was a member of the University of Cambridge, and seven Native professors, three of whom are Masters of Arts. The schools attached to the college have an English head-master, and Native teachers of English, Arabic, Persian, and Hindi. Religious instruction is given to Mohammedan students, both Sunni and Shiah, in Arabic or Persian, as a part of the daily exercise; but although the college was primarily intended for Mohammedans, so much sympathy and generosity were displayed by Hindu friends, that its secular classes have been thrown open to Hindus also. In regard to scholarships and prizes, the rules of the college show no partiality to Mohammedans, and separate boardinghouses are provided for Hindu students. The college is affiliated to the Allahabad University, and, with the schools attached, contains some 300 students.

"The business of the college,' says the Report of the Education Commission, is managed by two committees; one, composed of Native and European gentlemen, dealing with matters of instruction only; the other, composed entirely of Native gentlemen, which regulates the general concerns of the institution. Much of the popularity of the college is due to the provision for the residence of students belonging to families of the upper classes. The rooms of the first-class boarders are scarcely less comfortable than those of an under-graduate at Oxford or Cambridge, and the Mussulmans take their meals together in a dining-hall.'

I will finish this account of Syad Ahmad Khan's college with his own words, addressed especially to his English friends, assembled at Aligarh in January 1877, when Lord Lytton, the Viceroy, laid the foundationstone of the new buildings.

'The personal honour,' he said, which you have done me assures me of a great fact, and fills me with feelings of a much higher nature than mere personal gratitude. I am assured that you, who upon this occasion represent the British rule, have

sympathies with our labours, and to me this assurance is very valuable, and a source of great happiness. At my time of life it is a comfort to me to feel that the undertaking which has been for many years, and is now, the sole object of my life, has roused, on the one hand, the energies of my own countrymen, and, on the other, it has won the sympathy of our British fellow-subjects and the support of our rulers; so that when the few years I may still be spared are over, and when I shall be no longer amongst you, the college will still prosper, and succeed in educating my countrymen to have the same affection for their country, the same feelings of loyalty for the British rule, the same appreciation of its blessings, the same sincerity of friendship with our British fellow-subjects as have been the ruling feelings of my life.'

Syad Ahmad Khan's task is by no means completed. Although the college has found liberal supporters, and has made extraordinary progress, the Mohammedan community is generally poor, and if more money were forthcoming the benefits of the college might be very greatly extended. The income is insufficient, and to complete the college buildings a considerable sum is wanted. There are many people in England anxious to assist, if they knew how, the work of Indian progress. Let them send their help to Sir Syad Ahmad Khan's college. They could find no more certain way of doing good.1

When the Indian universities were first established, Lord Canning expressed the hope that the time was near when the nobility and upper classes of India would think that they had not had the dues of their rank

1 Sir Syad Ahmad Khan was for some years a member of the Council of the Governor-General for making laws and regulations. He is now a member of the Legislative Council in the North-Western Provinces, and the Queen has recognised his great services by conferring on him the dignity of Knight Commander of the Star of India.

unless they passed through the course of the university. This expectation has not been fulfilled. The upper classes, even where no religious objections have existed, have for the most part kept themselves aloof. India being a country where the influence of birth and position is extremely great, this is unfortunate, but there is nothing in the fact that is surprising. The princes and chiefs and great landholders of India have never, with rare exceptions, been educated. To be absolutely illiterate usually involves, even at the present time, no discredit; sometimes, indeed, it is held positively honourable, because to be anything else would be a violation of immemorial custom. Native chiefs and nobles have shown, with comparatively rare exceptions, no disposition to send their sons. to our colleges, because they attach little value to education, and are afraid of social contamination.

A good beginning has, however, been made in this matter, through the institution of special colleges. The most important of these is the Mayo College at Ajmir, established by desire of Lord Mayo for the education of the sons and relatives of the chiefs, nobles, and principal families of Rajputána. Many of them have sent their sons to the college. It has been liberally endowed by the principal chiefs, and receives a grantin-aid from our Government.

English, Sanskrit, Hindi, Persian, Urdu, arithmetic, algebra, Euclid, history, and geography are now among the studies of the college. It is not desired to make these young chiefs great scholars, but to encourage in them a healthy tone and manly habits. To this end the training they receive is admirably adapted. If at the outset the chiefs displayed no great alacrity in sending their relatives, and if some of these looked with dislike upon their new phase of life, the experience of the past

seven years has almost entirely dissipated the earlier reluctance. All the principal States have erected boarding-houses for their own cadets.'1

Institutions with similar objects have been established at Lahore, and in several other places. There is no doubt that in this respect progress is being made, and the rising generation will be better informed than its predecessors.

The Government and aided institutions in British India for higher education in connection with the universities numbered 111 in the year 1886, with nearly 11,000 scholars.

The systems followed in different provinces in respect of secondary education vary so much that no description would be generally applicable. There is usually at the head-quarters of every district a Government Higher school, where English and the subjects required for the entrance examinations at the universities are taught. Many schools of a similar kind have been established by missionaries, and receive grants-inaid. In most of the smaller towns there is a Middle school, giving an education intermediate between that given in the higher and primary schools, and English is sometimes taught. In 1886 there were 4,400 Government and aided institutions of various kinds for secondary education in British India, with 420,000 scholars.

There were formerly many advocates in India of what was called the downward filtration' theory of education. They believed that it was wiser to concentrate our efforts on the higher education of a few rather than attempt the task of giving elementary education to the masses of the population, but for many years past the

1 Report of Education Commission, p. 482.

Government has adhered to the only true principle, that while the importance of giving every legitimate encouragement to higher education must be fully recognised, the main duty of the State lies in providing means of primary instruction to the classes which can make no provision for themselves. I need not enlarge on the magnitude of such an undertaking in India. Anything like compulsory education is out of the question. Even if unlimited funds were available, it would be impossible to succeed, except by slow degrees, and by steady perseverance through a long course of years, in educating any large proportion of 200,000,000 people, nearly the whole of whom are now totally illiterate, and filled to a degree which can hardly be exaggerated with the prejudices of ignorance, and caste, and superstition. It was an almost inevitable consequence of the difficulty of such an undertaking that the Government, notwithstanding the principles that it had laid down for its guidance, should spend too large a proportion of the available funds on higher education, the results of which were more immediately apparent, and too little on the extension of elementary instruction.

In some parts of India there have been, from time immemorial, large numbers of village and local schools, in which instruction of an elementary kind is given. In the Hindu schools the instruction is chiefly or wholly secular; the Mohammedan schools have a religious character. In Bengal, in particular, these indigenous schools have always been numerous. In Bombay, on the other hand, it was found that in 90 per cent. of the villages there were no schools at all. The measures taken by the Educational departments have been much affected by facts of this nature. In Bengal and in Madras the existing system of primary