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which Her Majesty's Government are now employed, 

 so sadly neglected Without a head, without the basis 

 of any fixed principles, this Department is altoge- 

 ther unrepresented in the Supreme Government, 

 and thus that bark which carries the best fortunes 

 of the people, is left to drift whither the currents 

 of the varying and crude opinions of half a dozen 

 Directors of Public Instruction may carry it. Yet, 

 I have no hesitation in saying, that the greatest, 

 indeed the only great obstacle to the introduction 

 of the policy Her Majesty's Government are sa 

 anxious to induct, is the ignorance of the people. In 

 their present state of intellectual development, it 

 is utterly impossible that the people can understand 

 their own interest, and assuming their interest to 

 be the object of Government, it requires no logic 

 to establish, that until they do know it, the action 

 of the Government and its subjects will be opposed 

 to one another. Had the people of India not been 

 ignorant and superstitious, the rebellion of 1857 

 would have been an impossibility. 



It will be argued that the process suggested 

 is long, and there is no doubt of it. But if 

 there is no doubt of it, there is, unfortunately, 

 no help for it, and, consequently, the greater reason 

 why no time should be lost in straining every 

 nerve in completing, consolidating, and perfecting 

 the measures at present in operation. Nor will it 

 follow that, in the mean time, any measures of good 



