526 



INDIA, BRITISH. 



Book Agency, we shall have some idea of the 

 extent of native Indian literature. There are 

 25 mission presses in India, Ceylon, and Bur- 

 mah ; the whole Bible has been translated into 

 14 languages, the New Testament into 19, and 

 separate books into 26. In ten years 1,634,040 

 copies of the Bible and 8,604,033 of Christian 

 tracts and books, exclusive of all secular and 

 educational works, have been circulated. 



The attendance of native students at the uni- 

 versities is steadily increasing. At the Calcutta 

 University the number of candidates for en- 

 trance has steadily risen from 244 in the first 

 examination to 1,307 in 1861. The number of 

 candidates for the first examination has in- 

 creased from 13, in 1858, to 60. Of the 1,307 

 candidates for entrance, 43 were Mohammedans 

 and 75 Christians, and of the candidates for the 

 first examination, 5 were Mohammedans and 7 

 Christians, the rest being Hindoos. Of the 

 former 59 were examined in Latin, 20 in San- 

 scrit, 7 in Persian, 114 in Urdu, 6 in Hindoo, 

 12 in Oorya, and the rest in Bengali ; of the 

 latter, 6 were examined in Latin, 7 in Sanscrit, 

 1 in Persian, 13 in Urdu, and the rest in Ben- 

 gali. The number of candidates for entrance 

 into the Madras University has risen from 

 46, in 1857, to 272 in 1862, of whom 112 

 are Brahmins, 71 Hindoos of other castes, 

 29 native Christians, 27 Europeans, 24 East 

 Indians and 9 Mohammedans. The Christian 

 element is absolutely larger than in Calcutta, 

 while the total number of candidates is five 

 times less. The Mohammedans are equally 

 backward in both. 



The Victoria College at Agra numbers among 

 its pupils 314 Hindoos, 25 Mohammedans and 12 

 Christians ; all, with the exception of 30, pay- 

 ing school fees varying from four annas to 

 three rupees per month. The matriculation 

 fee is one rupee. There are 35 classes, viz. : 

 18 English, 1 Arabic, 4 Persian, 7 Urdu, 1 

 Sanscrit and 4 Hindoo. 



Although the Christians form only a small 

 proportion of the aggregate population, the 

 influence of Christianity is rapidly extending 

 over the whole country. Both Hindooism and 

 Mohammedanism are on the decline. A num- 

 ber of /prominent Hindoo inhabitants of Ben- 

 gal addressed a memorial to the governor 

 general of India praying for an abrogation by 

 law of the rite of polygamy. The native pa- 

 pers are freely criticizing the evil social cus- 

 toms among Hindoos and Mohammedans, and 

 societies are forming for their abolition. A 

 novel meeting was lately held in Madras by 

 educated Hindoos, on the subject of the man- 

 agement of idolatrous endowments. The Gov- 

 ernment of India had, not long ago, severed 

 the last links of their connection with pagan and 

 Mussulman lands for superstitious purposes, by 

 directing that all such should be handed over 

 to the worshippers most interested in their ad- 

 ministration. Alarmed at this, " the Hindoo 

 inhabitants^ Madras 1 ' designed to petition for 

 a modification of the Act ; but the main object 



was to save the funds of Hindoo temples and 

 monasteries from the mal-adimnistration of 

 those whom they singularly enough call church 

 wardens (dhurma Jcurtas), by asking Govern- 

 ment to put the funds under committees at the 

 headquarters of each county, and not of each 

 village. The former, being educated, will, it 

 is supposed, prevent misappropriation and all 

 the evils of what they call " sectarian " dis- 

 putes. The confessions of the speakers were 

 frequent and pathetic: that the temples are 

 falling into rums ; that the holy idol services 

 are neglected or badly attended; that the 

 priests are unmoral in their lives and peculate 

 the funds. 



From a report to the Secretary of State for 

 India, made by the Government Director of 

 the Indian Railway Companies, on railways 

 in India, for the years 1862 and 1863, 

 it appears that satisfactory progress is being 

 made in the extension of their lines. On De- 

 cember 31st, 1862, 747 miles had been added 

 to the 1,609J which were open for traffic on 

 the 1st of January, 1862. Since the beginning 

 of 1863, 184 miles have been finished, making 

 a total of 2,528 miles upon which passengers 

 and goods are now being conveyed. The great- 

 est distance traversed in a direct line without 

 interruption is on the East Indian Railway from 

 Calcutta to Benares, a length of 540 miles ; the 

 next greatest is the trans-peninsula line from 

 Madras to Beypore, which is 405 miles ; and 

 the next from Bombay to Sholapare, across the 

 Bhore Ghat, a length of 295 miles. Several 

 works of great importance and magnitude oc- 

 cur on the lines which have been recently 

 opened. The ascent by the Great Indian Pen- 

 insula Railway of the Bhore Ghat, between 

 Bombay and Poonah, comprises some of the 

 most formidable of these. In a distance of 

 fifteen miles the railway climbs a height of 

 1,831 feet, tho difficulties in its course being 

 overcome by such a series of cuttings, tunnels, 

 viaducts, and embankments as is hardly to be 

 found within the same space in any other work 

 in tho world, and is only rivalled in India by 

 those on the sister incline over the Thull Ghat. 

 In addition to the work done to enable 930 

 miles of new line to be opened, fair progress 

 has been made on the unopened lines, and it 

 was expected that in the course of the year 

 1863 between 600 and 700 miles more will be . 

 ready for traffic. 



Great progress is also made in the construc- 

 tion of electric telegraphs. The number of 

 miles of telegraphic lines and stations open at 

 the close of the official year, 1861 to 1862, was 

 11,430 miles and 144 stations. The greatest 

 extent of telegraph is in Bengal, where there 

 are 1,749 miles of telegraph and twenty-three 

 offices. The Punjab and Northwest provinces 

 come next with 1,575 miles and twenty offices. 

 Central India is third, with 1,275 miles and 

 eleven offices, and Bombay fourth, with 1,238 

 miles of telegraph and twenty-one offices. 

 The receipts for private messages in Bengal 



