The Sun.
London, England, 1821-09-27 00:00:00

necessity of knowing Hindostanee applied ; and the evils which
practicatly arose from a want of it were often imminent and se-
rious. The• Hon. Gentleman herereferred to several high au-
tirarities. for the
_purpose of showing the comparative inatten.;
tion paid towards inculcating the necessary knowledge of the ru-
diments of those native lanemages, which were indispensable
fnr.the proper performance of the new duties to which the atm.
tion of the Company's servants Were celled upon their arrival in
India- The Marquess of Ilastinga particularly pointed out the,
ill consequences which bad restilteit'rom an inattention general-
ly to the rudiments of the, Ilindottanee language in the educa-
tion of the Company's servants destined for active &flies among
the natives. [Alt. Colehrooke's and Lord- Minto's opinions
were also,referred to by the lie oct;eeiiie Member, for the pur-
pose of more effectually pointing .I,e-attention of the Court to the
great advantages which must practikally flow from the dissemin-
ation of Dr. Gikhrist's plan for .4444ethe: hadnstan ee, whi
as wasp well sail,- was the conn: 'l;oesenicle.47,,,pll colloquial inter-
course iuea large 'caution of thelnferpanyT,'territerics.] Lord
Minna pointed out how comparatively. useless it was to send out
persons conversant in Sanscrit, which was a dead language, in-
stead of Hindostanee, which was a liVing one: They might as
well, he said, *end persOus to'do general duties in England,
who instead of the English language, were ,only acquainted
with Hebrew.. The hon. 'member then complained that, . not-
withstanding the acknowledged superiority of Dr. Gilchrist's
system of education, a. different one should be .blindly perse-
vered in at the Company's colleges at Addiscolnbe and Hay-
leybury :• sot that, in point of fact, those who had. studied at
home were obliged, 'on arrival in India, altogether to de-
part from their previous line of study, and adopt that of Dr.
Gilchrist, which was alone taught in India.. All who were ac-•
quainted with the oriental languages knew that there were two
modes of teaching their rudimentse—one was Sir W. Jones's, and
which consisted, for the purpose of acquiring the proper pro-
nunciation, of rules RR' giving to roman characters a .certain
sound resembling that in use among- the natiVeS. This plan.
was complex, for it. became necessary that letters should be ac- •
companied, according to the old plan, with marks of accent •
above and below, so as to denote one,, two; or more sounds, of
which they were susceptible. Now Dr. Gilchrist's was a far •
easier and more comprehensive plan, and had entirely exploded
Sir William Jones's in India. Sir James Macintosh, •Lieute-
nant Irvine, and several other ofikial persons in India, who
had turned their attention to the subject, had pointed out the
advantages which Dr. Gilchrist's plan possessed over every
other in - previous practice. It was quite preposterous, he
thought, that the Company should teach Hindostanee accord-
ing to one plan in England, and upon a different one in India.
The honourable member enforced his opinion of the value of
the Doctor's plan by pointing out its adoption. in Dr. Hunter's
valuable dictionary, and Mr. Campbell's grammar; and said,
that for one book printed upon
.Sir William Jones's system,
there were 300 upon Dr. Gilchrist's. 'From the fullest inquiries,
he.(Mr. Hume) had.had it in his power to make,-. and from his
own actual experience, he knew no man -Who had so strong a
claim upon the Company as the gentleman he had named.--
1)r. Gilchrist's abilities and services had been repeatedly sub-
mitted to the COurt as entitling him to their most marked at-
tention. The Doitor was the first man, after the Company had
Subjected for 50 years to their authority the native troops, who
translated for the latter the articles of war. Colonel Scott in the
year 1796 quoted that circmnstance among other meritorious
services of a similar nature performed by the Doctor ; and in the
year 1804 when ill health compelled him to leave India, the
Governor in Council (the Marquis Wellesley) transmitted to
the Court of Directors the strongest recommendation of the
Doctor's services. He referred to these facts merely to show
that the present mark of attention conferred on Dr. Gilchrist
was but a small favour in return for services performed under
such flattering circumstances many -years ago. That tribute
was due from him (Mr. 'Hume) to. Pr. Gilchrist, -for he knew
that much of his progress in India was attributable to the in-
struction in the native languages which- he had derived from
that learned and respectable individual. When the proposed
remuneration was considered, it should not be forgotten that Dr.
Gilchrist had been five years in his situation in India, when ill
health compelled him to leave the country ' • had he been seven
years, according to the college regulations, he would have been
entitled to retire upon a pension of 7001. a year, and he had now
but 1201. a year pension for all his past services. The present
addition was, however, extremely proper, though it fell short
of what such a man's services deserved. He (Mr. Hume), when
he enforced the necessity of the Company's adopting Dr. Gil-
christ's plan of teaching the Hindostanee to all their servants
going'out to India, by no means wished to damp the study of
the higher orientaflanguages, which might be considered more
as branches of accomplishment, than as acquirements of imme-
diate practical utility. These would always find students and
admirers, as classical learning uniformly
.did ; all he meant was,
thatthe study of the. colloquial language in common use should
be deemed- an indispensable acquisition, and he intended to
have submitted a motion upon the subject; he would however,
for the present, merely suggest the subject to the .reconsidera-
tion of the Court of Directors, in the confident hope that they
would see the evident utility of adopting his suggestion. FroSt
the year 1793 to the year 1812, when their charter was renewed,
there had been 4,728 cadets sent out to India, and 592 assistant
surgeons. In the year 1813, 3,467 cadets were all that remain-
ed in Bombay- and Madras : and had Dr. Gilchrist's plan been
then more generally adopted, they might have reckoned on
the whole number he had alluded to fully understanding the
native languages. How was it in the present year? Of 496
sent out to India, only 55 had been educated at their college;
fortunately, however, in the year 1819, 165 had been educated
by Dr. Gilchrist, at an expence of 2001., being equal in pro-
portion to twice the number, whose education had previously
cost 20,0001. In 1820 he had educated 228 ; and in 1821, 226 ;
all valuable to the Company's service in proportion to their
power of discharging their duties, with more efficiency and sa-
tisfaction, according to their knowledge of the people among
whom they had to -live. It was the want of so necessary an
acnuieement which made the admission of strangers into India
objectionable: let them merely qualify themselves to commune
with the inhabitants by a knowledge of their language, and
then he, for one, saw no danger to their residence in India.
Many of the evils which arose from the misconduct of Euro-
peans and the vain consequences assumed by them among the
natives would have been obidated if the parties could have bet-
ter communicated with each other.. M hen it was considered
that previous to going out to India an attendance for . two
months upon Dr. Gilchrist would obtain the necessary elemen-
tary knowledge, it was surprising that so valuable an oppor-
tunity should be disregarded. 'the only objection he had ever
heard was, that it would expose inexperienced youths to the
dangers of a two months' residence, perhaps at a distance fr an
their families, in such a metropolis as this. .It was asked,
" Would you expose a boy nn his raw state, one just caught,
suppose-from Scotland— (a laugh),--fo all the allurements of
London ?" To this lie should reply, that he thought the ad-
vantages greatly outweighed the risk, and he saw no great
harm even from the knowledge of the world which, independ-
ent of the professional education, was to be acquired by such a
domicile. • Let them bear in mind-the cheapness of the pro-
posed education, compared with the expellee of 50,0001., which
they had previously, on a much smaller scale, 'obtained ; and
then reflect on what was due to Dr. Gilchrist's labours.
Mr. LowsmEs, (who had just entered the Court) " 50,0901,
for whet education ?"
Mr. HirME.—" For education in some of. the Indian lan-
gune...es."
Mr. LowNnEs.—" An Asiatic and luxuriant price for educa-
tion indeed." •
Mr. II I; ME said, that his objection was not so much to- the
sum expended, as to the system upon which it was applied.,..:
He referred again to the liberality which Dr. Gilchrist road
ways displayed, and the enthusiasm with winch he had devoted-
his talents to extend the knowledge of the native languages,
quite regardless of personal 'considerations. It was the
bywish of
.the Doctor, that instead. of three guineas, the sum now paid ),
medical students for the course of lectures, the price should lie
only one guinea, and the instruction extendedi to .all those sent
Out to India by the Company. By that course they would have
the advantage of this most essential branch. of education beint
general among their servants, and.ata price which' brought it
completely within the reaelt .of those whose means-were the
limited.-(Year.)- most limited.-(Year.)

Mr. R. JACICSON expressed his entire concurrence in every
thing
.which -bad fallen from his•llon. Friend- respecting the
merits of Dr. Gilchrist, whose services he highly extolled • and
• •• • • ••- • '