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first small chasm begins to creep along the wall, it is a sign,an unfailing sign, that their days are numbered.

Such has been the fate of other republics; who shall assure us that it will not be so with ours? It is not despotism,—it is not the iron chain, that we have reason to dread. No, it is rather the unsoundness in the fabric, which renders it necessary to use that chain, without which no one would ever think of using it. Despotism is only the strong hand, which comes to hold together for a season decaying institutions, which are already tumbling to their fall. There are some who think they can trace such crevices in the walls of our republic;there are some who think at times, that they hear hollow sounds in its foundations, as if the stones were beginning to burst asunder. There is hope,—there is reason to hope for better things; but, if it should be so, our fall will be owing to the same cause with that of the Hebrew republic, — that we are not worthy to be free. The glorious gift of freedom must be reserved in the treasuries of Heaven for some other race, more enlightened and virtuous, and therefore more blessed, than ours.

And now let me ask, What other legislator of ancient times is still exerting any influence upon the world? What philosopher, what statesman of ancient times, can boast a single disciple now? What other voice comes down to us, over the stormy waves of time? But this man is at this day, at this hour, exerting a mighty influence over millions; the whole Hebrew nation do homage to his illustrious name. Though the daily sacrifice has ceased, and the distinction of the tribes is lost, though the temple has not left one stone upon another, and the altar-fires have been extinguished long ago,-still wherever a Jew is found, and they are found wherever the foot of an adventurer travels, he is a living monument of the power which the great Hebrew statesman still has over the minds and hearts of his countrymen.

And now let us take one glance at the death of this prophet, — the close of a life so laborious and honored. Up to his one hundred and twentieth year, his eye was not dim, nor had his strength abated. But now,-when he stands almost on the edge of the promised land, his last hour of mortal life is come. To conduct his people to that land had been his daily effort, and his nightly dream; and yet he is not permitted to enter it, though it would never have been the home of Israel,

but for him. He ascends a mountain to die, and there the land of promise spreads out its romantic landscape at his feet. There is Gilead, with its deep valleys and forest-covered hills; there are the rich plains and pastures of Dan; there is Judah with its rocky heights, and Jericho with its palm-trees and rosegardens; there is the Jordan, seen from Lebanon, downward winding over its yellow sands; the long blue line of the Mediterranean can be seen over the mountain battlements of the west. On this magnificent death-bed, the Statesman of Israel breathed his last. Lest the gratitude which so often follows the dead, though denied to the living, should pay him divine honors, they buried him in darkness and silence, and no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day.

W. B. O. P.

ART. II. Report on the State of Education in Bengal. Published by the Order of Government. Calcutta: 1835. 8vo. pp. 137.

THE English government has been turning its attention for some time towards the establishment of a system of national education, to be applied, with the necessary modifications, at home and in the Colonies; and, as a preliminary step, it is taking the proper measures for ascertaining what is already done to supply this want, by the people themselves, or by benevolent societies or foundations. The Report before us, which is intended to give the information required respecting the existing state of education in Bengal, was drawn up by Mr. Adam, whose name is familiar to most of our readers as having been a Unitarian Missionary for some time at Calcutta. If, in his efforts in connexion with the Board of Education, he succeeds in determining the government to the adoption of some wise plan of general instruction and civilization in British India, he will do more, though indirectly, for the ultimate diffusion of pure Christianity in that country, than all the missionaries put together. We think, moreover, that he is right in the general principle, that the plan adopted by the government for the improvement of the morals and intellect of the native population,

should be, as far as practicable, based upon and accommodated to the indigenous institutions for this purpose, closely interwoven as these are with the habits of the people, and the customs of the country, and all other peculiarities of climate and physical and mental constitution, and, we may add, by no means so few or contemptible in themselves, as we had supposed.

Mr. Adam divides the existing educational institutions of India into four classes. 1. Indigenous Elementary Schools, or schools in which the elements of knowledge are taught, and which owe their existence to, and are supported by the natives. themselves, in contradistinction to those that are supported by religious or philanthropic societies. 2. Elementary Schools, not Indigenous, or schools for elementary instruction, attended by the native children, but supported by, and entirely under the control of foreign residents or benevolent associations. 3. Indigenous Schools of Learning, or colleges in which the higher branches of an Oriental education are provided for at the expense and under the sole direction of natives. 4. English Colleges and Schools, including all those institutions, both of a higher and lower grade, one of whose principal objects is to teach the English language, and through that medium European science and literature.

We have been most interested in the accounts given in the Report of the Indigenous Elementary Schools, from which it appears, as Mr. Adam says, that the system of village schools has long been extensively prevalent in Bengal, and that the design to give education to their male children must be deeply seated in the minds of parents, even of the humblest classes.

"A distinguished member of the General Committee of Public Instruction in a minute on the subject expressed the opinion, that if one rupee per mensem were expended on each existing village school in the Lower Provinces, the amount would probably fall little short of 12 lakhs of rupees per annum. This supposes that there are 100,000 such schools in Bengal and Behar; and, assuming the population of those two provinces to be 40,000,000, there would be a village school for every 400 persons. There are no data in this country known to me by which to determine, out of this number, the proportion of school-going children, or of children capable of going to school, or of children of the age at which, according to the custom of the country, it is usual to go to school. In Prussia it has been ascertained by actual census, that, in a population of 12,256,725, there were 4,487,461 children under fourteen years of age, which gives 366 children for every 1,000 inhabitants,

or about eleven-thirtieths of the nation. Of this entire population of children it is calculated that three-sevenths are of an age to go to school, admitting education in the schools to begin at the age of seven years complete, and there is thus in the entire Prussian monarchy the number of 1,823,200 children capable of receiving the benefits of education. These proportions will not strictly apply to the juvenile population of this country, because the usual age for going to school is from five to six, and the usual age for leaving school is from ten to twelve instead of fourteen. There are thus two sources of discrepancy. The school-going age is shorter in India than in Prussia, which must have the effect of diminishing the total number of school-going children; while, on the other hand, that diminished number is not exposed to the causes of mortality to which the total school-going population of Prussia is liable from the age of twelve to fourteen. In want of more precise data, let us suppose that these two contrary discrepancies balance each other, and we shall then be at liberty to apply the Prussian proportions to this country. Taking therefore eleven-thirtieths of the abovementioned 400 persons, and three-sevenths of the result, it will follow that in Bengal and Behar there is on an average a village school for every sixty-three children of the school-going age. These children, however, include girls as well as boys; and, as there are no indigenous girls' schools, if we take the male and female children to be in equal or nearly equal proportions, there will appear to be an indigenous elementary school for every thirty-one or thirty-two boys." - pp. 8, 9.

But lest our readers should form too high an opinion of the state of elementary education in these countries, it will be proper to make them acquainted with the quantity and quality of instruction given in these seminaries.

"The education of the Bengalee children, as has been just stated, generally commences when they are five or six years old and terminates in five years, before the mind can be fully awakened to a sense of the advantages of knowledge or the reason sufficiently matured to acquire it. The teachers depend entirely upon their scholars for subsistence, and, being little respected and poorly rewarded, there is no encouragement for persons of character, talent, or learning to engage in the occupation. These schools are generally held in the houses of some of the most respectable native inhabitants or very near them. All the children of the family are educated in the vernacular language of the country; and in order to increase the emoluments of the teachers, they are allowed to introduce, as pupils, as many respectable children as they can procure in the neighbourhood. The scholars begin with tracing the vowels and consonants with the finger on a sand-board and afterwards on the floor

with a pencil of steatite or white crayon; and this exercise is continued for eight or ten days. They are next instructed to write on the palm-leaf with a reed-pen held in the fist, not with the fingers, and with ink made of charcoal which rubs out, joining vowels to the consonants, forming compound letters, syllables, and words, and learning tables of numeration, money, weight, and measure, and the correct mode of writing the distinctive names of persons, castes, and places. This is continued about a year. The iron style is now used only by the teacher in sketching on the palmleaf the letters which the scholars are required to trace with ink. They are next advanced to the study of arithmetic and the use of the plantain-leaf in writing with ink made of lamp-black, which is continued about six months, during which they are taught addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, and the simplest cases of the mensuration of land and commercial and agricultural accounts, together with the modes of address proper in writing letters to different persons. The last stage of this limited course of instruction is that in which the scholars are taught to write with lamp-black ink on paper, and are further instructed in agricultural and commercial accounts and in the composition of letters. In country places, the rules of arithmetic are principally applied to agricultural, and in towns to commercial accounts; but in both town and country schools the instruction is superficial and defective. It may be safely affirmed, that, in no instance whatever, is the orthography of the language of the country acquired in those schools; for, although in some of them two or three of the more advanced boys write out small portions of the most popular poetical compositions of the country, yet the manuscript copy itself is so inaccurate, that they only become confirmed in a most vitiated manner of spelling, which the imperfect qualifications of the teacher do not enable him to correct. The scholars are entirely without instruction, both literary and oral, regarding the personal virtues and domestic and social duties. The teacher, in virtue of his character or in the way of advice or reproof, exercises no moral influence on the character of his pupils. For the sake of pay, he performs a menial service in the spirit of a menial. On the other hand, there is no text or school-book used containing any moral truths or liberal knowledge; so that education, being limited entirely to accounts, tends rather to narrow the mind and confine its attention to sordid gain, than to improve the heart and enlarge the understanding. This description applies, as far as I at present know, to all indigenous elementary schools throughout Bengal." — pp. 10, 11.

In treating particularly of the District of Hooghly, the Report says:

"The indigenous elementary schools amongst Hindoos in this

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