352 



" I exhort you especially to have your children 

 taught English as soon as the means of such instruc- 

 tion are provided, from funds with which the govern- 

 ment is prepared to supplement the efforts of private 

 liberality. A large English community is springing 

 up amongst you, from the example of whose enter- 

 prise, industry, and integrity you cannot fail to 

 profit. English is the language of your rulers, and 

 is fast becoming the language in which all public 

 business must be conducted. You may be assured, 

 that every Assamese child of respectable family now 

 living who is not instructed in English in his youth 

 will have cause to lament it in mature age." 



" Major Bivar has mentioned to me that a general 

 desire is felt by the community for the extension of 

 the Electric Telegraph to Dibroogurh. This is a 

 measure which I have long advocated, and I am 

 happy to say that sanction has already been given to 

 the construction, next season, of a line to connect 

 Gowhattee with Calcutta, and that the extension of 

 this line to Dibroogurh is promised in the following 

 year."* 



The expression of such sentiments alone, gives the 

 public fair grounds to assume that the interests 

 of this noble province will be duly cared for, and 

 as tending considerably to reassure those who have 



* Address of the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal at an audience 

 held for the reception of the European and native gentry at Bibroo/- 

 ghur iu Upper Assam 9th August 1863. 



