II. Madras.

LOGIC.

WHATELY'S EASY LESSONS ON REASONING.

EXAMINER, J. T. Fowler, Esq.

Technical and Concise Language will add to the Value of all Answers.

Question I. Does the word "because" establish the same relation in each of the following:
He is a conscientious man because he does his duty.
He does his duty because he acts on principle.

II. Read the following carefully, then explain and illustrate it.

The distribution or non-distribution of the subject depends on the quality of the proposition; and that of the predicate on the quantity.

III. What are arguments in the following form called? Exhibit these as syllogisms, and what premises may be understood in each case, which would make the arguments valid? "He would not take the crown, therefore 'tis certain he was not ambitious. The King of Naples is a tyrant, therefore ought to be deposed."

IV. E. I. O. is admissible in some figures, but I. E. O. in none. Why?

V. Give a tabular scheme exhibiting the kinds of " opposition," and apply the general language to particular propositions, under it.

VI. A speaks truth once in four times, and he accuses B of having wounded C. If B has wounded C, the chances are 1 to 3 that he has killed him. What is the probability that B has not killed C.

VII. How far is reasoning a purely mechanical operation independent on the will,
and how far dependent on it?

VIII. Explain with examples, the fallacies of division, and of composition.
IX. Is Aristotle's " Dictum" applicable to all syllogisms immediately? If there
are any to which it does not apply, what does immediately apply to them?

X. May there be any difference between a "hypothetical syllogism," and a syllogism
in which a hypothetical premiss occurs?

XI. Exhibit the following in a string of syllogisms, and what is its present form called?

"God therefore cannot hurt ye, and be just;

Not just, not God; not fear'd then nor obeyed;
Your fear itself of death removes the fear."

PRESIDENCY

No. 45.

ORDER THEREON, No. 781; dated 13 June 1857.

1. In this letter Mr. Arbuthnot brings before Government the result of the examination of the general branch of the Presidency College, held in December last. He takes this step in anticipation of his Annual Report, because the appendices to that document must be confined under the orders of the Supreme Government to particular classes of papers, and it therfore becomes occasionally necessary to lay before Government more detailed information regarding the principal educational institutions.

2. Some peculiar features in the late examination of the Presidency College has occasioned this report from the Director of Public Instruction. The examination of the senior classes was undertaken in this instance by some gentlemen unconnected with the institution, who gave the aid of their services; and their reports, except in the mathematical department, were so much less favourable than in former years, as to have led to a discussion whether the questions and exercises were not of too difficult a nature, and whether the examiners had tested fairly the acquirements of the students.

3. Into the question of the progress shown by the scholars, Government will not now enter, but they observe with regret that the professors of the college have been allowed to criticise the reports of the examiners; an embarrassing discussion has thus arisen, and not only the proceedings but even the qualifications of the gentlemen who conducted the examination have been called.in question. Government are constrained to observe that the remarks which Mr. H. Bowers, professor of English Literature and Composition, has permitted himself to make, are particularly open to objection on this point as well as in respect to their general tone.

4. It is manifest that such a system must not be allowed to continue, since gentlemen will at once decline to assist at the examinations if their proceedings are to undergo criticism and attack from quarters which cannot be deemed impartial, and Government place a high value on the services of independent examiners, and will not be willing to lose them, even when the University to which Mr. Arbuthnot alludes in the 17th para. of his letter is in full operation.

5. On occasions when the assistance of independent examiners is made use of, Government are not prepared to say that it is beyond the province of the Director of Public Instruction to guard against questions of undue difficulty being put to the examinees; but this should principally be done by judiciousness in the selection of examiners, and by explaining fully to them the amount of instruction which has been imparted to the students, so that the questions may be shaped in accordance with it. After examiners have been selected, Government wish that the fullest freedom of action should be accorded to them, and that their proceedings should not be subject to remark or control on the part of the professors or teachers of the institution to which the students belong.

6. On Mr. Arbuthnot submitting his proposed improvements in the present course of study at the Presidency College, to which he adverts in this letter, the attention of Government will be given to the subject.

(signed) E. Maltby, Acting Chief Secretary.

PAPERS referred to in Madras Public Despatch (Educational), dated 6 October 1858, No. 5, para. 49.

EXTRACT Public Letter from Fort St. George, dated 28 October, No. 24 of 1857.

Await report on the cause of the want of competition for the prize given by C. Conniah Chetty for the best student in the Medical College, and on the means of obtaining a class of students to be trained as sub-assistant surgeons.

In Cons. 4th Nov. 1856, Nos. 45 and 46.
"Dy. to Cons. 23d Dec. 1856, Nos. 38 and 39.

Para. 33. IN transmitting herewith a copy of a letter on the subject from the Director of Public Instruction, dated 23d August 1856, we have to observe that, as the principle therein discussed, viz., as to the removal of all restrictions as to race in regard to appointments in the subordinate branches of the medical service, has already come under consideration in the Military Department, that letter has been referred to that department for consideration, and in view to the opinion of his Excellency the Commander in Chief being requested on the changes recommended by the Director of Public Instruction.

34. We, however, in our Minute Consultation, 13th December last, Military Department, deferred passing orders on the subject, pending the decision of the Government of India upon the general measures which have been proposed for the improvement of the subordinate medical department.

EXTRACT Fort St. George Public Consultation of 4 November 1856. (No. 697.)

READ the following Letter from A. J. Arbuthnot, Esq., Director of Public
Instruction, to the Chief Secretary to Government, Fort St. George.

Sir,

THE Honourable Court of Directors, in their Despatch of the 26th September 1855, a copy of which was communicated to me in extract from the Minutes of Consultation, under date the 21st December last, No. 1616, called for explanation in regard to the circumstance of only one candidate having come forward to the examination at the close of the session of the Medical College for 1853-54, for the prize instituted by C. V. Conniab Chetty, and also as to the means existing or in contemplation for maintaining in the college a class of students from which a succession of properly qualified sub-assistant surgeons may in future be expected. They observed that no stipendiary student was a candidate for a diploma at this examination, and that since the scheme came into operation in 1852 only one diploma was conferred.

2. Shortly after the receipt of this Despatch, I had a conference with the Medical College Council on the subject noticed in the extracts above quoted, viz., the small success of the measures taken for the education of native surgeons, and I took the opportunity of discussing with them the best means of improving the preliminary education of the native pupils generally.

3. The Council were at that time almost unanimously of opinion that the best means of inducing a better class of candidates to enter those branches of the subordinate grades of the medical service, which are at present filled by natives, would be to abolish the restrictions in respect to extraction, and to throw open all branches of the service to all candidates, without reference to creed, colour, or caste. They considered that this measure, while it would open the superior grade of native surgeon, or sub-assistant surgeon, as it is designated by the Honourable Court, and the subordinate grade of dresser, to a better educated class of persons than those who have hitherto been admitted into it, it would eventually lead to a better class of natives entering the profession, inasmuch as the respectability of those grades hitherto restricted to persons of pure native birth, would be increased by the removal of the existing restrictions,

No. 45.

II.

Madras.

and a large class of appointments to which they are at present ineligible would be opened out to them.

4. Such was the opinion of the Council (with, I believe, one single exception) at the period to which I allude, January 1856, and I was about to address Government on the subject, and to report the measure of amalgamation as being considered by the Council as that best calculated to improve the efficiency of the department, when it occurred to me that certain points connected with the subject had not been fully discussed, and that it would be desirable before submitting so important an alteration to have before me a written statement of the Council's views.

5. In the meantime the opinions of some members of the Council had changed, and I now learn that, after a lengthened discussion, a majority of the Council have pronounced against the proposed plan of amalgamation, and consider that this measure, instead of attracting a superior class of natives into the department, would tend to exclude them from it altogether.

6. The present views of the Council with reference to this measure are stated in detail in the letter of the 25th ultimo, of which a copy is annexed. By those members of the Council who are in favour of the proposed amalgamation of the two branches, native and Eurasian," it is considered that the fact of the natives being debarred, as they are under the present system, from aspiring to an equality with the Eurasian branch, must still more, in their countrymen's eyes, degrade their position in a profession which is not a popular one amongst them, and that this has a marked influence in deterring young men of birth from presenting themselves, not only as candidates for native dresserships, but as stipendiary students."

7. The majority, on the other hand, "feel with regard to this proposition, that the appearance of strict impartiality and abstract justice which in the first instance led them to approve of it, is delusive, and will not bear examination ;" and in support of this view they urge the following considerations :—

66

Amalgamation means placing the European, East Indian, and native all on the same footing, no respect being paid to caste, creed, or colour; they must all pass over the same path of study, and pass through the same examination; from this it is clear that the idea of amalgamation involves that of competition on equal terms. Competition again requires that those who compete shall be on a par, or nearly so, in knowledge and mental attainments; without this, we submit, there can be no real competition. The state of the native department is notorious, and has been so unanimously complained of for a series of past years (as the annual reports of each professor will show), that it is unnecessary to insist on it here; it is admitted on all hands that the natives, as a body, are much inferior in mental attainments to the Europeans and Eurasians; how, then, is it possible to fulfil the conditions required? The question needs no answer these conditions cannot be fulfilled so long as the natives, as a body, are so far behind the other classes; the inference is inevitable. Amalgamation would under these circumstances not be an act of justice to the natives, but a great injustice, as it would nominally put them on a par with those to whom they are really not on a par; and in its working it would certainly exclude them from those higher grades in the service which it professed to open out to them."

"The majority of the College Council quite agree with their colleagues who are in favour of amalgamation that a beginning should be made, but they think that the beginning should be made in the right direction, viz., that of holding out every inducement to the natives and students, by avoiding every thing likely to depress or discourage them, which the proposal to amalgamate them with the other classes, would, in the opinion of the majority, certainly effect."

"The support unanimously given to the recent propositions of the President for training and elevating the natives, shows that this is their feeling. The majority of the College Council have not gone into the reasons why the natives are inferior to the other classes in attainments, they have confined themselves to the statement of the fact. They do not, however, doubt that the imperfect knowledge of the English language is one of the main causes. They are quite

unable