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. 
 
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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. 
 
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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 .