ing remarks by Mr. Sharp, Director of
Public Instruction in Eastern Bengal, on the position of female
education, adding that they describe the prevailing, if not quite
universal, state of affairs:--

"All efforts to promote female education have hitherto encountered
peculiar difficulties. These difficulties arise chiefly from the customs
of the people themselves. The material considerations, which have formed
a contributing factor in the spread of boys' schools, are inoperative in
the case of girls. The natural and laudable desire for education as an
end in itself, which is evinced by the upper and middle classes as
regards their sons, is no match for the conservative instincts of the
Mahomedans, the system of early marriage among the Hindus, and the rigid
seclusion of women which is a characteristic of both. These causes
prevent any but the most elementary education from being given to girls.
The lack of female teachers and the alleged unsuitability of the
curriculum, which is asserted to have been framed more with a view to
the requirements of boys than those of girls, form subsidiary reasons or
excuses against more rapid progress. To these difficulties may be added
the belief, perhaps more widely felt than expressed, that the general
education of women means a social revolution, the extent of which cannot
be foreseen. 'Indian gentlemen,' it has been well said, 'may thoroughly
allow that when the process has been completed, the nation will rise in
intelligence, in character and in all the graces of life. But they are
none the less apprehensive that while the process of education is going
on, while the lessons of emancipation are being learnt and stability has
not yet been reached, while, in short, society is slowly struggling to
adjust itself to the new conditions, the period of transition will be
marked by the loosening of social ties, the upheaval of customary ways,
and by prolonged and severe domestic embarrassment.' There is, it is
true, an advanced section of the community that is entirely out of
sympathy with this view. In abandoning child-marriage they have got rid
of the chief obstacle to female education; and it is among them,
consequently, that female education has made proportionately the
greatest progress in quantity and still more in quality. But outside
this small and well-marked class, the demand for female education is
much less active and spontaneous.... In fact the people at large
encourage or tolera