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RAJAH RAMMOHUN ROY.

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the assistance of the Chief Justice, Sir Hyde East, collected a subscription from the Native gentry and public, amounting to Rs. 1,13,179, 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 importance 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 adopting 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,

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 nevertheless 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 associated 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 established an English School at his own expense. He had heartily entered into the plans of David Hare, and zealously aided in their development. But, as an uncompromising enemy of Hindoo idolatry, he had incurred the hostility of his orthodox countrymen, and he apprehended that his presence at the preliminary meeting 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

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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, saying -If my connection with the proposed college 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 Gorrachand Bysack's house, and now occupied by the Oriental Seminary, was its first local habitation. It was afterwards removed to Firinghi Komul Bose's house at Jorasanko. The object of the institution, 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 proposed 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 growing demand for English education. Sanskrit was discontinued at an early period. The

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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 promotion of Sanskrit studies, the British Government subscribed the munificent sum of Rs. 1,20,000 for the building of the Hindoo Sanskrit 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 determined 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, Jubbulpore, 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 dissolved it, and established instead the late "Council of Education"; with the first of

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which were connected at different times philanthropists and scholars like Princeps, H. Wilson, and Tytler, and with the second benefactors like the late lamented Bethune, and the yet living and working Charles H. Cameron. It must be here stated, that from among the different 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 attention 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 commencement of vernacular education in the different cities and villages of the country, a minute that has yet continued to be an authoritative despatch, 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 ultimately proved a failure; and it might, indeed, be said that this judicious minute has nowhere yet been carried out in its full integrity.