and a very limited proficiency in two European branches only is compulsory, and even they lie at the option of the student. If he has the slightest turn for mathematics he can gain his point without an effort. If he has paid the commonest attention to history his aim is reached with the most moderate exertions. It would be remarkable if from the expanse before him he could not single out one vulnerable point, on which a breach is easily effected. Out of four European branches he devotes himself to two, and from the claims of his creditors he receives a quittance in full. In the three orientals the test is of an equally moderate kind, although these afford us on the whole, a better criterion; but the aspirant for prize and place sees no limit to his labours. If he is deemed to be possessed of any ability, seven arms as it were are extended to arrest his suffrages, and he turns half bewildered from one subject to the other. Perhaps the struggle is prolonged by a severe contest with one or two rivals equally zealous and able. Others look calmly on, while these maintain the friendly strife. The spectator is cool and unembarassed, while the combatants strain every nerve. The former satisfies the examiner, who is aware he has got all that he can fairly expect; the latter is required to devote himself to each separate subject as if there were no other calls on his leisure equally loud and importunate: to the one, Haileybury shall teem with reminiscences of the toils and troubles of Hercules, to the other, it shall recall nothing but the down beds and the ease of Sardanapalus.

So much for the European part of the system. We have shown in discussing the Sanskrit question, the devices by which the desired end is reached, but it would be unfair to imply that the other Oriental languages fare no better. The standard

attained by the best men in Persian and Urdu is decidedly beyond the respectable; in several instances it has been positively meritorious; and even the attainments of the majority are deserving of commendation. The innate dislike to a new language which prevails in the case of the Sanskrit, is disarmed by the recognized utility of the Urdu: Persian has a considerable number of votaries, and a fair general tableau is generally presented at the closing scene in these two departments. A vivâ voce examination, on which signs of the system by rote occasionally appear, and a translation on paper from the original into English, and vice versa, are demanded from, and performed with a gre at

We have been given to understand that the very moderate test, required in two branches, has been lately lowered still more, and demanded in all the four European subjects!!!

or less degree of accuracy by, every individual. Under Mr. Wilson's searching eye the axe is now laid at the root of the old pernicious method: cramming and its inefficient results are rapidly passing away. A few more vigorous strokes and it will entirely disappear, and a fair standard of acquirements be substituted in its stead. It has often occurred to us that a set of subordinate native teachers-the Munshi and Pandit-might be productive of considerable advantage to the by-reading at Haileybury. They might attend on the hard working student when out of the lecture room, and lighten the task of surmounting the first principles. In these enlightened days, when ancient prejudices are fast fading away before the light of reason, and Hindus are found to cross the dark ocean in order to perfect their medical science, a judicious remuneration might induce some of the respectable and well educated natives to undertake such an office. Care would be required in the selection of individuals, and superintendance by the authorities when fairly set down to their work. A few difficulties perhaps would at first be encountered, but the plan is fraught with advantage to both native and European. Amidst the crowd who swarm at the College of Fort William, there are some three or four who might be capable of such an undertaking.

Such is a sketch of the educational course of the College. To all thinking minds it will afford scope for the most serious meditation. On the acquirements there made may greatly depend the future efficiency of the man, and the happiness of thousands. The utility of any subject few will wish to deny, but the impossibility of all or even of any considerable number attaining to a very high proficiency in each department, will be equally recognized. Were we asked which should give place to the others, we should find it hard to decide where all are so eminently useful. Cicero fixed it as the grand qualification for an orator that he should be "nullâ non arte perfectus," that acute natural powers, and deep erudition, the art of combination and the art of unfolding, acquaintance not only with the first principles, but a thorough insight into the heights and depths of all useful sciences, should be united in him who aspired to sway the feelings of multitudes by the mere magic of his voice. And such, however ideal the vision may be deemed, would we to be the aggregate of faculties in him who is in any way to influence the destinies of countless human beings in the territories of the Company. Of no species of learning can it be predicated, that its possessor will thence derive no

wish

Mr. Wilson's reform in the Persian and Urdu is deserving of all praise-alas! that we should have to dissent from his views on Sanskrit.

advantage to himself, or be able to import no benefits to others. No talents, however diversified, will be suffered to remain idle in the land of the East. The civilian will find in the path which he is to tread, numberless opportunities for the exercise of his acquired strength, and every healthy and exalting pursuit may there be indulged with peculiar facilities. Is he of a dry, mathematical, and reasoning turn of mind? Does he aim at reducing to practise long cherished theories of law and jurisprudence? The duties he will perform when seated on the bench, are the basis of that which has been his earliest and most favourite pursuit. Has he been endowed with the gift of tongues, and would he add fresh strings to his bow by the addition of new dialects? Oriental Languages, with all their highly coloured charms, the flexible Sanskrit, the ever copious Arabic, the sweetly modulated Persian, the polished Urdu, are seen to unroll their endless varieties, and attract him to the regions of poetry and romance. Has antiquarianism imbued him with a desire to grope amidst ruined monuments raised in bygone generations, and the reliques of great names now past? The wonders of Salsette, the architecture of Muhammadan sovereigns, shall occupy all the leisure he can spare from graver duties. The Taj Mahal and the Kutb Minar, Ellora and Ajunta seem to call on him with a loud voice to explore their secret recesses. Does he still dwell with fondness on the early studies of his youth, and sigh amidst the somewhat discordant tones of Eastern song for one echo from the melodies beloved of old? His leisure hours may be devoted to the perusal of favourite authors: the admired characters of antiquity may yet form a daily means of relaxation. Is he a naturalist? India spreads her vast jungles around him, and teems with every strange variety of bird, beast, and reptile. A botanist? the trees of the forest are for him clothed with their gorgeous apparel: the plain is variegated by grass and herb, whose properties and classification are yet half unknown. Is he an artist? A new series of landscapes and human beings shall crowd on his canvass: the tall and manly Rajput, the graceful Bengali, the grim looking Sannyasi, and the venerable Sheikh, variations of feature and dress, of hill and river, of temple and tower, the palmy groves of Bengal, and the rushing cascades of the Himalayas, the tomb hallowed by superstition, and the palace raised by ambitious hearts, transferred to his paper, shall glow with even more than the brightness of their originals. Has he no cunning of any sort ?-Would he choose rather to study the living page of nature, and draw his conclusions from the world of men and things? Character in all its Protean shapes, now calculated to

deter by its extreme ugliness, now giving evidences of a better spirit and a hope of future promise, preserving the same grand outline unchanged, but shaded on the detail to a countless variety of hues, spreads out a picture before him on which he may gaze without fatigue.

It would be hard to curtail the number of branches of the Haileybury course, but equally hard to sit down in silence on the subject. The root of the evil-so many trades taught and so few mastered-lies in one or two simple causes. Classics and mathematics, though appointed by universal consent, as the standard of education in England, do not bear directly, it is said, on the after life in India. They should yield to such pursuits as have a more direct influence on the fitness for civil employ. At best they are but kept up, not perfected or even advanced, even by their most devoted followers, at Haileybury. It is a gain if the motion is not a retrograde one. Abolish them and more time will be left for the useful branches of law and history and the wide field of orientals. Now if the standard for admission at the India House was what it ought to be, none would enter Haileybury without having established the fact of their possessing a fair classical education; but the criterion is of a kind so perfectly childish as to afford no security of the sort. Not a forward boy on the fourth form at any public school, but would positively laugh it to scorn. If the standard were raised, and proof of positive merit in either the classical or mathematical line demanded before a single student could set foot in the College, it might then be assumed that the foundation had been duly laid : we might proceed to rear the superstructure by means of the studies more peculiarly applicable to India. The genius presiding over classics would then depart, satisfied that his just claimsto educate for India as well as for the church or for any other profession-had been openly acknowledged, and the student expatiate freely on the new field opened to him for the first time. But with the present miserable qualifications demanded in Leadenhall-street, and the early age at which admittance is possible, this consummation cannot as yet be looked for. It is however one of the reforms we would most strongly advocate, although our aim is rather to point out abuses than to suggest remedies, against which objections are certain to be raised. The suddenness with which appointments are bestowed, the unexpected transfer of youths from any thing but classical atmospheres, would be given as reasons against this desirable change. About two years ago the propriety of admittance at the early age of sixteen, was questioned at head-quarters, and the result showed itself in an order not to admit under seventeen. Even this act

E

of grace is but a half measure. Men who have come out early to India, and departed as soon as their period of service was ended, may perhaps rejoice on receiving the rod of dismissal from the arena of public life very shortly after entering on the years of their prime. Many of those who landed at eighteen were magistrates at twenty-four and collectors at thirty. But few will presume to say that their efficiency would have been lessened had they only landed on the attainment of their majority, or even at a later period. From the age of seventeen to that of twenty, a great and vigorous shoot is often made in the intellectual tree. The stripling is exchanged for the man, the faculties receive a mighty impulse, the character is formed, and its strength and weakness prominently brought out. Even physically the period is one of no less importance. The frame is more strongly knit, and the muscles are hardened. Hereditary strength and hereditary tendency to disease are often developed in the limits we have mentioned. A chest seemingly weak expands into healthiness and breadth; a constitution apparently strong betrays signs of some internal malady. The transition from a temperate to a torrid clime at so critical a moment may prove highly detrimental where the change is going on. How many of the youngest civilians have been prostrated by sickness, while those two or three years older have stood the trial manfully! Even suppose that neither escape, the man of settled constitution is surely more calculated to repel the deadly attack, than he whose physical powers are yet undergoing the process of transmutation. Physically, intellectually, morally, the delay of those three years would prove an invaluable blessing. Increased opportunities of learning, and a more eager desire to use them, increased power of resistance against evil, a more free intercourse with men of maturer age and more powerful calibre, a more extended acquaintance with the resources of England and the interesting questions there daily agitated, above all a judgment more capable of comprehending the vast responsibility of the service on which he is about to enter these are a few of the advantages opened to the civilian by a residence in England for those three or four years which mark the transformation from youth to manhood. Some whose good fortune entered them at Haileybury as late as was possible, may occasionally lament that they are young in the service and old in years; they may feel a passing twinge at seeing others at the goal of their labours, whilst they themselves are at some distance from the desired haven; but a calm retrospective glance will convince them of the inutility of such regrets, and supply a fund of inward satisfaction in the consciousness that the addi