instinct, the poor, the
weak, and the helpless are yet left by Govern-
ment to the lowest degradation, unheeding thp
cry that rings throughout the country — " My
people are destroyed for lack of knowledge" !
There are three classes in every country — the
rich, the middle, and the poor ; and whatever
of movement in education or reform, made in
any country, has been either with the first or
the last to produce any very beneficial effects ?
The middle class is generally without influence,
unless it be unusually active, energetic, and
philanthropic ; without certainly the influence
which riches and power enjoy of setting the
example which the mass is too ready to copy,
and without the influence of the last, which is
212 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
as great, as that of the beginning being made
where it should be made. In commencing with
the middle class in the work of the diffusion of
western civilisation, Government have obtained
the result of a few well-trained pupils, and a
great majority of half educated, vain striplings.
Had they commenced with the upper class, the
formation of universities should have been
hastened twenty years earlier, and we should by
this time have had a rich crop of well-ground-
ed students, pursuing literature and study all
their life through, and, being able in means,
successfully engaged in the work of enlighten-
ing the mass of the people. Our comprehen-
sion of knowledge must also have been greater ;
for it is only the rich who can afford to stay out
the entire curriculum of study in any country,
and, after entering on life, to further their pro-
gress, until it should even be said of many that
" Knowledge self destroyed her favourite son."
It is impossible to overrate the importance
of general education, which precedes special
education in the very order of time, and holds
it as a mere secondary part, inasmuch as the
object of the former is two-fold ; first to store
the mind with substantive knowledge, and
GENERAL AND SPECIAL EDUCATION. 213
secondly to fit it as an instrument for dealing
with all subjects which may be placed before
it at any time, however vast or minute. It
has often been likened to the elephant's trunk,
which, while it can tear away the full-grown
tree, is yet of such fine adaptation that it can
pick up the minute pin. This is accomplished
by inculcating habits of order, study, and re-
flection ; the last of which is most beneficial to
the mind, and even as indispensable to the gene-
ral objectof study as mastication is to digestion,
by improving the memory, strengthening the
judgment, and exercising the reasoning powers ;
and he who most thoroughly accomplishes these
ends, which assuredly constitute the general
education of any individual, will find his special
training the shortest and easiest, and is most
likely to succeed, not only in his particular
calling, but in whatever object he places before
himself for accomplishment- The conviction
sinks deeper into our mind every day, that all
life is one long school-time, and that education
ceases only with the grave, however remote the
prospect, and however unwilling any drone is
to enter into study ; with this difference only,
that in youth we are taught ; in manhood we
teach ourselves. A real student takes general
36
2 1 4 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
education all his life, while an ignorant or
half-literate stripling pursues his special edu-
cation; but every man, high or low, noble or
grovelling, receives some education or other
up to the moment when he sinks into his
grave. What we call experience in worldly
phraseology is nothing but special education,
and we see in the progress made in experience
by the professional plodder, the steady but im-
perceptible progress in special education — the
shroff or the banya in his expertness of shop
chicaneries, the karkoon in his art of collec-
tion, the kazee in drawing in thickly the veil
of ignorance, and the dewan or the kotwal
in his watchfulness ; — every professional man
receives a special education, in every little
concern of business he transacts, not the less
steadily and progressively than the student
does his general instruction, by reading and
discoursing, because unconscious and unper-
ceived.
If this view be right, as we have no doubt
it is, then it is evident that in India there is
no general education in its strict sense ; for as
yet education has been confined to that class of
the population which either forces or induces the
majority of boys to leave the school or college
WANT OF GENERAL EDUCATION. 215
so soon as thev have had such a smattering of
English reading, writing, and arithmetic as
enables them to obtain employment as writers
or accountants ; indeed, it is not likely that
they would prefer what would seem to them a
present evil for a future good ; and even if they
wished, the calls of the family upon the labour
of all its hands are too urgent to allow of a
gratification of their desire. The Indian
Government so shamefully neglects all sta-
tistics that we do not know even our own
numbers ; little, therefore, can we venture
to calculate exactly the proportion which the
boys who go up to a completion of their stu-
dies bear to those who are either satisfied
with or compelled to be content with a mere
smattering of learning. But being a little
in the habit of keeping a diary, we will tran-
scribe here a few vague results arrived at
by ourselves. Of 168 boys admitted with us
into the English department, ten entered the
Elphinstone College, of whom one has just
finished its entire curriculum, and two are still
with their studies ; two joined the Grant Me-
dical College, and have come out as graduates,
and one is prosecuting his studies for the civil
service in England: thus making the magnifi-
216 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
cent number of thirteen out of 168 ! Of 143
boys of the batch in the following half-year,
nine have entered the Elphinstone and one the
Grant Medical Colleges, and they are yet pro-
secuting their respective studies; and of 156
boys admitted immediately before the first
noticed batch, only six entered the college ; but
none stayed out its entire course, and in each
of these three batches barely one-fourth the
number remained to finish the education of the
lower school of the Elphinstone Institution* !
These are the results in Bombay, where people
are so well-to-do and enlightened; but the
case in the mofussil is most disheartening,
as out of about two hundred schools and up-
wards dispersed over the country, it is only
some years that we get two, three, or four
boys at the most into our college. From
these imperfect, because private, statistics, we
come to calculate the proportion of boys,
who go up to a completion of their higher
course, to those who fall off only with a smat-
tering, to be barely eight per cent.; and if
* Of tiie class of 28 boys trained by the writer of these p
during the past year or year and a half in his late posi-
tion as the head master of a seminary, only three joined the
college, the rest having all entered the world as professional
young men ; so great is the decadence of boys from a cla
PRIVATE STATISTICS. 217
allowance is to be made for the perfect apathy
shown in the Native purgunnahs, and even
cities, in the interior of the country, we will
scarcely be wrong if we take two per cent, as
the general estimate in this case for our Pre-
sidency. We are not in possession of estimates
for the other Presidencies ; but perhaps the
case is not very much improved anywhere ; so
that, in one sense, the Government have begun
their education with such a class as are occupied
in receiving merely a special education for
their profession. A 7 oid of means, they are un-
able to prove very beneficial instruments of
reform to the lower orders of the people ; and
as for their own progress, we have again the
mournful question to inquire — have we a single
man of talent or genius to compare with any
one of the commonest or lowest individuals who
have raised the British intellect to its present
proud position in the van of all that is en-
nobling ? Had Government begun with the
upper and richer classes in their scheme of
implanting European civilisation and polish
on the soil of this country, the extravagant ex-
penses incurred in giving the higher educa-
tion could have been spared, and after making
the beginning they could easily have demanded
37
218 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
self-supporting institutions from our country-
men, if they desired to induct themselves into
the higher branches of literature and science.
We should have had by this time a rich crop
of well-grounded students, devoted to learning
and literary investigations in after life ; while
the heavy expenses, unnecessarily and without
any very beneficial results, spent in educating
indolent and worldly-minded boys, could have
been diverted to elevating the lower mass of
the people by grounding them in rudimentary
knowledge and moral inculcations, so necessary
for the well-being both of the people and the
Government themselves. In England the higher
education is to be had only after an expense of
eight or ten thousand rupees for each boy,
while the rudimentary national education is
given for nothing in every village and street ;
and there can be no reason why it is not so
in India. There can be no greater delusion
than that of excusing this anomalous proce-
dure on the score of the different circum-
stances of the two countries, inasmuch as the
experiment has never been tried. Perhaps
there was the difficulty of class pride and
reserve, so common with eastern nations, to
contend with ; but by keeping the colleges
SELF-SUPPORTING SYSTEM. 219
and higher seminaries self- supporting, Govern-
ment should have pandered to their preju-
dices, as only the boys of their class could
have been enabled to join, and no other ; and
the readiness with which the shares of the
" Proprietary School" have all been filled up
in our town satisfactorily shows that the richer
classes of the Indian community are very
anxious to obtain the blessings of a liberal
education when their pride is enlisted in its
favour. It was because their sons had to
mingle very indiscriminately with the young
boys of the other orders that this claso kept
themselves aloof from benefiting themselves by
the higher branches of education opened so
liberally, yet in such a mistaken spirit, by the
Government of India. Even now, the Presi-
dency College at Calcutta is more than half
attended by the boys of the richer class of the
Baboos. Why then bribe them with so many
scholarships and free- studentships — why not
make the college at once self-supporting, ex-
cept in the pay of the Principal, who should
always be a Government servant, and divert
the enormous expenses of unnecessarily sup-
porting it to the formation of national schools
in all the villages of India ? It is to be re-
220 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
gretted that Mr. Howard's reports, so saga-
cious and suggestive in all respects, should lack
statistics such as we wanted, and quoted from
our diary above ; but yet they give us plain
figures on many points of vital importance ; and
the following well turned investigation shows
how easy it will be to render all higher educa-
tion self-supporting, in order, of course, to
make room for the rudimentary education of
the dumb millions of India. In his report on
the education of the Bombay Presidency for
1859-60, Mr. Howard begs "pointedly to call
the particular attention of Government to the
comparatively large sums contributed by the
people of this Presidency to their education.
The total money-payments for the maintenance
of schools in 1859-60 were approximately Rs.
5,52,564. Of this, the people contributed
(including school-fees) Rs. 1,80,023, besides
Rs. 35,533 spent in the purchase of school-
books. (To this total, Rs. 2,15,556 must be
added, the sums laid out by the people in the
building of school-houses, &c, of which I can-
not state the amount. ) As Government levies
no educational tax under any form, and does
not recognise official compulsion of any kind,
the sums in question must be taken as paid
OFFICIAL REPORTS. 221
voluntarily, and as showing, beyond cavil, how
strongly Government education has taken root
among the people. If I am not deceived, these
figures may be compared favourably with those
of any other part of India. A statement of
fees collected during the last four years will
show (and far more satisfactorily, to my mind,
than school attendance returns) the steady in-
crease of the value put upon Government edu-
cation by the people."
And yet Government have produced, after
a long experiment (yet wrongheadedly per-
sisted in), only a few well-trained college boys !
Yes, with regard to India, in an intellectual
point of view, we have only a few lights ; and
true, true to the very figure, is her state, when
we quote —
44 Yet from those flames
No light; but rather darkness visible
Serves only to discover sights of woe,
Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace
And rest can never dwell" ; —
for what " peace and rest" can we have without a
recognition of intellectual and moral worth ? Of
the body of the people, it may be truly said that
they are perishing for lack of knowledge. Owing
to the want of statistics, it is difficult to ascer-
tain the proportion which reading men bear to
37*
222 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
the entire population. But In this matter we
are not left in absolute ignorance with regard
to Bengal, though we are for every other part
of India. Mr. Adam, who, as before stated,
was commissioned by Lord William Bentinck
to inquire into the state of education in Ben-
gal, has left to us some figures that may be
here used to serve our end in forming an esti-
mate of the extent of the indigenous education.
He entered into the examination of six thanahs
of six districts of Bengal, reckoning the total
number of adults, the total number of children
between the ages of five and fifteen, the num-
ber of instructed adults, and the number of
instructed children. He completed his returns
iff 1838, in which year the public had for the
first (and unfortunately also the last) time any
ascertained estimate of the extent of education
in any part of India. And as no attempt on
a praiseworthy scale has since been made to
extend vernacular instruction, we may safely
take the diffusion of education at present to be
the same as it was in 1838. From Mr. Adam's
report it appears, that out of every 100 adults
only 55 received any sort of education whatever,
and that out of 100 children of school-going
age, 775 received some instruction, while 92*25
INDIGENOUS EDUCATION. 223
received none at all. Removing the decimals
in the last estimate, it appears that one child
receives instruction out of every 120 inhabit-
ants. While in England one child is instruct-
ed out of every 14 inhabitants, in Belgium and
France out of 10, in Scotland and Holland out
of 8, in Norway and Denmark out of 7, in Prus-
sia out of 6, and in some of the cantons of Swit-
zerland out of 4, in Bengal, the seat of the
Indian Government, and even that of the
_ ttesl exertion of individual philanthropy of
the whole peninsula of India, 1 child is instruct-
ed out of every 120 inhabitants ! And then,
what is the nature of this education, and who
are the teachers that impart this instruction ?
The first is only contemptible to the last degree,
and the second the lowest outcasts from human
dignity.
The reader will notice that the statistics we
have just given are of the vernacular education
imparted by what are called gurumaha&yas in
Eastern India, and puntqjis and mehtajis in
the Western ; for the first of whom Mr. Adam,
from whom we borrow our numbers, calculated
the sum of Rs. 2-7-10 to be the average in-
come ; and of the second the same story has
been told to the writer for nine different vil-
224 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
lages, every pupil paying between 6 and 9 pies,
making at the end of the month a magnificent
income ranging between 3 and 4 rupees ; every
bihistee, hurkara, and even a pariah, working
by manual labour, realising twice, or thrice, or
four times this sum. And, as our educational
statistician has remarked for his gurumahasyas
in Eastern India, that income too is realised,
not in coin, but frequently in bajree, ghee, dal,
and rice ! Indeed, in these circumstances, it
will be perceived that a vernacular school-
mastership in villages, and we have reason to
say even in cities also, is the last resource of
Indian humanity, betaken to only when every
attempt at any other livelihood has sadly failed.
Without any education whatever, ignorant even
of the first elements of knowledge, never having
even once in their lives known the happiness
of original thought or reflection on anything
about them, and possessed only of a passable
penmanship (though without correct orthogra-
phy) and some of the rules of arithmetic, it
is the height of folly to expect that any educa-
tion is imparted to the children by schoolmas-
ters — for they themselves have received no
education at all ; and it is the instruction
imparted by these teachers that we take into
VERNACULAR TEACHERS. 225
consideration when we calculate that in Bengal,
the best circumstanced of all parts of India,
1 child is instructed out of every 120 inha-
bitants !
Owing to our limited age, influence, and
means, we have several sources of information
closed upon us ; but still, with the disadvan-
tages inherent in our position, we can very
safely arrive at a satisfactory conclusion on the
requirements of India. The scheme of educa-
tion in our Western Presidency, so far as dis-
semination is concerned, has rapidly been fur-
thered under the present regime, and we find
Government minuting in 1859-60 a very high
degree of satisfaction : —
" Progress of Education. — In paragraphs
1 6 to 23, Mr. Howard submits a general sum-
mary of the progress of education, showing that
the number of schools has increased from 211
in 1855 to 76 1 in I860, and the number of
pupils from 23,681 to 44,166. This result
must be regarded as most gratifying ; and its
favourable character is enhanced by the fact
alluded to in the 21st and 22nd paragraphs, of
the considerable sum contributed by the people
of the Presidency (Rs. 2,15,556) to the educa-
tional fund. The Honorable the Governor in
38
226 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
Council has also not failed to notice the testi-
mony borne by Mr. Howard in the 23rd para-
graph to the general improvement in many
educational details besides attendance sta-
tistics."
We have been kindly favoured by an educa-
tional authority with the statistics of our Pre-
sidency for the year 1862, showing the progress
made since the above minute : —
BOMBAY STATISTICS.
227
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MADRAS AND BENGAL.
229
The latest Bengal Reports (a year behind
Bombay and Madras) afford the following
statistics : —
Bengal Presidency, April 1861. — Area
225,193 square miles.
Government.
Colleges
English Schools
Anglo-Vernacular
Vernacular
Aided, fyc.
English
Anglo- Vernacular
Vernacular
Girls' Schools
Indigenous
Grand Total
Schools.
9
45
171)
240
33
99
266
16
414
172 172
826
Pupils.
1,295
7,245
381
9,950
18,871
4,748
7,473
11,496
395
24,112
7,731 7,731
50,714
We are thus, no doubt, far ahead of Bengal,
Madras, or Agra, area for area ; but yet, ought
we at all to be satisfied, so far as our require-
ments are concerned ? To satisfactorily solve
this query we w T ill again take our statistics, as
230 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
they lie before us in a memorandum in our
diary in the time before the mutinies. We
have not had any official statistics since the
mutinies before the public; and even had
these been available, we should in honesty
reject them, and take into consideration only
the times before the mutinies, as everything was
then in a fixed and settled order, and free from
the disorganisation into which 1857 threw
every element of government. We know that
British India, for the purposes of revenue and
administration, has been divided into four
Presidencies, and the provinces under the
Supreme Government ; and we have before us
numbers for the area in square miles, popula-
tion, revenue, and districts under the jurisdic-
tion of each, at the lowest possible calculation.
Surely, an area of 680,000 square miles,
and a population of only 100 millions, that we
assume for the whole of British India, are the
least that any one can assume; and these low
numbers we distribute, after careful inquiry,
as follows : —
INDIA GENERALLY.
231
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232 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
To a thoughtful reader, this table, the lowest,
we repeat, in every estimate, will open a thousand
reflections and suggestions ; but we will concern
ourselves with the educational requirements on-
ly of each division, with a view to put them in
comparison with the countries of Europe, con-
sidering that the resources of both India and
England outweigh into insignificance the re-
sources of every other European country. By
the latest statistics, we learn that in France
there is one primary school for every 500 inha-
bitants, in Prussia for 600, and in Saxony for
900. Surely none will deny that India requires
to be brought on a level with these states,
blessed as they are with but scant resources ;
but we will make some allowance, and ask for
one primary school for twice the second num-
ber, viz. for every 1,200 inhabitants. We will
then require 8,452 primary schools at the least
in the different provinces under the jurisdiction
of the Supreme Government of India ; 34,245
for the Bengal, 19,834 for the Agra, 13,616
for the Madras, and 8,666 for the Bombay Pre-
sidencies. These are the lowest figures ; and
yet the Bombay Government are satisfied with
merely 76l schools under their jurisdiction,
and these by no means higher than those
COMPARISON WITH EUROPE. 233
Wretched styes and kennels in several districts,
and conducted by teachers who are seldom paid
more than Rs. 10 or 15 a month. In asking
for primary schools, we ask them exactly on
the European model — instructing boys either
in the vernacular or the English, we care not
which, though we should prefer the last to the
different wretched gibberishes that have no
sound and healthy literature in them, and in-
culcating from early life habits of thought,
reflection, and reading, as well as moral prin-
ciples and practice. We do not want good
grounding so much as the inculcation of good
habits and taste ; and so long as Government
will not establish boarding and lodging with
their schools — even primary ones, — they will,
as they yet have, produce mere foppish trim-
mers, without achieving aught else of success.
But these schools must be conducted by a
sufficient number of teachers. In France there
is one teacher for every 400 inhabitants, in
Switzerland for 450, in Prussia for 510; and
making allowances again for India, we ask for
one teacher for every 1,000 inhabitants. At
this rate, we should have 10,143 teachers for
the provinces under the Supreme Government ;
41,093 for the Bengal, 23,800 for the Agra,
39*
234 LIGHTS AKD SHADES.
16,339 for the Madras, and 10,500 for the
Bombay Presidencies. But these teachers
should be men of cultivated minds — men of
the first order ; for it is evident that he who
has not himself been accustomed to habits of
thought, reflection, and reading, cannot be
expected to inculcate those habits in young-
boys. Let each school have one instead of two
teachers; but he must be drawn from the stu-
dents of the first order, one of extensive learn-
ing, deep thought, and fine habits, and well
instructed in the theory and practice of teach-
ing. "It is no use employing school-boys, and
students from the last forms of colleges, in the
instruction and management of classes, how-
ever rudimentary ; for the higher the intelli-
gence and learning of the teacher, the better
adapted is he to instruct his class. And yet,
how many could be pointed out, even from our
highest English seminaries, that do not at all
answer the description of the lowest grade of
teachers in England or on the Continent !
A student may be very learned and talented ;
but if he is not initiated in the art of teaching,
he makes an indifferent teacher ; and hence we
require Normal Seminaries for supplying effi-
cient teachers. There are at present two Nor-
TEACHERS, AND NORMAL SCHOOLS. 235
mal Schools in this Presidency, and 4 in the
Bengal ; " but what are they among so many ?"
In Prussia, there is 1 Normal College for every
370,000 inhabitants, in France for 350,000,
and in Switzerland for 170,000; and making
allowances as before, it is not too much if we
ask for 1 Normal College (not a mere school,
as indifferently constituted at present) for
every 600,000 inhabitants. We shall at this
rate require 20 Normal Colleges for the pro-
vinces under the Supreme Government ; 70 for
the Bengal, 40 for the Agra, 30 for the Mad-
ras, and 20 for the Bombay Presidencies.
But we want superintendence over our
schools, to regulate the course of instruction,
and continue the zeal of the teachers, as well as
to watch over their activity. In France, there
are 249 inspectors ; in Holland, far less in
extent than France, with a population of bare-
ly one million, 100 ; and in Bavaria 293, or 300
inspectors, in round numbers, where there is a
population of four millions. In regard to in-
spection, we cannot make any allowance, as the
element of religious superintendence is wholly
wanting in the circumstances of this country.
In England, the vicar of the parish exercises
superintendence of the most zealous and volun-
236 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
tary kind, and in Prussia, and throughout
even Protestant Germany, both before and (
after the proclamation and ratification in 1850
of the present Verfausung, in addition to the
School Councillor, or, as he is called, Schulrath
by the Germans, the pastor of the parish is, as
he has always been, the ex officio local inspec-
tor of elementary schools, whether chief or
affiliated, within his parish. We should, on
this consideration, have our inspectorial staff
stronger and more efficient than anywhere in
Europe; but still, asking for it only in the
proportion of Bavaria, which is the mean be-
tween that of Holland and France, we should
have 750 inspectors for provinces under the
Supreme Government, 3,100 for the Bengal,
1,800 for the Agra, 1,200 for the Madras,
and 750 for the Bombay Presidencies. We
are, however, on this side of India content with
only 4, and there are reasons to suppose that
circumstances are not at all better in the other
divisions of India.
The educational requirements of India, then,
on the lowest calculation, are —
SUPERINTENDENCE.
237
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238 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
But our effort would be incomplete without
a further step in the regeneration of India.
In a country where the people are so utterly
wretched, children will be taught to labour for
their livelihood rather than spend a few years
in primary schools ; for the actual condition of
the mass of the people is not now one whit
better than it was, as described by very able
men, several years back. Mr. T. Grant, in
the last century, wrote of the Hindoo millions :
" A seer of rice with a little seasoning, a rag,
a hut or the canopy of heaven, (the whole
brought within the daily expenditure of an
anna, or two-pence for each individual,) satisfy
all the natural wants of an Hindostany hus-
bandman or manufacturer ; and if he can save
at the end of the year a couple of rupees from
the produce of his industry, rated at one
hundred in the market, he is infinitely richer,
more contented, and easy in his circumstances,
than the individual following either of these
trades in England, who, after incurring a per-
sonal expenditure of two shillings a day, should
be able to lay by an annual profit of two guineas
from his whole estimated work of one hundred."
And this description our author repeated in
his later work on the finances of the coun-
POVERTY OF THE PEOPLE. 239
try. (" Review of Financial State" &c. p. 49.)
Warren Hastings, the first Governor-General,
in his reply to a question put to him by Parlia-
ment, said — " The poor of India, who are the
people, have no* wants ; unless the scanty rags
which they wear, their huts, and simple food,
may be considered as such, and these they have
upon the ground which they tread upon." The
case of a poor mofussilite was brought to our
notice only four months past, who solemnly
declared that he had not seen the form of a
rupee for thirty years ; and between his intro-
duction to us and the beginning of the last year
an inquiring brother had accidentally met, on
* One might think that, with these gentlemen, to want nothing
and to want everything were synonymous expressions. There
is a great misapprehension among Englishmen as to the actual
wants of the people of India. We have come in actual contact
with three or four batches of poor ryots and labourers from
different districts, who, on their first arrival in Bombay, were
astonished to observe its wealth and magnificence, and coveted
every article of our dress and furniture. They ascribed their
poverty to the British yoke, we know not how, and blessed
their Mahomedan and Hindoo sovereigns, in whose time they
believed the tillers of the soil were as rich as any class in the
city. The popular notion seemed to be, that all Englishmen
were attacked by ague and irremediable maladies on account of
the curses of the Natives ; and it was owing to this that they
all went to England in the course of a few years, lest the curses
heap on them to their (the Englishmen's) ruin by a longer stay !
240 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
a tour into the interior, with two ryots, one
of whom assured him that he had not had a
single silver coin since the death of his father
ten years back ; the other, a young man of
about twenty or twenty-two years of age, beg-
ged to be allowed the sight of a silver coin, as
he had not seen one in his life ! This state,
no doubt, is highly dangerous, and calls for an
immediate remedy ; but as it is, the aim of our
Government in opening the requisite number
of schools in the different parts of the country
will be most wretchedly defeated. What then
should we do? Why, introduce at once, directly,
the Prussian system of popular education. We
believe, and so does every honest individual,
that England is far too much behind, with re-
spect to the popular education of her millions,
in comparison with France, Germany, and
Prussia ; and it is a grand mistake that Eng-
lishmen should constitutionally be disinclined
to adopt anything from foreign countries.
Rightly understood and used, the experience
of other countries may be made our own ; with
this advantage, again, that we are in the posi-
tion of reaping its fruits without its experiment
— -felix quern faciunt aliena pericula cautum.
In many branches of her legislation, England
PRUSSIAN SYSTEM ADVOCATED. 241
has shown herself ready to learn all she can
from the institutions of other countries; and
with a view to be convinced of this, one needs
only to study, or even superficially examine, her
management of the poor, the treatment of cri-
minals, the transference of real property, &c. ;
so that we see no reason why she should over-
look the German or Prussian system of popu-
lar instruction, at least in the case of her Indian
population, who are far inferior to these Eu-
ropean nations in every particular of taste and
habit. One preliminary objection always sets
aside all reference to Prussian schools ;»for it
is said that Prusia is a bureaucratic country,
and its system of primary instruction has been
forced upon the nation by Government ; so that
if the system of Prussian education is set up
for a model, the writer is immediately proscrib-
ed for designing to introduce centralisation,
official despotism, conscription, and all that.
It would be impossible to trace the whole sys-
tem of Prussian instruction, to see its advan-
tages, to separate its evils (for it has evils
also), and lastly, to expose fully how far un-
sound is the objection raised, in the short space
that we can here command, though the subject,
extended over any length, has an interest in
242 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
itself for every educationist to deduce maxims
for his guidance, and for the student to mea-
sure his own position and strength. But it
must be stated here, that the German schools
are divided into three classes — 1, Gymnasien
(Grammar schools) ; 2, Real Schulen (middle
schools) ; Elementar Schulen (primary schools)
— the last often called in papers and books also
Volks Schulwesen, if the writer is a liberal, or
Elementar Schulwesen, if he is a conservative,
and a votary of bureaucracy, where the boys of
both sexes of the people ( Volks) are obliged to
attend up to the age of fourteen — the period
of confirmation, — and then, whether or not to
progress in their education, by joining the
higher seminaries, is left entirely to the will
and means of the parents. The children of the
middle and upper classes do not attend these
Elementar Schuhvesen, but generally join
Burger Schulen, or middle schools, in large
towns. We have yet much to learn from the
Germans, on school affairs ; for they have been
discussing and experimenting upon every theory
of education for the last hundred years ; every
province has its own school-journal, and the
teachers of every village hold their synods
quarterly, to discuss every educational question,
THE GERMAN SYSTEM. 243
from the form of a letter to an intricate system
of instruction. As for the objection of Go-
vernment compulsion, we may justly say, that
if it was true in the beginning of the system,
it is not so now ; for the habit of attending
school up to the age of fourteen has become a
part of established manners, enforced more by
public opinion than by legislation, leaving aside
every consideration of the circumstance, by no
means insignificant, that the system received
its first impulse from the Reformation, as a
necessary consequence. But we will allow a
competent authority to give judgment cfri this
point : —
"It is often taken for granted," says Mr.
Pattison, "that the school establishments in
the several states of Germany originated in,
and are maintained by, the arbitrary will of
their Governments, without any regard had to
the wants and peculiarities of the people for
whose use they are intended. If this were
true, it would indeed follow that little was to
be learnt from such artificial creations. But it
is not true. It is precisely because the history
of education in Germany is a part of the
national history, and the school a genuine off-
shoot of national life, strongly rooted in the
244 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
soil, that we may consult it with advantage.
The general uniformity of the organisation of
primary instruction throughout Germany may
be appealed to in proof that it originated in
common necessities, and not in the caprice of
individual governments. And to speak only
of Prussia, nothing is more remarkable than
the way in which the vicissitudes of general
opinion, pervading its educated classes, mani-
fest themselves in process of time in the ele-
mentary schools. While the grammar-schools
and universities have remained, as to method,
pretty much what they always were, the ele-
mentary school has been invaded by all the
theories of education which have successively
prevailed, each of which has left behind it a
portion of good. This is meant of the method
of teaching in the school ; but it is true in some
measure of the political organisation of educa-
tion."
But even granting that this system w T as and
is octroye, as the Germans call it, is our educa-
tional system less an imposition than the above ?
Our schools and colleges are neither maintained
nor managed by the people for whose use they
have been set up ; but Government controls
them by means of directors and inspectors,
RESEMBLANCE IN THE INDIAN. 245
agreeably to their own notions of what is good
or bad. If the German Baur and Hand-
werker have the education of their sons and
daughters taken out of their hands by Govern-
ment, no less have the Indian Zemindar and
petty trader by their Government; and even
in England, what are called national schools
are wholly maintained and managed, not by
the parents of the children who join them, but
by the great landholders and the clergy,, in
everything relating to their support and ma-
nagement,yor them. It is everywhere the case,
in some modification or other, that the poar and
half-literate, at the most peasant or artisan,
never takes charge of the schools for the in-
struction of his children ; and we notice it here
for the purpose of showing that there is in
reality a greater correspondence between the
English, and especially Indo-English and the
German system of education, than is at first
imagined.
There is another charge levelled at the
German system, that it results in a kind of
quietism, tame submission, or stilles we sen, in
the phraseology of the German school-boys ;
but whether or not this tame submissiveness of
the German people is to be charged to their
246 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
educational system, we will decide by the opi-
nion of another great authority : —
" A proverb has obtained currency in Prussia
which explains the whole mystery of the re-
lation between their schools and life — i The
school is good, the world is bad.' The quies-
cence or torpidity of social life stifles the activi-
ty excited in the schoolroom. Whatever perni-
cious habits and customs exist in the commu*
nity act as antagonistic forces against the moral
training of the teacher. The power of the
Government presses upon the partially deve-
loped i faculties of the youth as with a moun-
tain's weight .... When the children come out
from the school, they have little use either for
the faculties that have been developed, or for
the knowledge that has been acquired. Their
resources are not brought into demand — their
powers are not roused and strengthened by
exercise. Our common, ' the active duties
of life,' 'the responsibilities of citizenship,'
' the career of action,' would be strange sound-
ing words in a Prussian ear. There Govern-
ment steps in to take care of the subject, almost
as much as the subject takes care of his cattle.
The subject has no officers to choose, no inquiry
into the character or eligibleness of candidates
EFFECT IN GERMANY. 24/
to make, no vote to give. He has no laws to
enact or abolish* He has no questions about
peace or war, finance, taxes, tariffs, post-office,
or internal improvement, to decide or discuss.
He is not asked where a road shall be laid, or
how a bridge shall be built, although in the
one case he has to perform the labour, and in
the other to supply the materials. His sovereign
is born to him. The laws are made for him.
In war, his part is not to declare it, or to end
it, but to fight and be shot in it, and to pay
for it. The tax-gatherer tells him how much
he has to pay. The ecclesiastical authority
plans a church, which he must build, and his
spiritual guide — who has been set over him by
another — prepares a creed and a confession of
faith all ready for his signature. He is directed
alike how he must obey his king and worship
his God. Now, although there is a sleeping
ocean in the bosom of every child that is born
into the world, yet, if no freshening, life-giv-
ing breeze, ever sweeps across its surface, why
should it not repose in dark stagnation for
ever?
" Many of our expensively educated citizens
will understand what I mean in saying that
when they came from the schools, and entered
248 LIGHTS AND SHADES,
upon the stage of life, they had a practical
education to begin. Though possessed of
more lore than they could recite, they still had
the a b c of a business education to commence.
What, then, must be the condition of a people
to the great body of whom not even this late
necessity ever comes ?
" Besides, it was not till the beginning of
the present century that the Prussian peasantry
were emancipated from a condition of absolute
vassalage. Who could expect that the spirit
of a nation, which centuries of despotism had
benuiiibed and stupefied, could at once resume
its pristine vigour and elasticity?" — Horace
Mann,
Let us, then, by all means, have the Prus-
sian system introduced : compel people to send
their sons into our schools ; and though it be
a compulsion at first, it will in the course of a
few years grow into a habit — a national sys-
tem of education assimilated with the national
life, as we have already seen in one part
of the globe. And though the Germans failed
to bring about by means of a stupid regulation
" a decided reaction in the whole life of the
age" — ("Das gesammte Leben des Zeitalters
an einer Ganzlinie angekommen ist, wo ein
A COMPULSORY SYSTEM BEST. 249
entscheidender Umschwung nothing gewor-
den"*), — because it was a stupid object aimed
at by a set of illiberal men, we on the contrary
will positively succeed in creating a wholesome
as well as complete reaction in our country,
because we are actuated by nothing else than a
spirit of pure liberalism. The circumstances of
our country urgently demand the system — it is
extremely poor (so far as the millions are con-
cerned), and it has been inured to a torpor of
intellectual lassitude by oppression and a neg-
lect of centuries of misrule. It has, like Ger-
many, long since lost its independence ; it has,
like Germany, long ceased to have a nationality
of its own ; it has, like Germany, wretchedness
and misery even more than sufficient to task a
whole family of philanthropists to relieve in a
single district or village ; its millions, like the
millions of Germany, are quite habituated
and content to receive all impressions from
the centralising authority ; its millions, like
the millions of Germany, of whatever grade
and colour, utterly lack energy and a spirit
of independence; — and these are all striking
resemblances, which no statesman or scholar
* Regulation 3, Oct. 1854.
42
250 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
will do well to neglect in the history of his
efforts to eradicate ignorance and error, and
illustrate the truth in this land of darkness,
ignorance, and misery.
But suppose we succeed in forcing prelimi-
nary education on the children of the lowest
order — education not of the mere grounding in
reading, writing, and arithmetic ; for we have
no faith in these mechanical evolutions — but of
thought, reflection, and taste for reading, —
how are w r e to continue it in after-life ? We,
the educated of well-to-do classes, put our
greatest pride of intelligence in after-life, when
what we have learnt at the school and at the
college is matured and expanded — when what
we have in that wonderful depository, which is
always expending and yet never losing, is appli-
ed to the external objects of life, to gain know-
ledge and reflection to the mind and discipline
and self-control to the heart, all that time that
life is to be drawn through. But the whole of
the education-life of the poor child is con-
centred in the period of his school — in some
few years, or perhaps few months, — and he has
afterwards to follow life in those arduous labours
of the hands, which render thought and reflec-
tion almost impossible to the mind. At the
FRENCH LITERATURE. 251
school or the seminary, he learnt perhaps to
read, think, and reflect, and swell his bosom in
aspirations of heaven-born nature; but the
whole of his life afterwards is passed in the
performance of those duties that he has no
choice to shirk, and that engage him as mecha-
nically as the animals he tends, forgetful of
the days that he passed in dignified labour and
pleasures. If you have, then, educated him
according to the Prussian system, his after-life
would sadly disappoint the object in view,
unless you contrive a spur to keep him on,
mindful of his earlier days and testes, vllow
shall we do this? In this also, as before, we
must indent upon a foreign system. Tor the
last three hundred years in France, a special
literature was created for the agricultural po-
pulation, and supplied to every corner of the
land by means of what the Frenchman calls
the colportage. As this is a subject which
those not intimately acquainted with French
literature and society are not expected to be
conversant with, it may not be amiss to give
a succinct account in this place. True to the
instincts of a bureaucracy, the French Govern-
ment granted licenses for diffusing books
throughout the country, and men provided with
252 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
this license carried into every part of the coun-
try the particular class of books expressly pre-
pared for the lower people at Paris, Troyes,
Montpellier, and Epinal, which were the cen-
tres of the publication of this literature. About
eight or nine millions of volumes on different
subjects, ranging in price from a half-penny to
ten-pence, were circulated in this manner. As
there was no supervision, works of indifferent
taste and morality often found place in this
circulation, and in many places they had even
become so pernicious that the Government
determined at length to examine into the
character of the books issued for the people ;
and M. Maupas, the Minister of Police, insti-
tuted a commission on the 30 th of November
1858, which had the power to call in and ex-
amine every book that was circulated by means
of the colportage. That the commission might
be enabled to perform their function without
any difficulty, it was ordered, that, in future,
besides the colporteurs license, it should be
imperative that every book carried by a colpor-
teur should have the stamp of the commission
upon it. The printers of this literature were
thus obliged to send in their publications that
they might be examined for an approval or
COIPORTAGE. 253
rejection. The number of yearly publications
now considerably diminished; and the works
that thus came before the commission during
its holding for two years amounted to only
7,500 ! The commission, on the 2nd of July
1854, upon the suppression of the ministry of
police, was transferred to the home government,
and there has continued its sittings ; and out of
even the 7,500 volumes submitted to the com-
mission, three-fourths were rejected, after an
examination of extreme scrupulousness and
taste! In 1855, M. (\ Xisard, the auxiliary
secretary of the commission, in two very* inter-
esting volumes,* analyses and cursorily de-
scribes upwards of five hundred of the volumes
sent in for examination, and from this analysis
we fail not to be struck with gloominess, when
we learn that the literature circulated for three
hundred years consisted of superstitious works
of old astrology, in the shape of almanacks,
medicine, veterinary art, and a mass of trash
by way of stories of robbers, pirates, and high-
waymen and others, absolutely intolerable and
unmentionable in writing with any degree of
*■ " A Report on Popular Literature" by M. Charles Ni-
sard.
43
254 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
propriety and virtue. It must not, however,
be left out of mention, that besides the secular
colportage^ there was a religious colportage, for
the carrying of religious tracts and poetry of
the most ennobling and refining character,
which are worthy of being still continued in
the mouths and hearts of the people.
The reader will from this account be tempted
to form a low estimate of the French literature
and the colportage ; but when he is tempted
to depreciate the French in comparison with
the English, he has only to conceive of the
immense quantities of the penny publications
issuing weekly from the London press, and by
a system of complete organisation made to reach
the most distant parts of the country, some of
them varying in circulation from 60,000 to
500,000 copies per week, filled with all non-
sense, in the form of essays and poetry, tales of
daring robberies, dark assassinations and won-
derful escapes, until "Jack Shepherd" or " Ro-
bert Macaire" becomes the hero, and they who
contemplate the crime before them learn at the
same time the thousand and one stratagems by
which its punishment may be avoided. The
French have no cheap periodical of the kind
among them, so far as our acquaintance w r ith
ENGLISH PENNY PUBLICATIONS. 255
their past and present literature enables us to
affirm ; and we can well imagine that the influ-
ence of a few volumes, brought three or four
times a year by the colporteur, in his periodical
rounds, which are then read and thrown by on
the shelves, must be infinitely smaller than the
pernicious effects of the publications that come
round week after week. And if the French
have tales of their own notorieties, their " Car-
touches" and their " Mandrins," why, where is
the cottage family library in England, in which,
if you find any number of books, you do not cal-
culate upon finding the " Newgate Calendar,"
and "Robert Macaire," and " Maria Monk,"
and " The Mysteries," to pervert the literary
palate and lower the moral tone on the great-
est of social crimes? But revenons a nos
moutons — the void created in the publication
and circulation of the cheap literature, by the
organisation and the scrupulous working of the
commission in France, must have been im-
mense, and it was a question of long considera-
tion how to fill it up. The booksellers were,
of course, immediately put to their wits, and
they sent in almost a sufficient quantity of new
works to replace the rejected ones ; but the
majority even of these were rejected, and Go-
256 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
vernment themselves at length attempted tq
supply the want, by animating with rewards
persons of real genius and learning to prepare
simple series of works for the people — histories,
biographies, poetry, books on travels, agricul-
ture, elementary chemistry, mechanics, medi-
cine, and others.
Now, our mentioning what was done in
France was of course to prepare a parallel for
our country ; and if it be quite out of the
question to attempt to deal here in any way as
they generally do in France, we should at least
have something analogous to it. We have here
a growing cry that we have no literature in the
vernaculars ; and, indeed, we shall never have it !
If there is any work that promises to remain as
a fit Gujarati work for study, it is assuredly
Mr. Dosabhai Framji's " Travels in Europe"
which is written in a style never yet attained
to by any past or present writer ; and consider-
ing the uncultivated state of the language, and
the want of any work of authority, the writer
may justly claim the honour and dignity award-
ed to Macaulay in the realms of English lite-
rature. But such works are rare indeed ; in
fact, it is unique in its department ; and even
the active zeal which Mr. Howard, the Direc-
SCHEME PROPOSED FOR INDIA. 257
tor of Public Instruction, always displays in
the promotion of vernacular literature, will
fail, we are firmly persuaded, as it has already
failed, to secure the desired object. If nothing
else, the easiest and most practicable imitation
of the French colportage would be the for-
mation of a committee consisting of about
half-a-dozen of the rich class, and a few well
educated and talented young men, the former
supplying the pecuniary, the latter the literary
assistance. Several young men will be found
ready to make up works, not of the careless
kind, as at present got up — even poetry, not
of the disgustingly artificial and nonsensical
doggerel of a stale and unoriginal kind, now
poured in by the so-called Poets of Bombay,
but sound and wholesome works, worthy to take
a place in the much needed literature for the
language and the people. These works might
be printed at the expense of the committee,
and circulated through every corner of the city
and the interior at an anna or two every month
or quarter. Until we take some such leaf from
the history of France, we must rest content to
be hundreds of years more behind than we
might otherwise be, and remain a nation under
the protection of a country pre-eminent for the
43*
258 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
extent both of its power and literature in these
days — a nation following close on the heels of
the protecting people in point of pursuits and
enterprises, and yet a nation, most shameful to
say, without a literature of its own !
In addition to these measures of salutary
reform, the last, though not the least, should
never be lost sight of — the establishment of
clubs, such as those in England, where men of
all castes and creeds may meet every evening,
to refresh themselves, as well as to discuss
and discourse on topics of importance. It is
said ttiat the French have no word in their
whole vocabulary to adequately express the
homely monosyllable " club"; and well they
may lack it, so long as they are trampled down
by bureaucracy and despotism ; for the insti-
tution is the growth of English freedom and
English intelligence, searching and grasping
every question affecting the destinies of men
on the other side of the globe. But we never
meet together to seriously discuss topics of
vital importance to ourselves, and this decides
as to where we are or where we will be some
time hence. We are judges, deputy magis-
trates and collectors, translators and interpre-
ters, attorneys, doctors of medicine, reporters
CLUBS. 259
and editors of English and vernacular newspa-
pers and magazines ; we hold high and respon-
sible offices in the service of the State ; — but
these persons and things do not go to make up
the sum of national power and national strength.
The elements necessary to the prosperity of a
people are absent in the fabric of the Native
community ; for there is a lack of public spi-
rit, and there is but a very indifferent public
opinion among us. The spirit of improvement
from within lies asleep. With all our boast-
ed knowledge of the English language, and
through it the true appreciation of the high
qualities and noble deeds of Englishmen, have
we one man of talent or genius to compare
with the humblest of England's celebrities ?
Whom can we set up as one who would light
for liberty of thought and speech as for his
life-drops, or would spend a fortune to main-
tain a principle? There is no use multiplying
such questions — the mournful truth must be
told, that there is no public spirit amongst us
to push us forward as a people in the ranks of
enlightenment, and to gain national aggrandise-
ment. We are all anxious to obtain lucrative
employment; are delighted to see ourselves
praised in the newspapers, and set a friend
260 'lights and shades.
or two to write about us ; to read an essay
or two at the Students' Society or the Instruc-
tional Association ; attend the libraries to read
the news of the day, or some interesting novels ;
meet at the bandstand, and talk of the short-
comings of the educational department, re-
proach Sir Charles Wood for excluding the Na-
tives from the army medical service, speak jeer-
ingly of the secretary and members of the Bom-
bay Association, perhaps think of the propriety
of becoming volunteers to defend the Queen and
her throne — and go on talking and thinking
only. We are aware we may be voted unpa-
triotic for thus expressing ourselves, but we pre-
fer running the risk of this, to being guilty of
flattering the self-conceit of our countrymen ;
and we have a natural disgust for palliatives.
Unless our failings be accurately ascertained
— and we have done something towards it, —
there is fear of our remaining where we are,
many years hence, without advancing one sin-
gle step, socially, morally, or politically. Our
exertions have been sadly deficient in a direc-
tion where they are most required. The con-
viction sinks deeper into our mind every day,
that until the really educated Natives arc
banded together in all earnestness for purely
INDIGENOUS FAILINGS. 26 1
intellectual purposes ; until they travel volun-
tarily beyond the atmosphere of self, and mu-
tual disunion, which unfortunately too well
mark their present bearing ; until they meet
at a certain place, as often as may be, for the
discussion of every social and political question
bearing upon their own and their country-
men's welfare ; until they gird up their loins,
and are ready to make sacrifices in a severe
struggle with the prejudices and superstitions
of their ignorant countrymen, and free them
from the chains of priestcraft and error —
until then, it is plain, no lasting benefits
will have been obtained. It was thus that
Baboo Harrischander amused himself at Ba-
boo Samboonath Pundit's residence, and ven-
tilated every question of law and poli-
tics, to grasp them so cleverly in his after
writings ; it is thus that in England every
question qS legislature and domestic anomalies
is handled and discussed, from the highest to
the lowest ; it is thus that every English even-
ing is both refreshing to the body and invigor-
ating to the mind, and rights are understood
and sought after constitutionally at every step ;
and it is thus that we must attempt to rise in
the scale of national life, if we will it, instead
44
262 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
of idly grumbling and repining for the curtail-
ment of our just rights and privileges, or of
the asserted position of our countrymen to
ranks of reward, remuneration, and honour. No
doubt, Government must further every project
for the establishment of clubs ; but that that
project is doubly imperative in the exigencies
of our present circumstances, there is needed
only one consideration for conviction. The
British Government and the British nation
have in our country evoked a new order of
thought, and created a new morality, unknown
to anf. T nation on the surface of the earth,
ancient or modern. In the imparting of edu-
cation, there was and still is the religious
element, always combined by every nation in
every period of their history. In olden days,
the study of the Sanskrit was invariably
combined with the study of the Vedas ; the
Greeks and Romans taught their youths, along
with their poets, orators, and philosophers, the
mythic history of their gods ; the Mongols in
India deemed it their imperative duty to com-
bine a studv of Al Koran with Firdooshi,
Mirkhoond, or Saadi, and even now, in Persia,
hold any deviation therefrom a desecration
unatonable by all earthly expiations. In France,
THE RELIGIOUS ELEMENT. 263
England, and the whole of Europe, the Bible
is read side by side with Racine or Moliere,
Pope or Shakspeare, Schiller or Goethe : but
it is only in British India that the best of
poetry and philosophy is imbibed without the
religious sentiment directed towards Him whose
light is the source and sum of all knowledge.
It is no small credit to Young India, that he
has, in this anomalous procedure, kept true to
his better instincts, and proved by his moral
conduct in any position, low or high, that tem-
poral education, without the religious element,
does not necessarily result in breeding up
what has epigrammatically been called " a
clever devil." Those who have watched him
most narrowly in any line, and especially in
places of trust, so alluring to the unform-
ed and unself-controlling, to break restraints,
and run loose, have sedulously observed that
the trust is not abused, and that plunder, bri-
bery, and extortion, intimidating moral corrup-
tion, are not held to be the legalised deeds of
the elevation of office. Certainly, it is impos-
sible to think that a sound and healthv litera-
ture like the English, even without being satu-
rated with the spirit of any religion, can fail
to make him a good man in his relations of a
264 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
neighbour and citizen, fail to make him do
unto others as he wishes others would do unto
him, and secure the honest discharge of duty
to his employers and loyal allegiance to his
sovereign. It should rather seem to be a de-
fect in the character of the literature itself that
needs support and health from religion ; and
we do not believe whether education in Eng-
land, France, and Germany, can at all dete-
riorate or lower in any sensible degree the
moral tone of the nation, were it to be impart-
ed without being Pharisaic in its nature, and
holding for its mission what Furbringer has-
tily laid down to be the development of the
church-life of the people, as he said — " das
religios kirkliche Leben des Vo/ks"* We are
* From this, it must not be concluded that the writer is at
all opposed to the study of the Bible. Few books has he read
with greater interest and study than the English and Latin
Bibles, and, if not for anything else, he should hold it as a fit
study for every educated young Native in the literarv and
historical points of view. All that he wants to repudiate here
is the charge of a want of healthy moral tone in the conduct
and character of Young India, so often laid to their door, with
a view to claim superiority in these respects to the missionary -
trained boys. He has seen two or three missionary students
wallowing in all sorts of wretchedness, loitering on the road,
and begging alms from charitably disposed gentlemen. He
is not aware whether any such objectionable instances are at all
SUMMARY OF THE SCHEME. 265
bred up without religion ; we are educated
without the spirit of religion, and perhaps we
continue to live without the strong hold of
religion — with a thought and morality quite
unique from all hitherto known in the ancient
or modern world ; so that we need in an impe-
rative degree combinations and clubs to keep
up a tone of refinement and polish by daily
checks, examples, and discourses, through our
manifold concerns in the world as fathers,
brothers, neighbours, and citizens.
The scheme, then, that we advocate for the
regeneration of India, is simple and practicable
enough ; and for any delay thereto there can-
not now be urged a specious reason, when we
have a munificent grant allotted by the Home
Government — we do not know how we (Natives)
should call it ; and have also a well-trained
class of young men, to serve as so many lights
— " few and far between" no doubt, but yet
lights — to illuminate the whole country from
one corner to the other. We can arrange it
to be found from among the students of Government schools
and colleges, for none has as yet come to his notice : and as for
the mental superiority of the missionary students over the
others, while this work was in the press, the writer had a con-
tribution in an English journal holding a different opinion.
45
266 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
under only a few heads,* intelligible alike to the
boor and the scholar, and these we hold to be
the different directions in which the Govern-
ment grant could be advantageously applied : —
1st — The establishment of colleges for in-
struction in the occidental and oriental litera-
tures at the capital towns of the chief divisions of
English jurisdiction, such as Calcutta, Jessore,
Bhagulpore, Cuttack, Moorshedabad, Patna,
Benares, and Allahabad in the Bengal Presidency
— the colleges at Lahore, Mooltan, andLucknow
being deemed sufficient for the scattered provin-
ces under the Supreme Government ; Delhi, Ro-
hilcund, and Agra in the Presidency of N. W.
Provinces ; Bombay, Kurrachee, Ahmedabad,
Broach, Surat, Poona, Ahmednuggur, Shola-
pore, Sattara, Belgaum, and Dharwar in the
Bombay Presidency ; and Madras, Masulipa-
tam, Nellore, Arcot, Coimbatoor, Trichinopoly,
Tinnevelly, Mysore, and Canara in the Madras
Presidency. Of course, we require colleges to
the number we have calculated for each divi-
sion ; we only suggest here some of the princi-
* These heads are given from the well-known " Indo-philus,"
in his own words, especially after the 6th — adding and changing
only when the altered circumstances of the country since, and
of this Presidency in particular, rendered the change necessary.
SUMMARY OF THE SCHEME. 267
pal sites. These institutions should be self-
supporting, all the assistance rendered by the
Government being the salaries of the principal
and the professors of English and Sanskrit or
Persian literatures, and the cost of the build-
ing. It is silly a waste of money to educate
gratuitously, and to even bribe with scholar-
ships, all the Baboos, Parsis, Marathas, and
Telingoos who can, when left to themselves, well
afford to educate their children. Nowhere on
the surface of the earth, excluding India, is
high education in literature and science given
gratuitously to beggarly or stingy youth*
2nd. — The establishment in each Presidency
town of scientific colleges, for the instruction of
the medical student, the lawyer, the mechanic,
and the civil engineer, also self-supporting, ex-
cept in the salary of the principal, and the cost
of the building. We require also normal colleges,
as before stated, and these may safely be taken
under support and patronage in every respect
by the Government, as it would be the height
of unwisdom to render them self-supporting,
when education is so much at a discount in
this country, as the teachership, however high,
is generally accepted as the last hope of Indian
studentship.
268 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
3rd. — The wide diffusion of primary educa-
tion in the vernacular, and, if possible, in
English also, in every district of the country.
It is impossible to calculate the advantages
which will arise from a judicious dissemination
of elementary education, by which superstition
and apathy will be removed, and a taste for
refinement and civilisation strengthened and im-
proved, till at length there will be a self-support-
ing primary school in every cluster of villages,
and a superior school in every local division.
A great deal depends on the supervising machi-
nery, which should be distinct from the collec-
torship and the judgeship, and zealous and
hard-working.
4th. — Assistance, agreeably to the present
grant-in-aid system, should be given to every
private educational body, without distinction of
race and creed. There should be, besides
official supervision, a general educational com-
mittee in each Presidency, consisting of men
who have studied the subject, and have earnest-
ness to serve the cause, whether in or out of
the services. They would act as a beneficial
check on the official body, which, without any
check, as at present, is very likely to be indiffer-
ent and arbitrary.
SUMMARY OF THE SCHEME. 269
These are the great points to be borne in
view. They form the main body of the educa-
tional army, which is to march against the op-
posing strongholds of darkness and degradation ;
but we should, with them, have also light troops,
as in the field of battle, the skirmishers of the
advancing force; and these must be sent in
eleven different directions, so that we shall
have for our 6th point —
6th. — Every gaol in India should be con-
verted into an industrial school ; every prisoner
taught to read, write, and to work out calcula-
tions. This is no theory, but a practical sthenic,
having been at one time fully developed with
the best effect in the Agra and Midnapore
gaols ; — honour to him to whose benevolent
mind it first suggested itself! The weary
hours of the prison are thus profitably emplm-
ed, savages are made less savage, and the igno-
rant, besides being taught a profession, has his
intellect brightened, and if under its influence
for a long period, will return to society, not
to injure and dishonour it, but to pursue an
honest calling in life, or at any rate not worse,
as he does now.
7th. — Every regiment of the Native armv
should have a real and efficient school, and
45*
270 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
a good schoolmaster, and it should be the
duty of officers commanding companies to en-
courage the student, and excite the slothful.
Regimental libraries should be established, and
books prepared, not only for officers, as is at
present done, but for the sepoy, in the verna-
cular, of a popular kind, and a military cha-
racter. The long days in garrison and on
treasure parties would be whiled away by ac-
counts of the wars of the East India Company,
the martial pluck of England, and the glory of
her constitution. Every regiment should, more-
over, *have its annals of war, and triumphs,
written and printed in the vernacular of the
soldier.
8^/?. — The same remark that was made with
regard to gaols applies to hospitals of a per-
manent nature, where patients are detained for
a long period with chronic complaints.
9th. — In every capital town of a district
there should be a shop for the sale of vernacular
books. Vernacular literature is slowly develop-
ing, and encouragement ought to be given to au-
thors and compilers. The district officer should
open a shop in the bazar, in charge of an agent
who would be repaid by a percentage, with a con-
stant supply of books in all languages, of kinds
SUMMARY OF THE SCHEME. 271
suited to the public taste, which might be for-
warded to him by the curator of the Govern-
ment depot at the Presidency, who should be
authorised to purchase largely of all publishers,
and make arrangements with authors of known
ability for the copyright of their manuscripts.
This has answered well where it has been in-
troduced, and it is so palpably advantageous,
that no further remarks are required except
that, as the system answers in any town, Go-
vernment should withdraw from the field, leav-
ing the management of the trade in private
hands. An extensive system of the French
colportage might also be advantageously con-
nected with the district depot, by which the
inhabitants of the smaller towns might be
supplied. It is a gratifying fact that attention
and patronage have been most liberally bestow-
ed on vernacular literature on this side of
India.
\Qth. — Annual prizes should be offered for
vernacular essays, compilations, and transla-
tions, open to the whole community, and the
reward should be commensurate with the labour
required. It has been complained by the Direc-
tor of Public Instruction, that he has failed to
secure any competition in essay-writing; but
272 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
the fact is, that the prizes offered by him have
always been too beggarly to excite any very
great erudition or industry ; while the competi-
tion being limited only to the students of the
Elphinstone and Poona Colleges, necessarily
retrecit, as the French would say, the field. It
is not to be wondered at, if for a pittance of
Rs. 100 or 150, and again w^ith the competi-
tion limited to the poor field of two colleges,
no one with talents and learning, fitted to
compete, will volunteer his attempt.
12th. — Pensions should be granted to super-
annuated servants in the educational depart-
ment. It is a great scandal that the commonest
gray goose-quill driver enjoys the advantage
denied to members of the most useful body of
public servants, that the pension to these should
be the exception and not the rule, the reward
of occasional favour, and not the right exacted.
When Dr. Harkness, the late talented Princi-
pal of the Elphinstone College, after complet-
ing his successful service of a quarter of a cen-
tury, stood up as a candidate for its rew T ard,
Government wanted the grace to consider his
claim, and kept him in suspense for full three
years ; and even after these, when the old worn-
out principal at length submitted his resigna-
SUMMARY OF THE SCHEME. 273
tion, he received no positive reply, and reached
England uncertain whether he was to receive
any pension at all !
13th. — The public servants of the Govern-
ment should he raised from the apathy in which
many at present exist, and it should be made
distinctly known to them that they are expected
to take and show an interest in the educational
movements of their districts, by personal in-
spection and encouragement to the teachers
and the students. One most successful mode
to stimulate industry and education is by giving
preference to the young men of our schools and
colleges over the untrained old men in all offices,
from the highest to the lowest. It has been
amply proved, that if for no higher motive, for
the sake of their own comfort and convenience,
the heads of offices and departments are now
only too glad to obtain the services of well edu-
eated young men. And when the attainments
of those who pass our university examinations
are prominently brought forward, as they will
be under the new rules, we may feel satisfied
that, as a general rule, these persons will in
practice have a preference, and that we may
safely rely on the good sense and discretion of
the heads of offices to bring about this result.
46
274 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
At one time, it was deemed necessary to have
stringent rules to induce public officers to give
a preference to educated young men in select-
ing their subordinates; but now experience
shows that the desired inducement has come
over our public officers during the last few years,
without the existence of any stringent rules ;
yet the fear was natural, and certainly not
groundless at one time. We all remember
how, so late as even five and seven years
past— thanks to the liberality of English offi-
cers of every denomination, — they openly an-
nounced that what they wanted was not what
was called an abbling in Shakespeare and
Milton, Abercrombie and Bacon, but practice
in the routine drudgery of office. The civil
service, as was natural, reversed the fable of
Aladdin's wife. They had an old lamp, which
gave but a feeble light, had no magic, and but
little virtue ; and so they were timid about ex-
changing this for a new light, which has given
much illumination, and is capable of great
performances. But it has now fortunately
been asserted, that a sense of their own
comfort and convenience has induced the
civil service to avail itself of the educated
youth of the different Presidencies. That is
SUMMARY OF THE SCHEME. 275
no doubt sufficient to account for their change
of conduct ; but we should ourselves be dis-
posed to attribute to them higher motives, and
an unselfish recognition of the claims and
merits of the candidates. The ordinary laws
of supply and demand have, according to the
instincts of political economy, been sufficient
in this case ; the demand has exercised a re-
flected action upon the supply, and stimulated
the Native public to give to their children an
enlightened education ; but the demand had in
the first instance to create itself, and this it
did by satisfactorily proving to conviction that
the new instrument was far better than the
old.
14M. — Patronage should be afforded to really
intelligent and educated men ; and as soon as
the public institutions produce qualified youths
for public employ, they should be employed in
berths of emolument and honour. But taste
should be different from mere learning in the
present circumstances of the country. It is
hopeless to employ in public offices lads full of
Bacon and Shakespeare, conic sections and
the last comet, without the common rudiments
of their own vernacular, a habit of thought,
and an inclination to exert every means in their
276 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
power to disseminate by periodicals, books, &c.
the benefits of an education, which they have
received gratis at the hands of their Govern-
ment.
15^//. — Grants should always be made by
the committee for the establishment and sup-
port of female schools wherever there is an
opening : the right moment should be seized,
and the funds being at once available, the
scheme carried out, not in its present hypocri-
tical and useless tendency, but in a spirit of
earnestness and real intelligence. If the female
character can be relied on, the chances are,
that a school once properly established will not
easily go down. A series of books should also
be published, suitable for the Indian female.
Government have stood quite aloof as yet from
female education, as though they required good
male citizens, and an indifferent unthinking
female population ! If nothing else, it is highly
imperative on Government to found four female
colleges at Calcutta, Agra, Bombay, and Mad-
ras, imparting a thorough education to the
inmates of the institutions, where they
" Would teach all that men are taught ;
They are twice as quick."*
* Tennyson.
SUMMARY OF THE SCHEME. 277
It is a positive disgrace to England that
America and France should, in the dissemina-
tions of their female education, and the eleva-
tion of their millions, leave her so far behind in
the race. In India, she has been sinfully neg-
ligent in her mission of female amelioration ;
she has literally confined woman to a moral
and mental void, without one effort, those of
individual philanthropists excepted, to raise her
to breathe the purer air. She has only too well
imitated the barbarians of the East, her imme-
diate predecessors in this country, the Maho-
medans, and she may well deserve their fate.
The vengeance of God yet tarries — may she
awake to her duty ere it alights upon her !
16///. — Annual grants should be made for
the maintenance of museums at each of the
capital cities of the provinces in India, as here
as elsewhere the eye is spoken to quicker than
the ear ; and these museums should be formed
with care and selection, and not filled with
unmeaning rubbish, but such products of the
vegetable and mineral kingdoms, stuffed ani-
mals, models, pictures, and other objects, as
are calculated to rouse a spirit of inquiry in
the observant. These must be in the centres
of population, and not removed to a nook to
278 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
suit the convenience of Government and their
officers. The proposed site of the Bombay
Museum at Chinchpoogly, and such localities,
are highly objectionable. Half the value of the
institution is lost by its being removed so far
from the centre of population.
17th. — In each Presidency there should be
a well-trained literary man, such as the French
would call a savant, employed solely in collat-
ing and collecting maunscripts, forming careful
" catalogue raisonnees" of the authors in every
vernacular, buying or obtaining copies of scarce
booksf and forming translations whenever
necessary. His duty would be to develope the
Native literature of the country. And it really
is a great reflection against the British Go-
vernment, that after the occupation of the
country for upwards of half a century, there
is nothing approaching to a properly digested
catalogue of Native literature. The French
Government would have published one in the
first decade ; they would probably, in doing so,
have rifled every library in the country, which
the English would decline doing, but still they
would have had their catalogue ere long.
But to continue our simile, we must have
the anuniments of war to carrv on the warfare ;
SUMMARY OF THE SCHEME. 279
we must have also continual supplies ; for if
these were neglected, we have no hope of suc-
cess in the field. We must, therefore, have
18^. — Teachers, not of the character of
goorumaliasyaSy ayah pundits* or moulvies, or
even our present Anglo-Indian teachers, so defi-
cient as to walk down a mile and a half about
an English letter, as before stated ; but regular
pedagogues, well-grounded in the three sciences,
the use of the mouth, the hand, and the brain;
supplied, not from the last forms of colleges,
but from the best of our students. When Go-
vernment give a gratuitous education fit the
college, the best student must be compelled to
serve an apprenticeship of master ship for about
two years in return.
19th. — We must have paper. There is a
fair opening for private enterprise in the estab-
lishment of paper manufactories in the dif-
ferent parts of India, instead of any one of
these, from want of paper-mills within it, requir-
ing to send to any other, situate at a great dis-
tance, for that article. Anything that cheapens
paper assists the cause of enlightenment and
progress.
20th. — It is gratifying to note that our ver-
nacular papers are slowly and steadily progress-
280 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
ing ; but even now it will be hard to point to
any very great intelligence or sound education
from among the ranks of our vernacular writers.
Their writings, now so respectably different
from what they Tmce were, still lack that good
sense, originality, and liberalism, which a sound
liberal education infuses. There are yet some
among them who are beneath contempt ; but
the majority, though tinged with party spirit,
are a respectable class of men. They have
unfortunately no great support, and hence they
pay little attention, and show little zeal in their
labour^. Government ought to patronise some
of them. A certain number of copies taken
by the Government would assist the more
enlightened editors, without destroying their
independence ; and these, again, distributed to
public institutions in all the Presidencies,
would do somewhat to connect the detached
portions of the empire together. It is a shame
that as yet Government or the people have
thought nothing of encyclopaedias in the dif-
ferent vernaculars. They are, as the dictionary,
the urgent need of a people, and it is not a little
to be regretted that as yet no attempt has not
only not been made, but is not even to be made
in the present day. Encyclopaedias should be
SUMMARY OF THE SCHEME. 281
edited in all the vernaculars, and tracts and
pamphlets of a moral and instructive nature
should be struck off by thousands, every month,
and sold in all the towns, at so low a price as
to come within the means of the poorest ; besides
which, many should be distributed gratuitously
through the assistance of a committee such as
we have suggested.
These, and many others which may very
easily be evolved out of these, are more neces-
sary and important than railways, and electric
telegraphs, and contract laws, for the Govern-
ment to consider. The Government (rf India
think nothing of voting a lakh for a coffee
or tea-garden, or a munificent donation to
a profligate Rajah ; they brighten up at the
idea of an improved method of cultivating
cotton, and come down liberally with cash for
a new road or railway : but would it not be
wiser — setting aside the benevolence and the
duty — to plant schools, and endow seminaries,
where morality and science are taught; to
dispel the maze of popular superstition, and
bring down a flood of light and increase on
the Indian mind, as well as on the land where
it now festers ?
47*
282
CHAPTER X.
REGENERATION OF INDIA— ANOTHER MEANS.
The two classes of writers on India. — Two dangers to India. —
The difficulties of making a successful stand in the Punjab
against the Russians stated. — Confidence and a feeling of
Patriotism more requisite on the defensive line of operations,
than strength and discipline. — Warlike tribes of Upper India,
and their ambition. — The only measure to avert the danger
is Colonisation. — Colonisation of two sorts. — That which we
ask for India different from all colonisations to America and
Australia, and beneficial to India only. — The presence of
the English Settlers also beneficial, in checking all abuse of
official power in the interior. — English settlement will en-
hance our crops and resources. — Art wholly wanting in the
Native Peasant. — Anglo-Saxon zeal for improvement. — The
Anglo -Indian Government worse than the Roman and
Mahomedan, in their zeal for public works of utility. — Dif-
ference between Calcutta and Delhi or Agra. — All extensive
conquests preserved by Colonisation. — English settlement
peculiarly beneficial to Young India. — Rights will then be
more liberally granted. A question to Young India. — Eng-
land's mission in India threefold.
There have been written volumes upon the
condition of India ; but nothing whatever has
been practically attempted for the removal of
those causes which fallow the rich resources
WRITERS ON INDIA. 283
of the soil or paralyse the spirit of the people.
In the long and extravagant controversy, one
set of writers is proscribed for viewing and
analysing with European prejudices, whilst the
other is condemned as having Asiatic apathy,
for deeming the wretchedness of the condition
of India as inevitable, and therefore indifferent
to England ; and while we are taken up with
deciding upon the comparative merits of oppo-
site advocacies, time passes away, and India is
left to her own fate, uncared for and neglected.
The English nation is proverbially too intrepid
of danger; and this intrepidity, if it has es-
caped in Europe on more than one occasion
its merited penalty, in India at no distant date
will the supinely-disposed nation have to pay
for it dearly. Two powers have long entered
into a treacherous conspiracy, each to retrieve
a political dishonour that has pinned it to
a national inferiority ; and both, despairing of
striking for honour on European soil, have
chosen India as'the field for their redeeming
glory. To this thirst of vengeance, if we add
the stimulus of political avarice, which both
are too weak to resist, as well as the facility
afforded by the want of organisation of every
sort for a successful stand against their object,
284 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
we may be assured that every circumstance
conspires to produce the collision of England
with France and Eussia on the confines of
India — with the first by sea on the southern
coast, and with the second by land on the north-
western frontier. Considering England's mari-
time power, we can imagine that she can easily
line the Indian coast with one strong fortress
of frigates and men-of-war, which France
will scarcely be strong enough to break through.
But the danger thus looming in the distance re-
quires necessarily to be reckoned up beforehand,
so thaft, when her trial comes, she may not be
found wanting in the balance of strife. And
conceiving the probability of the second, the
mind naturally recurs to the Macedonian con-
quest; when, from the vague accounts which
history has been able to give of the enterprise
of Alexander, we are tempted to assure ourselves
upon the immense length and difficulties of
the march, and the untameable ferocity of the
savage tribes whose territories would have to
be crossed. But in so supinely reckoning our
safety, we lose all consideration of the improve-
ment of modern warfare, and the fact of Rus-
sian authority and organisation already extend-
ing to the very spot whence the Mongol and
ENEMIES OF BRITISH SUPREMACY. 285
Tartar Conquerors of India started on their
race. Besides, Russia needs not necessarily
force her way by open injustice or violence to
the intervening hordes; she has already a less
obtrusive line of policy set to her as an example
by the East India Company in their conquest
of India ; — while the disputes, which never fail
to attend succession to the throne of Persia, and
the general imbecility of the nation, might
supply an opportunity for Russia to extend her
influence in Central Asia for an Indian inva-
sion. On the Indus, then, the die will be cast ;
and success or defeat will be the result only
in the Punjab, where armies will have to be
marched from Madras, Bombay, and Bengal,
the distance between the field of action and
the starting-points being as great as nearly
the whole breadth of the European continent,
with tribes and nations interspersed differing
as much from each other as the Spaniard
from the Hungarian, or the English from the
Italian ; and if these extensive marches weigh
nothing upon the European troops (which re-
quires yet to be proved), the cold and fatigue
must have a great effect on the Native regi-
ments, whom sickness and a depression of spirit,
the maladie du pays, will render almost whol-
48
286 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
ly ineffectual. It will, besides, be difficult to
inspire rebellious tribes and Native regiments,
differing and opposed as they are in principles
to each other, and ignorant of conceiving the
stability of British power in the East, with
any degree of confidence ; and though discipline
and courage avail in the impulse of aggression,
in defence, we necessarily require confidence of
the highest degree, and a feeling of patriotism,
to bear the brunt of invading impetuosity.
The resistance of the French when the Rus-
sians attempted to retake their position at
Borodino, and of Havelock's noble band at
Lucknow, are only too recent instances of con-
fidence of success and self-devotion achieving
triumphs in the defensive line under the most
trying circumstances of overwhelming numbers
and well-regulated discipline. The armies of
Native troops brought into action will sadly be
wanting in these springs of success ; while the
fact should never be neglected, that Upper
India is replete with those restless tribes, which
historv has described as ever ambitious to seek
for a change of masters; and in point of fact,
Baber, Nadir, and Ahmed — the three greatest
conquerors of the East — invaded India with a
contemptible force, but succeeded on the battle-
MEANS OF RESISTANCE. 28/
field through the support and alliance of some of
these tribes. And once the Punjab passed,
our invaders shall have only a flat and unob-
structing tract of country to inarch through,
and the British Government will then have
no alternative but to commit the fortunes of
their empire to the issue of one great battle, on
the plains perhaps of Paniput, which history
has recorded to be invariably fatal to India.
The only measure to avert this appalling
danger, the measure so often suggested, and
as often evaded, is colonisation. Colonisation
is of two distinct kinds — one benefiting exclu-
sively the mother country, by relieving it of all
surplus population, while the other tends to
the benefit of the region colonised, by the
infusion of a liberal degree of energy and
intelligence into the mass of its ignorant and
dull population, by the settlement of a few men
of skill and activity. In the first instance, the
mother country generally sends forth children
with very limited means, and convicts ; in the
second, the colonisers are in most cases men of
capital : and it is the confounding of these two
distinct classes of colonists that has raised the
unfounded cry against British emigration to
India, and delayed as yet the inestimable benefit
288 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
so necessary to the governors no less than to the
governed of this country. When we say that
the British Isles should colonise India, we do
not mean, certainly, that a crowd of settlers
should be sent out here, as they have been to
America, the Cape of Good Hope, Australia,
and New Zealand; but only just so many as will
suffice for the necessary admixture of men of
energy and intelligence with the dull and torpid
millions of India, so as to develope the rich
resources of its soil, which at present, for want
of industry and ability, may be said to lie entire-
ly fallow and uncultivated.
In the event of any such external invasion
as we have before discussed occurring, the
presence of British settlers will be of eminent
service to Government, while the activity, cou-
rage, and knowledge of acclimated Saxons will
be equal to a sustained effort against any op-
posing strength and discipline, for which the
drooping spirits of fresh English troops, from
unaccustomed Indian fatigue and heat, conse-
quent on long marches necessary in an extensive
line of military operations on the occasion,
would be wholly unequal. Besides, the set-
tlers having an interest in the soil of their
adopted country, and reliance in the stability
COLONISATION. 289
of British power, Government may expect from
them all that self-devotion and entire con-
fidence so necessary in the defensive line on the
field of battle. But apart from this eminent
service in the perilous hour, Government cannot
but feel the benefit of their presence in almost
every stage of their administration ; but more
especially in the check which the presence of
independent and wealthy settlers will oppose
to all acts of an arbitrary and unjustifiable
nature, which we find so often committed by
public functionaries in the mofussil, where tl
is no press to ventilate misdeeds, and win re the
people are too submissive and ignorant to dis-
pute authority. In the mofussil, where the
Natives are so submissive, and where they have
been so much trampled down as never to dare
to say a word against the injury of person or
property, there is at present every liability of
any influence, power, and even private wealth,
being grossly misused, as much by the Natives
themselves as by Englishmen; andJDarpgahs,
Cofwa/s, and Jageerdars, and Englishmen of
whatever denomination, with very rare excep-
tions, are especially the terror of the poor peo-
ple, who have no conception of their dignity as
men, and no language to utter the grievances
49
290 LIGHTS AND SHADES,
of their heart. But when Indian colonisation
is 2, fait accompli. Government will be able to
check all abuse of power, rank, or wealth, by
the presence of an intelligent and independent
body of men in the different districts ; and
especially when they have to act in the com-
mission of the peace in common with the chief
Native residents, a restraint wall be imposed
which neither Collectors and Magistrates nor
their subordinates will venture to get over, in
the abuse of their authority. This oppression,
which we mean to remove by colonisation, often
amounts to violent personal injuries ; in many
instances to the infliction of wrongs which can
never be forgotten or forgiven.
Science is absent in all works of labour and
art in this country ; fields are cultivated indiffer-
ently ; ignorance of even the first principles of
method and economy is seen in whatever is done ;
and the implements made use of are of the
coarsest description — so useless that* a crowd
of labourers with these in hand execute far less
work than a single European by means of his
appliances of science and art. The settlement
of the Anglo-Saxons in the country would ma*
terially change every cumbrous mode of pre-
sent labour, and till and use the ground so as
WORK FOR COLONISTS. 291
to enhance its value very considerably, and
make it yield crops and profits never yet rea-
lised by the hand of the poor and ignorant
Native ; and mixing with the Natives as farm-
ers, planters, and traders, they would impart
their knowledge, skill, and industry to the mass
of the population, by example, and so render
them in time as versed, skilful, and active as
themselves, or any farmers, planters, or traders
in Europe. This would tend to no small
benefit to Government, in the shape of increased
revenue, proportioned to an increased produce
and profit. ,
Another benefit to the Government and the
state would arise from the natural peculiarity
of the Anglo-Saxon to spread improvement
wherever he goes. Men of other races are capable
of surveying the blank spaces of the earth — its
plains and mountains, its forests and deserts,
its rivers and its seas — with perfect indifference,
or as but an object of curiosity to the adven-
turous traveller or the audacious sportsman.
But an Englishman sees them with eyes intent
upon making some practical change : if he sees a
marsh, he contrives to drain it ; if he crosses a
river in a boat, he projects a bridge over it ; if
he rides over a grassy plain, he thinks of turn-
292 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
ing it with a plough ; and if he walks in a town,
he sketches how he can travel in it on a rail-
road. In India, this zeal is greatly needed in
studding the country with magnificent edifices
and works of art, which have been so sadly
neglected by Government that long chapters of
shame and disgrace might be written against
England for her falling short of both the Ro-
mans and the Mahomedans in this respect.
" In the smallest territories of the Decapolis,"
says Mr. Buckingham, "which the Romans
founded after their conquest of Palestine, the
merest speck of land lying east of the river
Jordan and the lake Tiberias, there now remains
within a square of less than a hundred miles of
length and breadth a greater number of public
works, in roads, bridges, aqueducts, temples,
theatres, circuses, amphitheatres, baths, and
hippodromes, than the English would leave
behind them in all India, a territory of one
thousand five hundred miles in length and
breadth, if they were to quit it tomorrow ; and
even the Hindoo and Mahomedan rulers of
India, their immediate predecessors, have left
remains of their great works of this description
in roads, bridges, canals, &c, which might well
put England to shame." In fact, one never
WORK FOR COLONISTS. 293
misses being struck with the difference between
the approach to Delhi and Agra, even in their
present state of neglect and decay, and that
to Calcutta, after its having been for fully a
century the capital of British India, with its
pretentious title as the " City of Palaces," and
holding within its precincts the most opulent
of both classes, European and Native. In the
former, the traveller sees, a great distance
from the imperial cities, the ruins of pal;!
gardens, fountains, tanks, turrets, mosques, et
quidquid tanks premittitur ubi, whilst the lat-
ter presents that utter artistic nudity, at even
the short distance of four or five miles, which
indicates a place of no greater importance than
a common country-town ! The settlement of
wealthy Saxon landholders in India will mate-
rially alter this dreariness of the countrv, and
relieve the Government from the expense, which
they are now obliged to defray, of the works of
public utility, as lords paramount of the soil ;
and their example of the zeal for improvement
will interest the Native gentry of wealth and
intelligence in works of art and decoration.
And if anything else were wanting to enforce
the necessity of colonisation upon our Govern-
ment besides all these tangible benefits to them-
49*
294 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
selves, it is supplied by history, both of ancient
Rome and of the Mahomedans in this country.
" Wheresoever the Roman conquers, he inha-
bits." So said his own historian ;* and it was this
policy more than any other that secured such
extensive conquests to Rome for so long a period
of history, notwithstanding the seeds of disso-
lution and weakness implanted in her consti-
tution even from the very first flash of victory.
And the fact should never be overlooked, that
the Mahomedans, besides the immense number
that settled on the plains of India on each of
their three grand eruptions, received continual
accessions to their strength by Mussulman
emigration from different directions, which
enabled them to preserve their empire for six
long centuries against the entire mass of their
Hindoo subjects.
To Young India, the presence of the Saxon
settlers will be of immense benefit. We have
pointed out, in some places roughly and contemp-
tuously, in others mildly and with a mournful
spirit, all the failings and shortcomings to be
seen in their course and conduct, and traced
them, perhaps with too great a national love
* Seneca.
BENEFITS TO GOVERNMENT. 295
and partiality, to the utter want of free in-
tercourse and advice from Englishmen, which
the colonisation we advocate must necessarily
engender* Besides, the influence and inde-
pendence of the settlers will remove all those
little anomalies in legislation, and petty mean-
nesses, which at present damp and cramp the
energy and talents of the best breed of the
aborigines, by excluding them from places of
trust and emolument, on no other plea than
that they are but the members of a subject
race. Indeed, it requires no demonstration to
prove that the unjust and shortsighted exclu-
sion from the medical service that the Home
Government have only recently passed against
the dumb millions of India could never have
even been broached out in serious reality ; for if
it had, the audacious minister would instant-
ly have been silenced by the hissings of con-
temptuous ridicule, had there been a sufficient
number of English settlers already in India,
commanding consideration, respect, and influ-
ence in England and with her ministry. With
these evident benefits to themselves and their
country, it is to be lamented that Young India
should at all seem, as they at present do seem,
opposed to British settlement. But one thought
296 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
is sufficient to convince them on the question of
this settlement. It cannot be gainsaid that, in
her present condition, India must be held by
more vigorous hands than her own children
can command. It is not free ; and if it desire
to be so, it cannot be : so that a change of
masters is the only alternative in store for her.
What would be the change? There is no
sovereign power in India, or even in the whole
of the Asiatic continent, strong enough to
govern India after England has left it ; so that
some European country must again take hold
of her ia subjection. Spain, Portugal, and Hol-
land, which at one period of their history
showed a capacity for foreign acquisition, may
not in their present decay and enervation ven-
ture into the Indian Ocean. But there are two
powers, who are not only strong as well as will-
ing to occupy all possessions England may re-
lease from her grasp, but have been actively
aiming at this object during the last fifty years
of their progress. These, we need not say, are
Russia and France — both ambitious and both
powerful: one insidious in the extreme, and
absolutely despotic ; the other desirous of poli-
tical glory, quick and ardent, but withal capri-
cious and unpractical. Both have learnt the
ENGLAND'S MISSION IN INDIA. 29/
short measure of government : one would prove
crushing and enslaving, without any qualifica-
tion ; while the other, good in design but uncer-
tain in execution, paternal without moral stead-
fastness and mean without governing sagacity.
The policy of England, on the contrary, in spite
of its little anomalies, has ever continued to be
just; and it has given us laws and privileges as
free as the state of our circumstances permits,
during' the century she has held us in subjec-
tion. Freedom of conscience, person, and pro-
perty, has been granted, such as we never had
before, and perhaps never will have aftgr Eng-
land's sway. Her mission is evidently three-
fold : first, to elevate the people of India in the
scale of civilised nations ; secondly t to develope
its rich resources, which now lie neglected ;
and thirdly, to open its commerce to her mar-
kets ; — and if the two first objects be secured,
and there be a surety for the third, she would
very willingly leave this country in the hands
of its own children. In fact, we lay it down
as our firm conviction that England holds India
only as a ward : she has to rear it as a trust ;
and after it has attained to the position of self-
management, she will leave it independent,
connected only in bonds of mutual assistance
298 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
in trade and enlightenment. That is the future
in store for us ; there are plain signs in the
heavens and the earth proclaming it: but
we must abide our season, and mar not so
fair a harvest by putting in our sickle ere it
is ripe.
29$
CHAPTER XL
A CHAPTER OF NONSENSE, IF IT BE SO UNDER-
STOOD. THE FUTURE OF INDIA AND THE
EAST.
England's capacity for foreign acquisition and colonisation
compared with other mighty powers of Europe. — With
Italy— With Spain.— With Portugal.— With Holland.— With
France. — The Anglo-Saxon Colony carries away all other
Colonies before it. — The finger of God traced in the pro-
gress of the British in the East. — The tendency and
course "of the Empires of the World. — Civilisation not likely
to end in America. — It is returning to the land of its birth. —
Dr. Arnold's theory of Civilisation examined and refuted. —
The prospect of another and mightier Civilisation. — It will
commence from India. — Our grounds for so supposing. —
Bright future for Young India. — His future Religion.
"In dreaming of each mighty birth,
That shall one day be born ;
From marriage of the Western earth,
With nations of the Morn."
So dreamt the poet. Whether his dreams are
actually to be realised, we do not pretend to
say ; but we see the probability of an epoch
dawning upon the destinies of the human race,
grander than any yet recorded in history.
300 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
This epoch is signalising the English nation,
as acquiring the dominion of the world, and will
be consummated we hope by an universal British
empire. We may seem over-sanguine in our
hopes ; but we have in enforcing conviction only
to ask for a review of political history, and com-
parison of other countries of Europe with Eng-
land in the capacity they have shown some time
or other to govern distant dominions, or aptitude
for colonisation. Italy, Spain, Portugal, Hol-
land, France, and Russia pass under review in
this place. Italy, though her Rome in ancient
times established numerous military colonies,
has never in modern history occupied a signi-
ficant page in political history or colonising
adventures. It seems as if all her capacity for
distant acquisitions was exhausted in the as-
cendency of Rome in the ancient world. Spain
and Portugal set out on their career together ;
and while the one voyaged to the West, the
other took her course to the East. Spain dis-
covered savage countries, and, in the unequal
strife between civilisation and barbarism, con-
quered, and acquired exhaustless wealth, in
natural mines and streams of gold, in the New
World. But in the triumphs over the rude
Americans, she had that easy access to wealth
APTITUDE FOR COLONISATION. 301
which fakes away the stimulus of activity, and
undermines the constitution ; and Spain, sunk
in wealth and luxury, forfeited that power,
which, when duly sustained, would have se-
cured to her the lead of empires. Portugal,
running her course, acquired dominions in the
East ; but she lacked a capacity of sustenance,
and early succumbed to a superior power from
the insignificance of her means, and possibly
also the illiberalism of her policy. Holland
ceded in the line. She was close upon Por-
tugal; but her colonics were limited in extent,
and she had gained but little experience, in go-
verning affairs from her comparative nonage
as a political state, separated from the guid-
ance of Spain. Even now, she seems to have
gained little or no improvement ; and Java,
her only possession of importance, does not
cover the cost of its tenure under her manage-
ment ! France comes next ; but her possessions
in the East were early relinquished, with heavy
loss to the state ; and Algeria is yet but an ex-
periment in her hands. France has martial
character; but, despite that, she has, we believe,
failed, undoubtedly from a want of constitu-
tional aptitude, to derive any marked advan-
tage from her distant acquisitions. Kussia
5i
302 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
stands last ; but it is a vast tract of unarable
region, and is only an extensive military
empire, ruinous to the interests of the people.
We might include America in the review ; but
we find her unambitious of political influence,
and her present troubles, even after they are
accommodated, will throw her a century behind
the age. England seems to be the only coun-
try which has consolidated herself by distant
acquisitions ; and though a large gap appears
in her colonial history in the severance of her
American possessions, she has proved her
colonising power yet unimpaired, unlike that of
Spain — the only country that created vast em-
pires like England, and has, like England, lost
most largely, — by since working out the site
of mighty empires on the surface of the globe.
It was about a century after an enterprising
captain in the service of Spain coasted the
eastern shores of America, and passed through
the straits called after him, Magellan, that the
English settled in America, and commenced
that career of colonial empire which is destined
to spread a cordon of nations over the surface of
the globe, professing English descent, language,
institutions, and, let us hope, feelings. Since
then, the stream of emigration has flowed east-
FUTURE BRITISH EMPIRE. 303
wafd to the vast continent of Australia and the
islands of the Pacific. And wherever the Anglo-
Saxons have settled in a colony, they have
absorbed into themselves all comers of different
nations ; and the fact that all emigrations from
France, Germany, Italy, and Austria have been
carried away before the English, without leaving
a single trace of their origin, distinctly indi-
cates that the English nation is destined to
create an universal empire on the surface of
the globe. Already both sides of the Pacific
are bounded by the empires of this dominant
race — America, and Australia and Nejv Zea-
land ; while northward of the Indian Ocean lies
the vast peninsula of British India. It seems
as if it were that Providence has fixed the
fate of the world to pass into English hands ;
and the very efforts made to keep Indian con-
quests within prescribed limits are constantly
frustrating their object. Had England had
her own way, her possessions in the East would
not have been greater than a few commercial
factories on the eastern and western coasts of
India; but she has always had her great-
ness thrust on her, and the very solicitude
to keep the empire within certain limits excit-
ed the audacity of imbecile princes, and led
304 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
to the annexation of their dominions, tod^bhe
sovereignty of the entire peninsula of India.
And had not the golden-footed sovereign of
Burmah invaded Assam, and driven English
subjects into captivity, boastfully threatening
to take Calcutta, it is reasonable to believe
that England would yet have remained confined
within the natural limits of India. But she had
her honour to vindicate ; and the moment her
armies crossed the mountain ranges into coun-
tries which stretched away to the Chinese Sea
and the Pacific, she ventured upon a future,
which, as it now gradually unfolds itself, seems
to be full of intense interest to the future des-
tinies of the world ; for we lay it down as an
axiomatic truth, that a power like hers, in spite
of its reluctance, muet advance, in a continent
like Asia, till it reaches either high mountains
or broad seas — till it beats, on the one side,
against the base of the Chinese hills, and flows
on the other into the waters of the Levant. Pro-
vidence has decreed it so, and man cannot avert
that decree ; and the time is coming, when
the entire continent of Asia, being brought to
subjection by the Anglo-Saxon race, they of
Europe and they of Asia will meet by that
extensive plain whence they first set out in
PROPHECY ON THE SUBJECT. 305
opposite directions to seek their respective
homes. Let us hope that when that day comes,
the common origin of mankind will be tangibly
felt, and all nations, instead of fighting and
wasting each other, as now, will learn to love
each other as children of the same parents.
How truly spoke, then, the first historian of
the world — " God shall increase Japhet, and
he shall dwell' in the tents of Shem." Until
now, this prophecy has not been fully accom-
plished, for the Shemites or the Asiatic race
enjoyed for a long time the possession of the
largest kingdoms of the world ; and the march of
empire and civilisation has hitherto been from
East to West* — from the palace of Persepolis
and the plains of Shinar to the isles of Greece,
from the isles of Greece to the hills of Rome,
from the hills of Eome to the fastnesses of Spain,
from the fastnesses of Spain to the shores of
Britain, and from the shores of Britain to the
wilds of America. The progress to empire
and civilisation has thus steadily been in one
direction ; and in this direction it has now
reached America. But is this progress destined
* This has been attempted to be proved in a Prize Essay,
by the writer of these pages, at the Elphinstone College, not
yet published — "Westward the Tide of Empire rolls its sway."
306 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
to continue, or is the tide of civilisation to be
at length arrested by the foot of the Kocky
Mountains ? No ; there is nothing to show
that the world is stagnant, and no signs in the
heavens that the human race is retrograding.
Four thousand years are now drawing to a close,
and we stand on the verge of a great revolution
of the world ; the sons of Japhet are about now
to dwell literally, and not figuratively, as of
yore, in the tents of Shem; the audax Japeti
genus setting forth not merely to hold by con-
quest and temporary tenure, but dwell by per-
manent colonies in the regions of the East.
Civilisation is returning to the land of its
birth, and another day and another race will
soon commence to dawn upon the destinies of
the human species. The Romans conquered
by fire and sword ; they gave peace only by
establishing a solitude — Ubi soiitudinem J'ecc-
runt pacem appelant ;* and they preserved
their extensive conquests by extensive colonics.
But England comes out to the East with the
olive, and gives peace by order and civilisation.
And if she desires to keep up her extensive
acquisitions, she must also establish colonies,
differing no doubt in principle as much in their
* Tacitus.
-LISHMEX T6 FULFIL IT. 30/
mode of permanent tenure as in that of their
acquisition. " Japhet shall dwell in the tents
of Shem"; so said the prophecy. As yet he
has not dwelt in the full significance of the
sentence ; but it will be fully verified when the
English nation penetrates the regions of the
descendants of Shem, not with the sword of
the conqueror, to enslave, but with peace and
knowledge, befriending and improving the peo-
ple of the East as colonists; and the emigrants
aftmlgamating* with the young generation of
India, give birth to a progeny of rare destined
to develope another phase of cii [ligation, exceed-
ing the wonders of Modern Europe as much as it
has advanced over the ancient world. We may
be voted visionary in our reflections : but views
such as these arise unbidden in this place; and
those who persuade themselves to laugh have only
to look to the career of the Parsee in Western
and of the Baboo in Eastern India. There is
in realitv no great difference between the two ;
and though the one has the ink-black skin,
* When English colonies will be established in India and
other parts of the East, it is impossible to conceive that a mix-
ture of the two races will not take place. They may remain
separate for a time — for even a very long time, — but in the end,
as the aborigines improve, the colonists will of themselves amal-
gamate with them.
308 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
while the other is rather olive-coloured in com-
plexion, if not yet fairer, both are one in spirit
— both have shown a vigorous constitution to
improve — both are radicals and not conserva-
tives. Both live in changes: "Overturn! over-
turn ! overturn !" has already become their
watchword ; and abhorring stagnation, both
show the strongest passion for novelty. Both
have become Anglicised already ; and if they
go on in their career of progress some time
more — it may be long, — they may no doubt
develope in time a new phase of civilisation as
yet unknown to the world. Perhaps this con-
summation may come about with or without the
element of English amalgamation — we cannot
speak dogmatically on this point; though there is
a greater probability of the first condition work-
ing itself upon the destinies of the world than
the second ; and a nation, hybrid in its compo-
sition, half English, half Hindoo, may spring
up at a date as distant, it must be, from us
as that of the hybrid formation of modern Eu-
ropean nations was from the Romans in the
full parade of their pomp and glory, believing in
theism, pantheism or Christianity as the pole-
star of their faith, we care not which and we
need not calculate which, so long as the pro-
CIVILISATION A PROBLEM. 309
babilityis as at present as much for the one as
for either of the other two.
Of all the problems that have engaged the
attention of the philosopher from the time of
Socrates, who is said to have " brought down
philosophy from heaven," to the present day,
when Mr. Buckle lately wrote his " History
of Civilisation in England," the most difficult
and the all-incomprehensible problem has been
that of civilisation. We all know what it is
not; but he is a bold man indeed who ventures
to say what it is, and define the term. So simple
as to be a household word of daily utterance
with the unthinking and the ignorant, yet so
difficult and abstruse as to defy the comprehen-
sion of the acutest philosophic mind, men have
all along shirked the necessity of either defining
it or measuring its amount, and thought and
written only on its tendency, with much clever-
ness and labour. Even this mean success has
been, properly speaking, of a modern date ; not
earlier, certainly, if we take a strict view of the
subject, than the date of the publication of the
celebrated treatise — Histoire de la Civilisation
en Europe — by Guizot, though several meagre
attempts, some of which are, indeed, as great
and clever as Guizot's expositions, were suc-
52
310 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
cessfully made long anterior, to cut and analyse
this chosen bearing of the abstruse problem.
Here philosophers and thinkers have, with their
characteristic propensity to disagree and pull
down each other,* differed with each other ;
and the exponent of one class, the highly
talented Dr. Arnold, who was cut short in
the prime of his useful career by intense hard
labour, in the inaugural lecture which he
delivered in 1841 to the students of the Uni-
versity of Oxford, expressed, with a specious
argument, that all the elements of civilisation
are no\y exhausted, i. e., in other words, we are
living, as the Hindoo Brahmins say, in the
latest epoch of the world's existence ; and for
the future, if there awaits aught for the sons of
Adam, it is but decay and annihilation. He
conceived that the Greek and Roman element
required to be modified with that of the Ger-
man to perfect it to its latest stage ; but that
being already effected, there is now no modifi-
cation awaiting to affect the destinies of the
human species on the globe ; and with this con-
viction in his mind, he propounds in an honest
yet much diffident spirit, his new-carved theory :
* Washington Irving' s Knickerbocker.
Arnold's Theory. 311
" Hefe then we have, if we may so speak, the
ancient world still existing, but with a new
element added, the element of our English
race. And that this element is an important
one, cannot be doubted for an instant. Our
English race is the German race ; for though
our Norman fathers had learnt to speak a
strangers language, yet in blood, as we know,
they were Saxon brethren, both alike belong-
ing to the Teutonic or German stock. Now
the importance of this stock is plain from this,
that its intermixture with the Celtic and lloman
races at the fall of the western empire has
changed the whole face of Europe. It is doubly
remarkable, because the other elements of
modern history are derived from the ancient
world. If we consider the lloman empire in
the fourth century of the Christian ara, we
shall find in it Christianity, we shall find in it
all the intellectual treasures of Greece, all the
social and political wisdom of Eome. What
was not there, was simply the German race,
and the peculiar qualities which characterise
it. This one addition was of such power, that
it changed the character of the whole mass.
The peculiar stamp of the middle ages is un-
doubtedly German ; the change manifested in
312 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
the last three centuries has been owing to the
revival of the older elements with greater
power, so that the German element has been less
manifestly predominant. But the element still
preserves its force, and is felt for good and for
evil in almost every country of the civilised
world.
" We will pause for a moment to observe
over how large a portion of the earth this influ-
ence is now extended. It affects more or less
the whole west of Europe, from the head of the
Gulf of Bothnia to the most southern promon-
tory of Sicily, from the Oder and the Adriatic
to the Hebrides and to Lisbon. It is true that
the language spoken over a large portion of
this space is not predominantly German ; but
even in France, and Italy, and Spain, the influ-
ence of the Franks, Burgundians, Visigoths,
Ostrogoths, and Lombards, while it has colored
even the language, has in blood, in institutions,
left its mark legibly and indelibly. Germany,
the Low Countries, Switzerland for the most
part, Denmark, Norway and Sweden, and our
own Islands, are all in language, in blood, and
in institutions, German most decidedly. But
all South America is peopled with Spaniards
and Portuguese, all North America and all
HISTORY, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 313
Australia with Englishmen. I say nothing of
the prospects and influence of the German race
in Africa and in India; it is enough to say
that half of Europe, and all America and Aus-
tralia, are German, more or less completely, in
race, in language, or in institutions, or in all.
" Modern history, then, differs from ancient
history in this, that while it preserves the ele-
ments of ancient history undestroycd, it has
added others to them ; and these, as we have
seen, elements of no common power. But the
German race is not the only one which has
been thus added : the Sclavonic race is another
new element, which has overrun the east of
Europe, as the German has overrun the west ;
and when we consider that the Sclavonic race
wields the mighty empire of Russia, we may
believe that its future influence on the condi-
tion of Europe and of the world may be far
greater than that which it exercises now.
"This leads us to a view of modern history
which cannot indeed be confidently relied on,
but which still impresses the mind with an
imagination, if not with a conviction, of its
reality. I mean, that modern history appears
to be not only u step in advance of ancient
history, but the last step ; it appears to bear
53
314 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
marks of the fulness of time, as if there would
be no future history beyond it. For the last
eighteen hundred years, Greece has fed the
human intellect. Rome, taught by Greece,
and improving upon her teacher, has been the
source of law, and government, and social civi-
lisation ; and what neither Greece nor Rome
could furnish, the perfection of moral and spi-
ritual truth, has been given by Christianity.
The changes which have been wrought have
arisen out of the reception of these elements
by new races ; races endowed with such force
of character that what was old in itself, when
exhibited in them, seemed to become some-
thing new. But races so gifted are, and have
been from the beginning of the world, few in
number: the mass of mankind have no such
power ; they either receive the impression of
foreign elements so completely that their own
individual character is absorbed, and they take
their whole being from without ; or, being inca-
pable of taking in higher elements, they dwindle
away when brought into the presence of a
more powerful life, and become at last extinct
altogether. Now, looking anxiously round the
world for any new races which may receive the
seed (so to speak) of our present history into
GREECE, ROME, ANI3 CHRISTIANITY. 315
a kindly yet a vigorous soil, and may repro-
duce it, the same, and yet new, for a future
period, we know not where such are to be
found: some appear exhausted, others incapable,
and yet the surface of the whole globe is known
to us. The Roman colonies along the banks
of the Rhine and Danube looked out on the
country beyond those rivers as we look up at
the stars, and actually see with our eyes a
world of which we know nothing. The Ro-
mans knew that there was a vast portion of
earth which they did not know ; how vast it
might be, was a part of its mysteries. But to
us all is explored : imagination can hope for
no new Atlantic island to realise the vision of
Plato's Critias ; no new continent peopled by
youthful races, the destined restorers of our
worn-out generations. Everywhere the search
has been made, and the report has been re-
ceived ; we have the full amount of earth's re-
sources before us, and they seem inadequate to
supply life for a third period of human history."
This has been the conclusion arrived at by
Dr. Arnold from his mature study of history ;
for no one well acquainted with his learning and
intense study in the department of knowledge \
will dare deny him this claim ; and the grounds
316 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
which suggested themselves to his mind to raise
the superstructure of a clever conclusion are
obvious and worth our consideration. It was
proved before him, and has now satisfactorily
been confirmed, that some races of our species
have occupied, and some others do still occupy,
portions of our habitable globe only as tempo-
rary occupants, destined for certain annihilation
before the march of other races of more com-
manding energies and a higher development of
humanity. It is one of the ordinations of
nature, that every race on earth must either
imitate and civilise, or yield to decay and ex-
tinction : those who have the capacity to ape,
as well as the physical hardihood to bear well,
are destined to the happier lot of duration and
progress ; but others invariably die out, when-
ever brought in juxtaposition with what Lord
Erskine has epigrammatically called " the kna-
very and strength of civilisation," some from
physical debility, some from moral turpitude,
and some from utter incapacity to improve.
Not to go deep into the abstruse subject of
ethnography, to tire the popular reader unne-
cessarily, we have the unmistakeable proofs of
several of the most well-known and well-spread
nations of antiquity completely swept away in
DESTINY OF RACES. 3 1 /
the progress of time ; some even of the New
World are now no more to be traced, and some
others are rapidly decaying in our own age and
generation. The Chaldeans, Phoenicians, Egyp-
tians, and the widely-spread Allophylian tribes
of Europe, exist only in the history of anti-
quity ; the Mammoth and the Megatherium
have left no trace in the course only of some
decades past; while the Mohawk, the Iroquois,
the Ked Indian, and the Carribbean and the
Papuan tribes, are being numbered in our own
days with the things that were. The resistance
to withstand the strength of civilisation from
the North American Indians has no* doubt
been most protracted, but their ultimate extinc-
tion is a matter of certainty, and has most con-
fidently been pronounced by a late observer
great authority and prescience : —
" These are great evils; and it must be
added that they appear to be irremediable. I
believe that the Indian nations of North
America are doomed to perish ; and that
whenever the European shall be established
on the shores of the Pacific Ocean, that race
of men will be no more. The Indian had only
the two alternatives of war and civilisation ; in
* M. de Tocqueville's Democracy in America.
53*
3 1 8 LIGHTS. m& StIAMS.
other words, they must either have destroyed
the Europeans, or become their equals. . . .From
whichever side we contemplate the destinies
of the aborigines of North America, their
calamities appear to be irremediable : if they
continue barbarous, they are forced to retire ;
if they attempt to civilise their manners, the
contact of a more civilised community subjects
them to oppression and destitution."
Facts like these naturally suggested reflec-
tions and references to a mind like Dr. Arnold's.
He had read deeply in history ; but as the great-
est minds seem capable of achieving the greatest
wonders, but yet fail in discerning rightly the
trilling and the obvious, he missed the most
superficial observation of the origin and the
history of the two civilisations that he elabo-
rately meditated upon, and took it into his mind
that a new phase of civilisation would neces-
sarily require the element of a new race rising
into enlightenment and importance. With this
premise in his mind, he stood up to examine
the different portions of the globe, to see
whether there was any new race discovered,
with the element of a stern nationality and the
tendency of a rise ; but travellers from every
quarter brought to him the despairing informa-
WHERE ARNOLD FAILED 319
tion that every part of the earth had been
searched, and that all the newly found races were
pitiably weak, and have the alternative of being
in time either totally extinguished or absorbed
into the European religion, manners, language,
and institutions, without any capacity to origin-
ate, naturalise, or improve. There he stopped,
and darted upon the theory of Brahminism, that
we are living in the latest stage of civilisation —
in the Kali Yog, if we speak in the langu
of the Indian Brahmin, — though he with cha-
racteristic cunning attempts his makeshift from
unworthy despondency, by fixing for his Yog
a period of 432,000 years, out of which he cal-
culates only 5,000 years as already elapsed ;
thus making the commencement of his last
surprisingly approximating with the Mosaic
date of creation. If in these 5,000 years three
civilisations — the Hindoo, Greek, and modern
European — have run their course, surely he
does not calculate, though he may profess it to
the simpleton world, that with 427,000 years
that have yet to elapse, mankind will not have
to behold yet mightier changes and higher
wonders than in the past three golden ages.
Much less, then, should an European doctor
despond in his prospects of the future, which
320 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
the very conception of the progress • of the
present forbids. We may doubt the nearness
of our glorious consummation ; but when the
tendency of our course has been made clear to
us ; when the signs of the times have been read
and truly interpreted, when progress has been
found compatible with age and the human species,
when one order has the power to produce another
of mightier consequences, and elements amal-
gamate to give rise to a superior mixture, and
when exhaustion has been unerringly disco-
vered to be perfectly incompatible with Nature
and her workings ; we may then assuredly hope,
under conditions as yet wholly recondite, or
but partially discerned, for a time when a nobler
society shall spring up, and a nobler order of
thought adorn, and more perfect achievements
distinguish, the advanced age of the world,
peopled only by
" Cheerful creatures, whose most sinful deeds
Are but the overheating of the heart,
And flow of too much happiness."
321
CHAPTER XII.
THE PUTqpE OP INDIA AND THE BAST
CONTINUED.
Dr. Arnold's view of History not wholly desponding. — Gui-
zot's just discernment of History. — The grounds of Dr.
Arnold's theory. — His opponents. — Mr. Greg in England,
and the Author of M Lectures on Man" in America. — Their
advocacy of Negro civilisation. — Their errors not essentially
differing from Dr. Arnold. — Exposed on an historical survey.
— Twofold tendency of Arabian Civilisation. — (Jreek, Ro-
man, and Modern European Civilisation Arian in origin. —
Celts and Teutons of Europe. — Their stream of Emigration
from Asia. — Arians never found as a fishing or hunting
tribe. — Distinction between Arabian or Mogul progress and
that of the Arian nations. — Freedom only enjoyed by the
Arians. — A glorious page always to be found in the history
of the Arian nations. — Capability of degeneracy among the
Arians. — The superior prerogative of the Arians even in
the lowest state of civilisation. — Supposed influence of the
climate insufficient to account for the intellectual and moral
differences among races. — Influences of Government and
religion also insufficient on this score. — Individual exceptions
always to be found among the Arian tribes and Xegro
races. — Third ground of our theory. — The origin of all dif-
ferences amongst the Arians and other races, especially the
Negro, to be traced in the unfathomable plan of Providence.
— Civilisation has been running Westward during the last
three thousand years. — It is now in the extreme West of the
54
322 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
world. — In the usual tendency it must hence come East-
ward. — India is the only country to receive it. — Charac-
teristics of modern civilisation. — Anomalies of modern civili-
sation. — Can the present be the latest stage of human des-
tiny? — Three principal causes of our social anomalies. — Sup-
position of the present exhaustion of all human capability
insufficient to disprove future progress. — How every science
and art may be considerably advanced without supposing
our capability being at all increased, or the force and scope
of the action of our mind enlarged. — We are not chimerical
in our speculations. — Conclusion.
We cannot with too great humility dissent
from a learned and amiable author like Dr.
Arnold in his views stated at the close of our
last chapter ; but knowing as we do that some
exalted minds have already differed from him,
we feel 1 ess constraint in our protest than we
otherwise should. Our esteem and admiration
of the head master of Rugby school, the
preacher of the " Christian Course and Charac-
ter," the editor of the best edition of Thucydides,
and the author of the most valuable "Intro-
ductory Lectures on Modern History," and of
unrivalled fragments of a " History of Rome," '
have always not only been great but unbounded ;
and we do admit, that for an Indian youth
barely out of his teens, and just fresh from his
even incomplete studies, to comment upon the
views of such a learned English author would
ARNOLD'S VIEW OF HISTORY. 323
argue the most contemptible presumption and
vanity, were he not to submit his remarks in
moderation, caution, and humility. That we
protest against Dr. Arnold in no spirit of idle
paradox, but on sincere conviction, the reader
will indulgently allow, even if we have failed
to prove it to him from want of a matured
judgment and adroitness of argumentation. Dr.
Arnold himself did not confidently set forth
his views ; his faith in history has not been,
though staggering, yet decidedly of a despairing
character, and in the same inaugural lecture
that we have noticed before, a little further on
we find the following hopeful longings : —
" I am well aware that to state this as a
matter of positive belief would be the extreme
of presumption ; there may be nations reserved
hereafter for great purposes of God's providence,
whose fitness for their appointed work will not
betray itself till the work and the time for
doing it be come. There was a period perhaps
when the ancestors of the Athenians were to
be no otherwise distinguished from their bar-
barian neighbours than by some finer taste in
the decorations of their arms, and something
of a loftier spirit in the songs which told of the
exploits of their warriors ; and when Aristotle
324 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
heard that Rome had been taken by the v Gauls,
he knew not that its total destruction would
have been a greater loss to mankind than the
recent overthrow of Veii. But without any
presumptuous confidence, if there be any signs,
however uncertain, that we are living in the
latest period of the world's history, that no
other races remain behind to perform what
we have neglected, or to restore what we have
ruined, then indeed the interest of modern
history does become intense, and the importance
of not wasting the time still left to us may well
be called incalculable. When an army's last
reserve has been brought into action, every
single soldier knows that he must do his duty
to the utmost : that if he cannot win the bat-
tle now, he must lose it. So, if our existing
nations are the last reserve of the world, its
fate may be said to be in their hands — God's
work on earth will be left undone if they do
not do it.
"But our future course must be hesitating
or mistaken, if we do not know what course
has brought us to the point where we are
at present. Otherwise, the simple fact that
after so many years of trial the world has made
no greater progress than it has, must impress
NO CAUSE FOR DESPAIR. 325
our minds injuriously ; either making us des-
pair of doing what our fathers have not done,
or, if we do not despair, then it may make us
unreasonably presumptuous, as if we could do
more than had been done by other generations,
because we were wiser than they, or better.
But history forbids despair, without authorising
vanity ."
History no doubt forbids despair; and the
march of events in the field of the world has
alwavs been slow and tardy. Providence is not
impatient and hasty in His workings, like man ;
He has, unlike us, eternity before Him, find the
Spirit that has an eternity to work out His
ends need not be economical of time, after our
manner. Guizot, the shrewdest historian of our
times, has justly discerned the instinct of Pro-
vidence, when he infers " La marche de la
Providence,* n'est pas assujetie a dY'troites
limites ; elle ne s'inquiete pas de tirer aujourd'hui
la consequence du principe quelle a pose hier ;
elle la tirera dans des siccles, quand l'heure
sera venue ; et pour raisonner lentement selon
nous, sa logique n'est pas moins sure. La
Providence a ses aises dans le temps ; elle y
* Histoire de la Civilisation en Europe, p. 23.
55
326 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
marche en quelque sorte comme les' Dieux
d'Homere dans l'espace ; elle fait un pas, et des
siecles se trouvent ecoules. Que de temps, que
d'evenemens avant que la regeneration de
l'homme moral par le Christianisme ait exerce,
sur la regeneration de l'etat social, sa grande
et legitime influence !"
Convinced of the truth of these observations,
some authors have been led away to believe
that in her slow and patient working, nature
will necessarily elevate the races that now seem
the most abject and savage ; that she has ap-
pointed a turn for every member of the great
families of mankind, and in this just dispensa-
tion having elevated the Hindoo, Persian, and
other members of the great Caucasian race in
their turns, and given power and prominency
to the Syrians, Phoenicians, Arabs, and the
Shemites in general, at one period or other of
the world's history, she has now only to bestow
her care upon the Negro race, which has yet
been lowest in the scale of nations. Every tribe
has performed its part nobly in the great drama
of mankind's existence, but the African tribes
have yet supplied only a helotry to the more
commanding nations ; and if there awaits am
change for our world to witness, it shall there-
NATURE'S DISPENSATIONS. 327
fore be in the rise and happiness of these
enslaved races ; and their peculiar virtues of
amiableness and content have supplied a spe-
cious argument to our Negro prophets, who are
prominently represented by Mr. Greg in Eng-
land, and the intelligent author of " Lectures
on Man" in America. Mr. Greg, in his Review
of Dr. Arnold's Lectures, says —
"We are, however, disposed to think, that
there does exist a new race not yet brought
within the arena of civilisation — a stranger
and an outcast from the great commonality pi
nations, — known to us, no doubt, and in con-
tact with us, as the barbarians were known at
Rome in contact with the Roman empire, but
not yet brought to bear upon the European
elements of character, under relations which
admit of its exercising its proper and allotted
influence ; — we mean the African race. The
suggestion will startle those who have been
accustomed to regard the Africans as savages,
and will disgust those who have always consi-
dered them as beasts of burden ; but if they
will grant us a few moments of patient at-
tention, we will explain, as briefly as we
can, both our opinion, and the considera-
tions on which we ground it. We may be
328 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
in error ; in differing from Dr. Arnold it is
probable we are ; but if we are right in our
anticipations, thus much is certain — that the
future contains within it greater moral chan-
ges than any developed in the past ; since
the African race differs far more in ail its
elements of character from the European, than
the Teuton did either from the Roman or the
Greek.
"But it is from the peculiar moral qualities
of the Negro that we anticipate the principal
modifications of the future aspect of human
civilisation. In these the African and the Cau-
casian race seem to be radically and essentially
distinct. The one character seems to be, as it
were, the complement and counterpart of the
other. The European is vehement, energetic,
proud, tenacious, and revengeful ; the African
is docile, gentle, humble, grateful, and common-
ly forgiving. The one is ambitious, and easily
aroused ; the other meek, easily contented, and
easily subdued. The one is to the other as the
willow to the oak. The European character
appears to be the soil best fitted for the growth
of the hardy and active virtues hallowed by
pagan morality ; the African character to be
more especially adapted for developing the mild
FUTURE OF AFRK 329
and passive excellencies which the gentle spirit
of Christianity delights to honour. * * *
" Yet these (peace, charity, and humility )
are the virtues which our religion teaches us
to strive and to honour, as the last and best
attainments of moral excellence. How diffi-
cult they are to us, the history of eighteen cen-
turies has shown. The spirit of Christianity
is at variance with the whole tone and elements
of the European character ; — it is in unison
with many of the innate qualities of the Afri-
can race. To us it is of the most difficult
attainment, and the term i self-crucifixion is
hardly too strong for the effort it requires ; to
them it is comparatively natural and easy.
" Now the European character has perform-
ed its part nobly in the great drama of man-
kind's existence. What intellectual energy
could do it has done, and is still doing : but,
for the general triumph of the gentler virtues,
the infusion of new blood seems to be required.
The spirit of Christianity, as we have already
observed, is out of harmony with the prevailing
character of the Caucasian race. That such
a religion should have sprung up and taken
root among them, is one of the most singu-
lar facts of the world's history. It contradict-
or*
330 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
ed all their tastes and feelings. It succeeded,
it made progress, because it approved itself
to their understanding, and to their higher
spiritual aspirations, though not to their na-
tural sympathies ; and accordingly, we find that
among them it has never appeared in its own
aspect, or worn its native garb. It has taken
the colour of the tree on which it grew. It has
assumed the character, and been compelled to
patronise the vices, of the people who embraced
it. It has been pressed into the service of a
hostile power. Among the vehement and fierv
Europeans, it has been a religion of pride and
violence, not of gentleness and humility. It
has been made to countenance bloodshed, to
pamper pride, to exasperate animosity, to feed
and foster all the harsh and baneful passions
of humanity. But, transplanted among the
African race, it may possibly find a more con-
genial soil, and bring forth fruits less foreign
to its native character. And we are disposed
to hope, and to think, that the Africans, when
brought fairly in juxtaposition with European
and with Christian knowledge, may, in the
course of generations, gradually attain that
peculiar modification of civilisation — hitherto
a distant and a hopeless vision, — when what
CHARACTER OF tHE AFRICAN. 331
is now the exception shall become the rule;
when peace, gentleness, and good-will shall be
virtues of general diffusion; when c nation
shall not lift up sword against nation, neither
shall they learn war any more'; when ' they
shall not hurt nor destroy' throughout the
whole earth ; when ' they shall sit every man
under his vine and his fig-tree, and none
shall make them afraid'; when (since human
imperfection forbids the pfospect of unfail-
ing virtue), if vices there must he, they will
he the vices of gentle frailty, not of fiery
MllS."
The author of the " Lectures on Man," deli-
vered at Cincinnati in 1839, lias the same views
with Mr. Greg, who, in his clever article; in
the Westminster R has attempted to
strengthen himself by a quotation therefrom.
Indeed, the views of both these writers are so
very nearly alike on the prospects of the future,
and the exposition of the general character of
the Negro, that one seems to have, as it were,
onlv paraphrased the other ; and the reader
has, with a view to satisfy himself on this point,
only to compare the following quotation from
the American writer on the prospects of the
rise of the Negro race with the straightfor-
332 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
ward and vehement advocacy of the English
Reviewer given before : —
" When the epoch of the civilisation of the
Negro family arrives in the lapse of ages, they
will display in their native land some very
peculiar and interesting traits of character, of
which we, a distinct branch of the human
family, can at present form no conception. It
will be — indeed it must be — a civilisation of a
peculiar stamp ; perhaps, we may venture to
conjecture, not so much distinguished by art,
as by a certain beautiful nature ; not so marked
or adorjied by science as exalted and refined
by a new and lovely theology ; a reflection of
the light of heaven more perfect and endearing
than that which the intellects of the Caucasian
race have ever yet exhibited. There is more of
the child, more of unsophisticated nature, in the
Negro race than in the European. * * *
" The peninsula of Africa is the home of the
Negro, and the appropriate and distinct seat
of his future glory and civilisation — a civilisa-
tion which we will not fear to predict will be
as distinct in all its features from that of all
other races, as his complexion and natural
temperament and genius are different. If the
Caucasian race is destined, as would appear
FUTURE GLORY OF THE NEGRO RACE. ,333
from the precocity of their genius, and their
natural quickness and extreme aptitude for the
arts, to reflect the lustre of the divine wisdom,
or, to speak more properly, of the divine science,
shall we envy the Negro, if a later, but far
nobler civilisation await him — to return the
splendour of the divine attributes of mercy
and benevolence in the practice and exhibition
of the milder and gentler virtues? The
sweeter graces of the Christian religion appear
almost too tropical and tender plants to grow
in the soil of the Caucasian mind ; they require
a character of human nature, of which you can
see the rude lineaments in Ethiopians, to be
implanted in, and grow naturally and beauti-
fully withal."
This theory of Negro rise and civilisation
has been inferred just from the same erroneous
view of Dr. Arnold that a new phase of civilisa-
tion necessarily requires a new race to rise into
significance and prominency. But if we will
consider the three or four forms of civilisation
that have run their course over us, we will find
that there has been only one great family of
nations that, has been uppermost all along in
the world — viz. the Arian. The Shemites did
rise during the Middle Ages, first under the
56
334 LIGHTS Aim SHADES.
Arabs, and then under the half-Mongolic
Turks;* but granting to the Shemites a distinct
place in the physical history of man, though we
have philological doubts which it would be
absurd to discuss here, their bearing on the
subject under consideration is but insignificant;
for their civilisation rose, like Jonah's gourd,
in one night, and fell in the next. Rising in
the Middle Ages, the Shemites fell in the
Middle Ages, and left no trace on the history
of the world, except perhaps in the impetus
given to the enterprise of Europe, and the
defeneration of Asia. That it was not solid
and refining, is evident from the fact that it
tended to produce entirely opposite results ;
that while it awakened the intellect of Europe,
it enslaved Asia to a thraldom and ruin from
* We take the Turks here ; and instead of classifying them
with the Mongols, which, no doubt, is a perfectly just division,
we put them in the class of the Arabs not to unnecessarily in-
crease the number of the forms of civilisation. The Turks had
their day of prominency in the history of the world ; and among
the Arabs and the Persians they are looked upon as a highly
civilised nation allied to themselves. There is a proverb in
Persian current even to this day — "Zaban zabane Arabi ust, o
Pharshi shakker ust, o Turki hoonner ust, o Hindi neemuck ust,
o digar goe goze khar ust" : the language of language is the
Arabic, Persian is the sugar, Turki is the art, Hindi the salt ;
the rest, say, ass-brayings !
FORMS OF CIVILISATION. 335
which, even after a lapse of nearly twelve hun-
dred vears, it has not found means to liherate
itself, and rise in the scale of nations. The
only refining and lasting forms of civilisation
have therefore been those of the Greek, Roman,
and German, to which, perhaps, we may add
that of the ancient Hindoo, which lasted and
influenced the world for a considerable period
of time, first in its elements finding a place in
the Greek through the Egyptian, and last to
the present day, though in B much decayed
form, in India, Tibet, and other parts of Asia.
History looks upon Greece as a colony from the
great Arian family, in the emigration thereto
of a branch under the name of Hellenes, who
in some localities expelled the aboriginal IV-
lasin, and in others intermingled with them so as
eventually to render all the inhabitants in man-
ners, institutions, and even origin, Hellenic.
In Rome, we can trace the same origin ; for in-
dependently of the tradition which ascribes the
founding of Latium and the Latin nation to
iEneas, one of the mythic heroes of the Iliad,
who, on the destruction of his native city of
Troy, had sought refuge in Italy, we have the
historic evidence of the early population of
Latium consisting of a mixture of Oscans, the
336 LIGHTS AStfD SHADES.
aboriginal inhabitants of this as of other parts
of Italy, with the Pelasgians, who had migrat-
ed themselves out of Asia to the south-eastern
parts of Europe, and after filling Greece, found-
ed settlements in Italy. Both these tribes —
the Oscans and the Pelasgi — belonged to the
Arian family of mankind. The Iloman power
lasted for nearly 2,000 years, and its influence
is even yet to be perceived in some of the in-
stitutions, manners, andlaws of modern Europe.
The period of Greek independence and power
may be reckoned from the era of the first Per-
sian war to the conquest of Macedon, the last
independent Greek state destroyed by the
Romans, embracing the short duration of little
more than 300 years, which necessarily shows
it to be rather dishonest on our part to ascribe
to the Greeks a distinct place in the history of
civilisation, and astutely denying the Arab, as
short-lived and evanescent. But it is not from
the duration of the independent political power
of the Grecian states that we claim a distinct
place for them in the history of civilisation ;
nor do we believe that it is upon it that even
their present pre-eminence rests. The patriot-
ism of their soldiers, and the devoted heroism
of Thermopylae and Marathon, have more than
HISTORICAL' SURVEY. 337
once been emulated elsewhere, without attract-
ing much notice : the political jealousies and
squabbles of Athens and Lacedsemon have no-
thing in them to secure lasting fame; but
during the whole period that Rome's fortune
was in the ascendant, Greece continued to
be the seat of learning and improvement.
Athens, enslaved as it was after the rise of
Rome, was still the great school of the Roman
world, and became the resort of all who were
ambitious of gaining distinction, either in
knowledge or the arts. Statesmen and orators
(and these were convertible terms then) resort-
ed thither to improve themselves in eloquence,
philosophers to learn the tenets of the different
schools of Grecian philosophy, and artiste
to study Greek models of excellence in build-
ing, statuary, or painting ; and the genius,
learning, and skill of Greece possess an undy-
ing fame, even in the eyes of modern men.
Could Arabia show one-fourth this result, we
should very readily award to her a place as
high as its staunchest advocates may claim for
it; but it seems that Providence ordained the
Shemites to rise and to fall just instantly,
without leaving any trace behind. The Phoeni-
cians and the Syrians shot like the meteor in
338 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
olden times, and were gone ; the Arabfc rose in
the faint beginnings of the modern world, and
though they supplied the elements of two or
three sciences, and though under princes like
Haroun al Raschid the seat of the Khaliphat
was the resort of learned men from differ-
ent parts of Asia, and even from Europe, we
have only to consider that no trace of their
impression has since been found in modern
institutions and progress to cast them off from
a place in the history of civilisation. With
regard to the modern Europeans, ethnographers
are all agreed that they are colonies from Asia,
and the descendants of the same great family
from whom we deduce the origin of the Greeks
and the Romans, the Hindoos and the Persians.
With regard to these, Dr. Prichard infers, "If
we are to enumerate the different nations who
are to be considered as ramifications of the
Indo-European (i. e. the Arian) stock, believ-
ing those as the most ancient which are farthest
removed from the centre, or from the path of
migration, we must begin with the Celtic na-
tions in the west of Europe, including the two
branches which are represented in modern
times, one by the Irish, Scots, and Maux, and
the other by the Welsh and Armoricans, or
PRICHARD ON THEARIAN STOCK. 339
Bretons. Next to them, in the north of Europe,
is the Germanic family. It consists, accord-
ing to the conclusion of the latest and most
accurate philologists, of two principal divi-
sions ; of the Northmen, ancestors of the Ice-
landers, Norwegians, Swedes, and Danes, and
secondly of the proper Teutonic stock in its
three subdivisions, which are the Saxon or the
Western German, the Servians or High Ger-
man, and the Gothic or Eastern clan. The
next branch of the Indo-European stock are
tribes who speak the dialects of the Old Prus-
sian or Pruthenian language. These dialects
are the Lettish, Lithuanian, and the proper
Pruthenian, which, of all the languages of
Europe, bear by far the nearest resemblance to
the original Sanskrit. The people who spoke
these dialects had a peculiar mythology, and
an ancient and very powerful hierarchy, as
famous in the north as were those of the
Brahmins and Druids in the east and west.
The Slavic or Sclavonic race is a fourth Indo-
European family : its two great branches are
the Western and Proper Slavic, including the
Poles, Bohemians, Ohotrites, and the tribes
near the Baltic ; secondly, the Eastern branch,
comprehending the Russians, the Servians, and
340 LIGHTS ASN T D SHADES.
other tribes nearly related to them ?" ' Of the
three great tribes thus traced, the Sclaves have
always been inferior, while the Celts and the
Teutons have mixed themselves almost every-
where, and lost their distinct existence, in some
nations, as the British and the Belgic, with a
proportionately larger infusion of the German ;
while in others, as the French, Spanish, and
Italian with that of the Celtic blood ; so that
when we talk now-a-days of either the Celtic
or the German tribe, we necessarily allude
to a mixture of the two, which, possessing the
excellencies of both, the vivacity of temper,
the quickness of perception, and the dashing
bravery of the one, tempered by the calm judg-
ment, practical bent, and far-seeing enterprise
of the other, has been enabled to scatter its
colonies over an extensive area of the globe,
giving to new-born regions its language, its
genius, and its arts. The details of the migra-
tion of these two tribes have been investigated
with great care and attention ; and Dr. Meyer,
one of the more modern and enlightened ethno-
graphers, regards the Celtic nation the earlier
of the two emigrants, " owing to its migratory
habits and instincts, one of the most widely -
spread of all the nations of ancient and modern
THE CELTIC NATION. 341
history, having at various periods covered with
its settlements, and perhaps even simultaneous-
ly possessed, a space of country extending from
the Pillars of Hercules (Gibraltar) to Asia
Minor and beyond the Caspian. It seems to me,"
says Dr. Meyer, " that the Celtic nation trans-
ported itself from Asia, and more particularly
from Asiatic Scythia, to Europe, and to this
country, by two principal routes, Which it re-
sumed at different epochs, and thus formed two
great streams of migration, flowing, as it were,
proceeding through Syria and Egypt, and
thence along the northern coast oft Africa,
reaching Europe at the Pillars of Hercules;
and passing on through Spain to Gaul, here
divided itself into three branches, the north-
ern of which terminated in Great Britain and
Ireland, the southern in Italy, and the eastern,
running along the Alps and the Danube, termi-
nated only near the Black Sea, not far from
the point where the whole stream is likelv to
have originated. The other stream, proceed-
ing in a more direct line, reached Europe at
its eastern limit, and passing through European
Scythia, and from thence partly through Scan-
dinavia, partly along the Baltic, through Prus-
sia and through Northern Germany, reached
342 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
this country, and hence to the more western
and northern lands across the German Ocean."
It has been already suggested that this great
wave of colonisation, not itself the first, was
afterwards followed by another, composed of the
Germanic tribes. Dr. Prichard considers it
most probable that this new influx also came
in two streams, one proceeding through the
regions to the north of the Caspian, and the
other across the Hellespont.
In the ancient world, there is no doubt that
the Arian nations were predominant, and we
have ju§t traced that the modern European
states, which now command the w r orld, are but
colonies of the same family of mankind ; so that
the different forms of civilisation that have run
their course from the beginning of the world
down to the present day have been Arian in
origin ; and if we have no ground or right to
suppose that the phenomenon that has lasted
for a period of upwards of five thousand
years will anywise change, we have the con-
viction that any new phase of civilisation that
may be awaiting the future world to witness
will necessarily arise from among some one of
the branches of the Arian race. To propose,
therefore, the Negroes as the future regene-
ALL CIVILISATION ARIAN. 343
rators of the world, is to contradict the ex-
perience that has been gathering for thousands
of generations, and to blindly upset an inference
that has been borne out by universal history.
The destinies of the world cannot cease to be
ruled by the Arian race, and the advocates of
Negro civilisation have, if nothing else, onlv to
compare the moral and intellectual differences
of the two races to relinquish their advocacy.
While all other races of mankind cover more
than half the earth's surface, plunged in some
quarter or other in a state of utter barbarism,
without the higher feelings of humanity or the
greater conveniences of advanced society, the
Arians have never yet been found so low in
their condition anywhere on the surface of the
globe ; or if so at any period of history, they
have so quickly raised themselves from it,
that we have no record like that we have of the
other races, of their existence as mere hunting
or fishing tribes. All the records that we have
of this family ascribe to it in all its branches
the national advancement of the pastoral state,
and the enjoyment of the art of agriculture in
its earliest appearance in history ; and while
we do not see in them the lowest form of bar-
barism, we may meet in full perfection with
344 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
those noble feelings and passions, which have-
led to the accomplishment of the grandest
results of our world's history. In them alone
have been found that true bravery and love of
liberty that have filled the pages of the histo-
rians or the songs of the poets ; that superior
knowledge and reflection that have subjected
the world of matter to the world of mind ; that
instinct of progress that, progressing with the
age, discovers new arts of convenience and de-
coration, for the assertion of man's lordly posi-
tion in the world ; that feeling of religion and
reverence that rises superior with every pro-
gress, to lead man " from nature up to
nature's God" ; and that attribute of intense
love and compassion which exerted first on the
nearest connections eventually conduces to form
a tie of brotherhood in interests and feelings
with the other races of the world as they come
in contact in their distant acquisitions. Other
races of mankind are incapable of these exhi-
bitions ; and while the empires of China and
Japan, in the present times, and Arabia and
Syriain the remote periods, show that they were
susceptible of civilisation and of great advance-
ment in the useful and even the elegant arts of
life, the fact of the former having continued
CHARACTER OF THE ARIAN RACE. 345
nearly stationary for so many centuries, and of
the latter having passed away, indicates an in-
feriority of nature, and a limited capacity, in
comparison with the Arian family ; and while
peace and order mark the progress of Arian
nations, unrelenting slaughter, without distinc-
tion of condition, age, or sex, and universal des-
truction, have attended the progress of an At-
tila, a Genghis, or an Omar and the Khaliphat.
Freedom, the primary condition of all advance-
ment, has been enjoyed only by the Arian races ;
and a feeling of equality in law, which consoli-
dates a nation, and advances the national rights
and prosperity of a people, has been found to
belong only to one family of mankind. The
republics of ancient Greece and Rome, the
limited monarchies of Persia and India in their
days of renown, and of most of the modern
states of Europe, as well as the popular govern-
ment of the United States of America, hear the
fullest testimony to our observation ; and it is,
we believe, their feeling of equality in law, and
their love of freedom, that impart an attraction
to the history of the Arian races, and induce
such a pleasure in its study, as is never felt
in the history of the Chinese, Mongols, or the
Negroes. We allow that the Arian family may
58
346 LIGHTS ANt) SHADES.
not be always superior : it may degenerate, as
in the case of the Greeks and Romans, Hin-
doos and Persians ; but the qualities which
distinguished the nations in their best days
remain visible even in degeneracy in the ma-
nifestations of mental or moral vigour. The
country where the liberty of the hearth and the
freedom of conscience were defended more than
once against all odds of an invading host; the
country where every individual consecrated
his life and best affections to the rigour of his
law, and fought for the national rights as if for
his life-(?rops ; the country where Homer and
Hesiod sung and Demosthenes and iEschines
thundered, where Plato, Pythagoras, Zeno, and
Aristotle taught, may long be the enslaved de-
pendency of tyrants and foreigners ; the senate
and the forum, which were trodden by the un-
shaking feet of Scaevola, Scipio, and Cicero, and
graced by the fame of a Virgil and Tacitus, may
become defiled by parasites and priests, popes and
pretenders; the empire which was raised by " the
first anointed of the Lord," who was to grant deli-
verance to the chosen seed, and which was the
sphere of the labours of Zoroaster, who taught
the faith of a refining and heaven-directed philo-
sophy, may become dismembered, and sink low
MENTAL AND MORAL VIGOUR. 347
under the iron band of fanatic enthusiasts ;
and the land where genius sprang up, to write
with its finger the veneration-inspiring Maha-
bharut, Ramayana, and the Vedas ; and where
philosophy rose to a precocious maturity, so
as to anticipate some of the grandest achiev-
ments of a forthcoming generation of three
thousand years later — may lose its spirit, and
its strength lapse into a state of enervation
and decay : but yet, history never fails to bear
a glorious page in the annals of each, even in
the worst possible days, and points to the
national pluck in some exhibition or other,
and to men worthy of the greatest days — to
Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio; to Ga-
lileo, Gassendi, and Torricelli ; to a Raphael,
an Angelo, and " the worthy compeers" for the
glory of Greece* and Italy ; to a list of some
three thousand poets, on a par with Pope and
* We claim Greece as well as Italy for all these celebrities ;
for though born in the latter, the influence of the influx into
it of men of learning from the former, at the taking of Con-
stantinople by the Mahomedans, was by no means small in
producing this bright galaxy. It is a well known fact, that
the learned men who fled from Mahomedan bigotry into the
Italian Peninsula were protected and patronised by the illus-
trious family of the Medici, and betook themselves to the task
of the regeneration of the country of their refuge.
348 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
Drvden, in the library of Shiraz, with mvriads
of versifiers like Goldsmith and Johnson ; and
from among whom not one, but more than one,
two or three, as Firdusi, Anvari, Jami, and
Hafiz, might compete in excellency with even
Shakespeare, the greatest poet of Europe ;
and novelists before whom, in spite of all our
English predilections, we cannot but hold Sir
Bulwer Lytton or Sir Walter Scott sink into the
insignificance of novices ; to Surdass, Tanscin,
liohedass, Kabir, and Kumal, even in days of
Mahomedan thraldom, whose genius and har-
mony have indisputably claimed a superiority
which may well rival all the Orpheuses of old,
and under the foreign yoke of the British people
to a Rammohun and a Tagore, whose knowledge
and learning have proved to be in no way un-
worthy of the country of Menu, Bhuvbhuti, and
Kalidass.
The superior prerogatives of the Arian
races that we have been considering in their
advanced life, as well as in the lowest scale
of civilisation, we hold to be the ordination
of Providence ; and when some venture to
find its solution in climate, we have to shake
our head in rejection, and show that the Ame-
ricans are spread from one end of the globe
CLIMATIC J INFLUENCES. 349
to the ' other, and that the Negroes and the
Mongols have as many diversities of situation
in their quarter of habitation as could be wish-
ed for, with marked national inferiority. " The
philosophy," says Wilks, in his Historical
Sketches, " which refers exclusively to the phy-
sical influence of climate, this most remarkable
phenomenon of the moral world, is altogether
insufficient to satisfy the rational inquirer ; the
holy spirit of liberty was cherished in Greece
and its Syrian colonies by the same sun which
warms the gross and ferocious superstition of
the Mahomedan zealot : the conquerors of
half the world issued from the scorching deserts
of Arabia, and obtained some of their earliest
triumphs over one of the most gallant nations
of Europe (Spain).
" A remnant of the disciples of Zoroaster,
flying from Mahomedan persecution, carried
with them to the western coast of India the
religion, the hardy habits, and athletic forms
of the north of Persia f and their posterity
may at this day be contemplated in the Parsees
of the English settlement at Bombay, with
mental and bodily power absolutely unim-
paired after a residence of a thousand years
in that burning climate. Even the passive
350 LIGHTS AND SHADES,
but ill-understood character of the Hindoos,
exhibiting few and unimportant shades of dis-
tinction, whether placed under the snows of
Imaus, or the vertical sun of the torrid zone,
has, in every part of these diversified climates,
been occasionally roused to achievements of
valour, and deeds of desperation, not surpassed
in the heroic ages of the western world. The
reflections naturally arising from these facts
are obviously sufficient to extinguish a flimsy
and superficial hypothesis, which would measure
the human mind by the scale of a Fahrenheit's
thermometer."
Some, again, seek to explain this phenomenon
of the mental and moral difference in the Arian
and other varieties of mankind, as produced by
the external influences of education, govern-
ment, and religion, and they illustrate their
solution from the investigation that though the
Turks are superior in national vigour to the
Russians, they are bowed down by the latter on
account of their Government and religion being
less favourable to national progress and develop-
ment. In fact, the unfavourable influence of
the Mahomedan religion on national deve-
lopment has been exemplified by M. Fourier
in the case of the Arabs ; and he believes that
INFLUENCE OY RELIGION. 351
" if the Arabians, like the people of the West,
had possessed the inestimable advantage of
a religion favourable to the arts and to use-
ful knowledge, they would have cultivated
and brought to perfection every branch of phi-
losophy. At the commencement of their ex-
traordinary career, they were ingenious and
polished : they made remarkable progress in
poetry, architecture, medicine, geometry, na-
tural history, and astronomy; they preserved
and transmitted to us many of those immortal
works which were destined to aid the revival
of learning in Europe. But the Mussulman
religion was incompatible with this develop-
ment of the mind ; the Arabs were exposed to
the alternative of renouncing their faith, or
returning to the ignorance of their ancestors."
That some beneficial or emasculating influ-
ence is exerted on the human species by reli-
gion, and thence education and government, is
too obvious to be doubted in the least degree ;
but our question relates to the capability of
civilisation, and this solution utterly fails to
explain the superiority of the Arians over the
other races of mankind. All mankind at one
period of history were in a state of equal bar-
barism ; and yet the Arians, not all professing
352 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
the same religion, but some Christianity, and
others deism (as the ancient Persians), some
pantheism (as the Hindoos), and others (as the
modern Persians) even the Mahomedan religion,
have raised themselves at least in an intellec-
tual point of view, if not in social felicity, above
all the other races of mankind. So that the
explanation afforded by a set of writers of the
phenomena of the mental and moral difference
in the Arian and other varieties of mankind,
as the result of the influence of religion, cannot
convince us to belief that the African enjoys
an equality of moral and intellectual attributes
with the Arians, and requires only a refining
and heaven-directed religion for a full deve-
lopment. We cannot, therefore, believe that
a glorious destiny awaits the Negro, in the com-
mand and improvement of the world.
We have related facts that are deducible
from history and ethnography, to argue the
poor fate of the Negro. Instead of a rise, we
have apprehensions of his existence itself; for
he is being already pressed in his native home
by the cupidity of the Syro- Arabians and Eu-
ropeans. Had the climate of the African con-
tinent been more favourable than it is, the
Europeans would nearly have occupied the
AFRICAN SUPREMACY IMPOSSIBLE. 353
whole tract by this time ; but as even nature
opposes obstacles, they have colonised the coast
stations, and the dark tribes are either falling,
or receding into the interior, to be eventually
crushed between the opposing aggressions of
the Arabs and Europeans. It is in vain to
expect that the power and civilisation of Eu-
rope can be crushed by the rude force of the
Africans. Unite them how we may, the two
grandest achievements of modern times, print-
ing and gunpowder, are sufficient to repel the
inroad of any barbarism now ; and to suppose
the Africans to rise in a commanding ^position
in any time is but to ignore their very physi-
cal organisation, which allots them a lower po-
sition in the scale of nations. And if it savours
not too much of the Pharisaic, we would, as
an additional ground for our view of the future
prospects of the world, appeal to the oft-repeated
prophecy — " Japhet shall dwell in the tents of
Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant."
Either that this prophecy, which has held
good during the last three thousand years, is
false, or the Negro — the descendant of Canaan
— is destined to remain low, as a servant.
Why or with what object Providence should
have created the Negro and other races to
354 LIGHTS AftD SHADES.
continue so low in their state ; and elevated ,
the Arians, to command, and, it may be, ulti-
mately to absorb the others in the advancing
tide of their progress, it would be useless for
us to conjecture. That such, however, is the
plan of Providence, we think admits of no
doubt, when we compare the original organisa-
tions of the different races, even if we reject
their past history. The external influence of
climate, country, and soil ; of way of life, habits,
customs, religion, government, education, &c.
are manifestlv not sufficient to account for
the differences of natural qualifications in the
Arian and other races, which at all times, in
all countries, and under all circumstances, have
presented themselves in a very remarkable
manner ; and we are very naturally tempted to
look deeper for their cause, and seek it in some
circumstance other than the adventitious, which,
if not more, at least as strongly as the insepar-
able accident, is interwoven in the original con-
stitution of their organisation, and their ordi-
nation in the unfathomable plan of the Supreme
Ruler.
But while auguring such a poor fate for the
Africans, we do not mean to advocate their
slavery, and justify the wretchedness which the
THE CURSE ON CANAAN. 355
inhumanity of the white races often subjects them
to : the prophecy runs no doubt — " He shall
dwell in the tents of Shem, and Canaan shall
be his servant," but it is not said that Canaan
shall be his slave. Nothing, therefore, will
justify the hard dealings of the sons of Japhet,
if they use the lash of the slave-driver, or the
rack of the executioner, in asserting their ordain-
ed superiority over the descendants of Canaan.
And we therefore fully admire the philanthropy
of the Europeans, and Englishmen in particu-
lar, who have fought so heroically for the eman-
cipation of the poor natives of Africa ffom the
slavery of the more fortunate of the human races,
and of the travellers and missionaries, who, leav-
ing the comforts and ease of their native home,
expose themselves to the rigours of a savage
country, under the intense hot sun, to teach to
the Negro the doctrines of an ennobling faith,
and the conveniences of a civilised life. All
that w r e believe is, that he is endowed with but
limited capabilities to rise and improve. To
deny him every degree of civilisation is a libel
on human nature itself; but to expect that
he can be raised by any culture to a pitch of
moral and intellectual vigour, so as to command
the destinies of the human race, seems to us as
356 lights And shades.
unreasonable as that the hare may command .
the lion, or the sparrow lord it over the eagle.
It may be that we are wrong in our specula-
tions; but we believe we can plainly discern
signs that we are on the verge of a greater and
more satisfactory advance in civilisation than
has hitherto taken place in the world. The
tide of empire and progress has rolled westward
for the last three thousand years and more ;
it has now lain in the extreme west of the
world ; and finding its course, in its usual
tendency, must now, as of necessity, come to
the Ea^t, if it should roll hitherwards, what
other country than India presents the prospect
of receiving it ? It may be, perhaps it must
be, that a peninsula jutting southwards into the
sea in Europe commanded and educated the
world in the course of her conquests, and, fall-
ing in turn into enervation and decay, came up
again after a torpid lull of nearly five hundred
years, not with the sword, we admit, but with
commerce and enlightenment ; so a larger pen-
insula, jutting southwards into a larger ocean
in Asia, which was the soil in which all health-
ful seeds were first sown, to spread the fruits
westwards in times of which we have no calcu-
lation, after a downfall of as great an interval
THE COURSE OF PROGRESS. 35/
of timeas its size and its learning exceed those
of its European correspondent, should in the
future again rise to influence and enlighten.
We cannot believe, with Dr. Arnold, that we
are on the eve of decay at present, and civilisa-
tion is likely to stop at the foot of the Rocky
Mountains. Emigration must now take place
to Asia, and Young India will supply the ele-
ment of combination w T ith the Germans to
impart a new phase to our present civilisation ;
and it is only here that England will get the
hearty co-operation of the future generations
of the whole world — a task to which she is
pre-eminently adapted in the ordination of
Providence.
The modern civilisation does not seem in
any way to be the perfection of man's destina-
tion on earth. We can trace in it, no doubt,
mightier results than ever arrived at in the
world's history, and we have secured to ourselves,
by the consummation of the two proudest efforts
of our day, printing and gunpowder, the certainty
of the present and the prospect of the future,
which the more ancient forms of civilisation
most evidently lacked. The whole world of
matter has been brought under the subjection
of mind, and nature, which was once superior,
GO
358 LIGHTS A*ND SHADES.
is now only subservient to human art. 'At the
same time, we do not forget the moral tone
that influences our age. But in the midst of
the startling amelioration of our material and
mental states in modern times, we have also
learned to impart expansion to the soul and
loftiness to our motives. The feature which
distinguishes the present civilisation from that
of past centuries, as well as of the ancient
world, is the existence of a feeling of liberalism,
which, disregarding all external distinctions
of rank, profession, wealth, caste, or creed,
embraces the whole of the human race in one
bond of universal fraternity. The king as
well as the subject, the peer as well as the
peasant, the master as well as the servant, the
rich as well as the poor, the literate as well as
the illiterate, the Christian as well as the hea-
then — one and all are regarded, by the light
of the present age, as equally entitled to all
the legitimate enjoyments of life, and the ra-
tional exercise of liberty. If one asks the dis-
tinctive feature of our day, it is this feeling
of an universal brotherhood among mankind,
without which we in all things resemble, more
or less, the people of the ancient world. In
fact, all that we see around us in our principal
MODERN CIVILISATION. 359
seats of civilisation existed in a more or less
developed state in the great cities of the by-
gone ages. Politics and social life, courts and
councils, crimes and punishments, wars and
conquests, revolutions and rebellions, infidelity
and religion, luxury and splendour, philosophy
and pretension, literature, science, and art — all
played their respective parts on the theatre of
the ancient world to as great or less an extent
as the circumstances then permitted. What
was then wanting, or at least was not effectually
manifested, or strongly felt, by the people,
was the feeling of a universal brotherhood,
which binds the different members of the
human family in reciprocity of justice, love, and
interest. This generous idea, felt in every da
experience, has been the means of raising, at
the present day, the mass of the lower people
to their due rank in social estimation and poli-
tical concern. In ancient times, these classes
were for the most part either actual slaves or
serfs and helots to the upper orders. In the
middle ages, whether they existed in freedom
or villenge, they were alike looked upon by
their superiors as property for their interest, or
tools for their use and ambition ; and we have
reason to believe that in the earlier periods of
360 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
modern history there prevailed no better instinct
of humanity. It is only in these days that the
humanising idea has taken its rise, and sunk
so deep and wide, that somehow or other it
has been at the bottom of most of the political
and social convulsions of the age. This idea
assumed a distinct being in the national cry
of Fraternity liberte, et egalite, of the first
French Revolution, and from that terrible out-
burst — the milestone of modern enlightenment
— down to the most recent insurrectionary and
secession movements in Italy and America,
even wi^th the terrible Indian mutinies of 1857,
all the political and social perturbations that
have agitated the civilised world are the results
of the working of this master-idea of the age,
which, assuming various different forms in
religion, politics, or social life, and daily coming
in collision with bigotry, despotism, and un-
natural social distinctions, has within the last
three-quarters of a century nearly undermined
the entire fabric of the ancient order of things.
We so plainly perceive this, that we challenge
reference to a single outburst of this age,
however meanly and selfishly contrived, in which
the leaders, in order to secure a general sym-
pathy, have not declared, seriously or hypocri-
universal fraternity. 361
tically, that they have only been seeking the
welfare of their country, and aspiring to the
advancement of their fellow-citizens. Everywhere
the cry is raised for justice, and the good of
mankind ; and this is at all times evident, though,
in the general jumbling up of the most ins;'
schemes and passions, as well as the most sober
reforms and thoughts, of the most disinterested
and philanthropic sentiments as well as the
most selfish and sinister views in the order of
things, as they obtain in this world, it is dif-
ficult to distinguish sincerity from hypocrisy,
and patriotism from demagogism. TJte influ-
ence of the idea of a universal fraternity of
mankind over all the social and political con-
vulsions of our age is so deep-rooted, that it is
to be expected that in its usual growth and
progress it will completely alter the state of
the civilised world, and better the destinies of
the human species almost to angelic perfection.
Though this newly awakened sense of huma-
nity — the idea that it is the duty of every
individual to improve and ameliorate the con-
dition of the human race — has been widely and
universally felt, yet it has not been as widelv
and universally realised. With all our boast
of the enthusiastic love of our fellow-creatures,
362 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
the mournful question has often occurred to us.
— Where are we ? The prince, the noble, the
merchant, and the burgher have all worked
their way up far beyond that of their fore-
fathers, but we fear that the peasant and the
artisan are still where they have always been.
Food, clothing, and habitation ; a God to
worship darkly, and a faith to cherish dimly,
they had always enjoyed : but have they aught
more now ? Inquiries are everywhere set on
foot, and the information certainly obtained,
that though the idea of a general sympathy
has bepn recognised, there has yet been no
practical working of the feeling of a common
brotherhood with the poor ; no earnest and
awful conviction that on them, both as the
most numerous and the most needy of mankind,
the care of the easy and the affluent is to be
bestowed; and that for them, wealth, power,
and talents are granted by Providence in trust.
Yes, w r e boast ; but what have we to show as
the result of our civilisation ? — " Much advance
in natural science, splendid victories over ma-
terial agencies ; glorious achievements in the
domain of intellect ; but, on the other hand,
startling social anomalies ; grievous and deep-
rooted social maladies ; the great mass of our
PRESENT STAGE OF HUMANITY. 363
fellow-creatures still vicious, ignorant, and
wretched ; the chief objects of being still dim
in the distance ; wisdom still scanty and un-
diffused ; virtue still difficult ; happiness still
rare."
Surely this cannot be the latest stage of
human destiny ! and we naturally look forward
to a time when the inhabitants of the European
quarter of the world, satisfied only with com-
merce, and too enlightened as to their own
rights to sport with the rights of others, and
earnestly feeling the enthusiastic love of their
kind, will respect that independence, jnterest,
and feeling in others, which it cannot with
justice be said they have hitherto done ; when
by colonisation and interfusion, their settlements
in Asia and Africa, instead of being filled, as
now, by the creatures of power, anxious only to
amass wealth or purchase honours, will be peo-
pled with industrious men, seeking only a quiet
home, comfortable life, and liberal brotherhood
with the aboriginal inhabitants ; nay we even look
forward to a time when in the progressive tide
of the Arian nations, the sun will observe in its
course only one race of free and enlightened
men, conscious only of their unity of origin,
in which tyrants and slaves, rich and needy,
364 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
priests and dupes, literate and savage, the
virtuous and vicious, the earnest and hypocri-
tical, and the like, will no longer exist but in
history and upon the stage ; and when all
mankind, raised to the summum bonum of
human destiny, will be resigned in faith, and
happy in life, such as
" To them there never came a thought
That this their inner life was meant to be
A pleasure-house, where peace unbought
Should minister to pride or glee.
" Sublimely they endure each ill
As plain fact, whose right or wrong
They question not, confiding still
That it shall last not overlong :
" Willing from first to last to take
The mysteries of our life as given,
Leaving this time-worn soul to slake
Its thirst in an undoubted heaven."
The ultimate <>oal of human destinv cannot
certainly be the present anomalies that strike
us so prominently. Two causes have princi-
pally contributed to produce them — 1st, inequa-
lity of wealth ; and 2nd, inequality of education ;
— which, though it may be absurd as well as
dangerous to think of wholly obviating, since
they have a natural and necessary existence in
the organisation of the world, can yet be con-
THE ULTIMATE GOAL. 365
siderably modified and softened, to give to all
mankind a better destiny and a higher worth.
Happily, political economists have already
demonstrated that fortunes naturally tend to
equality ; so that the day will dawn in which, in-
stead of the spectacle of a few idle and profligate
men wallowing in the immensity of their riches,
and side by side the harrowing scene of the
entire mass of population immersed in misery
and poverty, there will be the uniform picture
of every individual of the human race enjoy-
ing a fair share of competency, and thereby
unlearning lying, cheating, fighting, * and all
the ignoble vices of the age we live in. And
as material elevation is but the means of
mental and moral progress, the entire mass of
the human species will, by a happy choice of
the subjects as well as of the means of impart-
ing instruction, possibly as yet unknown to our
limited enlightenment, be taught all that is
necessary for the human comprehension to
grasp or the memory to collect.
Of course, we can never imagine that all the
mysteries of nature and all the relations of
objects with each other, and combinations of
ideas, can ever be exhausted by the human
mind. Nature is too vast, and her combinations
61*
366 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
and workings too subtle, for man to penetrate
thoroughly ; but it has been imagined, that as
man knows more of the objects and ideas in
the material and mental world, every age that
he advances, he must at length reach that
point at which, he having already investigated
all as far as his limited capacities allow, fur-
ther progress will be absolutely impossible.
Such an age is the present — when man com-
municates with a rapidity greater than sound,
and travels with the swiftness of the wind,
explodes hills and mountains, and keeps the
ocean under control, explores every rood of
earth, analyses the abstruse faculties of the
mind, searches every source of wealth or hap-
piness, and learns to master and compare the
different languages in which God confounded
the different races, so as to obstruct all undue
progress by want of a common medium of
communication. The utmost capabilities of
mans faculties are herein exhausted, and fur-
ther progress is unattainable.
Wrong again, ye prophets of despondency !
We may not believe that there remains any
new faculty of the mind to be developed, and
yet every progress is possible. As time advances
facts must be multiplied, and instruments of
further Progress. 367
use improved. A more universal education
would impart to a greater number of individu-
als an elementary knowledge of science and art,
and induce in them a taste for particular study.
A larger number of individuals than at present
betaking themselves to a particular application
must necessarily bring to light a larger num-
ber of facts ; and these may be so generalised
and classified by the greater precision of the
age, as to be perfectly within the comprehen-
sion of the meanest capacity. The increased
number of students, and their increased obser-
vations and experiments, with the increased
precision of instruments and analysis, necessa-
rily inspire the best hopes of progress in every
science and art, even though prejudice may
absurdly represent some as being all exhausted.
" And thus the methods that led to new com-
binations be exhausted, should their applica-
tions to questions, still unresolved, demand
exertions greater than the time or the powers
of the learned can bestow, more general methods,
means more simple, would soon come to their
aid, and open a farther career to genius. The
energy, the real extent of the human intellect,
may remain the same ; but the instruments
which it can employ will be multiplied and
368 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
improved ; but the language which fixes and
determines the ideas will acquire more preci-
sion and compass ; and it will not he here, as
in the science of mechanics, where to increase
the force we must diminish the velocity ; on
the contrary, the methods by which genius will
arrive at the discovery of new truths, augment
at once both the force and the rapidity of its
operations."
Without conceiving, then, the capabilities of
the human mind being at all increased, we can
well conceive every possible advance in science
and art.* Our advance will be the result of
greater skill and precision, by means of a more
extended practice and better instruments. A
smaller portion of ground will, when we are all
advanced, be made to yield larger crops than at
present ; and the danger that Malthus pointed
out to the future prospects of the world in the
increase of the human species being in the
geometrical progression, while that of the pro-
ductiveness of the earth delaying in the arith-
metical, completely obviated ; a less expense of
consumption will suffice to procure a greater
quantity of enjoyment, and therein will be sup-
plied all the necessaries of life to a progeny of
the human race that will be more numerous,
HOPES FOR T^HE FUTURE. 369
more 'enlightened and liberal, and enjoying a
fairer distribution of wealth, labour, and instruc-
tion, than the present order of things admits.
Our faith, however, is more sublime, and
our hopes more sanguine yet. This is an eter-
nally progressive world, though each stage
may be millions of years in Length. There
may be faculties and capabilities of the human
mind to be yet developed, and the tide of civi-
lisation returning to the land of its birth is
not there to be eventually arrested. From this
land, it may again set itself in motion, and
resume its natural tendency westwards ; and
the world may in the successive epochs of pro-
gress be the cradle of successive races of moral
beings, angelic in prescience, skill, and charac-
ter. Who knows but that what we call the
spirits of heaven are but poetic creatures,
without " a local habitation and a name," who
are none others but the inhabitants of some
other planet, who have attained to a progress
two or three epochs in advance of mankind?
And what is there to prevent us to be like
them ?
It may be that our speculations deceive us,
but the day of effort and endeavour never dies
out ; and there is perpetually some future before
62
370 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
man, to which he aspires, and some present
which he contrives to remedy. We have long
passed the idea that we are stationary, unmov-
ing, and unmoved ; and there are no signs in
the heavens or the earth to declare that we
are retrograding. Society is ever pressing on-
wards, and it is indeed not chimerical when we
say that we look forward to a time as to an era
attainable, and within our reach, " when all
our more glaring and pervading social anoma-
lies shall be amended, when the general aspect
of the world shall be that of a contented, vir-
tuous, apd progressive state, when of the pas-
sions that now run riot in every form of vice
no more shall remain than those frailties which
are inseparable from human imperfection, and
when pain, disease, and destitution shall be
reduced to that narrow modicum which science
cannot cure, which temperance and forethought
cannot escape, and which are inherent in the
conditions of a perishable nature — our visions
will not be deemed wholly wild or baseless by
those who reflect that we are anticipating, not
a creation of that which is not, but simply a
selection and extension of that which is"*
* Greg.
371
CHAPTER XIII.
CONCLUSION.
End of the Work. — The Author plainly perceives its defects. —
But a first essay is always defective.— The two parts of the
Work. — The lessons of both. — India's time for regeneration.
— Every individual has a share in the work of regeneration.
— It must be fulfilled in spite of all opposition and slander.
And here ends our task. We do not claim
much, or even aught, for it, save that of fulfil-
ling the only object of describing the Indian
nation with a Native pen,
" And read their history in the nation's eyes" ;
without which there is much undeserved praise
of virtues, and much undue censure for vices.
Our effort is feeble and defective to a fault ;
and while, after travelling so far as to a conclu-
sion, we cast a retrospective glance over the
field we have just left behind us, we find many
an error of progress, which, were we to com-
mence again, at this stage we feel we could easily
avoid and improve upon. Like a young and
inexperienced general, marching in foreign
372 LIGHTS A2nD SHADES.
regions, extending " far and wide," and finding,
only after reaching his destination, that he
could have avoided many a deviation and forced
march, which weighed heavily upon his troops,
that could otherwise have made a deeper im-
pression upon the enemy ; we find, only when
coming to the end, after a considerable time,
that has gained us much better taste and more
pertinent knowledge and information, that we
could have attempted to make a far better im-
pression upon the critic and the public. But
experience is always later, and knowledge and
information gained only with age ; and with
this plea in our defence, we have ventured to
launch forth our little work with all its defects.
Something more, and we are done. The
work may seem a medley of thoughts and obser-
vations ; but to us it appears a consistent whole.
In the first part, we have held up a bright
character for imitation ; in the second, depicted
a bright future awaiting us. It rests with
Young India to copy the one and realise the
other. The lessons we have attempted to
inculcate are lessons of hope ; the path we have
directed to be pursued is the path of success ;
reliance, activity, determination, perseverance,
and earnestness are the guides to lead to this
CONCLUSION. 373
path. The time is passed for India to lie
torpid : it requires a thorough regeneration ;
and our countrymen have now more than <
to gird up their loins for a battle mightier
than they have hitherto fought with the Maho-
metans or the Europeans— for a nobler inde-
pendence than the political, for which their
forefathers shed their blood — the independence
of the intellect and the soul. This battle ma\
be baffled oft; hut to those who fight well it is
ever won: honour, advancement, and success may
not come to-day or tomorrow ; there are elianee
that disappointment may come oftener, and
opposition and slander depress, rather than
success buoy up, the heart. There are perse-
cutions to earnestness, checks to progress, and
slanders to fame in this world ; every one has to
pass through this ordeal, and the writer of
these pages has not himself been spared the
opposition of pretension and hypocrisy even in
his first faint cry. But our countrymen need
not, as they now do, lose their breath, and cower
to savageness of stupidity, superstition, and
bigotry ; they should rather, in the consciousness
of doing right, bid fair to contemn it all. In
the contemplation of a future such as awaits
India and the world, the thorough-going Indian
63
374 LIGHTS AND SHADES.
will seek an asylum to which the memory of
his persecutors or the slanders of his enemies
cannot follow him ; and will find what is most
required to be felt in this country more than
in any other, that to him, as to one wheel of
a vast machine, to produce the motion, is
assigned the task — small and insignificant no
doubt — of realising the brighter prospects of
his country, and the higher destinies of his
kind.
APPENDIX
APPENDIX A.
Baboo Harrischander Mookerji was a gentle-
man of Calcutta; and the task of collecting the
materials of his biography is no easy work for a
young man at Bombay. To an English reader, this
may sound hyperbolical ; but while the facilities
afforded in England to travel from one end of the
country to another are manifold, in India the railway
line is not completed even between Bombay and
Surat, a distance of one day by the steam-passage,
much less does it afford scope to travel from Bombay
to Calcutta, a distance of a fortnight by sea. It
was not a little despairing on this account, then, to
collect together facts, even such meagre ones as have
here been elaborated, for want of more individual
information. Add to this, the want of a public
library in Bombay, within reach of ordinary means,
in which may be found all, or even the more im-
portant papers of the different parts of India, and
the task would seem repelling to any individual ;
and the writer would have abandoned it in des-
pair, but for a promise given to the public, of a
lecture, before perceiving the difficulties of his sub-
63*
378 APPENDIX A.
ject or writing a word on it. He had no contact
with Baboo Harrischander Mookerji, nor was there
to be found a single gentleman in Bombay sufficient-
ly well acquainted with the life and incidents of the
Bengalee Patriot to assist him in his work. Neither
did he find it convenient to get access to any of the
Calcutta papers, save an occasional sight of the
Hindoo Patriot. Yet, with all these difficulties, the
writer hopes to have succeeded well in collecting the
materials, as fully as he could, of the life he has at-
tempted to depict. That there are grounds for this
hope, let the following letter from a talented Baboo
at Calcutta, to whom the MS. was sent before pass-
ing through the press — one who, in addition to his
being the fellow-citizen of Baboo Harrischander, was
Ins friend and compeer in life, and after death has
proved himself in more than one respect his worthy
successor in the cause of India — fully testify : —
L.irkin's Lane, 25th October 1862.
Dear Sir, — Your MS. has at last duly come to hand. *
In reading the chapters, copies of which you have been so good
as to send, I have been really struck to find that a Native of
Bombay has been able to collect so much information regarding
the life and career of a Bengalee Patriot. I doubt whether some
of his intimate friends know so much as has been given by you.
One or two points, however, require corrections, which I take
the liberty to submit, in" the hope that you will receive them
with the same kindness of spirit that breathes throughout your
writings.
As far as I have been informed, Hurrish was not born an " ab-
solute beggar." Son of a Koolin Brahmin, he did not of course
APPENDIX A. 379
inherit any patrimony ; but his maternal uncle, who was a well-
to-do man, used to take care of him. He did not " starve," nor
lt live in misery," as your statements are likely to lead one to sup-
pose. Always self-reliant and independent -minded, Hurrish did
not much relish the life of dependence which he led, and hence
his early desire to seek employment. As regards his induction
into the Military Audit Office, your information is quite correct ;
but I think some acknowledgments are due to the late Colonel
Goldie, who first discovered Hurrish'fl latent powers, and never
failed to encourage him with friendly advice, reward, and hope.
With regard to his literary career, you have omitted all allu-
sion to his early efforts in the columns of the Hindoo Intelligencer,
started by Baboo Kasipersad Ghose, the well-known Indian
Bard, a contemporary of D.L.K.. \\. M. Parker, Henrj
reus, &c. Ilurrischander also practised public writing in the
columns of tin • Englishman, which was then edited by Mr. Cobb
Hurry, who in those days was a great friend of the ^atives.
Regarding his labours in the Indigo cause, one fact need
be recorded, viz. that not only did he defend the Ryots in
the columns of the Patriot, and expose their wrongs and
grievances, but spared no pains to write memorials for them to
Government, organise means tor procuring legal assistant
them for conduct of cases, !fnd for general advice on the spot;
and even went to the length of helping them with money from
his own scanty pocket.
In other respects, your picture of Ilurrischander is faithful ;
only I wish you had spelt the great Patriot's name " Hurrish," as
we spell it here, and not " Harris," which reads like an English
name. In fact, Hurrish himself never spelt his name otherwise
than what I have written above. * * *
Trusting this will find you in good health,
I am, yours truly,
Kristodop Saul.
360
APPENDIX B.
While this work was being prepared for the press,
the Deed of Settlement of the Parsee Girls' School
Association has been given to the public. We are
not indebted to the courtesy of the Secretary for a
copy of the little brochure ; though the statement
may be made, without warranting a charge of
vanity, tkat our name is sufficiently public in the
Native community to entitle us to a copy of what-
ever is distributed among the public at large. It is
long since that we have set our face against the
system which obtains favour with the Associa-
tion, and publicly condemned more than once their
reports, and their weakness and favouritism ; and
it is perhaps to this that we have to ascribe the neg-
lect of the venerable Secretary. Or perhaps the
Deed of Settlement was published exclusively for the
members of the Association, with which we can never
have anything to do. But be the case as it may, if
we have been denied a copy by the old Secretary, we
have succeeded in obtaining one from a friend ; and
we extremely regret to read that the Association has
entertained views directly opposed to what we have
APPENDIX B. 381
been propounding for female amelioration in India :
they have bound down posterity to a barbarous
notion of theirs, and have not only rendered the pro-
spect of English education as remote as ever, but have
actually closed it upon the Parsee community. There
is a clause in the Deed which is as noteworthy for
its pretension as contemptible for its barbarity : —
"Fourth. — That the said Association shall establish and
duct schools in the Town and Island of Bombay, and (if funds
permit) at other places in the Bombay Presidency, for imparting
education to Parsee girls, professing the religion of Zoroasi
and such education shall consist of instruction in arithmetic,
reading and writing, useful laiowledge, industrial occupations
and pursuits, handiwork and arts adapted to Parsee fern
domestic economy, the principles of* morality and £he religion
of Zoroaster, and grammar, geography, history and science
shall also be taught ; and such instruction shall be communicat-
ed through the medium of the vernacular language exclusively,
except instruction in religious knowledge, which may, ild< ■
advisable by the Committee of Management for the time b<
be also communicated in the languages in which the works
relating to the religion of Zoroaster are composed. "
We do not know who drafted this clause ; but a
more contemptible piece of hypocritical deception
was never practised upon the public. Education at
the girls' school consists, in the words of the fourth
clause of the Deed of Settlement, of " instruction in
arithmetic, reading and writing, useful knowledge,
industrial occupations and pursuits, handiwork and
arts adapted to Parsee females, domestic economy,
the principles of morality and the religion of Zo-
64
382 APPENDIX B.
roaster, grammar, geography, history and science"!
We may wonder how young girls between the ages
of 6 and 11 or 12 are to learn all this. The Secre-
tary's own reports testify that girls leave school just
at the age of 11 or 12 ; and does he expect the pub-
lic to be simple enough to believe that the long
list of subjects he gives in his Deed is got up even
by rote at that early age, or does he feel in the heart
of his heart that he unflinchingly passes a most impu-
dent piece of deception upon the public ? We leave
him to choose the alternative.
It may be argued that the list of subjects is pro-
spective, and will obtain currency when the schools
become developed. If so, why is instruction at the
schools oidained to be "through the medium of the
vernacular language exclusively" ? The schools may
in time be so developed as to admit of an English
education without the least difficulty, and why should
the Association exclude it by rendering the barba-
rous Hindoo language the si exclusive" medium of in-
struction to the girls ?
We know what the girls are really taught: addi-
tion, subtraction, multiplication, division, and reduc-
tion and the rule of three in some cases ; crotchet-
knitting in its commonest forms, and sewing ; dog-
gerel-chanting, and reading some four Gujarati books
of elementary instruction. As for useful knowledge,
and industrial occupations and arts, and the rest,
they are talismanic words, to delude the public.
Geography they know as cleverly as that China is
APPENDIX B. 383
north of India, and England south of Bombay, and
principles of morality are taught by youngsters on
15 and 20 rupees a month, so tersely as soon to
enable them to write billets doux ! We are sorry
to speak so harshly of the Association and their
system ; but our words were as harsh in 1860, when
we first took up the cudgels against them, as they are
in 1863. Female education ought now to be fully
developed among the Parsees ; in the beginning the
means were small, and the task was in the hands of
the young men of our College — all honour to them !
— who made a commencement only after begging
girls and instructing fchem morning and
— their leisure hours. The thing wafl new, with Old
Bombay arrayed against it. Now, we 'have the
Association of the most influential and wealthy
gentlemen of Bombay, and the funds accruing ;
and in adventitious circumstances like these it is
the duty of the Secretary to at once proceed to
impart English education. There is now no pre-
judice against female education, and there are young
gentlemen who, if only courteously asked, would be
ready to devote their leisure in imparting a knowledge
of the English language and science to Parsee girls.
What objection, then, can the Association have to
inaugurate measures for the amelioration of Parsee
females? Surely none. But the unwillingness and
objection lies not with the Shetias, who are simple-
minded, and as easy to be won to one side as to the
other, but with the very gentlemen whom we should
384 APPENDIX B.
expect to be active. The fact is, there is in Bvnnbay
a sort of semi -barbarous delinquent, who, with no-
tions as old as thirty year3 past, with an inkling of
English education, obtained thirty years ago, presents
a queer appearance in every subject of importance.
He has had a little of English enlightenment, and
he cannot therefore be wholly orthodox ; he likes
reform ; bat he has not been of the modern generation,
so that he hates thorough reform, and stops at those
half measures, which make him ridiculous in the
eyes of the young-born of the age, and contemptible
in those of the orthodox generation. This semi-
barbarous delinquent has been in intimate contact
with the Girls' Schools Association, and it is he who
arrests it? progress.
It may be said that the Association has not funds
sufficient to carry out a scheme of English education.
We have hinted that there are to be found voluntary
teachers, and the difficulty of the funds might be there-
by obviated. But yet we ask, what right had they to
ordain the education of the Parsee girls to be in
the vernacular exclusively, now, and henceforth r
They have made several prospective regulations :
what is it then but misguidance not to form any pro-
spective resolve for English education ? If they
could provide for contingencies in the future, they
ought as well to provide for English education,
should circumstances admit. Here we have two
clauses for future contingencies : —
"Seventeenth. — That the education imparted in the schools ot
APPENDIX B. 385
the saiu Association shall for the present be gratuitous and
without any charge ; but if at any time the income of the
sociation be insufficient to meet the expenditure necessary for
conducting and maintaining all or any of the said schools with
efficiency ; or otherwise, if at any time the said Committee of
Management may consider it expedient or necessary, they shall
be at liberty to charge school fees at such rates and under such
rules or restrictions as they may think desirable.
"Eighteenth. — That the said Committee shall be at liberty to
purchase such lands or houses, or erect and build such house or
houses, in such locality or localities, in the Island of Bombay, or
elsewhere in the Presidency of Bombay, as they may think fit,
for the use of the schools of the said Association; and the
Trustees shall, in such cases, at the request of the said Managing
Committee, invest the fund lid Association (other than
the permanent investments and endowments mentioned in sec-
tions twenty-five and twenty -six of t) 'its) in the pur-
chase of such lands or houses, and in the erection of such house
or houses ; and such lands, houses and buildings shall be deemed
personal estate, and part of the capital of the said Association,
and shall be conveyed to and vested in the Trustees of the said
Association ; and the said Committee shall have the power of
selling such lands, houses, and buildings, or any of them, or any
part thereof, whenever they may deem it advisable so to do,
either by public auction or private contract ; and upon every
such sale the Trustees shall, by the direction of the said Com-
mittee, duly convey and assure the property sold to the pur-
chaser or purchasers thereof. 1 '
In imitation of these clauses, the Association
could have made the education of their schools
vernacular for the present, if they chose; but, as
they have now resolved, they have decided on
being barbarous for fifty years to come !
Allia^e Pricss, Bombay : w^dhu.i..
14 *£! Sfflffl BORROWED
RKruRN to DESK FROM WHICH BU
LOAN DEPT.
** w ass s^fflBiKS!
or on the date towwc 642-3405 due .