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of it as in the interior of Bengal.* The substitution of a single humane and enlightened landlord would be a blessing to a whole neighbourhood. The elevation of the character of the whole class would be a national benefit of the first magnitude. A great deal has been said about the advantage of having English landholders, but till lately nothing has been done to render the native landholders, who must always be the majority, more fit for the performance of their duties. In Bengal, owing to the indolent and intemperate habits, and consequent early deaths of many of the great zemindars, minorities are frequent, and a large proportion of the landed property of the country falls under the management of the government in the course of a few years. In the western provinces, where landed property exists in a more wholesome form, a new settlement for thirty years has given peace of mind, leisure, and comparative opulence to the agricultural classes. If these circumstances are

As by the permanent settlement we have put the agricultural classes into the hands of the Bengal zemindars, we are bound, as far as we are able, to qualify the latter to exercise their power aright. The new men who have purchased their estates under our system are, as a class, friendly to improvement; but when they take up their abode in parts of the country where there are no means of obtaining a tolerable education, they become after a generation or two as ignorant and bigoted as the rest.

properly taken advantage of, we shall ere long be able to make a salutary impression on this most important part of the community.

While the general question of native education was debated in the committee, a distinct but deeply interesting branch of the subject underwent a similar examination elsewhere. The instruction of the natives in the medical art had hitherto been provided for as follows. The systems of Galen and Hippocrates, and of the Shasters, with the addition of a few scraps of European medical science, was taught in classes which had been attached for that purpose to the Arabic and Sanskrit colleges at Calcutta. There was also a separate institution at Calcutta, the object of which was to train up "native doctors," or assistants to the European medical officers. There was only one teacher attached to this institution, and he delivered his lectures in Hindusthanee. The only medical books open to the pupils were a few short tracts which had been translated for their use into that language; the only dissection practised was that of the inferior animals. It is obvious that the knowledge communicated by such imperfect means could neither be complete nor practical.

Much public benefit had been derived in the

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judicial and revenue administration from the substitution of cheap native, for dear European agency. Lord William Bentinck now proposed to extend this plan to the medical department, and to raise up a class of native medical practitioners, educated on sound European principles, to supersede the native quacks who, unacquainted with anatomy or the simplest principles of chemical action, prey on the people, and hesitate not to use the most dangerous drugs and poisons. Physicians and surgeons, however, were not to be had ready-made, like judges and collectors. A professional education was necessary, and it was doubtful whether the natives would submit to the conditions which this education implied. A committee was therefore appointed to inquire into and report on the subject.

After a careful investigation, the committee came to the conclusion that it was perfectly feasible to educate native medical men on broad

European principles, some of whom might be gradually substituted for the foreign practitioners at the civil and military stations, and others might be sent out among the mass of their countrymen, to give them the inestimable blessing of enlightened medical attendance. With regard to practical human anatomy, they stated it as their opinion

that “times are much changed, and the difficulties that stood in the way appear no longer insurmountable;" and they considered a knowledge of the English language to be a necessary previous qualification in the pupils, "because that language combines within itself the circle of all the sciences, and incalculable wealth of printed works and illustrations; circumstances that give it obvious advantages over the oriental languages, in which are only to be found the crudest elements of science, or the most irrational substitutes for it."

This point, however, was not attained without encountering a sharp opposition. The superintendent of the medical institution, a learned and enthusiastic orientalist, set in array the arguments of his party, and confidently predicted the failure

of every attempt to remodel the institution on the principles advocated by the medical committee. The Rev. Mr. (now Doctor) Duff, to whom the cause of sound learning and true religion in the East is deeply indebted, took up the opposite side. The battle which had been so well contested in the education committee was fought over again in this new field; but I must refer to the extract from the medical committee's report in the appendix for the substance of what was said on both sides.

In accordance with the recommendation of this committee, the old medical institution and the Arabic and Sanskrit medical classes were abolished, and an entirely new college was founded, in which the various branches of medical science cultivated in Europe are taught on the most approved European system. The establishment of professors, the library, the museum, are on the most liberal scale. A hospital is about to be opened on the premises belonging to the college, for the purpose of giving the students the advantage of clinical instruction. Distinguished pupils are drafted from the different provincial seminaries to the medical college, and it is intended to establish dispensaries, including the necessary provision for vaccination and for the treatment of surgical cases, at the principal towns in the interior, which will be placed under the charge of young men who have been educated at the college. European medical science will thus strike root at once in many different parts of Gangetic India, and the knowledge acquired at the new institution will be employed from the earliest possible period in alleviating the sufferings of the people. Of all the late measures for the promotion of education in India, this alone was adopted in anticipation of the effectual demand; and the stipends, which had always been

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