ple
or themselves. The money spent in three years on the insane war in
Cabul, if expended on the construction of railroads or canals, or the
extension of steam navigation on our great rivers, would have employed
thousands of men for twenty years, returned an immense profit to
government, and have gained them a good name among the people. But it is
the misfortune of India, that notwithstanding the high qualities of
energy and enterprise, united with superior education and intelligence,
unquestionably possessed by its masters, they display so lamentable and
apathetic an indifference to the amelioration of the country. Since I
have had such opportunities of observing the proofs of English art and
skill which I see every where and in every department, I cannot but the
more deeply regret that these wonderful discoveries, and strange and
unheard-of inventions, in every branch of science and art, are likely to
remain unknown to the people of India. If I were to relate on my return
all the wonders I have seen, no one would believe me: and to what could
I appeal in evidence of the truth of what I say? Are there any
establishments where these things can be shown to the people on any
thing like an adequate scale? If such institutions had been established,
the people would have some tangible proof of the real intellectual
superiority of their English rulers: but in the lapse of seventy years,
nothing has been done. Again, if seminaries had been founded on the
principle of those built and endowed by the emperors, they might have
produced men eminent in various faculties: but though it is true that
schools were built by the Company some fifteen years since, in various
parts of the empire, in which some thousands of children, both Hindoo
and Moslem, have received education, they have never turned out a single
man of superior attainments in any department of literature there
taught:--and it is remarkable that not an instance exists, as far as I
am aware, of a man thus educated in the Company's own schools having
been selected for the high judicial offices of _Sadr-ameen_, and
principal _Sadr-ameen_ (judges in the local courts;) but that these
functionaries have invariably been chosen from those educated in the
native method. Is not this strange, that Government should have
established schools professing to give superior instruction to the
people; and that not one so trained should have been found eligible to
fill any of the judicial or