East-India House, Feb. 20, 1817. HAILEYBURY COLLEGE. (Continued from p. 607, vol. iii.) Hon. D. Kinnaird said-I am not surprised, sir, at hearing the cry of " Question from some gentlemen, when I recollect that their attention has been unmercifully (and unnecessarily for any good purpose, as I think), called upon by the two learned counsel for the college, during a period of not much less than five successive hours-in speeches too, tending, in my judgment, not only to no one practical purpose, but remarkable, whatever eloquence or talent they may have displayed in the endless variety of subjects which they embraced, for this principally-that they have left the proprietors uninformed upon the merits of the question before them. Remarkable too, perhaps, in no less a degree, that, while the learned gentleman who spoke last, has concluded by moving you not to enter into the considera tion of the question at all, his learned colleague, or, as I may term him, the leading counsel for the college, after an address considerably exceeding three hours in its delivery, has actually left us unacquainted with the vote he is to give upon the question to which he has been speaking. For my own part, I followed the learned advocate with an attention bordering upon curiosity on this subject; for his demeanour, when the college was first introduced on a late occasion to the notice of the court, had led me to anticipate that he would consistently vote now for that inquiry, which he then was so anxious to challenge; and, notwithstanding his speech, has raised in my mind some shrewd doubts as to his present intentions, I cannot bring myself, until I hear it from the hon. gentleman's own lips, to insult him by presuming so gross a discrepancy between his conduct and his professions, as would result from his now opposing the inquiry. Before I sit down, sir, I trust I shall convince the court that whether or no we shall have the benefit of his vote, that he has, albeit unwittingly, given to our side the full benefit of his speech. Whilst I am ready to join in the panegyric pronounced by the learned counsel who spoke last, upon the eloquence of his predecessor, I must take leave to add my tribute of praise to one quality of his speech, the praise of which he would perhaps rather hear in private than in public -I mean, sir, that artful and laborious ingenuity by which he has succeeded so well, in what I must deem to have been his principal object, in confusing the minds of the proprietors on the subject under

discussion, and in turning their eyes from the simple question they are called upon to determine. That this quality and object of the speech were not unperceived by its learned panegyrist, I am bound either to believe, or to question that taste and that judgment, and that sincerity, which were not content to leave the speeches so lauded, to make its due impression upon the memory of the proprietors. If, however, the learned gentleman felt it necessary to follow it so immediately with another address to the court, in discharge of the duty he has imposed upon himself as junior counsel for the college, and to handle such topics as were left un touched by his leader, there is one strain, upon the selection of which for his eloquence I cannot congratulate either his taste or his candour, and which comes with little grace from a quarter whence panegyric upon all existing establishments, and "upen the powers that be," is wont to flow so uniformly and so abundantly supplied. That learned advocate will certainly run no risk of being classed among those whom he holds in peculiar abhorrence, "whose nature's plague it is to spy into abuses." But I will tell that learned gentleman without fear of contradiction, that he is as deficient in a correct view of the interests of the East India Company, as he is in honorable candour towards his opponents, who would add to the burden of discharging a painful and thankless duty, the necessity of repelling the presumptuous charge of discreditable motives. I, for one, shall ever feel myself a debtor to my honorable friends near me, or to any other proprictor, who shall take the trouble of introducing to my fellow-proprietors any subject connected with the interests of the Company ;-nor should I be acting fairly, did I not thus openly speak my approval of that conduct in others which I shall ever, without regard to unworthy and contemptible insinuations from any quarter, endeavour myself to imitate. From what has passed on this head, I think it now necessary to declare, that in discussing the defects of the college at Haileybury, my intention is not to hurt the feelings of any person connected with it. Of the professors I have not the least personal knowledge; and those whom I know by reputation, I must add I know but to respect for their virtues, and to admire for their talents. Of the history and origin of the establishment I know no more than I have collected from the records of your proceedings; and if indeed I have heard of the name of an hon. ex-director (Mr. Grant, sen.) in more intimate connexion

with the establishment, than those of his colleagues, and if I have been justly led to attribute to him something like a paternal tenderness for this adopted child of his regard, it is a sentiment for which I honor him, and it is one which I am anxious to prove myself incapable of treating with disrespect, whilst I at the same shall speak of the establishment as it now exists, in the terms it appears to me to deserve.

Notwithstanding the advocates for inquiry have been miscalled the enemies of literature and science, I am ready to de

clare for one, that I shall be found among the last in this court to assent to the pull ing down of this or any other institution, which has for its object to give encouragement and support to learning, or to facilitate education. The only condition I attach to this declaration is, I trust, no very hard or unreasonable demand, that you shall not make it an instrument of tyranny, nor compel me to adopt your machinery for attaining those acquirements, which I can arrive at by other institutions to my judgment more advantageous for the purpose. If the object of the institution be, what you profess, to facilitate the attainment of certain qualifications for your service, and which you have an undoubted right to require, it is surely more than is necessary, and little less than folly, to prescribe, in defiance of the capricious va rieties of nature and of circumstance, the only process by which you will permit them to be acquired.

The origin of this college has been traced (not very connectedly I think) by the learned gentleman who opened this day's debate, to the plans which Lord Clive proposed half a century back, for the improved government of your Indian subjects. I am disposed, sir, to trace its ancestry no further back than to the latter period of the Marquis Wellesley's government. If merit is to be claimed and allowed to the real founder of this institution, that merit is unquestionably due to the noble marquis. And although it may not be a source of pride or gratification to that noble person to look upon this misshapen structure, I am confident he may ever direct the eyes of his countrymen, with a proud reproach to the East-India Company, to that noble and wise and excellent foundation in India, which statesmanlike wisdom prompted him to establish, and which narrow-minded jealousy compelled him to destroy. Upon this sub. ject I shall hereafter feel it necessary more particularly to dwell; and I notice it here principally to remind the court how lightly the honorable and learned gentleman travelled over the merits of an establishment, from which, as from its founder, it was impossible for him in his flight to withhold the tribute of his praise. And I wish we had been favoured with a com

parative statement of the merits of the two colleges, instead of begging the question of the defects of the one and of the merits of the other. I cannot but notice a peculiarity which has distinguished the learned gentleman's speech this day throughout. I do not quarrel with him for a deficiency either of facts or of argument he has favoured us with both. But I could wish he had not uniformly so employed them as to perplex and confuse, rather than to elucidate, the merits of his

question. If he cites with a shew of manly courage and candour the argument of this adversary, he is sure to fly from its examination, but turns about, and meets it with some isolated fact. And when he cites into court a fact asserted and mainly relied on by the enemy, and when we too hearing it disproved, and our cause conare breathless with the expectation of founded, he avoids that contest at close air on the magic broomstick of a general quarters, and rides safely away into the argument. But to deal fairly by this question, our facts must be met by a disproval, and our reasoning must be shewn to be fallacious, or this college stands on a rotten foundation. I confess too, considering the learned gentleman's professional habits, I have been somewhat amused at the confidence with which he has all along directed the court to Mr. Malthus, as an authority in this case. Mr. Malthus is, I know, a professor of modern history, and may no doubt be given credit for the accuracy and other qualities which should distinguish the historian; but ere I cease to doubt his fitness to be the historian of his own college when its merits are in dispute, I must learn to think the judge or the bench is the fittest arbitrator in his own cause. And yet, sir, the learned gentleman has so quoted, and re-praised, and re-quoted as authority, his learned friend the professor, that he must surely have forgotten, though the court did not, that Mr. Malthus' interests are deeply at stake this day, and that he has published himself the committed advocate of his college. God forbid that this learned and respectable professor should not defend the institution with which he is connected in the best manner he is able; but I really think this court is the last place where we should be bearded by the authority of one of the officers of an establishment, to prevent our inquiring into the manner of its present conduct. That I do not entertain a singular view of the value of the professor's evidence on the present question, I am warranted in believing, when I recollect one of the leading rules laid down for the government of the Marquis Wellesley's college, and which I am sorry has been wholly omitted and lost sight of at Haileybury.By lord Wellesley's regulations, the professors' evidence was not held to be good

even upon a subject which of all others, if their interests had not been concerned, they would have been most competent to speak; I mean the proficiency of the students under their charge. It was expressly ordained, that the professors should be precluded from examining, at the periods fixed for that public exhibition, the pupils who had been studying under them. The court must see that on such an occasion, the skill of the professor himself is indirectly under examination with the progress of the pupil. But, sir, if the learned gentleman has been unfortunate in the citation of authority in this instance, I do not think he has been less so in others.

He has produced to the court a long series of private letters, collected from all quarters, and selected for this occasion. His reason for producing the first letter, I mean that from the pen of lord John Townshend, I confess I did not clearly perceive. I had expected it would have disproved the assertion advanced by the hon. learned mover of the resolution that the college was held to be a nuisance by the neighbouring gentry of the county of Hertford. The letter in question so far from disproving, has confirmed that fact even to the uniformity of a rule, his lordship furnishing the only exception to prove it.

The next authority referred to, is to be found in the letters of young gentlemen now in India, who had received a part of their education at Hertford college. Now, sir, I should not only be very sorry to object to any proof which can be fairly offered in favour of the merits of this establishment, but I shall sincerely rejoice to find that it has in any manner been conducive to the advancement of learning in this country, or to the advantage of India. I shall feel grateful to its authors for as much as it may have conduced to an improved education of the civil servants of the Company, and had therefore tended ultimately to the happiness of the millions of our fellow creatures over whom they hereafter may have sway-but I am compelled seriously to dissent from the conclusions which have been so hastily drawn from these epistofary documents. It is very natural, that a young man who has experienced kindness at the hands of his instructor, when he is for the first time reaping the fruits of his youthful application, should feel and express strongly the sentiments of gratitude which a recollection of his instructor's early encouragement is calculated to inspire. We are all disposed to dwell with affectionate recollection on the sceues where manly feelings and affections have first agitated the bosom of the boy, and we are ever ready in the moment of success in after-life to transfer to the in

stitution where chance had cast our education, much of the merit of our attainments which belonged to other causes. Surely it will not be maintained that the success of a few splendid instances out of a vast number of students is a fit ground to couclude upon the merits of any seminary of education. As little were it consistent with sound reasoning to condemn its regulations from the failure of some of its children.

But I will rest the point upon this issue. Let it be shewn to me that the success of these young gentlemen, whose letters do infinite credit to their hearts, has resulted, not from their previous or their subsequent pursuits, not from the peculiar talents and disposition of the individuals, but from the system of education adopted at Hertford college alone, and I will admit then, that you have at length discovered that which till now has been (and which I suspect is still) a desideratum, viz. that precise method and plan by which you may inform all minds of whatever description, to the same point of extent, and within the same limited period. Till then, sir, these examples are vaiuly quoted, except to shew that your college is not so bad, but that it is not impossible to thrive even under its shadow.

But, sir, let me grant for the sake of argument, that this college with its system of education is not disfigured, as I shall by and by shew it to be, by any monstrous and absurd deformities, peculiar thank God to itself alone, and that the student has as fair a chance afforded him there, as at any other public institution, -I hope the advocates of the college do not imagine that they have even then established their case. To justify on the ground of economy alone, the keeping up of this institution within forty miles of London, and within twenty miles of the university of Cambridge, you must shew it to possess some peculiar facilities for the education of young men who are to be ushered prematurely into the bustle of public life, which are to be found neither in the university, nor in the metropolis. To justify your law to compel the young candidates for your civil service to spend two years at this institution, you must not only prove its positive excellence, but establish its superiority over any other public institution for the instruction of youth in the empire. Independent of which, you even then beg a most important question, whether it be absolutely necessary for your service to enforce a public education under all varieties of circumstances and for all persons.

The learned gentleman who spoke last, has resorted to a singular expedient for influencing the minds of the proprietors (an expedient by the way not very flattering to the understandings of his audience).

But he refers to the authority which the act of parliament renewing your charter has given to the establishment of the college-and after reading with good emphasis and sound discretion, every word of this clause of the act; he lays down the book, and with infinite gravity asks the proprietors if they will fly in the face of the parliament, and being guilty of a felo de se, destroy their charter?-as if the legislature had made the establishment of Hertford college, the tenure by which we have received a renewal of our privileges. This expedient of the learned gentleman, he will excuse me for saying, is a way of imposing upon rather than appealing to the understanding of his hearers.

I am sorry to find that a notion has been industriously cultivated, that the merits of this or any academical institution are very unlikely to be correctly appreciated or judged of in this courtthat the question forsooth is too deep for the simplicity of the proprietors. This impression I am anxious, if it prevail, to remove-it having been my lot to be educated from a very period of my youth at some of the most frequented public institutions of the country, I may perhaps be complimented with an exemption from the interdict which some would place on your judgments;-but I must say freely that to understand this subject, it is neither necessary to be versed in the habits or phraseology of public schools or universities. Objecting, as I do, at all times, to the jargon of academical pedantry, its employment upon the present occasion is worse than useless. Mr. Malthus too would appear by one expression in his pamphlet, (in which he is pleased to speak of the ladies and gentlemen of Leadenhall street) to lend an indirect sanction to the idea of a plain inhabitant of this city not being too competent to decide upon the subject. I am however inclined to think the professor has been mistaken, and that he only meant to be pleasant, not serious on this point-because he must be too good an historian not to recollect how pre-eminently distinguished the citizens of London have ever been as the founders of some of the noblest institutions of learning that exist in this country. He must recollect as a matter of history that one of the greatest benefactors to learning, in this, or in any other country, was a plain citizen of London. It was Master Sutton, a private citizen of this great town, who left an enormous fortune to establish the Charter-House; beside which, that illustrious individual had, most honorably to himself, and most beneficially to his country, left no trifling legacies in the university of Cambridge, and perhaps it is not too much to suppose, that even the learned professor himself has de

rived his education in one of those very colleges which have benefited from the benevolence of this simple citizen. The citizens of London were called upon by Edward the 6th, to assist and superintend the founding of another great seminary of learning in the city, called Christ's Hospital. Surely then there is no pretence for that illiberal ridicule which had been passed upon this most respectable class of persons. If it is meant to be said, that the citizens of London are incapable of deciding upon the miserable question of caps and gowns, and all the other paraphernalia of academical ceremony, probably the worthy citizens of London would not he disposed to dispute with others more fitted to the task. But, Sir, I am happy to be convinced that the learned historian has not meant to countenance any illiberal prejudices, but I believe he has only been disposed to exchange a passing jest with this court; and if I might humbly suggest the retort courteous that should be returned from the citizens of London to the conclave of the college at Hertford, it should be in the form of a quaint and original description of a scholar which I hold in my hand, and which was penned by a man of some knowledge of the world about the year 1630-(Sir T. Overbury's characters)-With the leave of the court, I will read it from the book-" A meere "scholar (says the writer) is an intelli"gible asse-or a silly fellow in blacke, "that speaks sentences more familiarly "than sense. The antiquity of his uni"versity is his creed, and the excellency "of his colledge (though but for a match "at foot-ball) an article of his faith. "His ambition is, that he either is, or "shall be a graduate: but if ever he get

66

a fellowship, he has then no fellow. In "spight of all logicke, he dares sweare and "maintaine it, that a cuckcold and a citizen

are controvertible terms, though his mo"ther's husband be an alderman. He is led "more by his ears than his understanding, "taking the sound of words for their true "sense." Now, sir, without stopping to enquire whether there be a mere scholar amongst our professors at Hertford, yet, looking to the institution itselfand its regulations, I am strongly inclined to suspect that nothing more nor less than such a personage must have been a busy artifice? in its construction-for in every part of it may the sound of words be said to have been taken for their true sense. It were to be wished, indeed, that in transferring the name and some of the forms of lord Wellesley's college at Calcutta, some attention had been paid to the objects which the noble lord had in view, and to the circumstances under which he was called upon to attain them. His objects were not confined merely to the education of the Company's civil servants, as was the case

here, and that too for a limited period of time; but his aim was to found at the same time a seat of learning, the civilizing effects and advantages of which were to be diffused throughout the whole empire which he governed. The doors of that temple were to be thrown widely open to all descriptions of persons and nations. He wisely thought that the most effectual mode of governing sixty millions of people, was to scatter the seeds of learning and of science amongst them, and herein did the noble marquis prove himself to be an enlightened statesman and the real benefactor of India. He proved that his ambition was to unite all sects and classes of men in the common object of pursuing their own happiness. He sought not to erect vain-glorious military trophies to commemorate the extension of the teritory of the Company, but he studied rather the means of securing those possessious by a wise, a humane, and an enlightened system of government. This he would have effected by improving the administration of India through the means of an institution which had for its object the better education of the Company's servants; but lord Wellesley did not confine the benefits of that institution to the narrow policy of merely educating the Company's servants

the benevolence of his intelligent mind suggested the idea of an institution for learning in India, the benefits of which were not to be confined only to those servants who were to be the agents of government-he discarded the idea of merely drilling servants for the conduct of the Company's concerns. He opened the door of science and of learning to all classes of persons who had a taste for the cultivation of science and polite literature. Lord Wellesley's object was to establish a source from whence the fountain of science might diffuse its waters over the whole territory of India. Lord Wellesley saw too, and felt, that the young men were sent out to India at a premature age; he therefore felt the importance of giving to them the advantage of continuing their education in India which they had been unable to complete at home. But by that institution did Lord Wellesley not only appear as the liberal and enlightened patron of learning, but he shone forth in the still more exalted and sacred character of a parent to the orphaned and unprotected youth whom it was, unfortunately, at that time the practice to send out at so early and dangerous an age to India. It is here that you have made so real and practical improvement in your system, by affording your civil servants the time for educating themselves ere their departure, and not in building a college, or adopting a fantastical system for their instruction. It was to afford an

asylum in the midst of the vices of au eastern capital, to the youths who were at that period wont to set their foot on shore in India, then for the first time the masters their own conduct, although but too soon to be the slaves of their passions, at that time when, in the words of a noble and distinguished poet of the present day, they were exposed,

"With few to check, and none to point in time

"The thousand paths that slope the way to crime."

For the protection of these defenceless victims did lord Wellesley think it wise and necessary to erect a building for their reception and their residence. And surely, sir, for such an object no man who has the mind of a statesman, or the moral feeling of a Christian, will dream of opposing expense as an adequate objection to its attainment. With the view of connecting with learning and moral education the religion of our country, not only for the immediate benefit of those connected with the college, but they might in the eyes of the natives afford a mutual sanction and support to each other, did lord Wellessley think it wise, and who will deny its wisdom, to place at the head of his establishment the first dignitary of our church in India, charging him with a special superintendance over the moral conduct of those young men who had escaped too early from the wholesome control of their natural guardians and protectors. To state the objects of lord Wellesley's college at Calcutta, and to refer to the plan for attaining them, is in my judgment, the best and the brightest panegyric both on the institution itself, and on the mind that prompted its creation. How distinct, and different, and confined, the objects of the Hertford college are even professed to be, let its eulogists themselves declare. Before I come to speak of the manner in which your directors thought proper to destroy what their governors had so wisely created, I will mention one other of the good results which was anticipated from it. And I mention it the more particularly now, because, if I am not much mistaken, that very anticipation suggested its destruction. It was proposed, (always be it remembered, on the supposition that the young men were to continue to be sent out at as early an age as heretofore) that all the youths destined for our civil service should proceed to the presidency of Bengal in the first instance, there to study for a limited time under the immediate eye of the Governor-general, and that with him should rest their subsequent appointments both at what period and to what presidency his judgment and their merits and proficiency should determine. Than this nothing could be more excellent in principle.