293 NATIVES ALIVE TO OUR CRITICISM. our Legislation; at the introduction of new taxes; at the reductions in Revenue assessment; at the mighty physical forces—the Railway and the Telegraph—which are bringing all classes into juxtaposition; at the vast development of trade and commerce; the immense wealth that has been poured into Hindoostan within the last few years ; the spirit that is stirring Native society to its very depths, and apparently introducing another principle of action than that of mamool, custom,' which for so many centuries, has caused stagnation, and prevented progress, I think you will see what a remarkable crisis we have entered upon. It is not my wish or intention to improve the present opportunity into an occasion for making a political harangue. Nor should I have alluded to what is going on around us, were it not that among the mightiest, and, paradoxical as it may seem, the most dangerous of the many mighty agencies at work for good or for evil, in the present social, political, and moral revolution, stands prominently forth Education. It may be said that it is unwise for me to enter upon this topic that I am suggesting ideas to the Native mind, which are not there already, and that any alarm or dissatisfaction which results, is of my own creation and untoward agitation.' I know that this is a cheap and easy fashion of casting upon the shoulders of others the responsibility for mischiefs which our own acts have originated. It often has been had recourse to; and as long as human nature remains what it is, it will be had recourse to hereafter. But the charge, serious as it is, is not more unfounded in fact, than it is unkind, uncourteous, ungenerous, and I will add, un-Christian. The Native is not, like the Englishman, prompt to challenge the man who affronts him on the spot, or to vent his feelings in public meetings; but he is quite keen and sensible enough to see the drift of insinuations levelled at EDUCATION, A DANGER. 294 his social or moral state; and he broods over what has been said in silence, or communicates his disgust to his friends and fellow-citizens in their social meetings.* I assert that the thoughts are familiar to the reflections of the educated Native classes, and that the folly and danger consist, not in boldly admitting and facing the fact, but in concealing and ignoring it. No party, European or Native, can or do shut their eyes to this truth; it is the most suicidal policy for either party to pretend to believe that the other is not fully alive to the significance of the events which are passing around us, and in the midst of which we live; and I think we cannot too attentively keep our eyes fixed upon the revolution in the crisis of which we now are. That revolution was ushered in by fire and blood, by mutiny and rebellion; and it is only by the watchfulness, the forbearance, the courage, the prudence, the judgment, the honesty, the combination and co-operation of all good men in the State, be they Native or European, that, under the blessing of Providence, this social revolution which is now rolling on in peace, will be achieved and accomplished without resort to further violence. I have said that Education is among the most dangerous agencies now at work. For one among the first results of educating the Natives, and infusing into them our own modes of thought, is to create a spirit of restlessness and inquiry, of comparison, and ambition, which renders its possessor a far more difficult man to deal with and satisfy, than his old fashioned progenitor, who passed his whole time, from birth to death, in unquestioning faith of the superiority of those who governed him, and who was content to look for his subsistence to the bounty of " Master's favour." *These remarks refer to a controversy which had recently arisen in the Senate of the Madras University, touching the propriety of certain statements made by the Revd. Mr. Richards in an address delivered by him to the young men who had obtained their de grees. $295 FIRST RESULTS OF EDUCATION. But education endows a man with new ideas and new powers, new longings and new desires. It enables him to weigh and measure himself with his fellow men, be they of what colour, or creed, or country, they may; and it may be, that, as the Mexicans discovered when they succeeded in killing a Spanish charger, our Natives will find, that, after all, the men whom they at first regarded as immeasurably superior to themselves, are not so widely separated as they supposed: that those whom in their first fear and ignorance they worshipped as Gods, or feared as Devils, are, like themselves, poor frail human creatures, stumbling and erring, however sincerely actuated by benevolence towards the whole human race, and bent on doing their duty in that station of life which has been allotted to them. Education enables a man further to investigate and decide between the various forms of government invented by the necessity or ingenuity of man. It induces him to believe that he can himself improve and reform; it makes him long for a public arena for the display of his talents; he regards himself as the first discoverer of truths and principles which a longer experience will convince him have been thought, and written, and spoken, and perhaps acted and tried, a hundred times before; and if he is unable to secure the platform which his vanity causes him to think he is entitled to, he is apt to fancy that he has been treated with injustice, and to brood in moody discontent over his imagined wrongs, Though all knowledge is a good, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing; and it is not until time and age and experience have mellowed the ambitious youth's crudities, and taught him the stern realities of life, that he settles and sobers down into the peaceable, contented, excellent citizen of the State. Lord Ellenborough years ago saw clearly the HOW TO AVOID DANGER. : 296 dangers attendant on Native education. He asked how the permanence of English supremacy was compatible with imparting knowledge to the Natives? Undoubtedly the question was a shrewd one: and if the answer must be in the negative, the only course left us, in my opinion, consistent with justice and honour and humanity, would be to abandon the Empire we have assumed for unquestionably it never can square with our political or religious professions, to keep the Natives in a state of brutal ignorance, in order that we may enjoy the emoluments and benefits of rule. Better far, that we should at once retire from the country, were it not for the horrid and universal anarchy which must succeed, than submit to the degradation of so selfish and so wicked an abuse of the trust which has been thrust upon us, or into which, as some say, we have voluntarily thrust ourselves. But I for one do not believe that universal Native education is so incompatible with the permanence of British power, as some people fear. I admit the danger: but I believe that, out of "this nettle danger" we may "pluck the flower, safety." Of course, if we educate the people, and then deny them the fair results which await upon, and which they have a right to suppose, reward education; the danger becomes imminent, possibly unsurmountable and overwhelming; for the permanence of English supremacy can only ultimately rest in India upon moral and not on physical forces. Eighty thousand British bayonets would be powerless to support the Empire; while it may rest stable and secure, if founded upon the confidence, the gratitude, the trust, the love of the Native population: and even if the time should come when the British rule must end in India, I for one can look forward to that consummation with serenity and equanimity. 297 TIME, OF THE ESSENCE OF SUCCESS. I cannot regard it as a disgrace or a misfortune'; provided But if education is to bear its fairest, its richest, and its ripest fruits, time must be given for the tree itself to grow. I believe that ten years hence, if our present state of peace be not rudely shocked by foreign aggression from without, or internal commotion from within, India will be one of the most prosperous and contented countries in the world, provided we employ the interim thus afforded us, in treating the Natives with perfect honesty of purpose, and acting up to the solemn assurances we have given them, of respecting their temporal and religious rights. Not that education even then will have brought forth its full results; for the life of a nation is not as the life of a man. Its education is of very slow growth; though our eagerness is apt to expect immense results from our efforts at national improvement, within a time scarcely long enough for their product even in the life of an individual. And I think that we should be guilty of a very grave error, if we mistake the way in which any national reform either in regard to religious or temporal institutions is likely to be brought about: if we fancy that we can hurry on a change, or operate upon the Native mind from without. Any reformation which may hereafter take place must proceed from within, not from without; from the convictions of the Native mind itself, based upon a rational, exhaustive consideration of the whole of the facts and circumstances con |