rprising lady-educationist announced that she was opening in Black
Town a 'Female Boarding School,' in which her young ladies would be
'genteelly boarded, tenderly treated, carefully Educated, and the most
strict attention paid to their Morals,' and the school was to be
conducted as far as possible 'in the manner most approv'd of in
England.' The enterprising lady-educationist was a Mrs. Murray, who
had been a mistress in the Female Asylum. Her syllabus of education
was of a more feminine sort than that which was followed at the Madras
Academy; for, as announced in the prospectus, it included 'Reading and
Writing, the English language and Arithmetic; Music, French, Drawing
and Dancing; with Lace, Tambour, and Embroidery, all sorts of Plain
and Flowered needle-work.' The two syllabuses are interesting
reminders as to what were the usual subjects of education for European
boys and girls a century and a half ago.

Schools, therefore, were available for children of every
class--European and Indian, rich and poor; but the schools for
Indians, conducted either by missionaries or by indigenous teachers,
were of an elementary kind; and, apart from Oriental studies in
indigenous institutions, there was little or nothing in the way of
higher education for Indians either in Madras or anywhere else in
India. This condition was altered, however, during the governorship of
Lord William Bentinck, the magnanimous if not brilliant
governor-general whose term of office lasted for seven years, from
1828 to 1835.

During this period everything favoured educational progress in India.
There was peace in England and there was peace in India. It was a time
of great educational developments in England, as is manifested by the
fact that within this period the London University and Durham
University were opened, and the great British Association for the
Advancement of Science was established. Such conditions in England had
their influence in India, and the more so because Lord William
Bentinck was ardent for progress. The opening of the Madras Medical
College in 1835 was one of the signs of the times. During Lord William
Bentinck's term of office education in India was reformed. Macaulay,
afterwards Lord Macaulay, was an Indian official at the time, and he
penned a notable report on education in India, in which he belittled
vernacular learning and asserted that the Government of India would do
well to discountenance it altogether, and to introd