1834.] On the Education of the Natives in Southern India. 354 



and thousands of words in the common course of reading books, of 

 the meaning of which he cannot form even the most distant conjec- 

 ture ; and as to the declension of a noun, or the conjugation of a 

 verb, he knows no more than of the most abstruse problems in Eu- 

 clid. It is not to be wondered at, with such imperfect education, 

 that in writing a common letter to their friends, orthographical er- 

 rors and other violations of grammar, may be met with in almost 

 every line written by a native. 



The Government could not promote the improved education of 

 their native subjects in these districts more than by patronizing ver- 

 sions, in the common prose and spoken dialect, of the most moral 

 parts of their popular poets and elementary works, now committed to 

 memory in unintelligible verse. He who could read would then un- 

 derstand what he reads, which is far from the case at present. I 

 am acquainted with many persons capable of executing such a task ; 

 and, in the Teloogoo language, would gladly superintend it as far 

 as in my power at this distance from the Presidency. 



The economy with which children are taught to write in the na- 

 tive schools, and the system by which the more advanced scholars 

 are caused to teach the less advanced, and at the same time to con- 

 firm their own knowledge, is certainly admirable, and well deserved 

 the invitation it has received in England. The chief defects in the 

 native schools are the nature of the books and learning taught, and 

 the want of competent masters. 



Imperfect, however, as the present education of the natives is, 

 there are few who possess the means to command it for their child- 

 ren. Even were books of a proper kind plentiful, and the master 

 every way adequate to the task imposed upon him, he would make 

 no advance from one class to another, except as he might be paid 

 for his labonr. While learning the first rudiment, it is common for 

 the scholar to pay to the teacher a quarter of a rupee, and when 

 arrived as far as to write on paper, or at the higher branches of arith- 

 metic, half a rupee per mensem. But in proceeding further, such 

 as explaining books which are all written in verse, giving the mean- 

 ing of Sanscrit words, and illustrating the principles of the vernacu- 

 lar languages, such demands are made as exceed the means of^nost 

 parents. There is therefore no alternative but that of leaving their 

 children only partially instructed, and consequently ignorant of the 

 most essential and useful parts of a liberal education : but there are 

 multitudes who cannot even avail themselves of the advantages of 

 this system, defective as it is> 



