Morning journal and courier., 1881-01-29
HAVEN, conn. SATURDAY MORNING. JANUARY 49, 1881.
Ssalrrnal alto Courier.
Saturday Morning, Jan. 90, 1881.
SOME THINGS The ENGLISH HAVE
DONE FOR INDIA

SOME THINGS THE ENGLISH HAVE
DONE FOR INDIA.
A great deal is said nowadays about the
evils of British rule in India, but we hear
little about its blessings. That the latter are
not insignificant was shown in late address
in London by Sir Richard Temple, who has
spent the best years of his life in India
The English have established in India a
great system of State education, which is
spreading throughout the vast country
There are 66,000 schools and colleges, at
tended by nearly two million boys and girls
Besides the ordinary intellectual education,
medical science and civil engineering are
taught with great success. Little has been
done for technical education, except that in
Madras, and some places in Bombay and the
northwest Provinces special instruction has
been given in agriculture. Valuable indirect
education is also given by a vast system of
public registration of property in land, the
surveys being made at government expense
and corrected yearly. ALI documents rela-
ting to personal property are also registered
and the natives are thus taught to respect
documents. The respect for law and justice
Indirectly taught by the protection given to
the poor is of great value. The poor men
were once compelled to give carts, cattle and
labor. They are now told that neither physi-
cal nor moral force will be used to compel
them to do so that they are free to do as
they choose. Arbitration is also encouraged.
A great change has taken place in the man
agement of the prisons, which were formerly
unventilated and filthy. In them great cru
city was exercised. Convicts are now treat
ed as reasonable beings, and some effort is
made to teach them trades. The Indians are
naturally charitable, but under their sway
there was no organized public charity it was
all desultory. The English have introduced
preventive sanitary measures, dispensaries,
hospitals, etc. These have had good moral
effect on the natives.
More than ten thousand miles of railroad
are open in India, and the number of native
passengers Is about thirty-five millions. For
merly, correspondence was carried on by pri-
vate posts at present there are nearly sixty
thousand miles of government postal commu-
nication, and the number of letters has risen
from fifty millions to one hundred and thirty
millions year. The telegraph and savings
banks are in use by the natives, who at first
held aloof from them. Through the latter
they are learning thrift, a much needed les
son. One result of these and other changes
is a great elevation in the standard of moral
rectitude. In the days when Sir Richard
Temple first went to India, corruption was
rife among public servants. Now the native
high officials are as honest and trustworthy
as English gentlemen. The natives them
selves attribute this change to English edu-
cation.
The speaker predicted the most remark
during the next generation !. Brahmin girls
already attend school. and as they rank high
est of all, their example will make public
education fashionable. Although Indian
women have not had intellectual develop
ment, they have at all times shown consider
able ability. There is scarcely native State
which has not been at some time ably gov
erned by woman.
With all this change and progress, little
impression is made upon the greatest obstacle
to Indian advancement, the institution of
caste. Neither have the religious beliefs of
the majority of the people been materially
affected. Most of the upper classes have lost |
faith in their ancient religion without sub |
stituting another. They do not become ma
but believe in immortality, in an
all-wise Judge who will decide the eternal |
destiny of all persons acco ording to their life
in this world, and in unchanging principles |
of right and wrong And with all that has |
been done for education only one per cent of |
the population receives it and the facilities |
for acquiring knowledge do not keep pace |
with the increase of the population. Never
theless, it is plain that real advance is max |
ing towards the solution of the difficulties in |
India