had received to-day much more praise than he was disposed to give it. It was by Mr. Malthus, and he said in one part, "Every man acquainted with our universities must know,that young persons may come to them from a domestic education, apparently inno. cent, and yet in less than two years richly deserve to be expelled. Instances of this kind have fallen within my own observation at Cambridge, and yet I mean to send my only son there if I can afford it." And yet, though he was willing on his own experience to send his son to Cambridge, Mr. Malthus was one of those who would not admit the qualifications of that university in another individual. The Hon. Proprietor then enforced the incompatibility of the two propositions, that the College at Hertford should be maintained, but that qualification should be derived from elsewhere. This College was established in 1805, and the Court of Directors placed it under a natural and (he thought) a salutary controul; and in this respect he differed from Hon. Proprietors to the right and left. In 1814 two statutes passed, one of which gave to the professors of the College a right of expelling; the Professors, any three of them with the Dean at their head, having the power of exerci sing this privilege, at their own discretion, as the majority should determine, without any reference to the East-India Company, but there being reserved an appeal to the Bishop as visitor. The other statute took away from the Court of Directors the power of dismissing any of the professors, and vested it in the Bishop of London also, as visitor. Let the Court then consider what the operation of a system of this kind must be; and when he called upon them to do so, he disclaimed all knowledge of the youths who had recently been expelled-of their relatives or parents. He was equally unacquainted with the Professors of the College. He then drew a comparison between the principal distinctions of an education in the university, and one at Haileybury College. At the university the young man went to a tutor of an uncertain salary, but who was strongly impressed with the desire of maintaining, in the education he was to superintend, the character and repu tation of his particular college. He might be changed at pleasure, if there was any objection as to competency or other quali fication. At Haileybury the case was different: every thing was to be done by act of Parliament; that had placed their professors in their chairs, and the Court of Directors even could not put them out of it. That Court, if the College statutes were neglected, could not even enforce them. He put it to the Hon. Gent. whether, in the first place, it was not reasonably to be apprehended that the Professor, satisfied with his own merits and assured of his salary, would be apt to neglect his pupil, or to lose sight of his interests? Now, let them look to the effect of this system during a particular period. In the first nine years, from 1805 to 1814, while the Directors had the entire controul of the Professors, twelve pupils were expelled, of whom five were restored. In the latter period of nine years, from 1814 to 1823, when the Professors were vested with unlimited authority to expel, twenty-three were expeiled, and only nine of these restored. (Hear, hear!) So that when the Professors exercised the power, the expulsions were increased two-fold; and the restorations were not in the same preportion as they had been before. Thus the power given to the professors was greater than that of the Court, or of the Directors. If a servant was dismissed in India, they had a power of re-appointing him, with the permission of the Board of Controul but if a pupil was dismissed from the Company's own college, no such re-appointment could the Company make. (Hear!) The vices of the man were to be remediable, and capable of forgiveness; the errors of the boy, as they were to be permitted no remedy, so they were to be allowed no opportunity for atonement. The fact was, the power of the professors was much too large; the whole arrangement in respect of the qualifications upon leaving the college was bad. The professors could also grant the young men the necessary certificates; and without them, the young men could not be permitted to embark for India. On the other hand, if a professor should be guilty of misconduct, the statute declared him responsible to the College Council; and that Council consisted entirely of professors. (Hear, hear!) The Hon. Proprietor then entered into a history of the foundation and successive regulations of the college, and called upon the Court to accede to a proposition which went to an amendment, not an abolition of the institution. If, in the future revolution of empires, India should become mistress of herself, and the Hon. Company should cease to exist, establishments of this kind, if wisely regulated, would diffuse so much happiness and intelligence over that vast portion of the globe, that the Company which founded them, would be remembered by the latest posterity of its present subjects as the friend of science, the patroness of knowledge, and the benefactress of the human (Hear!) race. Mr. Twining wished to proffer the tribute of his thanks to the Hon. Proprietor who had brought forward this proposition, for the mild and handsome manner in which he had introduced it. It was certainly matter of congratulation, that a subject of such vast importance, and involving so many interests, should have been submitted to the Court in a tone and temper so unexceptionable. He (Mr. Twining) had come thither a perfectly disinterested individual, as to any personal feeling for the parties more immediately concerned, but with a mind anxiously disposed to listen to every suggestion that might tend to remove the difficulties that beset the question before them. That this institution had its defects, he could readily believe-for where was the human institution that had not? It was not in nature that it should be otherwise. But when he considered the objects of the institution, the length of time that it had already subsisted, and the many advantages that had already accrued from it to individuals, and to the Company, he confessed, that he did not see any reason why the Court should take a step, which, without working its absolute overthrow, would certainly do a considerable violence; he meant, it might be innovating upon regulations that he considered to have been well and maturely considered. The Hon. Gent., after expressing his opinion that the system of the college was excellently adapted to the purposes of that education, which it was necessary to give young men who went out to India in the Company's service, observed, that at no period of the Company's history had India received from England more efficient servants than she had since the establishment of Hertford College. If they heard complaints from India, indeed, that young men who had come over thither from the college had abused the immense powers with which some of their appointments invested them, he would be the first to propose the abolition of such an institution: but the opinions of Governors General, and Members of the Councils, were clearly to a contrary effect; and all accounts confirmed the fact, that the Company had never been more ably or zealously served than by pupils of the college. Upon the best consideration he could give to the subject, he was an enemy to the proposed innovation; and on so important a subject, could not content himself with a silent vote. Mr. S. Dixon was entirely satisfied of the necessity of providing for the gentle men who went out to India in the Company's service the best education possible, If he felt assured that such an education was to be obtained at Haileybury College, he should set his face against any innovation on the present system: but he thought that, in some such public examinations as had been proposed, for instance, the competition ought to be opened more generally, and then the Company would have the first talent that could be obtained. He might feel disposed to give a strong preference to their own college, but he did not like to see it enjoy this sort of monopoly. (Hear!) Mr. Chalmers had listened attentively to all the arguments that had been urged for and against the motion. It was very desirable that the Court should adhere to the institution as it now stood; but the question was, whether it was not equally desirable that they should go before another tribunal, which might be disposed to examine the question as to whether the constitution of the College required some alteration or not? If they did not grant the motion, so that the matter might fairly come before Parliament, they would be guilty of a denial of justice. If it was so generally admitted that some evils existed about the establishment, were they not fully justified in petitioning the Legis. lature for a new act? He hoped the discussion of this important topic would not be limited to what had passed that day within those walls. As for a division, that might be called for, but it would not decide the merits of the very important question before them; and it appeared to him that their only proper and advisable course was to go before Parliament. (Hear !) Mr. Impey, in addressing the Court upon this most important question, should be doing justice neither to his own feelings nor to that question if he did not at the outset declare, that he thought it had been introduced by the Hon. Proprietor (Mr. Kinnaird) in a mild, fair, and honourable manner. (Hear!) In any thing which he might now have to offer on the subject which was before them, he begged leave to say, that he should not treat the motion as one to be affected by any feelings of private interest. At the same time he could not help feeling some concern that it should have been deemed expedient by the Hon. Proprietors who had called this Court to discuss a question of this momentous nature at the present moment, when the Court had so recently heard it declared from the Chair, that the College was going on in the most satisfactory manner. If those gentlemen had, in misapprehension, substituted the word "unsatisfactory" for the word "satisfactory," or if, without any misapprehension, they had wished to agitate the minds of the young men who were now pursuing their studies in that institution, they could not possibly have devised a more effectual mode of confirming their own error, or of working this mischief in the College, than by introducing the motion now before the Court. (Hear!) The Court must be very well aware that, in similar cases of college disturbances, if there was one more frequent cause of insubordi. nation than another, it was an apprehen. sion on the part of some of the young men, that there has existed in some higher quarter a desire to destroy their College. In the case to which this motion had reference, there was a feeling that the VOL. XVII. 2 X Court would wish to destroy the College at Hertford. Now what was the nature of that motion? He (Mr. Impey) confessed that it seemed to him, without at all meaning to east any invidious reflections upon it, that the discussion which the Hon. Proprietor had introduced was such, that nothing could be better calculated to encourage and cherish such an impression as he spoke of in the minds of the pupils at their college. Whatever might have been the intentions or motives of gentlemen in mooting this question, he I could not help looking at its result:-if his own idea was correct, that its tendency would be elsewhere looked at as going to the destruction of the college. It had been said by gentlemen upon the other side, if this question were carried, who would send their sons to the college?-and the question had been met with much cheering from one side of the Court-(hear!) He repeated the question; "who would send send their sons to this college? The point of difficulty and apprehension was, the expulsion of the young men for misconduct. Now what father, if he had the alternative of sending his son to a college where he might receive the liberal education which a college affords, or of picking up a cheap education here and there, in this or that obscure school, where great mischief might ensue to the morals of his son-what father, what parent was there in the United Kingdom who would not be actuated by that natural sentiment of private interest, which more or less sways all mankind,and allow his son to pick up the cheap and scanty education, which might prove so defective and so baneful, rather than expose his son to the danger of expulsion in case of his misconduct (a laugh, and cries of hear!) That was what Honourable Gentlemen had, in effect, thought proper to say. The Hon. D. Kinnaird begged to remind the Hon. Gent. that the removal of the objected clause would take away the necessity for the alternative. Mr. Impey agreed that it would; but it was for the interest of all that it should remain. The Hon. Proprietor said that the consequence of the objection the parent would feel on the ground of expulsion would be, that he would not send his child to the college. Well then the East-India Company, it was observed, had plenty of money-and so they had, for all good purposes. But if no pupils were to be sent, the East-India Company, it was clear, would have to pay all the expenses of the establishment-all the Professors; and it would at last become untenanted, until (as was once prophecied by the enemies of the college) it would be sold for barracks, or for the value of its materials. Since this sort of motion was first introduced by the Hon Proprietor, it would be remembered that a great riot had taken place in the col lege, attended, if the newspapers were to be believed, with considerable violence and confusion. Some of the young men having themselves avowed the part they had taken, and appealed from the sentence of the Professors, the circumstance occasioned great inquietude to the Court of Directors. The Court of Proprietors requested them to turn their attention to the subject, and to report to this Court respecting it, and whether any and what measures should be adopted in consequence. At that very period he (Mr. Impey) submitted to the Hon. Gentleman (Mr. Kinnaird) that it would be quite absurd and preposterous for them-the Proprietors to enter at all into the matter, when, in fact, it was not before them, but before the Court of Directors; they had not then given in any report, and the Court of Proprietors was without any further facts (hear). At that time the Hon. Proprietor did him (Mr. Impey) the honour of attending to his suggestions; and he had entertained great hopes, that what had subsequently taken place would have induced the Hon. Gent. to rescind what proved to have been his final determination - the bringing forward this motion. That Hon. Gent., as well as all the other Proprietors, could not but be well aware of the mischiefs that must be occasioned by the discussion of such subjects in that Court.What had happened since his first measure? The case of the young men who had been expelled from this college had been submitted to the Bishop of London, the visitor, and his Lordship had given a most decided opinion, that it would be quite impossible to maintain subordination in any seminary of learning, unless that power of expulsion were granted to it. Directors had already given their opinion on the subject, and therefore this Court must suppose that they thought any such steps as the Hon. Proprietor now proposed to be unnecessary. (Hear, hear!) The -Without any previous call for information, without that sufficient knowledge on the subject which would alone justify them in proceeding to any thing conclusive on the subject, in this situation were they called on to agitate a question of this delicate nature. He trusted that, whatever might be the issue of this discussion, it would be the last experiment which they might be called on to witness with reference to the same subject, and that the college would be suffered to rest in that undisturbed state, in which alone it could be conducted with any promise of success. In the year 1817, the subject had been formally agitated; and he could have wished that, with the termination of that discussion, all intention to alter the system of the college had been dropped. On that occasion it was maintained by the advocates of the college, in the first place, that the exigencies of the service in India required, that not only an enlarged but an appropriate education should be given to those who were to discharge the different functions belonging to the Company. It was contended, in the next place, that under the old system the state of the education of those appointed to the different offices was wholly inadequate to supply them with the means of worthily discharging their duties. And, thirdly, it was urged, that the experiment that had been undertaken by the institution of Haileybury College was completely successful, and that the improvement was manifest in the superior manner in which the functions of the civil service were performed. As to the first argument, he believed it was universally admitted that the exigencies of the civil service required an appropriate education. He should but waste the time of the Court were he to read to them the opinions formed by a very competent judge (the Marquess Wellesley) as to the necessity of an enlarged education for the duties of the civil employments. It was sufficient if he stated, that the Noble Marquess thought it essential that the functionaries should not only possess a competent knowledge of the general branches of education, but should be also versed in the Mahometan and Hindoo laws; and should be possessed of that degree of cultivation, which would enable him to undertake a share in the manage ment of an extensive empire. He knew very well that it was imputed to an Hon. Friend on his left, that when the subject was under discussion on a former occasion, he had stated that the extended education of candidates for office appeared to him to be entirely thrown away for that it was persons skilled in measuring muslins, and accustomed to mere mercantile affairs, they wanted, rather than an army of Grotiuses and Puffendorfs. He did not know if this declaration was justly ascribed to his worthy Friend or not, but if it were true that his Hon. Friend had expressed himself in these terms, he was the only man in that Court who entertained these opinions, for every body admitted the necessity of an appropriate education to the due discharge of the civil functions in the East-Indies. The next question was this: Was the education, such as it was now composed at Haileybury College, necessary? He would ask, with some confidence as to the nature of the answer that would be returned, was that fortuitous education which might have been picked up by a candidate, and which was not excepted to under the old system, sufficient for the purposes of the service? Were these persons competent to the duty? The Court was aware that, under the former mode, offices were filled by persons so notoriously incapable of performing the duties, that when an exigency arose, it became neces : sary to use the agency of military servants. He would read the opinion of Lord Welles ley, which could not fail to make an impression on the Court, as it but too faithfully described the general qualifications of the officers who were enabled to obtain employments under the former system. He then read the passage, which was to this effect:--" Some of these young men have been educated with an express view to the civil service in India, on principles utterly erroneous and inapplicable to its actual condition. Conformably to this error, they have received a limited education, confined principally to commercial knowledge, and in no degree extended to those liberal studies which constitute the basis of education at public schools in England. Even this limited course of study is interrupted at the early period of fifteen or seventeen years. It would be superfluous to enter into any argument to demonstrate the absolute insufficiency of this class of young men, to execute the duties of any station whatever in the civil service of the Company, beyond the menial, laborious, unwholesome duty of a mere copying clerk. Those who have received the benefits of a better education, have the misfortune to find the course of their studies prematurely interrupted at the critical period when its utility is just felt, and before they have been enabled to secure the fruits of early application. On the arrival of the writers in India, they are either stationed in the interior of the country, or employed in some office in the Presidency. If placed in the interior of the country, they are placed in situations which require a knowledge of the language and customs of the natives; or of the regulations and laws; or of the general principles of jurisprudence; or of the details of the established system of revenue; or of the nature of the Company's investment; or of many of those branches combined. In all these branches of knowledge the young writers are totally uninformed, and they are consequently unequal to their prescribed duties. In some cases their superior in office, experiencing no benefit from their services, leaves them unemployed. In this state many of them devote their time to those luxuries and enjoyments which their situation enables them to command, without making any effort to qualify themselves for the important stations to which they are destined. They remain sunk in indolence, until, from their station in the service, they succeed to offices of high public trust. And in another part his Excellency went on to say, that "the state of the civil services of Madras and Bombay, is still more defective than that of Bengal. The next proposition to which he had to direct their attention was, that the experiment of instituting a college for the appropriate education of civil officers had been attended with complete success, and that the state of the civil service was remarkably improved. In support of this assertion he felt it necessary to refer to evidence: and first of all he might call in his learned Friend now in Court, the Oriental Examiner, who was able to state from personal knowledge how greatly the civil service had been improved. He could also appeal to another Hon. Gent. then in Court, Mr. Edmonstone, to whose speech made in 1814 in India he should refer, for a warm eulogium on the happy effects which had been produced in the civil service of the Company, by the system of collegiate education which the candidates were obliged to undergo. But he would appeal in an especial manner to the testimony of Lord Minto, who, in the year 1810, expressed himself to this effect:"It is with peculiar pleasure I do a further justice to the Hertford College, by remarking, that the official reports and returns of our College will shew the students who have been translated from Hertford to Fort William, to stand honourably distinguished for regular attendance, for obedience to the statutes and discipline of the college, for orderly and decorous demeanour, for moderation in expense, and consequently in the amount of their debt; and, in a word, for those decencies of conduct which denote men well born, and characters well trained." But not only in improvement in the intellectual qualifications which were required for the service, did the Hertford students shew themselves superior, but they are remarkable for the excellence of their moral characters. If the College at Haileybury was deficient in communicating any improvement whatever in the general branches of education, let it even justify the imputations of its greatest enemies in this respect, still he should say, that for the improvement in the moral character of the civil servants which it was the means of introducing, it was deserving of their strenuous support. The question, after all they had heard upon the abstract merits of different modes of edu cation, resolved itself into this proposition: that if a young man, who had so large a stake at issue, could not remain for the interval of four years at a college without risking his character for principle and moral conduct, what chance was there that, in the exercise of an important public trust, he could be of the least service to the Company? (Hear!) Let the Court bear in mind by what an extremely delicate tenure they held their vast possessions in India; of what combustible materials these possessions were composed; how liable to be lighted up, the first moment that the spark is communicated. In England, which consisted of different materials, where a flame burned very slowly, and was liable to a variety of checks, a fiery spirit was comparatively to be but little apprehended; but let that fiery spirit be transferred to our Indian dominions, and they would see how soon it would set fire to the whole of our provinces, and leave them in ruin and devastation. Was it not wise, then, to provide against such a consequence? Was it not their duty to provide some test, that would be able to detect the existence of such an obnoxious spirit in a candidate, before he was transferred to that place where his presence might be the source of so much evil? (Hear!) Why was it, he would ask, that so great a deviation was caused by the removal of the students from Hertford College, in particular, as compared with the sensation produced by similar occurrences in any other establishment of the same kind? and why was public attention directed in an especial manner to such an event in Haileybury? Every body knew that, in an assemblage of young persons of such an extent as were found in colleges, there must be some portion, some few at least, whose tempers and dispositions were of a vicious and mischievous nature. It hence followed that there ought to exist in the directors of public seminaries, upon grounds of policy, and for the sake of self-protection, a power to obviate the evil effects of having such a companion holding intercourse with the rest of the community. In short, it was obvious that the heads of the establishment should be vested with the power of removing the obnoxious person; of saying to the parent, "it is fit you should take away your child-he can do no good here; he is only, whilst he remains, communicating the contagion of his evil dispositions to innocent youths; you must remove him, and take pains to correct his mind yourselves." Some such power as this ought to be placed in the directors of the school. (Hear! from Mr. Kinnaird.) They were told that the first term of the residence of a young man in Hertford College was a period of probation, and that it was in the power of the Council of the college to pass an opinion as to whether the education ought to be continued. Why, he would ask, were there not instances of youths being removed from the college? Why were there individuals declared unworthy of being allowed to remain-for it was impossible that there could be no instance where such a course ought to be taken? Why, but because those who had the power of appointing to offices stuck with such pertinacity to their own selection, so resolved were they to carry their own choice into effect, that they opened a constant obstacle to that regular course of discretion exercised by the professors, which would in some instances at least lead to the exclusion of young men after they had gone through their probation. The professors acted under the intimidating |