unknown amount, and that this expense might be applied to purposes more beneficial for the Company's interests.

7. The magnitude of the expense of this Institution cannot be justly estimated otherwise than by examining its purposes, objects, and actual or probable effect, and by comparing the pressure of that expense on the finances of the Company in India, with the proportionate benefit to be derived from the operation of the Institution on the whole frame of the Government of this empire.

8. If the extent of this benefit should prove answerable to the purposes and intentions of the Institution, it might be difficult to fix the precise amount of the price at which it would be consistent with the Company's interests to purchase such a benefit; and it appears still more difficult to conceive any purposes to which money could be applied with more benefit to the Company's interests in India.

9. Prudence would forbid your Government in India to incur any expense of " considerable" and "unknown" amount in any branch of the Company's affairs; nor can I imagine any principle of calculation by which a probable estimate can be formed of the advantage to be derived to the Company's interests by applying a sum of "considerable" and "unknown" amount to any purpose in India.

10. The beneficial application of any sum of money must be estimated by a comparison between the known amount of the sum to be expended and the certain or probable benefit to be attained by such expenditure.

11. But the sum of money applied to defray the charges of this institution is neither indefinite, nor unknown, nor considerable, with relation to the magnitude and importance of its objects and actual effects, nor applicable with equal prospects of success to any purposes more beneficial to the Company.

12. The expense of the Institution in its commencement was necessarily more considerable than it would have proved hereafter, when the whole system of the College should have been reduced to regular order. The estimate for 1802-1803 is four lacs of rupees, and it is not probable that this sum would have been exceeded, as the current charges of the College are now fully ascertained, and the mode of managing the Institution, in all its branches, is now thoroughly understood.

13. In the time which has elapsed since the institution of the College, many expenses have been incurred, which will not again be requisite; the total expense incurred on account of the College in the first year of its institution ending on the 31st of October 1801, amounted to the sum of about six lacs and thirty thousand rupees, after deducting all disposable articles of stock on hand, the value of which amounted, on the 31st of October 1801, to about two lacs and seventy thousand rupees.

14. I have stated that the future current annual charges of the College are estimated at four lacs of rupees. From this sum, however, some deductions are to be made on account of certain expenses which existed previously to the Institution of the College, and which must equally have been incurred if the College had not been established. articles are principally, the former allowances to Moonshees, and the

These

rent of the Writers' Buildings. The aggregate amount of these deductions would be about 70,000 rupees, leaving the total additional annual expense to the Company on account of the current charges of the College at the sum of three lacs and thirty thousand rupees.

15. As all the students receive an equal allowance of three hundred rupees per mensem, the expense of the increased allowances to the writers attached to the College from the establishments of Fort St. George and Bombay, would be nearly balanced by the reduction of the allowances of such of the writers of Bengal attached to the College as have completed a residence of two years in the service in India.

16. The expense of conveying the writers from the subordinate Presidencies to Bengal would cease, if the Court should agree to my proposition for sending, in the first instance, directly from Europe, to the College at Fort William all the writers destined for the service in India.

17. But the Governor-General in Council has already apprised the Court in his letter of the 31st of July 1801, that he has actually provided for the current expense of the College by new resources, on which he has expressly charged that expense. Those resources are, the town duties, and Government customs revived by Regulations 5, 10, and 11 of 1801. The revived duties already produce an annual sum far exceeding the current expenses of the College. The produce of these new duties has been, in 1801-2, twelve lacs and seventy thousand rupees, and is estimated for the current year at fourteen lacs. The mode of collecting the duties having been found imperfect, and in some respects inconvenient under Regulations 5, 10, and 11 of 1801, a new Regulation was passed for the further improvement of the collection of those duties, on the 8th of July 1802, under which, the produce of the duties will probably be encreased, while every existing inconvenience and imperfection in the mode of collection will be removed. The current expenses of the College, therefore, now constitutes no additional charge on the Company's revenues in Bengal, as they existed previously to the foundation of this Institution; since a new resource has already been found, which actually produces a sum exceeding the amount of that expense.

18. But if this resource should fail, or if the Governor-General in Council should hereafter deem it expedient to repeat or modify these duties, the promising condition of your finances in India leaves no doubt on my mind, that ample means would be found independently of the produce of the Town duties and Government customs, to defray the current expenses of the College without injury to any other branch of the public

service.

19. The commercial investment is estimated, in this year, and in the next at the highest standard, and notwithstanding those ample allotments for commercial purposes, provision has been secured for defraying the current charges of the college. Neither the continuance, nor the immediate abolition of the College, would affect the investment in any degree, since the investment could not conveniently be augmented beyond its actual scale, even if the abolition of the College had already been accomplished; nor would that scale be reduced, although the College

should be continued. The question, therefore, on this part of the subject, is narrowed to the limited consideration, whether it be more beneficial to the Company's affairs to continue the annual application of a sum of three lacs and thirty thousand rupees (arising from a new fund, especially charged with this sum, and producing a considerable surplus) to the maintenance of the College, or to add this sum to the general surplus in the treasury or to the sinking fund? Even if it should be contended that this sum might be conveniently applied to the increase of the investment, it would remain to be proved that the effect of three lacs and thirty thousand rupees, added to the commercial investment of Bengal (already raised to ninety lacs) would be more beneficial to the interests of the Company and of the nation in India, than the operation of the same sum of money applied to defray the current charges of the College of Fort William.

20. The decision of the question will be easily determined by the examination of some particular facts and general principles of Government, to which I shall refer at the close of this letter.

21. With respect to any further expense to be incurred on account of the College, it must arise from some of these articles ;

First, The augmentation of the number of Professorships;

Second, The future pensions of the Professors, and officers of the College;

Third, A building on a permanent plan.

22. The list of the actual number of Professorships, and the statutes will show, that it is my intention to render the study of Oriental literature and law the principal object of the College. Ten additional Professorships or Teacherships, therefore, would have been necessary beyond the number actually filled. The principal would have been,

First, Mahratta Language;

Second, Ethics, and Civil Jurisprudence, which might have been united with the English law;

Third, The History and Antiquities of India, which might perhaps have been united with the preceding branch of instruction;

Fourth, Natural History;

Fifth, Astronomy. These branches, four and five, might have been united.

23. The institution of any of these Professorships, with the exception of the first and second, might have been subject to future consideration. These arrangements, therefore, would have occasioned no variation, of importance, in the current charges of the College, and certainly would not have involved an indefinite expense.

24. The probable amount of the future Pension-list to the Professors and officers of the College would have afforded no ground of alarm to the Court, if the Court had considered the age and probable habits and dispositions of those persons from whom the greater proportion of the Professors and officers of the College must be selected, and it would not be difficult, on correct practical principles, to form a sufficiently accurate estimate of the future amount of this pension-list,

25. This part, however, of the Regulation might be modified in its operation, in such a manner as should secure the Company against any considerable burthen on this account.

26. With respect to any building to be erected for the use of the College, the question is, and ever has been entirely open to the decision of the Court, for although ground has been purchased, and allotted for the purpose of a building, no building has been commenced, nor would any have been commenced without the authority of the Court. The expense of clearing and draining the ground, and making roads in its vicinity has not been great, and has been already defrayed, and the charge of preserving the ground in its improved state, is not considerable. The ground now retained can at any time be sold again without hazard of loss. Many of the most beneficial purposes of the College have certainly been attained, and may probably be secured by the temporary continuance of the present system of the establishment in the Town of Calcutta. I am, however, decidedly of opinion that it would be highly advantageous to the efficacy and stability of the Institution, and ultimately most consistent with just economy, to erect a building at Garden Reach, according to my original plan. The expense of this building might be easily defined, and might be gradually distributed through five or six years of account in such a manner as scarcely to produce a sensible effect upon the finances of the Company in India. It is proper, in this place, to communicate to you an addition which will soon be made to the funds of this Institution, if the Court of Directors should be pleased to revive it. A sum of three lacs of rupees will soon be paid into the treasury on account of a legacy from the late General Martine of Lucknow.

27. I have already taken the most respectable opinions with regard to the legality of applying this sum in aid of the funds of the College; and I have been assured that such an application of the legacy would be strictly conformable to the intentions of the testator.

28. This sum, now amounting to three lacs of rupees, is likely to receive a considerable contingent increase under the operation of other dispositions of General Martine's will. A further increase of these funds may also arise from certain sums bequeathed by General Martine for the purpose of founding a literary institution at Lucknow. I trust that the Nabob Vizier, to whose authority the application of these legacies is subject, will readily apply their amount to the support of the College of Fort William.

29. I have already observed that the Court would have possessed ample time for deliberation with respect to the propriety of erecting a building for the uses of the College, in the meanwhile, the funds to which I have adverted, would have necessarily increased, and might have received considerable augmentation by the contingencies which might arise under the various disposition of General Martine's will.

30. The preceding observations will, I trust, convince you―

That the expenses already incurred on account of the College have not been more considerable than was required by the magnitude of the objects proposed by its institution, and that those expenses have been actually defrayed by the new resources destined to that express purpose;

That the amount of the estimated future current expenses of the College is accurately defined, subjected to regular controul, and moderate, as well with relation to the benefits of the Institution, as to its pressure on the finances of the Company;

That provision has actually been secured for defraying the future current expenses of the College, without interfering with any other branch of the public service, without diminishing the scale of your commercial investments, and with the certainty of maintaining a permanent surplus revenue, applicable to the purposes of investment, in India, of nearly one million sterling, in the present year, and of greater probable amount in every succeeding year of peace;

That any future augmentation of the contingent expense of the College amounting to any sum of considerable importance, will be subject to the previous controul of the Government in England;

That funds are actually provided (partly by the new duties, and partly by the legacies of General Martine) sufficient to meet any contingent increase in the expenses of the College without further pressure on the finances of the Company; and lastly,

That the finances of the Company in India are in such a state of actual prosperity, connected with the probability of progressive improvement, as will sustain (even independently of the produce of the new duties) the continuance of the current charges of the College of Fort William, and will afford the means of meeting any contingent increase of the expenses of that Institution, without injury to public credit, and without the hazard of any delay in the reduction of the Indian debt.

31. In the first paragraph of the honourable Court's letter, the Court declares that it cannot sanction the immediate establishment of the institution of the College of Fort William, and in the fifth and subsequent paragraphs, the Court directs the re-establishment, on a somewhat enlarged scale of an Institution which the honourable Court is pleased to denominate "Mr. Gilchrist's Seminary," by the restoration of which, it is stated to be the intention of the Court to supersede, for the present, the establishment of the College of Fort William.

32. By the letter of the 12th of March, 1802, addressed to Fort St. George, it also appears to be the intention of the Court to found some establishment at Fort St. George, for the better instruction of the junior civil servants of that presidency, and it is reasonable to suppose that a similar measure will be adopted for the instruction of the civil servants on the establishment of Bombay.

33. It is, therefore, manifestly the intention of the Court, that some establishment for the better instruction of the civil servants at each of the Presidencies should subsist in India, although the Court has been pleased to direct the immediate abolition of that institution, which has been established at Fort William, with a view to the same salutary and indispensable purpose. In the letter of the 27th January, 1802, addressed to the Governor-General in council, the Court has traced the outlines of the establishment, which it directs to be substituted in place of the college at Fort