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

William. These intentions of the Court, clearly expressed in their commands to Bengal, and to Fort St. George, reduce the subject of this letter within limits still more confined than those within which I have endeavoured to comprise my observations in the preceding pages.

34. In considering the question in its present state, it is necessary only to compare the actual expense, and the ascertained benefit of the institution now subsisting at Fort William, with the probable expense, and probable benefit of the "seminaries," by which the honourable Court intends to supersede that institution. The honourable Court in reviewing the experimental establishment at Calcutta originally placed under Mr. Gilchrist's direction, is pleased to sanction an extension of the scale of that establishment, adding to the study of the Hindostanee, that of the Persian and Bengalese languages, and also that of the laws and regulations enacted by the Governor-General in council, for the government of the Company's territories in India. It is evident that without an establishment of teachers, or professors in each of these languages, it would be utterly impossible to accomplish the declared intention of the honourable Court, "of effecting by the institution of a seminary for oriental learning, many of the beneficial purposes expected by the Governor-General, from the foundation of the college." On the augmented scale of Mr. Gilchrist's seminary, each professor, or teacher, could not be expected to be engaged at a monthly salary inferior to 1500 rupees. This charge would amount to 6000 rupees monthly, or to about two thirds of the total amount of the present salaries to the provost, vice-provost, professors and teachers in the oriental languages, in classics, in the modern languages, and in mathematics.

35. I am persuaded that a further consideration of the subject will satisfy the honourable Court, that the study of the Arabic language is absolutely necessary to the attainment of a correct knowledge of the Persian, the knowledge of Arabic, is also indispensable to those who desire to attain any considerable degree of skill in the Mahomedan law. A teacher, or professor of the Arabic must, therefore, form a part of the establishment in Bengal, even on the limited scale proposed by the Court.

36. To the expense of this establishment must be added the charge of whatever foundations shall be established at Fort St. George, and Bombay respectively, considerations of justice as well as of policy, would certainly induce the honourable Court to afford to their servants at each of those Presidencies, sources of instruction equally pure and abundant, as those which might be opened to the civil service in Bengal. The duties of the civil service at each of the subordinate Presidencies, now embrace objects of equal importance in every department to those comprehended in the administration of Bengal.

37. In proportion to the improvement of the internal constitution of each of the subordinate Presidencies, qualifications of a higher description will be demanded in the civil service; and I must add, that the progress of that improvement, and the abundant supply of public officers properly qualified to discharge their arduous duties in the several stations of the

administration, are the securities on which the Company must rely for the prosperity of the country, for the happiness of our native subjects, for the augmentation of our resources, and for the stability of our power.

38. The incontestable wisdom, policy, necessity, and justice of providing for the civil services of Fort St. George, and Bombay, similar advantages of education to those established in Bengal, warrant me in assuming the certainty, that the honourable Court will never consent to curtail the institutions proposed for the subordinate Presidencies respectively, within limits more confined, than the necessary extent and scope of the respective duties of the civil service under each of those governments.

39. Consistently with this principle, at Fort St. George, the Court will find that the knowledge of the Arabic, Persian, and Hindostanee language, and of the laws and regulations of the local British Government of India, is not less necessary than in Bengal; teachers and professors must, therefore, be established at Madras in each of those branches of study.

40. In addition to these teachers, it will be necessary at Fort St. George to provide teachers in the following languages: Telinga, Tamul, Canarese, Mahratta.

41. At Bombay the knowledge of the Arabic, Persian, and Hindostanee languages, and of the laws and regulations of these governments, is as necessary a qualification for the civil service as at Fort St. George, and consequently similar means must be afforded (upon the principles already stated) to the civil service at Bombay, of attaining a competent knowledge in each of these branches of study.

42. The study of the Arabic, is however, peculiarly necessary at Bombay, and may become indispensable in proportion to the extension of our relations with the nations inhabiting the coasts of the Persian and Arabian Gulfs.

43. In addition to these establishments, the civil servants at Bombay would require teachers in the following languages: Canarese, Mahratta, Malabar, as spoken on the coast of that name.

44. You will observe that the necessary effect of this plan would be to involve the expense of a triple establishment for every branch of study equally requisite at each of the three Presidencies, and of a double establishment for every branch of study equally requisite at any two of the Presidencies.

45. In the united institution founded at Calcutta, four professors or teachers would be found sufficient with occasional assistance for the instruction of the whole body of the students from the three Presidencies in the Arabic, Persian, and Hindostanee languages, and in the laws and regulations of the British Government in India; if the institution be broken into three seminaries, twelve professors or teachers will be required for the same purpose. The same observation applies to the establishments for the study of those languages, of which the utility is common to Fort St. George and Bombay, one teacher in each branch at Calcutta, would serve for the instruction of all the students from the two subordinate Presidencies; on the new plan two teachers must be established, one at Fort St. George, and one at Bombay.