render his inquiry at once extensive in its scope, and complete and accurate in its details,—it is not too much to say, that the returns must be regarded as the most perfect of the kind ever yet obtained in India, and, in general, worthy of the most assured and undoubting confidence. It was his earnest desire, as he himself tells us, to contribute “some facts illustrative of the moral and intellectual condition of a branch of the human family; and in the prosecution of this purpose he endeavoured to keep constantly present to his own mind, to the minds of his native assistants, and to the minds of all with whom he came into communication on the subject, the necessity of that rigid and undeviating adherence to accuracy of detail, which can alone give to alleged facts the sacred and salutary character of truth.”
We now proceed to furnish an epitome or abstract of the important information supplied in so authentic and trustworthy a form by Mr. Adam. And, in doing so, we shall find it convenient to adopt his own division of the subject into Elementary Education and Schools of Learning. First, then our business is with—
elementary education.
Public Schools.—Throughout all the zillahs or districts of Bengal and Behar, elementary education is divisible into two sorts, public and private, according as it is communicated in public schools or private families. We shall begin with the public schools, and consider these with reference successively to the following points, viz., the vernacular media of instruction; the school-houses; the teachers, their caste, means of support, qualifications, and age; the pupils or scholars, their class and caste, initiation, and period of attendance; the nature and amount of the instruction communicated; and the system of discipline.
1. The vernacular media of instruction. These are chiefly Bengali in the Bengal, and Hindi in the Behar, districts. In Burdwan, Bengali, and in South Behar, Hindi, are exclusively used; but in Midnapore, Uriya is largely employed as well as Bengali. In the city of Moorshedabad and the district of Beerbhoom, Hindi is used, to a very limited extent, in addition to Bengali; and in some parts of Tirhoot, Trihutiya, in addition to Hindi, prevails as the language of conversation, of verbal instruction, and of correspondence, but it is never employed as the language of literary composition. And here we must specially note a very remarkable fact elicited by Mr. Adam. It is this,—that the Bengali is “the language of the Musalman as well as of the Hindu population;” and that, though “the Hindustani or Urdu
